I decided my from the vault music collection ought to morph into a review of all the good stuff I liked decades ago and still like now. Maybe I'm doing all this looking back because I'm OLD now :).
Night Heat by Lyn Ellis is a Harlequin Temptation (Blaze) I bought as one of those 4 books for the price of 3 deals way back in the day. I actually got 2 keepers out of that pack so it was money well spent. Today when I went looking to find out if Lyn was still writing I was dismayed to discover she'd passed away in 2006. Following is my review of this memorable book, written just after I read it for the first time back in the late 90s. Yes, I'm a dork with a database, my way of studying my fav authors to see what they were doing right--and the not so favs to find out what they were doing wrong. That's fun research:). If I wasn't a writer I think I'd definitely be a reviewer.
There's sexual tension to spare between a wealthy heroine and a poor sailor with security skills who's been assigned by her father to protect her without her ever knowing. He has to take on the job so he can afford to buy back his boat at auction. She's attracted to him and not too uptight to deny it, not so slutty she chases after him like a bitch in heat. The hero is in love/lust with this woman right from the book's opening, and his struggle to keep his hands off her while doing his duty to protect her is real and tense and heartbreaking. Couldn't wait for these two to do the deed and smartly the author draws it out until well past the book's half way mark instead of trying to cram as much sex into the book as possible. I really liked Abby, an acheivement by the author as she was a well-off heiress who'd never wanted for anything with a dream job running a resort - it would have been so easy to lack sympathy for her. I wanted Tripp myself, despite his terrible name. Oh, man was he gorgeous. Not too many random melodramatic events inserted into the book, just day to day activities made tense by the sexual tension, want-him-but-shouldn't-have-him angst thrumming between these characters. When her father finds out about their secret relationship he is livid and says Tripp isn't good enough for her and he doesn't do a sudden about face to give his stamp of approval as often happens in the romantic world. Believeable. Real. Sexy. Wrentching. Totally enjoyable with an idyllic setting thrown in (The Carribean). If all novels were like this I'd never stop reading a day in my life.
I'm only sorry Lyn Ellis is no longer around and writing, or I would have sent her that review. I'm sure the last line would have made her smile.
Sami
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