Swept Away

Read this book during long int'l flight and really enjoyed it. Roybyn Carr slowly developed this main character and then added several other characters. Hard to imagine any thing exciting happens in small towns outside Las Vegas but Robyn was able to bring them to life. Unfortunately, spilled water and ruined my copy. Was lucky to have found in while scrolling thru titles and authors.

Professional escort Jennifer Chaise is in Vegas with her 'boyfriend' when she witnesses him standing over the body of his wife. Fearing for her life, she changes her identity. Arriving in Boulder City, Jennifer visits a diner, where she finds a job among a cast of very kind-hearted, loveable folks. While warming to her newfound lifestyle, she meets Alex Nichols. Continuing to hide her identity, Jennifer doesn't know Alex is a police officer. Already forming close ties with members of the small community, Jen finds herself falling as she never has before - for Alex. But as her past is closing in on her, Jennifer wonders how she'll tell Alex the truth without losing him - or her life. A unique drama/romance with a few surprise twists, this is a heart-warming, feel-good read.

I didn't have any expectations about this book when I picked it up, but that just made it an even better surprise. The basic plot is telegraphed by the title; the surprises came from how it was fleshed out. Sure, our heroine falls into a community of acceptance and caring too rapidly and overcomes her childhood a little more easily than is likely in real life. However, the community actually has a reality lacking in most such novels. The characters she encounters on her flight are fully realized. As she (and we) know them better, they are flawed people who have made wrong choices but learned to get the most out of the lives they're left with. The book doesn't demonize the villains, especially the domestic ones. And our understanding of some characters' behavior doesn't result in their miraculous repentance. We get our happy ever after, but without tying everything up into a perfect knot. Other things I liked about this book: The wonderful sense of place. I never heard of Boulder City, but it came alive to me. The heroine isn't a miraculous virgin - one of those girls who date tough guys but somehow managed to have ended every evening with a peck on the cheek or a handshake - or any kind of a virgin, actually. There's more gender equity regarding sexual behavior. Neither the hero or the heroine are diminished by his lack of and her possession of extensive sexual experience. Those books that continue some kind of 19th century view of sexual relationships have helped guarantee no survey of actual sexual behavior has a chance of accuracy. (Apparently spirit succubi or perhaps aliens from other planets really have sex with men in their sleep, since any survey of sexual partners or even marriage, finds irreconcilable differences between tallies from men and from women.) Other of the author's books are counted as women's fiction or chick lit, but I don't believe romance novels are forbidden to have believable characters, with a realistic response to their childhoods, and heroines with 21st century sex lives. Give this book a try. I think you will be pleasantly surprised, also.

Not the typical predictable story. I've gotten so I hate the mushy same-ole same-ole. It wasn't a page turner, but was a nice escape. I'll read more of Ms. Carr's books.

Wealthy Nick Noble takes his mistress Jennifer Chase with him to Las Vegas. Jennifer enjoys her stay until she overhears a fight between Nick and his wife Barbara who is irate that he chose his whore over his spouse. Jennifer sneaks away for a couple of hours, but returns in time to overhear Nick tell his men to take care of the bimbo. She sees blood all over the place and Barbara's corpse. Jennifer flees Vegas, cuts off all her hair, flushes her colored contacts down the toilet, and changes into army surplus. Jennifer stops in Boulder City, Nevada where she accepts a job as a waitress at a local café using the name of Doris Bailey. Five days later she reads a newspaper account that reports she is missing along with money and jewelry. Nick will use the cops to find her for him. As she hides, Jennifer falls in love with her next door neighbor, Las Vegas police officer Alex Nichols, who reciprocates her deep feelings. However, Nick's thugs arrive in town devastating her dreams of a picket fence, kids, and Alex. Though readers will have problems reconciling the seemingly materialistic Florida-Vegas Jennifer with the caring from the onset Boulder City Doris, fans will appreciate this tense romantic suspense as the heroine keeps looking over her shoulder. Once she realizes that she is in love, Jennifer knows she must clean up her previous life if she is going to have a future especially when her past arrives in town. Robyn Carr provides her fans with a fine tale held together by a brave heroine, whose past, present and future converge in Boulder City. Harriet Klausner