cover image One More Moment

One More Moment

Samantha Chase. Sourcebooks Casablanca, $7.99 mass market (352p) ISBN 978-1-4926-1646-7

Readers will be greatly concerned for the safety of the heroine of this discomfiting contemporary. Self-centered, cynical, reluctantly famous musician Julian Grayson jilts his fiancée at the altar by playing a sex tape to their assembled family and friends to prove she’s cheating. After he runs away from his life for a while, a stranger named Charlotte Clark is randomly gentle and kind toward Julian. His reaction is to immediately be suspicious of her motives and angrily follow her. He accepts her invitation to a job training program she runs and allows her to think he’s broke and possibly homeless, even as they begin dating. After his deception is revealed, Charlotte maintains a rosy view of him despite his increasingly alarming behavior. She forgives him repeatedly after he stalks her, berates her for being kind, and chases off other men just for talking to her. Charlotte doesn’t grow or change, coming across more as a prize for Julian to win than as a person with needs of her own. This disturbing story is barely worthy of being labeled romance. (Sept.)