In A Little Love Story , Roland Merullo--winner of the Massachusetts Book Award and the Maria Thomas Fiction Award--has created a sometimes poignant, sometimes hilarious tale of attraction and loyalty, jealousy and grief. It is a classic love story--with some modern twists. Janet Rossi is very smart and unusually attractive, an aide to the governor of Massachusetts, but she suffers from an illness that makes her, as she puts it, "not exactly a good long-term investment." Jake Entwhistle is a few years older, a carpenter and portrait painter, smart and good-looking too, but with a shadow over his romantic history. After meeting by accident--literally--when Janet backs into Jake's antique truck, they begin a love affair marked by courage, humor, a deep and erotic intimacy . . . and modern complications. Working with the basic architecture of the love story genre, Merullo--a former carpenter known for his novels about family life--breaks new ground with a fresh look at modern romance, taking liberties with the classic design, adding original lines of friendship, spirituality, and laughter, and, of course, probing the mystery of love.