Rating:
Published: 1983
Illustrator: Unknown
Imprint or Line: Zebra Historical Romance
Published by: Kensington
Genres: Historical Romance
Pages: 526
Format: Paperback
Buy on: Amazon, AbeBooks
Reviewed by: Blue Falcon
TOTAL SPOILER ALERT ⚠
The Book
This review is of Wild Island Sands by Sonya T. Pelton, a Zebra historical romance.
The Plot
Wild Island Sands opens with an explanation of Greek mythology, as the heroine’s name is Pandora–Pandora St. Ives to use her full nomenclature. Pandora lives in Hawaii with her aunt and uncle. Her parents passed away earlier.
Pandora will do anything to prevent being pushed into a loveless marriage. As a result, she flees to San Francisco, to live with her cousin, Cara Kalee. In California Pandora gets into an accident. Luckily, the houseman for Rogan Thorn saves her in time.
Rogan, a shipping magnate, owns his family’s company, Thorn Navigation. Rogan and Pandora are immediately attracted to each other. But as in most romance novels, there are barriers to their happiness.
Those barriers are:
- Pandora’s amnesia from her accident
- Cara, one of Rogan’s former mistresses
- Rogan’s other paramours
- Walter Riddock, Rogan’s professional and personal arch-rival
- And perhaps most importantly, Rogan’s health issue
Rogan kidnaps Pandora to prevent her from marrying Riddock and forces her to marry him.
Later, Pandora moves back to Hawaii. Rogan follows her. They ignore each other, argue, and have sex.
This same pattern follows them back to San Francisco, where Pandora gives birth to their daughter, and she and Rogan have their Happily Ever After.
The Upside
Well… I finished the book!
Beyond that…
The Downside
Like many of Ms. Pelton’s books, Wild Island Sands is a hot mess of tens of thousands of words–over 526 pages–yet saying absolutely nothing.
I felt no connection to either Pandora or Rogan, nor do they have any chemistry with each other. Ms. Pelton tries to manipulate her readers’ emotions with a storyline about how Rogan’s life is affected by his parents’ neglect but goes nowhere with this.
There is a mystery that is so poorly written that it doesn’t matter at all when it’s solved.
Characters are introduced, then abandoned, or brought in and written about but never go anywhere.
Sex
There are a few scenes, which like the rest of the book, are barely noticeable.
Violence
It is implied that Pandora killed a man. This is not true, but she has horrific flashbacks about the murder.
Bottom Line on Wild Island Sands
Sonya T. Pelton has written only one book that I liked: Dakota Flame.
Beyond that, everything I’ve read by her has been total dreck like Wild Island Sands. They’ve always been destined straight for the garbage bin after I’ve wasted days of my life reading them.
1 Star
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| Overall: | 1.6 |
***
Synopsis
The sultry breezes tossed the island palms and caressed the aqua waves. And as beautiful, copper-haired Pandora walked the endless beach all she could think about was the handsome, arrogant sea captain, Rogan Thorn. His kiss was the first taste of desire she had ever known. Now she wanted Rogan with a feverish longing that scaled her heart and flames between her long silken limbs. But he was a wealthy, womanizing shipping tycoon, whose only love was the sea…
WINDSWEPT LOVE
Wild Island Sands by Sonya T. Pelton
Hawaii was a paradise of romance and love–but Rogan believed in neither. He was tired of conniving, clinging women who were only after his money. Then he met Pandora, the ravishing Hawaiian goddess whose eyes sparkled like sapphires, whose lips tasted like sweet cherries, whose body was made for pleasure. He thought that if he bedded her, he’d get her out of his mind–but once he took her innocence he was branded by the joys of rapture on the WILD ISLAND SANDS.