Nerd Gone Wild

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Synopsis

After her parents died, Ally Jarrett was raised by her grandmother, Madeline, who recently passed away, leaving Ally in a vulnerable state. Madeline left her entire sizable estate to Ally, but Ally couldn't care less about the money. She's completely focused on her trip to Alaska, where she hopes to learn to become a wildlife photographer. Unfortunately Madeline's annoying, nerdy assistant, Mitchell, shows up in the tiny town of Porcupine, driving Ally a little crazy with his over-protective streak. When they're stuck sharing a connecting bathroom at the hotel, the ice between them gradually begins to thaw, leaving Ally wondering if he's any good in bed and it doesn't take long for her to find out. But their affair could be put on hold permanently is Ally's step-uncle has anything to say about it. Resentful of being frozen out of Madeline's will, Uncle Kurt starts scheming to bilk Ally out of her newly inherited money, putting Ally in danger. Soon, she'll find out exactly why Mitchell has been shadowing her, but she may not be too happy to learn the truth even when her nerd rides to her rescue.

Mitchell Caruthers is a PI/bodyguard who was hired by Madeline before her death to keep Ally and her fortune safe. Knowing that Ally probably wouldn't appreciate having someone looking after her so closely, he's been undercover as her grandmother's nerdy assistant. Mitchell has had a crush on Ally for months, but his nerd disguise isn't doing anything to help his cause with the object of his affection. Ally also isn't too thrilled when he shows up in Alaska and he has an increasingly difficult time coming up with excuses for why he's there. Fortuitously a blizzard snows them in at the hotel, though, and things quickly start to heat up inside when a cold night of boredom leads to a steamy game of strip poker that has Ally warming up to him. But their newfound love may be iced out when Uncle Kurt shows up in town, offering to introduce Ally to a famous wildlife photographer. Mitchell starts to suspect something foul is afoot, but can he figure it all out before Ally gets offed for her inheritance?

Review

Nerd Gone Wild is the third book in Vicki Lewis Thompson's Nerds series. However, to the best of my knowledge, they're only connected by the nerd theme and have no common plot lines or characters. In this one, we have Ally who just inherited a fortune from her grandmother, Madeline, and has decided to go to Alaska to pursue her dream of becoming a wildlife photographer. Her hero is Mitchell, a PI/bodyguard who Madeline hired before she passed to look after both Ally and her fortune to protect her from gold-diggers and particularly from her Uncle Kurt who is envious of being left out of the will. Because Madeline knew her independent niece would likely resent having a guard dog around, Mitchell has been working undercover in a nerdy, pencil-pusher persona, acting as a personal assistant who's taking care of estate matters, while covertly performing bodyguard duty. Thus far, Ally has found him to be rather annoying, so she's happy to finally be in the tiny town of Porcupine, Alaska to take some photos. Then Mitchell shows up, ostensibly to get her to sign some papers. Ally just wants to get it over with so he can turn right around and head back to L.A., but a blizzard prevents him from leaving. They're also stuck sharing a connecting bathroom at the only hotel in town. Needless to say, this leads to some sexual tension. Mitchell has had the hots for Ally for a while, and Ally slowly starts to see him as more than just a nerd. But their little sojourn in this quirky, winter wonderland is about to turn dangerous when Kurt shows up with his new girlfriend, Vivian, in tow. They've come up with a scheme to relieve Ally of her money by having Viv pretend to be a wildlife photographer whom Ally admires and getting her to invest in all kinds of things to promote her photography endeavors. But when Viv gets impatient, she's prepared to resort to murder to get at Ally's fortune, forcing Mitchell to reveal his true reason for being there in order to save the woman he loves.

Ally's parents died when she was young, so she was raised by her grandmother, Madeline, who gave her everything she could possibly need. Family is far more important to Ally than money, though, so when Madeline passed, it left Ally in a vulnerable state. When her step-uncle, Kurt contacted her, she wanted to get to know him better as her last living relative. Even though she knew Madeline hated him, her grandmother never told her why, so Ally thinks he seems nice and starts to trust him. They've come up with a plan to meet in Porcupine with Kurt promising to bring along a famed wildlife photographer to teach Ally the ropes, so she can pursue her dream. But both Mitchell's arrival and the blizzard put a damper on her plans. However, being stuck in the hotel and sharing a bathroom with Mitchell help her start to see him in a new light. She'd be happy to just have no-strings sex with him, but she's reluctant to get involved, fearing that his tender geek heart couldn't handle a casual relationship. One thing leads to another, though, and eventually she finds out what a hot body he has and just how good he is in bed, making it difficult for her to let go. Then danger comes calling and she finds out exactly why Mitchell is really there, which could lead to some trouble in paradise. For an heiress to a fortune Ally is very down to earth, although I have to admit, I'm not entirely sure where that part of her persona came from. She was basically raised with every comfort, so for her to want to earn her way and be so accepting of the oddball residents of Porcupine seemed a little off. However, I'm not complaining, because it made her a much more likable character. The only thing about her that gave me pause was her willingness to still trust her uncle even after Mitchell revealed the reason for Madeline's dislike (a very serious allegation), which should have made her want to stay away. But otherwise, she was a good heroine.

Unlike the first two heroes of this series, Mitchell is kind of a pseudo-nerd. He admits to being rather geeky through middle school, but by high school, he'd reinvented himself as a cooler dude, one who's adventurous, rides a motorcycle, and now owns a private investigations and security business. Madeline hired him to look after Ally and her fortune after she was gone, and he's been trying to do just that in his undercover nerd persona. He wants to tell Ally the real reason he followed her to Alaska--that he fears her uncle may try to take advantage of her--but feeling obligated to stick to Madeline's plan, he has to make up all sorts of excuses that he hopes won't give him away. One thing that's real, though, is his attraction to Ally, so sharing a bathroom with her at the hotel is an exercise in self-control. After a spontaneous kiss in the snow, he doesn't want to hide it anymore and makes that fact known, but getting her on board with some red-hot lovin' that will probably be nothing more than a casual fling is harder than he thought it might be. However, a chilly night of boredom leads to a steamy game of strip poker that gets them both too hot and bothered to say no anymore. But when Mitch has to ride to the rescue and reveal his real reasons for being there, Ally might not be too happy about it. By the end of the story, Mitch admits that he's still kind of geeky, but it definitely wasn't in the way that the first two series heroes were. That's not to say I didn't like him, though. He's definitely a cinnamon roll, nice guy whose priority is looking out for Ally's well-being, both financially and physically. I like that he's supportive of her dreams and wants what's best for her, so he was a pretty good hero even if he wasn't quite as nerdy as I'd hoped he'd be.

Just like with the first two books of the series, Nerd Gone Wild is populated by a colorful cast of supporting characters. There's Betsy, the owner of the historic hotel that was a former whorehouse, something of which she's quite proud. She's sweet on next-door neighbor and tap-dancing bar owner Clyde. We have Rudy, who runs the equivalent of an airport shuttle service. His true love left him because he keeps his "ladies" (chickens) in the house and he couldn't give her "multis" (orgasms), but he's pining to win her back. There's bartender and chainsaw artist with questionable artistic skills Dan, and hippie-dippie general store owner Serena. And lastly there's town drunk and dog sled operator, Ernie, who's clearly an alcoholic, but no one seems to care, instead plying him with more alcohol whenever he becomes unmanageable. I have to admit that while I've heard that Alaskans can sometime be a bit eccentric, these characters were a little over the top to the point of pretty much being caricatures of every small town stereotype imaginable. The same was true of the villains, Kurt and Vivian. They're purely mercenary, only going after Ally for the money, while also being complete parodies of BDSM practitioners. Nothing about their Domme/sub relationship was in any way realistic, and I didn't think that Kurt's role as a sub jived with Madeline's big secret about him at all. It just didn't make much sense, but I've come to realize that these books are just ridiculous fun, so I tried to simply go with it.

Overall, my enjoyment of Nerd Gone Wild ended up somewhere in between the first two books. I liked it a little better than book one, but not quite as well as book two. It definitely had some of the same issues I recognized in the first book, namely the over-exaggerated characterizations of the supporting players and a lack of actual romance between our protagonists. As with both of the other books in the series, I felt like I was being hit over the head repeatedly with Ally and Mitchell's sexual attraction, when a little more subtlety would have been nice. I honestly felt like much of that was being told rather than shown, too, so I wasn't really sensing much of a connection between them until they finally made love for the first time. Even then, they're still thinking it's only going to be a fling, so the realization that they're in love kind of came from out of nowhere. However, I did like both Ally and Mitchell as individual characters, and thought that they were good together once they got over their enemies-to-lovers vibe. Aside from a lack of foreplay, their steamy times were pretty well done, too, and I enjoyed Mitch's grand gesture at the end to make up for deceiving Ally about his real identity. I also liked the opposite-sides-of-the-track twist that cast Ally as the millionaire, while Mitch was the one who didn't have a lot of money. Even though the townspeople were a bit over the top, their hearts were in the right place, and they could sometimes be good for a little amusement. The ending was pretty good as well, and if a book ends on a strong note, I can sometimes forgive other weaknesses. All things considered, Nerd Gone Wild ended up a half-step above an okay read for me, but it had too many issues to quite make it to the "good" level. I've never been a big fan of slap-stick comedy, which might be part of the problem, so anyone who enjoys this type of humor will probably like this book more than I did.

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Vicki Lewis Thompson 

Themes

Artists
Beta Heroes
Bodyguard Heroes
Opposite Sides of the Track