Everything's hotter in the tropics…When lonely divorcée Jade decides to take a chartered sailing cruise of the South Pacific, she gets more than she bargained for. While hiking on a remote Polynesian island, she gets bitten by a poisonous snake while watching a beautiful native girl bathing in a waterfall.
The girl brings Jade back to her tribal village and nurses her back to health. After spending time exploring the island together, they quickly fall in love. But when the chief arranges for Teuila to be married to one of the tribesmen, the girls run away and begin building a new life on a secluded side of the island.
Just as they begin enjoying the blissful solitude of their private lagoon, an interclan rivalry breaks out and Teuila is forced to make an impossible decision between saving her family or her new lover...
When American tourist, Jade, gets separated from her tour group on a South Sea island, it’s not long before she spies bathing beauty, Teuila, feels a sudden, desperate pang and is bitten by a snake. In that order.
As the locals nurse her back to health and the tour group leaves the island without her, Jade and Teuila fall hopelessly in love. Despite the objections of Teuila’s father - the island’s chief, and her intended - angry warrior Manaia, the women explore the island, finding hidden areas to get to know each other better and where Jade can learn some very important survival techniques. But with war looming from the other side of the island, a culture clash they may never overcome, and Teuila’s impending marriage, will the women really get to be together, or is this just another flash-in-the-pan holiday romance?
A very fluent read, the setting was richly described and the scenes of fishing and fire-starting were very well-created. The romantic dialogue felt a little corny to me and there was one very creepy moment when Jade first saw Teuila, asked herself if the naked girl was of legal age and then wondered if it really mattered. Luckily, as the reader soon discovers, Teuila is eighteen years old so, although her culture is in danger of corruption, she is not.
Had to stop at page 29 and DNF the book because... 😬
More lgbtq erotica isn't a bad thing, but this gave me too many red flags way too early. The main character is a woman that's had a passionless marriage and numerous one-night stands with women, which is fine... until the book describes the main love interest. The Polynesian girl is described as someone incredibly young. *Extremely young*. The girl states that she's 18, but the first thought the main character has after that age is revealed is 'she [said young girl] looks even younger than her years,' and still continues to describe the girl as alluringly sexy.
Tldr; While I'd love to read more lgbtq positive erotica, this story toed a line pretty hard. I didn't finish it, so if you want to push through and read the story to form your own opinion, go for it. I do however, want to point out the large age gap between the mains and how it's treated before anyone goes in without prior knowledge.
I have always been mesmerised by the Polynesian Islands and long to visit there myself. At first glance I expected this story to be smutty and wondered how 200+ pages could be filled, but there is another story to follow too. Yes, it has the sexy bits that I’m guessing the majority of readers have gravitated to this story for, but they are gently interwoven between the rest of the story. I enjoyed this story immensely, however I have given it 4 stars as there are a few continuity mistakes within the text that made me reread some pages to make sure I hadn’t missed anything.
Jade wanted a vacation. Not the one she ended up having a father of the tribe ready to kill her. Jade found her true love bathing under a waterfall. From there her adventures began with the chieftain's daughter. A determined young woman and iPhone which captured some discriminating photos and knock on Jade's door. Can't wait for the next one! Enjoy!