Close Enough to Touch

Description: Jubilee Jenkins is no ordinary librarian. With a rare allergy to human touch, any skin-to-skin contact could literally kill her. But after retreating into solitude for nearly ten years, Jubilee’s decided to brave the world again, despite the risks. Armed with a pair of gloves, long sleeves, and her trusty bicycle, she finally ventures out the front door—and into her future.
    Eric Keegan has troubles of his own. With his daughter from a failed marriage no longer speaking to him, and his brilliant, if psychologically troubled, adopted son attempting telekinesis, Eric’s struggling to figure out how his life got so off course, and how to be the dad—and man—he wants so desperately to be. So when an encounter over the check-out desk at the local library entangles his life with that of a beautiful—albeit eccentric—woman, he finds himself wanting nothing more than to be near her.

Review: Jubilee is deathly allergic to other people. For Jubilee, skin-to-skin contact with anyone else could lead to horrific reactions, even death (the proteins in her skin trigger an extreme intruder alert in her immune system). Unfailing vigilance, ever-present gloves, and self-imposed isolation help Jubilee survive her allergy and school until just before high school graduation. One kiss with a popular guy puts her into anaphylactic shock and results in nine years of seclusion after her mother marries a rich man and moves away. Jubilee adjusts to her agoraphobia since she has been receiving checks to take care of her finances and she spends her time with books and various delivery services.
However with the sudden death of her mother and the liable checks stop, Jubilee is forced to re-evaluate her lifestyle. Self-help for agoraphobia and an old bike bring the protagonist into the orbit of Madison, a high school classmate, and then lead to a job as a library assistant (Side note: it really irritates me when people assume that anyone working in a library is a librarian. There is a clear difference between being a library assistant and a librarian. End of rant.).
  Reclaiming her independence in small steps leads her into contact with Eric, a recently divorced man who has moved with his traumatized and introverted adopted son to Jubilee's New Jersey community. Eric's first-person chapters are interspersed with Jubilee's to personalize all the quirks and hurdles of this most impossible, charming romance. I liked the romance between Jubilee and Eric, but the plot idles and goes nowhere. The realistic situations turns into a Hallmark movie with a perfectly wrapped up bow ending.

Rating: 3 stars

Words of Caution: There is some language in the book. Recommended for teens and adults.

If you like this book try: Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon