Making Waves by Tawna Fenske

Wheezy, from Toy Story

I sound like this right now; thanks to a probable case of viral bronchitis.   Instead of depending on Woody to fix me, I've got steroids, antibiotics and an inhaler.

I think Woody works faster.

Mostly, though, I feel fine, except, for when I cough.  Horror of all horrors, laughing makes me cough, so it's a good thing that I finished reading Tawna Fenske's debut novel, Making Waves, several days ago.  This laugh-out-loud romantic comedy would have me coughing all night.

I first learned of Tawna's book at Lucy March's blog, and I started to follow Tawna's own blog, Don't Pet Me, I'm Writing.  I followed her blog, enjoyed it, and then felt honor-bound to buy and read her book.  My expectations were low to middlin'. I've read other books by Lucy March-following authors, and the results have been uneven. (What can I say?  I want every book to be as good as Garden Spells or Dandelion Wine or Welcome to Temptation.) However, people smarter than I were giving Making Waves some NICE reviews, so I set aside my trepidation and read it.

Squeee!!!

It was fun.

It was hot.

It was silly.

It was sweet.

To steal a line from another Disney character (Kim Possible) here' the sitch:  Juli needs to travel to the Virgin Islands to scatter her dear, departed uncle's ashes. Alex is in the area because he has decided to go to some extraordinary means to recoup his lost pension.  Their first encounter involves a bar, the Newlywed Game, and really goooooood kiss goodnight.

That's the relative sane part of the story.  After that, Juli's bad reaction to sea sickness medication lands her on the Alex's modern-day pirate ship.  Here's where you encounter pirates and more pirates, size 15 Prada boots, a gourmand who is former NFL tight end, purple vibrators, diamonds, and Battleship played like you've never seen it played before.  Let's just say that everything after that first night is a bit madcap and requires some suspension of disbelief, but Tawna balances on the fine line separating madcap from manic.  The silliness propels the story line instead of distracting the reader from the developing relationship.

Again, it's fun, hot, silly and sweet.  It's the perfect beach read.

Now if only my bronchitis and I were on the beach . . .