Up until my leap into book reviewing, my range of genres was fairly limited: I knew what I liked and dipped systematically into my favourites. Romances featured quite regularly in the rounds. But book reviewing has broadened my choices considerably (authors can be very persuasive!), which has meant my selection is wider and has, dare I say, pushed romances a little way down in the pecking order. So if a romance does come my way, I really want it to be good.

This one was. Although it did have a few of the core elements of popular romance—good-looking female, hunky-dory male, one can’t stand the other, will they get together—it had substance. There was a lot more to the story, without the typical mushiness or predictability.

Neve is a tour guide on a cruise ship and her Egyptian boyfriend is her boss’s son. Despite his persistence to make her his wife, Neve isn’t sure he is ‘the one’. An encounter with Ross, a good-looking professor of archaeology, initially compounds her feelings, but later confirms her and her boyfriend’s unsuitability when she realises she’s irresistibly attracted to him. After taking positive steps to follow her heart and a future with a man with whom she’s hopelessly in love, things take a life-threatening direction. It’s time to forget what her heart is telling her and listen to what her head is advising to save a life; it’s Her Only Option.

There was an aura of maturity about the writing that I really liked: Neve was not a brainless flibbertigibbet. The dialogue was intelligent and credible. This was the sort of writing that could push romance further up my genre preference list!

A few too many editing issues just knocks a spot off the rating, but I’m sufficiently impressed by this author to welcome more of her books into my reading list.

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