Review: Kiwi Gold

Kiwi Gold by Rosalind James
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Lachlan grew up helping his mother care for her quadruplet daughters after both his father and then her husband left her. After spending his formative years in a house with five women he is very sure that marriage and children are not something he aspires to. His job as an exploration geologist searching for precious metals is an adrenaline rush and he is happy with random hook-ups when he does go back to civilisation.

Laila is a widowed mother of twin girls. SHe is barely making ends meet as a new-born photographer after her husband's death and subsequent fall from grace. As the daughter of a red-haired Norwegian explorer and a Kuwaiti muslim woman she has always felt conflicted, not least because although she is no longer a practising muslim, her mother's teaching about modesty are always ringing in her ears. Laila can't imagine ever wanting another man, but even if she did it could only be after marriage.

Laila and Lachlan meet by accident at a Shakespeare-themed masked New Years Eve party when Lachlan rescues Laila from the unwanted attentions of an inebriated Romeo-wannabee. Unbeknownst to each other, Laila and Lachlan live in adjoining apartments. When Laila's daughter mistakes a hangover the next day for appendicitis (mainly because she wants to ride in the ambulance) she knocks next door to use Lachlan's phone.

So can a man who is firmly against marriage and children find it in his heart to fall in love with a traditional woman with children?

Sorry, wasn't very keen on this book, every so often there's got to be one that doesn't grab you and this is it for me. Since it has only just been released I won't spoiler it, but there are A LOT of coincidences, living next door to each other being, frankly, the most plausible. Secondly, considering Laila's stance on sex before marriage the entire book feels like one long extended sex scene with a few sob-fests in the middle, also I felt that when Laila and Lachlan did make love it all went from zero to sexcapades very fast. Overall, I felt that Laila's upbringing and former religion were brushed under the carpet when it didn't suit the plot.

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