Samhain Publishing, $4.50, ISBN 1-60504-212-9
Contemporary Romance, 2008

Hayley Williams, our heroine, works at the Home Office and quietly moonlights as Madame Deveraux, a Gypsy fortune teller that specializes in tea leaf reading. Never mind that her parents and her Home Office superiors would disapprove of her job, she’s going to slowly save enough to get herself her own place and be her own person. When the story opens, it is her birthday and she decides to hang out at a bar instead of moping at home like she apparently does on a daily basis.

Sam Norville picks her up and is charmed by her despite the fact that Hayley wants to know why he can’t pick someone hotter than her. Then again, I’ve had a male friend who once told me that he likes picking up women with low self-esteem because he is convinced that these women are easier to be persuaded to go to bed and they are more eager to please. Hmm.

At any rate, these two have a thing for each other but they will both do very stupid things in order to prolong the story. Hayley is an exasperating wretch as she is a tedious creature who acts as if having even a little fun will kill her slowly. She comes up with all kinds of tortuous silly schemes to keep Sam away from her. As for Sam, he loves her but at the same time he is worried that Hayley will be just like the lying harlots he used to date. Hayley and Sam, in other words, are very tedious silly creatures and the story is this long only because these two take what seems like forever to see sense.

Tea for Two is not just my cup of tea. Sorry, I have to say that, heh.