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Montour High School graduate and former Monroeville
resident, Loriann Oberlin, has moved to the Chesapeake area and published her
first novel, Letting Go under the pen name of Lauren Monroe. This romance novel is the story of a young
widow, Maren Mitchell, who meets and falls in love with a young surgeon, Dr.
Steve Kramer , when her son undergoes an emergency appendectomy. The story takes place at a difficult time in
the DC/Maryland area: a year after 9/11
and during the time of the I-95 sniper attacks.
Maren, who lost her husband in an auto accident 16 months prior, is
attempting to open her own graphic design business when an offer comes from the
hospital that Dr. Steve works in. He
encourages her to interview and accept.
As time goes on, their relationship grows.
Monroe shares the beauty of the Chesapeake area with her
readers and intentionally brings a bit of the ‘burgh into the story. Taking place in the fall, some of the book’s
action takes place on Steve’s large
power boat and a sailboat belonging to Maren’s father. Steve and best friend, Dr. Paul Romano,
attended UPMC medical school. Dr. Romano
is a native Pittsburgher, and a lover of the Strip District, biscotti and
Sunday gravy. Both men are Steelers fans
and the story follows the Steelers season, led by quarterbacks Kordell Stewart and Tommy Maddox
. Terrible towels and the black and gold
(vs. purple and black) get plenty of
attention.
The story behind Letting
Go had its roots in the 1990’s before
the author’s move to Maryland. A
practicing counselor with a masters degree from John Hopkins, Monroe has
written nine non-fiction books as
well. Her most recent non-fiction book
is Overcoming Passive-Aggression.
She also taught creative writing at locally at community college campuses
and at Pitt’s Informal Program. Monroe revisited her original story, and
hoped to update the story to reflect her life experiences as well as to write
fiction rather than a journalistic style that she had been accustomed to in her
local work.
Letting Go has both strengths and weaknesses. Character development is strong . We know that Maren has had anxiety and
difficulty adjusting to her husband’s tragic death. She hates hospitals. It is a challenge for her to not call for
support while her son undergoes his appendectomy in the same hospital that her
husband died in. We learn that Steve,
at the age of 39, has become chief of surgery due to his perseverance in attending both the University of
Pittsburgh’s medical school and Columbia University. He also is alone, and has some secrets that
he doesn’t wish to share with Maren.
However, his ability to capture not just her heart, but her son’s and
her parents, overshadows the past he
chooses not to share. Maren’s son ,
Dylan, is a typical 6-year-old and endearing.
Her parents, and Steve’s as well, are likable and open. In
contrast, Maren’s former in-laws and Steve’s past love interests are almost
caricatures of the extremely evil
girlfriend and the extreme bimbo girlfriend.
The challenge to reading Letting Go is not the
realistic story or the characters, but in the flow of the writing complicated
by the attempt to bring Pittsburgh into the story. I found much of the dialogue hard to follow
and that I was missing the point. Using
Pittsburghese fell flat. Dr. Paul uses
“Yinz,” and the phrase “redd up” is explained
in the story, but only Western Pennsylvanian readers will care and perhaps not
in a positive way. And really, do
outsiders honestly believe that the Strip district is a red light
district? I just didn’t feel that we
were portrayed in as positive a light as Monroe hoped we would be.
Letting Go may appeal to light romance readers who
are not looking for any reading that is too intense. As the first in a planned series under the
header, The Maryland Shores, the
novel falls short. I will often continue with a series that is
not a favorite because I care how the characters fare as they move on. In this case, now that these two have
resolved their storyline, I think I can let this series go.
