Lip Service

by Suzanne Simmons

Trace Ballinger, a high-powered attorney with blue-collar roots, becomes involved with the beautiful and aristocratic Schuyler Grant after being hired to execute Crazy Cora Grant's estate and finds... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312972997
• Release Date: February 2001
• Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 6.6" x 0.8" x 4.2"

Customer Reviews

Highly recommended

Trace Ballinger fought his way off the streets, into Harvard, and became a ruthless attorney. Elderly Cora Grant was one of his favorite clients. He called her "friend", even though she was a blue blood. She was considered to be eccentric. Her estate, Grantwood, was a maze and often doors were opened only to find a brick wall. Hidden rooms and secret staircases were everywhere. Trace was to execute the estate for her when she died. Cora left money to almost everyone in town! Grantwood and a huge inheritance was left to Schuyler, Cora's niece.Schuyler flew in from her home in France. Cora left her a request to put "some old ghosts to rest". Cora believed the house to be haunted. Schuyler believed someone was playing games. Spooky sounds, lights in the night, and someone tried often to kill her. The two team up to catch the culprit, find and reveal old secrets, and explore the attraction between themselves.**** A romance that reads much like a gothic! This one is a Keeper, Readers! It hooked me on page one and never let me go. It kept me reading well into the night. Highly recommended! ****

I loved it!

This is the first romance I've read by this author, but it won't be the last. Lip Service had a story that kept me reading, an interesting romantic couple and I was surprised to find it was funny, too. But not the kind of silly slapstick humor I've read in some romance novels. I highly recommend this book.

I loved it!

Trace Ballinger fought his way off the streets, into Harvard, and became a ruthless attorney. Elderly Cora Grant was one of his favorite clients. He called her "friend", even though she was a blue blood. She was considered to be eccentric. Her estate, Grantwood, was a maze and often doors were opened only to find a brick wall. Hidden rooms and secret staircases were everywhere. Trace was to execute the estate for her when she died. Cora left money to almost everyone in town! Grantwood and a huge inheritance was left to Schuyler, Cora's niece. Schuyler flew in from her home in France. Cora left her a request to put "some old ghosts to rest". Cora believed the house to be haunted. Schuyler believed someone was playing games. Spooky sounds, lights in the night, and someone tried often to kill her. The two team up to catch the culprit, find and reveal old secrets, and explore the attraction between themselves. **** A romance that reads much like a gothic! This one is a Keeper, Readers! It hooked me on page one and never let me go. It kept me reading well into the night. Highly recommended! ****

It doesn't get any better than this

A combination of romance, gothic, mystery and contemporary, this book succeeds on ALL levels.Schuler Grant has come home to Grantwood for the reading of her aunt Cora's will. Trace Ballinger is Cora's lawyer. Schuler and Trace first meet on a rainy night on the way to Cora's "mysterious crumbling castle". He has had a flat tire. She almost hits him when someone tries to run her off the road. They exchange business cards and it isn't until the next morning that they realize they were both headed to the same destination.Besides the castle,Cora has left Schuler a note to "lay the ghosts to rest". Neither Trace or Schuler has a clue as to what the note refers to. It isn't long before they realize that the accidents that have been happening are not accidents at all but who? And why?There's a housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers who helps set the mood. Also 2 eccentric sister who are neighbors, a shifty cousin, an elderly groundskeeper,not to mention hidden passages and rooms.It has all the elements of a great read - it's funny, has a mystery, great characters, romance and lots of surprises. Enjoy!

Entertaining romantic suspense novel

Trace Ballinger left the coalmines of Pennsylvania to become a full partner at a prestigious New York law firm. Though he has made it, he would have done almost anything to gain vengeance on the affluent Grant family, who made their wealth on the lungs of families including his own. That need changed when he met the Grant matriarch Cora who gave his career its boost by selecting him to represent her. Over the next eight years, a loving relationship formed between the two of them. Almost a decade ago, while she was studying in France, Schuyler Grant's parents and sister died in a boating accident. She attended their funerals and immediately fled to Paris, not coming home since the tragedy. Schuyler inherits Cora's fortune, which finally gets her to return home where she meets the estate's attorney Trace. They are immediately attracted to one another, but apart from their love for Cora have nothing in common. However, proximity breeds understanding, trust, and love, but will that supersede Trace's thirst for vengeance as it did once before? LIP SERVICE is an entertaining romantic suspense novel that hooks readers due to its lead couple and a plethora of eccentric secondary players. The story line entertains the reader as it centers on the relationship between Schuyler and Trace. The inclusion of a subplot that places the lead couple in danger is exciting, but unnecessary to an already strong primary theme that focuses on class differences in America. Suzanne Simmons provides an intelligent tale that will please sub-genre fans who should also read LADY'S MAN and NO ORDINARY MAN. Harriet Klausner