LynneC’s review of Walk on the Wild Side by Natalie Anderson
Contemporary Romance published by Harlequin Presents 5 Apr 11
This book is a Harlequin Presents Extra in the US and a Riva in the UK. I read the Harlequin version.
The Extra or Riva line still carries the millionaire hero and the weaker heroine so beloved of the mainstream, but the books tend to be longer, and the protagonists are less conventional. At least that’s what I’ve observed from reading a few.
So, Kelsi is on her way to a spa appointment she doesn’t really want to go to, but it’s a present from her colleagues at work for good performance, and she feels obliged to go. On her way, trying to get a comb through her tangled hair while driving, she hits Jack. Who is gorgeous and walks with a limp. But the limp isn’t from the prang. She hardly hits him. It’s from an operation on his knee, on an injury sustained through snowboarding. Jack’s a champion snowboarder. In fact, he’s THE champion snowboarder.
In real life, that would be Shaun White, who is a rampant ginger and proud of it. In this book, the ginger gift is transferred to the heroine, Kelsi, except that she doesn’t see it as a source of pride. She sees her ginger coloring as a curse, and she dyes her hair and wears crazy contacts to cover up her eye color.
Jack takes Kelsi for a coffee to calm her nerves, and then, instead of the spa, they go to the beach and make mad, crazy love all afternoon. But Jack is due to fly out the next day, so they leave it at that. The lovemaking scene is great, and so far the story has me. I’m loving it, despite the threat of sand in the most sensitive parts of the body. But later, not so much.
Kelsi lives in an old Victorian house. She’s the only person left in the four apartments the house has been split into. When Jack returns, he visits her, and together, they realize she’s pregnant. Jack takes control, Kelsi fights him, rinse and repeat.
After this, the story more or less meanders into standard Harlequin Presents territory. Don’t get me wrong, I like a millionaire in a tux, at least in the books I read. But Kelsi’s doubts about her appearance make her into a mouse-like, fearful heroine, and my interest starts to wane. Jack becomes the typical no-commitment hero, with the addition of caring about his baby and of Kelsi.
By the end of the story, the unconventionality of the hero and heroine has slid into a veneer. There are some nice touches, like the reaction of Jack’s friends to Kelsi, but they meet at an awards dinner, a typical sitch for a Presents story. The slang is imposed on normal, everyday conversation, and I know that snowboarders are like other sk8ers and indeed surfers, in that they have a language of their own. Sure, that would make the book hard to understand, but perhaps if Jack had been something a tad more conventional, like, say, a skier, it might have melded better with the millionaire trope.
At the end, I wasn’t entirely convinced that they would make a success of their life together. They wanted such different things, and they were so different in character, I could see divorce ten years down the line. Perhaps if I’d believed that their love was the deep, enduring kind, I’d have left the book more satisfied, but I didn’t see the journey into love, and it wasn’t quite there for me. It might be for you. And a child would only add to their problems and make it harder for them to get together. However, with a little bit of effort and understanding on both sides, they could get there.
Kelsi and Jack are interesting characters, and I’d love to see Anderson write more in this vein, perhaps going deeper into the worlds of the characters. It was a fun read, and I enjoyed the Antipodean setting.
But a good attempt and a nice read, although the constant introspective passages from both protagonists made it a slower read than usual.
Grade: C
Summary:
One crazy afternoon on the beach…
A fling with sinfully hot champion snowboarder Jack Greene isn’t Kelsi Reid’s normal behaviour… but one glimpse of his wicked blue eyes has Kelsi throwing caution to the deep blue sea (along with her clothes!). After all, who better to go crazy with than a man who deserves a gold medal for his prowess on the slopes and in the bedroom…?
Then Kelsi crashes down with a terrifying bump – of the baby kind. They couldn’t be worse matched – Jack is Mr Right-Now, while Kelsi craves stability. But it’s hard to keep your feet on the ground once you’ve met the man who turns your world upside down…
Read an excerpt.
