To Save a Family
Anna DeStefano
Harlequin SuperRomance, Sep 2008, $5.50
ISBN: 9780373715121

In Atlanta single mom and public defender Emma Montgomery and police lieutenant Rick Downing are always arguing over cases especially when she does her best for even the most obviously guilty. Everything changes with a bullet when one of her clients Tanner Simmons grabs the Bailiff's gun, shoots him and her. After flatlining Emma physically recovers but is not the same mentally as she no longer believes in the jurisprudence system.

However, Danny needs the best on a particular case in which he thinks he made a mistake by arresting the wrong member of the family. He wants Emma to help a mom Olivier Sanchez about to lose her family over selling drugs and having her children including a nine year old be her peddlers. He thinks she is covering for one of her kids. She warns him of being too pushy but takes that case on too. As they work together on the case, the attraction they have shared for one another blossoms into love even as Emma begins to emotionally heal from the trauma of being shot.

This is an excellent romantic legal thriller with some police procedural elements. The storyline is action-packed from the moment Emma is shot in court and never slows down until the final incredibly superb twist. Readers will relish Anna DeStefano's excellent Atlanta tale as Danny needs 'To Save A Family' and the woman he loves.

Harriet Klausner