Daniel and the Lion, by Margot Dalton

Daniel and the Lion, by Margot Dalton is on a friend of mine's keeper shelf. She lent it to me last week.

THE LADY LOOKED LIKE A GOLDEN LION

And Steven Kelleher, age seven, knew she could be fierce, too. In fact, Jamie was the only person his dad couldn't manage to boss around.

Maybe that was because Jamie was a kind of doctor and was making his dad much better. She even made him laugh a lot. The cook said his dad used to always laugh. But that was before Mr. Kelleher's accident, she'd say. Before your mother left him.

Then Steven would feel sad. Partly, he still missed his mother. But mostly, he feared Jamie would leave, too. Then his dad and the whole house would turn dark and angry again.

I liked it. It was not really keeper material for me, but it was good enough. A B.

The main focus here isn't just Daniel and Jamie's relationship; it's the relationship between Jamie and Daniel's entire household. This includes Daniel, of course, and there is a romance between them, but though this is the most important thread, it's one strong thread among many.

Jamie was an interesting character. She would not take any shit from anyone... she starts right at the beginning, telling off Daniel when he tells her he wants to hire a man because women can't be trusted with confidential info (right. *snort* And all men can!), and she's still the same smart, tough lady by the end of the book. She does have some traits I wasn't too crazy about, like how she had this whole reverse-snobbery thing going on. Poverty, or at least, not richness is a virtue? In itself? Sorry, I don't think so.

The romance was interesting, and I liked that there was a full exploration of Jamie's "motivations" for loving Daniel. There was no knee-jerk "Of course it's really love!" here. Jamie knew she had fallen for lame ducks before, mistaken pity and protectiveness for love, and this time she really did make sure it wasn't like that.

The cast of secondary characters and their issues were nicely done. I especially liked Steven, Daniel's son. I'm not crazy about kids in romance novels, but I tend to like the solemn ones, like Steven. It's the "precious" ones who I can't stand.

I also enjoyed the subplot about the housekeeper, Maria, overcoming her agoraphobia. I did have some doubts, though. I was a bit uncomfortable with Jamie and Daniel "treating" her, without either of them being qualified therapists. The program they designed was probably well researched, and everything, and of course, it turned out fine, but I thought it was a bit risky and arrogant on their part to do this without professional help.

In the end, all the threads have a similar message: Jamie helped all these people, but they can now fend for themselves, they don't need to use Jamie, which was the fear she had. She helped, and they appreciate it, but they've learned to help themselves.