DRIVING HIM WILD

Author: Julie Cohen ISBN: 0263853829 2/2007 CONTEMPORARY Publisher: MILLS & BOON, UK

Destination: desire When smart-mouthed New York City cab driver Zoe Drake finds a tall, dark and brooding man on her doorstep, she doesn’t know what to think – does he want something, or has Christmas come early this year? Nick Giroux is looking for his long-lost father – not a new-found woman! But there’s something about him that makes Zoe let down her ice-cool defences. She’ll use her profession to drive Nick to Maine… …and maybe drive him wild on the way!

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

Entering 2007, Julie Cohen offers February's DRIVING HIM WILD from Mills & Boon Modern Extra. DRIVING HIM WILD is not my favorite Cohen release, but it features two wounded characters who really need each other to heal, nicely folded into a sensual, sexy short contemporary package.

Set in New York City and Maine, this story is only loosely connected to earlier Cohen books. Nick Giroux is a park ranger from Maine. He goes to New York City to track down his father, who abandoned him when he was young. His father sent him a letter out of the blue, and the return label was a NYC apartment. There, he meets a taxi driver/aerobics instructor named Zoe Drake. Zoe's eccentric aunt, who owned the apartment, just passed away. Nick and Zoe's attraction is immediate but so is their hostility. They both have barriers upon barriers because of their pasts. The plot revolves around the aunt's personal history and the search for Nick's father.

I enjoyed Cohen's writing as much as ever, but to be honest, I personally didn't connect with the characters. To some degree, I believe to love a book you have to fall for the hero and want the heroine to be your friend (or at least be able to fit in her shoes), and I didn't in this case. I didn't like hard-edged, rough Zoe or Nick. I felt they could make each other happy, but simply didn't care for them! Still though, take a look. I do think it's still a great story.

Heather Hiestand