For handsome and charismatic
athlete Nick Candellano, things had always come too easily for him all his life,
especially women. But his hitherto carefree lifestyle came to an abrupt end when a busted
up knee put paid to his career as a star football player. Now stuck covering local sports
events for a small television station, he’s on the other side of the camera for a
change and he doesn’t like it one bit. More bad news comes to Nick in the form of
Jonas, an eleven-year-old boy who slaps a paternity suit on him. A disbelieving and
panicky Nick wants nothing more than for this to be just a bad dream and he decides to
himself go and meet the kid. Once there, he encounters a tiny and curvy but formidable
obstacle in the form of Tasha Flynn, Jonas’ foster mother.
When Tasha realizes who Nick is and why he’s
standing there on her doorstep, she’s horrified and greatly fears that now
she’ll lose Jonas, who’s her only family. But she’s determined to fight
Nick on this and she’s also convinced that Nick is not the kind of man who’ll
stay regardless of whether Jonas is his son or not. Either way, she’s certain that
Nick Candellano is trouble with a capital T for both herself as well as Jonas. She’s
determined to see Nick as the enemy and tries her level best to ignore the sparks of
attraction that go off every time Nick is near her. As for Nick, for the first time
he’s forced to think beyond himself and his wants and desires. But can this leopard
really change his spots?!
Author Maureen Child first introduced the readers
to the big, boisterous Italian Candellano family in her novels, ‘Finding You’
and ‘Knowing You’. In this book, she once again takes the readers to the
tiny town of Chandler, California, where Mama Candellano rules the roost, and nothing is a
secret. Nick’s character is a most interesting one – suddenly this playboy finds
himself on the sidelines, a role he’s unaccustomed to and on top of it, one day he
wakes up to find that he may have fathered a child years ago! He’s forced to grow up
almost overnight, but the way the author has gone about developing the entire theme, is
not only very enlightening but also very convincing. Tasha’s past, her pain and her
worries will also gain the readers’ sympathies, and Jonas is simply heartbreaking as
the kid who longs for a father. His desperation and fears are very touching, and add a lot
of pathos to the plot. The close-knit Candellano family, especially Mama Candellano, are a
force to be reckoned with, and the security and emotional stability they provide is simply
enviable, and something to aspire to. The characters, more than the predictable storyline,
carry the day and make this book worth reading and re-reading.
Reviewed By Rashmi Srinivas for The Road to
Romance
June 28, 2003 |
