Book Review: Perfect Bait by Michael Fowlkes

One of the reasons I love reading is because it gives me the opportunity to be in situations and environments that I'm not familiar with in real life. In the case of Perfect Bait, by Michael Fowlkes, the setting starts out in the world of Seattle's commercial fishing industry, and ends up in the laid-back sun and surf community of Ocean Beach. Much of the book takes place on boats. Since I haven't spent all that much time on boats, I have few preconceived notions about the lifestyle of boaters, and as a reader, I could just sit back and enjoy the ride.

When main character Corey Phillips leaves Seattle, looking for a fresh start, he blindly stumbles into a sea-side oasis in southern California and makes the decision to call it home. Little by little, his new life begins to take shape, beginning with a dog and ending up with a serious relationship and the development of a dream. He and his girlfriend, Jennifer, spontaneously decide to buy a boat and begin a new career running charter fishing trips. They have no idea what they are getting themselves into.

As they work to restore their boat and start their business, Corey and Jennifer discover new friendships as their own relationship strengthens. They love the boating life, and the charters are off to a good start. Soon, however, a frightening mystery presents itself, and suddenly it becomes clear that there is a  lot more than fishing going on in the charter community.

Although the story seemed to move along at a snail's pace at times, Perfect Bait consistently kept my attention. Sometimes it took awhile to see where we were headed in the scheme of things, and the main gist of the story wasn't presented until pretty late in the book. However, I enjoyed the journey, so this wasn't much of an issue for me. Maybe some of the relationships seemed a little too perfect, but this is fiction after all. Throughout the book, there are some pretty descriptive intimate scenes, but nothing that I would personally deem offensive. Then again, I wasn't offended by Fifty Shades of Grey, so maybe I'm not the right person to ask. In this book, though, the love scenes are done tastefully and sweetly. And they are not the primary focus of the story. From beginning to end, I liked Perfect Bait; and its short but sweet cast of characters and easy to follow story line made it a good work-out companion for this multi-tasking mama.

Thanks to BookSparksPR, I received a copy of Perfect Bait for review purposes. All opinions are my own.