Heart of the Matter by Marta Perry

Michelle: I must admit, that when I first started reading this book, I HATED Ross Lockhart!I thought he was cocky, self-righteous, self-centered, and very narrow minded!!!

First of all, we have Amanda Bodine, the cousin of Georgia (from the first book). Amanda works for a mean boss who gives her only easy assignments, such as covering a dog show, etc. Though she's asked for tougher assignments, he sees her as a southern belle incapable of doing any real work. But when Ross learns there could be a breaking story in the Bodine family, he suddenly warms up to her to get closer to her family...

Now, let's talk about Ross. He'll do almost ANYTHING to get the "big one" in his newspaper. That's because he was fired and his name smeared in the press business after a story he wrote turned out to be wrong. Ross is now out to get a big story and will do almost anything for it!

Then suddenly, Ross and Amanda started liking each other. I must admit I didn't see it...I'm not sure what attracted them to each other. One minute they hated each other, and the next moment, Ross wondered what it would be like to cover her lips with his! I'm not sure what sparked the romance, but it happened all the same...

The romance seemed to be lacking the spark, but I must admit that the ending gave me goosebumps so they must have made me a believer at some point in the story...

But the reason this story got a five is because of the sub-plot of Amanda's father. That was the most interesting part and the mystery kept me on the edge of my seat until the very end!!!

Another subplot - the uncle wasn't really that interesting for me. I still don't quite understand why a small tiff with his father would cause Ned to go to such measures changing his name and hiding from the family all these years...