"Can ex-lovers remain friends after marrying someone else?" In the new novel, "A Line Between Friends," award-winning author, and former long-time journalist, Michele VanOrt Cozzens tells the fascinating story of former lovers with a 20-year history, and what becomes of their friendship as they grow up, move on and marry different people. This is the passionate story of Joel and Noelle, former lovers who met in 1977 while in high school in the Chicago suburbs. Joel and Noelle are both married now, though not to each other, and they keep in touch through occasional letters and phone calls. One winter day, Noelle receives a terse, three-line letter from Joel asking her to sever all contact - their friendship is over. Hurt and confused, Noelle begins to muse over their years of history in the hopes of understanding Joel's decision. Cozzens effectively takes the story back in time with vivid details and weaves together the tale of Joel and Noelle's relationship from their high school days, through college life and finally to their present-day families.

A Line Between Friends

Michele VanOrt Cozzens
McKenna Publishing (2006)
ISBN 1932172262
Reviewed by Vicki Landes for Reader Views (4/07)


Can a man and woman be platonic friends, even if they are married to someone else?  Michele VanOrt Cozzens tackles this timeless question in her new novel, “A Line Between Friends.”  Beautifully articulate and detailed, VanOrt Cozzens hooks her readers from the beginning of this descriptive story and keeps their interest sparked throughout.

This fictional narrative gives an account of a 20-year friendship that abruptly ends with a cryptic letter.  Sweet and sad at the same time, the two main characters begin their familiarity in high school and it progresses throughout college and beyond.  I especially liked the way VanOrt Cozzen set up the book’s sequence of events – she doesn’t start at the high school point to develop the novel.  Instead, she gives you the ending up front and the remaining part of the book is a flashback that slowly walks through the nuances of their relationship.  I wasn’t wondering ‘what happens at the end?’ – I was asking ‘how on earth did they get to this point??’  She also maintains a level of unexpressed tension between the two as they get older and perfectly describes the different intensions that men and women want from these types of ‘friendships.’

“A Line Between Friends” flows with imaginative descriptions.  VanOrt Cozzens makes it easy to vividly see her settings and feel what both main characters are feeling.  She writes from both sides positions so you can sympathize with each instead of taking sides (no ‘man vs. woman’-type atmosphere).  Much of the story takes place at the Southern Illinois University in Carbondale and her details about the campus are impeccable.  As someone with three family members on faculty there, I was transported back onto the grounds of this familiar place.  “A Line Between Friends” is probably a more appealing read for middle-aged women but VanOrt Cozzens writes in such a way that middle-aged men would probably enjoy the story’s development and outcome as well.  

Journalist, newspaper columnist, author, and now novelist, VanOrt Cozzens is multifaceted and shows that she can successfully dip her fingers into all sides of writing.  She takes the age-old subject of opposite sex friendships and gives it a fresh feel with a mature ending.  Hard to put down and a joy to read, Michele Van Ort Cozzens has definitely made her mark in the world of fiction in “A Line Between Friends.”  Brilliant!