Harlequin Blaze, $4.99, ISBN 978-0-373-79364-8
Contemporary Romance, 2007
Wild Child is indeed the perfect beach read it is packaged to be. It is part of a series called Sex on the Beach, which, if you ask me, should be subtitled And Don’t Forget the Towels, Honey, Because Otherwise…. Three friends head on down to Malibu for about six days or so to attend the summer event called Sin on the Beach. In other words, these folks are going to do things usually done by college kids in desperate urgency and regularity before they head out to the world to do what adults do (get fat, get bitter, et cetera).
This one is Sara Montgomery’s story. She was a former wild child who has mellowed to become a sober career gal working for her Uncle Spence. She may not be able to avoid being Uncle Spence’s doormat even on her vacation, but she’s certainly eager for more of Drew Jamison, the local manager of the surf shop and surfing instructor. They have fun, they have responsible safe sex, and right before their week is up, they declare that they are so passionately in love that they can’t see straight anymore. Then these two have one silly squabble so that the story has at least one little conflict. But that is soon over and done with, really, as these two happily run back into each other’s arms. With this being a romance novel, these two will, of course, live happily ever after instead of breaking up when they have to go back home and back to college.
The characters are fine, although Sara does resemble somewhat that nice doormat that is on sale at the local IKEA store. They bond over the fact that they both have to be responsible for the sake of other folks in their family and they no doubt will make many pretty babies together. The story is fine too, in a “I had a torrid summer fling at Cancun” kind of way. Easily read and easily digested, this short and fluffy story is pretty much the thing to read when one needs a quick distraction between transit flights, during hospital stays, or the like.
