The Lonely Season by Susan Napier (HP 940)

Gina Bennett has been sent to a tropical island, Paradise, to finish the illustrations for the latest children's book she's been assigned, as well as to complete the edits to her book. The island is owned by the publisher of her book, but she's been assured there's just a few villagers there at the moment, so she's shocked when she sees Leo Sterne on the beach after her swim. Leo's planning to go skinny dipping himself, but allows himself to be distracted by this beautiful girl who he assumes to be a trespassing villager. He catches her and demands a kiss.

Gina finds the irony of Leo's attraction amusing as just months before he had looked at her contemptuously after finding her in bed with his brother in law (thus breaking up his sister's marriage), but he doesn't recognize her and she takes advantage of his shock at feeling the scars on her throat to run away. She soon forges a friendship with a small boy who has trouble speaking and these two males serve as her inspiration for the illustrations. The boy happens to be Leo's son however and he's extremely resentful once he finds out what's going on!

This book is an excellent example of how a Harlequin Presents can make a completely over the top melodramatic plot work well. There's a lot going on and I can't do justice to the plot without loads of what could be considered spoilers, so I won't bother to try. Suffice it to say that Gina's been through a lot, and Leo doesn't plan on making things easy for her. The book itself isn't perfect (for instance Leo forcing a kisses on a woman he assumes is a teenaged native girl) but it works perfectly (ie, scenes like that one make perfect sense within the context and don't even make me blink!). And Leo's speech about what makes a woman a tramp versus someone with a healthy sexuality is great (see pages 124-125). Add everything together with the tropical island and I think everyone who might enjoy an HP should read this one.