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White Star #1
Angels And Outlaws
BEYOND THE CALL OF DUTY
When NYPD detective Sam Mason discovers his beloved angel just might be an outlaw, it puts him at a crossroads.
Going undercover to catch the culprit in a rash of burglaries among Manhattan's elite means he's investigating Cass Richards and coming face-to-face with the seductive powers of The White Star. The charmed amulet has been stolen, but is it a part of his case or not? Will Sam find the buried clues in time to solve the real puzzle and save Cass? Or will he arrest her? Even though his gut insists she's innocent, his heart isn't so sure....
When NYPD detective Sam Mason discovers his beloved angel just might be an outlaw, it puts him at a crossroads.
Going undercover to catch the culprit in a rash of burglaries among Manhattan's elite means he's investigating Cass Richards and coming face-to-face with the seductive powers of The White Star. The charmed amulet has been stolen, but is it a part of his case or not? Will Sam find the buried clues in time to solve the real puzzle and save Cass? Or will he arrest her? Even though his gut insists she's innocent, his heart isn't so sure....
251 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
About the author
Lori Wilde
298 books2,274 followersLori Wilde can’t remember a time when she didn’t want to write. She even went to nursing school so she could have a schedule flexible enough to allow her to write on the side. She nursed for 20 years, working in a variety of settings from the newborn nursery to the recovery room, to dialysis. But she never lost her desire to write.
She sold her first book in 1994 to Silhouette Romance but later discovered she had a flair for comedy and branched out to Harlequin Duets and now, to Blaze.
Lori is an adventuresome soul who loves to travel. She’s taken flying lessons, completed two marathons, rode in a hot-air balloon, performed with a professional jazz band, traveled Europe as a teenager, hiked volcanoes in Hawaii, trod on glaciers in Alaska, shot white-water rapids, water-skied, snow-skied, raced all-terrain vehicles, bodysurfed in the Gulf of Mexico, and photographed grizzly bears in Yellowstone.
She lives in her native Texas, with her own real-life hero, Bill.
She sold her first book in 1994 to Silhouette Romance but later discovered she had a flair for comedy and branched out to Harlequin Duets and now, to Blaze.
Lori is an adventuresome soul who loves to travel. She’s taken flying lessons, completed two marathons, rode in a hot-air balloon, performed with a professional jazz band, traveled Europe as a teenager, hiked volcanoes in Hawaii, trod on glaciers in Alaska, shot white-water rapids, water-skied, snow-skied, raced all-terrain vehicles, bodysurfed in the Gulf of Mexico, and photographed grizzly bears in Yellowstone.
She lives in her native Texas, with her own real-life hero, Bill.
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April 8, 2018
"I'm ready for a relationship. I get the definite impression you're leery of anything long term."
"You're naked," she pointed out. "If you're really looking for long term then why didn't you put some underwear on?"
"I always sleep naked."
"You could have made an exception this time, if you really didn't want anything to happen."
"Do you want something to happen?"
"I have to tell you, Sam, this is the lamest seduction anyone's ever tried on me."
"I'm not trying to seduce you."
"That's really good because it's not working."
Cass runs PR campaigns. Sam is a Sergeant Detective. The story starts out with some tale of star-crossed lovers long ago. This was strange. I expect Blazes to be contemporary hot romances, but Wilde was adding a bit of a fantasy element here. I'm not mad at it. I see you, Lori Wilde. I see you.
So, the book starts out in hilarious, silly Blaze fashion as Cass climbs out of her eight-story window to retrieve her Hermès scarf which has blown away. Of course, everyone thinks she is a suicidal person. Sam runs up to the eighth floor to try and talk her down from the ledge.
"Suicide?"
What on earth was he babbling about? He thought she wanted to kill herself? Well, that was just dumb. What she wanted was to get back inside, find a blow-dryer and a hot latte.
Cass is very... hmmmmm. She's not a ditz. I hate classifying women that way, anyway. Let's see. She is materialistic and she uses materialistic things to adjust her mood. She's all about that Hermès scarf, Manolo Blahnik life.
..."you're nuts."
"Gee, that's not very nice."
"What kind of shallow, narcissistic, materialistic, egocentric..."
"You can give it a rest. I get the picture. If I'm a jumper then you're all sympathetic and helpful but if I'm just..."
"Blond," he supplied.
She glared. "I was going to say RASH."
But to Wilde's credit, Sam isn't this mean and Cass isn't shallow, either. Actually, Wilde does a great job of creating this female character who uses high-end goods and things like pedicures to adjust her mood. Cass wonders about herself, often asking herself if she's grabbed the wrong 'brass ring' in life, but she's not apologetic for being who she is, nor should she be. She is not a bad person. I liked her.
Wilde provides touching explanations for the way Cass is, but doesn't try to change or 'fix' her or try to pretend that a turquoise pedicure doesn't bring her joy. Sometimes it can seem like Cass is stupid (take going out on a ledge for a scarf, for example) but it's all part of her flighty, fun, carefree personality that Wilde is going for here.
We don't want to tear Cass down. Sure, she places importance on expensive material goods, believes that conforming to society's ideas of the perfect woman makes her a better person in some regards, and does incredibly stupid shit like climbing out on a eighth-story ledge to retrieve a lost Hermès scarf. But at the same time her loving, carefree, enjoying-life personality is engaging and warm. She's typical in fiction, think Carrie Bradshaw or Molly Gunn (RIP Brittany Murphy, another life claimed by anorexia nervosa) and Wilde is breaking no ground with her, but I took no issue with her materialism or stereotypical 'girlishness.'
"Do you play the stock market?"
"I have a nest egg. You?"
Cass looked down at her shoes. "These babies are my investment. I figure invest in looking good and everything else will take care of itself."
"Translation, you're totally broke."
"Yes, but I'm spending the weekend in the Hamptons with the possibility of earning fifty grand, eating rich food and sleeping in a beachside bungalow and it's not costing me a red cent."
Sam is a cop who had a bad nine-month marriage when he was young, and now he's leery of getting involved with a high-society woman like his ex-wife was.
I like the way Wilde portrays Sam as well. He's surprisingly vulnerable for a Harlequin hero. Wilde allows him to be human, which is actually quite rare in romance novels. Not only is he terrified of heights (which comes into play A LOT in this novel), but he lies just to keep the peace and make people happy, a trait that is not often seen in a romance novel hero as it is seen as weak.
"Let's say you're not at work, your sister is out of town with her kids, it's Saturday night and you've already done your workout for the day. Now what does Sammy do? Parties, clubs, pool halls?"
"I might go to a concert."
"Really? What kind of music?"
"I like jazz."
"Oh."
He could tell from the disappointed sound in her voice that she didn't like jazz and he felt as if he'd failed a very important pop quiz. "But really," he said. "I like just about any kind of music."
"Pop?"
"Sure," he lied, not knowing why he did so other than he didn't want her to think ill of him.
So. Weak? Nah, human. Right? I mean, usually romance heroes have no resemblance to actual human beings. That's the whole idea. They are a fantasy image of what a man 'should' be according to the author or the audience. Wilde surprises me here by giving Sam visible flaws.
Now, there are plenty of romance heroes who are flawed: aka huge assholes and domineering pieces of shit. But this isn't a weakness that the author is giving them, instead it is a case of the wrong audience (me) who doesn't fantasize about meeting a controlling asshole who has no respect for women.
Instead, Wilde takes a different tack. Sam frequently lies or goes along with something that he disagrees with or doesn't believe in in order to keep the peace or please important people in his life. I know what you're thinking, you're thinking that this is fucking weak behavior, but it is something I struggle with daily IRL and it was nice to see a man, cop, and romance hero struggle with this too, despite all his macho romance hero attributes.
Because Sam IS drenched in romance hero stereotypicality. Cop, take charge (not dominating asshole, just a take charge person like a cop), strong, not afraid of confrontation, etc. Take his fear of heights, for example. It's not really a 'flaw,' any more than Indiana Jones being afraid of snakes is a 'flaw,' instead it is a way for creators to acknowledge a hero's humanity in the SLIGHTEST, MOST INSIGNIFICANT way and also have them overcome it heroically. Like Sam walking out on an eighth-story ledge to rescue Cass. Heroic act, made more heroic by factoring in his fear of heights. Or when he helps her climb a tree. This isn't a real 'flaw,' it's designed by creators to actually enhance a hero's heroics.
Telling white lies in order to please other people, though... there's an actual flaw that society and other people look down on but is actually a very human and vulnerable response. It's natural, but it's weak (or perceived as weak) and it's not commonly found in romance heroes. I liked Wilde's shameless inclusion of this in Sam. It made him more real and relatable to me.
Another great aspect of the book that really captured my interest personally was Sam having a great nose and being nicknamed "Bloodhound." Of course, I am obsessed with scent and fragrances and getting frequent scent descriptions due to Sam's ability was a huge plus for me.
Cass smelled of lightning the instant it struck a purple mountain orchid. No, no. Her essence was more like the taste of crème caramel eaten with a platinum spoon. No, that wasn't right either. Her fragrance embodied the sweet melody of a lover's sated breath after a long night of excellent sex. No, that was too elemental. Her smell was lighter than that, softer.
And their scents mixed together is also intriguing to him,
Princess Oil of Olay meets Detective Sergeant Lifebuoy.
It wasn't a bad aroma.
Intriguing actually. A blossoming yellow daffodil floating on an ocean of wheat-brown sandalwood.
How about this:
Cass's soft arm was wrapped around his neck and her cute little face was resting against his cheek and she smelled like a combination of pine forest and prima donna and the scent drove him wild.
Or this:
Whenever he breathed, he smelled her perfume, vanilla as candy-floss on the upper layer but with a rich, sophisticated note of sassy, foreign spice underneath that drilled a hole of longing straight through his brain the minute he smelled her.
He also loves eating vulvae, make of that what you will, but I always adore books that make a point to talk about how amazing vulvae smell and taste.
Whenever he ran his tongue over his lips he tasted her kicky flavor bursting delightfully in his mouth, tangy as jalapeño salsa but with the satisfying buttery softness of fresh baked bread stroking childhood memories of warmth and comfort and home.
His sense of smell also helps him find, catch, and identify criminals. IDK, I really liked this but please keep in mind that I have a small obsession with scent.
I also adore Cass's fear of relationships. Usually it's the hero struggling with commitment and being sexually faithful, here it is the heroine. I really relate to her and liked Wilde's focus on this. Cass doesn't want to limit herself to just one man. She feels like she would be missing out on a whole smorgasbord of fun if she did so. (Although it's debatable how much fun she'd actually be missing, the book tells us Sam is the first man to ever go down on her, so...). She labels any man as 'clingy' if he wants to be exclusive. She's flighty and flits from guy to guy. I like it. Settling down with Sam long term is a huge deal for her and she's shown as being afraid to 'give up' the many possibilities life could take by being with just one man. It's a good inclusion by Wilde and one I thought was understandable and relatable about Cass.
The happily-ever-after chicks were boring. You got married and your adventure was over. What tugged at her interest were those women who turned away from the traditional path and embraced a life of numerous possibilities. Katherine Hepburn and Margaret Mead and Coco Chanel. You couldn't do that if you promised forever and ever and ever to one guy.
Of course the mention of Chanel is troubling, but you get it.
How about this?
She thought of all the men she'd dated. The men she'd wounded. She'd never meant to hurt any of them. She'd never even really been aware that she was causing them pain. She'd just been going merrily about her life...
YES. See? Hurting men who think she will be Girlfriend and not even intending to do so, probably half-based on the society idea that men have no feelings and would love to have no-strings sex (which is NOT the reality, btw) is an idea that really hits home here.
WHAT ELSE?
The book bows under the weight of cheesy romance sometimes, especially near the beginning.
But she could see him as a proud Scottish pirate at the bow of his sailing ship gazing out at the new land he was about to pillage. Suddenly, in her mind's eye, she was a maiden in that faraway land being captured by her conqueror and made to service him in so many shameful, pleasurable ways. 12%
Whaaaaaa....? LOL It's so silly. But I love silly romance novels, and to Wilde's credit when you get to the meat of the story a lot of this silliness is sloughed off. With occasional peeks.
"Um, Sam," Cass stood on tiptoes to whisper in his ear. "Marcos won a national boxing championship when he was at Eton."
"Yeah?" Sam clenched his jaw and drilled his hard-edge stare right into Marcos's eyes. The wet cardboard smell of him made Sam want to sneeze. "I boxed on the streets of Queens. You want to take it outside?" 58%
The book also reminds me of other stuff. Romancing the Stone, it even includes a direct joke about it. Amazing film. Also, it reminded me a bit of Deliver Us From Eva, especially the ending. So cute. Love that film.
"If you chop the heels off my shoes like Michael Douglas did to Kathleen Turner in ROMANCING THE STONE, I'll kill you with my bare hands."
"Big threat coming from such a petite woman. In case you haven't noticed, I don't have a machete handy with which to do any heel chopping, so you can relax on that score."
HOW'S THE SEX, CARMEN?
Technically, it is good, although for whatever reason not sexually exciting me. But not bad at all. My fault, not Wilde's.
BUT, they don't use condoms, and that really grates my cheese. They don't even discuss it until his penis is millimeters away from her vulva. NOT THE TIME. They should have discussed birth control and STD prevention before this.
No, they are cute and the sex is pretty cute.
"Come on, Sam, do it. Take me right here, right now on this rock."
"It'll be rough on your back."
"Don't be so practical. Lose yourself."
"I don't want to bruise you."
I'm totally with Sam on this one, by the way. Sex on a rock sounds horrible, glad he put the kibosh on this. She's trying to be whimsical and get him to loosen up a bit, but please have sex somewhere comfortable. Yeah.
TL;DR - Kind of a lame mystery and lame villain tacked onto this romance novel, but I prefer that to the alternative: a lame romance tacked on to a thriller.
If you take it as a thriller or mystery or romantic suspense, it is a dud. But if you take it as a romance novel (as I did), it's actually pretty decent. Not perfect, and not five-star worthy IMO, but definitely interesting and enjoyable. I enjoyed it. Cass and Sam were both cute but had enough problems not to seem lame and one-dimensional. They were probably tw0-dimensional, I'm not going to lie to you and tell you they had the depth to be considered three-dimensional. LOL
Silly romance novel, good old-fashioned fun, cheesy goodness - but at the same time, Wilde gives us some heart and some interesting moments here.
4 out of 5 stars. Great to read a romance with actual sex in it again!
ROMANCE CATEGORIES
Contemporary Romance
Romantic Suspense
Non-Virgin Heroine
Police Romance
He's a Cop, She's a PR Person
"You're naked," she pointed out. "If you're really looking for long term then why didn't you put some underwear on?"
"I always sleep naked."
"You could have made an exception this time, if you really didn't want anything to happen."
"Do you want something to happen?"
"I have to tell you, Sam, this is the lamest seduction anyone's ever tried on me."
"I'm not trying to seduce you."
"That's really good because it's not working."
Cass runs PR campaigns. Sam is a Sergeant Detective. The story starts out with some tale of star-crossed lovers long ago. This was strange. I expect Blazes to be contemporary hot romances, but Wilde was adding a bit of a fantasy element here. I'm not mad at it. I see you, Lori Wilde. I see you.
So, the book starts out in hilarious, silly Blaze fashion as Cass climbs out of her eight-story window to retrieve her Hermès scarf which has blown away. Of course, everyone thinks she is a suicidal person. Sam runs up to the eighth floor to try and talk her down from the ledge.
"Suicide?"
What on earth was he babbling about? He thought she wanted to kill herself? Well, that was just dumb. What she wanted was to get back inside, find a blow-dryer and a hot latte.
Cass is very... hmmmmm. She's not a ditz. I hate classifying women that way, anyway. Let's see. She is materialistic and she uses materialistic things to adjust her mood. She's all about that Hermès scarf, Manolo Blahnik life.
..."you're nuts."
"Gee, that's not very nice."
"What kind of shallow, narcissistic, materialistic, egocentric..."
"You can give it a rest. I get the picture. If I'm a jumper then you're all sympathetic and helpful but if I'm just..."
"Blond," he supplied.
She glared. "I was going to say RASH."
But to Wilde's credit, Sam isn't this mean and Cass isn't shallow, either. Actually, Wilde does a great job of creating this female character who uses high-end goods and things like pedicures to adjust her mood. Cass wonders about herself, often asking herself if she's grabbed the wrong 'brass ring' in life, but she's not apologetic for being who she is, nor should she be. She is not a bad person. I liked her.
Wilde provides touching explanations for the way Cass is, but doesn't try to change or 'fix' her or try to pretend that a turquoise pedicure doesn't bring her joy. Sometimes it can seem like Cass is stupid (take going out on a ledge for a scarf, for example) but it's all part of her flighty, fun, carefree personality that Wilde is going for here.
We don't want to tear Cass down. Sure, she places importance on expensive material goods, believes that conforming to society's ideas of the perfect woman makes her a better person in some regards, and does incredibly stupid shit like climbing out on a eighth-story ledge to retrieve a lost Hermès scarf. But at the same time her loving, carefree, enjoying-life personality is engaging and warm. She's typical in fiction, think Carrie Bradshaw or Molly Gunn (RIP Brittany Murphy, another life claimed by anorexia nervosa) and Wilde is breaking no ground with her, but I took no issue with her materialism or stereotypical 'girlishness.'
"Do you play the stock market?"
"I have a nest egg. You?"
Cass looked down at her shoes. "These babies are my investment. I figure invest in looking good and everything else will take care of itself."
"Translation, you're totally broke."
"Yes, but I'm spending the weekend in the Hamptons with the possibility of earning fifty grand, eating rich food and sleeping in a beachside bungalow and it's not costing me a red cent."
Sam is a cop who had a bad nine-month marriage when he was young, and now he's leery of getting involved with a high-society woman like his ex-wife was.
I like the way Wilde portrays Sam as well. He's surprisingly vulnerable for a Harlequin hero. Wilde allows him to be human, which is actually quite rare in romance novels. Not only is he terrified of heights (which comes into play A LOT in this novel), but he lies just to keep the peace and make people happy, a trait that is not often seen in a romance novel hero as it is seen as weak.
"Let's say you're not at work, your sister is out of town with her kids, it's Saturday night and you've already done your workout for the day. Now what does Sammy do? Parties, clubs, pool halls?"
"I might go to a concert."
"Really? What kind of music?"
"I like jazz."
"Oh."
He could tell from the disappointed sound in her voice that she didn't like jazz and he felt as if he'd failed a very important pop quiz. "But really," he said. "I like just about any kind of music."
"Pop?"
"Sure," he lied, not knowing why he did so other than he didn't want her to think ill of him.
So. Weak? Nah, human. Right? I mean, usually romance heroes have no resemblance to actual human beings. That's the whole idea. They are a fantasy image of what a man 'should' be according to the author or the audience. Wilde surprises me here by giving Sam visible flaws.
Now, there are plenty of romance heroes who are flawed: aka huge assholes and domineering pieces of shit. But this isn't a weakness that the author is giving them, instead it is a case of the wrong audience (me) who doesn't fantasize about meeting a controlling asshole who has no respect for women.
Instead, Wilde takes a different tack. Sam frequently lies or goes along with something that he disagrees with or doesn't believe in in order to keep the peace or please important people in his life. I know what you're thinking, you're thinking that this is fucking weak behavior, but it is something I struggle with daily IRL and it was nice to see a man, cop, and romance hero struggle with this too, despite all his macho romance hero attributes.
Because Sam IS drenched in romance hero stereotypicality. Cop, take charge (not dominating asshole, just a take charge person like a cop), strong, not afraid of confrontation, etc. Take his fear of heights, for example. It's not really a 'flaw,' any more than Indiana Jones being afraid of snakes is a 'flaw,' instead it is a way for creators to acknowledge a hero's humanity in the SLIGHTEST, MOST INSIGNIFICANT way and also have them overcome it heroically. Like Sam walking out on an eighth-story ledge to rescue Cass. Heroic act, made more heroic by factoring in his fear of heights. Or when he helps her climb a tree. This isn't a real 'flaw,' it's designed by creators to actually enhance a hero's heroics.
Telling white lies in order to please other people, though... there's an actual flaw that society and other people look down on but is actually a very human and vulnerable response. It's natural, but it's weak (or perceived as weak) and it's not commonly found in romance heroes. I liked Wilde's shameless inclusion of this in Sam. It made him more real and relatable to me.
Another great aspect of the book that really captured my interest personally was Sam having a great nose and being nicknamed "Bloodhound." Of course, I am obsessed with scent and fragrances and getting frequent scent descriptions due to Sam's ability was a huge plus for me.
Cass smelled of lightning the instant it struck a purple mountain orchid. No, no. Her essence was more like the taste of crème caramel eaten with a platinum spoon. No, that wasn't right either. Her fragrance embodied the sweet melody of a lover's sated breath after a long night of excellent sex. No, that was too elemental. Her smell was lighter than that, softer.
And their scents mixed together is also intriguing to him,
Princess Oil of Olay meets Detective Sergeant Lifebuoy.
It wasn't a bad aroma.
Intriguing actually. A blossoming yellow daffodil floating on an ocean of wheat-brown sandalwood.
How about this:
Cass's soft arm was wrapped around his neck and her cute little face was resting against his cheek and she smelled like a combination of pine forest and prima donna and the scent drove him wild.
Or this:
Whenever he breathed, he smelled her perfume, vanilla as candy-floss on the upper layer but with a rich, sophisticated note of sassy, foreign spice underneath that drilled a hole of longing straight through his brain the minute he smelled her.
He also loves eating vulvae, make of that what you will, but I always adore books that make a point to talk about how amazing vulvae smell and taste.
Whenever he ran his tongue over his lips he tasted her kicky flavor bursting delightfully in his mouth, tangy as jalapeño salsa but with the satisfying buttery softness of fresh baked bread stroking childhood memories of warmth and comfort and home.
His sense of smell also helps him find, catch, and identify criminals. IDK, I really liked this but please keep in mind that I have a small obsession with scent.
I also adore Cass's fear of relationships. Usually it's the hero struggling with commitment and being sexually faithful, here it is the heroine. I really relate to her and liked Wilde's focus on this. Cass doesn't want to limit herself to just one man. She feels like she would be missing out on a whole smorgasbord of fun if she did so. (Although it's debatable how much fun she'd actually be missing, the book tells us Sam is the first man to ever go down on her, so...). She labels any man as 'clingy' if he wants to be exclusive. She's flighty and flits from guy to guy. I like it. Settling down with Sam long term is a huge deal for her and she's shown as being afraid to 'give up' the many possibilities life could take by being with just one man. It's a good inclusion by Wilde and one I thought was understandable and relatable about Cass.
The happily-ever-after chicks were boring. You got married and your adventure was over. What tugged at her interest were those women who turned away from the traditional path and embraced a life of numerous possibilities. Katherine Hepburn and Margaret Mead and Coco Chanel. You couldn't do that if you promised forever and ever and ever to one guy.
Of course the mention of Chanel is troubling, but you get it.
How about this?
She thought of all the men she'd dated. The men she'd wounded. She'd never meant to hurt any of them. She'd never even really been aware that she was causing them pain. She'd just been going merrily about her life...
YES. See? Hurting men who think she will be Girlfriend and not even intending to do so, probably half-based on the society idea that men have no feelings and would love to have no-strings sex (which is NOT the reality, btw) is an idea that really hits home here.
WHAT ELSE?
The book bows under the weight of cheesy romance sometimes, especially near the beginning.
But she could see him as a proud Scottish pirate at the bow of his sailing ship gazing out at the new land he was about to pillage. Suddenly, in her mind's eye, she was a maiden in that faraway land being captured by her conqueror and made to service him in so many shameful, pleasurable ways. 12%
Whaaaaaa....? LOL It's so silly. But I love silly romance novels, and to Wilde's credit when you get to the meat of the story a lot of this silliness is sloughed off. With occasional peeks.
"Um, Sam," Cass stood on tiptoes to whisper in his ear. "Marcos won a national boxing championship when he was at Eton."
"Yeah?" Sam clenched his jaw and drilled his hard-edge stare right into Marcos's eyes. The wet cardboard smell of him made Sam want to sneeze. "I boxed on the streets of Queens. You want to take it outside?" 58%
The book also reminds me of other stuff. Romancing the Stone, it even includes a direct joke about it. Amazing film. Also, it reminded me a bit of Deliver Us From Eva, especially the ending. So cute. Love that film.
"If you chop the heels off my shoes like Michael Douglas did to Kathleen Turner in ROMANCING THE STONE, I'll kill you with my bare hands."
"Big threat coming from such a petite woman. In case you haven't noticed, I don't have a machete handy with which to do any heel chopping, so you can relax on that score."
HOW'S THE SEX, CARMEN?
Technically, it is good, although for whatever reason not sexually exciting me. But not bad at all. My fault, not Wilde's.
BUT, they don't use condoms, and that really grates my cheese. They don't even discuss it until his penis is millimeters away from her vulva. NOT THE TIME. They should have discussed birth control and STD prevention before this.
No, they are cute and the sex is pretty cute.
"Come on, Sam, do it. Take me right here, right now on this rock."
"It'll be rough on your back."
"Don't be so practical. Lose yourself."
"I don't want to bruise you."
I'm totally with Sam on this one, by the way. Sex on a rock sounds horrible, glad he put the kibosh on this. She's trying to be whimsical and get him to loosen up a bit, but please have sex somewhere comfortable. Yeah.
TL;DR - Kind of a lame mystery and lame villain tacked onto this romance novel, but I prefer that to the alternative: a lame romance tacked on to a thriller.
If you take it as a thriller or mystery or romantic suspense, it is a dud. But if you take it as a romance novel (as I did), it's actually pretty decent. Not perfect, and not five-star worthy IMO, but definitely interesting and enjoyable. I enjoyed it. Cass and Sam were both cute but had enough problems not to seem lame and one-dimensional. They were probably tw0-dimensional, I'm not going to lie to you and tell you they had the depth to be considered three-dimensional. LOL
Silly romance novel, good old-fashioned fun, cheesy goodness - but at the same time, Wilde gives us some heart and some interesting moments here.
4 out of 5 stars. Great to read a romance with actual sex in it again!
ROMANCE CATEGORIES
Contemporary Romance
Romantic Suspense
Non-Virgin Heroine
Police Romance
He's a Cop, She's a PR Person
November 13, 2008
This one has a girl who's afraid of commitment and a guy who wants it but believes she's up to no good.
August 15, 2014
"Tu sei un filet mignon,io sono un panino imbottito.Tu sei la torre Eiffel,io il mulino a vento in un minigolf.Tu sei un purosangue,io un pony."
Fu colta dal desiderio imperioso di gettarsi tra le sue braccia e confessargli che adorava i panini imbottiti,il minigolf e i pony.E che il suo film preferito era Lilli e il vagabondo.
WHITE STAR volume 1
Un romanzo che ti attira subito,per prima cosa stuzzica la leggenda legata al gioiello (profuma di amori proibiti e intrighi antichi)e poi la storia d'amore tra Cass e Sam,dolce,tormentata,divertente.
Ma veniamo alla trama,tutto ha inizio con un gioiello legato a una maledizione che viene rubato,il detective Sam che indaga punta i suoi sospetti su un'amica comune delle vittime,Cass,giovane,elegante,raffinata,all'apparenza superficiale il tipo di persona che lui evita...ma si sa l'apparenza inganna,e tra la caccia a un ladro,sospetti,intrighi,leggende,baci appassionati ecco che arriva l'amore.Consigliato!
Fu colta dal desiderio imperioso di gettarsi tra le sue braccia e confessargli che adorava i panini imbottiti,il minigolf e i pony.E che il suo film preferito era Lilli e il vagabondo.
WHITE STAR volume 1
Un romanzo che ti attira subito,per prima cosa stuzzica la leggenda legata al gioiello (profuma di amori proibiti e intrighi antichi)e poi la storia d'amore tra Cass e Sam,dolce,tormentata,divertente.
Ma veniamo alla trama,tutto ha inizio con un gioiello legato a una maledizione che viene rubato,il detective Sam che indaga punta i suoi sospetti su un'amica comune delle vittime,Cass,giovane,elegante,raffinata,all'apparenza superficiale il tipo di persona che lui evita...ma si sa l'apparenza inganna,e tra la caccia a un ladro,sospetti,intrighi,leggende,baci appassionati ecco che arriva l'amore.Consigliato!
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