Hannah Jesset is a doctoral school dropout and college guidance counselor who also happens to be the niece of famed anthropologist Elizabeth Nord, author of that seminal work of cultural anthropology The Amazons of Revelation Island. Hannah has recently inherited her aunt's library, including her research notes and personal journals. Modern day Amazon Vicky Armitage, Ph.D., is convinced that she has far better qualifications to use Nord's journals and notes and write the definitive work about Nord and her work than under-educated and distinctly un-Amazonian Hannah. But the materials are Hannah's legacy, and she is determined that she, and not Vicky Armitage, will decide how Elizabeth Nord's unpublished work will be used.

Before Hannah can deal with this vitally important problem, however, she must first do her best to save her brother's fledgling software company from the unwelcome attentions of corporate raider Gideon Cage. Hannah, having learned that Gideon regularly goes to Las Vegas for his vacation, determines that she will offer him a wager he cannot refuse to resolve his impending takeover bid for her brother's company. Of course, because she really wants to help her brother, she decides to help the odds along a little. In fact, she decides to cheat.

Gideon Gage grew up on the streets of Los Angeles, and rose from nowhere to become a major player in the high stakes world of corporate takeovers. For the last nine years, Gideon's life has been shaped by his need to revenge himself on his mentor, who had trained him and then hung him out to dry in a neat bit of corporate skulduggery. After nine years of narrow focus, however, Gideon is starting to lose his edge. His business isn't filling his life anymore and his vacations have settled into an unsatisfying routine. Into this lack steps Hannah Jesset, more interesting and complex than he first believes, and the only person he can remember (since his late mentor) willing to try to cheat him. With the same focus that he previously brought to bear on his business dealings, Gideon now goes after Hannah. Unfortunately, his experience with life has not prepared him for Hannah, who simply doesn't operate as he expects, but is completely ready to apply her guidance counseling skills to Gideon, his chief rival, her detractors, or anyone else who comes within her orbit.

Hannah believes that making more than a very small bit of room for Gideon will mean losing herself. She has the opportunity to really make something of herself with the Nord project, but feels she would be run over by Gideon if she made a commitment to him.

Oddly enough, the Nord story line is the major interest in the book. Hannah's research into her aunt's work, and her decisions about what to do with the results of that research are far more compelling than the romance in this story. Perhaps this is because Gideon Cage is never quite developed as a real person, but rather pops up whenever required by the plot, does what the plot requires, and then pops out again. Most often, he leaves because Hannah tells him to, which is apparently supposed to show Hannah's strength in not being manipulated by her desire for him. But this only reads like Amazonianism for its own sake, rather than of necessity. Gideon also suffers from being cast as a "corporate raider," a line of business that is poorly understood by most people, and certainly hard to present in a coherent and interesting manner in the context of a romance. This after all, is the subject of advanced seminars in business or economics.

Hannah is better realized, as the collateral descendant of a long line of independent and creative women. In addition to the anthropologist aunt, there was a writer and a famous artist in her family tree. None of these women ever married, and Hannah struggles with the conviction that if she is to make anything of herself then she, too, must walk the lonesome road.

There is a rather silly side bit about a necklace passed down through the generations of independent women in Hannah's family. The necklace appears to be some kind of fetish, and it, rather than the strength of her ancestors was responsible for their paths to success. Hannah is able to reach out to Gideon and love only when she throws the necklace away. Somehow this denigrates the accomplishment of her remarkable ancestors, as though they could not have reached their greatness without it. I would rather have had Hannah's soul searching about whether she could have both love and success based on character rather than jewelry.

Despite these shortcomings, the book is worth the read because of the Nord story, which acquires more interesting layers with subsequent readings. A love story with an intellectual challenge, now there is a reason to curl up with a good book.

Yvonne Stam