Joanne Rock, The Pleasure Trip

The Pleasure Trip

Joanne Rock

Signature Spotlight, Feb 2006, $5.99

ISBN: 0373836821

Rita Frazier dreams that one day she will be a highly regarded costume designer, but for now she earns her keep as a seamstress on the cruise ship Venus where her sister performs as a showgirl. When her sibling Jayne fails to show up to prance down a runway, her employers inform Rita she will take her sister's place, though she insists her talent is designing the clothes not showing the clothes. Fuming she wonders who will want to watch a red-haired Swamp Thing.

FBI Agent Harrison Masters is on leave taking the PLEASURE TRIP as a combination vacation and a personal hunt to find his former girlfriend Sonia, who vanished while on the Venus last month, with a lot of his family's money needed for his ailing father's medical bills. However, concentration on the case proves futile, as all he wants to do is have Rita perform solely for him. Rita feels the same way, and she does not mind performing for Harrison only.

The lead couple are a delight, as both are shocked when attraction erupts the first time they see one another. Though Rita and Harrison wonder if this is part of the charm of a sea cruise, both know otherwise, as she has been working on the Venus for a year and he is a special agent. As they fall in love, the high seas dramatic suspense takes a back seat to a fine contemporary romance between two genial lead characters who find their respective muse on a superb sea cruise.