Perfectly Saucy

In "Perfectly Saucy," Emily McKay brings together two people so different in status, possessions and education, it seems improbable that they would ever get together. Alex Moreno is the son of migrant farm workers and the town's bad boy. Jessica Sumners is the daughter of a judge and the town's very good girl. But they are linked by a common past -- they went to high school together in Palo Verde -- and a common passion -- they have been completely unable to forget each other. Alex, after being encouraged to leave town by Jessica's father, is back and ready to prove himself as the stellar historic remodeler he has become. He doesn't particularly seem to have noticed that he is lonely until Jessica asks him over to her house to do a remodeling job. Jessica, who owns a cherry-red Beemer, takes jaunts to Sweden to write software programs and has plenty of friends, does know that something's missing in her life. So she sets out to remedy that, taking her cues from a list of "10 Things Every Woman Should Do," excerpted from the fictional "Saucy" magazine. As she has in her previous novels, Emily exhibits a talent for meticulous plotting. A kiss jealously observed in early in the book, for example, reappears later in greater detail and helps explain Alex's behavior. Emily writes with wit and compassion, so that passages stay with the reader after the book is finished. An example: "For the first time, he realized how coffee was like regrets, the longer you held on to them the colder and more bitter they become." She also excels at sexual tension, building it throughout the book with every word, every look and some exceedingly steamy passages. Tequila will never look quite the same... If you enter Alex's and Jessica's world, you won't be disappointed.