"The Art of Ethan" by Cara North is a story that will stay with you. North's characters grab your emotions and your heart.

Grace is a woman frozen in time. Although it's been four years since her mother died, she's never really accepted, or mourned, her passing. Since then, she's only been going through the motions of living, keeping her mother's house as a shrine to all those who have left her alone. Into this scene, her cousin comes home for a visit and brings her fiance and his brother. Each of these characters awakens an emotion in Grace, but none moreso than Ethan.

Ethan is a rake, but the best kind. Women have always been easy for him and he has coasted through life, not really working for anything except his art. His last half-hearted relationship went badly and when his brother insists he accompany him to his fiance's cousin's home in North Carolina, he agrees. If nothing else, it will get him away from his stalker. Then, Grace happens. She doesn't seem to want anything from him and for the first time in his life, Ethan will have to work, and work hard, for the woman who's turning his emotions inside out.

If poor editing drives you nuts, then you need to be prepared before you read this book. Because I'm so OCD about it, it did bother me throughout the book. But, these two kept drawing me back in and I couldn't NOT finish their story. It wasn't the suspense or the hot sex (but it was certainly worth reading) that kept me going, it was the growing relationship and the emotional investment in both the hero and heroine that kept me entranced to the last page. Now I'm off to order the next book in this series "Chasing Joshua". It's that good. ( )