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TOO WILDE TO TAME
By Janelle Denison
Contemporary sensual romance
September 2005
Berkley Sensation
ISBN: 0-425-20528-2

This is a continuation of Janelle Denison's series chronicling the romantic lives of the Wilde family and the story of Mia Wilde, the younger sister, and longtime family friend, Cameron Sinclair. Cameron is reasonably sedate, a private investigator. His partner is Mia's cousin Steve. Mia is beautiful and completely wild in her actions. She has taken pleasure in goading Cameron in every way possible for years.

The action begins when Mia sees Cameron at a hot new nightclub and decides to enter the wet T-shirt contest to annoy him. Cameron bites and, assuming that she is drunk, carries her out and takes her home. On the way out of the club, she sees her roommate, Gina, with her boyfriend Ray. Ray manhandles Gina to force her attention back to him. Cameron takes Mia to his house, where they have sex.

Several days later, Mia receives photographs of her in the wet T-shirt contest from some unknown. The pictures are covering with writing, calling her filthy names. She worries that she might have a stalker, but doesn't want to involve her family. Their attention smothers her. She asks Cameron for confidential help in finding out who sent the photos. He agrees not to tell her family and begins to work on finding the culprit. When they return to the club, Mia's car is vandalized in the same way the photos were.

Mia and Cameron have sex several more times in several different locations and situations. He finds out that she is an artist, making stained glass works of surprising quality. Cameron encourages her to continue her work and buys one of the pieces as a present for his sister. She reveals her other work, which has erotic scenes buried in the designs so that the viewer must try to find them. Cameron continues to watch for Mia's stalker and keep it from her family.

TOO WILDE TO TAME is a pleasant mystery, with suspects popping up quite believeably in Mia's life. The storyline works well. There is plenty of sex. But it eventually begins to clog the plot. The graphic detail of the acts is superb, worthy of a how-to manual. When the changes in personality which permit the two main characters to get together begin, the dialogue changes to deep analysis and psychobabble. Somehow, that is made believeable by the their actions. But the changes seem too abrupt to be real.

      -- Reviewed by Steven Lopata

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