TEST
Unforgettable is one of the better paranormal books I’ve read recently even if it is a little light on conflict. The author devotes most of the book to her two main characters and writes scorching sexual tension that doesn’t fizzle out early on. Many stories bury the romance beneath a plethora of dull subplots and secondary characters, but this one didn’t. It had a few flaws, but the emphasis on the romance was like a breath of fresh air.
Kyra Aimes is a young widow. Her former husband was an uncaring, gambling, drunken brute of a man who left her with a wrecking yard, a heap of debt and a wariness of men – especially good looking ones. When Randon Bolton swaggers through her business door and immediately sets her blood on fire, her defenses go on red alert.
Randon is a loner, a hunky rancher type (complete with cowboy hat) who doesn’t want to deal with any kind of emotional entanglement and thinks commitment is a four letter word. He’s instantly attracted to Kyra despite the fact that she’s insultingly rude to him. He resists acting on it because he pegs her for the marrying kind and his conscience won’t allow him to break her heart. But he’s lonely and is going through an emotional time – and before long he seeks out her company.
He couldn’t avoid her for long anyway, because there are two restless teenage ghosts who need them to get together to solve the mystery of their death. The ghost subplot isn’t integral to the development of the love story, but the ghostly teens’ search for peace and their desperation to be together was both interesting and touching. Their story takes a back seat to the main love story, which is exactly how it should be. I’ll never figure out why the ghosts figure prominently on the cover art but that’s not the author’s fault.
This book moved and I had absolutely no trouble turning the pages. The characters spent most of the book together and when they weren’t together they were thinking red-hot thoughts about each other. The author took simple every day moments like eating a chicken dinner and made them sizzle like the one below:
“She nodded, mesmerized by the motions of his strong hands, by the sight of his tongue licking a bit of gravy off his thumb. He caught her watching him and he stilled, then took one last deliberate taste of his finger.”
Whew!
But great sensual tension alone does not a good book make. It’s the development of the relationship that really matters. The relationship in Unforgettable starts out as lust and gradually turns into something much more meaningful as the heroine helps the hero through a traumatic period with kindness, smiles and compassion. For this reason I had a few problems believing the couple would live happily ever after. The hero is very needy at this point in his life and continually insists that he does not want a commitment. His turnaround at the very end was done too abruptly and did not ring altogether true. Fortunately there wasn’t an epilogue showing him blissfully bouncing a few kids on his knees! The book would have received a higher rating if the author had included a few extra chapters where the hero actually grew up emotionally.
Karen Sandler’s style is easy to like. She creates a down to earth heroine and a likable hero, despite his poorly explained commitment issue. Though the end of the story is a bit rushed, memorable characters and sizzling sexual tension make Unforgettable a good steamy choice for a chilly afternoon’s read.
Grade: B-
Book Type:
Sensuality: Hot
Review Date: 24/02/99
Publication Date: 1999
Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.