Why was I reminded of them? Well, let me see. Temple Banning wakes up in a luxurious hotel suite, with a wedding gown and bouquet in the room, champagne for two nearby and has no idea why. And that may be the best thing that happens to her in the whole story. Very soon she finds out from a hotel receptionist she is supposed to be married to a Michael St. Gerard. She has never heard of him. She doesn’t remember getting married or why she is in the hotel.

Temple is a heroine on her own - - she has just moved to California to take a new job, leaving behind a sulking ex-fiancé and a little sister who both expected Temple to stay and be there for them. Her parents died in Zaire from a terrible virus that she survived. You would think that her survival was good luck for Temple. Ohhhh no. We discover that is the thing that gets her into all this trouble. Even her good luck is bad news.

Temple goes from disaster to disaster. The mysterious St. Gerard calls -- after she discovers she is pregnant. He has hired the equally mysterious Mark Challis to protect her because she may be in danger. Soon, an elevator Temple and Challis are in begins to freefall and barely stops in time to keep them from crashing. Later, her car blows up with her best friend in it. Mark Challis’ protection gets tighter and tighter until she ends up on an isolated island that his family owns.

Is this truly a Gothic story or what? No matter what Temple tries -- and she tries a lot - - she can’t get away, she can’t figure out what is going on and she can’t get over this attraction she has to Challis.

And, to be honest, I don’t know why she is attracted to him. He is handsome. He is mysterious. You discover he is supposed to be devoted to her. But he has her under surveillance all the time, he lies to her, he puts her in danger and - - well, I don’t get the attraction. He’s too frightening.

You discover that he is trying to save someone else while all this is going on, but it doesn’t matter. Maybe part of the problem is that you don’t see Temple and Challis together enough. Maybe you don’t see his human side enough. Whatever the reason, if I met this hero I would try to run, screaming, and never ever come back. Temple finally escapes from terrible danger with a rather mystical experience that I did not completely buy. But perhaps I didn’t want to at that point.

The writing is good, the suspense is thick, and the heroine is courageous, so The Morning After isn’t an awful read. And when Temple returns to Challis for the final time to confront him, I was not happy even though I suppose it qualified as a “romantic” ending. Not liking the romance in a book? Now that is a sad thing.

--Irene Williams