"delightful police procedural romance"

In Manhattan, Parkbench Publishing Editor Tallie Blankenship has spent nine years at the company that releases romance and mystery novels. When her boss Ron Springer tells her he has to leave town, he also assigns her with handling their top selling writer Gaylord Cooper. At the same time her nutty domestic engineer extraordinaire mom asks her to meet her best friend's son Keith Wages, who turns out to be a cop living in a house in Brooklyn.

Keith saves her life when a robber begins shooting at a restaurant where they meet for the first time. Keith likes Tallie and wants to see her, but she is reluctant because she is the polar opposite of her mother as undomesticated as they come. Still, as he investigates a murder of a cohort they fall in love, but will Tallie see he wants her just the way she is.

This is a delightful police procedural romance with two wonderful tales of love (Tallie's best friend and mentor, a closet domesticate and a biking messenger besides the obvious lead couple). The story line focuses more on relationships especially between Tallie and Keith rather than the investigation though the latter enhances the fine warm tale of an odd couple falling in love.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted September 25, 2004