Kris Pearson, $0.99, ISBN 978-0-473-20523-2
Contemporary Romance, 2012
Rafe Severino is rich – he owns this company that sells yacht to fellow rich people – and he is also bitter because of his ex-wife. Now, some people give a horrified “Oh!” gasp when they hear of how ghastly a person is, but since this is a romance novel, it’s your cue to go “Ho!” instead of “Oh!” each time I list down the predictable sins of that scarlet woman. She doesn’t want children! Ho! She makes our hero feel inadequate! Ho! She lies and steals credit for other people’s work! Ho! Thundercats! HO-OOO-OOOR!
Anyway, he is driving around the New Zealand desert, apparently lost, although how lost can he be when he manages to get back to town just fine is beyond me. At any rate, he stumbles upon his ex-wife’s hot and sexy assistant Sophie Calhoun opening her own interior decorator business. When her sign falls off and damages his expensive car, naturally he asks her to decorate his place. Eventually, he’ll show her his staircase and she’ll show him her fireplace. The usual.
Now, a supposedly struggling single mother who is already being swept off her feet by a billionaire before she even begins to try eking out a living – that’s what I call a romantic fantasy. Okay, so the guy is a bit of a creepy stalker at times, but we all know the deal: when the guy is hot, it’s never sexual harassment or stalking; he’s just a sexy rich boy looking for love. The Boat Builder’s Bed is a full length story, and the sweeping is well on its way to the shagging by the mid-point, so you may be wondering how the author will keep things interesting.
Why, by having Rafe turning into a moping blue-faced boy whose parents didn’t hug him enough as a kid. Now, he’s going to cast a judgmental eye on everything Sophie does to her kid, so as to make sure that she isn’t going to treat that brat anyway close to how his parents treated him. The ex-wife is back too to cause trouble, and because our hero is already such a dolt, I mean, misunderstood sweet, sweet wounded hero, he makes it so easy for that woman to come between him and Sophie. In fact, he’s a little too eager to hurt the woman he supposedly loves if you ask me, but then I remember: the guy is hot and loaded, so it’s never hate or cruelty, just a sad lonely boy who needs a good woman to let him shag away his pain in her loving embrace.
There’s nothing particularly memorable about this story. It reminds me of a longer Mills & Boon Modern romance with the cruelty factor toned down a notch, with all the familiar tropes and yet another conflict that requires the heroine to pass the hero’s purity test. While I do appreciate that Rafe isn’t as terrible as he could have been, I also feel like I’ve read variations of this story many times before.
At the same time, this is also a well written story. It’s easily digestible in one sitting. The pacing is quite slow for the first half, but there is nothing is particularly awful for the most part.
All in all, three oogies sound about right for The Boat Builder’s Bed.
