Contemporary Romance / NOVELLA
Date Published: July 31, 2014
No shirt, no shoes, no … problems?
Hemi Ranapia isn’t looking for love. Fun, yes. Love, not so much. But a summer fishing holiday to laid-back Russell could turn out to be more adventure than this good-time boy ever bargained for.
Reka Harata hasn't forgotten the disastrously sexy rugby star she met a year ago, no matter how much she wishes she could. Too bad Hemi keeps refusing to be left in her past.
Sometimes, especially in New Zealand’s Maori Northland, it really does take a village. And sometimes it just takes a little faith.
NOTE: This 36,000-word (120-page) novella begins about six years before the events of Just This Once, and yes, it gets a little steamy at times, because Reka and Hemi are just that way. It can be read as a stand-alone book, even if this is your first escape to New Zealand.
Review
This book is the prequel of the serie Escape to New Zeland but it is not necessary to have read the other books: I don't read them and I have not had any trouble .... but now I'm curious to read more adventures of these characters
Hemi and Reka are two Young Maori : he is a champion rugby and she has been his adventure for one night. They meet again after a year and he is determined to win her back, this time for a deeper relationship but it will not be easy to give in
I have loved the wonderful landscapes of New Zealand, the only thing that can be heavy book is the detailed descriptions of the rugby's rules, for those who do not know this sport can be a little hard to understand bu can be the opportunity to learn more about this game
It's sweet and sexy, a fun and quick novel, you can read quietly in an afternoon, is ideal as beach reading.
Excerpt:
She’d noticed him even while she’d been
walking down the aisle in the wharenui, wearing the stupid
strapless dress of blood-red satin that Victoria
wearing again, a dress that had “bridesmaid”
written all over it. She’d been supposed to be paying
attention to her pace, and instead she’d
been looking at the man sitting at the end of the row, up there to her right. A man who was looking right back
at her. A mate of the groom’s, she knew, because Victoria
Hemi Ranapia, the starting No. 10 for the
Auckland Blues, one of the year’s new caps for the All Blacks,
and about the finest specimen of Maori
manhood she’d ever seen. His dark, wavy hair cut short and neat,
his brown eyes alive with interest as he
watched her. A physique to die for, too, his shoulders broad in the
black suit, his waistline trim, the size of
his arms and thighs making it clear that the suit hadn’t come off any rack, because that had taken some extra
material.
She’d stood in her neat row to one side of the bride throughout the service, had done her best to keep her attention on the event, and had felt his gaze on her as surely as if he’d been touching her. She’d had to will herself not to shiver, and the look he sent her way, unsmiling and intent, when she walked back up
the aisle again told her she hadn’t been
imagining his interest
She’d still had what felt like hours of
photo-taking to come. Standing around endlessly, smiling in the
sunshine, arranging and rearranging herself
according to the photographer’s instructions, being flirted
with by one of the groomsmen, with Hemi in
and out of her view all the while. His suit coat off now, his
tie loosened, white shirt stretching across
chest and shoulders. A beer in his hand and a smile on his face,
having a chat with the other boys, being
approached, at first shyly and then with enthusiasm, by the kids.
And by the girls, she saw with a twinge of
jealousy that made no sense at all, as one after another of them smiled for him, touched her hair, touched
his arm. It looked to her like every unattached woman at the wedding, and more than one of the partnered
ones as well, was going out of her way to chat him up. And
he wasn’t exactly resisting.
But he was looking at her all the same.
Every now and then, she glanced across and his gaze caught hers,
and she saw an expression on his face, an
intensity and a heat that were making her burn.
By the time the photography was done and
she was released at last, the wedding party moving into the
wharekai so the eating and drinking and
dancing could begin, she was well and truly warmed up, and
tingling more than a little in every single
place she could imagine him touching with those clever hands,
the hands she somehow knew would handle a
woman as deftly as they handled a rugby ball.
The band began to play, the bride and groom
stepped into their first dance, and she saw him edging his way around an animated group towards her, a
glass in each hand. He reached her side, handed her the
flute of champagne with the flash of a
smile.
“Think you earned this,” he told her.
She took it, and he touched his glass to
hers.
“Cheers,” he said with another white smile,
the heat in his gaze unmistakable at this range. He tipped
his brown throat back and drank, and she
mirrored his action, felt golden bubbles popping against her
tongue, the cool liquid sliding down her
own throat. Drinking together like that somehow felt as intimate
as kissing him, and the tongues of flame
were licking every secret spot now.
“Took your time, didn’t you?” she asked him
with a cool she wasn’t even close to feeling.
Another long drink, another long look as
Victoria and Mason finished their dance and the band began
another number, a fast one, and couples
started filling the floor.
“Think I can get a dance?” he asked.
“Mmm, I think you could,” she said. “Maybe
so.”
BUY LINKS
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00LWGZCSG/ref=s9_simh_gw_p351_d0_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=0RPSW4SF1EPA7X40ASZP&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1688200382&pf_rd_i=507846
Rosalind James
Rosalind James, the bestselling author of the Escape to New Zealand and Kincaids series, is a former marketing executive who discovered her muse after several years of living and working in paradise--also known as Australia and New Zealand. Now, she spends her days writing about delicious rugby players, reality shows, corporate intrigue, and all sorts of other wonderful things, and having more fun doing it than should be legal.
Rosalind’s website: http://www.rosalindjames.com
On Facebook: rosalindjamesbooks
Twitter: www.twitter.com/RosalindJames5
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