We have all had that one relationship where we knew it was bad but refused to see it because it felt so good to be in love.

Joan Lewis allows us to revisit this experience with nostalgia and humor. We want to scream at Jane to get out before she gets hurt but know she wouldn't listen anyway - just as we wouldn't listen when we were told. At the same time, Joan's presentation of Billy Joe makes it easy to understand the tantalizing charm of the bad boy.

Readers will enjoy this one!

In His Corner
Will the Real Billy Joe Please Stand
By Joan Moore Lewis

This is a magnificent story about a very lovable young lady, Jane Moss, barely out of high school with innocence dripping from her every word and gesture as she ventures into real life. She is only a babe in the woods.

Jane grew up in Overton, a small southern town in central Georgia, in a very loving and caring family and community with many friends and a very caring but very strict father. Being the oldest child, this created a greater than normal desire for Jane to want to gain her freedom and independence to do it her way. She wanted to start her own life in the bright lights of Atlanta during the post World War II boom years of the mid 1960's. In Jane's case, this even turned into a "Damn it, stop me if you can attitude." Her confidence and drive is almost unbelievable for a young lady of her age in that day. This hurts Jane's father but he finally becomes reconciled, in his own way, to the fact Jane is a grown woman and there is nothing he can do to stop her.

Once in Atlanta, Jane very soon bumps into a slight acquaintance but older man, Billy Joe Billingsley, whom she had a small crush on in junior high school back in her hometown. This was just after Billy Joe returned from prison. Was this for a minor crime, or only a schoolboy prank that Billy Joe was sent up for? Jane doesn't really know or care to know, but she immediately falls blindly in love with this very cool, handsome, polished, very kind and tender man, in Jane's eyes. But, inside isn't he simply a mentally disturbed released convict, now a polished full blown con man, thief and mobster with a very strong need for Jane's affection? Is this need for affection only his desire to be forgiven by someone from his hometown? Does he really want Jane as his lover and some day for his wife? Or is his need only for her to act as a younger sister accepting and trusting him only because she is from his hometown? Jane is very intelligent, but is she so blinded by her love for Billy Joe that she only thinks that he is in love with her? He never shows his affection in this manner. In addition to his affection needs, is he actually using her as a cover for many of his wrong doings and can't admit this even to himself?

Here is where the brilliance of the talented author Joan Moore Lewis grabs her readers by their own conscience immediately with a direct challenge to the very inner core of their own morals by making them have to choose between right and wrong in forming an opinion about this strange friend of Jane's. She then holds their attention throughout the book, making them wonder if their opinion about Billy Joe was the one they really should have made. Some may even change their opinion several times during the read but they won't lose interest. They are hooked until the last word is read. In her clever way, the author lets Jane fulfill her desire for excitement and fine clothes by tagging along and flying to her dear Billy Joe on weekends at his every beck and call all over the southeast, eating in choice restaurants, staying in the best hotels, gambling at the strips in Biloxi and Las Vegas and meeting friends of Billy Joe's from prostitutes, pimps and mobsters to rich politicians and elected state officials. Billy Joe knows his way around. He knows his job and has been groomed and taught good taste and manners on high style living, which he gladly teaches Jane. Jane hangs on his every word. How will this all end?

This is a great read for everyone. The author presents the book in such a vivid manner that one can't help from wonder if this isn't a true story lived by the author instead of a novel. Then again, Joan Lewis's hometown of Fayetteville, Georgia was home for another great storyteller, Dr. Ferrol Sams. Might it be something in the water or was it transmitted through high school English teaches? If you remember, Dr. Sams wrote, "When all the World was Young," "Run with the Horsemen," "Whisper of the River" and others. No, it's not something in the water. Truth or fiction, it is simply the shining talent of this fine author Joan Moore Lewis breaking through the clouds to be seen again many times in the future.

This book is a must read for every parent and grandparent of a daughter or granddaughter and I suggest they get a copy for these young ladies to read before their graduations. It might save heartaches down the road.

In His Corner: Will the Real Billy Joe Please Stand
By Joan Moore Lewis

This is a wonderful story of two people, Billy Joe Billingsley and Jane Moss, who met by accident. Jane, young and innocent, immediately lost her heart to Billy Joe, an ex-con.

Joan Moore Lewis has weaved a well written story around the life of Billy Joe and Jane with all kinds of unsavory characters coming in and out of their lives. The people around Billy Joe refuse to forget the wrong he did when he was a teenager. Jane was the only exception. Solid as a rock in her belief in him, she proves love is blind when she chooses not to see the bad in Billy Joe.

The suspense builds as you wonder if Billy Joe will stay in the wrong crowd, namely the Dixie Mafia, or will his gentle side win out and take him down a straight path so he and Jane can finally allow themselves to fall in love.

The setting for this book is in and around the Atlanta area. As a former resident of Georgia, I saw many names and places pop out at me that I had long forgotten about. It is obvious that Ms. Lewis knows her way around Atlanta and the State of Georgia. Real names and real landmarks give realism to this story.

This gentle and intriguing romance/suspense story is one that romance lovers will savor. The sensitive romantics will find more than once that they will be shedding a tear over the concern Billy Joe and Jane Moss have for each other. You will find yourself pulling for them on every page.

I am a born romantic, and I loved it!

Reviewed by Bobby Ruble, the award winning author of Have No Mercy.