Kimani, $6.50, ISBN 978-0-373-86341-9
Contemporary Romance, 2014
Maitlyn Boudreaux is finally divorced from her scummy man when Hearts Afire begins. Like every ordinary woman going through a tough time in her life, she drops everything and her family opens their deep pockets to send her on this luxury cruise, where she meets her brother’s friend Zakaria Sayed, a hot dude who keeps an eye – and more – on her. This is, of course, love, and therefore, the moral of the story is this: when you get divorced, people, it’s as simple as ponying up the dollars for a luxury cruise to exotic locales, enjoying all the spa and massage and hot loving with a guy who goes down like a pro… what, you say you don’t have the money or the opportunity? Sigh. That’s why we all read books like this one, right? For the escapism?
Escapism is not a bad thing, of course, in this conflict-free story. It’s all about the woman getting pampered and loved within every inch of her life by a hot guy who gives her the loife, And… that’s all it is. There is no dramatic conflict – the ones that show up and quickly resolved to matter much in the long run – and despite the amount of racial diversity in this story, religious differences never factor much at all. In other words, this one is pure escapism through and through, a vicarious trip of a heroine who goes on a pleasure cruise and finds at least seventeen ways to get her groove back. The characters are likable, but this story doesn’t let them be anything more than that.
The love scenes are a little more explicit than the typical Kimani romance, which is probably a good thing as the rest of the story is pleasant kind of snoozeville. Look, I’m happy that the heroine gets her man so soon after a bad divorce, but surely the author could have made this story a little more interesting!
