Wild and Wicked (Harlequin Blaze, No 87)

Rating:
Summary: Wildly provocative! Very highly recommended
Review: Best friends and business partners, Kyra Stafford and Jesse Chandler flirt outrageously, but both know there is no substance behind he suggestions. After all, consummate bad boy Jesse cherishes the one long lasting female friendship he has and would never do anything to compromise it. Unfortunately, Kyra longs for compromising situations with Jesse. So she decides to assert her desires and kidnap Jesse at the Gasparilla event--Florida's equivalent of Mardi Gras. Dressed as a pirate/domoninatrix, she steals Jesse from his fashion model escort without apology.

Jesse sucks at relationships and does not appreciated being wanted just for sex. After all, he thought Kyra was the one female in his life who saw him as something more than a sex object. Meanwhile, Kyra nurses a bruised heart because she is the only woman Jesse never seems to want. She announces that she intends to take advantage of his bad boy reputation and wield every trick of seduction she has witnessed him using. Nevertheless, despite his opportune rescue at Gasparilla and Kyra's wildly seductive offer, Jesse refuses Kyra's overt overtures.

Crossing the boundaries between friends and lovers results in a richly sensual read in WILD AND WICKED. As Jesse and Kyra explore promising possibilities, this consummates bad boy finds traditional sexual roles reversed. Amidst rampant lust, Kyra exercises her unused feminine wiles in her determination to win her night with Jesse. But events do not follow either of their plans, resulting in a novel rich with emotional complexity. Author Joanne Rock's sleek, sensuous prose smolders with eroticism, building to a wildly provocative Blaze that belongs on the keeper shelf. WILD AND WICKED comes very highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing.
Review: I'm not going to do the synopsis thing, because other reviewers do it better. I just want to add another viewpoint. I really thought that Jesse and Kyra had NO chemistry; they were just two people having sex. They were also supposed to have been best friends for years, but it seemed like they were just getting to know each other. I had a hard time with the relationship, and Kyra doesn't seem to be the sticking type. She changed her mind so many tmes, that I'm suprised poor Jesse could stand it.

The really good aspect of this story was the side plot/romance between Kyra's equine psychologist, Clint, and Greta, an ex-lover of Jesse's who can't let go. Clint gets her to go on a date with him by telling her it would make Jesse jealous. It doesn't, of course, but it all works out. I just wish the book had been about them!

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing.
Review: I'm not going to do the synopsis thing, because other reviewers do it better. I just want to add another viewpoint. I really thought that Jesse and Kyra had NO chemistry; they were just two people having sex. They were also supposed to have been best friends for years, but it seemed like they were just getting to know each other. I had a hard time with the relationship, and Kyra doesn't seem to be the sticking type. She changed her mind so many tmes, that I'm suprised poor Jesse could stand it.

The really good aspect of this story was the side plot/romance between Kyra's equine psychologist, Clint, and Greta, an ex-lover of Jesse's who can't let go. Clint gets her to go on a date with him by telling her it would make Jesse jealous. It doesn't, of course, but it all works out. I just wish the book had been about them!

Rating:
Summary: light, heated and romantic
Review: Kyra Stafford knows she loves her Crooked Branch Horse Farms business partner Jesse Chandler, but though he has hit on every other available female in Citrus County, he has never given her a smoldering look. After waiting for years for him to notice her beyond being a best pal since they first met when she was ten, Kyra decides she either must free her soul to love someone else or open his heart to what she really wants, a lifetime with him.

During a pirate's festivity, Kyra abducts Jesse informing him that he will service her if he wants his freedom. Hesitant to destroy a friendship by seducing the one woman he actually cares about, bad boy Jesse cannot resist her lure. One night of sex and their roles reverse. While Kyra ignores her beloved except for ranching, Jesse desperately wants what he never sought before, commitment. Perhaps abduction is the way to go.

Though conceptually abduction sends a bad message, Joanne Rock keeps her tale light, heated and romantic. The story line is fun, as Kyra and Jesse are warm ethical individuals who the audience will adore. The support cast enables the reader to understand the duo especially Jesse's motives to keep his roving hands off Kyra, who tries to change from quiet innocent to WILD AND WICKED temptress.

Harriet Klausner