Emma hasn't been with a man since her divorce two years previous, a situation her much younger sister Amanda keeps trying to change. Having found the man of her dreams in Troy, Amanda wants Emma to find the same love she has. The problem is Emma isn't even looking, though she is getting slightly exasperated by her sister’s matchmaking attempts. Just when it seems to Emma that Amanda has given up, she introduces her to Mike, a single father determined not to get involved with a woman – for another five years, at least. Yet the sizzling attraction between the pair is sure to put his intentions under strain. Unbeknownst to Amanda, this is their second meeting, though the attraction between them has not palled. They keep bumping into each other, though whether unplanned or on purpose neither knows. Will they be able to resist one another's allure? Does Emma re-enter the dating scene – or continue with her man-free existence?

Mike has vowed to put his thirteen year old daughter, Melissa, first. To him, this means no serious entanglements with women, because if the relationship fails it would be Melissa who gets hurt. So far, he hasn't had a problem keeping his vow. Then he meets Emma. Instantly drawn to her, she is on his mind from the first moment he lays eyes on her – dangerously so when she appears during a game of softball, as his black eye proves. More dangerous yet, however, was Emma's attempts at nursing him in the dugout. The beginning of their relationship – a word Mike does his best to ignore if not refute – starts off somewhat disaster ridden though full of good intentions but develops into one filled with good humour if confusion over where they are headed. Will Mike be able to keep a tight rein on his emotions and stay away from the woman who poses a danger to his heart and single father status? Or will Emma break through all his barriers and prove to be the woman who can love both Mike and his daughter?

Cupid's Arrow is a slightly humorous contemporary romance involving a matchmaker in the form of Amanda, the co-conspirator in the form of Melissa and two people, Mike and Emma, who haven't been looking for a relationship but seem to have stumbled into one with each other nonetheless. Debbie Wallace has penned a fairly traditional and some would say sweet romance in which the characters never seem to manage to go the whole nine yards in their sexual encounters. There is always an interruption of some kind, or Mike's control reasserts itself. The kissing and petting the pair do throughout the story is described in a fair amount of detail, though not in explicit language. Mike and Emma seem to dance around one another, unsure of themselves and each other. Can they keep one another at a distance, or do their emotions take full control and reign as they please? Fans of a gentler contemporary romance should enjoy this well told and well developed tale, and may find themselves looking for more from Debbie Wallace in the future.

Reviewed by: Elizabeth