"intriguing contemporary romance"

Erikka Rochon was on her way to top of the corporate ladder as an accountant in New Orleans until the DUI. She was convicted of first offense driving while intoxicated and reckless operation of a vehicle; the part of her sentencing she hates is the sessions with psychiatrist Dr. Morrow and her rule enforcing team. Still due to her hospital roommate Terri's insight, Erikka finally bluffs a pass out of "jail".

Her employer tells her to chill for a while so she takes time off visiting her Aunt Darlene in Loreauville, a home she went to as a child when she needed to escape from her own house. In spite of the loving nurturing of her Aunt, Erikka struggles with the future as she wants back up the Big Easy corporate food chain, but also worries that her depression accelerated by an empty personal life will lead her back to binging. However, everything changes when she meets Gabriel Cormier. They are attracted to one another from the start, but as love blossoms their personal demons leave both reluctant to take the next step in their relationship.

GOOD WOMAN BLUES is an intriguing contemporary romance starring two nice but haunted protagonists and a mixed support cast with several quite likable while the her heroine's parents are too into their own hedonistic needs. The story line is character driven as Erikka and Gabriel struggle with their destructive pasts, their loving yet shaky present, and whether the future is together or not. Lynn Emery writes a fine Bayou romance that showcases a fine couple trying to make it over their own issues.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted July 25, 2005

Summary

It didn't take much for Erikka Rochon's charmed Big Easy life to hit rock bottom: a car accident, a scandal -- and suddenly she's gone from climbing the corporate ladder to being driven out of town. Ordered to take some time off, an always-on-the-go sister now has nowhere to go, except back home to the bayou to slow down and figure out why a smart, beautiful, professional lady who always had time to party never found time for happiness.

Aunt Darlene's house was Erikka's safe haven in childhood, filled with good aromas and feelings, and a much-needed mixture of tenderness and tough love. But a good woman who lost her way needs something more to chase her demons and her blues -- and it might just be Gabriel Cormier, the tall, quiet son of Loreauville's most prominent family, a man with a past more notorious than hers.