Verdict: If you're in the mood for a sweet, passionate love story with seriously likable characters, this is the one for you. It's a light read, but a good one.

Let Me Be The One is one of a series of romance novels concerning the large Sullivan family. In this case, the hero is Ryan Sullivan, pitching star for the Hawks, a pro baseball team with a shot at the World Series this year.

Vicki Bennett, is a sculptor with an amazing gift for her art, who has been Ryan’s best friend since she saved his life at age 15, but has spent the last several years in Europe, married to an arrogant, self-serving egotist. Now, she is happily divorced, back in San Francisco, and up for a fellowship which can make or break her career – but one of the board members is a lecherous groper who wants to trade favors, and the only way she can think of to escape his grasp is to claim a fake boyfriend. Ryan steps in, more willingly than she knows, but their false relationship quickly starts to turn intensely, passionately real. Can they manage to negotiate a friendship turned to love? Can Vicki win success in her career and her art without losing the man she loves? And will Ryan give her the confidence she needs to stand up for herself against those who would take advantage of her?

If you are an emotional diabetic, you may need to reach for your virtual insulin shots for this story, as it is quite intensely sweet. The love story is tender and endearing, with the couple’s friendship forming a solid foundation for the romance that develops. The emotions are intense throughout the book without seeming too sudden or too forced, since Ryan and Vicki’s relationship has already had time to develop before the story starts. The lead characters are both warmhearted, genuinely good people, and it is easy to wish them well. The author’s descriptive abilities are substantial, and the love scenes are enthusiastically erotic, without either violence or serious physical implausibility.

There are parts of the story which are less satisfying than others – the offer of a job in Italy for Vicki seems thrown in only to cause extra tension, for example. Additionally, the idea of two adults pining for each other for that length of time, even while one of them goes off and marries someone else and the other develops a reputation as a ladies’ man with a series of affairs, seems a bit implausible, though not hugely so. The sentence structure occasionally feels a bit clumsy, and there are a few mistakes in word use (for example, using “diffuse” where “defuse” would be more appropriate), but this does not seriously interfere with the feeling of the story.      

If you’re in the mood for a sweet, passionate love story with seriously likable characters, this is the one for you. It’s a light read, but a good one.

Reviewed by Catherine Langrehr for IndieReader