A TASTE OF PARADISE

Author: Connie Mason ISBN: 0843954647 2/2006 HISTORICAL Publisher: DORCHESTER/Leisure
Time Period: 1831

When lovely Sophia Carlisle stowed away on a ship bound for Jamaica, she hardly expected to find Christian Radcliff at the helm. She and the captain had a turbulent history, which involved the breaking of her heart and the death by duel of his best friend. Now they would be confined together during the long journey to tropical shores, forced to share a cabin, and if Christian had it his way, a bed. But under the island moon, caressed by the balmy breeze, Sophia found herself forgetting the past and giving in to temptation. No man could arouse her senses as the swashbuckling captain did, and she had no use for prudence or propriety when in his kiss she could find…A TASTE OF PARADISE.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

I am a huge Connie Mason fan. I have a ton of her books lining shelves in my house. I always know that when I pick up one of her books, I am going to enjoy myself immensely. That being said, I have to say that A TASTE OF PARADISE was just not up to par with the rest of her books. Don't get me wrong, it was a good book—just not the best that I have read from Connie Mason.

I will go ahead and get it out of the way by saying that my biggest problem with this book is the heroine. I liked her, she was a decent heroine, but there were times when I wanted to scream my frustration out at some of the stupid things that she did. If you were being pursued by a moron and a pervert and knew that your "life", if you will, was at risk by being out and about alone, would you continue to put yourself at risk by going out and about all alone? Me neither. Would you continue to fight the only person in your life who even gives a frig what happens to you? Me neither. Also, there is the teensy weensy problem that I have with the fact that for the entire book, the same problem is the ONLY problem that the hero/ heroine fight about—the ENTIRE book. ONE problem. Ad nauseum. Literally.

Chris was a different matter entirely. He is one of those heroes who is ALWAYS there to get his honey out of a jam—and our blessed little gal got herself into plenty of those. He is gorgeous, strong and all male. He also doesn't take any guff from anyone, and I love that in a guy. He has demons and layers, and his character grows tremendously throughout the book.

There is also quite a bit of action going on and an old girlfriend to spark some good old-fashioned rivalry, and that was fun.

Once I settled in to Sophia's character a little better, the book was a much better read for me. By the end of A TASTE OF PARADISE, I truly did want to see Chris and Sophia get their happily-ever-after.

Kristal Gorman