I have a book coming out in December from Harlequin Intrigue called High School Reunion. Since it's an Intrigue, the tag line reads, naturally, Reunions can be deadly.
That tag line has also been my attitude about reunions. I swore years ago that I'd never attend my high school reunion. My recollections of high school are of embarrassment, tears, longings, frustrations...you get the idea. I was the geek, the bespectacled bookworm, the gawky late-bloomer.
Oddly enough, so was Laurel, my heroine in High School Reunion. Laurel became a forensic specialist with the FBI. An old friend tries to talk her into returning to her home town for her tenth year reunion. She refuses--until a snapshot from graduation night makes her think a student who supposedly committed suicide that night was actually murdered.
Laurel goes to the reunion, figures out what really happened, nearly gets herself killed in the process, and finds happily ever after with her high school crush, who's now the Police Chief.
I went to my reunion, had a much better time than I ever thought I would, renewed some friendships, and for a brief moment, was a celebrity, because I write books. Oh, and didn't solve a single murder.
My friends are all over the map on their opinions of reunions. I have friends who were the cheerleaders, who dated the football captain, were class favorites. And I have friends who were more painfully shy than I was, and that's saying something. But at my reunion, I discovered that I had a lot more friends in high school than I remembered having.
It was hard for me to go to that reunion, but I'm glad I did. Who out there gets hives at the very mention of revisiting high school days? And who thought high school was the best time ever?
Mallory Kane (Visit her MySpace page.)
Available now: Solving The Mysterious Stranger
Coming in December: High School Reunion
