Saturday, December 20, 2008

Too Good To Be True-Kristan Higgins

Too Good To Be True
Kristan Higgins
Harlequin HQN, Feb 2009, $6.99
ISBN: 0373773552

In Connecticut, Manning Academy History Teacher Grace Emerson has a two decade plus history of making up boyfriends. Thus tired of her family’s pity since her former fiance Andrew Carson dumped her for her younger sister Natalie and hoping to alleviate her sibling’s feelings of guilt, she makes up the too perfect pediatric surgeon Wyatt Dunn as her beau. Only her older sister Margaret knows this is a sham to get everyone off the “dumping”.

At night Grace notices a man looking around the vacant house next door. She calls the cops, but when the stranger knocks on her door she hits him with a field hockey stick while her canine takes a nip on him leg. He turns out to be her new neighbor Callahan O’Shea who bought the house unseen after spending time as a guest at Petersburg Federal Prison for embezzlement. While his eye is black, she hits him again accidentally with a rake. Soon Cal and Grace begin to fall in love, but she has a man in her life; just ask her family.

With plenty of slapstick enhancing this enchanting warm contemporary romance, Kristan Higgins provides an enjoyable tale of love if he can survive the early rounds. The story line is fast-paced from the moment Grace smacks her new neighbor with the stick and remains somewhat pugilistic as her left hook is something George Foreman would be proud of. Fans who appreciate a jocular tale filled with a solid cast (family, friends, faulty, and students) will want to read Grace’s madcap story of love, lies, and not knowing Jack about either.

Harriet Klausner

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