RomanceEverAfter

Book Reviews Cafe

Contemporary
Review by Donna DeFalco

Ms. Simon Says
by Mary McBride
Warner Forever, March 2004

For 12 years, Shelby Simon has been administering tried and true advice in her column, "Ms. Simon Says," for the Chicago Daily Mirror. She might be helping the love lives of hundreds of readers, but Ms. Simon can't seem to find Mr. Right.

When letter bombs start blowing up in mail rooms around the country and the packages are addressed to her, Shelby's column is suspended and she must go into hiding. Her hastily appointed bodyguard is ill-tempered, sullen Lt. Mick Callahan of the Chicago Police Department.  He escorts Shelby to the only safe place she can think of -- her parents' home in Michigan, where her mother runs a business selling hand-crafted knit designs and her father is a retired attorney.

Shelby is not above giving advice to her parents, whose marriage appears to be rocky, and her younger sister, who fled home for California after a disastrous love affair, caused in part by Shelby's well-meaning advice. When the bombs move closer to their intended target and Shelby's life and the lives of those around her are in danger, Callahan turns out to be Shelby's knight in body armor. In the end, Shelby ends up following her own advice and Ms. Simon finally falls in love.

Shelby and Callahan are a likable couple who must face their own personal demons before they can love each other. For those of us in the Chicago area, Mary McBride's descriptions of Michigan's beautiful fall foliage will make you want to abandon your own home and move in with Shelby's parents.