Sarah Smile

After the death of her abusive husband, Sarah Richards and her twin babies are finally settling in to a happy life.  She now enjoys the people that love her and has a rewarding job. She shouldn’t need anything more - should she?  Tanner Collins is the drop dead gorgeous doctor that stops her heart and turns her into a blubbering adolescent every time she sees him.  But Tanner’s well deserved reputation for bedding anything that walks makes his obvious interest in her highly suspect.  Can a man who has women falling at his feet with merely a smile ever really be happy with ordinary Sarah? She made the mistake of trusting a charming man once before and it almost killed her. 

“Sarah Smile” is the kind of short romance one looks for when the need to escape for an afternoon hits.  The characters are likable, the situation fun to explore and, of course, the happy ending is satisfying.  There are only a few problems, but they are very noticeable ones.   First, there is virtually no backstory to help first time readers understand the characters’ actions.  It feels like one is plopped down into the middle of a story everyone else understands but no one is explaining.  The lack of communication between the characters may also become rant-worthy.  The characters are never, ever straight forward, resulting in constant wrong assumptions, miscommunications and finally scream-worthy annoyance!  If one has read Leger’s other books and if this particular plot device is acceptable, however, this is the perfect prescription for the real-world blues!

Ruth Lynn Ritter