Harlequin Duets, $5.99, ISBN 0-373-44096-0
Contemporary Romance, 2000

In Bed with the Pirate takes place in a bed-and-breakfast in San Francisco, and the characters are meatier than Ms Collins’ previous stories. The owner of the B&B gets a visit from her neighbor, the latter wearing only red underwear. Tight red underwear. With a stalk of rose stuck in the waistband right along the line of… uh, okay, so there’s no rose. Hey, this is a family novel we’re talking about.

Toby Mancini just caught his girlfriend playing patty cakes with someone else in his house, after he has obligingly stripped to his skivvies for Kate’s pleasures. I have no complains with such exhibitionism, no indeed, so I’m not complaining. Anyway, Kate treats him like a pirate and makes him her pirate fantasy come true. Toby, actually a normal down-to-earth guy, starts developing a fetish for tight leather pants. But before they could get down to their private Skid Row performance, here comes Kate’s mommy with her midlife crisis…

The problem with In Bed with the Pirate is minor – the heroine is always either too uptight or too much of a dingbat. But hey, as long as Toby prance around in those skimpy tight duds, I’m not complaining. The repartee are fun, for Ms Collins gets the plot and never make the heroine the target of the fun banters. Unlike many authors who seem to think that heroines ending up tongue-tied and flabbergasted are funny (they aren’t, not after the gazillionth time), Kate gives back as good as she gets.

So, this one is a pretty fun breezy read.