Bea Reviews Love on the Boardwalk by Christi Barth

Publisher: Carina Press 
Format Read: PDF converted to Kindle
Source: the author in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: September 22, 2014
Buying Links: Amazon*  | ARe* | Barnes & Noble | 
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Blurb from goodreads:

Atlantic City is the perfect place for detective Bradley Hudson to nurse his broken heart. A week of beer and strippers is sure to erase his former fiancée from his memory for good. What he didn’t count on was running into a sassy redhead from his past. Maybe a rebound romp is an even better plan…
Trina Trimble, private eye in training, is thrilled to be reunited with the hottie she almost hooked up with last summer. She’s undercover on her first solo case, but there’s always time to lock lips with a sexy cop. Besides, a fun fling with Brad doesn’t have to last beyond his week in town.
Brad and Trina are supposed to be just flirting, not forging a new forever. Brad’s still healing, and although Trina changes careers the way other women change shoes, she has finally found her calling in her new life of disguises and stakeouts. But when an irresistible job offer threatens to lure her away, Brad will need to decide to let her go or bet it all on love and risk his heart again.
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**This Review First Appeared at Romance at Random**

Bea's Thoughts:

This was my second book by Barth and very different from the first book; much more light-hearted and fun. Love On The Boardwalk is light, fluffy, and fun. While the circumstances are a bit different, Brad and Trina are just ordinary people who could be your neighbors or co-workers. While I occasionally enjoy reading a book with glitz, glamour and rich folks, there’s a glut of those right now and I loved how blue-collar and normal this was. Well, parts of it. I admit I don’t think of a strip club as blue collar though I suppose it probably is.

Brad is a cop who broke up with his fiancé but he still has the vacation time he took for their honeymoon so he decided to spend it in Atlantic City. I was delighted that Barth didn’t make the ex be some evil cardboard character and that Brad accepted some of the responsibility for their breakup. They both made mistakes and he at least learned from his. He met Trina in a previous book, “Love At High Tide”, but Barth works in the back story. Plus Coop and Darcy, the leads in that book, appear in this one.
Brad has a fine appreciation for beautiful things:

     He’d look his fill of her creamy breasts every opportunity he got. To ignore their perfections would just be rude. Like staring at your shoes while walking through an art museum.

Trina bounces around from job to job, never sticking with anything, but just floating. Currently she’s working as an assistant and trainee to a private investigator. She’s enjoying the work and giving serious consideration to doing it full time but she’s worried about some course work she’d have to take. I loved Trina. She comes across as flighty, perky, bubbly, and vivacious, the kind of person who makes me want to run far away in real life but that I enjoy reading about. Perky people are much easier to deal with when they’re fictional and you can close the book on them. But there’s depth to Trina too, as she thinks about the future and whether or not she’s ready to stop changing jobs at the drop of a hat and commit to one job or one career. She’s also funny, snarky, compassionate and sweet.

     “Thanks, but I’ve got a hard and fast rule when it comes to sex. One at a time is enough for me. I don’t think I’d know what to do with all of the extra appendages. It’d be like playing naked Twister. Spin the dial and put your left arm on the red.”

That just made me bust out laughing and the visual was pretty darn awesome.

Trina and Brad have been attracted to each other since they met in the first book but the timing was wrong. Now they’re both available, attracted to each other, and the fun begins. The flirting and seducing was fun and hot, and there’s a definite connection and heat between them. I loved watching them play and talk and become closer. Brad is a manly man but Barth shows us another side, too. I adored that while he had doubts about Trina’s skills as an investigator and her ability to stick with one job, he stood by her and didn’t put her down or tell her she couldn’t do it. Oh, and Trina can rescue herself, no white knight needed.

The mystery is weak at times, though watching Trina put her training into action was entertaining. The romance is cute with some hot scenes, the characters are fun, and I laughed a lot. I enjoyed Love on the Boardwalk and I want to read its predecessor.