Cat Johnson Braves Doll Lil’s Word Association Challenge!

Author: Robin Kaye
Tittle: Call Me Wild
Release: August 7th 2012
Series: Wild Thing 2
Reviewer: Mona
Source: Publisher (NetGalley)
Purchase: | Book Depository

She doesn’t know a single thing about relationships…

Unemployed sportswriter Jessie James plans to make a killing writing a bestselling romance novel. She’s never read one, but really, how hard can it be? Moving cross–country to a borrowed house in Idaho, Jessie starts her research with the first gorgeous guy she runs into…

Luckily, he knows everything…

Sports doctor Fisher Kincaid notices Jessie right away—the transplanted Easterner sticks out like a sore thumb in the small town. When he discovers she’s researching attraction and romance, he graciously offers himself as a test subject. That’s when everything starts to go wrong, and they both find out how much they need a few good lessons in love…

I’m of two minds on this one. Part of me liked it, but the other part was annoyed as hell. Why? Because it read suspiciously like a series of commercial product placement ads rather than a contemporary romance.

The actual romance part was nice. The pop culture parts….not so much. I counted fifteen references to Starbucks, at least six to Lady Gaga, four to Albertson’s, nine for Toyota Land Cruiser, ten to David Beckham, seven for Gatorade, and four to Martha Stewart. I eventually started listing them, and filled five steno pages with various names/products. As you can tell, the mentions were so prolific they pulled me out of the story.

If things of this nature don’t bother you, then you’ll probably love the book. If you’re like me, though, you’ll need to skim it to avoid being annoyed. What’s really ridiculous is I paid so much attention to all the brand names that the actual story faded from mind, which is sad because the protagonists were pretty interesting.

If this had been a story about materialistic teens, I’d have understood all the namedropping, but it wasn’t. It was about two adults who find love, and that’s what the story should have had me focusing on, but instead, I was looking for the next advertisement.

Mona's first grade teacher, Mrs. Stanford, gifted her with the love of reading. For that, she'll always live in her heart. But reading took over Mona's life, eclipsing everything but playing sports, and has continued to be a huge part of her life. Although she has always written poetry and stories for her self, last year she decided to try her hand at writing fiction. She is currently editing her first urban fantasy and hopes to have it ready for the agent by summer's end. Besides reading, Mona loves speed in the form of fast cars. The faster, the better! In her next life, she plans to drive race cars (or whatever happens to be their replacement in the future) all while reading and writing. She has also taken up rune reading, and find it to be disturbingly accurate and exciting.

Doll Mona Leigh

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