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!

Barefoot in the Sun by Roxanne St. Claire

Barefoot in the Sun.  Roxanne St. Claire. Grand Central Publishing.  April 2013. 432 pp. hbk. ISBN #: 9781455508259.

Zoe Tamarin has been on the run for years.  She believes her “Aunt Pasha” has saved her from an abusive father and knows the true reason why they must keep moving from place to place – because Aunt Pasha is wanted by the law.  Now she meets Oliver Bradbury when she shows up at his cancer clinic in Florida, a place where they are using experimental treatment protocols to save the lives of terminally ill cancer patients.

 

Oliver lost the one true love of his life and only has an 8 year-old son whom he seems to avoid all the time, working away his grief over his wife’s death.  Oliver’s son, Evan, is a pip of a boy who has a sharp tongue for almost everyone as he quickly picks up the “lines” all use on him with strength but without much compassion or empathy.  His Dad works himself silly and has little time for his son. 

Zoe meets Evan and they click together immediately, having the same irreverent and realistic sense of humor.  When Zoe asks Oliver’s help for Pasha who is very ill with cancer, we aren’t sure how that will turn out as Pasha wants help without any hospital involvement.  For she’s got a shocking secret that the reader will not learn for quite a while.  Meanwhile, after much back and forth hassling arguments about her medical condition, Pasha finally agrees to be treated by Dr. Oliver. Things become intensely complicated for her when the law arrives and says she’s wanted for murder!

As the story continues, so does the hesitant care and attention Dr. Oliver and Zoe begin to tentatively allow themselves to feel.  It’s definitely hair-raising for both and we are not sure if so much resistance and fear can surmount the relationship that would so obviously benefit both.  They truly are hot for each other.  Can they surmount the resistance that has them constantly thinking about immediately escaping or completely and permanently embracing each other?  Barefoot in the Sun is a very good romance worth spending pleasurable hours with.  Nice job, Roxanne St. Claire!