I've written about this wonderful author before, and I was just reading this story: Sugar and Smoke for the third time, and I have a couple more thoughts about it. I guess I'm getting older, and the angle I see things at are getting different! Also, I need to give a lot of context to my remarks, and I certainly can't depend on you people to go out and get the book, and read it, all on your own. So here's a pretty complete plot digest for you. It's set in New Zealand, but there's very little Kiwi-intensive material in the story. Except, of course, that the tone of the writing isn't either as racist as in the US, or as anti-racist as in the US.
The MC (main character—one of two) Tessa, has been pressured into taking a 6-month leave of absence from her law practice. She's going to house-sit for this gay artist guy, who's setting out to spend a month touring Italy.
She arrives, and discovers that there is (1) a cat, Thomas—?—who is very aloof; and (2, 3, 4) three llamas. They could be alpacas, but to most people, the critters are sort of interchangeable. Tessa finds some wine, but she's getting hungry.
There's a knock on the door, and there's a cute, cuddly woman with dimples, with yet another llama on a halter. It turns out that this one is called Stephanie. She, Stephanie, tends to sneak out of their corral, and go exploring. (Why not the other three? I don't know.)
The new woman is Kaia, and she lives next door. Tessa gets her to show how to get hot water for a shower (Tessa doesn't know anything about living anywhere except in a big city). She asks what's a good place to eat out, and Kaia reveals that it's too late for that—6:00 p.m.-ish—and too late for take out (yeah, we don't have that in these parts! Sorry!) and offers to bring something over. Tessa absolutely refuses, reluctant to be beholden to Kaia too much; after all, llama return and hot water.
Kaia heads for home, highly taken with the house-sitter, who is super glam. She quickly puts together a rescue plate of homemade bread and stew, and some jam and some cream, and creeps up and leaves it on Tessa's doorstep, all excited.
Starving Tessa find it after her shower, and waves thanks to Kaia through her open Kitchen window, and gets a dimple in return! (Man, the dimples alone were getting me going.)
The guy (Kiwi: 'fella') for whom Tessa is house-sitting is a bachelor, and predictably his refrigerator is filled only with beer. So Tessa moseys over to Kaia's to find where coffee is available, and is given a mug of coffee. She also learns where to get supplies.
Meawhile, there's a guitar leaning against the wall, in her living room: acoustic. She picks it up, and strums a chord, but it hurts her fingers, so she puts the guitar down. Later on, she's out in the garden, and hears a loud jangling, coming from a ramshackle hut in the corner of the property. She picks up a shovel, and pulls the door open.
There's a teenager reclining on an old couch in the shed. "Nice shovel," she says.
"What're you doing here?" she asks the teenager.
"This belongs to Leo," she says. "Who're you?"
Tessa explains that she's house-sitting, and asks the kid what her name is, and how old she is. She lies 3 times, but the third time she says her name is Ruby, and she's sixteen and a half.
Ruby is interesting. She's got an attitude that's a mile high, but miraculously Tessa and Ruby get close. Ruby is distrustful of her family, but begins to trust Tessa, to the point where Ruby calls Tessa when she's in a spot of trouble. Everybody in the little town seems to hate Ruby, because she puts graffiti on everything: Rubez, etc.
Meanwhile, Kaia enlists Tessa to help her with a jam competition. Kaia's grandmother, Grandma Kingsley, used to be the jam champion of those parts, and Kaia is good, but not as inspired as Grandma was. As you can imagine, the interaction between Tessa, and all the weirdos of the town gives us a lot of insight into Tessa's character, and the farmer's markets at which Kaia and Tessa sell their jams gives us insight into Kaia's character, and Tessa quietly eases out of her super-sharp city lawyer image into something much softer.
I wish I had written this story!
Kay.
