"He's back looking for vengeance"

Jayne Ann stopped surprising readers a long time again for two reasons. First, she delivers time and again some of the most enchanting books in romance. I appreciate she has never forgotten her romance roots as some of the others that have moved from romance paperback to mainstream hardback do. Almost like they are ashamed of writing romance and want to write 'legit'. Shame on them! I get a wee bit tired of writers that build their career off the very readers they turn around and seem to disdain. I think writing romance is one of the hardest things to do - it's not easy to work in a formula and deliver something fresh and original. Secondly, she stopped surprising us because her book are like that well- worn baggy sweater you have had for decades and always go to because it's so warm and fuzzy. JAK's books are warm and fuzzy.

We KNOW what we are going to get with small variations, but she weaves her magic spell and we adore it. Some of the reprints of JAK's series romance have showed bad dating. Well, this is a reprint, but from JAK at her top form! This is from her 'middle period', where every book she cranked out was pure perfection. So if you have not read this, you will be delighted with it.

JAK seems best when she is writing about dysfunctional families...so she is in full swing here. The Gilchrist family empire is failing and only one man can save it, and when that man is called "the bastard" by his own family, you know things are off to a rocky start. "The Bastard"....hum, ah...Luke Gilchrist has been 'punished' by the Gilchrist family all his life because his father's "scandal". Worse, he never conformed to the Gilchrist way, so they cut him off to punish him. Instead of accepting their dictates, he is a sexy rebel with a cause - but a smart one - and one that has done very well in a business of his own. Now the family NEEDS "the bastard" to save the crumbling family empire. Only, Luke has had a belly full of their arrogant, cruel ways, so he is ready to come in for the kill. The time and the opportunity finally has come for him to extract his punishment from the family who treated him wrong. They will have to beg him to save their mysteriously floundering business. The only trouble - Luke just might be mean enough to extract his revenge and then stand by and watch the family empire works go down in flames. After all, he is "the bastard"!

It falls to Katy Wade to bring Luke around to the right way of thinking. Katy has been to chief-cook, bottle- washer, Girl-Friday and resident keeper of this oddball family. It's been a steady, secure, well paying job, though exasperating at times. It was a job Katy NEEDED desperately after her parents died, leaving her to raise her young brother. But he is about to graduate high school, and suddenly, Katy will be able to move on and do what she wants for a change.

The one big stumbling block: she has to convince Luke to return and do his family duty. She cannot walk off and leave the Gilchrists in the lurch. Luke has had years of wanting to get back at the family, so bringing Luke back to the Gilchrist Clan is setting the fox amongst the chickens. Worse, the first demand Luke makes in return for coming back, is that Katy has to remain and act as his personal assistant.

Katy knows when she looks into the cold green eyes, she is making a pack with the devil....And that when Luke agrees to return it is because he has his own agenda...one that might think claiming Katy could be more important than revenge upon his family.

A wonderfully written romance that will remain vivid in your mind years after you put it down. I absolutely LOVED Luke and Katy!

Reviewed by DeborahAnne MacGillivray
Posted March 30, 2003

Summary

Almost a decade of working for the high-powered Gilchrist family empire has made Katy Wade sassy, spunky -- and secretly determined to open her own business. There's one last problem she has to solve before she feels free to leave. The Gilchrists need an heir apparent to save their mysteriously floundering fortunes, and there's only one man for the job: Luke Gilchrist. All his life the Gilchrists have made Luke pay for his father's scandal, and now he's a renegade who's sworn he'll never go home -- except to get even. Katy must persuade Luke to use his business expertise to rescue his family, but one look in his sexy green eyes, and she knows why they affectionately call him "the Bastard."

What she doesn't know is that Luke's decided he wants her even more than he wants revenge. He agrees to play savior, but only with Katy at his side. It's a high-handed tactic sure to make this saucy red haired angel madder than hell, but she's the only one who can turn this devilish rogue into a family man. Luke may be an SOB of a CEO, but he knows the bottom line is heartbreak...unless he can trust Katy with his secrets and she can believe in his love.