Heat Wave

I’m not a frequent reader of anthologies because they can be so uneven, but Heat Wave may well be the best one I’ve yet encountered. Intelligent, funny, sexy and romantic, the three stories by authors Jennifer Archer, Katie MacAlister, and Sheridon Smythe each cover a different two-week portion of a reality dating game show being filmed on a small Caribbean island. What I found quite interesting about these stories were the starring characters: no millionaires or model lookalikes, no virgins or biological clocks in mid-tick, not even a modern-day Duke of Slut among them. They were refreshingly ordinary in a way that reminds us that beauty is, indeed, in the eye of the beholder, and that love can be found in the least expected places.