The Crush » (Reprint)

Already a successful romance novelist in the 1980s, Sandra Brown struck gold when she pushed past the category s boundaries to take chances with more intricate plotting, richer characters, and surprising plot twists. Her string of bestsellers feature strong, capable career women in extreme circumstances.

When Dr. Rennie Newton—a beautiful but reserved doctor—serves jury duty, she is unnerved by the courtroom stare of the defendant. She suspects he is guilty, but must defend his inalienable rights. When she arrives home to find a dozen roses and a sinister note form a secret admirer, Newton realizes the criminal she let walk may not let her go. With the help of a cop who knows the offender's crimes, Newton vows to see another trial. And this time....a conviction.

Book Magazine

Brown's latest novel is utter dreck. Consider the characters: The heroine, a supersexy surgeon with the trendy gender-ambiguous moniker of Dr. Rennie Newton, is straight off The Lifetime Channel; the gumshoe, Wick Threadgill, is a jaded but sexy beach bum; the villain, Lozado, is sexier than anyone else. Among Lozado's prized possessions are a pricey bachelor pad and a tank of scorpions. Astonishingly, Brown has become very successful with such stuff—her books have sold 60 million copies and been translated into thirty languages. Perhaps translation improves the prose: In English it's all cliché—no one is killed but "brutally slain," no carpet is less than "lush," no naughty musing is unaccompanied by a "shiver of pleasure." As Lozado stalks Rennie and Wick's heart pounds for her, we're plunged into a tale of obsession and suspense and betrayal and lust and daring and romance and tears and we've heard it a thousand times before.