Above and Beyond

Three days after Kyla Stroud, the heroine of this overwrought romance novel, gives birth to a son, Aaron, in a Texas hospital, she learns that her husband, Sgt. Richard Stroud, has perished in a terrorist attack on the American embassy in Cairo, Egypt. Cherishing Richard's memory, Kyla resolves never to fall in love again. But about a year after the tragedy she meets Trevor Rule, a one-eyed hunk, who enters her life when he saves Aaron, now a toddler, from drowning in a mall fountain. Trevor later gives Kyla and Aaron a ride home after the failure of her car battery%E2%80%94a prelude to a full-court romantic press. What Kyla doesn't know is that Trevor was friends with Richard, a fellow soldier wounded in the same blast that killed Richard. In a creepy twist, Trevor is armed with intimate details about Kyla's likes and dislikes from letters she sent her late husband now in his possession. Some readers will find Trevor charming, his actions well-intentioned, while others will consider him a perverse stalker. Fans of bestseller Brown (Deadline) will best appreciate this apprentice work, first published in 1986. (Mar.)