What it’s about
The gray-green swells of San Sebastian haven’t changed in ten years, but Tanner Wright has. The last thing he expects to find back on his home turf is the love of his life.... With a make-or-break world championship on the line, professional surfer Tanner Wright has come back to the coastal California hometown he left a decade ago, carrying only his board and the painful knowledge of his father’s infidelity. Now that Hank Wright is dead, Tanner intends to keep the secret buried to spare his mother and sister the burden.
The last time Avalon Knox saw her best friend’s brother, she was fourteen and he was a twenty-year-old surfer god. She’s never understood or respected the way Tanner distanced himself from the family that has embraced her. But now she has the professional chance of a lifetime: to photograph Tanner for the competition—if he’ll agree.
Out on the waves, they find in each other passion that’s impossible to resist. And Tanner’s not the only one trying to move forward from his past. As the competition heats up, secrets get spilled, and lust takes over. How close can Avalon get to this brooding surfer…without getting burned?
Karla’s Review
2 Stars! More like riding a ripple, nothing epic!
I’m sure
there’s an audience for this book, but unfortunately it wasn’t for me.
Tanner was the
only redeeming character, my heart ached for him; he was the only one I had feelings
for. The way I see it, he lost so much time with his family, because he tried
to do the right thing, and in the end was vilified for it.
Avalon, not my favorite heroine, and there was
no chemistry between her and Tanner. She was wishy-washy and with no backbone. She
had a better relationship with her camera. Her mentality was “do as I say, but not as I
do”. It was okay for her to hide what
she did, but she was judgmental when Tanner didn't tell her about his idea,
which wasn’t nearly as earth-shattering or intrusive as what she did. I wanted
to slap her.
The big secret
, Hank's infidelity, was glossed over, or at least that's how I saw it. Just
didn't have the impact I thought it would. For as much as Eileen was glorified
in the book, I can't say I felt the same way. Not sure what all the fuss was
about over her and her supreme mothering skills. For someone who supposedly was
the end all and be all of mothers, her reaction to Tanner’s confession was not
what I expected. She annoyed the heck out of me. She should have laid blame on
the person who caused the pain, not her son who struggled with the secret. Then
she just rolled over and accepted it. She should have been comforting her son
and quit the mother earth, sun-worshipping goddess act!
Hank, I
wanted to pound him into the sand even though he was already 6 feet under. He
was placed on a pedestal when he was nothing
but an unfaithful dog. How did he die anyhow? I don’t remember reading anything
about that, or maybe I did. That’s how feel about a lot of this book, nothing
memorable.
Mako...was
he upset or wasn't he?! I was confused
by his character, I could get a handle on what he was about.
The sex was
spicy, very descriptive, but it was all motion with no emotion.
It
overflowed with repetitive internal dialogue, and not nearly enough actual
dialogue, which was part of my issue about being told how they felt about each
other and an my inability to connect emotionally. Also, too much about the
daily routine, or rather she did this, he did that…boring.
There were
some tender moments between Tanner and Avalon, mostly because Tanner was so
incredibly sweet, and I did enjoy the
setting, ocean, beach, men in board shorts…who wouldn’t enjoy that?! But it
wasn’t enough. The big surf competition which would define Tanner's career, was
uneventful and lacked detail , it was played out in few short paragraphs.
Really?!?! I’m not quite sure the author
knew what to focus on.
This series
begins and ends right here for me. I couldn’t connect with the story or the
characters. I was told how everyone felt, but those feelings didn’t flow over
to me. Important details were either missing or just a blip in the read, and so
much was left unresolved, and to top it off the ending was anti- climactic. Would I read another book from this author? Maybe one from
her Vegas
Top Guns series where she partners with Carrie Lofty and writes under the pseudonym
Katie Porter. We'll see.
*A copy of the book was provided by the
publisher in exchange for an honest review*
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