What would you do for someone you loved? It’s easy to say you’d climb mountains and swim oceans, but when faced with a desperate choice, what would you do? That’s the dilemma facing Reyna in Karin Kallmaker’s newest, and I think, darkest novel… Kallmaker does a fine job exploring the anguish of Reyna’s life, and the second plot, concerning a mathematician, is equally well-developed.
Her major and minor characters are credible and spirited, a pleasure to meet and, sometimes, to hate. Substitute for Love may just be the best Kallmaker I’ve read in a long time, and given her extraordinary talent, that’s saying something.
Deborah Peifer, Bay Area Reporter
Substitute for Love – Karin Kallmaker