The Devil And Miss Jones (Harlequin Presents Extra, #194) (Mills & Boon Hardback Romance, H7099) (Return of the Rebels)

by Kate Walker

[wyvernfriend]

Oh Kate, when Diego was driving his motorbike in the first few paragraphs I had hope for the book, but honestly, that hope started to diminsh quite rapidly and my suspension of disbelief started to corrode quite quickly afterwards.
Yes, I should have guessed from the "powerful motorbike" without any qualifications, but let me give you a few pointers.

Paniers and top boxes on motorbikes are essential to carry anything, unless you're carrying stuff in a backpack, now seeing as she was able to snuggle up to him, this suggests no backpack. Some big expensive bikes have built in panniers. He has clothing with him and he didn't offer her it? Bad biker, no cookie. Waterproof leggings would have gone on quite easily on her exposed legs and would have afforded her some sort of protection.

He gave her his helmet, any biker would tell you that you'd get away, just about, with going to the next village or town doing this and about then the cops would be all over you like a rash, not debating stopping, you'd stop. Even if the bike is a rental, even if you have enough money to do this, the fines are huge, the cops will lecture you for a while about stupidity.
Bikers have wet weather gear in Ireland and England. If they don't they stop. Biking in the wet is a miserable, nasty experience and driving rain, actually hurts through jeans, and jeans don't dry all that quickly. Your hero would have ended up in the hotel damp through to the skin. Uncomfortable and chaffing in places that would make a shower a top priority, and getting out of the damp clothes an even bigger priority. You talked about a freezing fog and him giving his jacket to her would mean that if he continued driving through rain for a while, we're talking hypothermia if he's not careful.
While driving rain is pretty uncomfortable in jeans, and even, speaking as a regular motobike pillion, through kevlar jeans, and you'll feel heavy rain through the waterproofs, it would be sheer torture in stockings. Lets not get into some of the practicalities of small country roads and chippings and exposed legs and feet, that would be getting into the realm of serious nitpicking.
So, if I was on the back of a motorbike, in driving rain, in the remains of my wedding dress, and his jacket and his helmet (wasn't she lucky it fitted! More not over-nitpicking!) and no gloves, in damp cold weather with freezing fog in the afternoon, clinging on to a male who is now soaked through, I would be wondering where the nearest town was and once I got in would be plunging my hands into warm water, not being exhilirated and liking his warmth. He wouldn't be warm, he would be cold, miserable, shivery and grouchy.

See, this all happened in the first few pages. I read a few excerpts out to my husband and he was wondering why I kept going, I can only claim masocism. A strange hope that the story was going to improve and the fact that the book was only 184 pages long. The story stretched my credulity, it just didn't make me convinced that things were going to work between the two characters and I think that without the motorbike eyebrowraising events I would have been more charitable about the whole thing. It all felt rushed and short-storyish rather than full book and I would have felt cheated if I had paid for it rather than borrow it from the library.