Claire Cross, One More Time

One More Time

Claire Cross

HQN, Nov 2006, $14.00

ISBN: 0425211983

Leslie Coxwell is stunned to wake up and find her spouse Matt's side of their bed not slept in. She knows tongue twisting his tonsils will not solve what is bothering him though that has worked for the eighteen years they have been together. When she finds Matt he is drunk. Yesterday he lost the Laforini case to his brother James the prosecutor while his disappointed father committed suicide. Matt tells her she is no longer there for him and takes one last kiss before leaving. Stunned Leslie has to get their rebelling teen Annette off to school, save her job from Dinkleman the hot shot barracuda, and find a way to get back the man she loves, who left for New Orleans.

Matt has two goals; neither involves competent Leslie though he admits he still loves her. He plans to appeal and get freed his client and he will fulfill his dream that he tabled to please his father by going to law school instead of becoming an author and writing a book. What Matt never factored into his giving up on his current life is Leslie who has not given up on the man she loves even if he is with his former fianc e.

Though there is a legal procedural subplot, One More Time is a relationship drama starring a middle aged man no longer willing to settle for anything less than his dreams even though he assumes that means giving up on the woman he has loved for almost two decades and still loves. Readers will empathize with Matt who cannot take it anymore, but also frown on his fleeing responsibilities as everyone cannot just walk away. Still they will root for him to regain his compassion for life while also hoping for a second chance at love for him and Leslie.

Harriet Klausner