Why I read it: Continuing my glom… (Really, the books are priced so as to make it very easy to go on a spree.)What it’s about: (from Goodreads) While filling her display case in her bakery, the bell over the door sounds and Tessa O’Hara looks up and sees the man of her dreams. Within thirty seconds he asks her out for a beer. Thirty seconds later, she says yes. But after four months of falling in love, she discovers he’s an undercover DEA Agent investigating the possibility she’s involved in her ex-husband’s drug business.Obviously Tess decides this means it’s over.But DEA Agent Brock Lucas disagrees. A man on a mission who’s really committed to his job, he’s spent years in the underbelly of Denver with the dregs of society. And spending four months with Tess who’s as sweet as her cupcakes, he seriously enjoyed his job. But during Tess’s interrogation, Brock learns the devastating secret Tess is carrying and he’s determined to be the man who helps her heal as well as take her back as she walks on the wild side.
As wild and sweet mix, they face challenge after challenge of family struggling with history and terminal illness. Not to mention, Tess’s ex-husband, the drug lord and Brock’s ex-wife, who has a very big playbook are scheming to tear them apart.
But Brock Lucas has wild in him and once in his past on the trail of vengeance he let that wild loose, making a mistake that he would have no idea years later will put his sweet Tess in the position to pay his penance.
What worked for me (and what didn’t): This was my third Ashley book. I’ve noticed quite a few similarities; the heroines are funny and a little bit screwball (in a good way, IMO), the heroes are uber-alpha protector types who like the dirty talk and have a bit of a rough edge, even though they are devoted to their ladies once they find them. That might sound a bit like I have been reading the same book. But I have noticed some differences too. It may be that they are too subtle for some people to enjoy however. It’s not a problem I’m having however. Out of the three heroines I have read so far, Gwen (Mystery Man) is the funniest, Tyra is the gutsiest (Motorcycle Man) and Tess (Wild Man) is the sweetest. Her version of screwball is a little toned down as compared to Tyra and Gwen. In term of the narrative arc, Wild Man is, I think, much different to the two MMs. Even though the title is “Wild” Man, the book has a long period in the middle of courtship and relationship development without a hail of bullets. There are issues that the couple deal with – a lot of family drama involving Brock’s father and Brock’s ex-wife and two sons but, unlike the other two books, there is a large section of calm. That’s not to say boring. Just, as compared to the rollercoaster that was the other two books.
