Review: ‘Bad Boys Ahoy!’

Brava 0-7582-1251-8 2006

Michelle Buonfiglio, Romance Columnist

Sylvia Day

Regency Romance

Overall:
Sensuality:
Cover Cheese:

It rolleth over the earth like the veriest pestilence, and to all in its wake no mercy is shown.

That’s right, girlfriends. The Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue has hit the stands.

The truth? If I looked like the chicks in those layouts, this Feminist would be stripped down to her Vickie’s Secrets and ready to pose in about thirty seconds flat. Which is, like, a nanosecond longer than I’d take to sign the fat check for modeling in the flesh fest.

This year, Sports Illustrated treats us to a cover-shot of gorgeous 18 – 24 year olds wearing only bikini bottoms.

I don’t care how sensitive or menschy they are, guys everywhere notice the SI swimsuit issue. Frighteningly, my eight year old son informed me that the mag was out, and that it made him feel “good and bad. But,” he added quickly, “mostly bad.”

Right answer for now, sweetheart.

Relationships therapist Ian Kerner, Ph.D. suggests that men who learn at an early age, and continue to rely on visual display to stimulate desire, often lose the ability to arouse it with their biggest, most significant organs --

Their brains.

But we romance readers, and the lucky guys who love us, have long embraced the power of the written word to stimulate imagination and the desire that follows.

So, too, the folks at Brava/Kensington publishing. A while back, they caught on to the fact that lots of readers of erotic romance are turned-on by an Alpha hero who’s got that whole “mischievous little boy” thing going on.

So they began giving us the Bad Boys we crave, offering them “Down Under,” “at the Beach,” “in Black Tie,” “Over Easy,” and any which naughty way their talented writers could create them.

Enter my favorite Bad Boy anthology to date, “Bad Boys Ahoy,” Sylvia Day’s new romantic celebration of love, overbearing guys, and great sex.

Day presents for our delight a Regency bad boy triumvirate:

Swashbuckling pirate Captain Phoenix seizes a ship’s spoils only to find that the tantalizing young thing he’s about to ravish is the wife he didn’t know he married…

Unrepentant rogue Lucien Remington wants to behave as a gentleman toward the woman he’s worshipped from afar. But the beautiful Lady Julienne is en dishabille, in his bed, and seems interested only in his best bad behavior…

Hugh, Lord Montrose, is on his way to yet another debauch when he’s stranded at a ramshackle mansion. The lovely Charlotte resides within, and Hugh delights in her company. But why won’t she be a good girl and continue their affair beyond the eerie manse?

Sylvia Day is a terrific writer, one of few who understand the fine art of crafting top-shelf romantic erotica.

Her bad boys are buffed dream lovers, to be sure, but they’re fully realized where other wannabe erotic romance bad boys are just “good in bed.” Her heroines, too, are ripe, but self-aware, not-so-blushing virgins, if you will.

“Bad Boys Ahoy!” is fun and cheerful. It’s also singularly erotic, and you may want to read it to someone you love. Imagine the possibilities, then --

Buy the book.

Blog Alert! Michelle guest-blogs with the chicks at Squawk Radio on Tuesday, Febuary 22.