Cautious Lover is a little different from the usual JAK style. The
couple has been seeing one another for two months. This is a long wait to
become lovers but luckily we come in after he has proposed and she must
answer yes or no.
The problem Elly Trent has is that Jess Winter is too much in control of
himself. The man has a schedule and sticks to it. She fits in the scheme
of things by being what he calls her undemanding, good-natured, genuine,
tolerant and reliable. If she were not so crazy in love with the man she'd
tell him where to take his proposal. The only thing she can do is try to
push him a little. She's seen hints of fire in him from his infrequent
kisses, but each time there's a chance that things might get out of
control he pulls back.
Elly decides to seduce Jess to see if he really wants her and that only
adds to her dilemma. To her relief she finds he does, but in the process
she finds out why he wants a woman with all the qualities he thinks she
has. His ex-wife was a manipulator who had him in emotional extremes
before he finally came to his senses and he swore he would never be out of
control like that again. It also led him to decide that the fast lane was
not the lane he wanted to be in for the rest of his life and was opting
out of his consulting career to run an old Victorian Inn.
Now Elly faces a quandary, she still doesn't know what Jess feels for her
but having had him call her "witch" just as he had his ex-wife, she's
worried about pushing him. She doesn't want their relationship to remind
him of his past. She even tries to keep him out of her family's business
troubles in an effort to shield him. He doesn't even know that she was
once part of the business world and got out just like he is doing now.
All the while that she is trying to work this all out he is happily going
about his business, following his schedule and fitting a wedding in. It
takes finding Elly in a dangerous situation, caused by his past, to bring
him to his senses.
Elly is the not quite the typical heroine, I thought she was a touch to much
wimp. I realize this was written in 1986, but since when do JAK heroines
worry about pushing their men to get them to 'fess up to their feelings? As
far as Jess Winter goes, the name certainly fit, he was to cold and stuck
to his perfectly scheduled plans for me. He didn't even seem to hear the
worries that Elly was trying to express. It was only after Elly laid down
an ultimatum that he admitted what she meant to him and he opened up, but
that was in the last chapter!
The secondary characters helped little with the story line, excluding of
course the bad guys (but I can't list them without giving away the danger).
Of course there were the usual unusual family members, locals, artists
(they seem to be so prevalent in the Oregon area) and a baby named Compass
Rose. All in all I would say this one I kept because I'm a keeper, (you
should see my shelves and basement) but, for all the ones I've read 20
times this one isn't one of them.
Annetta Sweetko
