SUN KISSED

Author: Catherine Anderson ISBN: 0451218957 1/2007 CONTEMPORARY Publisher: NAL/Signet

When Samantha Harrigan attends the local rodeo, she doesn't expect to wind up in jail. But that's precisely what happens when she tries to stop a drunkard from abusing his horse. At least she isn't alone. Tucker Coulter, a handsome local veterinarian, comes to her defense—is arrested too. The charges are dropped, but Sam's troubles have only started. Her champion quarter horses are falling ill and the culprit is poison. As the insurance beneficiary, Sam is the prime suspect. unswayed by the rumors floating around town, Tucker offers to help prove her innocence. Sam, though, is uneasy about accepting his assistance—and about the way he makes her feel. If only she could believe in him the way he seems to believe in her...

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

This is the first time I've ever reviewed a book that had a guarantee on the cover that said if I didn't like it, I could return it for a refund. Somehow, I don't think Signet is too worried about having a deluge of readers wanting their money back for Catherine Anderson's SUN KISSED. In all truthfulness, I can't see anyone not enjoying this emotional and sensitive romance that deals with everything from the horror of domestic and animal abuse, to the touching story of a young woman who has lost all faith and trust in her relationships with men and the sensitive, caring man that shows her how to get it back.

Catherine Anderson has written Tucker Coulter as the sort of man women all wish they'd find, but in this day and age seem nearly extinct. Tucker is a man's man, handsome and masculine, and yet his sensitivity and caring for others goes way beyond the usual romantic lead stereotype. Even his choice of homes, a quaint Victorian with a picket fence, is reflective of the character of a man who is so self assured of his own masculinity, that he doesn't care what anyone else might think. Perhaps saying that he's "old-fashioned" in a lot of ways would sum him up best—a quiet, reflective man, a man of great integrity who cares for others, whether they be human or animal, and a man who stands up for what he believes to be right.

Samantha, the woman Tucker falls in love with and wants to protect, has been through hell. Having divorced her abusive husband, she relies greatly upon her faith to comfort and console her as she struggles to rebuild her life. Samantha's faith and her devotion to it becomes an important part of their developing relationship; Tucker respects and accepts her faith as part of who Samantha is, no questions asked. His gentle understanding and willingness to take on that faith in order to show Samantha just how important she is to him, become integral to the events that occur in the last quarter of the story, as slowly, through his patient devotion to her and his neverending support, Samantha begins to heal, to trust, and to open her heart again.

While the plot of just who and how Samantha's horses are being poisoned is what gives this story its fairly quick pacing, it is the sensitivity and emotional power with which Catherine Anderson creates her characters that will completely steal your heart. Emotional, riveting, and a tender love story that will bring tears to your eyes more often than not, just be ready to make space on your keeper shelf for SUN KISSED when you buy it. I guarantee you won't need any publisher's money-back guarantee to place it there.

Nancy Davis