"fun Marconi contemporary romance"

Josefina "Jo" Marconi wonders what happened to her world. Her two sisters, Mike (see A CRAZY KIND OF LOVE) and Sam (see AND THEN CAME YOU) are married, pregnant, and boffing or eating all the time. Her father confessed to an affair ten years ago that led to a stepbrother Jack, who now stays with Jo as his mother recently died and their dad is on a cruise. The worst change is hiring woodworker Cash Hunter to repair the Barclay House as he wants to seduce her, but she does not want to make love and then save the world as his previous females apparently have done.

Jack struggles with the dramatic shifts in his life while Jo decides to fight fire with fire and go after Cash, expecting to scare him away. He backs off but it is too late as Jo and Cash are in love. As Jo struggles to prove to the two men in her life that they can become a family, the two males are not sure whether to flee towards or away from the female predator who wants to shower them with love.

The third Marconi contemporary romance is a fun tale unless you are pregnant. Jo is a wonderful lead character unable to empathize with her siblings while "stuck" with Jack who she does not know or understand, Cash, and the family business. Cash is her ideal counterpart as he feels for her brother-in-laws, provides big brother understanding to Jack, and wants Jo in his bed permanently not globetrotting after a tryst. Maureen Child closes her Marconi siblings with a strong zanier finish.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted July 12, 2005

Summary

Josefina 'Jo' Marconi's world just shifted out of orbit. Both of her sisters are pregnant, she's facing finals in her quest to at last get her college degree, the man who traumatized her in college is running for a Senate seat, and she has to move back into the family home and watch over the boy whose very existence shattered her nice little world. Ten-year-old Jack is the product of an affair her father had while her mother was dying of cancer. Ever since Jo found out about this, she and her father have been walking a wide berth around each other. As if that wasn't enough complication, Cash Hunter--the man known as "The Woman Whisperer"--has moved back to town. He has a reputation: once a woman sleeps with him, she's completely satisfied, and she immediately heads off to save the world. As Jo becomes more and more interested in Cash, she learns that he's determined not to sleep with any woman he wants to stick around--especially not Jo. And Jo becomes just as determined to seduce him and prove that she's the one woman who will stay by his side. Together, Jo and Cash have to teach Jack and each other the true meaning of family and trust.