High Tide

Jude Deveraux

Fiona Burkenhalter travels to Florida under protest. Her boss insists. She goes on the fishing trip on the tiny, ramshackle boat under protest. If she returns before the end of the trip, her boss has said she no longer will have the job she loves. The worse was yet to come. After a couple horrid days, she wakes up in damp sheets under a dead body. The man laying on top of her, the client who insisted she travel to Florida, had been stabbed. Blood is everywhere.

The odious man who was the fishing guide pulls her out of bed, cleans her up, and leaves the boat to take her to the police. Only after they are away from the boat does he admit he knew she was not the murderer, but they had to get away from the fourth person who had been. Then they hear the news. The fourth man was beaten up after they left, was in the hospital, and claimed that the two of them had killed the client. Fiona now is on the run with Paul "Ace" Montgomery.

Ace owns a run down nature park in Florida. He is an ornithologist (bird watcher). His lifestyle is totally different than anything Fiona had ever known in her private schools or her high powered job in New York City. As she and Ace are connected by some well laid traps, they start learning about each other to find out what they have in common. This, it seems, is very little. Yet Ace had met her widowed father and knew a man Fiona never had. There was a connection somewhere in their past. They just have to find the connection, find the true murderer, and clear their names.

This is a light, charming novel. It is worth reading for the first chapter alone for the scene in the airport when Fiona first arrives in Florida. Deveraux pulls another one of the devestating Montgomery men out for our romantic pleasure. Fiona is a worthy adversary for Ace's heart. It is a lot of froth and smiles for the reader. The two are constantly jibing at each other as they spend time together and eventually fall in love.

Notice: Strong sexual content