The backdrop: He's planning a bedding - but not a wedding...
Allesandro di Vincenzo is a connoisseur of women. A perfece male specimen, there's no woman he can't have - until Laura Stowe crosses his path, and he discovers there may be an exception to his rule...
There's no other word for Laura than...plain! What's more, she's poor as a church mouse, and hides behind her homely appearance to avoid getting close to any other human being - including Allesandro...
But her family connections mean that Laura unknowingly holds the key to the door of ultimate corporate power that Allesandro craves. So he must grit his teeth and charm this ugly duckling out of her shell and in between his sheets - where, like all his fleeting conquests before her, Laura will learn what it is to be a beautiful, desired swan...
Rating: * (Poor)
Detailed Review: Mirror, Mirror On the Wall? Who's the Shallowest of them all?
From the beginning to the end, the book is all about looks, looks, and looks. The hero is a perfect male specimen - a devastatingly handsome Italian who loves powerplay and women. The heroine is the unacknowledged daughter of an Italian philanderer who is hideously plain - in fact, in the words of the hero "ugly."
So what's the big deal? The big deal is that the book just keeps beating around the same bush in 186 pages. To wrap the story up - The hero is set to a task by the ageing chairman of his company to bring his late philanderer son's daughter to Italy.
The hero flies to Devon where he encounters a totally plain, homely girl with a bad temperament. The girl, of course, is not amused by the sudden overtures from the family, who till now, had ignored her existence.
But inside, she's stupefied by the Italian visitor's perfect male beauty.
The hero bribes her to come to Italy and she does.
The grandfather, thrilled by his long-lost granddaughter, bribes the hero to take her to Rome and show her around. The hero, irritated by this blackmail and openly embarassed to be seen with this ugly creature, takes her to a spa first so that some grooming might benefit her appearance.
Only, the miracle of miracles has happened, and the ugly duckling has turned into a swan.
Now, the hero couldn't take his eyes off her or his hands. And within 24 hours, he takes the now beautiful virgin to bed and introduces her to rapturous delights of sex. The girl is also amazed by her now "good looks" and is openly thrilled to be the part of the "beautiful, in crowd" and coveted by the "most handsome man."
So what goes wrong in this beautiful paradise? Well, nothing much to be honest. When there was never any character building in the first place, it seems a bit awkward that the girl would take in her mind to be upset about a deal made between her grandfather and her lover that in exchange of chairmanship, her lover would marry her. And she doubts it's all for money. What tripe!
However, a rule in Mills & Boon is that there has to be a conflict in the second to last chapter of a book. And the last chapter is always devoted to the making up scene between the couple. But the problem with the M&B is that they are brief. So unless there is a quick character building, it gets very boring and predictable (the usual staple diet) otherwise. I've read some very good M&B with some plain heroines (Lynne Graham is a very good example of an authoress who handles such stories well). But Julia James just keeps on harping and harping about the same issue. Pages and pages of this book are devoted to the utter miracle of turning an ugly duckling into a swan
A perverse thought about the entire shallow escapade. What about 20 years down the line? In my experience, good-looking men remain good-looking even at the ripe age of 60. And when they've endless money and power, there's no shortage of young, beautiful desirable women in their lives. So if the hero of a book is concerned about a woman only after she's shown her swan feathers, it makes me concerned about the longevity of the relationship.
Well enough said! I would say just ignore this book, or get it in a second--hand thrift shop or a library.
- The plot: Nice concept but poor treatment.
- The male lead: Shallow
- The female lead: Boring and spineless
- The supporting characters: Useless
- The hotness quotient: The act is there, but without sensuality. The soul is missing from the sex.
The best scene of the book: Toward the end of the book, I really started getting worried about finding a scene good enough to write in this section. Well, there was just one where I started to respect the heroine a little as she did not mistake her 6-7 days of affair into an everlasting commitment and was cool about it coming to an end. Sorry, to make it brief, but I didn't want to write about the endless monologue of the heroine talking again about her transformation.
'I'm sorry,' he told Laura, 'but I have to get back to Rome.'
As she got up and set about getting dressed, started to pack, she didn't make a fuss. She just got on with it. Accepting it. Not asking questions, either of him or herself.
They set off after breakfast, and all that Laura allowed herself was a single moment of simply drinking him in, outlined against the azure sea far below, as they sat eating breakfast on the sunlit terrace for the last time.
Remember this, was all she allowed herself to think.
And one other thing.
Just before they quit their room she suddenly put her hand on Allesandro's arm. He turned his head to look down at her.
'Allesandro, I just want to say thank you,' she said. 'For everything.'
Her eyes were wide and calm. Their message clear.
Then lightly, very lightly, she lifted her face to his and brushed his mouth, like a butterfly's wing.
Then she walked out and set off down the corridor to the lift.
They talked very little on the journey back to Rome. Laura knew why. There was nothing to say, that was all. She didn't feel emotional - she would not let herself. There was no point, and no reason to, either.
There was reason only to be glad, to be grateful. Glad beyond any measure she could think of that something so incredibly wonderful had happened to her---and grateful beyond measure to the man who had given her this wonderful, wonderful time, this fantastic gift.
The gift of beauty. The gift of womanhood. The gift of desire.
Three precious, precious gifts.
He had given them to her, bestowed them upon her, and they would, she knew, stay with her for ever. She had been allowed into the world that had never let her in before. Oh, it might take a lot of styling, a lot of beautifully designed clothes, a lot of personal grooming that she was not used to, but it could be done---and even without the luxury lifestyle that made it so easy she knew she would never allow herself to relapse into what she had been. A woman in angry exclusion from her womanhood.
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