This was the first of the Wilde series I read. I LOVED this book. Dennison has a way of pulling you in and you needing to read what happens between the drool worthy guy and the woman who's about to change his life.

A fun and yummy read.

Daily Grind coffee house owner Liz Adams is worried about her phone sex operator cousin Valerie who disappeared with a client. She's been gone a week, so Liz hires hunky PI Steve Wilde with whom she has shared many a lustful glances. Liz is forced to go undercover as a phone sex operator and she and Steve engage in every carnal pleasure you can imagine while solving the whodunit.

Despite being over 300 pages, the novel itself seemed incomplete - easily read in a day but leaving the reader wanting more of a plot and less sex. While the novel is extremely steamy, the "romance" was rushed and therefore didn't seem believable - giving new meaning to "you had me at hello" since they were getting down and dirty within the first chapter. But let's be honest, we don't read Denison for her literary ability!

When I picked up Wilde Thing by Janelle Denison, I knew the book was supposed to be sexy and steamy and all things a romance novel should be. I am by no means a prude and I can enjoy a well-written sex scene as much as the next gal. I should also add that this book is well-written. Denison's style is smooth, the sensations and emotions created between her two characters -- Liz Adams and Steve Wilde -- in the bedroom throw sparks off the pages.

Page 29, in fact. And that's part of the problem.

Liz Adams, owner of The Daily Grind coffeehouse, and Steve Wilde, a PI, have been bumping into each other for a couple of months, but not speaking. The attraction they feel toward each other is the "across the room" kind so, when Liz heads over to Steve's PI business to hire him to find her missing cousin and she's already in his lap (literally) by the end of the first chapter, rolling into a quasi-sex scene by Chapter Two when they've only been speaking to each other for a couple of minutes... The book started to lose me.

There is a difference to me between hot, steamy sex in a romance novel and lust, and this one of the problems I have with a lot of romance novels lately. When I close the book, I want to feel satisfied (and I'm not talking sexually). I want to believe that the hero and the heroine have found THE person they are supposed to be with. That they love each other, and that that love will last them a lifetime.

With Wilde Thing, I didn't feel that way. I felt like all these two had between them was good sex. It didn't strike me as love, it struck me as two people in heat. And heat doesn't last. I didn't "get" why Liz and Steve were right for each other. I actually shut the book thinking they'd burn out before too long and go their seperate ways. That's disappointing in a love story.

Basically the plot was thin and the whole bit about Liz's missing cousin working for a phone sex place seemed contrived for the sole purpose of allowing Liz and Steve to talk about sex on the rare instances that they weren't having sex. And let me tell ya... there aren't that many pages where these two *aren't* naked, tied up, tied down, or smeared with caramel.

I was hoping to add a new author to my list of "Must Buys" and instead added one to my ever-growing list of "Skip It".

Bummer.

No literary genius here. If you're looking for shallow, quick fix stuff, this is for you. I didn't even finish it. No meat to the story, characters were one-dimensional. Again, written with the "sex sells" attitude in mind.

If you want compelling, great characters with a story that will leave you a better individual for having read it - forget this one.

...then this book is for you. However, if you're looking for a book with a decent plot and characters, give this one a pass. The plot (a missing relative who worked for a phone sex company) is only a dressing to hang the graphic sex scenes on. The main characters are pedestrian, with woes we've all read way too many times before (a determined widow left in debt by her profligate spouse, a divorced PI who left the police force due to an injury). So, if you need someting to ease your night along, use this - otherwise don't waste your money.