A Portrait for Toni

Annette
Lyon
Genre: 
Contemporary

Toni and Carter have been best friends for as long as either can remember.  Little does Toni know, however, that Carter has a secret.  He’s in love with her - and has been since high school.  Over the years that love has only grown and so has Carter’s misery because he knows if he ever lets his true feelings show, he may lose the most important person in the world - forever.

 

Toni can’t imagine life without Carter.  He has been her rock and confidante through thick and thin.  He’s the friend she dishes with about boyfriends, cries to when down and shares her fondest dreams.  She holds a secret too, however, and her secret might be the one that destroys everything.

 

Writing a believable love story while attacking hard subjects such as eating disorders is a tall order to tackle. It is one that Ms. Lyon does with beautiful grace and tender understanding.  Her characters are real, yet sympathetic.  Even as the reader cringes at what Toni does, one understands her struggle.  Carter’s character almost steals the entire show! One can’t help but fall in love with him!  His angst is palpable, his yearning burrows right to the very heart.  A few of the situations seem a little too contrived to be believable and some of Toni’s choices where the men in her life are concerned don’t match her character, still, for a beautiful love story that can leave you teary yet smiling, this story is superb!

 

Ruth Lynn Ritter