MISADVENTURES OF A CITY GIRL

Wild (Misadventures of a Good Wife, 2017, etc.) and Bliss (Dirty Secret, 2017, etc.) deliver an erotic romance novel featuring a stubborn city dweller and an ex-military hunk—both broken by life but ready for sexual redemption.

Humiliated by her husband’s adultery and their subsequent divorce, Los Angeles makeup artist Madison Atwood retreats to a Northern California spa. There, she runs into handsome mountain man Luke Dawson, a former Navy SEAL who was traumatized by his violent but lifesaving work, after he accidentally spies her masturbating while skinny-dipping. He gruffly leads Madison, whom he sees as being “all passion and no goddamn sense,” back down the mountain. Madison later chances upon him pleasing himself in his rustic cabin, and their sexual affair begins. As they progress through increasingly intense positions and techniques, their emotional connection also builds. Much is at stake, however: Madison’s life is back in LA, and Luke’s is here, in the remote wilderness. An unexpected visit from Madison’s ex threatens to derail the love affair, but the authors make sure that the couple’s time apart is mercifully brief. Soon, the sex scenes continue (“The strokes are punishing, deep and fast”), as Madison and Luke try to decide how to make their connection work. The authors offer nearly nonstop erotic scenes in this romance, which will keep readers turning the pages. But both Madison’s and Luke’s first-person perspectives offer a nice balance of the visceral and the intellectual, especially Luke’s: “I don’t recognize myself or my irrational physical responses.” Indeed, he’s effectively revealed as a sensitive man with advanced carnal knowledge; when he says, “Tonight, I’m going to take you in ways I haven’t yet,” saucy Madison melts into his commanding arms.

A high-heat romance between a pert LA woman and rough mountain man.