Reviewer Comments: In your wild youth, is there a way to reverse what you have done and hope that no one else finds out? Jane Morgan certainly hopes so. Jane is a prim and proper personal assistant in an architect’s office. However, underneath is a sensual woman trying to escape. Jane is trying to forget her wild childhood and the things she has done. She tries to cover them with the prim suits and disassociating herself from her criminal family. She avoids bad boys as they might bring out her sexy side. Then she decides to treat herself to Chase for her birthday and she is lost. She then has to try and save her brother from a murder conviction and is dragged back into her family’s life more and more.
William (Billy) Chase, who prefers to be called Chase by one and all, has a past. He doesn’t go to great lengths to hide that past, only small parts of it. He is immediately attracted to Jane and slowly but surely entwines himself in her life until he can’t do without her and hopes she can’t do without him. He has his alcoholic father to deal with and then the realization that he knew Jane in her wild child days as he reveals some of his secrets to her.
There are probably many people in the world who have tried to do what Jane is doing, hiding their past as they are ashamed of some of their actions. Probably to be really successful she needs to move to a town or city far away from where she had her wild childhood! Jane comes to many realizations during the course of the story and Ms Dahl has shown that development through Jane’s interactions with other characters. She also allows Jane to reflect on her actions and to want to change to improve herself.
I liked this story as underneath the story it had me thinking about my actions and reactions to some people I have met in my life and to how others might see me. If you don’t want to think at this depth there is the good storyline and the chemistry between Jane and Chase. There are also some entertaining moments, especially when Chase realizes he knows Jane from her previous life but the fact he couldn’t remember what he did with her – she was only thirteen.
I liked Chase’s patience with Jane and the fact he allowed her to make some of the moves in the relationship even when he is impatient and wanting the next step. He knows Jane needs to be held gently and coddled, not forced to do the things she is reluctant to do and say. Jane is a very complex woman (probably more so than the average woman) but when she organizes her emotional baggage she becomes the woman she should be.
This story is definitely one that suggests the old adage - one should never judge book by its cover.
