The Woman with Qualities

South Florida isn't exactly the Promised Land that forty-nine-year-old newly widowed Keri Anders had in mind when she decided to transplant herself from the Northeast. Lonely and lost, she is the perfect victim for a string of mishaps that in a matter of days strip her of job, cash, credit cards - and credibility. She doesn't even have to look for trouble; it comes to meet her head-on. Tripping over a beer bottle on an early morning run and getting badly cut up lands her in the arms of David Chipperton, a surgeon married to a wealthy Palm Beach socialite: the perfect lover for any neophyte on a crash course in self-destruction. Frustration and fear is a match made in hell. Keri is a writer and "Chip" wants to become one; Chip is wealthy and Keri needs to pay her bills. The co-dependency begins and although friends come to the rescue, Keri has no desire to be saved. Only after she gets down on her hands and knees and starts scrubbing away at her own snobbery and elitism, does she begin to see why she planted herself in this "swamp of human refuse: aliens, drop-outs, drunks and drug pushers." A tough action-packed novel that is far more than a love story. You will want to read this book more than once.