A Simple Touch by Natasha Wilson Review

Natasha Wilson is a friend of a friend and a regular on my blog, so when she asked me to read her debut novel, A Simple Touch, I immediately agreed. She is really funny on Facebook so I was hoping it carried through to her book.

At first, I must say I was worried. Perhaps it was my mood, or the book just didn’t grab me at first. It just seemed so formulaic. Broken girl who can’t be touched, trips and falls (she is clumsy) and looks into piercing eyes. And those eyes keep coming back…. Add to that the funny, slutty, BFF. I was rolling my eyes thinking that she took every successful hook from every good book and used them all in the first 20 pages.

But then Natasha’s voice came through. Despite the rocky start, I really fell for the characters, the writing and the story. I ended staying up till after 3am to finish it. I think it was this line that reeled me in:

“What exactly is a fuckbag?”

I can literally feel my face start to steam with mortification when I say, “It’s a combination of fucktard and douchebag”

Jordan had a traumatic experience in her past and cannot be touched by a man, it causes an immediate panic attack. No man has touched her in 2.5 years. She works in a woman’s shelter by day, something she absolutely loves, and can really relate to the women. By night, she waitresses at Serafina’s an Italian restaurant. She is close with the owner, and works her ass off at both jobs, to avoid….living life.

Blake is the first guy that has caught her attention. He sees her fall at Serafina’s and is hooked. He keeps coming back and sitting at her station. He asks her out and she refuses. She tries to pretend she isn’t interested, she knows she is too fucked up to have a relationship…she can’t even accidentally brush by a man. Yet Blake has gotten under her skin.

“You’re delusional if you think for one second that I’m interested in you. You are so off my radar it isn’t funny,” I lie but hopefully he buys it. Blake laughs, so there goes that hope.

“You’re feisty, and luckily I happen to like your brand of bitchiness.”

Despite Blake grabbing her arm and Jordan freaking out, he wasn’t going to give up. Blake grew up as an only child with wonderful, doting parents. He used to be a guitarist for a famous band, then quit to run the family oil business. He calls her Sugar and is all sexy and gentle alpha.

Jordan’s best friend, and basically her lifeline is Dacey. Here is Dacey’s reaction when she realized Jordan really liked Blake.

“I knew it, hooker! You so got it bad. You’re gonna fall in luuurve and get married and make boom-boom all the time”

Blake knows she can’t be touched…yet he is willing to still go for it. And he does a great job breaking down her barriers, pretty quickly. Though nobody else can touch her, Blake does a good job of touching her, all on his own.

The sex, (including hot wall sex) was written well, Natasha has been in my dirty words GNI chats, and I am proud to say, her sex scenes contain no yucky words!

“Sugar, all it takes is for you to make one of those low, throaty sounds and I forget everything but the need to be so deep inside you that you always remember how crazy I am for you…”

Likes:

Love the author’s voice. Dacey and Jordan talked like I talk to my girlfriends and it made me giggle throughout the story.
Blake was crazy about Jordan and treated her perfectly. He was alpha, patient, and just pushy enough.
Great sex!
Blake’s parents were awesome characters, I loved them! But I found the use of their first names so often threw me off. After the first meeting they were forever referred to by first names, Jenny and Mitchell, and never again as “Blake’s parents”.
Once the story got going, I couldn’t put it down, it had me happy and smiling throughout.
There wasn’t much angst, and from the beginning I thought it would be heartbreakingly angsty.
A nice, happy, no cliffhanger ending.
Jordan went to a therapist regularly to help overcome her issues.

Dislikes:

My initial thought was that the author took every single known hook and threw it in this book. There was nothing unique to pull me in.
Jordan got over her issues a little too quickly and easily.
The way the story was played out was predictable.
OMG, the errors. This was such a huge problem, that despite my enjoyment of the story, this was a deal breaker for me. No book should be published like this.
This book felt so rushed to publication, and it could have been done so much better. Had Natasha taken the time to get a few beta readers and a proofreader then built up a little interest like a cover reveal and release blitz, this book could really be a winner. But it was released before it was even on Goodreads. Here is an author that actually had some connections that other indie authors would die for, but didn’t use them!

Rating: 3.5 stars, 4 Heat

If just the errors were fixed, this would be a 4 star read. If there was a smoother beginning, this story could go even higher. The author has a load of potential, but jumped the gun on releasing this. Part of me is tempted to give a lower rating because honestly, I feel the amount of errors is just too high for publication, especially for a book that is more than $.99. But honestly, I enjoyed the book a lot despite the errors. Any story that was able to get me over that many errors, deserves more than 3 stars. Natasha has some great raw talent. She is writing Dacey’s book now, and since I loved her character, I can’t wait to read it. But personally, I think Natasha’s focus should be on fixing this book and marketing it a bit before writing the sequel.

Purchase A Simple Touch by Natasha Wilson