Sharon Mignerey’s book Cassidy’s Courtship was a true keeper. It explored the subject of adult illiteracy with delicacy and understanding – without losing sight of the fact that the book was a romance. The characters were likable and the story was just excellent. Mignerey’s latest book, His Tender Touch, has another very likable hero and heroine and the love scenes in this book are good examples of love scenes that work – but the plot has a supernatural strain that did not work for me and the characters did and said things that had me shaking my head and thinking, “What is going on with them!?”

Audrey Sussman is an accountant. Her boss owns a small vacation ranch in New Mexico called Puma’s Lair. He sends her there to audit the books, even though there is no clear reason to do so. Audrey is not welcome at Puma’s Lair. She meets a man called Hawk who is taciturn and another, Gray Murdoch, who is downright unfriendly. Gray warns her to trust no one. Shades of The X-Files!

Even before she gets to Puma’s Lair, strange things happen to Audrey. Her car develops trouble and she keeps hearing noises in the night. The strange happenings, the unfriendliness of the people and the fact that there are no irregularities in the audit cause her to leave as soon as possible even though she has to leave in a storm. But the bridge is out and her car has been sabotaged and is leaking carbon monoxide. Luckily, Gray has followed Audrey and rescues her – then someone starts to take shots at them and Gray and Audrey are forced to flee.

The relationship between Gray and Audrey is interesting and satisfying for the most part. Audrey is 28 and a virgin. She has spent years taking care of her invalid mother and working and has never had a chance for a social life. Gray is a former policeman who quit the force after he killed a man. He is working as a sculptor.

Gray is the son of an abusive father and his two older brothers have abused their wives too. Gray is sure that he would do the same thing so he has never gotten close to a woman, but there is something about Audrey that makes him feel protective and happy when he is around her. Their love scenes are sweet, tender and very passionate and are the best thing in the book.

Gray’s insistence on fearing that he would be an abuser because he comes from a family of abusers and he killed a man while he was a policeman did not ring true. Gray has never hurt an innocent person, he knows and understands what kind of men his father and brothers are, and the man he killed was abusing his wife and daughter. He was totally exonerated by the police board and the D.A., but insists that he is a monster-in-waiting. Methought the gentleman did protest too much.

Audrey and Gray at one point are stalked by a man – they know who he is and why he is stalking them. When they get to safety, they find that this man has killed an employee of Puma’s Lair and tried to make it look like a suicide. When they find the sheriff’s deputy investigating this case, they don’t tell him about their experiences or that the man who shot at them killed the employee. Although Gray is a former policeman and has seen and investigated many murders, the sheriff’s deputy and the coroner don’t listen to him. What’s worse, Gray does not press them very hard. At this point I was shaking my head and saying, “Stupid, stupid, stupid”!

The supernatural element in the book is the ghost of an Indian woman whom Gray and Audrey both see at various times. She is the bearer of a message that explains the motivation behind the villain of the book, but I did not care for her and thought she was not well integrated into the story.

As I said, the love scenes in this book were some of the best I have read this year, but good love scenes do not a good romance make. The characters dealings with the villain just were not handled very well and the supernatural sub-plot was wasted. I still think Sharon Mignerey is a very talented writer, but I suggest you find Cassidy’s Courtship and pass on this one.