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Jennifer James, a young widow, returns home to rural Louisiana after her parents’ deaths to settle their affairs. She inherits their house and 180 acres, but Jenny is anxious to return to her life in Baton Rouge.
Michael Garrott, her parents’ nearest neighbor, claims Jenny’s father promised to sell him the property. When Jenny refuses, he becomes angry. Garrott is suspected of murdering the man who caused the deaths of his wife and daughter in an automobile accident. In spite of his protests of innocence, everyone believes he killed the man for revenge.
Jenny is attracted to Michael and comes to trust him – for a while.
Jenny’s friend, Sally Jeffers, comes to visit her parents who live in the same town. Both Sally and Jenny were uprooted from their familiar city lives and moved to the country. Their hatred of rural living drew them together and they became close friends. They each moved back to a big city when they grew up.
The second half of the book tells Sally’s story of divorce, a relationship with a younger man, and finally finding real love. And Jenny learns that “sometimes you have what you need in life right before you and you just can’t see it.”
I found the third person/present tense format very distracting. It made me more aware of the author than the characters. I also disliked the telling in the first sentence: “the eyes of a remorseless killer concealed in the woods nearby watch intently.” Other than that, I found the novel interesting. I especially enjoyed the complication of the “federal agents” and Sally’s surprising romantic element at the end of the book.
Reviewed by Marie DisBrow
for The Road to Romance
August 3, 2006
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