Title: Hot Water Author: Kathryn Jordan Publisher: Berkley Trade/Penguin Genre: Contemporary Publication date: January 2006 ISBN: 0-425-20757-9 Pages: 274 Series: Heat Level:     Rating:

Hot Water is a gloriously poetic novel that begins in the style of Contemporary Chick Lit but rapidly branches out into philosophy and metaphysics, and into allegory and metaphor.  Hot Water truly has the capacity to melt the most jaded, cynical, ice-block heart.  Hot Water is a glorious precious gem of a story, one which transforms ugly routine reality into a faceted diamond catching the light. No reader, male nor female, is going to resist this one; it fully deserves best-seller status.

 
A tired, invisible, empty-nest housewife from Minnesota and a lover of books in all their aspects and fantasy in its most imaginative, treats herself to a weekend away, alone. And why not? Her loving hubby, owner of a heavy-equipment fleet, has just recently purchased a half-million dollar hunting lodge in the upstate Minnesota woods; a fact which he has kept completely concealed. With the collaboration of her sister, Lucile, she books a weekend getaway at a luxurious, magical, health spa in the upper California desert, hidden away and very expensive, and she, who's never driven a sports car in her life, leases a red Lamborghini for the weekend.  She plans this to the be the weekend to build memories to last her a lifetime, so she also selects a male escort on the Internet, and chooses to identify herself as Julia, and him as William.

 
William is at the end of three years in his field and wants desperately to enter graduate school to begin work on his Ph.D.  He just needs a little more in his savings, just a few more jobs, and a weekend with Julia from Minnesota will pay for most of the remainder needed. Neither Julia nor William could possibly entertain the notion that the weekend getaway will change them both, and those close to them, in ways they could not have conceived of, even in fantasy.

 
Hot Water is the kind of story one reads the first time for the sheer joy and pleasure of it; but it is also a novel that finds its way immediately to the keeper shelf. It will be reread over and over again, each time the reader is in need of a dose of Hope.  There is not one factor at fault in this book. The plot, the characters, the gorgeous setting, the philosophy and metaphor: every aspect of this book shines, and the reader comes away looking at herself or himself for traces of faery dust glow. This book is that good. Kathryn Jordan is a debut novelist, but I hope this is only the first in a long line of outstanding stories from this gifted author.