Wilde Nights in Paradise by Tonya Burrows – Guest Post & Review

 

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Description:
He’ll guard her body all night long.

Former Marine Jude Wilde’s motto has always been “burn bridges and never look back,” so nobody is more surprised when Wilde Security is hired to protect assistant district attorney Libby Pruitt, the woman he loved and left. Although she makes it clear she wants nothing to do with Jude, they’re forced to fake a relationship for her safety. He can’t ignore the heat still simmering between them, and when her stalker’s threats escalate to attempted murder, he’s left with no choice but to whisk her away to a friend’s safe house in Key West, FL. 

Cooped up in paradise together, Jude begins to chip away at Libby’s resolve to hate him. But even as she gives in to his proximity and her body’s demands for his, she refuses to fall for his charms again. Maybe a torrid affair in the sun is exactly what she needs to get him out of her system. But when her stalker tracks them down, can they escape the steamy Key West night without anyone getting hurt?

 

Review:
Wilde Nights in Paradise, a Wilde Security Novel by Tonya Burrows was the best read – a perfect, sexy, summer read!  Jude Wilde “was the family fuck-up and he’d made his peace with that”.  A month out of the Marine Corps lands him in the family P.I. business …bored as hell…until his former colonel and would’ve been/should’ve been father-in-law (refer to f-up label), shows up to hire him as his daughter’s personal bodyguard.  Someone is stalking Libby, she’s the assistant district attorney, and the threats have escalated to menacing levels.  How the heck is Jude supposed to be professional when Libby wants to kill HIM for breaking her heart?  Laying on the charm…reminding/demonstrating moments from their passionate past…all solid ideas.  😀  I devoured this book!    

The story begins in Washington D.C….8 years after Jude walked out of Libby’s life…2 days after proposing and putting a ring on her finger!  Who does that?!  It takes a loooong (but delicious and eventful time) to get to the truth.  When Jude shows up unannounced and dives right in for the feigned reconciliation (of course dad didn’t consult Libby on this genius plan), well hell hath no fury and all that!  Jude and Libby are shaken by their reactions to each other, but do their best to exude indifference (and suffer quietly).   

“Personal feelings don’t factor into anything for you, do they?  You avoid emotion like leprosy.”

“Pretty much.  Emotion is messy.”

When push comes to shove (a car literally runs them down), Jude opts to take Libby out of town to a friend’s house in Key West, Fl., until the stalker is in custody.  Falling into comfortable communication isn’t easy; their exchanges are simultaneously hilarious and bittersweet because it’s easier to point fingers and be snarky than face the aftermath of their broken engagement.  A subject neither one of them will broach. 

To be honest, the book then focuses on the tension of their living situation.  How can they continue to resist each other when they’re finding a new, healthy rhythm?  Broker an arrangement…or better yet, a plea bargain?   

…”You robbed me of eight years of my sexual life.  You owe me one night.”

…”Just one?”

“Yes that’s all.  I’m tired of pretending I’m not still attracted to you.  Since we have to live together for the foreseeable future, I want to get it out of the way now.”…

”But, Libs, you’ve been doing it all wrong if you think one night will satisfy either of us.”       

There…I’ve said too much!  At fewer than 200 pages, Ms. Burrows admirably delivers so many stories.  Jude’s relationship with his 4 older brothers is overflowing with love and misplaced anger that needs to be addressed (*sniffs*); Jude criticizes Libby’s conservative demeanor, but faces his role in that transformation; Libby finally gets her answers to Jude’s cruelty, but it creates new walls…I am leaving LOTS for you to discover and love.  Think of me when Jude reveals his romantic side with flowers…*sighs*…Oh, yeah, and the stalker culmination, too! 😀

I teased on goodreads about having to rethink my rating system after reading Wilde Nights because I gave it 5 stars…and had just awarded another book the very same.  I meant it both times.  Every story is unique and this one is no exception.  Ms. Burrows wrote a terrific book about honesty, regret, and discovery.  I even read the last scene to Sophia, my 11 year old, because their love story touched my heart.  She swooned, too.  I am crossing my fingers that Ms. Burrows has only begun to tell the story of the Wilde brothers.  Can they all be tamed?

“You should have put your swimsuit on.”

Resignation tinged her sigh.  “I was afraid this would happen if I did.”

“Hate to tell ya, babe, but this was gonna happen even if you were wearing chain mail.”

What are you waiting for?  Go get Wilde!!!

Reviewed by Carmen

Copy provided by Publisher

 

I love to travel.

Seriously, I get itchy feet if I stay in one place too long. My family now just rolls their eyes at me whenever I start talking about a new place I want to visit and/or move to. My current fixation is Florida. Sunshine State, here I come!

Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve always dreamed of seeing the world. I used to hunker down in the elementary school library with books about children from different cultures, fascinated by the glossy photos of girls with gold rings around their necks in South Africa and children releasing paper lanterns down a river in Thailand. I decided I wanted to be an exchange student in high school, and worked toward the goal until my junior year, when I spent six months living in Costa Rica. Since college, I’ve moved eight times in as many years because why stay in one place when there’s so much to out there in the world I haven’t seen yet?

But if there’s one thing I love more than seeing the world, it’s writing about it. To me, a book’s setting is more than a backdrop to the story—it’s a secondary character. It stages the tone and the mood of the book. (Who doesn’t love a steamy night at the beach? Or a cozy snowed-in cabin on a mountainside?) It can present obstacles to the hero and heroine. (Did I mention the snowed-in cabin scenario? That’s one heck of an obstacle.) It also presents unique difficulties to the writer, especially if said writer (me) has never been to Colombia (the setting of my first book, SEAL OF HONOR), or to Key West (the setting of my latest release, WILDE NIGHTS IN PARADISE).

I wish I could do on location research in each of the places I write about, and maybe someday I’ll be able to, but usually a lack of funds or time prevents me.  I do most of my research by reading books and looking at online photos and videos. In the case of WILDE NIGHTS IN PARADISE, I watched a ton of vacation videos on YouTube just to get a feel for the sights and sounds in Key West. For the sexy paddle board scene, I watched an online tutorial to learn the proper techniques. (Um, for paddling boarding part, not the sexy part.) I scrolled through cabin rental listing to see what the houses in Key West look like. I wandered Duval Street using Google Maps. I talked to people who have been there. Then, I crammed as much of my newfound knowledge about the place into the story as I could.

Sometimes setting research satisfies my wanderlust. Most of the time, it only intensifies it. So like I said before: Sunshine State, here I come!

Do you have a favorite setting to read about? Have you ever set down a book and thought, wow, I’d love to visit that place for real?

Big thanks to The Reading Café for having me today!



Tonya Burrows | Writing has always been my one true love. I wrote my first novel-length story in 8th grade and haven’t stopped since. I received a B.A. in creative writing from SUNY Oswego and I’m now working on a MFA in popular fiction at Seton Hill University.

When I’m not writing, I spend my time reading, painting (badly), exploring new places, and enjoying time with my family. Give me a good horror movie over a chick flick any day. (And, let’s be honest, I’ll take a bad horror movie too!) I’m a geek at heart and pledge my avid TV fandom to Supernatural and Doctor Who. I’m also a big fan of The Voice. What can I say? Guilty pleasure.​​

I share my life with two dogs and a ginormous cat. We live in a small town in PA, but I suffer from a bad case of wanderlust and usually end up moving someplace new every few years. Luckily, my animals are all excellent travel buddies.

 Author Website: http://www.tonyaburrows.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tonyaburrows

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/TonyaBurrows