Kay Stockham Montana Secrets

Montana Secrets

Kay Stockham

Harlequin SuperRomance, Oct 2005, $5.50

ISBN: 037371307X

Physical therapist Grace Korbit returns to her home town of North Star Montana, to help her high school lover Seth Rowland adjust to being wheelchair bound. He is nasty to her, as he is to everyone else who enters his now tiny circle since the riding accident, but in this case he also tosses the memories of her deserting him to go east on a scholarship. She handles all he tosses at her seemingly calmly, until she finally challenges him to an arm wrestling match. If he wins she will leave because his muscles are strong enough to work the chair; if she wins he must follow her orders. He agrees just to get rid of her. To his shame, she beats him easily.

While they work together to build up his strength, he finds he still loves her, but interrogates her to learn why she really left. Grace never stopped loving Seth, but has hidden the real reason for a decade. As Seth continues to probe, dark family secrets reemerge, endangering Grace, Seth and family members.

Though the MONTANA SECRETS that drove her away seem over the top, fans will enjoy this second chance at love romantic suspense. The storyline is at its best when Grace works with Seth, who is going through a form of grieving for what he has lost. Grace is terrific as the courageous therapist who refuses to allow her beloved to wallow over his misfortune. The added suspense seems sensationally unneeded, though that serves as the motive to have driven Grace away, as the prime theme is the healing of the lead couple, which makes the novel worth reading.

Harriet Klausner