Anderson (Cutting Loose
) creates a sexy, feel-good contemporary romance starring down-to-earth Seattle artist Poppy Calloway and handsome but rigid police detective Jason de Sanges. When three teenagers are caught defacing some neighborhood stores, Poppy suggests they clean up their mess and replace it with a mural. Jase, vexed by beautiful and unpretentious Poppy, scoffs at the mural idea, but his higherups agree to it and put him in charge of the teens. Poppy and Jase have met previously and seem perpetually at odds, but they can’t deny sharing a visceral and intense chemistry. After some suspicious accidents, Jase leaps to protect the woman he once dismissed as “a damn bleeding-heart liberal.” Palpable escalating sexual tension between the pair, a dangerous criminal on the loose and a cast of well-developed secondary characters make this a winner. (July)
