Review: Fantastic!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 02 11, 2014
Reviewed by Angie Just Read...for TheRomanceReviews.comIn his grandfather's high-powered, corporate take-over world, he's gained a plethora of experience running and then selling off some of the most profitable ventures imaginable. But managing a trailer park in Arizona for six months? Was he being punished for something, or had his grandfather just gone plain crazy in his old age?If Hell truly existed on Earth, Max Rutherford was now living in it...and it was a trailer park in Oasis, Arizona. With the exception of his inexplicable interest in curvy, tell-it-like-it-is waitress Pilar Armstrong and her young son Willie, the tenants of the Desert Princess Trailer and RV Park were a colorful lot the likes of which Max thought he'd never encounter in his entire silver spoon existence. However, running the trailer park was the task his grandfather had assigned him for the foreseeable future and failure to comply meant Max would forfeit his place as heir apparent of the Rutherford Empire to his detestable stepbrother Bertram. Never had he felt so much like a fish out of water, but Max had no choice but to grudgingly make the best of it.After divorcing the cheating, workaholic attorney who was never around for her and their son Willie, Pilar Armstrong gave up the lap of luxury for the simple life. Yes, she now lived in a trailer and waited tables at the local diner, but she was teaching her son about the important things in life--community, respect for others, working to meet life's basic needs, and the appreciation of life's simple pleasures. As for Max Rutherford, the man temporarily managing the Desert Princess...well, she'd be damned if she'd let him evict her neighbors when they couldn't pay their lot rent on time. And she wouldn't let his longing looks sway her heart, because she'd once known a man just like him--her ex-husband.Living in such close proximity to one another, Max soon realized he had a thing for Pilar, but he knew she wasn't the type of woman to engage in a casual fling. Yet, if he ever felt a hankering to settle down, he knew Pilar would be his ideal woman. She truly cared about people and she'd somehow taught him to open his heart and mind and become a better man. Similarly, Pilar found she was falling for Max, but while he'd temporarily conformed to the little world shared by the loveable and often zany residents of Oasis, a wealthy, high-powered man like Max wasn't destined to put down roots and stay...I can say with all honesty that Verna Clay has become a favorite author of mine, and I was giddy to read the first book of this new series taking place in the fictional Arizona small town of Oasis. As always, Ms. Clay delivered a fantastic tale that has left me eager for her to peck doggedly away at her keyboard and feed my craving to again engage in the lives she so adeptly makes so appealing and real. I simply loved Max and Pilar's story and adored the sweet lunacy of the secondary characters that inhabit The Desert Rose.If you've never read a Verna Clay novel, now is the perfect time to embrace a new addiction. Side effects are chuckles, mild euphoria, and the production of good mood enhancing chemicals in the brain.Contains mild scenes of a sexual nature.