Suzanne Barrett: Hearts at Risk

Zebra Bouquet (Paperback), ISBN 0-8217-6735-6

Romance, in the hands of a master storyteller, can be entertaining and enlightening, especially when spiced with an odd lot of cats, a variety of roses (some old, some new) and a rain storm falling on a rutted driveway much to the roadway’s detriment.

Take the basic ingredients of one harried, stress-driven man and one knowledgeable woman with a purpose and a goal, add some compost, smelly fertilizer, a storybook house (obviously unfit for human habitation), an eviction notice and herbs grown for sachets, decoctions and medicinal infusions, and what do you get? A book full of gentle humor, romance, and a promise made or a promise broken.

Gardener and herbalist April Fairchild lives in the gardener’s cottage of said uninhabitable house. April reclaimed the grounds and sells the products of her handiwork at the local farmer’s market. The eviction notice comes as a complete surprise — one that ticks her off royally and with cause. April’s rental agreement promised her the cottage for at least three more years, but evidently the death of the former owner changed everything. April intends to fight the eviction, and her chance comes sooner than she expected.

A high-powered businessman desperately in need of peace, quiet and a place to escape from the stresses of his business, new owner Thomas J. McKittrick wants April and her nine cats gone — and the sooner the better. All April’s efforts to the contrary fall on barren ground until Thomas’s fancy car gets stuck in the muddy driveway. The bedless, dirty main house offers no shelter from the storm, so he spends the night in the cottage with April and the cats.

Thomas discovers he needs April to teach him how to survive in the country…and perhaps much more than that. But does April need him? Ah, that’s a good question.

Read the book, it left me smiling. Ms. Barrett pens a warm and wonderful tale of love and learning.

Patricia Lucas White

Patricia Lucas White’s latest historical novel, To Last a Lifetime, was an Eppie finalist for 2003. To Last a Lifetime and two of her fantasy romances, the Sapphire Award-winning A Wizard Scorned and The Godmother Sanction, can be ordered through Hard Shell Word Factory. Her recent contemporary, PS, I’ve Taken a Lover, is available from Lionhearted Books.