Two Against the Odds
Joan Kilby
Harlequin SuperRomance, Mar 1 2011, $5.50
ISBN: 9780373716937

Australian government tax accountant investigator Rafe Ellersley audits artist Lexie Thatcher, who has failed to file a return in four years. Thus he leaves Melbourne to see her in her small bayside village of Summerside where the red snappers make it an ace assignment in his mind. His boss Larry Kiefer warns Rafe to remain professional after the fiasco of his last audit if he wants to keep his position and eventually open up a charter business by purchasing a boat.

His cold veneer slips when Rafe meets Lexie and is attracted to her though she is over a decade older than he is. He reminds himself to remain professional, but cannot keep his hands or lips off of her. They have an affair until she gets pregnant. He panics as he knows his tryst will cost him his job and his boating future; but when she miscarries he realizes she is his future.

Two Against the odds is a fascinating contemporary Australian relationship drama as the accountant and the artist engage in a gender war. The lead characters as dynamic opposites and the bayside setting drive the entertaining story line.

Harriet Klausner