More Than Neighbors
Janice Kay Johnson
Harlequin SuperRomance, Jan
1 2014, $6.75
ISBN: 9780373608928
Near Spokane in Goodwater, woodworker Widower Gabriel Tennert relishes
his rustic solitude though he was not always like this. He has celebrated for over three years that
his former reclusive neighbor Ephraim Walker moved away leaving the ranch
vacant until now. Hearing loud music, to
his horror Gabe knows he has a new neighbor that includes kids.
Rather than watch her stressed out twelve years old son come home
every day in tears, single mom Ciara Malloy bought the Walker spread after a
meeting with her child’s middle school assistant principal; in which he had the
audacity to blame Mark for being bullied.
Mark likes Gabe’s horses and though the woodworker normally stays far
away from people, he enjoys the tweener’s enthusiasm. Soon Gabe mentors Mark on woodworking, horses
and bullies. Ciara and Gabe are
attracted to one another, but both hesitate to act on their feelings though
their reasons differ.
This is a profound family drama featuring three fully developed
protagonists. Mark especially stands out
as a young victim slowly regaining his tweener equilibrium in a different
setting; while Ciara is a grizzly momma protecting her cub; and Gabe feels
guilt over his increasing emotional involvement with the mother and son. The romance is well-written, but it is the
baggage each must overcome in order to forge a committed relationship that
makes this an interesting contemporary.
Harriet Klausner
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