THE PERFECT HOPE - Nora Roberts
The Inn Boonsboro, Book 3
Berkley Trade Paperback
ISBN: 978-0-425-24604-7
November 2012
Contemporary Romance

Boonsboro, Maryland - Present Day

Hope Beaumont is sometimes surprised by how happy she is, living in a small town and running a bed and breakfast.  Much different from running the well-known Wickham Hotel in Washington D.C. and the fast-paced city life she once enjoyed. Hope loves being the innkeeper at Inn Boonsboro and having friends nearby, and she doesn't even mind living with a ghost.  In fact, Hope and Owen Montgomery have been working to find out what happened to their ghost, Lizzy's beau, especially since finding out that Lizzy is an ancestor of Hope's.  When Lizzy plays one of her little tricks on Hope—locking her in the Penthouse with Ryder Montgomery—Hope all but orders him to kiss her, knowing what Lizzy, a bit of a matchmaker, is up to.  The sizzle between Hope and Ryder is a little shocking, and she's not too sure what to do about it. 

Ryder's done his best to avoid spending time with Hope, but then he walks through the Courtyard and sees her with her ex.  For the second time, Hope plasters herself against him and lays a hot and heavy kiss on him, and since he knows her history with her ex, Ryder's more than happy to help out.  Now that he's seen she's not quite as perfect as she seems, though, Ryder intends to make sure that the next kiss he and Hope share is his own idea.

The final book in the Inn Boonsboro trilogy, THE PERFECT HOPE is the story of Hope and Ryder.  From their first meeting, there has been friction between them, even as they work together on the inn and spend time together as Hope's friends fall in love with Ryder's brothers.  Ryder is surly and sometimes unfriendly, and when Hope showed up for her interview in a snazzy suit and stilts for shoes, he took one look at the former beauty queen and couldn't imagine her running their small-town inn.  Though the months since hiring her have proven Ryder wrong, he still keeps his distance.  Hope had been in a long term relationship with the understanding that things were leading to marriage when her boyfriend explained that he was about to announce his engagement to somebody else.  It was bad enough finding out that the man she expected to marry had been seeing someone more “socially acceptable” but his family—her employers—were aware of the place she held also.  The chance to move to Maryland couldn't have come at a more opportune time, and now she wouldn't change anything about her life.  Well, until she kisses Ryder and realizes there's one thing she'd like to change. 

Lizzy, the ghost attached to the inn, has had a hand in the relationships between Clare and Beckett, as well as Avery and Owen, so of course she'll have something to say about Hope and Ryder.  In the previous book (THE LAST BOYFRIEND), she managed to tell the group that her lost love's name was Billy, and Hope is determined to find out what happened to him. 

A sweet romance that brings about a satisfying conclusion to the Inn Boonsboro trilogy, don't miss THE PERFECT HOPE.

Jennifer Bishop