Title: “Desire: An Island Love Affair: Book 1: The First Glimpse”
Author: Lilly Lavoy
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Erotica
Release Date: July 4, 2016
3/5 Stars
Everyone loves the thought of getting away, leaving all your issues at home and just having some fun. While I definitely have no problem with the whole “go on vacation and let your hair down” idea, I had problems with Lisa before she even left the country.
She’s a contradiction of herself. She met her last loser boyfriend, who had drained her “emotionally and financially”, online. So where does she seek out dates? Online. After three dates, she stopped calling David because he was boring, and began seeing Steve, and ends up with Jeopardy and spaghetti every evening. That’s not boring??? LOL! Add to that, the sex with Steve is less than stellar, and I’m wondering why there was even a relationship with Steve. Oh. She’s thirty-five and stressed by the tick-tock of her biological clock.
While being thirty-five doesn’t make someone automatically mature and responsible, Lisa presented more as someone 18-21, wanting and searching. She mentions she travels quite a bit for her job (but never says what that job is), but she doesn’t come off as someone with that type of class or sophistication.
When Lisa’s sister, Maria, and her friend, Michelle, both recently divorced, plan a weekend getaway to Jamaica, Maria wants Lisa to join them. Lisa is not feeling their single-girl whims, and feels she should stay home with Steve…and Jeopardy and spaghetti…but goes anyway. Maybe not the worst decision, but her attitude about it was half-hearted at best.
Their entire time in Jamaica just didn’t work for me. Assuming Maria and Michelle are also in their thirties, these were three middle-aged broads just looking for trouble! Lisa claims the two divorcees acted as though they were trying to relive, “How Stella Got Her Groove Back”, but she was just as bad.
The introduction of Charles was an interesting mystery. While Lisa couldn’t keep her eyes off him, for the most part, Charles ignored her. Nice little kick to the ego. Then all the adults disappeared when Lisa asked Greg to ask Charles to escort her to the ladies’ room. Wait, what? It only got worse for me the next day when Charles asked Greg to ask Lisa to go have ice cream with him. KEPLUNK! I need my grown-ass folks to act like grown-ass folks. (And they never went for ice cream.)
As they venture out for a night at the club (strip club), a pit stop is made at Charles’ place where only Lisa goes inside…and he asked her to iron his shirt. Who. Does. That? Lisa declines, but stands there while Charles irons the shirt…drooling over his naked chest. Once he’s done, Charles escorts her back to the others waiting in the car, then gets in his truck and drives off. *BLINK*
The whole club scene was typical of folks on vacay, letting loose. I had no problem even when Charles’ finally showed up. Or when he took Lisa to a room in the back…after acting like a jerk. (And they have never actually had a conversation.) Or when they got down and dirty. (Didn’t hear the word ‘condom’ mentioned though.) But, hey…caught up the moment, I guess. However, what he asked for afterwards is what floored me. And this ditzy broad agrees! I wanted to smack them both. What about Steve? And Jeopardy? And spaghetti?
The story itself would benefit greatly from editing…for grammar and continuity. That shirt Lisa refused to iron? First, Charles was ironing it, then Lisa was ironing it, then Charles was ironing it again! I had to re-read it a few times to make sure I wasn’t ironing it.
Going to be interesting to see if these folks can rebound with a reality check…and some credibility.
Nesie's Place 