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Those of you who like the bad girl comes home story will really enjoy this book. I thought Kathleen Creighton handled the plot very well and avoided cliches.
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Charly Phelps left Mourning Springs, Alabama when she was 16 years old after giving birth to a child. She gave her baby up for adoption, and has had no contact with her child or her father in twenty years. Mirabella is now an attorney in California with a successful life, but she harbors feelings of bitterness and resentment toward her father for making her give up her baby. Normally, Charly would not set foot in the south, much less her old home town, but her best friend Mirabella has moved to Mourning Springs and asked Charly to be maid of honor at her wedding to Jimmy Jo Starr.
Charly goes home to at least speak to her father and finds out that her son was not given up for adoption but was, instead, adopted and raised by her father. Charly storms out in anger, wrecks her car and gets put in jail. When Charly tries to contact Mirabella, she gets Troy Starr, Mirabella’s soon to be brother-in-law instead. Troy goes off to help Charly.
Troy is a former Navy SEAL, but for those of you who don’t like SEAL books, don’t worry. This is not an action story but a relationship story. Troy is at loose ends at the moment, having retired from the SEALS and right now doesn’t know what to do with himself. Charly is very prickly and anti-southern, but Troy soon notices that her attitude is a protective defense. Of course, Troy discovers all that after they hop into bed. A lot happens in the first few chapters of this book.
All these events lead Charly to a road to self-discovery and forgiveness. It’s an intense journey packed into a short book and Ms Creighton handles it well. Charly eventually realizes what she has in her father, what she has found in Troy and what she could find with her son. It’s interesting to watch Troy and Charly try to get to know each other after they’ve had sex.
My minor quibbles with this book are the dialect and Aunt Dobie, Charly’s dad’s housekeeper. The characters, especially Troy, talk with quite a southern accent. I’m one of those who can read it once in the beginning and imagine it for the rest of the book. Plus, I suppose I’m more sensitive to it being from Texas. Anyway, there was a little too much accent for me. Aunt Dobie was also a problem character for me. I didn’t like how she manipulated events to get Charly to stay in town and then later she seemed a bit too pushy. Though, I suppose family loyalty counts for a lot of her actions, as does a little secret revealed toward the end of the book.
This is the second Kathleen Creighton book I’ve read, and I think I’m going to have to read more. If you’re looking for an emotionally intense journey to redemption and forgiveness, try One More Knight. You’ll want to finish it all in one sitting, so have a block of time set aside. Now, I’m off to find One Christmas Knight to find out more about Charly’s friend, Mirabella and and Troy’s brother, Jimmy Joe.
Grade: B
Book Type: Series Romance
Sensuality: Warm
Review Date: 05/11/98
Publication Date: 1998/10
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.