Ten-Speed Summer

If there were a category for novels in the Sweet Dreams series that are well-written, interesting, and thoughtful (but still manage to be not totally satisfying), "Ten-Speed Summer" would be a prime candidate indeed. The novel's opening premise is not especially promising: unadventurous Rhonda McFarland has been wrangled by her mother into going on a summer bike tour across the southwest, in an effort to force Rhonda to broaden her horizons and, naturally, distance her from long-time steady boyfriend Bruce, who has become almost second nature to Rhonda. Given my penchant for despising plots in which the heroine starts the novel with a serious boyfriend, I was skeptical - even more so when the novel introduces outgoing and flirtatious fellow cyclist Matt Jordan as a possible love interest. The bike trip is a surprisingly non-annoying metaphor for Rhonda's journey toward maturity and self-understanding, a journey to which Matt is somehow both vital and incidental. The descriptions are vivid and the narrative compelling, and there is something strangely beautiful about the non-formulaic plot arc. This is one of a handful of novels in the series that could probably be a standalone and would be a worthwhile read, even without the Sweet Dreams logo on the front.