The Dominant Blonde

by Alisa Kwitney

Blond and a size ten for the first time in her life, Lydia may actually have gotten this love thing right this time. Or not. After a run of bad career and dating decisions, Lydia Gold is ready for a vacation from her life. So what if the Caribbean resort's a little shabby and the boyfriend's not the lover of her dreams. This time around, Lydia's experiencing what it's like to have someone madly in love with her. But when Abe doesn't return from a scuba dive, Lydia discovers some decidedly unsavory facts. Abe has embezzled three million dollars of her family's money. And he may not be as dead as she's beginning to wish he were. Lydia's best chance for finding her missing boyfriend is Liam MacNally, a rugged, sexy former NYPD search and rescue diver and reluctant romantic. Liam wants nothing more than to sit on the beach with a Hemingway novel in one hand and a beer in the other. But sometimes it takes a little danger to bring you to your senses....

Genres: Chick Lit, Romance, Fiction, Contemporary, Contemporary Romance, Adult Fiction

278 pages, Paperback

First published May 14, 2002

About the author

I'm the author of YA, graphic novels and novels for adults who still feel young, at least most of the time. Recent works include GILT, a graphic novel about time-traveling women of a certain age; Cadaver & Queen, a YA Feminist Frankenstein meets Grey's Anatomy tale, and Mystik U from DC Comics, which features Zatanna and other magical characters in their first year at college. I also co-host a Sandman podcast, The Endless, with Lani Diane Rich.

My first novel, Till the Fat Lady Sings, is also about college and romance and eating disorders. (It was my thesis at Columbia University's MFA Program, where I felt like an outlier for liking comic books and romance as much as literature.) I was an editor at Vertigo, the mature/dark fantasy branch of DC Comics, before going freelance. (I've also written two hormonal werewolf books as Alisa Sheckley.)

I live near the Vanderbilt Estate in Hyde Park, NY, with two dogs and a frightening number of books.

aka Alisa Sheckley

Reviews

[Elias · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, so to say I’m late on reading and reviewing this book is a complete and total understatement. Let’s hop into my time machine and go back to when I was in high school and I read an excerpt of this story in a summer issue of Cosmopolitian Magazine. I remember lying out one day catching some rays and getting captured by the sample of this story. I went out as soon as I could and picked up a copy from my local bookstore… and then only read a few chapters before sticking it on my shelf. There, it remained untouched and unread until last week when I decided to browse my shelves and wait for something to jump out at me, and this one did.

Lydia is in a good place for once in her life, and she’s going to enjoy it by lounging on a beach with her boyfriend, Abe. The couple spend warm, summer days in the waves, between the sheets, and taking boat trips into deeper water. When a scuba excursion goes horribly wrong, and Abe winds up missing, Lydia is left in the arms of her scuba guide, Liam.

Torn between mourning her lost boyfriend, this new and exotic man keeping her attention, and tragedy with her family business back home that arose the moment Abe vanished, Lydia is overwhelmed with a plethora of emotions and the pages become filled with mystery and sexual tension. There’s a missing boyfriend, a secret girlfriend, a family empire getting completely demolished, the hunky scuba instructor acting as the hero, a mysterious gemstone seemingly appearing out of nowhere, and a curvy blonde at the center of it all.

This was a fun, action-packed, and steamy read. I got through it fairly quickly and I’m glad I finally finished it after having it sitting on my shelf for so many years. I wasn’t completely head-over-heels for the characters or the plot. They were just things I didn’t relate to and found myself not fully investing in, but for what it was, a quick beach or poolside read, then definitely give it a go!

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was fantastic!! I happened to see the title while I was browsing the library and I am so glad that I picked it up. I loved the plot, and as usual, I was totally oblivious to the hints I should have picked up to figure out how all the characters were linked together. However, it was still an excellent book and I would definitely recommend it for anyone who likes a good mystery.

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

The best thing about this book is that Mariska Hargitay did the reading. I was completely unimpressed with the mystery.

[Katie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved the story - the mystery, the suspense, and the moments when I genuinely didn’t know what was going to happen next. Unfortunately, that’s about all I enjoyed. The rest of the book was frustrating. The sexism was unbearable, and the word no seemed to mean everything except what it actually should - no. Liam couldn’t handle Lydia being strong, powerful, or in control, and their so-called romance was built on a foundation of broken trust, yet they kept gravitating toward each other anyway. It was exhausting.

[Tessa · Rating 5 out of 5]

A SPICY treat! I don’t usually read heterosexual romances - a little too in-and-out for me, if you know what I mean ;) but The Dominant Blonde had just enough twists and turns to appease this queer. Ever googled “sex inside an iron lung” or “how to make watery fish stew spicier”? Lydia and Liam may be able to advise. Self-Contained Underwater BReathing Apparatus? More like SCUBA!

Steamy
Cute
Underwater
Book










Abe Bohemius

[DW · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chick lit, but not exactly the same story that is told over and over again in other books. This one has some spice because of the scuba theme, and eventually there's even Russian mobsters and a dead body. There were multiple things near the end that I didn't expect. The only thing I thought was out of nowhere was that she's an expert swing dancer, and it's never mentioned except in one scene.

[Nora · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. The characters were weird, the writing was not compelling, and the mystery was pretty obvious. I didn’t feel any real connection between Liam and Lydia and felt the book would have been way better had it been written in first person. I honestly skimmed sections because they were boring and pointless.

Wouldn’t recommend unless it’s at one of those neighbourhood free libraries.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve listened to this book on audio several times only because I adore the narrator.. it’s an easy, beach-y read that is easy to escape into. Great literature?! Not at all.. but something great to enjoy by the pool or just to pass the time without having to think too much about anything.

[Tabbitha Rivera · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a little hard to finish. It started off interesting and then got harder and harder to read. I simply lost interest in it. The sex scene was unrealistic and super corny. This just want for me.

[Bill Koeb · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book! Alisa is adept at writing a character from both an internal place and as other characters see them. This book has a mystery to be unraveled, a bit of romance, and a good dose of humor. Read it!

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fast mystery read. The characters are introduced quickly and then its chapters before some come back so it gets confusing in parts. Not a book I would pick up again or recommend.

[Debbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I could not get into the book. The beginning was slow for me and then I could not get into the storyline.

[CorrieGM · Rating 3 out of 5]

Weet niet of de term bestaat: een chicklit thriller. Heerlijk boek, karakters en gebeurtenissen worden van (zeer) verschillende kanten bekeken. Einde is prima.

[Gwen Susanek]

I read many books and this was not one of my favorites. Kept reading it to see if it would get better. It didn't. I would not recommend it. Sorry

[Torie Fox · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun, easy read with a lot more deep, heavy sentiments and topics than I expected. More drama and less RomCom. Still worth the read.

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

Definitely had high hopes for this at first, but overall wasn’t wowed much. The writing style was much more romance-heavy, and that’s just not what excites me often. Good plot twist though.

[Mfred · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of those books that I liked very much while reading and then didn't like as much after reflecting on it.

First of all, let me "nth" the idea that this is the worst cover for this book. This is not really a lite, chuckles-filled book like the cover may convey.

What the book tries to explore is the way two people can be damaged from their pasts-- their childhoods (Liam), their previous relationships (Lydia)-- and yet fall in love and try to make a relationship work.

The thing is, the book doesn't do that much for the falling in love part and ends right when the relationship begins. So you're sort of stuck reading constantly about them fighting their attraction for each other because both Lydia and Liam are constantly fighting their inner demons and fighting their childhood fears and fighting their emotional baggage. In retrospect, all that fighting is hard to reconcile with the attraction and growing feelings of love.

So there is all this fraught-ness to the act of falling in love with someone, and then we get to the possible beginnings of a real relationship and the book is over.

Additionally, I didn't really like all of the character hopping the narrative did. I think Kwitney could have focused mainly on Liam and Lydia and brought out their inner voices more, rather than have other character's narration me about the two of them. I also could have done without the violence and crime hijinks at the end. It certainly kept the story going, but it just didn't seem to fit with the introspective quality of the first 3 quarters of the book.

[Stefanie Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

""

[Yaya · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this is another chicklit book, well..not quite exactly. It's more to grown-up metropop novel. Definitely not suitable for teens reading because it contains so many s.e.x scenes..

Liam and Lydia really remind me a lot of Meredith Derek relationship in Grey's Anatomy, they had a very little in common yet somehow they couldn't even be apart from each other. I somehow get why Alisa (the author) chose The Dominant Blonde as the title, with the saying "blonde are stupid", Alisa wanted to break that stupid saying by making Lydia as a smart girl, although at first she's so naive.

[Daisy F. · Rating 2 out of 5]

This books was just the sort of light trashy read I was in the mood for. That said it was pretty cheesy and the story was pretty implausible. Some things felt dated or not right and then I realized this book came out in 2002 and I understood the things I took issue with. So if you looked at it through a 2002 lens instead of a 2020 lens it had less problems.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just an okay read for me. I didn't really like the main characters too much. It just felt like something was missing. I almost put the book down and didn't finish it, but I finished it anyway (I can't leave a book unfinished). The plot line was good, just the writing didn't work for me.

[Christian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nggak terlalu menghibur deh buku ini. Udahlah tokohnya sama kayak buku-buku Alisa lainnya (po-li-si) ceritanya juga kurang menggigit. mending baca bukunya yang On The Couch dan Does She Or Doesn't She dah! Lebih menggairahkan huehehehehe

[Janice · Rating 2 out of 5]

Got it for free... What a waste of an afternoon. I guess I was expecting more of a mystery, i didn't realize it was a romance, oops. I really disliked the main character - I wanted to scream at her sometimes for being such a dumb woman!

[Candy Perez · Rating 3 out of 5]

I imagine this story to be in an episode on those lifetime channels.
Lydia seemed very undecisive and clearly had bad dating decisions that led to one problem to another. Although it led her to Liam, who she was reluctant to find her fate with...

[Dayna · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was terrible....and why I am not into most ChickLit. The "Shopaholic" series is much better.

There was a good sex scene in it, though...

[Mel · Rating 2 out of 5]

A fun story with a fake death involving russian mafia.
I don't have much written in my book journal about this book and I don't think I would enjoy it today.

[Mae · Rating 4 out of 5]

great beach read! mindless entertainment, but quite enjoyable and even a littl racey!

[Nancy Monson · Rating 2 out of 5]

definitely a beach read, but fun.

[Slone]

So very bad

[Delilah Marvelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is not your regular chick lit book. I loved the heat level, the wit, the characters and how freakin' clever it is. Read it so quick that I blinked and it was OVER.