I can heartily recommend this book for anyone who wants to spend a cozy few hours with a fun, interesting, satisfying read. Carly Phillips knows how to write romance. Sealed With A Kiss is proof.

Molly Gifford is a lawyer who is trying to cope with absent, selfish parents. One day she gets a letter telling her that the man she always thought was here father isn’t and a stranger whom she has never met is her real father. This parental betrayal cuts deeply. Molly is in a relationship with Daniel Hunter, also a lawyer, but decides to break it off to go in search of her biological father. She packs up her entire life, says goodbye to Daniel, and leaves – with the hope that her real father will accept her, and love her.

Flash forward eight months…Molly is part of a new family, which includes her father, two half sisters, and an entertaining grandmother known as the Commander. Finally, Molly has found the love and acceptance she’s always sought. However, all is not as serene as it first seems. Her father has been arrested for the murder of his best friend and business partner. He has no money to hire an attorney, so Molly turns to her old boyfriend Daniel, who has the reputation as one of the best criminal defense lawyers around. Although Daniel is still hurting over Molly’s decision to leave him in the first place, it is quite apparent that he is in love with her, and wants to resume their old relationship. At first, Molly is not so sure. It does not help that she is a preoccupied by her father’s incarceration. However, it does not take very long before Molly succumbs to Daniel’s seduction.

This story is well worth reading. I really liked Molly and Daniel. Molly is indeed a strong but vulnerable woman who makes incredibly hard decisions in order to fulfill her needs. It is refreshing to read about such a heroine. The scenes with Molly and her mother are engrossing. You feel her pain when her mother neglects her. While her newfound family has been good to her, Molly still feels much the stranger. Through it all, she remains strong, and focused, and she is the glue that holds her new family together through the crisis. What a woman.

Daniel is adorable. He loves Molly – that is clear from the beginning – and his suffering in her absence is truly heartfelt. His seduction is of her is sexy and those scenes sizzling in their intensity. Also endearing was a secondary storyline involving Molly’s widower father and his best friend’s wife. And the scenes with the Commander are just flat out funny.

The mystery as to who actually killed the best friend is well written. It keeps your interest, without taking too much from Molly and Daniel and the identity of the culprit comes as a surprise. Ms. Phillips deals with it appropriately, and quickly. In short, this book is well written, well balanced, and very entertaining.