Rowena’s review of The Bikini Car Wash by Pamela Morsi.
Hero: Pete Guthrie
Heroine: Andi Wolkowicz
After Andrea Wolkowicz abandons corporate life to help care for her sister, she quickly wears out the want ads in their rust-belt hometown. Time to be her own boss.
Every mogul knows the best idea is an old idea with a new twist. So Andi proudly revives her father’s business: an old-fashioned car wash…staffed entirely by bikini-clad women. That ought to get traffic—and blood—flowing on Grosvenor Street!
This gutsy gimmick soon has the whole town in a lather, and not necessarily in a good way.
Scandalized citizens are howling, neighboring businesses are worried. But straitlaced grocery-store owner Pete Guthrie is definitely intrigued. He knows it’s hard to run a small business in a big-box world. To him, Andi’s brains and bravery are as alluring as the bikini she calls business attire.
I’ve never read anything by Pamela Morsi before but I remember reading a review of this book (where I can’t remember now) and thinking, “Hmm, that sounds like something I’d want to read” so I put it on my list (that ever growing books I want to read list) and when I saw it on NetGalley, I just had to get it.
I’m so glad that I did because this book was such a treat. I will say that it took me a few days to really get into the story but once I got a feel for the characters, it was easy to jump right in. Andie is back in Plainview after having lived in Chicago and made a name for herself at work. Her mother died and she has come back home to help him take care of her twin sister, Angela aka Jelly. Jelly is disabled and needs to be babysat and Andie wanted to be around to help out.
Only, she wasn’t really around because when she gets there, I saw Walt with Jelly all of the time or Jelly was by herself some of the time. Andie was always at the car wash cleaning it or getting it ready to open up. But whatever rocks her socks. When we first meet Andie, it was hard to like her because she was such a b word to Pete. Yeah, I understood that she was a nerd in high school and Pete was the popular guy who hung out with the guys that tormented her and called her names but instead of taking the high road and showing him that she has risen above those idiots from high school, she becomes this raging beast who snaps at Pete every chance she got and it got to be too much at times.
Pete on the other hand, I absolutely loved. Right from the jump when we find out that he’s not the same hard muscled hottie from high school but a guy who’s still hot just not in shape. He eats Mallomars and he runs the family grocery store now. He was this normal guy who wasn’t a saint and who wasn’t a bad boy but someone that I could actually see myself knowing in real life and I ate it up. It was a nice change of scene from the typical heroes from our books.
The most interesting part of this book was Jelly and how the Dad thought she was his shining accomplishment. Jelly is disabled and I loved how patient he was with her and how evident his love for her was. It was the cutest thing. I adored Walt and wanted him to get his happy ending as well.
My favorite line of the book?
“It was everything Andi could have ever hoped for. Until the cops showed up.”
LOL.
The romance between Pete and Andi was cute. I adored how easy it was between them. Pete wants more from their one night stand and though Andi is hesitant, she can’t help but want to keep having sex with him so their relationship just sort of grows until it blossoms into a love that surprises them both.
Things I didn’t like? Pete’s Dad, Andi’s reaction to Walt’s announcement but those parts of the story didn’t ruin the book for me. I loved how Pete continually stood up to his father and I loved watching Tiff and Cheryl come into their own with the issues that they faced throughout the story, they were a good addition to an entertaining story.
Overall, this book was cute. I’m so glad that I read it and I will definitely be reading more from Pamela Morsi in the future. The characters were warm, charming and totally engaging. The story flowed extremely well and I was glad to have read it. It was a good time of a read.
Grade: 4 out of 5
This book is available from Mira. You can buy it here or here in e-format.
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