Format: E-book
Read with: Amazon Kindle
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Silhouette Intimate Moments
Publisher: Silhouette
Hero: Cooper Landry
Heroine: Rusty Carlson
Sensuality: 3.5
Date of Publication: November 1, 1987
Started On: November 30, 2010
Finished On: December 1, 2010

I was going through Sandra Brown’s book list on Goodreads when a bunch of her older titles which I have not managed to read yet caught my eye. This one jumped outright at me from the very first moment with the title alone to make it sound like a story that I would be interested in. Upon reading the book summary, I knew that this book was definitely right up my ally and I didn’t hesitate to get myself a copy and indulge in one of my favorite romance themes ever – where total opposites come together in a romantic suspense novel, the hero as grouchy as can be and the heroine as feminine as  they come creating the best of sexual tension which in the end delivers a romance of the best kind! And this book certainly did not disappoint me on that front.

Two Alone was first published in 1987 when Sandra Brown wrote under the pseudonym Erin St. Claire a fact which I found out when I was about to start writing the review, and I was surprised by just how much I enjoyed this one since most of the time romances penned in the 80’s tend to be of the wall-banger variety in terms of character development and developing storyline. But Sandra Brown has pulled it off, and I should say she has pulled this one off quite well with Cooper Landry and Rusty Carlson and their explosive mixture of passion and desire for one another.

27 year old Rusty Carlson is a real estate agent who works for her rich father and resides in Beverly Hills, California. With her mother dying when she had been a teenager and her brother Jeff whose sudden death had taken him away just two years back, its just Rusty and her father left in the family. Rusty always feels that she falls short when it comes to her father’s expectations, who always goes out of his way to sing praises for his dead son, and it is because Rusty tries so hard to please her father and rise to meet his unrealistic expectations that she subjects herself to spending time with her father at his favorite hunting grounds. On her way back to civilization, the plane on which Rusty is on crashes hurtling her into a world she is not at all equipped to deal with and puts her in the path of the dangerous and broody Cooper Landry.

Ex-military, having served in the Vietnam war and having ended up as a prisoner of war to later come out fighting with enough scars to last him for a lifetime, the last thing that Cooper needs is to be saddled with a woman who is too beautiful for her own good, a spoilt little heiress who Cooper is sure would end up being a pain in his butt whilst they fight for their survival until they are rescued. Cooper has sworn off women after the last woman he had given his everything had in the end betrayed him in the worst way possible and Cooper was in no hurry to let someone like Rusty ride roughshod on his emotions and his well protected heart.

But what Cooper doesn’t count on is the fact that Rusty though has lived a privileged life, she is no whiner and takes the whole survival of the fittest part about their predicament in the icy mountains with the killer snow storms moving in on them far better than Cooper had been expecting and in the end her gumption is what earns Cooper’s admiration, something he is quite stingy in passing out. And regardless of how much he tries to despise her and keep her away with his taunting and rough behavior, Cooper is helpless in the red hot desire that becomes as much a part of him as breathing when he is around Rusty.

Rusty is bewildered by the amount of hostility that Cooper shows her but she is no match for the desire that he unleashes with one searing glance and it is this strong attraction that they both try to ignore which brings forth all their animosity towards each other until the dangers in the wilderness forces them both to put aside their differences and work together for survival, something which propels them towards their ultimate combustive coming together which I absolutely reveled in reading about.

So.. Stuff I liked:

1. Cooper Landry. He is broody, tortured enough to warrant my heartfelt love and bring forth all my protective instincts which makes him the perfect alpha hero. His callous behavior towards Rusty at the beginning made me realize that oh boy, when this one falls, he will fall hard and that made me nearly rub my hands together in glee at the mere thought of his fall. And every expectation I had of him as a hero was met. Cooper just sizzles the pages with his smoldering sensuality and the hot, hot kisses that fairly made Rusty not the only one to yearn to possess him. *wistful sigh*
2. I loved the undeniable hostility between Rusty and Cooper which actually sprang from their mutual attraction towards each other which both refused to give in – or Cooper refused to give in because in his mind, he has nothing left to offer to a woman and because for him trust doesn’t come easily at all. Because of this, the simmering tension and sensuality between the two just took my breath away a time or two and I could barely sit still as anticipation coursed through me as I waited for the moment the inevitable explosion to come! *note to self: should join a Lamaze class ASAP*
3. I loved the epilogue or rather the ending. It wasn’t abrupt, neither was it drawn out and what made this ending special was because of how their happily ever after was told. When Cooper leaves thinking that Rusty had ultimately betrayed him, it is Rusty who makes her way to the mountains where Cooper lives, and the ending is described months later which effectively conveys what happened that night when a bedraggled Rusty showed up on Cooper’s doorstep and also gives the reader glimpses into their happily ever after. Now why we can never find a man like Cooper, I would never know!!

Now.. Stuff I didn’t like so much:

I know it’s trivial but, what’s with the names of the hero and heroine in this book? Rusty? Who in the world calls their child Rusty? LOL! And Cooper was an okay name but I wanted something more significant, a name that would scream testosterone and ooze sexuality in lethal doses just like the man himself! ^_^

Favorite Quotes

He muttered swearwords that were in themselves arousing because they explicitly expressed the height of his arousal.
Like a Rod Stewart song, they were viscerally sexy, one couldn’t hear them without thinking of a male and a female mating.

Recommended for:

1. Fans of Sandra Brown.
2. Fans of romantic suspense.

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble