For the Love of Miss Bard by P. Crow

Publisher:              Peddlers Group

Kathryn Bard and Alex Trout meet when Alex's daughter Samantha is a student in Miss Bard's kindergarten class.  Despite some initial resistance, their strong attraction soon leads to a romance.  As their relationship develops they have to worry about a stalker who is determined to separate them.  They hope to build a life together, but someone else may keep that from happening.

The basic story in For the Love of Miss Bard is a routine romance and all right for some light reading; however, the reader is going to have to overlook a number of problems.  The book needed a good proofreader.  There are numerous sentences where grammatical mistakes are made and words either are left out or extra ones are put in where they don't belong.  Facts in the story aren't consistent either.  For example, on one page Kathryn says she's been watching Alex jog for three years, then two pages later, she says it's been five years.  The characters say they don't want the child talking at school about their relationship, but don't hesitate to include the child in activities or show their affection in front of her.  References are made to other characters that aren't explained and no story is given as to why Alex has a child.  These are simple mistakes that should have been corrected and they happen enough to be irritating.  The author also uses the same phrases and words repeatedly, creating a sense of redundancy.

The most serious problem however is the initial relationship between Kathryn and Alex.  The idea that a teacher would have an affair with a student's parent violates educational ethics.  To have the school know about it and not only leave the child in the classroom, but not reprimand the teacher, stretches credibility too far.  Any teacher or parent reading this book should find this issue jarring.

For the Love of Miss Bard is a good story that could have been a better book.  It's reminiscent of those online stories that show strong potential, but also demonstrate a number of errors that needed to be cleaned up.  This book would have been well served by a better editing job.  If the reader is looking for something quick and easy to read, this book will serve, but there is a lot to ignore in the process.