Once A Hero-Lisa Childs

Once A Hero
Lisa Childs
Harlequin American Romance, May 2009, $4.99
ISBN: 9780373752621

Lakewood Chronicle reporter Erin Powell is irate that the community believes police Sergeant Kent Terlecki is a hero because he took a bullet to protect someone else while on duty. She believes he is a rogue cop who planted evidence that led to her half-brother Mitchell going to jail. Erin decides to investigate Kent who is teaching a course at the Citizens Police Academy while he heals.

Kent is unhappy to find Erin in his class. She has roasted him in the Chronicle as unfit to be a community liaison let alone an instructor. Making matters worse they are attracted to one another though both conceal their feelings behind a façade of anger and outrage. She struggles with betraying her nephew and he distrusts her motives after she has publicly ripped his skin.

This is an intriguing contemporary romance starring two enemy combatants as her convicted brother stands between them. Erin is a fabulous individual as every time she sees her nephew she is reminded of what Kent did to her family. However, that is the strength and weakness of the story line because she becomes convinced Kent is a hero too quickly for someone who scorned him as a fake. Still fans will enjoy Lisa Child’s ONCE A HERO as Erin turns from never to always while struggling with how to tell her brother and especially her nephew.

Harriet Klausner