"She can't believe he could forget her!"

Romance novelist Sydney Colburn thinks outside the box and colors outside the lines. She is unapologetic and unembarrassed about her carefree lifestyle: she does and says what she wants, when she wants to; her relationships with men are based on the way men often treat women -- sex is great, commitment is a no-no. But now Sydney has reached a turning point in her life. Her new historical romance just hit the top spot on the NYT bestseller list -- this was her career goal, but she certainly didn't expect to reach it at age 30! She's financially secure due to her skills at the stock market. And she just attended the wedding of the last of her single girlfriends. So what should she do, where does she go from here with her career and her personal life?

Sydney decides that "what" she wants is actually "who" -- Adam Brody, the man she broke up with a year ago when he began to hint for a serious relationship. She walked out on him and left for a two-month book tour and vacation; when she returned home, he was no longer around -- sold his condo and closed his business office. But now that Sydney is thinking along the lines of love and commitment, she realizes that Adam is the one man she hasn't been able to forget. With the help of a P.I. friend, she tracks him down -- and finds that his disappearance was due to totally unexpected circumstances. The night she left him, Adam went jogging and was struck by a hit-and-run driver. He suffered a serious head injury, spent months in a coma and then in physical therapy, and lost all memory of the last few years.

Sydney can't believe that any man could possibly forget HER. She sets out to reacquaint Adam with their past, while also wanting to develop a new and deeper relationship. Then they stumble on information that indicates that maybe the events of that tragic night were not an "accident", especially when it comes to light that a major project Adam had just then completed (and now has no memory of) disappeared, taking with it the financial and professional success it would have brought him. As Adam and Sydney work together to find out what really happened, they build a new potential future for themselves.

Sydney made a refreshing and fun heroine. She was never embarrassed or repentant about her lifestyle, her independence, what she wanted from men and from life. Even though her desires changed, that didn't invalidate who she had been previously. She understood what was right for her at different times in her life. Even though she came to want Adam in a permanent relationship, Sydney recognized that she hadn't loved him when they were together before, that she hadn't been ready then for a more serious commitment -- she didn't try to rewrite the past. And the author didn't fall into the cliche of making her heroine realize that "she'd always loved him" or such!

Amnesia stories are a "guilty pleasure" of mine, although I frequently complain about how inaccurate and ridiculous most of them are. Ms. Leto is to be applauded for her realistic portrayal of the effects of amnesia from a head injury. Adam has to face not only memory loss, but the loss of some skills and abilities. His life is radically altered, he can no longer perform the job he had before, and things will never return to what they were. There was no miraculous recovery, that unbelievable cliche that occurs in so many amnesia-plot stories. It was far more interesting and involving for me as a reader to see how the hero and heroine coped with the results of this medical condition and how they managed to move on and build a successful future.

I highly recommend this book -- the hero and heroine are wonderful; the sex is sizzling (ooh, the scene under the sprinklers on the golf course! the phone sex in the car!); the plot is enough to make an interesting read without overpowering the romance.

Reviewed by Raelene Gorlinsky
Courtesy Sensual Romance
Posted March 12, 2003

Summary

Sydney Colburn is a card-carrying member of the Bad Girls Club. When she wants something, she goes after it until its hers. Too bad it took her over a year to realize that she wanted sexy architect Adam Brody for more than a love-'em'- and-leave-'em affair. So with a little help from her friends, Sydney finds Adam and sets out to seduce him back into her life. Unfortunately, Adam doesn't remember who she is...

Adam Brody instantly reacts to sultry, sensual Sydney. He doesn't remember their affair, but he's completely open to Sydney's offer to remind him—touch by touch and kiss by kiss—particularly since Sydney holds the key to sorting out the mystery of the accident that stole his memory in the first place. Besides, there's no man alive who can say no to a bad girl...