The author’s first two books are high on my list of favorite romances and I initially expected to enjoy this follow-up to Cheri on Top. Early on it felt like a lighthearted romance between two long-time friends. My opinion changed as an uninteresting suspense plot was added in and the heroine made too many nonsensical decisions.

Candy Carmichael lost nearly everything in the Florida real estate bubble and she’s temporarily returned to her rural North Carolina home town to get back on her feet. Rather than staying with her longtime best friend, she lives with an odd assortment of people. As she sneaks out of one of these homes, she’s pulled over by her lifelong friend Sheriff Turner Halliday.

Candy never figured that Turner was dating material, but when she impulsively kisses him everything changes, leaving Candy stunned. Has Turner changed, or is it just a change in the way she sees him? Candy doesn’t know that Turner’s been attracted to her since they were teenagers. However, his wife died four years ago and he’s not ready for another relationship.

I liked Turner a lot more than Candy. He seems like a good man, determined to honor his dead wife’s memory. Candy didn’t make a lot of sense. Initially she seemed fairly materialistic, eager to get back to her big-spending ways in Florida. We eventually learn more about the reasons why she left town, but a lot of her actions don’t make sense. She ends up staying illegally at her mother’s senior citizen complex for a while, sneaking in at night risking arrest. She has other options in town – Turner offered to let her stay with him, her best friend offered to let her stay with her, she could go back to one of the friend’s relatives. And finally, she has a valuable piece of jewelry strapped to her thigh that she could cash in for money. Seriously, would anyone really sneak in and face potential arrest, given these circumstances?

I felt as the author couldn’t decide if she wanted to write a lighthearted romance or a suspense novel. Turner’s the county’s first black sheriff and there’s a plot thread involving the effect of racial prejudices on Candy and Turner as a potential biracial teenage couple. There’s also an emphasis on Turner’s investigation of a local meth ring and it looks as if there might be more emphasis on that in the final book.

Candy and Turner had so much initial chemistry and such a long caring-friendship, I was disappointed when they finally had sex, it felt endless, mechanical, and not particularly meaningful.

There were some things I liked about this book. I appreciated the development of Candy’s relationship with her mother. I liked how Candy and Turner dealt with the memory of Turner’s dead wife. It was touching and respectful. I also liked the scenes when Candy works in the local diner. But overall, this just left me disappointed.