When Lightning Strikes Twice Soulmates

Courtesy of CK2S Kwips and Kritiques What happened to Joe Mitchum?, wonders the whole town of Slapdown, TX when he goes overnight from being a ne'er-do-well to an upstanding citizen. Will Pendleton's life in nineteenth century Texas was going well, when a freak lightning strike took his life. He was a Texas Ranger, and darned proud of it, and he was just about to marry his lady love. Life was good... until his death. Ever since then, he has been waiting in limbo for a chance to have another lifetime with his soul mate. His chance finally comes when yet another freak lightning strike gives him the chance to take over Joe Mitchum's life and body. Dr. Mallory Peterson had dreamed her entire life of being a doctor. Even when the odds were stacked against her, she never gave up. After finishing her schooling, she returns to Slapdown as the local doctor, to thank them for all of their support over the years. Her life is her work, though she has never understood why she was so driven, or why deep down she feels an emptiness, one she never even noticed... until the day something extraordinary happens, changing everything. Joe was a slacker, drifting through his aimless life, driving Mallory crazy with his good-for-nothing ways. When he nearly dies after being struck by lightning, she saves his life, not having it in her nature to just let someone go without a fight. When he comes back from his near-death experience, he is a new man, and attempts to turn his life around. Mallory still doubts him, wondering when his slacker ways will start to reappear. What she doesn't know is that Joe is now Will, her soul mate, and that this may be the very last chance they get to be together. Now Joe and Mallory are in a race against time, and fate, for him to prove they belong together, before there are no chances left. Ms. Morris has written a delightful story here about soul mates and lost loves. Will is/was a morally strong man, intent on doing what was right and good, and happy in his chosen life. When all he had dreamed about was in his grasp, a cruel twist of fate snatches it away, leaving him bereft as he waits for one more chance. When he can't take the waiting anymore, he gets his chance and he grabs it with both hands. He is more than a little disturbed however, to see the mess Joe had made of his life, which now Will has to clean up. Mallory has spent her whole life to date on a quest for her dream, not letting anything stand in her way. Until the day that freak accident changed her life and made her realize that she was empty inside. Ms. Morris does a more than passable job of showing Mallory's growth as she comes to terms with her new feelings for Joe and what this change means to her. She goes through confusion, denial, and exploration while she tries to resolve her feelings. The idea of soul-mates through time and space is not a new one, but a slightly different spin is put on it in this tale. The premise of the "soul-switch" was unique, and makes

This book's plot has already been summarized well, so I'll just add that the hero's pretty irresistible, and we already loved the heroine from her smaller role in "Tutoring Tucker." One thing that makes this book extra-special is the tender father-daughter relationship our hero develops.

Sweet and tender with some unexpected flashes of humor. What to do when it's your last chance to be with the only person who completes you? You take the first available and appropriately located body and drag *his* old reputation up by the bootstraps! That's Will Pendleton's mission and as the spirit of an untimely departed Texas Ranger he has 100 years of catching up to do with the contemporary version of his lost soul mate. The fact that the body he is currently inhabiting (due to a convenient lightning strike) has a made a lot of wrongs to be turned right isn't helping things along at all.