"The wonderful message of this story – amo, amas, amat…an unconventional love story – comes from how Mary Cate develops a rich life without romantic love. This is a story with a wonderfully satisfying happy ending – as good as any romance, but entirely different from what the younger Mary Cate could ever have imagined."
Meredith Sue Willis, author of
Out of the Mountains and Oradell at Sea

"amo, amas, amat: an unconventional love story is also an unconventional coming-of-age story. Carter Seaton’s well-crafted narrative—especially her incisive portrayals of the cruelty of everyday narrow-mindedness as well as of the friendly largess that is, thankfully, just as everyday—is true to our complex times. She treats controversial and important issues of sexual orientation both frankly and sensitively, suggesting, through this unconventional tale, how we might come of age as a society."
Eddy Pendarvis, Poet, Professor Emeritus, Marshall University and book reviewer for Now and Then

"Carter Taylor Seaton's amo, amas, amat...an unconventional love story appears during the 30th anniversary year of the discovery of HIV-AIDS, and it's a perfect introduction to the subject of gays and straights and how they can co-exist. It's also a page-turner that can and should be enjoyed by everybody: Northerners, Southerners, gays, straights, men, women. I recommend the novel to everyone looking for good reading. You may come away with a greater understanding of the qualities that make people with different sexuality good friends."
David Kinchen, HuntingtonNews.Net

At thirty-three, Mary Cate Randolph still believes in fairy tales. She’s been searching for Prince Charming all her life, but after she was date-raped by her last boyfriend, she is understandably cautious. When she meets tennis pro, Nick Hamilton, at her Asheville country club, she thinks she’s found the perfect man. He’s charming and intelligent, but not sexually aggressive. No wonder. It’s 1983 and unbeknownst to Mary Cate, a naïve homophobic, Nick is a closeted homosexual. Thus begins a tangled web of love, deception, and discovery that ultimately leads to Mary Cate’s transformation and realization that true love is far different from the fairy tale version.