Format: E-book
Read with: iBooks for iPad
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Publisher: Carina Press
Series: Standalone
Hero: Marc Olsen
Heroine: Matilda Geoffrey
Sensuality: 3
Date of Publication: August 8, 2011
Started On: August 5, 2011
Finished On: August 6, 2011

Boomerang Bride which is set to release on the 8th of this month is my first Fiona Lowe and it definitely is not going to be my last. I wholeheartedly agree with the fact that Carina Press releases some of the best romances all year round as each and every story apart from a very select few have always been immensely satisfying for me and Boomerang Bride is no exception to that rule.

Boomerang Bride kicks off when 34 year old Marc Olsen comes home to Hobin, Wisconsin for his annual Thanksgiving visit and finds himself intrigued enough to investigate the pitiful & homely looking bride toting a huge cake wandering around looking for the groom. Discovering that the Australian bride who has flown all the way from home to surprise her fiancé Barry who seems to have wiped himself off the face of the Earth has got a lot of spunk in her surprises him and entertains him unlike anything else has for the past couple of months during which a restlessness has taken a hold of him.

A brilliant architect based in New York, Marc is fiercely possessive of his independence and has no plans of giving even an inch of it up anytime soon. Tall, blond and blue-eyed with immense good looks, Marc has never had to actively work to win the affections of a woman and nor has he any intention of doing so until the turquoise eyed Australian with her auburn curls tempt him beyond reason to break every rule in his book of “How-to-avoid-needy-women-and-commitment”.

Setting out on her grand adventure, 30 year old Matilda Geoffrey never thought that she would be scammed so thoroughly and be left destitute with no way to return home. Calling on the reserves of her pride and her optimism that something would come through, Matilda grudgingly accepts the much needed help that the disturbing Marc with his Viking good looks offers her. Before Matilda knows it, she is elbow deep in the family issues that Marc so valiantly tries to avoid, taking care of a post-op Lori Marc’s younger sister and her son Kyle who is in his surly teenage phase all the while fighting the immense attraction that she feels for Marc along the way.

Marc doesn’t make it any easier for Matilda  to forget that her knees start to give in every single time he turns on his charm and gives her his intense bedroom stare that just makes her want to lay down and give herself up to his mercy. But the Australian is made of sterner stuff than that, or so she thinks and inevitably succumbs to the fire that courses through her veins whenever Marc takes her in his arms and proceeds to show her that Matilda indeed has a thing for her Viking though no promises are made by either regarding the future of their “relationship”.

In the end, Matilda turns out to be a godsend to Marc and her sister both as her Australian charm and spunk goes a long way in healing hurts that even Marc doesn’t realize exists deep inside of him and makes them all take a second look at the blessings they are left with, even when life has dealt them all with severe blows along the way. But even Matilda’s love is not enough to keep Marc from leaving and making the biggest mistake of his life until he realizes it with just enough time to spare to woo the woman whom he loves more than anything to agree to share her life with him, now and forever.

For me, Boomerang Bride was just sheer magic to lose myself in. From page one Matilda and Marc’s witty banter reeled me in and the slumbering sexual tension that slowly awakens between the two was magic in itself as I reveled in each kiss and touch exchanged between the two until its very explosive conclusion. Marc is a hero who got his priorities mixed up along the way, having had to grow up and take on responsibilities as the man of the house when he had been just a child himself. It is how he slowly finds his way back and realizes the importance of family, love and just how much he has been shunning himself from all that his family offers that was one of the best parts of the story.

Matilda is a heroine I can definitely get on board with. Even when her grand adventure and her dreams of getting married and having the home she never had with her wanderlust parents falls flat on her, that doesn’t stop her from taking one day at a time, of fighting her way back to regain what she has lost – and the best thing about her is how she doesn’t let her dreams and hopes shatter along the way and her optimism was certainly a healing balm that worked its magic over both Marc and Lori.

I found myself enchanted with the secondary romance that took place as much as I was charmed with Matilda and her Viking’s romance. Brian who relentlessly pursues Lori and has waited patiently for a long, long time to claim her as his own unleashes his bad-boy persona to get what he wants and to show Lori that she is all the woman that he needs in the world and that there is no going back for either of them except sharing their lives together till death does them apart. I loved, loved, loved how Brian woos Lori and Oh-God, his gentleness just undid me and made me want to cry buckets of happy tears.

Fiona Lowe can certainly deliver a mean epilogue and I loved how she shows everyones’ lives together a couple of years on. And the fact that his wife’s Australian accent still turns Marc on was one of the highlights of an epilogue that was beautiful and delivered the closure that I needed to let this romance go, though the characters and its sheer charm would remain for a long time in my heart.

Final Verdict: Charming, beautiful and heartwarming, Boomerang Bride is a romance for everyone!

Favorite Quotes

(Matilda) “Don’t drop it.”
The comment reminded him of growing up in a houseful of organizing women. “Are the English always this bossy?”
Surprisingly well-shaped eyebrows shot skyward. “The English are far too polite for their own good. Australians, on the other hand, call a spade a spade.”

(Marc) “Don’t tell me you’ve flown all the way from Australia in a wedding dress?”
She rolled her sea-green eyes and shot him a look that severely questioned his intelligence. “No, Blondie, I haven’t. I put it on at the service station in the last town to surprise Barry.”
Blondie? No one had given him a nickname since high school. He matched her eye roll with one raised brow. “Surprise him or scare him?”
“Hah hah, and I’d been told the Yanks didn’t have a sense of humor.”

Wordlessly, he brought his mouth down gently onto the edge of her mouth, stage one of a planned assault to assuage his desire and reclaim much-needed order back into his life. She tasted of cold and ice—a flavorless combination that numbed his lips and cooled his blood. He instantly relaxed, cocooned in a bubble of knowledge that he’d been right all along about Matilda. She didn’t do it for him.
He brushed his lips across hers well on his way to ending the perfunctory caress, while his mind toyed with a quip about snow to keep things light. Suddenly the ice cracked. Chocolate and chili collided in a rich heady rush, spilling over his lips in a sweet, tangy promise. Fire lit through him and his tongue flicked against pillow softness, desperate to taste more.