#TBRChallenge 2025: The Bikini Car Wash

 The Book: The Bikini Car Wash by Pamela Morsi

The Particulars: Contemporary romance, 2010, Mira, Out of print, self-published reprint 2020, very loosely connected series, The Business Between Us.

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: I discovered Morsi through her Americana historical romances and like a lot of historical romance authors, she eventually moved over into contemporary settings. This was one I didn't have in my print TBR, but several years ago I think the digital edition was discounted, which is how it ended up on my Kindle. 

The Review: Pamela Morsi passed away in December 2024 and y'all we lost a frickin' queen. She had a way of writing "cozy" without ignoring harsh realities in her romances, and this book illustrates that perfectly. It's a small town romance that feels cozy and connected, but the author acknowledges the elephant in the room, which is small town living is not all idealized roses and bonbons. 

Andrea "Andi" Wolkowicz had a well-paying corporate job she loved in Chicago but she quits and promptly moves back to her small hometown of Plainview after her mother unexpectedly passes away. Her parents were a great love match, her father is now retired living on a small pile of savings, and is the sole caregiver to her developmentally disabled twin sister, Angela AKA "Jelly." Unfortunately the economy has taken a downturn, and jobs are hard to come by in the area - a lot of folks are out of work, including Andi. After losing out on a part-time job that she was grossly over-qualified for at the local grocery store, Andi is at a low ebb - until she learns that the her father still owns the building where he ran his car wash business for many years.  After her original idea for a drive-thru coffee shop runs afoul of local zoning ordinances, and a villain on the town council, she decides to reopen it as a car wash. The problem is she doesn't have the money to modernize, so she needs a gimmick. Something to get people to show up and pay a little more. That's when she hits upon the idea to hire women and The Bikini Car Wash is born.

Needless to say, women wearing bikinis and washing cars is not met with enthusiasm by all the good townsfolk, but Andi does have one ally on her side - Pete Guthrie. Pete runs the town grocery store, a family business he took over from his father, who he has a strained relationship with. His father never thought anything Pete did was good enough, and that has carried over now that Pete is running a business he's trying to save. The economy being the way it is, his prices being undercut by corporate competitors, anything that will get more traffic into downtown Plainview is a good thing in his opinion. Also, Andi's ability to fill out a tiny red bikini has not gone unnoticed by him.

The dance around Andi and Pete gets off to a rocky start because they went to high school together. Pete was Mr. Popular and kind of a jerk. Andi being a nerd and her sister's disability led to few friends and a fair amount of teasing (bullying feels like too strong a word here - but teenage boys have a gift for being jerks, and that's what Pete was back in the day). Adding to the complication is that Andi had a crush on Pete, and time has only made him more attractive. Also, he's grown-up. Seriously y'all, Pete is a genuinely nice guy but escapes Gary Stu territory because he has some edges to him.

Oh, and did I mention it's Pete's father who does everything in his power to thwart Andi's plans and leads the charge to shut down the Bikini Car Wash? This guy is a very realistic villain, one who suffers from Big Fish, Little Pond Syndrome, who thinks he's Big Man on Campus, and rules over the town with a manipulative iron fist. And just to make him more odious? He's a notorious womanizer who hasn't been faithful to his wife a day of their marriage - an open secret everyone in the town is aware of, which probably explains why Pete's mom has spent retirement avoiding her husband by traveling the globe.

Original cover

This a curious mix of women's fiction and contemporary romance. The Andi/Pete romance is a main plot thread, but there's a lot of "small town shenanigans" bookending it with a wealth of secondary characters who get page time. I wasn't entirely enamored with the storyline involving Andi's widower father's romance but the two women who work with Andi at the car wash are great, as is the "executive secretary" that Pete's Dad has been using and stringing along since their college days. And Jelly? I'm happy to report that her disability is treated respectfully and she's not shoved into a "mystical oracle" box to serve the story, teaching the non-disabled characters "life lessons" along the way. Jelly has a way of cutting to the heart of a matter when her sister or another character overly complicates the issue, but she's mainly there to round out the story. Also, I'll admit, I loved her obsession with Law & Order. The original, none of that SVU crap. She religiously watches the show and speaks in L&O lingo at times, which this fan found humorous. Also, she's not wrong. Mike Logan is a hothead and I didn't like ADA Serena Southerlyn as much either.

Honestly, it's one of the better small town romances I've read in a while. It doesn't ignore the realities of small town life (struggling economies, less opportunity, busybodies all up in your damn business...) but still retains that cozy charm that Morsi was so well known for. Also, and this cannot be overstated, I inhaled this single title in two greedy gulps. Never, ever discount good world-building. 

Final Grade = B