Anny P. (wolfnme) reviewed on 8/10/2006 + 3389 more book reviews

Evicted after her boyfriend skipped out with the rent money, pregnant China Brown starts walking to the mission but encounters a tall blonde woman who's being photographed by Chaz Finelli, the paparazzi pix guy. Blondie shoots Chaz, takes his camera, turns and shoots China, the only witness, and leaves her for dead. Homocide detective Ben English arrives to find that China is barely alive and he follows the ambulance to the hospital, hoping she can identify the shooter. Thus begins Ben's strange attraction to China, that becomes more understandable when we learn his family background. Beautiful China, who was told she was ugly as a child and believed it, tries to die because her baby was killed by one of the bullets fired at her. But while (in her life after life experience) her dead mother takes the baby, a little girl, she sends China back. This book is for those who like tender. Ben is all man but a gentle one. He keeps his promises and it is this thread that China clings to as she slowly regains consciousness. But the plot revolves around the shooting, who and why, and this part of the plot elevates this book from a ho-hum romance to an edge-of-the-seater. Power, privilege, the nouveau riche...it's all here. If I did not know some Texans who fit some of these roles, it would be less believable but I do and they do. Some may feel there are too many subplots but Sala makes them work. And just when we think China will never realize her delicate beauty, she does realize it by watching a butterfly crawl from its ugly chrysallis. Ben had already proposed to her, so she turns the tables and proposes to him. And the shooter? You wouldn't believe it if I told you, so read the book.

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