Review: Wild Island Love by Melissa Foster (The Steeles at Silver Island #5)

August 02, 2023

Note: An advance reader copy (ARC) was provided by the author.

If offered a lifetime of return tickets to Silver Island, I would happily snap it up. This fictional town is one that I've happily gone back to each time Melissa Foster happens to release a new book in any series that happens to be set there. While Wild Island Love isn't wholly set on Silver Island--a lot of the story takes place in New York, particularly Manhattan--there's still more than enough to save me from being "homesick". This is the fifth novel in Melissa Foster's The Steeles at Silver Island series, and this go-around, we've got Lenore Steele and Duncan Raznick, aka Leni and Raz. She's in public relations and marketing, and he's an actor, one who happens to be represented by the firm Leni works at. When she's suddenly told to step in at the last minute as Raz's date, Leni is less than thrilled. He may be considered one of the most sought after men in the country, but she's all too familiar of what a nightmare he is as a client. But she has no choice but to be the guy's fake date. It's just for a night anyway. That is, until their pairing turns out to be so believable that there's a clamor for more. Now, they're stuck together for a wee bit longer, but by the end, will they call "cut!" and go their separate ways or live happily ever after?

Talk about some wickedly entertaining banter going on with these two! Leni and Duncan (yeah, sorry, I prefer calling him that over Raz) each gave as good as they got, and it certainly made for some of the best verbal sparring, a lot of which felt like verbal foreplay, I've come across in a romance novel in a really long time. The sexual tension was so darn palpable, but I admire the number of times Leni and Duncan tried to resist the pull. Obviously, they gave in, but then there's the whole figuring out whether this was nothing more than a temporary fling or something that was worth holding on to and making a true go of. I loved these two together, but I also adored seeing them interact with Leni's family, especially Leni's brothers. (I'm already snort laughing while typing this and remembering what happened on Silver Island.) As always, I enjoyed myself immensely while reading Leni and Duncan's story, and I'm already giddy with excitement for my very next visit to Silver Island. Five stars and much wild love for Wild Island Love.

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Read my reviews for the Steeles at Silver Island series: