Lisa Teasley, Dive

Dive

Lisa Teasley

Bloomsbury, Mar 2004,

ISBN: 1582343985

South Florida construction worker Ray Rose killed the rapist of a friend. He also inherited Port St. Lucie property from a throat cancer victim who used his fingers to select Ray randomly from the phone book. Growing up with two older sisters, female neighbors his age, and no young male nearby, Ray believes in romantic love forever though his third wife left him just a few months ago. He plans to perform Florida's most famous profession, reinventing himself but in Alaska.

In Los Angeles, children's carton show animator Ruby Falls loves her lifestyle especially living on the Laurel Canyon estate of her best friend, a former porn star Jeannie. Having dumped her last boyfriend not to long ago, Ruby's good times abruptly end when she finds the corpses of Jeannie's beloved dogs and their Walker. Needing to reinvent herself she chooses Alaska.

In Alaska, Ruby and Ray meet having in common fleeing the forty-eight. They begin to fall in love, but both have lingering demons haunting them. As they work through their respective problems, Ruby is injured and ends in a coma with Ray never leaving her side while her family arrives to bicker and divide the spoils.

This is a terrific contemporary romantic suspense with strong characters especially in Alaska. However, many readers will feel the story line dives short of the gold as the key suspense elements, his committing homicide and her finding a homicide are not fully explored. Still, the solid story line grips the reader from the start as Lisa Teasley writes a fine tale that fans will enjoy because the lead couple with the strong support of the secondary cast provides an interesting tale of love.

Harriet Klausner