Making Waves by Tawna Fenske

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Today I’m reviewing an ARC of Making Waves by Tawna Fenske that I received from the publisher. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would like to pass it on so that someone else could enjoy it as well. Have a read through my review and decide if you would like to enter the giveaway for a copy. If you are interested in entering to win, fill out the form found below.

Making Waves by Tawna Fenske
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Release: August 2011
Source: The publisher gave me a copy to read and review

 When Alex Bradshaw’s unscrupulous boss kicks him to the curb after 20 faithful years as an executive with the world’s largest shipping company, he sets out to reclaim his dignity and his pension. Assembling a team of fellow corporate castoffs, he sails to the Caribbean to intercept an illegal diamond shipment. None of them counted on quirky blonde stowaway Juli Flynn, who has a perplexing array of talents, a few big secrets, and an intoxicating romantic chemistry with Alex…

Making Waves begins with Juli Flynn finding out that she has to take her uncle’s ashes to the Caribbean as one of his last requests. We discover that Juli has a few problems keeping jobs and since she is on the verge of losing her latest one, she decides to take a package, honor her uncle’s last wish and take his ashes to St. Thomas. Meanwhile, Alex Bradshaw and his co-workers are fired from their jobs with a large shipping firm without working long enough to qualify for their pensions. Broke and without job prospects they hatch a plan to hijack their ex-boss’s illegal diamond shipment. Juli and Alex meet by chance in a bar the night before they are both to leave on their respective adventures. Alex leaves after a steamy make out session and leaves Juli wondering why.

Making Waves by Tawna Fenske was a complete surprise to me. This is the first book that I have read by Tawna and was totally delighted. All the characters are a delight to read about. Juli is still trying to find her place in life. She’s too bright to easily fit in and her experiences in her young life mark her as different. Alex was hurt many years ago by a woman and has been afraid of commitment ever since. Juli and Alex are the most “normal” characters in the book. There is Malcolm, a Shakesphere quoting pirate, and his two well muscled, if slightly dense brothers and Juli’s mom who seems to spend her life combining incompatible items into “dinner”.  Simply amazing what this woman puts in a jellied salad. Alex’s former coworkers are made up of Phyllis, the former Olympic steeplechase winner turned socially inept computer genius, Cody, the former NFL tight-end who dreams of being a chef and wants to be called “Cookie”, and Jake, the former head of accounting who is aware of their mob-involved former boss’s diamond smuggling operation. Reading this list of characters, you just have to know that the book is pretty funny! A comment on the back of the book is: “Dive into Tawna Fenske’s hilarious world of wacky, quirky, heartwarming romance.” I love that description as it is very true. This book is hilariously funny; it is wacky and quirky; most of all it is filled with wonderfully written happily ever afters……yes plural 🙂

There are so many memorably scenes in this book that I can’t list them all. The first one that comes to mind is where Alex and Juli meet in a bar and decide to enter a contest for newlyweds in order to win $500.00. The sticky point is that they just met and know nothing about each other. The section where Juli is giving advice to Phyllis on how to attract a man is downright hysterical.

Making Waves is a fast moving story.  There are quite a few characters and it took me a while to keep everyone straight.  Once everyone was set in my mind, I was wondering why I had to work to figure out the characters as they seemed so individual!  I laughed out loud enough times to draw attention to myself!  Ms. Fenske has the ability to develop a storyline and characters that has the reader cheering for some characters and booing others!  I totally enjoyed my romp through this book! Although I am new to this author, I will certainly be on the look out for more of her books in the future!

As I said at the beginning of this post – I’m giving away my ARC of Making Waves to someone in Canada or the US.  Fill out the form below to be entered to win.
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