Sweet Fortune is a contemporary romance filled with sparkling wit,
exciting action, and sizzling passion.
Jessie Benedict is the 'glue' that holds the Benedict family together. The
family consists of Jessie's father Vincent, her mother Lilian, her
stepmother Constance, her stepsister Elizabeth, her aunt Glenna, and cousin
David. Everyone depends on Jessie to 'handle' her father to continue
providing financial support for their various needs.
Sam Hatchard is the CEO of Benedict Fasteners. Because he is Vincent's protege,
Jessie considers him the son her father never had and therefore is made of
the same mold as her workaholic father. But she is wrong, of course. Sam
believes is family first over work and he proves it to Jessie. Sam is the
veritable alpha male who has set his sights on Jessie.
In the opener, Jessie has just made herself in charge of Valentine
Consultations, a psychic/detective agency, while her boss is recuperating
from a fall. So far, Jessie has not found the right job. She has been
fired from many jobs before, including working in the Personnel department of
Benedict Fasteners.
Sam has decided that it is time to concentrate on wooing and winning Jessie.
In his pursuit of Jessie, he gets embroiled in Jessie's first case. A
mother has hired her to prove that the head of the foundation her daughter
has joined is a fake. The mother thinks the foundation is some sort of a
cult whose head convinces innocent victims that he has psychic abilities to
predict the future and can change it. This plot sets the stage for more
action: break in at the Valentine Cosultation's office, Sam and Jessie
visiting the foundation's headquarters, and the rescue of their client's
daughter. There are also family problems (Vincent not going to Elizabeth's
Science presentation, David needing money for college, Lilian and Constance
needing more capital for their design business, and Glenna thinking that
Vincent cheated her husband in business) that surface and are resolved with
Jessie and Sam's intervention.
Interspersed in the action scenes are the love scenes. I found myself
smiling quite a bit, occasionally grinning at the repartee between Sam and
Jessie. Jessie is very attracted to Sam but knows that he won't be a
malleable type. She constantly tells him that a relationship between them
will never work and that she is not going to marry him. In her mind,
they're having a love affair but to him they are engaged to be married. In
the end, they do get married and everyone lives happily ever after.
Jayne Ann Krentz has once again created very likable characters and present
a strong visual story as she easily moves the plot along scene by scene.
She sustains the emotional tension throughout the book by the action of her
characters. It is with pleasure that I assign the status of 'KEEPER' to
Sweet Fortune.
Mindy Lopez
Rating: A
Imagine a family that is a family because of business. Jessie
Benedict has lived her entire life as the cog that holds the wheels
of her family together. Got a problem? Need money? See Jessie, the
only one who tries to communicate with her powerful, workaholic father.
She vows never to have a family like her own. Then who comes along, but
Sam Hatchard. A man who wants Jessie but also wants her father's
business. And he's willing to marry her to get it.
Jessie won't marry him, he's too much like her father. But she finds him
very useful when she decides to go into the detective business. She takes
him on a hunt for a missing college student. They butt heads on many
occasions and neither wants to back down. But the more time they spend
together she realizes that he may not be exactly like her father. There's
a chance that he could be the one for her.
I really enjoyed this book. As with her other novels, Jayne Ann Krentz
has written a book filled with humor, romance and a blend of
interesting characters. But what I really like is this is another
book where I could imagine myself as the heroine. I wanted to
be Jessie and have her adventures and romance. Those are the books I
like to read the most.
Sandra Woy
