Between the Lines, by Jayne Ann Krentz

I also read an old Jayne Ann Krentz yesterday: Between the Lines.

Plot summary:

Amber has been seriously hurt by a flaming hot affair with famous racing driver Roarke Kelley. She flees Southern California to Bellevue, and takes an office assistant's job with Cormick Grayson. After all that flaming passion she finds his placid good nature a relief, and accepts an offer of marriage. She tells everyone she's very "content" with her lot.

But, of course, Gray has hidden depths. He isn't the passionless, boring husband she expected. He's "a lover to die for" and he'd wanted her from the start. And he knows how to bide his time. When Roarke comes after Amber again, and when the business deal goes wrong and two second rate punks threaten them, Amber finds he knows how to handle a gun as well.

It was good, a B. Even if it was written in 1987, it's not at all dated. Yes, Gray orders her around a bit at one point, which I didn't like, but he's no alpha jerk.

Oh, and, though maybe I shouldn't confess it, in this case I loved the plot of a guy instantly falling for a woman and doing whatever it takes to have her, even tricking her into marriage. I usually just get mad, but JAK has me liking it here.

The Roarke Kelley thing was great in concept, but not so good in execution. I think I would have liked Gray to feel a little more jealousy, to suffer a bit.

As always, JAK uses a theme (I don't know if that's the correct name. I mean she always has an element, which can extraneous to the plot, which she uses for metaphors, etc. ), in this case the poetry of Sherborn Ulysses Twitchell. I had great fun with this; it was really, really awful. Thought the thing about Amber being Honoria was stupid.

What I didn't get was what the point of having the 2 threatening punks was. Boring. It looks like she just decided she had to have a confrontation at gunpoint for the book to work so she inserted these 2. But, other than that, fun book.