Tuesday 15 July 2008

RECKLESS by Saskia Walker

I've just finished devouring this delicious book by my dear friend and crit partner, Saskia Walker!

I really loved this book, and it's not because Saskia and I are mates. No, this is a terrific, highly readable erotic romance, and it would have delighted me if I hadn't the slightest idea who Saskia was... :)

The heroine is Katrina, an art valuer, who goes to the Catalonia region of Spain to assess and catalogue the great collection of a prominent Catalan family. When she gets there, she becomes entangled in an intriguing mystery. All is not as it seems, and as the story unfolds family secrets are revealed and masks ripped away to uncover the true nature of the various central characters.

Katrina is a lovely heroine. She seems very real and three dimensional, not some idealised kick ass super-vixen or anything. She's very much at a cross roads in her life, and she's reaching out for new experiences and to expand her horizons after a disappointment. As the title suggests, sometimes she's a bit reckless, and behaves very daringly, but that only makes her all the more endearing and likeable, and easy to identify with.

And the men? Well, I can't say too much about them for fear of giving away too much about the exciting romantic suspense plot. In the beginning, there are *two* hot hunks who could quite easily be the hero, but as the story unfolds, the right man emerges as Katrina's love interest, and he's hypnotically ultra masculine, mysterious and complex. Totally yum!

The region of Catalonia - esp. Barcelona - and art itself are also kind of characters in the book too. Saskia's descriptions are lush and evocative, really bringing out the vibrant character of that part of Spain. I went there myself, many years ago, and reading Reckless took me right back to that trip and stirred up great memories. And Saskia also really knows and loves her art, which comes across clearly in the book in the form of Katrina's appreciation of and response to the beautiful works she has to catalogue.

Reckless is a page turning romantic suspense story, but also sublimely erotic, with toe curlingly sensual love scenes that sizzle on the page and make you wish you were right there in the Catalan moonlight with a mysterious, darkly passionate stranger making desperate love to you! Phoooarrggh!

Read more about this cracking book here... along with a gorgeous excerpt!