Cole in My Stocking

In 1986 an up and coming cable television producer discovered twenty-three-year-old Cole Raburn doing magic tricks in Joe's Stardust Bar in upstate New York. After a brief conversation the savvy producer recognized talent and with Cole's ability to mimic accents, the magician Joe Ray Stardust was born. Ten years later in West Virginia Holly Hawkes is fighting for custody of her children. Her ex, who ran away to work for the famous magician Joe Ray Stardust, was a womanizing cheat who apparently didn't want his kids, however his wealthy and powerful parents do. By coincidence Joe Ray is performing in town and the children want to go. After the show, Holly runs into Joe Ray in the parking lot. He can tell she wants nothing to do with him and wants to know why. Her trunk is open, he thinks he knows her from his past when he worked as a bartender and he tries to kiss her, why, I don't know. She has a croquet mallet in her hand, she steps back, pushing him away and accident brains him with the mallet and boom he falls into the trunk. Holly, afraid of how this will affect the custody hearing, closes the trunk and takes Joe Ray home. When he comes to he has no memory. He knows his name is Cole and he believes he is married to Holly and the father of her children. Does this sound a little like the plot of a movie starring Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell? Still, you know, this was a darned enjoyable book and I've giving it five stars even if the plot was a little contrived.