Linda Lael Miller, McKettrick's Pride

McKettrick's Pride

Linda Lael Miller

Harlequin HQN, Mar 2007, $7.99

ISBN 0373771908

On her drive from Chicago to Indian Rock, Arizona, in a hot pink Volkswagen Bug, Echo Wells picks up a ragged dog who turns out to be a female, white Lab she dubs Avalon. In Indian Rock, Echo plans to open up a bookstore, the town's first, next door to the Curl and Twirl combo beauty parlor and baton-twirling school owned by her landlady Cora Tellington.

When businessman Rance McKettrick learnsfrom his mother-in-law Cora that an independent bookstore is coming, he tells her no way will it survive. Though he is a terrific father to her twin grandchildren, Rianna and Maeve, Cora worries that Rance has not moved on since the death of Julie, a woman they both loved; him as her husband while her as her mother. Echo hits it off with Cora and her grandchildren from the first meeting. However, when she and Rance meet, sparks fly immediately as both are shocked by the attraction they fumblingly hide from one another though his female relatives gleefully see the obvious.

The incredible cast makes Linda Lael Miller's contemporary romance a superior reading experience that will garner the superb author many award nominations. Cousin to the hero of the first McKettrick's Men tale (see MCKETTRICK'S LUCK), Rance avoids love, treating it like a plague, as he remains scarred from his Julie's death until now. The eccentric Echo brings joy into the lives of Cora and her grandchildren with her enthusiasm for life emulated by her sidekick Avalon. Readers will treasure this wonderful entry in the McKettrick saga as Rance and Echo insist they're not in love, but Cora, Avalon and the girls know otherwise.

Harriet Klausner