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Love So Tender is an anthology of three novellas relating to the Taking Care of Business Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas and Elvis Presley.
Taking Care of Business by Stephanie Bond is the story of Gracie Sergeant and Steve Mulcahy. Steve is an undercover FBI agent who is hired by Gracie to be the Elvis impersonator for the chapel. Steve plans to arrest a mob boss, Mitch Lundy, who is getting married at the chapel. Unfortunately Steve is wedding phobic. As far as he’s concerned he couldn’t have a worse undercover assignment. Gracie is the wedding director, and she’s been burned one too many times by handsome guys. She and Steve have to figure out how to work together without falling for each other. Unfortunately, that’s not going to be easy.
Stephanie Bond has written an engaging story filled with characters with quirks. The attraction between Steve and Gracie is immediate, though not easily resolved. I enjoyed the story and will look for more books by this author.
Play It Again, Elvis by Jo Leigh is the second novella. Molly Canada is a stand up comedian and Charlie Webster is her writer. Charlie has a problem, he’s madly in love with Molly, but she has no idea. He’s having problems writing for her now, and she’s worried. A talk show starring Molly has been proposed, and Charlie is trying to be supportive. Molly sees Charlie as a friend; after all, he’s never given any indication of any other interest in her. To say more about what happens would give away the plot.
Jo Leigh intertwines the world of comedy and Elvis in a lighthearted manner. Charlie needs help, and her method of getting him help is ingenious. This is another winner from Jo Leigh.
Good Luck Charm by Joanne Rock finishes out the set. Alyssa Reynolds runs an Elvis memorabilia shop in Las Vegas. Brett Neale is a singer wanting to win the Elvis Legacy contest in order to get his career on the fast track to success. He wants Alyssa to help him. She used to be the talent manager for her sister Rosa, but quit the business when Rosa almost died from anorexia. Now Brett wants her to get back into it. Alyssa is unconventional and Brett is strait-laced, so any relationship between them is going to require a lot of give and take.
Joanne Rock involves the reader from the first sentence of this story. The conflict Alyssa feels is well written, and her concerns are reasonable. I very much enjoyed this story and it was the perfect ending to a great anthology.
Reviewed by Nancy Riggins-Hume
for The Road to Romance
November 3, 2005
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