Samhain Publishing, $5.50, ISBN 1-60504-128-9
Contemporary Erotica, 2008
In Kabana Heat, author Titania Ladley wants to show the world that the Hawaiian brand of fun goes beyond surfing and buying tacky souvenirs – they swing like the most enthusiastic monkeys in the hottest jungles of love, and if you’re a hot movie star from the mainland like Mitch Wulfrum, you may just get very lucky.
Mitch has always been dogged by rumors that he is not entirely heterosexual, a rumor that I personally suspect stems from the fact that his name is more typical of that of an actor working in a film from Falcon Studios rather than New Line Cinema. Perhaps getting married to the first woman who would say yes would help stop those rumors. Hey, marrying Katie Holmes worked wonders for Tom Cruise, after all, and look at how happy those two are at the moment, honeymooning on the Happy Heterosexual Mothership of Love to meet Xenu in some distant galaxy.
Kiona ‘Alohi needs a husband. As the daughter of a very wealthy sugar tycoon, she knows that her affair with Nakolo Huaka, a lowly ex-foreman who worked on one of the fields owned by her father’s company, is a big no-no to her father. By marrying Mitch, she gets to keep her trust fund as well as her Kol while Mitch gets to convince everyone else that his Mr Happy loves women and only women. It’s a win-win situation for all parties concerned, no?
Except that what is supposed to be a marriage in name only soon turns into the happy love shack for two when Kiona and Mitch realize that they are madly in lust with each other. You know what they say, it ain’t adultery when they are already planning to get married. When Kol catches them playing monkey-see and monkey-do with each other, he and Mitch eventually realize that, what do you know, while they may be ready to tear each other apart to be Kiona’s lover boy, they want to play with each other too! And they manage to come to this epiphany without requiring even a single can of beer! Amazing, I tell you.
The minimal plot keeps distraction to a minimum in this story. Instead, all I get are plenty of unapologetic, unabashed, and very naughty scenes that have me wishing that someone would spray a fire extinguisher all over me. Don’t hate Kiona because she is rich, beautiful, and self-absorbed – hate her instead because she gets to have two hot guys to fight over her, heh. Needless to say, I have a fabulous time with this most charming naughty romp.
If you are in the mood to read something really erotic in an uncomplicated no-nonsense way, Kabana Heat may just be the passport you are looking for. Tell your friends at the Respectable Romance Novel Reading Group that you are down with the flu so you can’t join them for a discussion of Mary Balogh’s latest romance, then get a big glass of iced drink before loading this baby up on your PC or reader device. Don’t worry, I won’t tell if you promise to do the same.
