"Wild for Him," Janelle Denison

Pros: Great characters and sizzling sex; uncomplicated fun
Cons: A common plot with an obvious mystery
Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Review copy (uncorrected proof) courtesy of Penguin Group.
Expected publication date: 5/27/2008.
Visit Janelle Denison’s website.

My first thought when I started reading Janelle Denison’s Wild for Him was, ‘haven’t I seen this before?’ Okay, so my foray into romance novels isn’t incredibly long-lived as of yet, but even I am familiar with the plot of woman-has-bodyguard, woman-falls-for-bodyguard, with some danger to spice things up.

In this case, the woman in question is Christy Delacroix. Her father, who’s running for governor, has received threats that indicate Christy will be targeted if he doesn’t drop out of the race. He’s unwilling to give up on the principles that drive him, but he’s determined to keep his daughter safe, so he hires Ben Cabrera, ex-Marine turned bodyguard, to watch over her.

Christy and Ben have met before, and already have a strong mutual attraction. She’s just blossoming as an independent woman finally out from under her mother’s thumb (and a destructive near-marriage), and intent from the start on snagging at least a fun night or two with Ben. For his part, he’d really like to keep things strictly business just from an ethical perspective—but it doesn’t take too long before she breaks down his resistance.

From there it’s a matter of figuring out who’s targeting her, keeping her dangerous ex-fiance away from her, and dealing with the smarmy guy almost twice her age who keeps hitting on her. Christy comes up with a plan for this last part that makes things even harder on Ben at first—she wants him to pretend to be her boyfriend. The problem is, everyone who sees them together thinks they’re perfect together, but Ben knows his blue-collar background and working class attitudes would never let him fit into her social circles.

Sure, the bodyguard plot is tried-and-true. Okay, so it really wasn’t hard to figure out who was threatening Christy. But you know what? This book kicks ass despite those things. It’s all about the sex, tension and romance and it knows it. Denison shamelessly throws out any worries over making things complicated or different, and instead concentrates on making them pure fun. In this case, that was the right choice.

Ben and Christy have wonderful chemistry, and the book doesn’t artificially drag out the consummation of their relationship. They’re both strong, independent characters, but the book doesn’t belabor that point by having them butt heads needlessly all throughout. They have interesting friends and allies, and while their enemies don’t come with a whole lot of depth, they just aren’t the focus of the book and that’s all right. There are also some fun developments and plot points that did surprise and delight in just the right places.

The contents of Wild for Him might be as simple as its unprepossessing name, but the story is searing hot and so is the sex. If that’s what you’re in the mood for, then it’s absolutely worth the read.