Cindi Myers, Rumor Has It

Rumor Has It

Cindi Myers

Harlequin Blaze, Jan 2004, $5.25, 249 pp.

ISBN: 0373791224

After being away from his hometown of Cedar Creek, Texas for ten years, Dylan Gates returns to open a law practice. As he comes back to resettle, local high school teacher Taylor Reed is leaving soon to attend Oxford on a graduate scholarship.

Dylan is shocked to learn the kind rumors that have spread over what he and Taylor did when they were teens because none of that happened though he wished it so. However, when they see each other for the first time in a decade, Dylan realizes his adolescent wishes remain strong. Taylor decides that since everyone believes they heated the southwest with their ardor; she will do just that before she leaves for England. Using her high school days journal as a guide she leads Dylan on a sexual fantasy that blossoms into love, but he must convince her to give up one dream for a better dream.

RUMOR HAS IT that this is a charming contemporary romance starring a fine hunk and a solid secondary cast. The heroine is the key to the tale, but though readers will like her, her rationalizations seem bizarre (does she really want sex just to substantiate rumors and is the choice Oxford or Dylan?). Still the audience will feel the Texas heat emanating from this affable duo whose romance is a blazing inferno.

Harriet Klausner