"There [is] nothing like one whole day devoted to lovers to make a single girl feel like a loser," muses Kate Hamilton, the heroine of Gibson's frothy new romance set in Gospel, Idaho. When Kate's advances are rebuffed by the sexy man sitting next to her in a bar on Valentine's Day, she feels the sting of rejection—which is soon compounded by humiliation when she learns that the stranger is Rob Sutter, owner of the sporting goods store located next to her grandfather's grocery. Both Rob and Kate have skidded to a halt in Gospel—Kate after her work as a PI unwittingly armed a man with information to track down and kill his family, and Rob after his pro hockey career was derailed by a gun-toting psychopath. Instead of exploring this weighty material, Gibson focuses on such lighthearted frolics as whipped-cream fights in the aisles of Kate's grocery store. Because Rob remains literally and figuratively behind the wheel of his Hummer and Kate never fully faces her own demons, their romance lacks emotional heft. Gibson also portrays Gospel's elderly citizenry as cartoonish, rendering what could have been a poignant romance between Kate's grandfather and Rob's mother as condescendingly sweet. The novel begins and ends on Valentine's Day, and the rest of the story never transcends the holiday's reputation for false promises.
*Starred Review* Kate Hamilton is a private detective on hiatus because after she helped a man find his family, he turned out to be a homicidal maniac. She is looking for some R & R at her widowed grandfather's house in Gospel, Idaho. En route, she stops at a ski lodge in Sun Valley and decides to break her own rules by having a one-night stand with a gorgeous man. But much to her chagrin, he not only turns her down, he also lectures her. Rob Sutter wants nothing to do with loose women in bars. His last partner in forbidden love was a pyscho stalker who shot him, ending his career as a professional hockey player. When Kate gets to her grandfather's, she meets his new friend, none other than the dream guy from the ski lodge. Now Kate has to prove to Rob that she is not really a slut. Unabashed matchmakers, including a romantic, second-time-around older couple and some of the world's worst poets, populate the close-knit community that award-winning Gibson brings so vividly to life in this heartwarming, small-town romance filled with humor, charm, and passion. Shelley Mosley
