Harlequin LTD ISBN-10 0373751699 ISBN-13 978-0373751693 June 2007 Read It! Buy It!

Summer Lovin' Anthology The Preacher's Daughter www.onceuponaromancereview.net 4.5, Summer Lovin� is made up of three stories entitled The Preacher�s Daughter, A Baby on the Way and A Reunion Romance. All three of these stories center around the high school reunion. The Silver Cliffe High School is being moved, so to speak. A brand new high school has been built and the old school is being turned into condominiums. To that end, the city has invited all classes for one last high school reunion in the old school. Often times it is tough to pull together a romance, which is believable, in a short story. However, these three women have done just that. Each of these stories creates a different feeling and background; however, they all stem from the same event. They flow well into each other but are not dependent in any way on the other. All in all, the greatest of relationships. I love the writing styles and how even with these short stories I was able to grasp the emotions of the characters, have a few chuckles and just a few heart tugs. This is a great kick off to summer!!

 

Silver Cliff, Colorado. Population 2,307.

The one place Jake Turner had promised himself he'd never return to after his high school graduation. Yet, here he stood in the middle of a Fourth-of-July barbecue in the city park. Not quite in the middle, more like off to the side--far side. Safely hidden in the shadows of a grouping of birch trees.

His gut twisted with the urge to run. He wouldn't. Not this time.

The town had changed in the twenty years since he'd sped off on his second-hand motorcycle, but the people hadn't--the pointed stares and burning glances evidence that a two-decade absence had done nothing to alter his bad-boy reputation.

A multi-year class reunion, the news that his former alma mater, Silver Cliff High School, was closing its doors, and an opportunity to shove his good fortune in his fellow classmates' faces had lured him back for a final goodbye to his childhood home. Jake, voted least likely to succeed, had indeed succeeded. Big-time.

In truth, his adolescent desire to thrust his accomplishments up the snouts of those who'd scorned him and his mother embarrassed him. But the once tortured teenager yearned to brag that the town lush's son had become a self-made millionaire.

Those reasons aside, Jake was man enough to admit the main motive for his decision to attend the daddy of 'em all class reunions was Amanda Winslow--the Methodist preacher's daughter. The one person who'd actually cared whether Jake had earned his high school diploma.

The only female who'd crossed his mind daily for twenty long years.

For the past half hour he�d searched for Amanda in the swarm of people milling about the park grounds conversing, eating barbecued pork and getting wasted on beer and wine coolers. Over a thousand people were expected to descend upon the small mountain community for the upcoming weekend festivities and it appeared as if half those people had shown up for the Fourth of July picnic.

Years ago a celebration of this size would have been impossible. Now the increase in B&Bs;, motels popping up along the outskirts of town and the recent sale of the high school to a developer who planned to convert the building into high-end condos, was evidence the once sleepy hollow catered to an exploding tourist population.

Jake didn't give a damn that the town was changing. And he could care even less what happened to the high school. If it were up to him, he'd slam a wrecking ball into the eighty-year-old building, which housed nothing but bad memories--accept one. Amanda.

"Say, is that you, Jake Turner?"

Jake's muscles tensed. "Who wants to know?" He glanced over his shoulder. Thad Trevechy. A.k.a. Einstein. Five-feet-seven inches of pure scientific brilliance. The teen wiz kid had been the sole freshman in Jake's senior chemistry class. "Trevechy."

"Hey, you remember me." Einstein stepped forward and shook Jake's hand.

"Haven�t changed much," Jake commented, struggling not to stare at the two front teeth protruding from the man's mouth.

"Yep." Trevechy grinned. "Still short and still got bucked teeth." He rolled his upper lip back and sniffed like a rabbit. At least the man had a sense of humor and could laugh at himself--a talent Jake had yet to acquire.

Trevechy lifted a foot off the ground. "These help."

Jake gaped at the circa 1978 platform athletic shoes. "Where'd you find those?"

"Second-hand store in Denver. I got a dress pair for the dinner Saturday night. The wife towers over me." Trevechy pointed to a woman checking I.D's at the beer tent. The redhead was almost as tall as Jake and a good foot wider. "That's Valerie. I rescued her from a life of sin thirteen years ago."

No way could he allow that comment to slip by. "What kind of sin?"

"Prostitution."

"You don�t say," Jake mumbled, schooling his features.

"Val used to work Colfax Avenue in downtown Denver."

An image of Einstein trolling the seedy street searching for a woman to relieve him of his virginity flashed before Jake's eyes. "And you two met�how?"

"I belonged to a bible-study group in college and a few of us were sharing the word of the Lord when Val asked me for a prayer sheet."

Trevechy gazed at his wife like a lovesick-puppy. "After we prayed together and she agreed to accept the Lord as her savoir I proposed. Then I brought her back to Silver Cliff and Preacher Winslow forgave Val for her seven sins."

"Seven sins?"

"She�d just begun her career when we met.