Sandy M’s review of Making Waves by Tawna Fenske
Contemporary Romance published by Sourcebooks Casablanca 1 Aug 11

It’s so nice to discover another author – and a debut author at that! – who writes humor that truly makes you laugh. It’s not easy to do. There are very few writers out there who have had success at it. Remember Tawna Fenske’s name. She’s going to become a favorite of a lot of you readers out there. If she doesn’t, you need to readjust your funny bone.

Juli Flynn’s latest responsibility is to scatter her Uncle Frank’s ashes in the Virgin Islands, a task she’s really not eager to perform. She has a job. She doesn’t have enough money for such a venture. And she’s a tad scared of the ocean. Well, all of that is sorta true. She’s been laid off and Uncle Frank left enough to fund the trip. So Juli just has to conquer her fear of the sea. But being a good niece, she sets off to St. John and makes the necessary arrangements to take her uncle to his final resting place.

Alex and his work colleagues have just received their pink slips – after twenty years on the job. Now there’s no retirement fund, he’s going to continue to be that going-nowhere guy his ex-fiance always said he was. But the more he and his friends talk, the more interesting the imparted information becomes, and Alex begins hatching a plan to get both revenge against their employer and enough retirement money for all of them. It only requires they become modern-day pirates on the open sea.

And this is where Alex and Juli meet, in a bar in the Virgin Islands, each waiting for the next day when their individual adventures begin. Having said not a dozen words between them when sharing a table at the bar, Juli, out of the blue, prompts Alex to join her in pretending they’re married to try to win the $1,000 prize in The Newlywed Game, island style. At first Alex is hesitant – he doesn’t know this woman, after all – but they come up with a plan on how to answer questions, toss out a few endearments to one another, and take their places on the stage. And this is where I laughed my butt off.  I have to share Juli’s logic in playing the game with you and hopefully do it in a way you’ll follow:

“The first questions is number one. That means if it’s a multiple-choice question, you go with the first one. If the answer has to be a random word, make it start with the first letter of the alphabet. If the answer has to be a number –”

“Right, I get it,” Alex said…”I just don’t think we should –”

“For the second question, we go with two. The answer is two or starts with a B or –“

And so it goes and suddenly they’re ready to begin. The part that made me laugh for a good fifteen minutes, if not more? Well, after missing the first question, their luck begins to turn with a question for the wives: What is your husband’s most prized possession? It’s the B question, so Alex goes with boat. Typical for a man. Juli thinks so too, and the crowd goes wild. Now they switch places and the husbands get to answer.

Where is your wife’s favorite place to be kissed?

It starts with a C.

I couldn’t help myself and the laughter wouldn’t stop. Alex’s thought process goes through a few inappropriate C places for their circumstances, and I’m still laughing so hard at that point I can hardly keep reading. What does he eventually come up with? Heh. You have to read the book to find out so you can laugh like I did. That’s just an example, though the best, of the humor in this book, along with such different writing that I’ve read in a long time.

An example of that is, after Juli inadvertently in a sea sickness-drugged state ends up on Alex’s boat, thinking it’s her cruise ship the next day, they hustle and tussle with the coincidence of her being there and have to deal with her illness. But she’s optimistic enough to think she might like being on the water.

Alex raised his eyebrow at her. “Thirty minutes ago you said you’d rather shave your legs with a carrot peeler than spend another hour on this ship.”

That’s so true to Juli’s character that I laughed quite a bit again. Then later when Juli plays pirate – all without really knowing that’s actually what Alex and his crew are doing – her creativeness at using a black thong had me giggling all over again. Yes, you have to read the book to know what she actually does! When Juli and the only other lady in the group, Phyllis, try to delay the bad guys so Alex and the men can do their pirating, Phyllis confounds the bartender by announcing they have some coochie for sale. Just typing that makes me laugh all over again. That scene is absolutely hilarious. And when Alex and Juli are enjoying the night and the ocean from their hotel balcony, some hanky-panky begins on the beach below them, the likes of which I don’t think anyone has ever read before. Alex even goes so far as to say,

“Do you think we should take notes? Because a lot of this is new to me.”

He’s a forty-two-year-old man and I’m sure not much is new to him, but even so, those body-less voices taught both of them a thing or two.

Okay, enough for now with the humor, but it is the best thing about the book. Along with the sizzle between Alex and Juli. They come so close a number of times of getting naked together, but something always puts a stop to their going all the way. Yes, a few are actually funny. But when they finally come together, after some sensual foot-playing antics on Juli’s part (one of those read the book things again), they two are more than ready to do the deed. And do they do it. In the shower, bent across a desk, and a few other places. All hot and steamy, sexy, and oh-so-fun.

In the midst of all of this, there are suspicions running around on both sides. They want to know who Juli really is. She wants to know what they’re up to. But no one’s talking early on. It’s even at this point we learn why Juli has always felt alone and out of place. But that’s one of the things that eventually makes Alex love her. Even the bad guys are hilarious in this book. Looks are definitely deceiving. Alex’s plan doesn’t go as envisioned, everything seems to go wrong, but the one constant is Juli, and finally she feels as though she belongs somewhere the first time in her life.

This is a book you have to pick up soon. It tickles me when a debut author does so well, and this author has tickled me from the beginning. I look forward to her future books.

Grade: A-

Summary:

When Alex Bradshaw’s unscrupulous boss kicks him to the curb after 20 faithful years as an executive with the world’s largest shipping company, he sets out to reclaim his dignity and his pension. Assembling a team of fellow corporate castoffs, he sails to the Caribbean to intercept an illegal diamond shipment. None of them counted on quirky blonde stowaway Juli Flynn, who has a perplexing array of talents, a few big secrets, and an intoxicating romantic chemistry with Alex…

No excerpt available.