Prudence True Parker teaches a course called Advanced Personal Journey at a community college in Arizona, but her own personal journey is not really advancing. She’s divorced, debt-ridden, and starting to feel desperate, when she meets Digby Deeds (alias Mildred Crowley), the author of the wildly successful Savage Passion romance series, at her local library. When the dying Deeds offers Prudence the final forty plots of his popular series, her financial needs trump her literary aspirations, and she accepts. To her astonishment, her own life soon begins to outpace Passion’s fevered tales, and she finds herself in the midst of a plot involving psychics, a sexy young Comanche lover, Native American activists, medicine men, and even a few wolves. Quick-witted and laugh-out-loud funny, Late Bloomer follows Prue on her madcap journey, as she finds her real life surpassing the wildest flights of her imagination.
“Hilarious. . . . Pritchard is a rambunctious, witty writer, devilishly attuned to details and pop culture.” —Chicago Tribune
“Ravishing.” –Vanity Fair
“Sharply written. . . . Offers cutting insight into the place of aging women in society, the definition of manliness and the dance of courtship itself.” –The Washington Post
“Absolutely fresh. [Pritchard’s] language snaps with newness, sharp detail and goofy humor. . . . Prudence True Parker is a magnificent character.” –The Journal News
“A brilliant mix of romance and satire. . . . Pritchard's quicksilver ability to blend biting social/political commentary with a rueful analysis of relationships makes this lesson in true romance an absolutely sage-scented delight.” –Publishers Weekly (starred)
