One of the most romantic stories I've read in a while. This is truly an emotional read and will have you laughing, crying, smiling, and fuming!

After an engagement that goes horribly wrong, Lindsey decides to take a break from her high-society life in Chicago and go visit her recently deceased great-aunt's Montana Cabin. In a tiny town, in the middle of nowhere, Lindsey learns about herself and about what's really important in life. She learns about love and forgiveness and courage...all with the mostly unwilling assistance of a stubborn, sexy man.

Rob doesn't 'do' relationships. He's had it with the heartbreak that always follows. Now that he's found a place where he belongs, he intends to stick. Alone. Then Lindsey happens...and somehow she keeps worming her way into his solitary existence.

A book romance enthusiasts MUST read. Both the hero and heroine are riddled with flaws, but that's what makes watching their relationship grow so special. Have a hanky handy as you're almost sure to tear up at least once or twice. And even if you don't, you can use it to dab the sweat off your brow after reading the sex scenes!! ( )

Toni Blake really steams up the pages with LETTERS TO A SECRET LOVER! Alternately funny and moving, it's the story of two people who are both running from their pasts.

Lindsey was an advice columnist until her own high-profile engagement ended in an awkward public incident involving a window washer, a nude photo and a strawberry cake. Rob Coulter is running from a much darker, uglier past, so he's reluctant to let Lindsey into his life. But Rob was good friends with Lindsey's deceased Aunt Millie, so he gets drawn into helping Lindsey make amends for having neglected that aunt. The two find themselves falling in love and becoming a part of the quirky rural town in which they've taken refuge. They seem destined for an easy, comfortable life together until Rob's past threatens their future.

LETTERS TO A SECRET LOVER moved me with its story about Lindsey trying to forgive herself for neglecting an elderly family member. But it also made me laugh out loud at Lindsey's messy breakup and her plans to bring a hip big-city sensibility to the sleepy town of Moose Falls. The chemistry between Lindsey and Rob leaps off the page and the love scenes were so hot they fogged up my glasses! ( )

I. L.O.V.E.D. I.T.

The author says it’s a cross between Men in Trees meets Sex and The City and that is an apt description. I loved, loved, loved Rob. I’ve said before that I love a blue collar kind of hero. I’d take one of them over a white collar type any day. And Rob is a great blue collar kind of guy. He builds things and also runs the local canoe renting for tourists business. Works with his hands he does. I like that in a hero. He’s also a big grouchy teddy bear type and I love that kind too. And there’s another side to him that goes right to my ‘what I love in a romance novel” side to him – but I don’t want to give that away since it’s not revealed until later on in the story. As Katie can attest – he’s the kind of hero you just want to hug and hug and not let go of.

Lindsey, on the other hand is a girly, girl type – the kind that’s heavy into shoes and that kind of thing. Often times this kind of heroine gets on my nerves since it’s the opposite of me. But sometimes, if the author writes her right – it can work. Blair Mallory is one of those who really ‘works’ for me. And as does Lindsay. While I can’t relate to a lot of what makes her tick, still, she is a very likeable heroine and I warmed up to her quite early in the book. I got quite a kick out of her thing for shoes and her initial horror at wearing Keds! And then later on, she was so thrilled at getting a new pair of hiking boots – and then getting them muddy in the rain. And she really was quite a bit deeper then she first came across as at first.

This is a wonderful story of two opposite people falling in love and appreciating their differences.

I have a couple other of her books not read yet that I’m going to find and then get all the rest of her back list I can find! ( )

**Courtesy of CK2S Kwips & Kritiques**

A disastrous break-up headlining the scandal sheets sends Lindsey Brooks heading for cover in the most unlikely of places for a chic woman about town such as herself – the small town of Moose Falls nestled in Montana. All she is looking for is a little peace and quiet far away from the hustle and bustle of Chicago and its busy paparazzi and the chance to reconnect with her late aunt through her home town. She certainly never expected this sedate little town and its denizens to launch a soul searching journey of self that leads her to some rather surprising revelations about her life in Chicago and her future.

Of course, the hunky recluse Rob Colter has more than a little to do with that… Antisocial doesn’t even begin to describe the man who now owns her aunt’s home and canoe rental business. But a man’s secrets sometimes demand he keep to himself, and Rob’s secrets have the power to destroy the home he has found in Moose Falls.

But as Rob and Lindsey spend more and more time together, neither can deny the intense attraction that threatens to develop into something much more lasting than a mere fling. And it is just that kind of attachment that can endanger everything that Rob has.

What can I say? With each new release, Toni Blake’s writing talent impresses me more and more. Letters to a Secret Lover is the latest release from her, and it can only build both her reputation and her fan base. With a story as inspiring as it is sexy, she has crafted a romance that will have you dabbing your eyes with a tissue one moment, and squirming in your seat the next!

Both Lindsey and Rob go through intense personal journeys in this book, both separately and together. The lessons they learn from each other and from their friends are some that will undoubtedly reach many a reader with their absolute truth.

Lindsey’s growth is more blatant, as she matures from a frivolous girl-about-town sporting Manolo Blahnik shoes on her feet, to a woman who soon emulates her aunt’s place as the heart and soul of the close-knit community of Moose Falls, complete with the much more practical Keds tennis shoes. Of course, Lindsey doesn’t give up her Manolo’s completely, just as she doesn’t lose the vivaciousness and sparkle that are an inherent part of her personality. But the sparkle is tempered with a depth that perhaps was always there, but buried beneath the gilt and glitter of a life in the public eye.

Rob’s transformation is slower, and is fairly well contained to his relationship with Lindsey throughout most of the book. The man that appeared gruff and uncaring at the beginning of the book is soon revealed as a man who is deeply afraid of losing the one place that has ever felt like a home to him, and so keeps to himself for fear of his sordid past will be exposed and he will lose everything.

The interspersion throughout the story of mysterious letters penned by Rob pouring his heart out to a mysterious woman do much to show this man’s ability to love, even before he is able to finally open up to Lindsey. Of course, the fact that Lindsey accidentally finds these letters soon after she realizes she loves him do just as much to create romantic uncertainty on her part, being unsure whether the man she loves still loves another.

In the end, LETTERS TO A SECRET LOVER culminates in a disastrous showdown with Rob’s past, in the most unlikely of ways. For Rob, the absolute worst that could happen, does. But our hero still has much to learn before the end of the book – including a woman’s capacity for love and a town’s capacity for compassion.

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