Hurricane Hannah

This book has just been selected by Romantic Times for the Reviewers' Choice Best Contemporary Romance 2006.

Treasure Island is an odd little island where governing decisions are made through poker challenges- even the mayoral position is determined via poker! When pilot Hannah Lamont is forced into an emergency landing on the island, all she can focus on is getting away from the crazy assortment of nuts who live there. Her resolve is only strengthened when she is stalked by a lovesick alligator while Hurricane Hannah intensifies and heads straight for Treasure Island. Hannah is stuck spending time with airstrip owner, Buck Shanahan, while waiting on repairs to her plane. Buck frustrates her beyond reason and yet she finds herself attracted to him. Buster, the lovesick alligator, is determined to keep Hannah on the island as well. Soon, all will come down to a high stakes poker game where the winner takes Buck and potentially ownership of the island's casino. Can Hannah get the upper hand in this game? The absolute highlight of HURRICANE HANNAH is Buster. This reviewer has never read a book that managed to humanize an alligator- and yet Sue Civil-Brown has done so. Buster communicates his thoughts and opinions to the humans through various growls and grumbles and no one is stupid enough to challenge an alligator whose mind is set on something! Poker is a major part of the novel as all of the characters play poker to varying degrees of ability. While the premise of governing decisions being decided by poker is mildly amusing, the numerous details of the game eluded this reviewer (who is incidentally not a poker fan). Several portions of the book were skimmed as they pertained specifically to the game of poker and this reviewer just did not comprehend the various hands and odds that were calculated and discussed by the characters. HURRICANE HANNAH has numerous laugh-out-loud moments that made this book a keeper. Buster is perhaps one of the more innovative and entertaining non-human characters this reviewer has ever had the pleasure of meeting. Sue Civil-Brown continues to deliver the quirky, zany humor her readers have come to expect from her. COURTESY OF CK2S KWIPS AND KRITIQUES

Pilot Hannah Lamont buys, refurbishes, and sells corporate jets. Her latest purchase suddenly has problems forcing her to seek an emergency landing spot in the middle of the Caribbean. Hannah lucks out as she lands on an airstrip on Treasure Island. Airport owner Buck Shanahan is irate as her landing cost him a key winning hand in poker that would have decided the fate of the island. His opponent Bill Anston wants to build a major casino; Buck wants to maintain the status quo of tiki hut casinos. Wondering if she landed in a rabbit hole of poker players as all disputes are decided by cards, Hannah and Buck begin to fall in love, something neither desires even as an alligator acts like a puppy dog around the female outsider. HURRICANE HANNAH is a wild zany contemporary romance starring a heroine who believes she crashed her plane inside Lewis Carroll's rabbit hole especially as she meets and plays poker with the eccentrics that make up the support cast (including Buster the alligator). The story line is played for laughs as Buck and Hannah are attracted to one another, but try unsuccessfully to keep their distance. The use of poker to mediate disputes (picture Bush vs. Kerry or Bush vs. Kim over the draw of cards) seems a better approach to dispute resolution; the final confrontation between Hannah and volcanologist Edna Harkin with the weapons of choice being poker and the stakes a couple of hunks proves that. Sue Civil-Brown provides a way out tale that satirizes romance novels, politics, and the poker trend. Harriet Klausner