Looking for Lacey

February 15, 2003
When single mother Lacey Wright fudges her resume to get a job as business manager of a Texas sports bar owned by football quarterback Bobby McIntyre, she hopes not to have to contend with him. Lacey is prim, proper, and protective; Bobby is schmoozy, laissez-faire, and tolerant, and the two are like oil and water, squaring off from the beginning despite an undeniable attraction. Although Bobby wants to fire her even though his beloved sister has hired her, he doesn't, because as she learns later, his own mother abandoned him, and he won't punish another mother who is trying to keep her child with her. Eventually he helps Lacey relax and rediscover the passionate woman within, while she helps him acknowledge all the painful feelings about his own abandonment. Their story is paralleled by the first-love story of Lacey's 16-year-old daughter, whom she desperately does not want to make the same mistakes and get pregnant like she did. Adept at Victorian historicals, Lee also excels in this contemporary.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2003, American Library Association.)