Lynn Emery Good Woman Blues

Good Woman Blues

Lynn Emery

Harper Torch, Aug 2005, $6.99, 384 pp.

ISBN: 0060731028

Erikka Rochon was on her way to the top of the corporate ladder as an accountant in New Orleans until the DUI. She was convicted of first offense driving while intoxicated and reckless operation of a vehicle; the part of her sentencing she hates is the sessions with psychiatrist Dr. Morrow and her rule enforcing team. Still due to her hospital roommate Terri's insight, Erikka finally bluffs a pass out of "jail".

Her employer tells her to chill for a while so she takes time off visiting her Aunt Darlene in Loreauville, a home she went to as a child when she needed to escape from her own house. In spite of the loving nurturing of her Aunt, Erikka struggles with the future as she wants back up the Big Easy corporate food chain, but also worries that her depression accelerated by an empty personal life will lead her back to binging. However, everything changes when she meets Gabriel Cormier. They are attracted to one another from the start, but as love blossoms their personal demons leave both reluctant to take the next step in their relationship.

GOOD WOMAN BLUES is an intriguing contemporary romance starring two nice but haunted protagonists and a mixed support cast with several quite likable while the her heroine's parents are too into their own hedonistic needs. The storyline is character driven as Erikka and Gabriel struggle with their destructive pasts, their loving yet shaky present, and whether the future is together or not. Lynn Emery writes a fine Bayou romance that showcases a fine couple trying to make it over their own issues.

Harriet Klausner