Barefoot by the Sea by Roxanne St. Claire

Barefoot by the Sea.  Roxanne St. Claire. Grand Central Publishing. October 2013. 448 pp. pbk. ISBN #: 9781455508235.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Roxanne St. Claire will be doing a FB chat tonight, October 30, 2013 at http://on.fb.me/1cndEGo.

Tessa Galloway has a great challenge, starting up a new resort in Bayport Bay with her friends.  There’s competition but also over-crowding in those other well-known places.  So Tessa and her peers/friends know that if they can create a beautiful place with a great restaurant menu as well, they will do great!  Right now they are in need of a phenomenal chef to make that latter part of the resort become a reality.  Oh, is Tessa about to get one ultra-HOT chef! 

Tessa initially meets John Brown and wonders if he’s the one to contribute to her dream plan – as a sperm donor for the child she wants desperately.  She’s not interested in a relationship but just wants an objective sperm donor and a surrogate mother.  Not too large a plan, right? But John Brown is quite a sexy guy who is totally put off by Tessa’s attitude and she feels the same way about him.  Not once but three times, the two who are highly attracted to the charge between them wind up being supremely harsh which revolts them both even more.  But they can’t deny that charge, like a dehydrated tourist desperately in need of water when he or she finds it.

Tessa certainly has no idea that John Brown is a member of a Witness Protection Program.  As the plot progresses and she decides he’s the one to fulfill her dream and he decides that an “on paper” marriage to her will enable him to pick up his life where it left off after a supreme act of violence that stole his wife and separated him from his children.  Interestingly, Tessa starts to trust him more once he applies for that chef position – and wow can he cook – in more ways than one – and reveals secrets about her life but is put off by the fact he will tell her nothing about his own past.

The romance sprouts and blossoms but not without many scenes that seem to degenerate to super-spats, intermingled with some very steamy sex scenes!  One wonders how it will all turn out; even though we know something will be resolved, the reader will be grandly surprised by the eventual outcome and the tough, threatening journey to get there! Honesty is called for on all sides!

Roxanne St. Claire is a natural romance writer who also knows enough to add an interesting mystery into the mix, with all the flaming hormones rising and falling like an uncontrolled volcanic explosion!  Terrific romance with great plot and characters as well! Very nice job, Ms. St. Claire!