Frisky Business by Tawna Fenske
Released: May 6, 2014
Contemporary Romance
Sourcebooks

Reviewed by May

Marley recently broke up with her fiancé and then moved to Bend, Oregon where she has begun working for a local wildlife sanctuary drumming up donations and getting them funding from wealthy folks, businesses, and more. Public relations and helping with events is something she’s great at – and she’s determined to make a new life here. The town is full of interesting characters and she knows one thing: no more wealthy men in her life!

“I need to date a poor guy. Someone with holey jeans and dirt under his fingernails and a car that’s at least twenty years old.”

I think everyone who has ever read a romance knows where this is going – she’s going to fall in love with a rich man. The thing is, Will is different. He’s got mismatched eyes and he spends his time volunteering at the sanctuary, the animal shelter, and basically doing good all over town. I am not sure if it is out of the goodness of his heart though, or if he’s just trying to compensate and fill his life since his wife had an affair and left him… for his sister.

Yes I said his wife left him for his sister. The couple still lives in town and they all hang out too.

I have to pause here and say this was a enormous problem for me with Will as a character and the book overall. Instead of being upfront and dealing with his emotions he puts on a plastic smile and everything is alright. How would it ever be alright for your sister to have a sexual relationship with your wife, while you are still married? How does time heal that? How would you ever trust your sister again?

I don’t have the answer as it is simply brushed off here in this book – something that bothered me tremendously and weakened the story and this character as well. He has serious (well deserved!) trust issues, but he never works them out he simply smiles and moves along. If you couldn’t tell – I really hated that. His dialogue is light and funny at all times, which made me think that one day this dude was going to snap in a big way- maybe go full on emo darkness man. Since he’s not dealing with his issues and his answer to everything is humor – how could he not?

“I also have a date with a plumber,” Marley said. “Wednesday after work.”

Will nodded, trying to keep his expression impassive. “Don’t let him sell you any faulty ballcocks.”

“What?”

“The ballcock is the mechanism in your toilet tank that keeps water levels normal. If you’d like, I can also make jokes about hardness leakage, discharge heads, and cockhole covers. All plumbing terms that sound filthy but aren’t.”

That’s right Will – make jokes instead of telling the woman you’re falling in love with that you care about her and want a chance at something real. I am a fan of the ‘friends first’ romance plots but both characters are tremendously attracted to each other from page one so it didn’t work for me with this book. Instead of growing and developing it just seemed like avoiding real feelings.

Marley I found equally annoying as she quests for a poor man and looks so hard at superficial traits to her potential men. What kind of idiot runs around looking at men thinking “he has a menial retail job and is clearly poor – he must be a great guy!” Get a clue woman! It really made me cranky to watch her stereotype and neatly label everyone she met – especially since she never seemed to get that the superficial trappings don’t count – you could find someone amazing from any tax bracket or background.

As I initially sat down to review this book I had planned on giving it a C grade, but as I look closely at the elements from plot to character development to story details – nothing quite worked here and it falls short of ‘average’ for a contemporary.

Grade: D

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