One Under

Merrow (Wake Up Call) returns to the Cornish resort town of Porthkennack, the setting for Riptide’s multiauthor series, in this enjoyable, cross-class contemporary romance. Mal Thomas, driver of trains on the London Underground, travels to the quiet village to recover from PTSD after a suicidal person jumped in front of the train he was driving. He awaits the arrival of his best friend, Dev, who made his own trip a year earlier to confront his biological mother, daughter of the wealthy Roscarrock family, who gave him up at birth. Mal also meets Jory Roscarrock, Dev’s uncle, who recently returned home to be closer to his son. Much younger and less socially uptight than his cartoonishly wooden siblings, Jory is eager to meet his nephew but also powerfully drawn to start a romance with Mal. Mal’s struggle to prioritize his protective feelings for Dev provides a superb explanation for his oscillations between tenderness and distance; Jory’s ready forgiveness of Dev’s mercurial behavior seems less plausible. Merrow shines at the heart-wrenching moments of constrained desires, and her protagonists upend class stereotypes, though flirtatious Mal is something of a bisexual cliché. This tender romance has moments of surprising emotional depth that are sure to please readers. (Mar.)