Floundering in an unhappy marriage, a Minnesota housewife creates the perfect fantasy and then plans the way to make it come true. Calling herself Julia Reeves, she checks into an adults-only spa, Hidden Springs in California, and awaits the arrival of the man she's hired for the weekend.

Javier is spending a lot of time wondering how he drifted into life as a male escort. Chance had brought him his first job -- and the kind of good looks that left women audibly sucking in their breaths. But he hadn't intended to make it a career. Now, speeding toward Hidden Springs for a rendezvous with some housewife from Minnesota, he's wondering if he should even go. But she's already paid and he's building a nest egg to return to college.

The first sight of Julia, who's called him William for her fantasy, shakes Javier out of the hardened and blasé attitude he's donned to survive his world. She's natural and funny and naive in a completely appealing way.

Julia finds that she has to constantly remind herself that William is just very good at playing the game. It feels so real and for the first time since she had small children, she's in touch with a part of herself that was buried in the depths of a shallow marriage.

But it can't be real. None of it is. The beauty of Hidden Springs is simply a moment away from real life. William is too beautiful, too young, too smooth, too everything, to be real. And Julia must deal with the repercussions of her marriage and take on the challenge of a future that she creates for herself.

But when it's time to leave the fantasy, no one wants to. Can Julia go home, can William/Javier go on to his next 'date'?

I wasn't sure what to expect of a romance with a married woman as the heroine. (At least, when the husband isn't the hero.) But Kathryn Jordan's debut novel takes a potentially sordid situation and makes it real. Maybe not the right thing to do -- that's hard to argue with. It would be better if life was neat and clean and Julia left her husband BEFORE the trip to Hidden Springs. But she doesn't, and it's easy to understand why Julia has used this fantasy trip to bridge the two parts of her life -- the past and the future. Of course, I'd be thinking about booking my own little trip if I could get a weekend with William/Javier/or...hmmm, what would I call him?

While there were numerous sex scenes and the chemistry between the two was hot, what you'll find in HOT WATER is romance. It's like dreaming about someone to come up behind you and kiss your neck, rather than grab you and make mad, passionate love. What most women want is intimacy and it's right here in this book, between William and Julia. A very good read.