Scent of Lilacs

The above review by HK is excellent and I agree with it totally.The story has it all. The beautiful, selfish sister. The plain, compassionate sister who is in love with her sister's beau. The new start in an arena that is challenging to say the least. The hunky beau who is a big self absorbed with thepossibility of an early death but in actuality shows us how research may have begun in the early years of medicine.It deals with gender bias andof course the plight of the unmarried woman. And somehow it all gets tied up in a pretty bow so that the ending is believable. It's fairly unusual to find a story with a likeable piglet, chickens you feel sorry for and scarey "big" guys, Indian and others who become familiar, enjoyable characters. But this one did it all quite nicely.

Lexy Tate has loved Jake Westfield all her life even though she is aware that he loves her flighty and shallow sister Megan, who marries someone else. Jake and Lexy attend medical school together. Jake becomes distraught when he loses a pregnant patient and her unborn child. He turns to Lexy for solace, but soon the pair makes love. However, at the critical moment of their coupling, Jake calls out for Megan, destroying the experience for Lexy. She immediately throws him out of her room and, even though she is pregnant, ultimately out of her life. Due in part from Lexy's suitors' shenanigans, the couple fails to see each other for four years. They meet by accident when Lexy visits an isolated California military fort where her pregnant sister is living. Jake is the medical physician at the installation. Lexy realizes that her feelings for Jake still thrive as do his for her. Both have reasons to remain silent, at least that is until their mutual love for their daughter forces them to examine their past ghosts and deal with them so that they can find a future together. SCENT OF LILACS links the action of a western romance with the emotional depth of an Americana. This brings to the readers a special romantic blend that could only successfully come from someone with the remarkable talent of Jane Bonander. The hero and heroine, in their own unique ways, capture the heart of the audience. However, it is their daughter and a piglet who steal the show (never star with children or animals) as that duo offer the needed relief from the tensions of an emotionally heartbreaking and deep love story. Harriet Klausner