Round Robin Phinney is 230 pounds of bad attitude. She dishes out sandwiches and insults to the customers at Screaming Mimi’s deli. She takes a dim view of people in general and men in particular. A Chicago two-flat on the Near North Side is her sanctuary. She has an apartment upstairs. Downstairs, she’s created a private park, lushly landscaped, dotted with ponds and furnished with two Chicago Park District benches.
Manfred Welk is what Charles Atlas would have looked like if he’d been serious about lifting weights. A former Olympic powerlifter for East Germany, his ex-wife turned him in for spying. Brought to Chicago after the fall of the Berlin Wall, he needs a place to live.
When cold weather hits and Robin’s furnace goes out, the plants in her park start to die. Worse, she has no money for repairs — but she does have a small vacant apartment in her basement. Something she might swap for the services of a live-in handyman. After interviewing a number of prospective fix-it people, Robin finds, to her great horror, the best choice is a giant German with CIA connections. That’s bad enough, but the guy turns out to have a kid, a blue-haired prepubescent brat named Bianca who’s been raised in a brothel.
Robin, Manfred and Bianca all have their demons to cast out. You’ll have a grand time watching as they do.
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Read an excerpt.
Reviews:
“Excellent read.” — Jane Franks, amazon.com
“The characters are wonderful and somewhat unexpected. And it is a love story of epic proportions but you won’t understand the meaning of the title without reading this book. I highly recommend this book and hope you enjoy it as much as I did.” — Amadan, amazon.com
“I’ve been working my way through J. Flynn’s whole collection. Mysteries, thrillers, political satire…usually all in one book (and always manages to throw a little religion in – just a little). A romance? Had to check this out. Finished the book and by the time I got to the last couple of pages I was crying.” — JF RRT, amazon.com
Published 2010 by Stray Dog Press, Inc.
ISBN 978-0-9830312-3-9 [eBook]
ISBN 978-0-9830312-4-6 [trade paper]