Picking up Anna Jeffrey’s latest, I did not expect to find a DIK within. Although I have enjoyed her previous books, both her heroes and heroines proved a bit too trying at times to qualify as keepers. But I was thrilled to discover within the pages of Sweet Water a pair of well-rounded, irresistible leads, as well as an engrossing character-driven romance.

Thirty-six year old Terry Ledger is success personified. He built an empire as a real estate developer and is known for his vision and ability to close deals quickly with dynamic results. Buying an entire town in west Texas on eBay is not his usual mode of operation, but Terry has a gut feeling that this planned community will be one of his greater achievements. He thinks uprooting the town’s ten citizens will be a simple task and cares little about the businesses he destroys in the process. After all, what else should the residents expect living in a privately owned town?

Although Marisa Rutherford has lived most of her adult life away from her hometown of Agua Dulce, aka Sweet Water, life’s circumstances have led her back to care for a mother suffering from Alzheimers. Taking care of Mom also involves running her café and flea market, which is right up Marisa’s alley since she left home at eighteen with an ambition to earn a degree in culinary arts and a dream to become an executive chef at an upscale restaurant. However, after failing to finish her degree, Marisa’s career has been limited to the kind of chain restaurants that allow the chef little creative license. Working at the tiny café in the middle of nowhere has its upside – Marisa can vary the menu when inspiration hits and indulge her true love of cooking with no one to look over her shoulder.

Hearing the town has sold to some big city developer is causing a good deal of anxiety among the town’s citizens, but Marisa is staggered by the massive changes facing her. In addition to finding enough money to relocate, she must also find a well paying job, obtain care for her mother (she refuses to think of institutionalized care), and dispose of the flea market’s large inventory. Marisa’s personal life has just suffered a big blow as well – her boyfriend is marrying a woman who is also carrying his child. Now to top it off, the town residents are beseeching Marisa to help plead their case with the yet unidentified new owner.

While Marisa mourns the loss of her despicable boyfriend one afternoon, a man who reminds her of Mel Gibson rides up on a Harley and walks into her place of business. He surveys every room with such intense concentration that she thinks he may be casing the joint, but as he sits to order a late lunch, Marisa can’t help thinking what a perfect specimen of a man he is – something that only reminds the depressed young woman that she is 34 years old and will probably never have a special man in her life. As she endeavors to cook his lunch without breaking down, Marisa suddenly succumbs to her wretchedness and begins to sob loudly, gaining the attention of the stranger who attempts to calm her. After listening to her story, he offers an unusual type of comfort – he plugs a quarter in the jukebox, chooses a Frank Sinatra tune, and takes her into his arms to dance.

Within days of visiting his new property, Terry moves to Agua Dulce to personally oversee the project. Answering his door half asleep one morning, Terry finds Marisa standing on his porch looking both determined and surprised as she realizes the big city developer is also the man who comforted her days before. Insisting that she needs to talk with him immediately, Marisa courageously begins a campaign to defend the town, inquiring about the future of each citizen’s livelihood as she provides him with tidbits about their health and family situations. It’s more than Terry wants to know, but he is impressed by her diplomatic skills and the fact that she never inquires about her own fate. Silently acknowledging that he is undeniably attracted to Marisa, he attempts to remember that mixing business with the type of pleasure Marisa could provide is ill-advised.

Marisa is a gracious heroine with both quiet strength and dignity who always manages at least a half smile for Terry. In Marisa’s mind, he is a rich man with too many admirable qualities to seriously consider her for more than a brief interlude, yet her heart leaps each time he walks in her café and she can’t help but dream the impossible at times. Also smitten but just as unwilling to admit it, Terry finds that he cannot keep her out of his mind and is driven to drop by her café for both food and her company. The chemistry between these two is strong and believable and a joy to experience.

A classy cover (already my choice for 2006 best cover) adds even more to the overall appeal of Sweet Water. As I reveled in the stirring development of Marisa and Terry’s relationship, the large cast of secondary characters, and the complete absence of any suspense sub-plot, the mood was broken by a rather abrupt ending that left me feeling a bit shortchanged. Regardless of that slight irritation, the book easily remained in DIK territory with its relaxed pace that allowed me to savor a well-written romance complete with appealing leads and downright sexy love scenes.