Synopsis
from Goodreads: The
Lyon family matriarch has disappeared. And now her money's
disappearing, too - bit by bit. Margaret Lyon's grandniece, Crystal
Jardin, who looks after the family finances as well as those of the
business, is growing more concerned every day.
The
Lyons wait anxiously during this time of crises, hoping for word of
Margaret. Then, as if Crystal's life wasn't complicated enough, she
meets Caleb Tanner - and she falls for him. Hard. Even though Caleb's
everything she doesn't
want.
He's too handsome. Too confident. And far too relentless. Can she
afford to take a chance on her feelings?
Margaret's
not there to give her advice, but Crystal knows what she would have
said: Follow
your heart.
Stats
for my copy:
Mass market paperback, published by Harlequin Enterprises Limited;
1999; purchased at a library sale.
First
line:
Another three thousand dollars withdrawn from Margaret Lyon's private
bank account!
My
thoughts: I
was drawn into this pretty quick, and really liked the character of
Crystal. But, her all-out disdain for kids playing any kind of
organized sport got on my nerves a little bit. She believes that kids
should not play soccer, football or basketball because of the dangers
of being injured and disabled for life. Exhibit 1 – Skip, a foster
child in the hospital who was injured in a football game and may
never walk again. Crystal plays with a jazz band on weekends, and
also volunteers time at the children's ward of the local hospital,
playing for the kids, and she has a soft spot for poor little Skip.
Not only is he a foster child, but thanks to his need for a
wheelchair, he may not be able to return to the foster family he
lived with and his social worker, who happens to be Crystal's foster
cousin, will have to locate a new placement for him. Coincidentally,
(Exhibit 2) the several other boys in the same ward with Skip are all
hospitalized due to sports related injuries. When
Crystal got on her soapbox about how terrible these sports are, I
wanted to shake her and say chill out, girl! Even though my daughter
was injured in a soccer game and her ankle still occasionally bothers
her several years later. But shit happens.
Caleb
is also a patient in the hospital, with a sports related injury –
he's a professional football player. And his injury may have ended
his career, though he's having a very hard time facing that reality.
Caleb took me a little longer to like. I'm not a fan of football, so
his career certainly did not impress me. Actually I'm not a sports
fan at all, though I loved watching my kid play soccer. But, you
know, that's my kid and she was the best goalie around. Caleb is
definitely a player, and I did think “gag me” right along with
Crystal at the way he peppered his conversations with “darlin'”
and “sweetheart”, etc. etc.
This
is the third book in a series, “The Lyon Legacy”, and normally
I’m very anal about reading series books in order, but with
category romances I don't usually bother with that as much,
especially when it's a multi author series, as this one is. But there
are so many members of the Lyon family, working together at the
broadcasting company they own, and many living together in the family
mansion, that I was often confused about who was who, especially
Andre and Alain, which is probably just because their names are
similar. Yes, they are. Well, they both start with the letter A. And
I'm old and get confused easily. The book has a family tree at the
front, and I consulted it more than once. So I do think I would have
benefited from reading the first two books before reading this one.
I
warmed up to Caleb right along with Crystal, especially as we learned
more about how he fought the state to keep his three younger sisters
out of the foster care system after their parents died. The main
storyline is about the Lyon broadcasting company wanting Caleb to
come on board as their new sportscaster, and Crystal, who handles the
company’s finances, finding herself being pushed into also handling
this jock. And while she learns that he's certainly more than just an
athlete in a sport she abhors, she doesn't ever really seem to change
her opinion about sports in general. A little growth there would have
been nice.
There
is also a subplot about the family matriarch, Margaret, being
missing, and money being mysteriously withdrawn from her bank account
several times (which Crystal knows about as, again, she's in charge
of the finances). A private detective is eventually brought in to try
and track Margaret down, and I seriously had a hard time
understanding why the family would not notify the police and file a
missing person's report. It's not like they didn't care, they were
all terribly worried about her, but hesitated to admit she might
actually be a real missing person and not just off alone grieving for
her recently deceased husband.
The
Skip storyline was resolved nicely, even though one day Caleb was
dead set against Crystal wanting to be his foster parent (and if
that's a spoiler I apologize, but you should have seen it coming),
and the next day he's suddenly on board with it. He had an epiphany
apparently, but it was off page, and I would have liked it to have
been explored more.
Overall
I quite enjoyed the book. There's a lot of plot crammed into it's 299
pages and the action moved along nicely with the story never
dragging. Plus, for some reason I just really like the cover picture,
especially the girl laughing. But, I was disappointed when I turned
the last page, and Margaret was still missing. Which means if I want
to know what happened to her, I have to read the next book.
The
rest of the series:
The Lyon Legacy (#1), by Peg Sutherland, Roz Denny Fox, and Ruth Jean Dale
Family Secrets (#2), by Ruth Jean Dale
Family Reunion (#4), by Peg Sutherland
