The Wanderer

So, the preview looked good and the book was available from the library for free. The plot is rather predictable but with enough extras thrown in to keep it interesting. I've driven through and spent some time along the Oregon Coastal Towns that form the setting. Only a few editing gaffs make this a better than average e-Book. First in a series set in a small made-up community on the coast.

This author has that rare gift that cannot be bottled and sold of making the reader feel they are present hearing the surf crash, the gulls scream, and smell the salt ocean air. Her plots may be predictable but her characters come alive on the page in a way that makes them real for the reader, that puts you there on the page with them. Their lives matter and one feels compelled to read on to see whether the outcomes you expect come to pass and how the characters get themselves out of the scrapes in which they find themselves.

Yes, this is a Harlequin Romance and the characters do have rather torrid sex. I don't personally read books like this for vicarious titillation and wouldn't be reading this one if those rather detailed scenes were protracted and appeared to be the only object of the writing. The author makes the reader care for her characters and feel present in the scene with them, there are no cut-out single dimensional background figures. The book ends suddenly without any happily ever after scenarios the next book in the series picking up the story seamlessly where this one left off.