Corey McKinney was chosen by her church to see if the money and supplies they were sending to aid the natives in Brazil were going to good use. She wasn't prepared to find herself alone in the jungle with handsome bush pilot Asher Adams. She also wasn't prepared for the sparks that were flying between them. Ash didn't know how he got stuck being tour guide to Miss Goody-Two-Shoes. But after saving her life in the jungle and rescuing her from a native who wants to keep her for himself, Ash begins to enjoy having Corey around.
This book is considered one of the all-time greats by RT Book Reviews. It is a good story that kept me turning pages, but it also feels dated. Corey is one of those heroines who just jumps to outlandish conclusions without asking questions. She sometimes wore on me. Ash is sometimes rude and abrasive, but you know down deep he is a good guy. I loved the jungle setting and the things Corey and Ash had to go through to survive. My rating: 3.5 Stars.
After the big buildup hearing about what a good love story this was, I was afraid I was going to be disappointed but I wasn't. It had appealing characters, an appealing setting and I just loved the hard edged hero. I don't see too many books with such a hard/gentle hero anymore. Very Bogart! I loved it.
Publishers Weekly Review:
Book Description:
Originally published in 1988 in softcover, this novel won the Romantic Times Best New Adventure Writer Award in that year, and has been recommended in the Romance Reader's Handbook as an all-time recommended read. The story follows Illinois farm-bred social worker Corey McKinney on a church mission to report on the San Reys reserve in the Amazon jungle of Brazil. Flying the plane on the last leg of her journey is magnetic, gravel-voiced bush pilot Asher Adams, whose crudeness has the fascination of Humphrey Bogart's in The African Queen. At San Reys, Ash saves Corey from a Xingu death pit, a lust-filled Tchikao Indian and a downpour of spiders as she is caught between her continuing repulsion from and growing attraction to him, the latter leading finally to graphically rendered consummation. Alternately cynical and tender, clown and caretaker, Asher finally sends Corey back to Pleasant Grove and her Dudley Do-right fiance while he continues his search for his brother in the jungle. This is not the end of the story, however, as Ash, who smells of the jungle and the cockpit, who reads Mad magazine and quotes Tolkien, draws the reader into this richly detailed, if predictably plotted, love story. -- Publishers Weekly
This novel was such a change of pace from the usual romance novel and I loved it. Weir's writing was so sensual and beautiful, matching the actual climate of the Amazon, and it was one of those love-hate novels that just pulls at your heart-strings. Give this one a try and you'll be surprised at how it pulls you in.
