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WILL HIS LOVE BE UNREQUITED?

    Short of Love is a novel by Martin Knox. Tom has set his heart on Vicki but she won’t commit to him at university. He figures she will want him when he has less competition and delays his pitch until he graduates and has a job. In the meantime, he goes with stop-gap Barbara. Is his plan feasible, when he frames it as a commodity short with a friend? Tom’s plan satirizes conventional arrangements between couples with amusement, including exchanges of vows and monetary obligations. Will Vicki accept him when he makes his move? The couple have met in the Beatles era. Tom is like Paul in wanting casual relationships, expecting Vicki and Jane to accept this. Tom has a glittering career engineering in Canada and waits for Vicki, but eventually marries and has children. When they grow up and leave home, he and his wife separate. Will he finally get together with Vicki? This is an exciting and action-packed story, set in the UK, Canada and Africa, portraying Tom’s career as CEO of an international oil company. His morals are held to account by activist Vicki.
Short of Love is a satire about a love relationship informed by an engineer’s economics.
The book is available on Amazon.
For reviews see martinknox.com

SOCIAL CLASS DIFFICULT TO MATCH

Vicki’s class is a cut above Tom’s. He is besotted and wants a relationship. They are in Britain,  where social class is determined by breeding, old money and privileged education. Tom tries to raise his class, drops his regional accent and adopts BBC English. Will his lower class breeding, lack of old money and his redbrick university, thwart their love?

When Vicki plays hard to get at university with him, Tom moves her on to a back burner, so he can concentrate on getting a first class degree. He frames his interest in her as a short transaction in the commodity love, with delivery delayed until after graduation. Vicki won’t be compromised, making out with his flat mate and breaking Tom’s deal with him. Rebuffed, Tom has another girl, until he goes to a job in Canada.

Tom returns to the UK on visits, staying in touch with Vicki and trying to rekindle their love. When she continues to reject him, he marries another girl and has children. He still wants Vicki but is faithful to his family.

 This is a story about personal ambition trying to displace social classes and family loyalties, dishonouring love. Tom rises to be CEO of an international oil company and tries to act morally and ethically against corporate greed. If he succeeds, will Vicki finally accept him?

Eventually his marriage fails and he plans to return to the UK to be with Vicki who is single. Should he have realised that her different class would inevitably come between them?  Should he have looked for a girl friend from his own class? Will Vicki want him, after all this time?

Short of Love is fast-paced biographical fiction, a true love story, interwoven between the  stylised lives of an ambitious engineer and an idealistic activist.

Available on Amazon. For reviews see martinknox.com

CAN LOVE BE COMMODIFIED?

Tom and Vicki meet at university in Liverpool in the Beatles era. When she tricks him into being tested on a lie detector, her questions are intrusive and he loses trust in her, but becomes obsessively in love with this capricious feline.

To escape being distracted from his studies by her, he suspends being with her until he can complete his course of studies. This is satirised as a short trade in a commodity. Dealing in love as a commodity lands him in trouble with her.

The novel Short of Love is a humorous semi-autobiographical troubled romance.

When his studies are completed, he tries to take up with Vicki again. He doesn’t succeed immediately because he is in Canada working as an engineer. He keeps in touch with her and is successful in his job, becoming CEO of the company that exploits a developing country, Vicki opposes him. This is an exciting romance based on true events. Will Vicki and Tom ever trust each other and resolve their differences?

From Amazon. Reviews see: martinknox.com

LOVE CLOSURE DELAYED

Short of Love is a fiction novel by author Martin Knox, based on a true story of a couple’s romance, delayed by a series of obstacles. Tom meets Vicki at university, in the Beatles era and falls in love, but something happens that destroys trust and they are unable to connect on the same level. He tries to defer the relationship until later, when he satirically trades love in a commodity short. But his plan goes badly wrong. They remain friends and try again, but his emigration, career, brother, marriage and children get in the way. Will they get together? The epic story will keep you guessing until the last page.

Available on Amazon. Blog with reviews: martinknox.com 

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