Review: ONE RECKLESS SUMMER by Toni Blake

For a book that is stereotypical, predictable and comes directly out of Romance 101, I didn’t find One Reckless Summer to be that bad.  “Good girl” Jenny returns to her hometown in Ohio after her divorce and meets up again with “bad boy” Mick Brody who lives in the “wrong side of the lake.”  Everything about these characters is stereotypical.  Jenny is a blond, former cheerleader who is too moral to be adventurous.  Mick is the dark, handsome and muscley type who was abused as a child, committed petty crime as a teen, but has learned from his mistakes now and is deeply misunderstood by the good citizens of the town.  Even the secondary characters and storylines were stereotypical. 

Sounds pretty bad right?  I don’t know.  I wouldn’t go that far.  For some crazy reason (maybe I was in a romantic mood), I didn’t hate the characters as much as I thought.  Jenny had one trait that I could totally relate to, which I’m not proud of… Mick swore her to secrecy over some pretty heavy things, but she just HAD to tell her best friend.  I do this too.  Although, if it is a serious secret like this one, I would have kept my mouth shut.  Anyway, seeing that Jenny’s big character flaw is the same as mine, caused me to cut her some slack. 

And then there is Mick.  I hate his name and that he calls Jenny “pussycat” all of the time (smarmy!!!), but he is seriously sexy in that bad boy way.  And really, don’t you think it should be a constitutional right that every woman should be allowed at least one animalistic roll in the woods with someone completely inappropriate for her?  I liked Mick because he was strong, mysterious, dirty and a great Alpha male.  This gruff exterior makes it truly lovely when he drops his guard and gets emotional.  Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing soft about him, but he has to deal with some pretty heavy stuff in his life.  he is allowed to lose it once in a while. 

I guess what I’m trying to say is that this book makes a good summer read at the beach, but don’t expect literary magic out of it. 

Overall, I give One Reckless Summer…

Plot – 1 ½ bookmarks

Characters – 1 bookmark

Love Story – 2 ½ bookmarks (It’s a nice fantasy.)

Sex Scenes – 3 bookmarks

Dream Cast (otherwise known as who I pictured while reading) – Anna Camp (Jenny), Ryan Kwanten (Mick)