Grace Michaels isn’t the most coordinated of women. In fact, she’s a klutz. This is the first thing new Police Chief Ren Morello finds out about her. New in town, he rents her parents' house - which she manages - and turns up for the walk-through only to find her tangled up in the bushes. He finds her immediately attractive.  Fresh off a divorce, however, he pulls away not wanting to be tied down.

Grace meanwhile feels the same but, knowing Ren’s background, realizes that happily ever after is not in their future. Can she deal with a relationship where the sex is good, but there isn’t anything else? She decides to try. Complicating things are her ex-fiancé who turns up and claims he wants to get back with her (despite the fact that he has brought another woman with him) and the fact that someone seems to want to kill her.

Both the romance and mystery storylines in GRACE UNDER PRESSURE could stand alone, and I liked that. I didn’t know what was coming next and so I had to keep reading. The fact that the characters (apart from the obvious villains) were likeable really helped. I wanted things to work out for Grace and Ren and the other main characters, Gabriel and Julia. They were well written and the dialogue was realistic. A really good read.