News, Press & Reviews

Lanterns and Lace
DiAnn Mills
Barbour Publishing (2006)
ISBN 1597893560
Reviewed by Kim Peterson for Reader Views (9/06)

Jenny Stevens leaves home and travels by train to Kahlerville, Texas. Her headstrong sister Jessica is dead. Jenny intends to find the two-year-old daughter Jessica left behind and take her home to her grandparents in Cleveland.

Aubrey Turner, Jessica’s former love interest, interrupts Jenny’s plans. He assumes a familiarity that makes Jenny uncomfortable and feeling unsafe. He intentionally gives the townspeople of Kahlerville the wrong impression about their interactions. Also, Jenny becomes ill, which hinders her efforts to locate her niece. However, Doctor Grant Andrews tends to her. Jenny learns that her niece is Grant’s adopted daughter. How fortunate! However, Grant shows no intention of letting Jenny take Rebecca back to her affluent, but godless family.

Jenny settles for getting to know Rebecca under Grant’s watchful supervision. Feisty Jenny resents some of his edicts and the two clash often regarding what is best for the charming little girl.

However, the two adults develop an uneasy friendship. Soon Jenny realizes that Grant has more to offer Rebecca than she and her parents can. Her family doesn’t attend church or read the Bible, but she begins to seek God in her life. Her friendship with Grant develops into deeper feelings on her part. He clearly loves his daughter and she begins to contemplate leaving Rebecca with Grant.

Aubrey Turner’s claim to know her baffles Jenny and misleads Grant for a time. But they soon suspect Aubrey is up to no good. He may be involved in some aspect of Jessica’s unsavory past. His pursuit of Jenny’s affections turns more insistent and sinister. Grant worries that Jenny and Rebecca may not be safe while Aubrey is near. As the stakes climb higher with a shooting and a robbery with a suspicious death, Jenny contemplates going home before any more turmoil arises from her misguided original plan.

“Lanterns and Lace” is the second in author DiAnn Mills Texas Legacy Series about the Andrews family. Readers can enjoy the growing attraction between Grant and Jenny while they ponder Aubrey Turner’s intentions. The two protagonists and supporting cast are well-developed characters. Aubrey is an intriguing and unpredictable devious villain. I enjoy a book that keeps me guessing and I had a hard time determining what Turner would do next. Mills cleverly interweaves romance with deadly suspense.

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