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Sydney Spinelli had long resigned to the fact that she was regarded as the brains of the family while her younger sister Julia was the beauty. A sudden email from Julia declaring her engagement to a total stranger raises Sydney’s protective hackles and she flies down to Fredericksburg, Texas with all the speed and stealth of the Concorde, whereupon she immediately has a memorable encounter with an emu and the emu owner’s sexy nephew, venture capitalist Alex Kimball.
Her blunt ways and general aggressiveness seem to enthrall Alex instead of scaring him off and before long Syd’s basking and blushing like never before under his smoldering gaze. With her railroad ways Sydney’s not exactly making herself popular, but there’s a hidden sensitive side to this Jersey girl that turns this Texas cowboy to mush. But does Alex truly care for Sydney or is he just diverting her scathing attention from his best friend who’s also Julia’s newly minted fiancé?
Sydney Spinelli and Alex Kimball are two contradictory characters as can possibly be. She has all the charm of a bulldozer while he can charm the feathers off an emu; he oozes self-confidence, while she seems to possess none. But despite all this, they both have hidden facets of their personality, which strangely enough resonate perfectly with each other. Karen Kendall brings out this paradoxical tendency with the utmost tenderness and compels readers to fall in love with her protagonists even as they fall in love with each other. Sure, there are obstacles galore including some curious emus, small-town gossip, an obnoxious father etc, but this only makes the ensuing romance more intriguing. Blistering heat, both from the Texas sun and from the blaze of passion, scorches the pages even as the Texas town of Fredericksburg, it’s German origins and atmosphere comes vividly to life through Kendal’s descriptive prose. Side characters are almost as intriguing as the protagonists and shall hopefully soon star in upcoming books as this series. However the most touching aspect of this story is regarding a character who suffers from the early onset of Alzheimer’s – without giving much away, suffice to say that how the protagonists cope with this dreadful disease is inspiring to say the least and Kendall deals with this grave issue in a most perceptive and poignant manner.
Reviewed by Rashmi Srinivas
for The Road to Romance
June 26, 2005
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