Amazon received

OK, that is _not_fair_. I'm not supposed to be crying after the first few pages, it's supposed to suck me in and get me interested in the characters first. I can't even blame it on being late in the series - I think I remember Gabe from a few previous books, but he's never been anything like a major character (that I can recall). But the parents showing up and asking if he would be willing to have his wife, their daughter, declared dead 8 years after she disappeared...I couldn't help it (this is literally the first 3-4 pages!). Then Cara shows up, with the postcard, and things start to get interesting. It's really a complete question mark what happened to Hope for most of the book; they figured it out, or figured out what probably happened, at the same time I did. And I was exactly as fooled about the villain as they were. Good story, interesting setting, nice development of attraction, the obstacles made sense and were put aside when they no longer made sense, etc etc. A very neatly done romance. And it's a Redstone, so familiar characters show up and make themselves useful... Amusing point - this is the second book I read in a short time where a long-delayed bit of mail was a major trigger-point for action (the other was Charles de Lint's Memory and Dream). ( )