"Smart, sassy, sizzling slice of suburbia."

Charlotte Tasker was always a good girl, but on the way to pick up her almost-fiancé, she meets the eyes of a stranger on the road. He takes her virginity with wild, hot sex, the only wild, hot sex she has for the next 13 years. Then she's widowed and guess who moves in next door? Yes, it's Joe Mills, the wild, hot stranger.

Charlotte and Joe are drawn together like a magnet and steel, but he can't take the chance of getting close to her. Joe's a DEA agent, hiding from a drug kingpin who put a million-dollar contract out on him. He wants Charlotte badly, but he can't forget his former partner, who was killed, along with his family, by the same kingpin. Charlotte has dreamed about Joe since the day she gave him her virginity, but she isn't aware she'll be putting herself and her children in mortal danger if she follows her dream.

PUBLIC DISPLAYS OF AFFECTION is a sizzling, smart, funny slice of suburbia. When soccer-mom meets Mr. Testosterone, the sparks begin flying and the heat blows the top off the thermometer. Life constantly intrudes, as it does in reality, and every woman I know will see a bit of herself in Charlotte. Joe's an alpha male with feelings, the man most of us dream about. Another great read from Ms. Donovan.

Reviewed by Lory Martin
Posted May 12, 2004

Summary

Charlotte Tasker has always been a good girl, so she married the most decent, reliable man she could find even though their love life was a bit on the predictable side. Thirteen years later, she's a widowed mom who runs her company, prepares three vegetarian meals a day for her children, and volunteers for just about every good deed in town. But no one knows that Charlotte has a secret weakness for squirt cheese, erotic poetry-and the mystery man she lost her virginity to in a reckless roadside tryst, moments before she got engaged. They never exchanged names, and even now, Charlotte can't stop fantasizing about that spectacular stranger... DEA agent Joe Bellacera isn't crazy about having to hide out in Minton, Ohio before testifying at the trial of a notorious drug lord. But he's handling it just fine...until he lays eyes on a fiery redhead and a hot little body he'd recognize anywhere. Joe's never had another woman like Charlotte since that day thirteen years ago. Now she's his neighbor-and strictly off-limits... Amid the balmy, honeysuckle-scented breezes of a Midwestern summer, sense and sensibility are about to be subverted by an ice cream-loving dog, conspiring kids, and nosy neighbors. And when the Widow Tasker's fantasies meet the rock-hard reality of Agent Bellacera, let the fireworks begin...