The Men of Thorne Island
Grade : B

The Men of Thorne Island was a wonderful surprise, a book I bought solely because of my rather odd fondness for stories set on small islands. I got my money's worth and more. One quality that seems to be in woefully short supply in romances today is charm. This book has it in spades.

Tax accountant Sara Crawford lives and works in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, far from her hometown in Ohio. But when she learns that her Aunt Millie has died, leaving her an island in Lake Erie, Sara returns home to investigate her inheritance.

She discovers the island was never developed as it was intended and has fallen into disrepair. It comes complete with a rundown inn and four residents with ironclad leases who pay a mere $100 a month in rent. They include a former Cleveland Browns football player, a quiet young man with a sad past, and an old grump suspicious of what Sara's appearance will mean for their solitary lifestyle.

Then there's Nick Bass, the wry inhabitant of the inn who displays a quick wit while avoiding questions about himself. Gruff, handsome Nick doesn't seem to do much, holes himself in his room til all hours of the night, and walks with a noticeable limp. Attracted in spite of herself, Sara can't help but want to know more.

Determined to improve the condition of the island, with an eye toward turning it into the vacation destination it was intended to be, Sara moves in and quickly gets to work. The men, who like things just the way they are, aren't pleased. But she slowly wins them over as she settles into the rhythm of life on Thorne Island and begins to break through the walls of wariness and disillusionment that have kept them apart from the outside world.

The Men of Thorne Island was a delight. Midway through the book I realized I was reading it with a big smile on my face. It's also one I read with bated breath, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Surely some kids would show up eventually. Clearly the hero would be revealed to be a Navy SEAL or a secret agent or a cowboy or a prince who just wanted to live a normal life. Obviously the heroine would become pregnant and spend part of the story cradling her swollen belly while wondering whether to tell him, or she would be forced to marry the hero, or she would turn out to be a virgin who decides the hero is the perfect man to release her from her burden, or she was so wounded by past relationships she can only accept a sexual, no-strings-attached relationship, leading to page after page of the characters' sexploits. A hero who hates women because mommy or wifey done him wrong? Amnesia? A big, contrived misunderstanding? A forced separation? A tacked-on suspense element at the very least?

Nope. This story is an original, entirely without gimmicks. It's neither high drama nor low voltage, but a warm, charming book with a lovely setting, likable characters, and a sweet romance between two characters with a good rapport.

It's easier to explain why this book is so good by saying everything it isn't than trying to describe what it is. Sara is blessedly free of angst and neuroses. There's no excess baggage, man issues, parental issues, nada. She's not perfect, and I didn't agree with everything she did, but she's also not a ditz or a buttoned-down ice maiden or too stubbornly independent or beaten-down by life or any of the other archetypes romance heroines often fall into. She's simply a normal woman.

Nick is a good hero, a little jaded, a little wounded, but not in an overblown way or so much that he becomes a jerk. He and Sara have a good chemistry, and their dialogue and interactions are very enjoyable. They're well-matched, neither one able to get the better of the other all the time. They don't jump into bed or each others' arms. The romance develops slowly over the course of the book, supported by the very nice way they respond to one another. The book isn't packed with action or incident, nor is it slow. It's simply driven by the characters and leisurely in the best possible way.

The grade would be a notch higher if all the characters' problems weren't resolved quite so neatly in the end. Each of the men's internal struggles are overcome with such ease, including a secondary romance that's predictable many chapters before it appears, that it only minimizes their seriousness in the first place. It's not the best written book I've ever read, and there are little flaws I could pick at, like how easy it is to figure out who Nick is more than a hundred pages before Sara does. I simply didn't care.

The Men of Thorne Island is the kind of feel-good charmer that is all too rare. I don't know that it's the best book I've read this year, but I can't think of one I enjoyed spending a few hours with more that this.

Reviewed by Leigh Thomas
Grade : B
Book Type: Series Romance

Sensuality: Warm

Review Date : April 5, 2003

Publication Date: 2003/03

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