I’ve never really realized it before, but clearly Janet Chapman has thing about injured heroines. Whether she’s reeling from being punched, suffering from the after-effects of “accidents” in the Maine winter, or just plain heroically injured after risking her life to rescue a dog, “strong” (quotes intended) Anna Segee needs an awful lot of looking after in this book. While you can definitely color me a little creeped out, this is a bit of an above average book, despite the undeniable ick factor.

Anna is one of those heiresses determined to prove herself away from the smothering love of her staggeringly wealthy family, most specifically her domineering father and brothers. (Have you that heard that one before? I thought so.) Her getaway (complete with Daddy cutting her off) destination is the town of her birth (she inherited a derelict old sawmill from her grandfather), where, as the daughter of the official town slut, she was attacked by boys eighteen years earlier. Her rescuer at that time was none other than Ethan Knight, brother of the hero of the author’s last book (The Seduction of His Wife) and – you guessed it – the hero of this one.

Anna and Ethan meet cute – or let’s say they meet hard – when she nearly runs him down in her big lumber thingy and he punches her out (he doesn’t know she’s a woman, you see), resulting in the first of her many injuries. Since Anna’s using her father’s name and not her former one as the daughter of the town slut, Ethan doesn’t recognize her as the figure from his childhood.

So, Anna tries to fire Ethan and then finds out she can’t because the Knight Family (can you hear the sound of sequels echoing through all those trees?) owns all kind of lumber stuff in the area and have already bought Anna’s mill. Soon enough, Ethan is living out at the derelict old mill in an equally derelict old cabin.

Of course, there has to be a “suspense” thread in just about every contemporary romance these days, and there is a bit of a lackluster one here involving Anna’s persistent experiences with a nocturnal “ghost” making scary noises in the middle of the night. Could someone be looking for money they believe is hidden there? Could it really be a ghost? Do you, as a reader, really care?

When all is said and done here, this is a teeny bit of an above average contemporary romance featuring characters that all feel a bit too familiar. Ethan is a man’s man. Anna is “strong”, with a decided penchant for needing rescuing and, after fighting and scrapping for a sufficient period of time, they’re warming up the sheets and solving each other’s emotional problems.

Still, while The Stranger in Her Bed is more than readable, there is an overwhelming air of “been there, done that” about the whole business, even if this book does have more injuries on a per page basis than most. If you’re a big fan of the author, if you enjoy seeing a “fesisty” heroine take her lumps now and then, or if you enjoy a good canine rescue, this might be a book for you. Otherwise, I’d think twice and would recommend instead Her Seductive Imposter, a book that earned B+ from me a few years ago.