Hello, and welcome back! I hope you´re all enjoying spring now that it´s arrived. Since we´re moving, I´ve given myself permission not to worry about the weeds among the flowers--packing is a tad more important. That also leaves me a bit more reading time than I normally have in the spring. (That, however, is about the only plus I can find in this whole thing.)

First up this week is
Dawn in Eclipse Bay by Jayne Ann Krentz (Jove Fiction). This time out in the Madison-Harte families, the sparring partners are Lillian Harte and Gabe Madison. Lillian´s trying to close her business, but her last client, Gabe, refuses to leave. Gabe is attracted to Lillian, but she´s definitely not the type of woman he plans to spend the rest of his life with. I have a shelf of Ms. Krentz´s books downstairs, two deep, and usually I adore her stories, with the sexy heroes and wonderful characters. This book, however, was a slight disappointment in the romance department, though the suspense portion of the plot had me wondering until the very end. I´m giving it only three of Cupid´s five arrows, and hoping for more romance in her next book. In the publisher´s defense, they are marketing this book as fiction, rather than romance, so be warned.

I also read "Marrying Money," by Susan Meier (Silhouette Romance) this week. Bailey Stephenson may be attracted to Tanner McConnell, but she has plenty of reasons for not wanting to spend enough time with him to do damage to her heart. Most importantly, he doesn´t plan to stay in their small West Virginia hometown any longer than necessary to repair his car, and then he´ll be on his way to Florida. But Tanner finds he´s strangely reluctant to leave while he´s truly attracted to a woman for the first time in years. Peopled with characters you might meet walking down the street of your own small town, Ms. Meier´s latest is a winner. This pair has really believable dilemnas, and there´s a secondary character here who deserves her own book as well, I think. This one gets four arrows.

Until next week, happy reading!