Reviewed by: Laura

RATING: 7/10 – Very good, would definitely recommend

SUMMARY:

With $3 million for the Santa Barbara Museum of Art on the line, curator Eve Carwyn hardly has time to focus on the state of her love life. Struggling to escape the clutches of a creepy ex and looking to add some adventure to her personal life, Eve is off on a much needed escape, and a business trip to Boston. But before she goes, her pack of dedicated girlfriends plan a send-off party that includes mind-bending kisses from not one, but two, sensational — yet anonymous – partners. Will a chance encounter and a searing kiss somehow end in a love match? Will her career take off or lie in ruins when the grant results are in?

Do you ever have a book that sits there for ages and you put off reading it? ‘Passion Fish’ was one of those books for me. I think it’s because I’m quite fussy about my genres, for example I like romance books, but have recently gone off what I would class as ‘chick-lit’. And, from reading the back cover, this book seemed more chick-lit than romance. However, while it has a touch of chick-lit about it, I would say it is more romance and I actually ended up really enjoying it.

Eve is a curator for the Santa Barbara museum which is applying for a $3million grant to build a new wing, and is just about to go on a business trip to Boston as part of the application process. But her personal life is a bit of a mess after escaping from a bad relationship and a seriously creepy ex.

Before she goes her friends plan a night out and decide to make Eve the victim of their favourite game passion fish. This game requires Eve to be blindfolded while her friends choose several hot guys to kiss her anonymously, in order to remind her that passion still exists out there. But the rules of the game state that the chosen men must leave the club and not pursue things that night.

After two icky kisses, fish number three is sweet, but fish number four completely blows Eve’s socks off. This begins a new journey for Eve, as her career takes on a new track with the grant application process and her love life for the first time in years takes on a very exciting new twist.

While Eve is the central character to the book, but the novel is much about her friends lives as it is hers. It circles around Eve, Skylar, Josie and Noelle, all of which work at the museum with Eve, with the exception of Noelle who is a nurse, and their loves and lives.

While we have Eve’s love story which is more sedate and a slow grower, I did actually really enjoy the fact they did not fall into bed straight away, like you see in a lot of romances. Skylar’s story is completely the opposite and complements Eve’s perfectly, the more cautious versus, the wild and bold. And if you’re a lover of sizzle in your romance, then Skylar gives you plenty of that!

Underpinning the story is the role of Eve’s nasty ex, who moves from creepy to scary stalker type in his unrelenting pursuit of her. This adds an element of suspense and drama to the book.

I do have a couple of criticisms, overall I think the book was slightly longer than it should have been, this maybe because it covered the lives of four women, two in detail and two at a peripheral stage. But in general the story just needed tightening up a touch. There was a lot of two-ing and fro-ing and also a lot of wrapping up at the end. This book was obviously written by two authors who loved their characters and wanted to give them all the endings they deserved, but it felt just slightly too long to me. That being said, it didn’t affect my enjoyment.

Additionally the back blurb states ‘Passion Fish is one part romance and one part heart pounding thriller’. While it did have some great suspense parts to the story, I’m not sure I would call it a ‘heart pounding thriller’. I think a little bit more could have been made of Eve’s ex and I would have loved a bit more of the thriller part. This probably says a bit more about me and my reading tastes, but I would like things to have got a bit bloodier

VERDICT:

Apart from my two criticisms, this is a really entertaining and readable romance, I found the pages turned quickly and I enjoyed each of their personalities of the four women featured and their partners. At times it was funny, sexy and dark and there are plenty of scenes to make a romance fan’s heart melt.

This book counts towards the following BCC Reading Challenges:
Book #39 100+ Books In A Year Reading Challenge 2011
Book #4 Summer Romance Reading Challenge 2011