Wilde Thing
Grade : B

If you like your romances hotter than hot, but want the emphasis firmly on romance rather than mindless feel-good coupling, you are going to love Wilde Thing.

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Liz Adams runs a coffee and pastry shop called The Daily Grind. That pretty well sums up her life for the past several years ever since her cheating husband was killed and left her with lots of debts. She's spent all her time working to clear them and restore her good credit - Liz is a responsible woman.

Steve Wilde is a tall, dark, handsome, hard-bodied Harley-riding hunk who often comes to Liz's shop to get some coffee and a pastry. They've shared some molten looks, and the tension between them is very apparent to Liz's neighbor Mona. Steve looks like a textbook example of a Bad Boy, but he's not really bad, he just dresses that way. Steve is really a private investigator, and that's just what Liz needs right now. Her cousin Valerie, who works for a phone-sex company, has recently graduated to being a "party girl" for the company. Valerie has gone off with one of her clients and is missing. Liz needs help, but she doesn't want to involve the police.

Steve and Liz develop a plan. She'll get a job with the phone sex company and Steve will call her at the end of each of her shifts. She'll keep him on the line a good long time (more money for the company). That will impress the owner, Liz will get invited to one of the parties, she'll bring Steve as her date, and they will do some snooping on the premises. Meanwhile, Steve will do what he can to trace Valerie and Liz will talk to some of the other employees.

The attraction between Liz and Steve is strong and they both sense it. He's not shy in letting her know he wants her, and she is not a fluttery sort. Their phone-sex talk gets them aroused (and how!) and they end up acting out the scenarios that they've talked about on the phone.

There's not a lot of mystery about Valerie, since this is in no way a suspense novel. Her disappearance simply provides the means to get Steve and Liz together and to keep the plot moving forward. Wilde Thing is a character-driven romantic erotic novel, and a very good one since Steve and Liz are such nice characters.

Liz is immensely likable. She isn't the silly, vain type I've met in a lot of chick-lit novels. She lost her parents at a young age and went to live with her aunt and uncle. Her flighty cousin Valerie always resented her, and Liz reacted by being sober, responsible, and mature. Her one fling - her marriage - left her burned and owing her aunt and uncle money. Liz has worked hard to repay them and has forgone any pleasure. Her first husband was a charming bad boy (Liz loves the type) and she is powerfully attracted to Steve, but is wary about being hurt.

Steve is all alpha outside and soft beta inside. He has the requisite bad-boy characteristics - good looks, hot body, sexy swagger, black leather, and a Harley - but Steve is not sullen and immature. He's a former policeman who quit the force when a bullet wound left him with impaired reflexes. He has a daughter from a previous marriage to whom he is devoted, he has a good relationship with his ex-wife, he is close to his large and happy family, he is a responsible businessman - heck, his tattoo is his daughter's name.

The love scenes in Wilde Thing are many and hot as can be. But they are not just sex scenes for the sake of sex scenes. They develop the characters. Liz and Steve enter this relationship with the idea that it's just a fling, but as time goes by, they find themselves growing more intimate. Not just physically, but emotionaly as well. They look forward to their times together - not just for a romp in the sheets - but as a time to talk, and to just be with each other. This, in my opinion, is what separates romantic erotica from straight erotica - the emphasis on seeing the partner as a whole human being, not just a means to scratch an itch.

Wilde Thing is the best romantic erotica I have read this year and I can recommend it to fans of the sub-genre. I've read several of Janelle Denison's series romances and enjoyed them. She just keeps getting better.

Reviewed by Ellen Micheletti
Grade : B
Book Type: Erotic Romance

Sensuality: Burning

Review Date : July 13, 2003

Publication Date: 2004

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Ellen Micheletti

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