THE SINGLE DAD'S VIRGIN WIFE – Susan Crosby
Wives For Hire, Book 2
Silhouette Special Edition #1930
ISBN: 978-0-373-24930-5
October 2008
Series Romance

Chance City, California – Present Day

Life is short. Make it an adventure.

Tricia McBride is looking for a temporary position for three months until she can sell her mother's home and move to Sacramento and the job she really wants. At Your Service, a domestic and clerical help agency, has set her up with an appointment with David Falcon to interview her to be the home schooling teacher for his nieces and nephews. David's brother Noah, the father of the children, doesn't know his present nanny is quitting, and with two sets of twins, the family has had so many teachers quit that their home situation is under upheaval all the time and they need some consistency. Even though Tricia can only be there a short time, this can give Noah time to finally pick the person to help his children, and not take the first person who comes along. Tricia was once engaged over ten years ago, but her fiancé died in a helicopter crash, and after that, she spent the remaining years taking care of her dying mother. After her mother's death, Tricia spent a year driving around the country, trying to get her mental health back and figure out how to live the rest of her life. Life is short. Make it an adventure is now her motto, and twin boys age nine and twin girls age twelve seem like just the sort of adventure she needs. Sounds like this family needs some of the healing touch it has taken her a year to obtain for herself.

Since Noah's wife died of cancer three years ago, keeping his word to her and having the children home schooled has been hard. In fact, Noah is so upset he rarely comes home before the children are asleep at night, and he feels a rift between them that he finds difficult to overcome. These children are way too quiet and polite, but that is the way Noah likes it. Their work spaces are tidy, their manners are impeccable, yet they seem to have no life. Even their name for him "Father" is Noah's way of distancing himself from his own childhood. Noah was the oldest son raised by a domineering man who married three women and had three sons, each of whom he kept after the divorce. To Noah fell all duties of raising his two brothers, David and Gideon. The only thing he refused to learn was cooking, or he would have had to do that too. As the president of Falcon Motorcars, Noah never lets up on his take-charge persona. But Tricia's backside as she climbs the steps in his house arouses passions he thought long dead, and her knowing look let's him know he's been caught. Even though his brother David successfully crossed the line between boss and boyfriend and is marrying Valerie, whom he also hired from At Your Service, Noah wants to keep Tricia as a teacher for his children more than he wants something else...well, almost more.

Tricia somehow works her magic with Zoe and Ashley and Adam and Zachary, giving them a sense of permanence in their lives and encouraging Noah to spend more time with them. Noah wants to love and relate to his children, and yet is afraid of the pain and tension that overcomes him when he arrives home each night, and the silence at the dinner table when he tries to talk to them. Tricia's teaching is different from what he is used to, but quickly he sees changes in the children. Unfortunately, he also notices their good looking, kind and vivacious teacher, and what is worse is that she also notices him. They each consider taking their relationship to the next level, but is that something the children can deal with? And what will the entire family think when they find out this is only a temporary job?

Susan Crosby has continued her Wives for Hire series with Noah, eldest of the Falcon brothers. THE SINGLE DAD'S VIRGIN WIFE is told from Noah's and Tricia's points of view; the building of their relationship and Tricia's gentle changing of the twins' attitudes are portrayed perfectly. Noah wants love, well...sex (it has been over three years), but he loves his children more and wants to keep Tricia around after seeing the miracles she performs. Tricia is looking forward to a new life, but fitting into the Falcon family helps her come to enjoy life again and to let go of some of the pain from the last years. Can two wounded people let go of their fears long enough to build a loving relationship, or will the past hamper the future?

The secondary characters are Noah's brother David and his fiancée Valerie, and his brother Gideon, who tries in vain to warn him about fraternizing with the help if he wants to keep Tricia. Cynthia is in charge of the home schooling program in the area, and she might have her cap set on Noah too. And most lively and loving are the twins, Zoe and Ashley and Adam and Zachary, children too grown up for their age, trying to please their father and being denied the joys of childhood. You will come to love every member of the Falcon family just as I did.

THE SINGLE DAD'S VIRGIN WIFE continues the Falcon family saga that began with THE BACHELOR'S STAND IN WIFE (July 2008) and will finish with Gideon's story, THE MILLIONAIRE'S CHRISTMAS WIFE (November 2008). I highly recommend this Wives For Hire series. See how each brother is living a life that continues to be ruled by their father's actions, and how they overcome years of pain and isolation and bloom into men in love. Thank you Susan for giving these men someone to call their own.

Carolyn Crisher