Opposites inexorably drawn to one another like magnets is staple fare for romance novels, and not many authors do this better than Isobel Jolie, who mines way down deep into the heads and hearts of characters, bringing them sparklingly, scaldingly to life. Her latest offering ADRIFT is no exception. Taking a break from Justice Department legal troubles plaguing his place of work, Gabe jets off to the tiny island where he spent summers as a boy–smack dab in the middle of nowhere–and Poppy happens to be a friend of a girl Gabe’s buddy there is dating. Though Poppy makes a good living posting suggestive pix and Tik Tok-type videos on the Only Fans website (while others explicitly offer much more) still it’s a site catering to horny fellas who basically pay women for some form of titillation. This means Poppy–who really wants to own a restaurant–isn’t 100% proud of what she does, though she’ll defend her right to do it. Gabe–who not only frequents the Only Fans site, but has also enjoyed hard core porn sites, and party hookers on more than one occasion–soon wants Poppy to quit making her bodacious self available to oogling eyes beyond his own, once he and she become ‘friends.’
In a lovely twist on the usual themes of push-pull attraction, jealousy and misunderstanding, Poppy happens to be the kind of girl who has never had a flat stomach. Besides sporting extra large breasts, she’s kind of round everywhere and thus brings a painful history of being treated badly for being ‘fat’ into their budding relationship. There is however one problem with this novel: while blessedly adding a bit of body diversity to the cast, the only non-stereotypical thing about Poppy is her size/weight. In every other way she’s Goldilocks: a waterfall of blondness accompanied by huge blue eyes–and though she walks through the world oozing sex like Marilyn Monroe, as is too many men’s implausible, hypocritically sexist fantasy even of sex workers–Poppy has not only never been in love, she’s also physically-speaking–practically a virgin. And Gabe is, of course, portrayed as a handsome, sexually knowledgeable, successful, green-eyed prince of a lover, happy to buy his woman the world, even as Poppy endeavors to maintain some independence.
Deftly observed and crackling with energy, Isobel Jolie’s romance novel ADRIFT realistically handles self-esteem issues that arise when rejection-sensitive Poppy falls for Gabe, a man whose wealthy parents would likely not approve of him being with a girl like her.
~C.S. Holmes for IndieReader