Idlewild

by Jude Sierra

Overview

Asher Schenck and his husband John opened their downtown gastropub at the start of Detroit’s revival. Now, five years after John’s sudden death, Asher is determined to pull off a revival of his own. In a last ditch attempt to bring Idlewild back to life, he fires everyone and hires a new staff. Among them is Tyler Heyward, a recent college graduate in need of funds to pay for medical school. Tyler is a cheery balm for Asher’s soul, and their relationship quickly shifts from business to friendship. When they fall for each other, it is not the differences of race or class that challenge their love, but the ghosts and expectations of their respective pasts. Will they remain stuck or move toward a life neither of them has allowed himself to dream about?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781945053078
Publisher:	Chicago Review Press, Incorporated
Publication date:	12/01/2016
Edition description:	None
Pages:	250
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

Editorial Reviews

11/07/2016
Sierra (What It Takes) combines food, business, and love in this tender contemporary set in Detroit. As Asher begins to emerge from grief over his husband’s death, he realizes how badly he’s neglected the restaurant that was their shared dream and decides that a reboot is in order. When he’s ready to reopen, his all-new staff includes Tyler, a young man with charisma, charm, and the kind of head for business that Asher desperately needs. There are plenty of reasons for them to avoid the attraction between them, but one by one those reasons drop away, and the two fall into bed and into love. As their relationship develops, Asher and Tyler must navigate their very different experiences and expectations to avoid putting their hearts and possibly the entire restaurant at risk of implosion. Readers who appreciate that Tyler’s nuanced personality defies black gay stereotypes may be uncomfortable seeing those same stereotypes embodied by his tough, aggressive, emotionally walled-off ex-boyfriend Malik. And unfortunately, every relationship problem in the book comes down to the same lack of honest communication. Though narrow in scope (largely due to Asher’s self-imposed isolation), the romance is straightforward, sweet, and generally entertaining. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

"A lovely, finely wrought romance that reminds us that to truly love another, we must know our own hearts."-Kirks Reviews

From the Publisher

2016-10-26
A widowed restaurateur falls for a young waiter in a Detroit-set romance with heart, sweat, and tears.When his husband, John, died five years ago, Asher let both their restaurant and his personal connections drift. Hoping to breathe life into the dying Idlewild, Asher replaces his entire staff. One of his new hires is Tyler, a recent pre-med grad taking a break from his march to an M.D. Tyler's intense, youthful exuberance and optimism shake Asher from his distant reserve. But Tyler is in a long-term relationship with Malik. While Asher has moved on in some ways from John's death, he's in deep denial about his emotional readiness for a new love. Sierra (What It Takes, 2016, etc.) has created a very natural and psychologically astute portrayal of a romantic relationship, by turns funny, delightful, and painful. A poet, Sierra often surprises with a lovely turn of phrase: to describe Tyler's mixed racial and gendered identity: "Tyler knows of the middleness of his body"; on the toll of restaurant life: "Morning is tight in his bones, and he hurts with exhaustion." Less successfully, Sierra uses the tension between "the two Detroits," personified in Asher's wealthy suburban upbringing and Tyler's East Detroit background, to build conflict; in those passages, the writing can seem didactic. A leisurely read that allows its characters to unfurl in layers, revealing how love of another reflects our true selves back to us in sometimes surprising and challenging ways. A lovely, finely wrought romance that reminds us that to truly love another, we must know our own hearts.

Kirkus Reviews