Return of the Prodigal Son (Silhouette Intimate Moments, No. 1123)

Rating:
Summary: Highly recommended
Review: Burned-out ex-CIA operative Donovan Lassiter wants nothing more than to retreat alone into the hills and write his book. A month after arriving, he's yet to unpack and put away when his old friend Champ Mackenzie calls needing his help. Champ's younger sister Andi Brady was married to Adam, who recently died along with his partner in a plane crash. While the authorities suspected foul play, nothing could be proven. Following Adam's death, bank and business records revealed Adam had bilked his wealthy clients for millions. Champ and his sister don't believe Adam was a criminal, and want Donovan's help to prove it. In the meantime, Andi's children are suffering from the cruel taunts about their father, and Champ wants to get them away for the summer. He convinces Donovan to rent Andi a nearby cabin.

When Andi and her children move in, Donovan has immediate misgivings about letting them rent the nearby cabin. He likes solitude, working through the night on his book. Children, however, have a way of turning up, and pulling others out of their self imposed shell. Soon he finds himself not only walking through the woods with nine-year-old Cory, or leaving food for a woodchuck with five-year-old Taylor, but also sincerely enjoying their company. He also finds himself irresistibly drawn to their widowed mother. But with grief still fresh after only a year, Andi's not in a hurry to embark upon a new relationship even when passion threatens to erupt between them. And the closer Donovan gets to the truth behind Adam's death, the more they are all placed in danger.

Once again author Ruth Langan pens an intriguing romance in RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL SON. When the prodigal son returns home, Donovan Donovan carries deep shadows left by the dangerous world he inhabited for ten years, and Andi and her children offer the much-needed sunlight of healing. Langan writes with a deep compassion for the blows the heart takes, not just in the dynamics between men and women, but also in family relationships. The struggle with grief is delicately portrayed as a prime motivator for Donovan, who lost his father as a child, mirroring the loss of Andi's children and their father. Donovan finds redemption not just through the love of a woman, but also through reaching out to grieving children. RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL SON comes highly recommended.