title: Alone in Boca Raton
author: Smolders, Jan
description: Mario Osorio, a young Mexican textile engineer, is in the United States on a temporary work permit. When an attractive, middle-aged Floridian business owner named Erin Brown takes a strong personal interest in him and proposes to sponsor him for a green card as a manager in her textile business, they strike a deal that allows Mario to stay in the States legally. Only days later, however, matters get complicated for Mario; his mother, Gloria, unexpectedly flees from Mexico illegally, going to New Mexico with her two young children, Anita and Roberto, to escape her husband, Mario's stepfather, José. Mario eventually brings his undocumented family to Florida and hides them in a place close to his. But it's only a matter of time until things go wrong. Soon Mario finds himself dealing with a drug connection, a shady deal with a Mexican contractor, a crooked lawyer, and the possible deportation of his family-all while a romance begins to blossom between him and Jenny, Erin's daughter. In this novel, only time will tell if Mario will be able to reunite his family and shore up the life he had begun to build for himself in Florida.