Linda Hudson-Smith

BET/Arabesque

1-58314-343-4

April 2002

(4) Leslie Cannon

Contemporary Romance

PLOT SYNOPSIS: 

Sambrea Sinclair takes charge of her father's yachting company and welcomes charming Craig Caldwell into her life. When she finds out he's trying to stage a hostile takeover of her company, her good sense tells her to fight. But Sambrea only wants to explore the magic she sees in his eyes.

REVIEW: 

Not long ago, I read my first work by Linda Hudson-Smith - her novella, “Forbidden Fantasy,” in the 2002 ARABESQUE’S Valentine’s Day Anthology, LOVE IN BLOOM.  Reading the novella, piqued my interest in Hudson-Smith’s work, but her latest novel, ISLAND INTERLUDE, has sealed my spot in her fan club.

With ISLAND INTERLUDE, Ms. Hudson-Smith delivers a novel filled with passion, betrayal, mystery and...did I mention passion?  Well, forgive me, but this book is filled with such passionate, tender scenes that the word bears mentioning more than once.

The beautiful beaches of Hawaii are the setting for ISLAND INTERLUDE, and certainly, the setting could not have been any more appropriate.   Ms. Hudson-Smith’s description and depiction of the beaches, islands and even the fruit was beyond breathtaking, aiding in making the love scenes that much more passionate.

The novel’s heroine, Sambrea Sinclair, meets the books hero, Craig Caldwell, while taking her nightly stroll along the beach.  Their instant physical attraction becomes quickly complicated when Sambrea learns that Craig is the CEO of the company trying to take over her yachting company. 

Determined to save the business she inherited from her father, Sambrea fights to suppress her feelings for Craig so that her thoughts can be clear and focused on the sole tasks of preserving her company.  But forgetting the man, whose “eyes, black as a starless night, shimmered with midnight magic,” was a difficult feat for Sambrea, and understandably so.  Her attempts at forgetting Craig allows readers to journey with her from one island to the next, as mystery upon mystery unfold. 

ISLAND INTERLUDE delivers some surprises that made me gasp aloud.  Ms. Hudson-Smith does an excellent job of portraying these scenes in such a way that I had no problem developing empathy for Sambrea and fully understanding her lack of trust for others, and her lack of faith in the institution of marriage.  Hudson-Smith’s word gift shines through so powerfully that I literally wanted to just give Sambrea a hug.

Craig’s character seems a bit too cocky at points, but then I watched his persistent attempts at proving his love to Sambrea, and the tenderness with which he often holds and encourages her, and I just loved him to pieces.  

All of Ms. Hudson-Smith’s characters work well, especially the villains of the story, who, well-depicted that they were, made you want to take them and shake them for a bit.

ISLAND INTERLUDE is bound to keep readers intrigued from start to finish.  This novel has rightfully earned a spot in the worth re-reading section of my personal library.  Now that I'm a fan of Ms. Hudson-Smith’s work, re-reading this delicious novel is exactly what I’ll be doing while anxiously awaiting her next literary creation.

leslie@romanceincolor.net (1st April 2002)