After the Night

Synopsis

Faith Devlin: A poor, outcast child in Prescott, Louisiana, she'd always adored the town's golden boy from afar. But he called her white trash that sultry Southern night when his rich, respected father disappeared, along with her pretty Mom. Now Faith wanted to hate Gray Rouillard...not to feel a powerful surge of desire. But she couldn't quench her passion, any more than she could hide the truth about the past she had waited so long to unravel.

Gray Rouillard: Even when he raised hell, he did it with style. Reckless, charming, and backed by Rouillard money, Gray controlled the town of Prescott -- and Devlin was a name he never wanted to hear again. But when he gazed at Faith Devlin, all he saw was a swirl of tangled sheets and her silken flesh beneath him. To care for her was impossible, unthinkable...because Gray Rouillard planned to use all his power to ruin her.

Publishers Weekly

Flawed and predictable, Howard's latest offering after Dream Man is the rather clichd contemporary story of a dirt-poor Southern girl in love with the handsome son of a Louisiana town's wealthiest family. Loving Rouillard men seems to run in the Devlin family. Twelve years ago, Renee Devlin and Guy Rouillard disappeared simultaneously one summer night. The entire town assumed the longtime lovers had eloped, and Guy's handsome young son, Gray, enraged, had the remaining Devlins driven out of town, leaving 14-year-old Faith to care for her fatally ill baby brother. Now Faith is back, financially independent and still nursing a passion for Gray that his actions couldn't possibly justify. But she's also ready to even the score-especially when she learns that the elder Rouillard may have been murdered that fateful summer night. Faith is not as sympathetic as Howard's previous heroines, and Gray goes a half-step beyond the acceptable bad-boy hero. Howard does manage to offset these problems with provocative secondary characters and borderline erotica, creating a sexy speed read. (Dec.)