I will spoil the hell out of this below, but even that may be triggering, so: take care of yourselves, please. If you identify as transgender/gender fluid/gender questioning, you don’t want to read this novel. It was written close to twenty years ago (published in hardcover in 2000), and it really shows its age in its representation of gender dysphoria. This is one of those times when I realize how truly privileged I am when it comes to what I can shrug off: there is some seriously problematic stuff in this book. Snappy dialogue, female friendships, off-the-charts sexual tension, funny-as-hell heroine, what’s not to love? I have said often that I am a fan of Ms Howard‘s work, ¹ so going back to a novel that I remembered loving to pieces was an easy decision to make. Please note: I’m going to go into some detail on the rest of the plot after the cut, so if you are planning on seeing this movie unspoiled, you may want to avert your eyes, perhaps come back *after* you’ve seen it.Īs I have been struggling to read new stuff, even by authors I love ( Hold Me, by Courtney Milan, and Eidolon, by Grace Draven, languish still in the digital TBR, to name but two), I’ve indulged in some re-reading of old favorites, in the hope this will kick-start my reading mojo. Stranded during a particularly bad storm, in winter, above the snow line, Alex and Ben have to find a way to survive. Unfortunately, their pilot, Walter (played charmingly by Beau Bridges), suffers a cardiac episode as they approach some of the mountain ridges in their route, and the plane crashes. Unable to find a seat in the last commercial flights out, and through a connection of Alex’s, they charter a small plane to get them to Denver, where they may be able to catch connecting flights to the East Coast. Both Alex and Ben have pressing reasons to get out of Dodge…erm, Boise. The short teaser: there’s weather coming, and a number of airports on both sides of the Rockies are closing ahead of the storm. Suddenly, all sorts of trailers for the movie, highlighting the romance angle, popped up on twitter and youtube. Which explained, to me, why I had basically heard nothing about the movie until just a couple of weeks before it came out, when it seemed as if the marketing team suddenly realized that a) Idris Elba fucking sells, b) romance readers will go see romances, and c) a romance starring Idris Elba really fucking sells.

Looking up a bit more information, I discovered that it is a film adaptation of the novel of the same name, written by…some dude I had never heard of. I first heard about this movie on twitter, a few months ago, when the question of whether it was a romance or not was asked ( doing the Lord’s work).

Up Close and Dangerous by Linda Howard