This time out, I have a book I'd been waiting anxiously to get my hands on. Then when the publisher sent it, I was thrilled, though I'd happily have bought it: Lois Lane Tells All (Pocket Star) by Karen Hawkins. I really liked her first contemporary last year, Talk of the Town, so I was excited when I found out there would be a follow-up. This time, Susan Collins, new editor of The Glory Examiner, butts heads with the paper's new CFO, Mark Tremayne, brother to TotT's heroine Roxie. Mark's only goal is to get the small town paper in the black, rather than the red currently overwhelming the balance sheets, but he's not getting much cooperation from the two reporters on-staff. Then Susan kisses him one day, completely out of the blue, and his view of her shifts. A lot. Still, he doesn't intend to stay in sleepy Glory, North Carolina. He has a successful business in Raleigh that he really wants to get back to. Susan holds the fictional Lois Lane as her role model for work, though the chances of finding a really big story in Glory aren't fantastic, until she noses around a local church bake-off. She knows kissing Mark wasn't the smartest thing she's ever done, but now that she's done it once, she really wants to do it again, even though she knows the chance of Mark staying in tiny Glory is nil. Still, neither of them is really able to resist, no matter how bad an idea it is all around. We get to revisit the zany Murder Mystery Club from the local assisted living center, as well as meet some new-to-us folks who make this story even better. I really enjoyed this one, as much as I'd hoped I would. Susan is terrific, focused on her job, yet still determined to deal with her family obligations. And Mark is yummy, sexy and conflicted about his plans for his life versus the needs of his heart. I'm borrowing four of Cupid's five arrows for it. I hope Ms. Hawkins has more contemporary stories in the works for us.
Until next time, happy reading!
