Review: Nice escape read
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 05 14, 2013
All aboard! It's time for a romantic meeting of strangers on a train.When Allie Whittaker's best friend convinced her to go on a singles' mingle on a train through California wine country, workaholic Allie wasn't sure how to go about breaking the ice with a stranger on a train. Yet, Sandra made it sound so easy; approach a man and announce that she'd tell him three things about herself and ask the man to guess which one of those things was a lie. So Allie gathered up her nerve and approached a man hiding under a baseball cap who seemed just as reluctant to mingle with singles as she was.Realizing the man's identity was a big surprise, especially when it was apparent he was attempting to hide who he was with one of the three reciprocal pieces of information he gave Allie about himself. But to get her new business off the ground, Allie really needed this particular man to agree to pose for a charity calendar project she was putting together for a client, so playing along under false pretenses could potentially make the calendar project finally come together for her and her company. Mutual attraction was a bonus!Like Allie, famous baseball pitcher Matt Kearns wasn't really interested in mingling, but a friend convinced him the passing scenery alone would distract him from the fallout of an injury that could potentially end his career in the major leagues. He found Allie's approach a little brazen, but she didn't seem like the groupie women who hounded him at every opportunity, in fact she didn't seem to recognize him at all. But possibly, it was that whopper she told him when she said he couldn't be the real Matt Kearns because she'd dated and dumped the famous pitcher already! Despite knowing that she was lying, there was something about Allie's smile that made Matt need to seek out a little one-on-one time and really get to know her before they reached the end of the line.As one of three stand-alone stories in Samhain Publishing's Stranger on a Train series, Donna Cummings' BACK ON TRACK is a nice escape for a few couple of hours of reading pleasure. Allie and Matt have a good balance of awareness and sexual chemistry and their characters are interesting, if not as fleshed out as I would have liked but considering the story is only 71 pages, Ms. Cummings' details about this couple were quite acceptable. The way this couple meets is inspired and amusing, but it's easy to predict early on that the subterfuge in which they engage will be the catalyst for future conflict.While BACK ON TRACK is a relaxing, enjoyable read with nice pacing, I think a longer length and more in-depth characterization would have given Ms. Cummings the opportunity to add a few unexpected plot twists that could have created more conflict and reader anticipation.Reviewed by Angie Just Read...for TheRomanceReviews.com