PEARL COVE

In her third steamy romance about the gem-dealing Donovans (Amber Beach, 1997, etc.), Lowell joins Nora Roberts in the celebration of lusty heroes with large, loving families. Archer, the eldest of the Donovans, is a pearl lover and former government operative. Though he has forsaken the terrible loneliness of trouble-shooting for “Uncle” and gone to work in the mineral import-export business of his family, he hasn’t forgotten his deadly skills or lost his hair-trigger reflexes. Which is all to the good when Hannah McGarry, the widow of his half-brother Len, involves him in the search for a priceless set of pearls that has become implicated variously in the shadowy interests of the Chinese, Australian, and US governments. After Len is murdered at his Australian pearl farm, Hannah sends for Archer because her own life is in danger. Len, it seems, was a ruthless, obsessed fellow who had developed a priceless black pearl, and now the major pearl interests believe that Hannah knows its secret formula, though in truth Len never told her any part of his culturing methods. A bitter paraplegic, he merely exploited her genius for sorting pearls and withheld his love. Hannah now makes the mistake of believing that Archer is the same species of ruthless tough guy that Len was. While Archer can be as ruthless as he has to be, underneath those hard muscles and behind that hairy chest, he’s just a love-hungry teddy bear who has always had the hots for Hannah. As Lowell interweaves Hannah and Archer’s romantic tussle with a virtual handbook of pearl culturing, buying, history, and lore, Archer sneaks the voluptuous Hannah out of Australia and back to the protection of his family home in Seattle. Supported by the Donovans, the pair vanquish the bad guys along with all the barriers to marriage and babies. Strong, interesting, and sexy characters—and, happily for lovers of romance and priceless jewels, there are still three Donovan siblings to go. ($150,000 ad/promo)