"All's well ends well"

Romance maestro Lori Foster brings a most gratifying conclusion to her popular Buckhorn Brothers' series where Sawyer's son, Casey Hudson reunites with the reputed bad girl Emma Clark after an eight-year separation and finds himself in love with the stronger, resilient woman who had outgrown her adolescence and shame.

Readers will immediately identify with the awkward teenage Emma who escapes from her dysfunctional family and runs into the embrace of the reliable Casey, lying to her father that she is pregnant. She is ashamed but helpless especially when Casey's family offers her comforting solace. Harboring a crush for Casey but knowing that his bright future excludes her, she escapes alone to Chicago and finds herself a new life with the help of the affectionate Damon as a massage therapist. Her return to see her ill father after eight years becomes a reunion and a revival of love between Casey and her.

Lori Foster glosses the Cinderella romance with a dose of emotions and gumption in the determined Emma and pumps warmth and kinship into the arteries of the Kentucky town with the gathering of Sawyer, Morgan, Gabe and Jordan and a glimpse of their bliss. Even the unlikely Ceily has found herself a love interest. Ms. Foster's sensual style as usual is a pleasure to watch and Casey is a delicious hero with the protective streak. What more can we ask for given the first-rate romance and sanctuary of family bliss except to indulge in more?

Reviewed by Desmond CHan
Posted February 9, 2003