C.J. Carmichael, Leaving Enchantment

Leaving Enchantment

C.J. Carmichael

Harlequin SuperRomance, Dec 2003, $5.25, 297 pp.

ISBN: 0373711700

In Enchantment, New Mexico midwife Lydia Kane of The Birth Place realizes that the birth is too slow. She takes her patient Mary Davidson to Arroyo County Hospital. However, a double tragedy occurs anyway with a stillborn birth and a dead mother. Unable to cope, the father races out of the hospital only to die in a car crash. Though estranged from his sister, editor-owner of the Arroyo County Bulletin Nolan McKinnon has one more shocker. He learns that he is the guardian of his six year old niece Samantha.

The Birth Place accountant Kim Sherman knows how unpopular she is among the staff, but does not care how anyone feels about her until she hears her mentor sobbing. Offering solace to septuagenarian Mary, she soon extends her heart to the stunned Sammy, which ultimately leads her to the child's Uncle Nolan. For someone who was proud of staying aloof, Kim falls in love with Nolan and Sammy, but knows her secrets make forever impossible.

The tragedy that grips the audience at the beginning of the novel is well designed so that everyone involved including the reader feels it, but no one quite like Samantha. Fans will feel for her though Uncle Nolan does his best to ease her bewilderment even while he wonders why he and not his in-law's mom. Kim's metamorphosis is more difficult to accept as her demeanor goes from acrimonious loner to loving for the uncle and his niece as well as empathy to the shocked Mary. Kim's mysterious background adds suspense in an angst laden novel that is at its best when the Enchantment works its healing on those touched by the triple tragedy.

Harriet Klausner