Wild and Willing, by Joanne Rock

I think I need to stop buying Blaze titles unless someone whose taste I like has given me a great recommendation for one. The latest I tried blind was Wild and Willing (read an excerpt here), by Joanne Rock, a new-to-me author.

She was wild...

Mia Quentin has found the sensual adventure she's been waiting for. Seth Chandler-a gorgeous corporate shark in pirate's clothing-is the perfect candidate for the sexy fling she has in mind. She'll act out a few naughty suggestions and indulge her senses...all before the sun goes down. Now, if she can only convince her pirate to drop the noble streak and stop talking about commitment!

...and willing!

Seth refuses to settle for a brief fling, but he can't resist the too-tempting Mia. So he has to lure her into a longer erotic encounter...one that involves days, weeks of sizzling caresses. And if that means using all the seductive powers he has, so be it. Because he's not about to let this ravishing woman get away.

It was simply no good. However, it didn't have any particularly bad or offensive elements either, so it rates a C-.

The plot was very typical Blaze... the heroine is looking for adventure, and chooses a guy who decides he wants something more with her. So far so good, this story might have been done a 1.000 times already, but well, what can I say, it's one I like.

The problem was that I just couldn't get interested in this story. Part of it was a problem with the way the author wrote. It felt like she was trying very hard to write sexy and provocative, but all that achieved was sounding forced and giving me the impression she was trying too hard. This meant, too, that most of the things that happened and many of the things the characters did simply didn't feel like they flowed naturally in the story, but like the author was twisting and turning them to get a story that was adventurous and sexy.

The end result, of course, was that the story ended up not being sexy or adventurous at all. My main reaction was bewilderment, because I just didn't understand why these people were doing what they were doing. Very disappointing, considering I have already ordered a couple more of this author's books...