Velvet Touch, by Jayne Ann Krentz

Velvet Touch, by Jayne Ann Krentz (as Stephanie James)

SWEET SURRENDER...

Tawny, elegant Lacey Seldon was determined to cut loose from her librarian past and find liberation in the Northwest. An island paradise in Puget Sound seemed the perfect place to begin...until she met Holt Randolph. Holt was unlike any man she'd ever met. His touch made her hunger for a release she'd never known. But he said he didn't want half a heart and challenged her to gamble it all in a blazing affair that would bring her to her senses--and into his arms.

Velvet Touch had a very promising plot, but in the end it wasn't as good as it could have been. A B-.

The set-up was intriguing. Lacey leaves all her life as a librarian in small-town Iowa behind, and decides to spend the summer at an inn on an island in the Puget Sound, evaluating her options and getting ready for the life of adventure she plans to lead. The first man she meets is the innkeeper, Holt, and they immediately embark on a bit of a tug of war. She has her plans, he wants her to forget them and realize that what she really wants is to stay with him.

And that was exactly what left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth. Oh, I know Lacey made her decision by herself, and that it was probably the right thing, but I thought it would have been better for her to be able to sow her wild oats, at least for a time. As it was, she went from one sheltered life to another, without experiencing anything in between. I guess I should think it was better that she found her happiness at once, without wasting any time searching in the wrong places, as Holt did, but that's just it! Holt, the man, lives a life of adventure for some years and then settles down. Lacey, as a woman, is not allowed to do so. Unfair!