"suspenseful family drama"

In Boston Sarah Morgan arrives at the free clinic just prior to having a baby. Dr. Molly Boudreau helps her give birth to Nicholas. The educated Sarah refuses to talk about the father except that he is a red haired evil person who will never see her son.

Not long afterward Sarah asks Molly to take care of Nicholas until she can insure her baby is safe. The next morning, Molly learns someone executed Sarah. Molly realizes no record of the birth exists yet and though the autopsy will show the recent birthing, she can hide the infant in her hometown of Glens Crossing, Indiana. She drives home where she tells family that Nicholas is hers.

In New York, reporter Dean Coletta feels lucky to be alive as he recovers from a bullet he received in the Middle East, but learns that his sister Julie known as Sarah is dead but gave birth to a missing child. Dean makes inquires with all roads leading to Molly and Indiana. When they meet, though he believes Molly abducted his nephew, he is attracted to her; she knows he is not Sarah's evil incarnate, but could be working for him.

The strong lead couple and powerful secondary characters especially her extended family make the tale seem very real. The brisk story line moves forward rapidly as Molly and Dean fall in love but have lingering doubts about each other. Though some readers will dislike the lack of a direct final confrontation between good and evil (this reviewer thought that added appropriate realism) and a major subplot involving Molly's nephew takes away from the prime theme, readers will appreciate this suspenseful family drama.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted February 24, 2005

Summary

Molly Boudreau has worked all of her life with a single minded focus: becoming a doctor. She's overcome every obstacle in her path, of which there were many for the third child of a single father in small town Indiana. But as she stands on the threshold of her dreams, she realizes her quest has left her isolated, she yearns for a soul-stirring connection. And her prayers are answered in a way she never could have predicted.

Sarah Morgan, a pregnant woman with a past cloaked in secrecy, shows up at Molly's clinic. Molly suspects a woman in hiding. Two souls, both needing friendship, soon find it in one another. But Sarah is murdered only days after her baby's birth, and after extracting a promise from Molly to protect the baby from its unnamed father—a man the mother swore was evil, a man Molly suspects killed her.

Molly risks both her safety and career when she flees Boston and returns to her Indiana hometown. With everyone assuming the infant is hers, she has no trouble hiding the much more explosive truth—until magazine reporter Dean Coletta arrives and begins asking probing questions. Molly tries to guard her heart, but Dean soon fires that emotional connection she's been craving. But Dean has a secret of his own—one that threatens both Molly and the future of the child she loves more than life itself.