One Summer’s Knight is the third of Katheen Creighton’s Sister’s Waskowitz series; a fourth title (Eve’s Wedding Knight) is expected later this year. I awarded the first book in this series, One Christmas Knight, Desert Isle Keeper status, largely because Jimmy Jo Starr was such a fabulous hero. The hero from this book simply pales in comparison. Both Jimmy Jo and his wife Mirabella make an appearance here, and it is Mirabella’s sister, veterinarian Summer Robey, who is the heroine of One Summer’s Knight.

Trouble of all kinds has found Summer when the book begins. Her ex-husband, Hal, is a lying, cheating, thieving compulsive gambler who used up all her assets. Now he’s gone somewhere, and Summer has lost her home, job, and car. She is also facing a judgment to pay Hal’s hospital bills.

The attorney for the hospital, Riley Grogan is struck by the despair in Summer’s face and as he leaves he tells her if she ever finds herself in another situation like this, she needs a good attorney. Summer moves to South Carolina near Charleston and slowly begins to rebuild her life. She’s finds work in a mobile office, and though she and her children are still poor, the future is looking hopeful. Then the threatening phone calls begin. Someone wants her ex-husband, and if they don’t find him, they’ll come after her and the children. When Summer’s mobile home is burned down, she realizes she needs help and that good attorney – Riley Grogan.

The FBI is also after Summer’s ex-husband and they tell Riley that she and the family need to be protected. Riley takes Summer, her children and their pets into his perfectly manicured, perfectly landscaped home where they proceed to make themselves at home. But just as soon as they get comfortable and feel safe, danger again comes knocking.

One Summer’s Knight has an unfinished feel to it. There are lots and lots of loose ends left hanging, ends that I hope will be tied up in the last book of the quartet. We meet Summer’s ex-husband Hal for a very brief time and other secondary characters flit in and out so fast that I got dizzy. This book is written with a large proportion of narrative to dialogue and while Creighton has a lovely style, there was too much telling and not enough showing.

Summer was an O.K. character but Riley had an unfinished feel to him. Toward the very end of the book, Riley makes a Big Revelation about himself which is supposed to make us understand him better. I don’t want to give away anything, but I’ve seen this used before with much better results. If Creighton had given us the Big Revelation about Riley earlier in the book, I would have gotten a better understanding of him and he would have been a more well-rounded character.

I’ll probably read the next book in the series in the hopes that it will tie up the loose ends and answer my questions. I would recommend that you find One Christmas Knight, a book I love dearly and read it first.

One final note: The cover on this book is taken from an incident where Riley has to get Summer’s daughter out of a tree. The model is one of the most realistic looking men I have ever seen on a romance cover. He is not bad looking, but he is not impossibly handsome and has a natural looking body. No impossibly broad shoulders and abs of steel – he looks more like an average guy. Can this be a trend?