Stephanie Rowe, Stress and the City

Stress and the City

Stephanie Rowe

Harlequin Flipside, Apr 2004, $4.50, 218 pp.

ISBN: 0373441878

Stress management consultant Cassie Halloway feels good though her relationship with her cheating former fianc Drew Smothers is over. At a New Year's Eve party in Connecticut, to prove to her best friend Leo, a nagging Drew, and especially herself that she has moved on, Cassie shares a kiss with Ty whom she just met. However, the lip pairing proves a shock to her system greater than any she had with her former beau and Ty feels as if his blood turned into a tsunami.

Engaged and faithful to his "little sister" Alexis though he does not love her, Ty Parker finds his stress level off the barometer since the kiss. His plan to avoid Cassie fails when he is her client showing him how to reduce his tension. Ty realizes that Cassie will not succeed as his sex stress level has exploded off the Richtor Scale since he desires her more than any woman he has met including his future wife. Cassie abates her own problem with the chocolate therapy solution, but those sweets do not compare to the sweetness of Ty's lips.

Except for Drew, the cast of STRESS AND THE CITY is an intelligent caring group that the audience will appreciate especiallythe lead couple, his brother Zach, Leo, and Alexis are fully developed warm people. In spite of love and sexual need, Ty behaves honorably (in contrast to that dope Drew) by staying faithful to the woman he is to marry even if it hurts. Readers will enjoy this amusing frolic and expect a wilder Rowe with the tale of Leo vs. Zach.

Harriet Klausner