Liquid Silver Books, $5.50, ISBN 978-1-59578-589-3
Contemporary Romance, 2009
In Juniper Bell’s The Extremist we meet our heroine Annelise “Annie” Swenson who is not exactly what you’d call the life of a party. She’s – let me see – afraid of heights, snow, crowds, and flying. But because she’s this close to frying all the brain cells in her head from overwork, her therapist insists that Annie takes a break by taking a vacation to the Bahamas. Since Annie is making progress with her fear of water, what with her having gone to a beach recently, Dr Stein is certain that Annie will have a great time in the Bahamas. Of course, if Annie drowns to her death in the process, Dr Stein will be rid of a trying patient, so it’s a win-win solution for everybody.
So this is how Annie, pumped full of Xanax, finds herself in te Bahamas, right into the arms of Martin, the man who slips his hand under her skirts while they are having dinner with an ex-college nemesis. Don’t ask. Let’s just say that Martin and Annie pose as a couple because poor Annie can’t bear to let her college nemesis realize that she is still single. If you can’t tell by now, this story is best viewed as an erotica, where Martin’s happy finger-diddling of Annie without her invitation is viewed as a prelude to more hot stuff.
Indeed, this story fares better as an erotic interlude than a love story. The romance is pretty unbelievable because they are supposed to be in love when Annie doesn’t even know Martin’s last name. Heck, they don’t even know each other well because they’re too busy playing sex games with each other. Let’s just say that talking isn’t high on their list of priorities. I also doubt many sane men would find Annie appealing once the novelty of the sexual affair wears off, because girlfriend here is neurotic to the wazoo. On the other hand, the sex scenes are pretty hot, going into mild kink territory now and then.
Read The Extremist for the sex scenes first and foremost, and really, this is nothing to be ashamed of.
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