"Not my cup of tea -- erotic island 'romance' with young girl."

It's the night after her birthday. A cancer survivor, Becky Ferguson is happy to be in remission and home, but she is bothered with the fact that she looks so young. Even though she has just turned twenty, the cancer and subsequent treatments have kept her looking like she is in her early teens. This night, she will be a survivor of another sort. When thieves break into her home and murder her family, she escapes to the sea.

When Lucien Moore goes patrolling his small island beaches for garbage, he finds more than he bargained for--a young girl, or so he thinks. Six years ago Lucien bought this island and retired from the world. He has had no interaction with women since his fiancee left him at the altar. He now finds himself lusting after this young girl, a lust he refuses to allow himself to give in to. Having pursued his painting seriously after he moved to the island, Lucien also finds himself wanting to paint Becky. Up until now his paintings have all been of naked fantasy women. These will be his first paintings of a naked real girl.

The main story takes place on a small island off the coast of Australia. This is definitely an erotic romance since in the portion I read most of the thoughts of the characters are connected in some way to sex. Some of the dialogue seems to have gone missng. Lucian mentions things that Becky told him, but these conversations are not included in the story nor is there opportunity for them to take place off stage. I found the hero to be immature and not particularly admirable.

Sensuality--NC17: Masturbation, sex implements.

Note: I found a distaste for this story and so did not finish it. This review and comments are of the portion I did read.

Reviewed by Flora Bell
Posted June 16, 2002