Bursting with sharp, sardonic wit and deft characterizations, BRASS TABBY is a darkly comic romance sure to win over even the most jaded reader. Rowan Helaine’s sparkling first novel pairs Enola Fothergill, a socially maladapted street artist running from a troubled past, with Grant Harcourt, a financial whiz turned gloomy recluse after an accident leaves him blind and severely scarred. The two collide—literally—when Enola, fleeing the police, tumbles into Grant’s limo and onto his lap. Will the unlikely duo overcome their traumatic backstories and live, laugh, and love in each other’s arms?
There are about a dozen ways that BRASS TABBY could have gone wrong. Grant is a familiar romance staple, a brooding zillionaire Beast to Enola’s quirky, spirited Beauty, and the slow burn of their passion is the stuff of countless romance novels. Helaine adroitly sidesteps cliché, however, with disarming self-awareness (the author acknowledges, for instance, that “Enola Fothergill” is a “distinctively goofy appellation”) and a nimble style that swings confidently from tragedy to comedy without becoming either melodramatic or cartoonish. Less capable writers would be content for Enola, an “undercover artiste” and “wayward chaos monster,” to simply be a Manic Pixie Dream Girl dragging Grant out of his shadowy lair, like Pretty Woman by way of Something Wild. BRASS TABBY, however, pulls off the difficult trick of making conventional romance tropes feel fresh and unpredictable.
The novel’s sharp-witted banter—”Why do all your friends sound like they were named by professional pool hustlers?” “I dunno, Grant, why do all your friends sound like the jock villains from an eighties teen comedy?”—peppered with references to Sansabelt slacks and Marguerite Duras, breathes life and spirit into a familiar tale of damaged lovers. And Helaine dials down the comedy at the right moments, so the characters feel like genuine, sympathetic people rather than simply mouthpieces for clever jokes. As funny as BRASS TABBY is, the author grounds the story in emotional and narrative realism. Grant’s visual impairment is conveyed through artful sensory cues—vivid descriptions of the sounds and sensations he experiences—that communicate his situation without loud signposting. And as the couple grows closer, their dialogue pivots naturally from banter to more intimate sharing that feels authentic.
It’s easy to forget, by the novel’s third act, that there’s a whodunit at the heart of the story—the fate of Nola’s assailant from the prologue, and the identity of her rescuer. It’s jarring when that plot element suddenly resurfaces, and just as jarring when it abruptly resolves. As a result, the conclusion feels slightly rushed, giving short shrift to a couple of plot threads and secondary characters. It’s a minor flaw, however, in an otherwise crackerjack yarn.
Invigorating its conventional rom-com storyline with witty repartee and sensitive, masterful storytelling, Rowan Helaine’s BRASS TABBY is a first-rate debut for a brilliant new voice in the romance genre.
~Edward Sung for IndieReader