True Colors, by Jayne Ann Krentz

Believe it or not, I still have pages and pages of notes about books I read during my vacation last February. I thought I'd be done with them in a couple of weeks, but no, I've been posting them much more slowly.

Today I'll post about True Colors, an old category book by Jayne Ann Krentz It's hard to find good summaries of these books, and I haven't been able to get a good one of True Colors. I don't much like to recap books, but I'll give it a try:

After his sister gets bilked by an apparently respectable businessman, Cade Santerre offers to help the authorities catch him. He does this by posing as a wealthy playboy and becoming friendly with him and his family. Jamie Garland is working as assistant to the con man's sister, and she and Cade fall in love.

All hell breaks loose, however, when the authorities move in to arrest the man, exposing the deception the morning after Jamie and Cade's first night together, and before he can tell her the truth. Cade doesn't think this has anything to do with their relationship, but Jamie feels used and has other ideas.

Oh, this was so good!! An A-, as a matter of fact. There's nothing more satisfying than a good, justified grovel and boy, does Cade grovel! He starts out really arrogant and very sure of himself, so it's incredibly good to see Jamie take him down a peg. She's pretty justified in not trusting him, considering his previous actions, which makes it even better.

At first, I thought Cade was just going to steamroll all over poor Jamie. You know "I know you love me" style, so I was ready to throw this against the wall. It wasn't like that at all. Cade gets to a state of fear of losing her and self-doubt that he actually begs her to give him a second chance. God, I'm a sadist to have enjoyed this so much!

This was a reissue of a 1986 release, but it didn't feel to dated, except for some birth control / safe sex issues. Jamie was a bit of a "reformed" ingénue, so she's quite tough, whicle Cade was a nice alpha, more sensitive than most and willing to let Jamie take control when she wants to.

I'm having quite good luck with JAK's backlist so far. It was a great idea to start collecting them.

Update: I reread this one on January 2005 and posted my comments here. I gave it a B then.