cover image The Closer You Come

The Closer You Come

Gena Showalter. HQN, $7.99 trade paper (448p) ISBN 978-0-373-77962-8

This hefty contemporary southern romance, opening the Original Heartbreakers series, is anything but sweet and innocent, with two troubled souls coming together in a clash that is as fiercely erotic as it is tempestuous. Brook Lynn Dillon meets ex-con Jase Hollister the night she comes storming into his home to roust her sister from his bed, but this potentially trite opening does not descend into cheap drama, and as Brook Lynn’s attraction to Jase heats up, his history with her sister is handled maturely by all parties. With lots of explicit sex and almost excessive alpha male possessiveness as well as a touch of the ridiculous, this book falls squarely into the “guilty pleasure” category. (Apr.)