Avon Books (Paperback), ISBN 0-380-81917-1
Veronica Davis planned never to go home again. After all, what woman in her right mind leaves Seattle and her burgeoning career as a restoration specialist to put on a waitress apron and schlep drinks in a smoke-filled bar in Fossil, Wash.? Unfortunately, someone murdered Veronica's sister Crystal. Every man in Fossil knew Crystal, some more intimately than others. Besides a notorious reputation, Crystal left behind an ex-husband, Eddie, and their six-year-old daughter, Lizzy.

Veronica enters the Tonk, the family business and Fossil's most popular bar, with plans to sell the Tonk as fast as she can sign a sales contract, put the family home in a realtor's hands, then grab Lizzy and head back to Seattle. As a teen and college student she worked at the bar, fighting the drunks and groping hands, and finally earning her way out of the Tonk and Fossil. Veronica only maintained connections to home through her cherished life-long friend, Marissa Travits and her niece, Lizzy. After Crystal's death, Marissa hired Cooper "Coop" Blackstock to run the bar until Veronica could take over.

From the moment Veronica sees the Tonk's sexy bartender, she suspects trouble. Coop makes more demands on Veronica than the clientele at the Tonk on a busy Saturday night. She agrees to wait tables again, but why should she take orders from the hired help?

An ex-Special Forces Marine, Coop seeks his own answers about Crystal's murder, since his brother Eddie stands accused of the crime. Coop hoped while he worked at the Tonk he'd pick up tips about Crystal's killer. So far, the only tips left behind belong in his pocket. No one knows Coop's connection to the murder, and he intends to stay undercover. He'll clear Eddie's name and move on. He didn't bargain on Crystal's feisty sister getting in his way, or this bossy, prissy woman getting to him.

Veronica certainly never planned to fall head over her very sophisticated heels for some ex-Marine bartender with no bank account or future. Her ideal man wore a three-piece suit, routinely called his stockbroker and carefully constructed his future. She did not see herself attached to some virile barkeep even if his body and biceps did knock her breathless.

Susan Andersen keeps you enthralled as the sassy, elegant Veronica Davis matches wits with the dangerous charms of Cooper Blackstock. Neither Veronica nor Coop intended to fall Head Over Heels for such an unsuitable partner. Susan Andersen adds another star to the illustrious Seattle writing community that boasts such luminaries as Jayne Ann Krentz and Elizabeth Lowell.

Doris Valliant

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