In the town of Swiftcurrent, Oregon, things are heating up. Dead bodies and missing masterpieces, family secrets and dangerous threats, a man who likes to feel his way around a problem and a woman who enjoys being the problem...it's all adding up to the kind of steamy sleuthing that just may lead them both beyond temptation and put their desires in drive...
Nancy Warren is the USA Today bestselling author of more than 100 novels.
She’s known for writing funny, sexy and suspenseful tales. She’s an avid hiker, animal lover, wine drinker and chocolate fiend. Favorite moments in her career include being featured on the front page of the New York Times, being the answer to a crossword puzzle clue in Canada’s National Post newspaper and being a finalist three times in the Rita awards. She has won the Reviewer’s Choice Award from Romantic Times magazine.
Contemporary romance novels generally don’t interest me. Mostly it’s because they tend to be a bit too realistic for me. When I read crap like this, I’m expecting it to be completely ridiculous and over-the-top. So in my mind, the answer to that typically translates into characters who couldn’t potentially be walking down the sidewalk right now, like pirates or a half-naked chief, or vampires or cravat-donning earls or someone being sucked into a time-traveling vortex and waking up in the arms of a medieval sex god. Mee-ow.
The characters in this book are most definitely not any of those things and I’d never even heard of this author. So when I randomly picked this up, it was with some skepticism. But imagine my surprise when I realized I felt an affinity for the characters!
She is a small town librarian who likes to wear sexy clothes and he is a hard body art professor who likes rock-climbing. He shows up in her small town in Oregon on a sabbatical to write a book about impressionist art and do some rock climbing. All of a sudden, some other stranger winds up dead in her library. Ready, set, mystery!
It’s instantly evident who the bad guy is (and isn’t) and there was zero surprise in the ending but since the primary focus of the book was in getting the two main characters to have crazy monkey sex a few times and finally admit they loved each other, who cares about the mystery?
The sexy librarian and the rock-climbing professor had immediate chemistry. He hit on her the first time they met and since it was a bit on the lascivious side, it pissed her off. Before too long she changed her mind because she was wildly attracted to him, she hadn’t gotten any in awhile and the pickings were pretty slim in a small town. And aside from one ridiculous comment after the first time they DTD when the heroine informed the hero that his penis should come with a warning because he could “whip cream with that thing” it was pretty hot.
So between that and the secondary romance between the heroine’s cousin (a recovering coke addict) and the town cop, approximately 69% of this book is pure s-e-x. After the first one or two, I usually skip the love scenes because they’re always the same but I only skipped one in this book and trust me, that means something, heh.
Solid mystery, treasure hunt plot was definite plus for this book. Gillian was a good character--not often a former addict is portrayed in the contemporary fiction that I read. And it was well done. The sexual content torpedoed the book for me though. It was WAY overdone. But I continue to believe in this author as a writer and will pick up the next book of hers that I haven't read.
Fun mystery/romance novel set in a small town in Oregon. Features a librarian and an art historian. Murder, stolen art, and relationships. Did I mention sex? There's lots of that!
synopsis: duncan comes to a small town in oregon on the trail of a painting that was stolen from its rightful owners during the second world war. he is an art professor, but his sideline work is being the "indiana jones of the art world" and recovering paintings. oh, yeah, and his family is a family of crooks. alex is a librarian who doesn't dress or act like one. she came back to town after her grandmother died to help her grandfather. once she gets the inheritance settled, she plans to be out of the small town as fast as she can. one morning, alex discovers a body in the library, and the story is off and running.
what i liked: the interactions between alex and duncan were cute. her cousin, gillian, was well drawn as the "bad girl" whom everyone still thinks is an addict, thanks to her ex-husband, who has cleaned up his act.
what i didn't like: alex was suspicious of duncan to start with and she didn't look him up on the internet until after someone mentioned that he wasn't what he seemed? that doesn't seem to be in character. also, gillian was very needy and kept running away from the "love of her life" whenever she thought that he didn't believe her, even though he always did.
Rewritten as: Wild Ride by Nancy Warren Changing Gears Series Duncan Forbes is a professor and he's on sabbatical while he writes and searches for lost and stolen art. Following a lead on a long lost Van Gogh leads him to the small town of Swiftcurrent, Oregon...with the sexiest librarian he's ever seen.
Alexandra Forrest has an agenda. Now that her grandfather has passed away, she plans on finishing the details of writing his memoirs and packing up his home to sell. Then move to the big city to complete her life plan. One that definitely does not include the sexy stranger in her library.
Gillian Forrest Munn messed up her life big time as a teen and small towns don't forget. Now that her husband left her, she's alone again and only Officer Tom Perkins seems to really believe she has changed.
A dead body in the library in this quiet town changes everything. Things like this don't happen here. A steamy romance and murder mystery are only two of the happenings going on. Another page turner story. **Strong sexual content and language http://justjudysjumbles.blogspot.com/...
A nice light fun romance. He is an art professor who tracks down stolen artwork. She is sex goddess librarian who holds the key to a stolen Van Gogh. The mystery was pretty much figured out by the time you meet all the players. Over the top? Oh yeah. But sweet and sexy are certainly in there too. Love the scene where he paints her. Like the secondary romance as well. All in all a decent read.
Amazing read! I loved ever minute of it. I had a hard time putting the book down since I had to find out what would happen next. I never knew a librarian like Alex before and Duncan is quite the guy. Sparks fly when Duncan and Alex meet. You never knew what would happen next between the two of them. The book kept you guessing all the way to the end of the book. I had my suspicions about Eric. The guy is a creep. Read the book today you will not be sorry.
I love this book, it's funny, sexy and exciting. Something that's hard to find. I've discovered there are few books out there with my sense of humor, and Warren totally skipped the drama which I appreiciate greatly.
The story line was good, but it could have been a ton better if they had done more on the stolen art angle and a lot less on the sexual ennuendo angle. Sheeesh.
2 1/2 - 3 stars, liked but the relationships felt a little shallow. The mystery 'bad guy' was so obvious I started to think they couldn't be, and was waiting for the twist that never happened.