Holly’s review of Sure Thing by Lorie O’Clare
Contemporary romance ebook published 23 Nov 07 by Ellora’s Cave
Blurb:
Joanie Showalter didn’t plan on spending her anniversary cruise alone, but when her husband files for divorce, the last thing Joanie is going to do is let him and his new girlfriend have the tickets. Joanie also didn’t plan on being stranded in Seward, Alaska, mid-cruise. Her situation grows worse when an old Inuit woman accuses her of using a sex charm to seduce her grandson.
Corbin Silver was raised to treat women with respect. He would never make passes at a lady simply because she’s distractingly beautiful. But it’s not every day a gorgeous woman believes a necklace will make him lust after her. This is too good of an opportunity to pass up. After all, the entire town is just waiting for them to have sex.
After a few days together he knows that magic or not, he doesn’t want Joanie to leave. Joanie is struggling with the same attraction. Maybe magic brought them together, but if it’s true love, there is nothing stronger to keep them from falling apart.
Read an excerpt.
Once on the ship, Joanie Showalter decides to make the best of her new life. She shops a bit, buying a pretty necklace, and is truly surprised (and pleased) that most of the men on the ship seem to find her irresistible. But when they stop in Seward, Alaska, her plans are once again thrown off when she wanders away and misses her ship as it departs for the next leg of its cruise.
Enter Corbin Silver. His grandmother has sold Joanie a fable about how her necklace was a sex charm, chagrining Corbin and making him feel responsible for Joanie. Deciding the best course of action is to have Joanie stay with him for the week she has to wait for the ship to come back, he moves her into his house.
The premise behind this book is a good one. I expected there to be some humor and to really enjoy it, but for some reason, I just couldn’t get into it. To be fair to the book, I’m thinking it might have just been something in me. Kristie(j) calls this the “It’s not you, it’s me syndrome,” and I’m thinking that’s what happened here.
Ssomething about the way Joanie kept doubting her appeal started to bug me. Corbin also bugged me. His need to push Joanie away to show her the charm had no effect on him started getting tiresome. And while I think Ms O’Clare meant for the town’s inhabitants to provide comic relief as they vowed to help break the curse on Joanie and Corbin, I found them more irritating than anything. But again, it might have just been me.
I have to give this a DNF grade, because though I finished it, I skipped a good five to seven chapters in the middle. Which could quite possibly be the reason I didn’t enjoy this as much as I expected.
I truly hope y’all will give this a try, though. While it didn’t work for me, I think others will enjoy it.
Grade: DNF
