LynneC’s review of The Holiday Survival Guide by Jane O’Reilly
Contemporary Romance novella ebook published by Harlequin Escape 1 Jan 14
This novella is about a man running from his problems and a woman who assuages her own guilt by wrecking other people’s marriages. It does tackle controversial issues like abortion but in a half-hearted way that feels like an ad-on to the main story.
The story starts too early, with two scenes that just serve to introduce the hero and the heroine. There’s not really any need to have them there, especially the first one, where Nathan is wandering around his cabin reflecting on his past life. It’s not where the story starts. Then Erica arrives at the hotel and checks in, and also does a bit of backstory. It would have been better had the meeting been upfront, especially in a novella where wordage is limited.
Erica writes for an expose magazine and she specializes in cheating spouses. It’s not too difficult to guess why. When her boss tells her to take a holiday, she decides to go to Sweden for a survival holiday. There she meets the hero, Nathan, who used to be a TV star. In fact, he’s Bear Grylls in romance novel form. But blond. And, of course, Erica has wrecked his first marriage by reporting on them for the sleazy magazine she works for. But he soon gets over that, because she’s hot. Considering what she’s done to him, I didn’t quite believe on the fast turnaround.
Erica is keen to do what people want her to do. She works at the magazine doing what’s expected of her, and she doesn’t really stand up for her principles. Her backstory shows a desire to please people, but she wants to change that. Her act not to enjoy herself is a defiant little girl stamping her foot. She doesn’t want to be there and she isn’t shy about saying so. Like a party pooper. She’d much rather be on a beach. Then she meets Nathan and recognizes him. She is still defiant and thinks she did the right thing when she broke up his marriage.
Nathan is supposed to take her and three other people on a three-day survival course. Then the other three people cancel, so he decides not to take her. The sensible thing to do. Then Nathan changes his mind and takes her. My credibility left at this point. I can’t see the course going on. It could lead to expensive court cases, especially with someone like Erica’s reputation and her past history with Nathan. It’s a gift for the courts and for her magazine. In fact, if the magazine had sent her there to get a juicy story, or make one up, Nathan does the utterly stupid thing and takes her anyway. Unchaperoned.|
Of course, Erica doesn’t manage very well on the survival course. But her heart isn’t in it. Snuggling in a tent leads to the inevitable, but at least they don’t do full unprotected sex. The falling in love is much more like falling in lust. I don’t actually believe it, probably because I think Nathan could have done so much better. As you can guess, I really don’t like Erica, and, while I wanted to, I couldn’t warm to her. I kept hoping she’d do something to redeem herself, but she never does. I can’t understand why Nathan falls for Erica and, in reality, given his dislike for her, I think he falls in lust. The story is to obviously manipulated around its plot – this has to happen here, then that has to happen. So the characters of Erica and Nathan are secondary to what happens. The natural flow isn’t quite there.
Something Erica does at the end, although she doesn’t follow through, is to me unforgivable. Consistent with her character maybe, but if she had gone ahead she’d have wrecked everything he had. Just to keep her job, which she wasn’t too keen on in the first place. That brought the mark down a whole grade. I couldn’t believe that she’d even consider doing it, much less go ahead with her scheme.
And the use of the F word. It’s the only risqué word used, which makes the sex scenes unbalanced. So he takes her and there are the usual nicer words like ‘her body’ and ‘erection.’ I can’t recall her using the word cock. so using fuck seems out of place and artificial. Tacked on. Since the story is basically sweet, it seems out of place. The sex is straightforward and healthily m/f, with no kink. Not very hot, probably because I didn’t really care for the characters involved. But O’Reilly has a nice style and what she does in the future should be interesting.
Grade: D
Summary:
Witty, clever, and sharp. It’s going to be the holiday from hell…and that’s just how Erica wants it.
When tabloid journalist Erica Parker is forced to take a holiday, she’s determined to make it the most miserable holiday she possibly can, but not even her impressive imaginative powers could have come up with sharing a tent with survival expert Nathan Wilde.
Nathan was a married man with a successful TV show before Erica got to work on his life. Now the hottest man she’s ever met is single, furious, and he’s got her alone in the wilderness for three long days…
No excerpt available.
