Operation Green Card

Gordon makes an intimate and touching contribution to the collaborative Bluewater Bay contemporary series, set in a rural Washington logging town. Soldier Jason Cooley lost any sense of his own value when a partial leg amputation ended his treasured career in getting people out of danger. He’s desperate to find a new source of income, since his five-year-old daughter’s gotten into an expensive school for the gifted. Arkady Nikolayevich Izmaylov, a literature professor, needs a way out of Russia; after being outed as gay, he’s lost his job and been targeted by assailants. His sister, who knows Jason, suggests that a green card marriage might solve both their problems. Jason is thrilled to have someone to save, but he’s not sure about marriage, and he thinks he’s straight. Then he meets Arkady and sparks fly. Jason realizing that he’s bi—and that bisexuality is a real thing—is charming and cute. Gordon finds clever, beautiful ways to play the men’s realistic insecurities off each other, and the misunderstandings are plausibly handled and paced well. Readers will cheer for both Jason and Arkady as their sham marriage becomes passionately real. (Dec.)