"Has A Lot of Heart"

Molly Sommerville (of IT HAD TO BE YOU) and Kevin Tucker are opposites in everything and make the world's most unlikely couple. She's a brainy and independent children's book author, he's a gorgeous quarterback who only dates women who don't speak English. She has lusted after him from afar and he hasn't the slightest clue who she is. Until one fateful night . . .

Escaping Chicago to the family cabin in northern Michigan, Molly plans on relaxing and trying to overcome her most recent bout of writer's block. She's more than a little surprised when Kevin shows up for the same reasons, and while he doesn't suffer from writer's block, he is experiencing a personal crisis with his career. Left alone together in the middle of nowhere, Molly loses her common sense and seduces Kevin. Of course, he still has no idea who she is.

Without giving too much away, Dan and Phoebe Calebow (also from IT HAD TO BE YOU) find out about Molly's um . . . sojourn in the woods. Based on certain circumstances that shall remain nameless (although any romance reader worth her salt could figure it out!) Molly and Kevin are thrown together and end up taking care of a camp for senior citizens that Kevin's family owns.

THIS HEART OF MINE has great characters that you can't help but fall in love with. Ms. Phillips one of the few writers who makes the man AND the woman likeable. She also knows exactly what her readers want: tall, dark, and handsome men and normal-looking women who have the same concerns about their bodies as we do about ours.

Phillips also creates enough tension and witty dialogue that readers are left tingling in funny places and laughing their bottoms off. Every single book she has written has made me laugh, made me cry, and made me hurry to re-read all her books so the good won't fade away.

Reviewed by Kelley Hartshorn
Posted October 4, 2002

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Summary

Molly Somerville knows she has a reputation for trouble. She did give away her fifteen million dollar inheritance, but, hey, nobody's perfect.

Still, if anyone has an almost-perfect life, it's Molly. While her Daphne the Bunny children's books could be selling better, she loves her cramped loft, her French poodle, and creating the fictional animals who live in Nightingale Woods.

She even loves her sister, Phoebe. True, it was a little tough growing up in her shadow. Phoebe is beautiful, blissfully married, and the owner of the most successful professional football team in America. But who other than your sister knows you're about to do something drastic every time you change your hair?

Yes, Molly's happy about almost everything....except her long term crush on the daredevil quarterback for the Chicago Stars, that awful, gorgeous Kevin Tucker...a man who can't even remember her name!

One night, Molly's penchant for running into trouble runs right into Kevin himself, turning her world upside down. Heartbreak follows, and just when she's certain things can't get worse, Kevin forces his way back into her life. If only the overpaid, Ferrari-driving, poodle hating jock were as shallow as she wants him to be, she could get on with her almost-perfect life.

But Kevin's hidden depths and iron-will propel Molly out of her comfortable existence into an unforgettable summer at a place called Wind Lake. Surrounded by paint box cottages and a charming old Bed and Breakfast, she and Kevin battle their attraction while trying to cope with an aging, sex pot actress, a cranky, world-famous artist, and a pair of teenage newlyweds.

Their careers and lives are in crisis...yet they can't seem to stay away from each other. Before the summer is over, will they be able to learn one of life's most important lessons? Sometime falling in love hurts, sometimes it makes you mad as hell, and sometimes...if you're very lucky...it can heal in the most special and unexpected way.