BEFORE SUNRISE

Author: Diana Palmer ISBN: 0373770413 7/2005 CONTEMPORARY Publisher: HQN

Jeremiah Cortez thought he'd left the past behind him-especially the part of his past concerning Phoebe Keller. In her final year in college she stirred his world-weary soul. Now, three years later, seeing the blond beauty again sparks dormant desires. But he has to push his emotions aside-he has ties that can't be broken, no matter how much he longs to reconnect with the determined, vivacious woman he once knew. Phoebe thought her feelings for Cortez were buried as deep as the artifacts she studies in her museum. An expert in Native American culture, she has her doubts when an anthropologist claims to have discovered a Neanderthal skeleton on the nearby reservation. But before Phoebe can pursue the matter, the professor who called her turns up dead in a local cave-and the FBI sends in Cortez to investigate. No sooner does Cortez show up in Phoebe's office than the heat that's always simmered between them flares anew. Phoebe can't forget the heartbreak he caused, but neither can she deny the aching need he arouses with the merest touch. Now, as the two delve further into the murder, they find themselves entangled in a world of conspiracy, deception…and a love more powerful than anything they've ever known.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

I am still shaking my head over BEFORE SUNRISE by Diana Palmer. I want so very badly to give this book a Top Pick, and had planned on doing that very thing, until about three-quarters of the way into the story when it suddenly goes off in a direction that completely derails it for me! Truly, after absolutely loving most of the book, I am saddened that one small—but vital—part of it overshadows all that excellent writing. I guess that goes to show just how much power an author holds over me when they give me characters so intriguing and original, I cannot help but get deeply involved with them.

I love the story, the characters, the setting, the writing, everything. It's a great romance with a Native American feel to it, wrought with tension, unexpressed passion and longing, and chemistry that is relentless even if the hero, Jeremiah Cortez, and the heroine, Phoebe, don't give into it. The relationship is complex, yet easy at the same time, which makes it so believable my heart actually aches for them. Cortez, being a man of few words, manages to convey all his longing and rejection to Phoebe with a few intense kisses and a curt newspaper clipping. With all that fire, before the characters are even intimate, I find the turn this book takes unacceptable and unnecessary to the story.

Without giving too much away, I hope, because this book should still be read with much anticipation, I would ask you a question: If you were in love with someone for three long years, even though situations kept you apart, and you finally found your way to each other and became intimate (Phoebe is a twenty-five year old virgin) and realized your hang-ups were not what you thought, and made promises to never let each other go again, would you believe that either of you were involved with someone else because you witness her in a moment of laughter with another man who is trying to help protect her from a murderer?! (That someone is a person you have asked to watch over her, by the way.) Or, how about wondering if his cousin, who has been nothing but kind to you and is dating the man helping to protect you, has suddenly developed the hots for her cousin? I simply cannot fathom having that type of jealousy five minutes after leaving the arms of my long lost soulmate. That whole scenario is like giving the book unwarranted tension and completely disrupts the flow of the story. The characters both know better, and you know they know better, so why it's even a factor I just cannot grasp.

Well, despite the crazy spin mentioned above that is, sorry to say, quite ridiculous, I think this is a great book. The author is very talented and creates scenes so emotional they take your breath away. The mystery is done quite well, too, though I had hoped for a bit more at the end. All in all, it's a book that will grip you and make you want to devour it—at least most of it, anyway.

Shannon Johnson