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The set-up of the Wildflowers series is admittedly unique, taking the story of three couples falling in love at the same place and using each book to tell the parallel story.
But the plot of Summer Heat, much like most Jell-O molds in the hot sun, refuses to solidify. As I delved into the book I kept asking more questions than I found answers for, which is suboptimal in a novel that seeks to be a pleasant boinkfest.
Elle Saunders is in the process of scattering her grandfather’s ashes after the man died the morning before (!!) when she gets a call from her best friend Hannah, who rushes, together with other friends Zoey, Scarlett and Aubrey, to help keep Elle’s chin up. The fivesome form The Wildflowers, and they met years earlier at River Camp, the girl’s vacation resort that once belonging to Elle’s grandfather and that she has now inherited. Elle decides to reopen River Camp into a resort for retirees (or as the book cover copy says “for sexy snowbirds”) and it somehow becomes a high-end swinger camp. She asks her four friends to help, and they all immediately volunteer to do so, even though two of them are caring for their sick mother, whom they move to the resort.
A year later, River Camp is just about ready to reopen its doors. Elle directs the resort – and when three handsome brothers arrive seeking jobs, the careful balance she’s built suddenly comes undone.
Owen, Dylan and Liam Rhodes have an ulterior purpose for arriving at River Camp, but settle in as a woodworking shop master/bartender, general handyman and zipline guide respectively. When Elle sees them sneaking around at night on the security cameras, she’s curious about their motives – and can’t afford to fire them because she’s overbudget. (Huh??). The three of them have absolutely no records in any state employee databases (um, gulp) but instead of calling a detective, the friends vow to investigate the three men themselves. Zoey takes Dylan (see Book one, Summer Nights); Hannah follows Owen (story presumably to come in Book three) and Elle follows Liam.
There’s a good reason why the Rhodes brothers aren’t visible in any work databases – their real last name is Costa, and they’re at the resort to find their father, who was seduced away from their mother by “his latest conquest” after robbing the family business of thousands on the way out the door, leaving none of them with the authority to lead the company he built. The brothers think Elle is that woman, in spite of all of the research they’ve allegedly done into her life, simply because their father contacted her before disappearing, They also presume Elle has used the money from their dad to remodel the resort.
The chemistry between Elle and Liam is spicy, but as for more than sex – well, Elle is still emotionally suffering from the abuse that her ex put her through, and Liam is determined to expose Elle as the ho bag. But as they get closer and the summer keeps trucking along, will Liam’s motives be exposed, and will their romance survive the truth?
Summer Heat is decently written but there are some research fails and the plot makes no sense. Literally, no sense. My head hurts every single time I try to wrap my brain around it.
Elle is decent, but bland. Her only stated qualities are ‘in over her head’ and ‘dad murdered mom’. She’s hot, young and plucky, but there’s no pulp to her juice.
And don’t get me started on Liam, who comes off as a creepy jerk who isn’t above using his good looks to get what he wants. The fact that he started his relationship with Elle with deceit felt like an insurmountable problem to me, but then again I’m not a man with two brothers who can’t figure out their own father is on the grounds of a resort in over twenty days.
Liam and Elle’s relationship seems to generally be based on lust. They’re attracted to each other, wanna bang, can banter lightly, but the intimacy between them is lacking, and Liam is so creepily intent on violating Elle’s privacy to get what he wants for most of the novel, I just couldn’t buy the romance.
Aside from Elle, Zoey and Hannah – or as I called them in my head, Victimy, Blandie and Toughie – Scarlett and Aubrey have little to no personality (and have awkward sounding nicknames, ‘Scar’ and ‘Aub’). There’s literally no reason for two of our five heroines to exist in this series, since there are only three brothers for the girls to hunt (but I’m sure they’ll hook up with the carpenters and other help laboriously talked about in one of Elle’s internal monologues, part of the endlessly large resort cast who exist for no good reason. Again – WHY NOT HIRE FRIENDS OF THOSE FRIENDS AND NOT THE WEIRD DUDES SNEAKING AROUND YOUR PROPERTY? If these handsome but strange men are roaming your beloved property at night, obviously prowling around looking for something and you don’t know what, would you keep them on? Who cares if he’s a dead ringer for Jason Momoa?! He could put a screwdriver through your neck! RUN GIRL RUN!
The general details of the story were all wrong right off the bat. When Elle scattered her grandfather’s ashes less than two days after he died I tilted my head in confusion. As someone who lost a parent who was cremated, unless there are special circumstances you have to wait a week or more to receive the cremains of your loved one.
And if your senior romance hotel has suddenly turned into a swinger camp, you can enforce a no-fucking-by-the-pool rule if they can’t keep it clean and avoid leaving used condoms bobbing along in the water (yes really). Elle is constantly running into horny seniors fucking al fresco and I kept waiting for her to put her foot down and tell them to quit it.
The emotional resonance of the book feels off. Elle transitions too easily from mourning her grandfather to reveling in a pool with her friends, and she accepts Liam’s lies too easily. Liam feels far too focused on his father to actually love who Elle really is (the conclusion to that part of the plot, by the way, is tragically contrived, as is a last-forty-pages-stunt designed to prove Liam ‘really’ loves her). And the plotline with Liam’s stalker ex conspiring with ELLE’s stalker ex to sue the camp – a nuisance gesture no judge would even entertain and…oof.
Let’s just say Summer Heat needs a hand fan and a block of ice to cool down the fevered twisting of its plot until it makes sense. Like Aunt Edna’s Marshmallow Jell-O mold surprise, it could probably use more time in the fridge to set.
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Grade: D-
Book Type: Contemporary Romance
Sensuality: Warm
Review Date: 25/10/19
Publication Date: 10/2019
Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.
The cover is enough to put me off. Great review, though, Lisa.
The cover was in the end, and ironically, my personal fave part! Thank you!
I’ve read another book by this author two years ago and the plot just felt too confusing, and I thought it didn’t have to be. Not enough emotion attached to it either, so it was at the time a 2 star story for me.
Reading your review doesn’t make me eager to try the author again.
Yep, this was a super incoherent one. With some quick editing it could’ve been better but it was um. Not great.