Review

SANDY'S SHORT TAKESSummer sizzlersSmall-town sultriness simmers over with the passion of generations in Lynn Emery's Gotta Get Next to You. Andrea Noble returns to Bayou Blue from the big city to take over the public health center. She's challenged by her staff and endangered by gangster Ty'Rance, but the greatest challenge she faces is from Jamal Turner, the undercover detective who threatens her unwilling heart. Lynn Emery delivers romance and mystery as deep as the undercurrents in the Louisiana bayou.

What better way to learn the lessons of love than doing your own research and writing about it? And what does it hurt if you have a few adventures in the process? Or so believes Lady Marianne Shelton in Victoria Alexander's The Marriage Lesson. Alexander's Regency tale pits Lady Marianne against Thomas, the Marquess of Helmsley, in a zesty lesson that proves love's students often make the best teachers. A delight, the delicious best of Regency writing.