"This one will stay with you long after you read the last page!"

I have been a long time fan of Patricia Rice and her books. This book is one of the reasons why I consistently read and enjoy her books. I laughed, I cried and in the end I got goose bumps!

Cleo Alyssium isn't like any character I've ever read before. She's feisty, knows just want she wants out of life and isn't afraid to go after it. She's also very scared. All she wants is to make sure she doesn't screw her life up yet again because she is "this" close to getting her son back. She's had a tough life but she's finally getting it all together.

Then along comes Jared McCloud. He forces his way into Cleo's life and makes her feel things she has no business feeling. Jared is on his way to becoming a well known, well sought after Hollywood type. This is just the kind of thing that Cleo is running away from - fast and far. Jared just refuses to let her run from him. Every time she bristles up at him, he manages to just calm her down with a touch.

Then there are Gene and Kismet, two teenagers who are just crying for the attention they are not getting from their drunk and drugged up mother and her string of boyfriends. Cleo just doesn't need this kind of chaos in her life, not when she's hanging on by a thread herself. So what is she to do?

This book just warmed my heart. I was pulling for Cleo and Jared from page one. To me, they just belonged together. I consider this book a must read. This is the kind of book that will stay with a reader long after they read the last page.

Reviewed by Kathy Boswell
Posted February 22, 2002

Read an Excerpt

Summary

Celebrated cartoonist Jared McCloud is plumb out of laughs. To unblock his creative juices, he rents a secluded beach house-and ends up falling into the Looking Glass world of Cleo Alyssum.

Cleo isn't exactly a recluse, though living on an island and scaring away trespassers aren't the actions of a social butterfly. Cleo simply has more important things to do than to waste time with the artistic, bullheaded hunk living in her guest house. Yet somehow Jared and his devilish charm inch their way into her life, reaching the warm places her cold exterior cleverly hides. Will Cleo open her heart to a man who falls short of her expectations?

After all, it wasn't her intention to fall for someone who is almost perfect. . .