Connor Quinn grew up alone and in darkness. Blind since birth, he was abandoned at Woodland Haven, an orphanage outside Boston. Now a successful and wealthy inventor, he uses his money to fund the orphanage and help kids like him who have no one.

So he’s furious when the board of the orphanage hires Alyssa Fielding to take over as the new director. Alyssa is a former model, and he believes someone like her could only want to use the position and the children to bring attention to herself. He couldn’t be more wrong. Alyssa is determined to make a good life for the children at Woodland Haven, and just as determined not to let Connor dismiss her.

She makes a deal with him to allow her to stay on as director for one month to prove herself. Her work with the children draws her closer to Connor, and she comes to recognize the hurt and loneliness beneath his cool exterior. But Connor has secrets of his own he’s afraid to reveal to anyone, like how how he has superior mental abilities beyond those of normal men, abilities that he can’t explain. Convinced his abilities have something to do with his mysterious origins, he believes he can’t afford to let anyone get close. But Alyssa refuses to be pushed away.

Myrna Mackenzie covers a lot of ground in this entry in the Family Secrets series. It might be a little too much for one short book, because some elements, the action subplot in particular, feel undernourished.

The first half of the story is sweet, if slow, very much focused on the unfolding relationship between Connor and Alyssa as she chips away at the walls he has built around himself. It’s nice, but Mackenzie’s handling of the overall storyline is less successful. Every so often she breaks away from Connor and Alyssa to show the recurring characters from the series. The exposition in these scenes is delivered awkwardly and would probably be confusing to anyone who hasn’t been following the series. The book doesn’t really stand alone as a solid reading experience on its own. And for those following the series, the backstory feels clunky and and heavy-handed.

Eventually Connor and Alyssa’s romance and the overall storyline collide. There are some nice moments with their relationship as a result, and the story finally gets some action. But this part of the story is underdeveloped and rather half-baked. It provides information that sets up later books in the series, but instead of being integrated into this story, these scenes detract from it. Connor’s involvement in the suspense plot passes so quickly and is such a small part it feels insignificant in both this story and the grand scheme of things.

Even so, Connor and Alyssa’s relationship is a sweet one, and I’m happy to report that one of the most annoyingly protracted subplots in the series is finally brought to an end here. Blind Attraction is more a collection of good, effective moments than a solid story overall. It does have several very nice scenes, with Connor and Alyssa, the revelations about Connor’s past, and the ending. But those nice scenes aren’t quite enough to earn the story a real recommendation.