Innuendo
Crystal Green
Harlequin Blaze, Jul 2006, $4.75
ISBN: 0373792654

In San Francisco Tamara Clarkson is looking for a good time with a hunk, who will understand that she just wants a short fling not a lifetime of commitment as she fears deep relationships. At the Sister of the Booty, she finds an interesting display in which a glass boot contains the business cards of male rejects. She randomly selects a name, Kyle Sullivan, a carefree good time person who she arranges to meet on a blind date.

However, on the night of the date irascible Kyle finds he has something else he would rather do than be a less than perfect fox so he stands up Tamara. Appalled by his insensitivity, his cousin Murphy shows up to take out Tamara. Though he tries to pretend to be carefree, his serious conscientious demeanor keeps breaking through; to her shock Tamara finds she is attracted to this dependable person.

The Murphy-Tamara team is a wonderful match up as he takes life seriously while she is a carefree soul; at least that is what appears on the surface. As they begin seeing one another, both absorb some of the qualities of the other making them a more rounded person. Though the rationalization provided by Tamara as to why she avoids deep relationships seems hokey at least to this armchair psychologist, readers will enjoy Murphy's efforts to show her differently.

Harriet Klausner