This book grabbed my attention from the very first paragraph. Talk about a unique premise and unique heroine! Socialite Karan Kowalski Steinberg-Reece is in court after being arrested for having a blood alcohol level over the legal limit. Suffering from low blood sugar, she has always been careful when drinking alcohol, usually only taking a few sips, but after attending a party announcing that her good friend and New York senator Brent is running for re-election she drinks a whole glass of champagne.

Although she knows that she has had a little too much to drink, she doesn’t want to call a taxi because leaving her car in the parking lot would spark a round of gossip. Recently divorced for the second time, she’d rather not have people speculating about her again. It is just her luck that the judge on the case is an acquaintance from high school, Jenny the wannabe. Jenny tried out for the cheerleading squad but Karan needed the spots for her friends, so Jenny was out of luck. Now it looks like Karan is the one who is out of luck.

Catching a break, she is convicted for DWAI (driving while ability is impaired), a traffic infraction, versus DWI (driving while intoxicated), a criminal misdemeanor. Still Judge Jenny gives Karan the maximum sentence, suspending her driving privileges for 90 days and fifteen days in jail. Her attorney and her former boyfriend Jack Sloan, Bluestone Mountain’s police chief, are able to convince the judge to allow her to serve three hundred and sixty hours of community service at the newly formed domestic violence shelter and receive counseling instead of jail time.

On her very first visit to the shelter, Karan encounters her ex-husband Charles Steinberg, a cardiovascular surgeon. He is one of the co-directors and he is not pleased to have her there. The other co-director is Karan’s counselor and she facilitates an agreement between Charles and Karan, allowing them to work together, although both make an effort not to be there when the other one is. Karan’s first efforts at the center sabotage this arrangement when she triggers two different emergencies requiring a director on premises and of course Charles is the only one available. As the story progresses, both Charles and Karan must confront why their marriage failed as well as new changes in their lives that require much soul searching.

First, the premise is very well done. I am very sensitive to alcohol and driving since a family member of mine was hit by a drunk driver, and while I was aware of Karan’s poor judgment, it didn’t affect my enjoyment of the story. I questioned the initial setup of having a former classmate as the presiding judge. Surely this town had more then one judge. Still, that is a small part of the storyline and I was willing to accept it and go with the flow because the bitchy heroine intrigued me so much. Karan is self-centered, self-righteous, and privileged. She notices the aging lines on wannabe Jenny, wonders what made Jack marry a former rival and thinks this incident is just because she was careless. She has a trust fund, has married and divorced two doctors, and has multiple houses.

While the book is labeled as a romance, the heroine experiences a substantial amount of personal growth, making it seem more like women’s fiction. For most of the book the hero and heroine are dealing with the emotional fallout from their divorce, and only toward the end does the book turn more physical. I appreciated the journey, having only a slight problem with a melodramatic and somewhat over the top scene. The brief overview of the workings of a domestic shelter is a definite plus and its integration into the storyline works perfectly. In fact while reading the book, I wondered how I could make a difference to women in this situation. It not often that a story motivates me to reevaluate my volunteer efforts, but this one did.

I enjoyed this book and I think readers tired of picture perfect heroines will, too. This is my second time reading a book by Jeanie London, but it won’t be my last.