When Kelly MacLeod becomes a Massachusetts Family Court judge, she is determined to do what is right. Young, brilliant, and engaged to the perfect guy, she feels truly ready to begin her new appointment. With all her dreams coming true, Kelly never envisions what might go wrong...

Then a chance meeting with a man in a cemetery awakens an unexpected passion in Kelly. Agreeing not to reveal their names to each other, Kelly and the stranger begin an illicit affair.

Anne Madison, a respected state reformer with political aspirations, wants custody of her twelve-year-old adopted daughter, Tessa. So does Anne's soon-to-be ex-husband Randall Madison - a prominent physician. Tessa is caught in the middle of her parents emotional tug-of-war.

On the brink of adolescence, Tessa is just beginning to discover her own sexuality. She also wonders who her birth mother is. Troubled by this and pulled in too many directions, she tries to please those she loves at a cost that just might be too high.

Kelly MacLeod gets drawn into this family's legal and personal tribulations. How does one effectively balance public service with private desires? What does it mean - legally and emotionally - to be a family? How does someone move past anger and sorrow toward compassion and wisdom? How do adults learn to temper their own wills with the best needs of the child? What is right when one's own deepest emotions clash with the law?

Kelly's involvement with this particular case leads her to question issues within her own personal life. In order to answer these myriad questions, Kelly must grapple with her career as a judge and assess her mysterious new lover, her own past, and the complications of many kinds of love.

In my opinion, this book was very well-written and the plot was certainly engrossing. However, while I enjoyed reading it, I found the story to be quite a stretch for the imagination. Overall, I give this book an A! ( )

Kelly MacLeod has just been sworn in as a family court judge. Randall Madison is in the middle of a messy divorce and custody battle for his daughter Tessa. They meet at the cemetery while visiting their respective mothers' graves and end up falling for each other. The beginning is promising, but then it all becomes just too predictable. The good guys are perfect, and the bad guys have no redeeming qualities, which leads to the reader not caring about any of them. ( )