What I Liked/What Worked
I thought this was a nice romance. It does not take the reader on an emotional roller coaster, but just two people falling in love with each other. The author was great at the subtlety as to how Natalie gets under Jake's buzzed skin. She continues to read and ignores him in the first chapter. I enjoyed how they started bickering from the start with him being upset that she poured the shot of whiskey in her milk drink. I liked how Jake trusts his instincts and tells Natalie as much as he can about his tattoo he got in memory of his friend and co-worker who was a black man. Again, the author is subtle in showing how Jake has been around blacks and doesn't have any problems with being with Natalie. Liked the sentence on at location 598, second full paragraph in Jake's section. "Jake loved the feeling of a woman experiencing pleasure around him, and Natalie was damned responsive to his touch." Sex scenes are nice and hot. I wanted Natalie to be gone when Jake awakes the next morning to add more intensity to the story. I love Jake's kink: smelling and keeping the panties, wanting to keep the drapes open, and licking her anus, etc. Natalie's whole family is too funny when it comes to the book and the sex scenes. They are so matter-of-fact about, even her grandmother, and she is embarrassed as hell. The bookstore scene was also funny. It also shows that Jake is a natural hunter and once he has Natalie in his sights, he is not letting her go. He has coffee, then dinner and then breakfast the next morning with her. The Terri interest in Jake adds a little drama. I was able to correctly predict that she would attempt to cause problems between Natalie and Jake. I really enjoyed how the author has the two discuss what was said and move passed it. That seemed realistic. I liked the cover. The one thing I liked the most in text was how Jake dealt with the color difference head on. He told his sister Natalie's color without reservation. He did not allow the publisher or movie people to change her color.
What I Didn't Like/What Didn't Work
In chapter 2, I think the author cheats a bit by using references to real life famous men instead of writing the descriptions herself. The initial sex scene was way too slow and long. It takes up a third of the text. By the time I got to chapter nine of the book, I wondered if all the time and space given this scene would cause other areas to be rushed. And yes, I was correct. This scene is too long for length of the text and I think the author needs to make the text longer to keep this scene intact or cut it. I would have liked to have the Starbuck's scene be longer, but since so much space was used up on the Lake Tahoe scene, we didn't get that. I also did not like that the author did not show where the characters exchange contact information. I thought this was rather important because it was probably the one fact that kept Jake separated from Natalie for so long.
Questions
How did Aunt Gloria know what happened in Lake Tahoe?