In Riding the Wave (Pacific Blue #1) by Lorelie Brown, surfer Tanner is back home in San Sebastion…the place he’s avoided for 10 years. A world championship surfing event he needs to win draws him there, even when inside he wants to stay away. He has secrets inside of him that he’s been keeping for ten years. Secrets he fears if 
revealed will rip his world and family apart. But are they really his secrets to keep?
Avalon has known Tanner for years. His family is more like her own than her mother is. Close friends with his sister, Avalon has always been attracted to Tanner. She, like everyone else, doesn’t know why he’s stayed away so long, why he’s put so much distance between himself and his home. Now, as a photographer, the chance of a life time is going to put her in close proximity with Tanner.
Tanner is seeing a whole new side of Avalon, as a woman, a photographer, and not just his teenage sister’s friend. They become very close, and the steamy relationship they share sizzles off the pages of Riding the Wave. It might only be temporary, but Avalon soon feels her attraction to Tanner growing into so much more. In and out of the water they work well together. When Tanner has no choice but to reveal the secrets he’s hiding, will he be able to find a place for himself again in San Sebastion? Will Avalon have a place in his heart as he does in hers?
Riding the Wave is a well paced, summer read that will have you dreaming of the surf pounding on the shore. I love Lorelie’s descriptions in Riding the Wave, in particular through Tanner’s eyes when he sees Avalon emerging from a wave on her board, and the feel of the water. Avalon and Tanner were characters I liked better as I got to know them through Lorelie’s writing. As much as I came to like Avalon, I would have liked to go a lot deeper into her character. Avalon has found a family and a place to call home in Tanner’s family. He hasn’t been around for much of it though, and we go along with Avalon as she really tries to get to know him. Tanner is a bit of a mystery for a while, he’s harder to get to know, and he has this big secret to that’s alluded to for quite a while before we find out what it is. Whether I agree or not with him keeping it, I can understand from his character’s point of view and Lorelie gives us a lot of insight into Tanner and the inner conflict he’s struggling with. I felt like the main focus of Riding the Wave was Tanner, his secret and his family. The romance between Tanner and Avalon, while hot, was more of a strong secondary story.
All of the secondary characters added so much to Riding the Wave. There aren’t enough to overwhelm the story, but just enough to add some interesting dynamics into the mix!
I do think the plot is believable…people have secrets and keep secrets thinking they are protecting others when most of the time they are not, because most secrets never stay that way. The romantic element is also believable, and I love the setting of Riding the Wave.
I’d recommend Riding the Wave to romance readers looking for strong plotting, a hint of mystery, and a great setting!
Book Info:
Published July 1st 2014 by Signet | (Pacific Blue #1)
The gray-green swells of San Sebastian haven’t changed in ten years, but Tanner Wright has. The last thing he expects to find back on his home turf is the love of his life….
With a make-or-break world championship on the line, professional surfer Tanner Wright has come back to the coastal California hometown he left a decade ago, carrying only his board and the painful knowledge of his father’s infidelity. Now that Hank Wright is dead, Tanner intends to keep the secret buried to spare his mother and sister the burden.
The last time Avalon Knox saw her best friend’s brother, she was fourteen and he was a twenty-year-old surfer god. She’s never understood or respected the way Tanner distanced himself from the family that has embraced her. But now she has the professional chance of a lifetime: to photograph Tanner for the competition—if he’ll agree.
Out on the waves, they find in each other passion that’s impossible to resist. And Tanner’s not the only one trying to move forward from his past. As the competition heats up, secrets get spilled, and lust takes over. How close can Avalon get to this brooding surfer…without getting burned?
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