"Charming, witty, brilliant!"

THE LAST MALE VIRGIN is the well-deserved winner of the RIO's (Reviewers International Organization) Dorothy Parker Award of Excellence for 2003, beating out powerhouse authors Nora Roberts, Stef Ann Holm and Linda Lael Miller for the honor.

Maggie Davis, also known as Katherine Deauxville, is a charming lady and a wonderful artist - almost in the style of Maurice Urtillo - and she brings both of those qualities to all her novels. She paints with words and has written some of the most richly detailed historical romances that will haunt you years after you put them down, such as BLOOD RED ROSES, GOLDEN DAGGERS, THE AMETHYST CROWN and THE CRYSTAL HEART. All keepers on my bookshelf! But she also shines with her delightfully funny works such as HUSTLE, SWEET LOVE, OUT OF THE BLUE and ENRAPTURED.

She again goes for the lighter vein in this warm and witty tale of sexy 29-year-old Dr. Peter Havistock and the havoc he creates for his lovely PR handler, Leslie Wimberly. The furrow comes about when he announces to the world on Larry King Live that he is a 29-year-old virgin and in the market for a wife. From that moment on, he is dashing - with Leslie in tow - from hundreds of women, even to the point of hiding behind a dumpster just to escape the eager 'applicants' for the position of his wife. When he was not yet fifteen years old, the plane carrying his parents and him crash-lands in the jungles of New Guinea. He survived the ordeal, and for the next fourteen years he lived with the tribe that rescued him. Since the natives exalt him as their 'golden god from the sky', they would not permit him to marry within their tribe, and due to their high moral standards, Peter arrives in the United Stares a nearly thirty-year-old virgin. The premise is delightful and I have heard this book has been optioned for a movie with eye to Brendan Fraser (the MUMMY) as Peter Havistock. Fraser would be perfect! Peter is charming, yet naïve, but still male enough to go after the woman he wants with a single-minded determination, sort of a kinder, gentler version of Mel Gibson!

Peter is a professor of anthropology and is on a book tour of college campuses to promote his story and educate the world about the tribe that raised him. And he has a very attention-catching style that is fanning the flames of the press and every woman alive. He gives the forums dressed in authentic New Guinea warrior gear, right down the next to nothing "G-string".

Leslie Wimberly is the long-suffering PR agent saddled with handling his book tour and seeing he gets to all his promotions and lectures on time. A beautiful 34-year-old divorcée, she is finding the Professor a bit more than she can handle. Exasperated at defending him from mobs of screaming women, to being totally disarmed when he announces he has never been kissed before, Peter leaves her breathless and running in circles - and scared. Peter is so 'wrong' for her socialite life, but so right for her heart. Leslie has to learn to let go and dancing on the wild side.

It is fast-paced, funny and an absolute laugh out loud riot. Only thing I find fault with is I wished she spent more time between the two main characters instead of Leslie talking about him to everyone else. Peter is just so adorable; you really want to see more of him. So if you need a pick me up, an antidote to the long work week... curl up, relax and enjoy a dose of this special tonic!

Reviewed by DeborahAnne MacGillivray
Posted March 28, 2003

Summary

Leslie expects a great deal of publicity for Dr. Peter Havistock—heck, the hunk has survived a plane crash, spent nearly fourteen years living with a Stone-Age tribe in the wilds of Papua New Guinea, and returned to write a best- selling book about it. But his tour of colleges is too wild. Frankly, Leslie has never seen a doctor of anthropology act the way Havistock does. And while his ceremonial g-string is...authentic...she doesn't see the need for him to go flaunting his perfect body across the nation. And then he announces on Harry King Live that he is a virgin! And that he is looking for a wife! And that he'd like to marry her! Well, she decides, there is a first time for everything....