Author – Lori Wilde

Third time’s the charm

Rachel Henderson is fed up with romance especially after being dumped at the altar, not once but twice! She blames it on her hometown of Valentine Texas and is determined to punish the town for putting the idea of romance in her head from when she was a young girl. On top of being left at the altar, she finds out that her parents are divorcing on her wedding day. Definitely not one of her better days.

Rachel is angry and drives the 400 miles from Houston to Valentine to seek her revenge on Valentine Texas. She decides that the way to do this is paint over the billboard entering town with black paint. Unfortunately the town’s mayor catches her in the act and has her arrested by non other than the hunky Sherriff Brody Carlton. It urns out that Brody was Rachel’s first love until he moved away at the age of 12.

Rachel is stuck in Valentine until she finishes her community service. This gives her time to start Romanceaholics Anonymous (a 12 step program for those addicted to romance), plot revenge against the fiancé that dumped her at the altar and get to know Brody as a friend. After all, she is done with romance and only wants either friendship or hot sex. But what does Brody want? Does he just want her as a friend or will he want more? And who knew that Romanceaholics Anonymous would become so popular? Rachel has to set up chapters in nearby towns to handle the interest that her YouTube video garnered.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and it is the first one by Lori Wilde that I have read but it won’t be the last. ‘Addicted to Love’ is a romance book but there are several underlying stories that keep it from being pure fluff. There is the story of her parents, Michael and Selina, who still truly love each other but Selina can’t get past an indiscretion from 30 years ago. There is also Mayor Wentworth and Giada Vito. She is originally from Italy but has been a citizen for 15 years and has decided that Mayor Wentworth needs a reality check in regards to the town and his position as mayor, which is why she decides to run against him. But what is this spark that they feel when they are around each other? And of course there is the story of Rachel and Brody, her addiction to romance and can she learn to the separate the two or does she really need to?

Lori Wilde began writing at the age of 8 and hasn’t stopped yet. She has written many books including ‘Charmed and Dangerous’, ‘My Secret Life’ and ‘Lethal Exposure’. She also writes under the pen name Laura Anthony.

Reviewed for RebeccasReads.com 3/09