Book Review: Wild Loving by N.J. Walters

Title: Wild Loving
Author: N.J. Walters
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Sensuality Rating: Steamy
Source: review copy provided by publisher
Published: May 23, 2014 by Ellora’s Cave

Broke and homeless, Eliza Hart is at the end of her rope. She’s spent the last year of her life trying to evade a dangerous stalker. In desperation, she turns to the man she once loved, the man who walked away from her without a backward glance—Rabb Hatter.

Rabb is shocked when Eliza shows up at Hatter’s—the club he co-owns with his brother—looking for a job. He’d left her and hadn’t looked back when he’d thought she’d cheated on him with another man. Now he discovers that not only did Jason Ware lie, but he’s been stalking Eliza the whole time. The spark between them certainly hasn’t died, and when Rabb learns she’s lost everything, he’s determined to protect her. But first he must overcome the pain of their past and convince her she’s right to trust him with her heart.

Reviewed By: Babs

Why I Read This Book: I wanted to read a short book with no paranormal elements.

In a Nutshell: I had some issues with the beginning of the story. I ended up getting into the story eventually and liked it.

The Set Up: Eliza turns to Rabb, an old friend, when she is in trouble and runs out of options.

What I Liked: The story pulled me in after I overcame some leaps I didn’t like in the beginning (see “What I Didn’t Like” below). I got into their story enough I wanted to find out how the conflict would be resolved.

This author is new-to-me and I enjoyed her writing style. I liked the changing points of view between Eliza and Rabb—I got the story from both sides. And Rabb’s family (his brother Nevar and his parents) were nice secondary characters.

I liked that everything wrapped up nicely and there’s even a hint of a future story for a secondary character.

What I Didn’t Like: Okay, this may just be my issue but I had some problems in the beginning of the book. They went some dates about a year before this story picks up but it didn’t seem like enough to warrant the extreme pain and hurt feelings mentioned that would keep them from trying again.

Then they both QUICKLY went from “no, I’m not going there again because I don’t want to get hurt” to touching and willingness to jump in bed together. For Rabb, it’s “No way he’d allow himself to go down that road with her again” to half a page later he’s touching her face and letting her caress his face. The next page he’s holding her hand and the following page he decides he wants to spend more time with her to figure out his feelings.

And then Eliza does the same thing within the space of a couple paragraphs. She goes from “I don’t have room for anyone else in my life right now and I couldn’t bear it if he left” to “oh, okay, I’ll sleep with him this one time since I love him so much”. The leaps were just a bit much in the beginning and initially I didn’t think I could get past them.

Overall Impression: If you have book money to burn and are looking for a quick, suspenseful read with some steamy sex, then this might be a book for you. I really had to push past the leaps in the beginning. In the end, it was a satisfactory story. I’m intrigued enough to go back to check out Nevar’s story, Mad Loving.

Bab’s Rating:

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