cover image Two Hearts

Two Hearts

Dan Conno and E.F. Mulder. Less Than Three, $5.99 e-book (212p) ISBN 978-1-62004-873-3

This awkwardly written but tender romance with a touch of the paranormal is set in upstate New York in 1965, but the time and place are thinly sketched. Frank Stone lives in the woods, alone among the trees, birds, and bugs, and works at the local funeral home, where Vaughn, the owner, has taken him under his wing. He’s badly scarred and missing an ear; his tiny mobile home protects him from the elements but can’t stop local jerks from taunting him. Only two people other than Vaughn have looked past Frank’s disfiguring scars. One is Melissa, a clerk at the neighborhood minimart, who seems genuinely smitten and is always kind. The other, a former classmate named Renny, reciprocates Frank’s physical attraction but later turns on him, especially after Frank survives a lightning strike that grants him bizarre powers. The prose is clumsy and the plot becomes hard to follow in places, but Frank is so engaging that the book’s flaws are easy to overlook. Conno and Mulder carefully set up what would otherwise be an implausible story with enough care to lend it credibility. (Nov.)