If one day I was told I could only have one comfort read, I have no doubt which one I would choose. Elizabeth Bevarly’s A Lawless Man. I love this book – I mean I really, really love this book. For me, it has that indefinable quality called charm. I fell in love with the book at first read, and have read it again and again and love it every time I do.

There are romances that are more beautifully written and romances that are more original (hence the B+ rather than DIK status), but this one caught my heart beginning with the cover. The models look exactly the way the characters are described in the book, right down to their clothing, and they look happy. Before I even opened it, I had a premonition this book would be fun and I was right.

Heroine Sarah Greenleaf is a delight. In my family, we all refer to a certain type of woman (you know who I mean) as a fluffy girl. I don’t like fluffy girls – those “aren’t I cute” brainless types who have spasms if they run out of lipstick. I like my heroines to have some brains under their curls. Elizabeth Bevarly has a knack for creating heroines who seem at first glance to be nothing but fluffy girls, but who are smart and sensible down deep. Sarah is as charming a combination of sense and fluff as I’ve ever seen.

Hero Griffin Lawless is a policeman. When he first meets Sarah (he gives her a speeding ticket), he is aggravated and then bemused by this argumentative little blonde. The first confrontation between Griffin and Sarah reminds me of a lion bowled over by a dandelion.

Griffin and Sarah meet again when he appears at career day at her children’s (she is divorced) school. Sarah is not happy to see Griffin at first since she is not fond of authority figures, but things soon begin to warm up between them. Sarah and a friend own an antique store and Griffin asks Sarah to appraise the furnishings of an old mansion he has inherited. Of course Griffin and Sarah are thrown together a lot and feelings between them soon go from warm to hot. The chemistry and sexual tension between them is sharp, with sizzling love scenes and lots of Bevarly’s wonderful witty dialogue. The conflict comes about when Griffin realizes that the fraud case he is investigating concerns Sarah’s sleazy brother Wally. How will Sarah react when she realizes that Griffin’s case involves her family?

What warmed my heart is that Sarah’s reaction is very sensible – and not a stereotypical romance heroine reaction. The epilogue wraps things up in a nice package, and I closed the book with a big happy grin on my face.

I must have about four copies of A Lawless Man (I don’t ever want to lose it, you know) and it has recently been reprinted in the anthology Silhouette Sensational. A Lawless Man can do what few books can – make me smile and feel good no matter what. Let the weather be gloomy or my mood be depressed – all I have to do is pick up this book and I’m smiling and happy as can be.