TBR Wednesday: The Last Key by Beverly Sommers

The Last Key Beverly Sommers Romance novel  Harlequin American #69  1984 Rating: C+

The Last Key is the latest in a series of Beverly Sommers's books that I have been slowing glomming.  Readers looking for an out-of-the-mold category romance experience probably couldn't do better than Sommers.  Whilel reading I have numerous times thought to myself, "Wait - did that character really say that?  Did he think that?  What did she just do?"  Sommers oeuvre could be titled You Can Do That in Category Romance (Just Don't Expect to Rake It in). 

Toby charters a fishing boat in Key West, Florida.  Nobody knows who she is, and Toby likes it that way.  She has good reason to stay anonymous and off the radar.  She has no identification, no bank account, no credit cards, and no way for anyone to prove she isn't who she says she is...unless the right people come calling.

Ian "Mac" McQuade also isn't who he says he is.  Mac is a DEA agent assigned to find the smuggler bringing significant shipments of cocaine into Key West.  Every other boat owner in Key West checks out okay, except for Toby, who, of course, doesn't check out at all.  So Mac begins investigating her, disguising himself as a well-to-do travel writer who wants to do some fishing.  Toby sees through his disguise right away, but leaps to the wrong conclusion and assumes he's interested in her because of her past.  With each of them firm in their wrong assumptions, things between them get complicated quickly.  But what's not complicated is the sexual attraction that leaps up between them; it's not complicated, it's primal.  

In some ways The Last Key is very category romance: there's a hook - in this case the disguises, there's the hero doing a dangerous job, there's also the sizzling attraction that culminates quickly into lust then love.  The story takes place in over a short time period, too.  What exists between Toby and Mac isn't Love at First Sight, but it's Pretty Quick Love, nonetheless.  All of these elements are ones category romance readers are familiar with.  But there are a number of other story and character elements you won't find in category romance today, including:

• a twice-divorced, somewhat chauvinistic hero who smokes
• a heroine who knows how to doll herself up, but doesn't bother to do it or wear a bra (ever)
  
• protagonists who don't want marriage and don't want children
• a complete absence of young children
• a heroine who, when confronted with the possibility of pregnancy, reminds herself there are plenty of clinics available
• "negotiable" personal preferences being a stronger deterrent to the relationship than plot elements or psychological issues
• love scenes without the obligatory condom reference or soothing conversations about lack of past partners

Toby and Mac are also just the teensiest bit less than perfect as characters.  Toby is not just discreet, she's downright anti-social.  She has her reasons for shouldering away any and all specimens of humanity she doesn't need for financial reasons, but it doesn't make her Miss Congeniality.  Mac is twice divorced, probably because he's got a fairly jerkish way of viewing females that eventually his wives had to have picked up on.  He's not the Linda Howard alpha jerk sort, but he does view women as there primarily for the comfort of men (himself, particularly) and when they stop fulfilling their end of the deal, he's out.  It's interesting that he's attracted to Toby, then, as she views being decorative and available as the last necessary traits she's interested in cultivating.  He also bumbles his job investigating Toby.  She sees through him immediately and knows when he snoops around her boat.  

The setting, Key West, is an interesting choice, given that it's touristy and gay, both of which Sommers points out repeatedly without comment.  Toby is completely blase about the gay men she knows, and none of the male heterosexual characters seem at all threatened or angry at being somewhat outnumbered.  

This book was written in 1984, I must repeat.  

All of the above factor into a neutral reaction for me.  The unusual elements make for an interesting read, balancing out Mac and Toby's character flaws.  The plot, though, brings the grade down a notch.  For all that the set-up makes this seem a suspense plot, it's not.  Ultimately, the question of who is bringing the drugs into Key West is resolved very tidily and quickly without any blood or sweat being shed.   It's the big Go Nowhere Plot.  And the love story is also unsatisfying.  Mac and Toby get along very well in the sack (The Last Key was pretty steamy for a Beverly Sommers book; usually her love scenes are far more subtle), but they don't have much in common and their lifestyles aren't really that compatible.  The story takes place over a short period and most of that time the two of them are lying their heads off to each other.  The final resolution of all of this seems both unbelievable and Harlequinized at the same time.  Conflicts that seem insurmountable turn out to be nothing, and problems that could be resolved trip both of them up.

Still, I would say this is worth reading just for the unusual elements.  If you happen to come across it, pick it up and let me know what you think. 

tags: books  romance novels  tbr wednesday