| Leland Fowler meets Carissa Lake, a homeopath, after he has been sick for about six months with a “cold.” It probably doesn't help that he has been working full-time and raising his four-year-old daughter by himself since his wife died just over two years ago in a tragic car accident. Leland tried many conventional methods to get rid of his cold and finally out of desperation goes to a health food store for Echinacea. The Echinacea didn't work that well, and Leland thought that maybe he just needed more of it, so he goes back to the health food store. This time, without really meaning to, he pours out his frustrations about his lingering cold to a young employee in the store, who recommends that he call her aunt, the local homeopath. Out of desperation, Leland does call her.
Leland is attracted to Carissa at their first meeting. She asks him many questions so that she can prescribe a remedy for him. Before he leaves her office, he asks her out, but she tells him that she cannot date any of her patients. However, Leland does not give up and after calling and asking her out a few more times, he decides to woo her by leaving flowers and little gifts at her office. Carissa finally agrees to go out to dinner with him, and spending time with Carissa makes Leland became the happiest he has been since his wife died. The problems begin a week after they started dating. Another patient of Carissa's ends up in the hospital in a coma on Christmas Eve. Leland doesn't know the details, so on the morning when he finds out what happened, he calls Carissa and goes over to see her to see if she is okay. Somewhere during the time he is in her kitchen with her, he realizes that as a prosecuting attorney for the state of Vermont, and without knowing whether she is to blame in any way for what happened, he probably shouldn't even be talking to her. He definitely knew he should not talk to Jennifer, the wife of Richard, the man in the coma, but when she comes to the State's Attorneys Office and the receptionist tells Leland that the attorney Jennifer had come to see is still in court, Leland just can't bring himself to tell the receptionist that he can't see Jennifer. It turns out that Jennifer does blame Carissa for what happened, due partly to things her husband had told her Carissa said, such as that he should give up his asthma medication as it might interfere with the remedy Carissa had prescribed for him. Although Leland is not sure that Carissa is 100% innocent of blame for what happened to Richard, he desperately wants to help her. He thinks up a plan that might keep her from facing a criminal investigation and from a civil suit as well. Leland and Carissa work together to put this plan into effect, but it involves an obstruction of justice, and if what they did is found out, there could be serious consequences for both of them. | ||
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Plot & Themes Tone of book? - thoughtful Time/era of story - 1980's-1999 Romance/Romance Problems Yes Internal struggle/realization? Yes Struggle over Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book Coping with loss of loved one(s) Yes Loss of... Lover is Main Character Gender - Male Profession/status: Age: - 20's-30's Ethnicity/Nationality Main Adversary Identity: - society Setting How much descriptions of surroundings? - 5 () United States Yes The US: - Northeast Small town? Yes Writing Style Sex in book? Yes What kind of sex: - vague references only - licking Amount of dialog - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog |
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