This really was a classic feeling love story. The cop drama and all was awesome. I work in that field so I can absolutely relate to the stresses and the constant looking over your shoulder etc. Was very accurate portrayal. Would have liked a little racier intimate scenes but it was a great book all the same.

I read this book several years ago and I recently read it again. It didn't take me long to remember why I liked it so much. This book had me so caught up that I found it extremely hard to put down. Definitely a great read.

Sandra Kitt's novel Close Encounters centers around the lives of Carol Taggert, an innocent black woman, and Lee Grafton, a white police officer, and the night that brought the two of them together. It deals with their individual lives and emotions and the circumstance that binds them and which threatens to keep them apart. This book tackles race issues between police and minorities especially in the inner cities, people's personal ideas about race and society's issues with interracial families and relationships.

The main characters and some of the supporting characters - up to a point, are genuine and empathetic. They are people dealing with issues such as what part they play in the world and what happens when they no longer have fulfillment in the things that used to make them happy. These are issues that most of us have probably gone through or will go through at some point in our lives. We can imagine these people living in the real world as well as the world of fiction.

The author's use of language is straightforward. There are police jargons, mainly at the beginning, but not anything that requires translating. Ms. Kitt also makes excellent use of foreshadowing. The book starts out with action, but you sense that there's much more about to happen. Although we anticipated what would happen when Sandra left her house that night, the effect was not any less powerful. The use of Carol's dog, something that she associates with love and safety, as a catalyst for such a traumatic event shows a great sense of irony on the writer's part. The death of her dog is symbolic of the death of her former self. That night when she was shot place many things into perspective for her. The issues that she was dealing with regarding her race did not seem as important when her life was on the line. She realized that family had nothing to do with color, but had everything to do with love. This was a lesson she needed to learn before she could fall in love with someone of another race.

Lee's doubts about being an officer and regarding the sacrifices he had to make in order to maintain his career, escalated after the shooting. He was no longer just doubting his choices, he was also doubting some of the choices of the police institution. Having Lee make a conscious effort to salvage the relationship between him and his daughter showed the beginning of his emotional growth. That growth allowed him to have an open mind and allowed him to put his heart on the line even though it might get broken.

The external conflict has much to say about the black experience. It's dealing with the issue of police shootings that was prevalent in the 90s . The fact that the story is set in a city like New York, with a white officer patrolling a black neighborhood, in itself tells the story of police not understanding the neighborhoods and the people who reside in those communities. Carol as a victim feels pressure by Matt, her black ex-husband, to press charges against the police department. Matt feels that it is her duty as a black person to take a stand. Carol, on the other hand, does not want to become the poster child for the ongoing war between police and blacks. She realizes that a terrible mistake was made on the part of Lee, but she also realizes that most people would not think of it that way, they would simply be out for

Even after reading this, I had no idea that there was a market for IR Novels. I thought this was as good as it got. I have had this book for years, actually when it first came out and I have read it several times. Now since finding out the market for IR, I have whipped it out again to compare. I did like this book alot. It was a great storyline. The characters were great. The relationship between Carol and Lee blooms from a traumatic experience. Race comes into play, only because of Carol and the tragedy she goes through. I haven't read another similiar type IR romance like this and I have read several IR's since this first purchase. I highly recommend her books.

Carol Taggart is a Black Art teacher with a very unique background: She was abandoned at the age of 2 and then adopted and raised by two White activist parents. Lt. Lee Grafton is a police officer from the Special Operations and the Anti-Crime Unit. Carol is shot one night during a failed drug bust by an officer--Lee knows that it could only have been his partner or himself who shot her. They are returning fire in the line of duty. Though the shooting is by the book, this doesn't change the fact that Carol, who is entirely blameless, nearly lost her life in the process. Carol and Lee manage to start a relationship from the basis of their problematic connection. The question is will Carol and Lee be able to sustain the considerable outside pressures that make their possibility of success in a relationship against the odds?

Though CLOSE ENCOUNTERS relies more on character development, the idea of the shooting and the bad cop angle rather than upon a developed plot--we don't know what the main characters want, what keeps them from getting it, (Well, maybe Lee wants to be a good father and his job is in the way, but this seems secondary), what they do to try to achieve it, etc.--it's a very interesting read that draws you in from the start.

What doesn't make any sense is Carol's change-of-heart. The decision is made abruptly and then never logically rationalized. Personally, I don't see how Carol could claim to love Lee and sue the city--given that it will likely ruin a career that is the only one that he has ever seen himself doing, the career that gave him self-respect and taught him how to be a leader. And I don't see how he could claim to love Carol and not feel betrayed.

Throughout the book, Carol is talking about not wanting to be a victim and how filing a suit against the city would make her feel like she had taken that role; she talks about how her life is more important than money; she says that she thinks that she was shot for a reason--that it was a blessing in disguise. Carol can't imagine any other way that Lee might have entered her life:

"She'd almost been killed. She had survived, but everything had changed. Forever.... Her father had suggested that God had other plans for her. But during the past few days Carol had begun thinking that maybe she had been given a second chance to make some plans of her own." (69 CLOSE ENCOUNTERS).

Carol says to Lee of the incident: "...I think what I went through might have been a blessing in disguise." (123 CLOSE ENCOUNTERS).

Sandra Kitt writes: "Though [Carol] appreciated that her brother was acting in her best interests, she felt a great reluctance to do anything that might betray Lee's personal confession to her. She had no doubt that he had acted entirely on his own in telling her his role [that would be accidentally shooting her]. She had no intention of using it against him, and she didn't want anyone else to do so either...." (134 CLOSE ENCOUNTERS).

When her ex-husband points out that a law suit could make the city take accountability, saying: "You could always make them tell the truth....You know what they say about the truth. It can set you free.... []The fact that it was a black woman who was shot adds fuel to the fire," Carol wants nothing to do with an "all-out protest". (159, 160 CLOSE ENCOUNTERS).

And later when her brother tries yet again to convince her to sue, she refuses: "...I'm alive.... [H]e apologized.... []The way I see it, I got a huge second chance that morning. Doesn't he deserve one too? []I'm telling you this because I want you to understand why I don't want to sue." (178 CLOSE ENCOUNTERS).

And as Carol and Lee take the ultimate plunge into a sexual relationship, Kitt writes: "The time to be frightened or to set boundaries had been the morning they'd met. The time to be angry was in the distant past. Blam