Woman On The Run

Having had the misfortune of witnessing a gangland hit, Julia Devaux, sophisticated book editor from Boston, has been put under the Witness Protection Program. She is currently living in the small Idaho town of Simpson, under the name Sally Anderson, and is working as a 2nd grade teacher. Needless to say, she is unhappy with the situation, but since a price of $1 million has been placed on her head, she is stuck in this out of the way place.

Sam Cooper is a rancher who breeds high-quality horses on his family spread. The Cooper Ranch is legendary in the area as being inhospitable to females – several of Cooper’s female ancestors ran away from their husbands, his mother died when he was three, and his own wife divorced him two years before. But Cooper is floored by Sally Anderson, and immediately begins to court her in his taciturn fashion. Although Sally knows that their romance has no future, she is helpless to prevent falling for this silent man.

Wow! What a great read! Lisa Marie Rice really knows how to write erotic suspense! I was on the edge of my chair the entire time I was reading this novel. Although this story is not part of the Midnight trilogy (Midnight Man, Midnight Run), it is easily as sexy and emotionally involving as any of Rice’s published work.

Rice has a sophisticated writing style that balances several different storylines at once. This technique piles on the suspense because the reader is left to wonder who, where, when, and how throughout the story – Who is after Julia? Will the hitman find out where she is? When will the danger occur? How can Julia survive? At the same time, Rice develops her characters so fully that the reader becomes emotionally involved in their lives, which also serves to increase the “nail-biting” factor. The erotica and the suspense are balanced so that neither overshadows the other – in fact, the different aspects of the story are so well-balanced that they ratchet up the reader’s uneasiness to an even greater level. On top of all that, this author writes the hottest sex scenes I’ve ever read!

I have only two recommendations for anyone reading this novel: 1) Be sure to start it when you have lots of time to finish, or you will fall asleep at work the next morning, and 2) Make sure you have plenty of ice water or a significant other nearby to put out the fire!

Reviewed by: Jean