Mint Condition (Classic Love Book 1) by Kat Drennan is a smartly written fast paced enjoyable read that starts out with Maddie, the story’s protagonist, at her grandfather’s funeral. We immediately learn she was dumped by her father twenty years ago at her Grandfather’s doorstep—the man she’s been living with, sharing a life with, in classic auto repair business with, and now grieving his loss. At the funeral are her friends Flo who’s been their housekeeper and friend for years, and Walter. Enters into the scene, a mysterious handsome stranger, Nick Berlin—President & CEO of an upscale Real Estate Investment Company in California. He was sent to attend the funeral to meet Maddie and make an offer on her classic Cadillac. Upon laying eyes on Nick, Maddie starts to come alive, “her mind might be on a funeral, but her body had a mind of its own” cleverly writes Drennan. Nick and Maddie make a connection and when she discovers he wants to see and photograph the Cadillac at his father’s request, Maddie invites him over to her Kentucky farm after the funeral. Once there and checking out the classic auto, they also check out each other. While sparks are flying conversation is going on about the car’s features; “folded and settled into the boot behind the back seat, edged in deep red piping, and a dashboard right out of a dive in dream” brings the scene alive. The author clearly knows her classic auto history and intelligently interjects knowledge of the intricacies that are sure to impress classic car lovers, along with readers who appreciate a well-written work. (The readers will also enjoy and laugh along the way when, later on, in a very clever scene, Maddie uses her car-smarts to mess with a couple of intruder’s car)
As Nick and Maddie are connecting the scenes move along with her sensing something isn’t quite right and pulls back deciding not to sell to him. Here’s the beginning of a love-interest tension/conflict that will also feature into the story as it unfolds and reveals mysteries that brought him to Kentucky in the first place at the urging of his father. As the story unfolds we learn the reason Nick Sr. wants the car and the complicated web sets Maddie, Nick, and two strange men cross country to California in search of answers and solutions. All this adds to great intrigue. There are family dynamics and further mysteries that unfold as the sensuality picks up between Nick and Maddie.
The characters are well cast, right down to Bébé the dog who flies off the page romping around in the snow. I love the friendly housekeeper and friend, Flo, who works to help bring the two main characters together, and the helpful half-bro, Luke the detective, who works for the Santa Barbara DA (his detective skills and networking come in handy). The tension and attraction between Maddie and Nick is palpably believable. The scenes move with descriptive ease along a storyline that has enough twists and turns to keep me glued to the page wanting to know what’s going to happen with Nick and Maddie along the way to California and once they get there, what’s going to happen with others pursuing them/the car, what will unravel with their family dynamics, and in the end who ends up with the classic Cadillac? There’s so much about this story, about Drennan’s writing, about in the in-depth characters with dynamic pasts—stories within stories that I want to tell, I want divulge all the minutiae like the mystery photo and what it really signifies, like gambling scenes that made me want to rush off to a casino, like old friends/lovers that show up at the casino, like inebriated states and what comes out of Nick’s mouth and what does Maddie do about it, like the rollercoaster romantic involvement that runs through the story keeping me wanting more, page after page, an FBI sting ops, and who is Nick Senior and how does he play into the story line—now and way back, etc.? There is no lack of tragedy, shocks, misrepresentations, betrayal, love, sex, intimacy, friendship, secrets, all of the components of what it is to be human; more than enough to keep a high level of interest throughout the entire story line. This was a great read and I look forward to more from the very talented Kat Drennan.
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