Hooked on a Feeling

This is a bit of a departure for Ainslie Paton from her contemporary romances, as it takes place in 1976 and has a strong secondary romance, along with a heroine who starts off with one guy and ends up with another. I could identify with the period details (even though I grew up in America, not Australia) - the songs, the disco, the clothes, the mustaches. And Paton reminds us of how difficult life could be for women of that era, especially divorced ones, who were frequently considered loose women just by virtue of their status. The women's liberation movement had just begin to make itself felt, but women still had a tough time finding jobs and getting decent wages for their work.

The historical aspect is interesting (ouch - when did my childhood become history?) but at heart this is still a love story, with two engaging couples and lots of angst, especially on the part of the male characters, and several scorching sex scenes. I've gotten used to reading contemporary romances with sexually experienced heroines , but setting this book in 1976 allows Paton to go back to the old trope of the almost-virgin heroine who thinks she's frigid. Interestingly, it's not even the hero who first awakens her, but he sure finishes the job. In the process, the heroine learns the difference between someone who looks as her “like she was a delicious daily special, something to devour and digest” and someone who looks at her “as though she was altering his view of the world and his place in it.” Wow!

Ainslie's blog indicates that she wrote Hooked on a Feeling as an exercise to see if she could do something different. I'm glad to say that the experiment was very successful. Her upcoming releases all look like contemporary romances, but if she wants to go back to the era of disco balls and pornstaches I'll be glad to trip back down memory lane with her.