Cindy Kirk One Night Stand

One Night Stand

Cindy Kirk

Avon, May 2008, $6.99

ISBN: 9780060847913

At the wedding of her best friend in Chicago, Marcee Robbins looks forward to a one night stand with a guest-stranger. Due to a crying little boy, she meets widower Sam McKelvey. The widower police detective Sam and the unmarried CPA Marcee discuss his daughter and living in a small town. Later they go to her room for a night of passion.

Several months later, Marcee returns to her hometown of Ellwood, a place she vowed to never go back, to care for her younger step-brother Cam. She stops at the bakery run by her high school best friend Iris, who is glad to see her. Not long afterward town sheriff Sam enters. Both are stunned to see one another and Marcee looks at her bracelet 'Reach High'to remind her she is here for one year and wants no trouble. She tells Sam to tell no one about their one night stand.

Marcee goes to her family home only to have another stepbrother Cam' s guardian Tom leave before he introduces her to Cam, who is asleep. Sam grabs Marcee frightening her before kissing her. He mentions his daughter Fern is out with a punk named Cam. She tells him Cam is her brother and she knows Fern as the friend of the daughter of her best friend. As Marcee falls in love with Sam, she also finds she cares deeply for Cam, but soon must choose between the two men in her life as her lover thinks her brother is not good enough for his daughter.

The prime support cast is solid and adds depth to the story line especially the lead female's brother. However, it is the romance between the lead couple that makes this a fun contemporary as he stereotypes her brother while she feels she must choose between her sibling and her soulmate. Although too much coincidence enables the plot to move forward, fans will enjoy this fine small town romance.

Harriet Klausner