"Interesting tale"
Whatever the name, Justine Dare or Justine Davis always
gives a fresh, sparkling story. Why this one is
strange sort of a let down for me, I'm not sure. The
romance is flat, the story so-so, often too complicated to
be "real". It's a decent read, but just far below her usual
razzle-dazzle. Before the book takes up, Jessica Chambers has taken in
a drifter with no memory. She called him Joe, lets him
work on her ranch in Colorado, they fall in love and
conceive a baby though Joe does not know this. He
discovers his identity by seeing his
picture on
television. He is a Prince of a small country. No longer
Joe, he is Prince Lucas Sebastani. And the Prince is no
prince. He just walks off leaving Jessica without a
farewell or a "see you later, Alligator". Since he walked off without a care about Jessica, he has no
idea she is carrying his child. I'm sorry but this sets the
reader against him with this sour note to this character.
This "love them and leave them" does not win points or
hearts. Lucas justifies this in his mind, that he left her
to keep the press from descending upon her. Sorry but he
cannot call later or even write her a letter? Had he bothered to call, he might have saved Jessica from a
terrible ordeal. Jessica's "evil" (that is how JD describes
her more than once) sister planned to let Jessica have the
baby, kill Jessica and kidnap the baby, either to blackmail
the royal family or sell the baby to them. Jessica is held
in a basement for months by a nut named Gerald. She has the
baby and then is told it died. Later Lucas is told Jessica is dead and the baby died. He
is very sad about this. Gee, what happens when you turn
your back on your responsibilities! Months later the baby
is found and proven to be his. As the book takes up, now three months later, Jessica is
found alive, worse for the wear, and Lucas is flying in to
bring her the baby she has never seen and believed dead. He
must convince her to come and be his princess. Jessica must
put aside the mythical love of Joe and work to face this
man who is the father of her son and all the repercussions
of loving a man who puts his country first. Justine's writing is technically skilled as ever. You
cannot fault her prose. Just the premise does not work,
neither does the character Lucas. I am a very big fan of
all her works. It's just this book that just does not grab
the readers and really keeps them spellbound, with the
convoluted premise and gaps in logic. So chalk this one up as the exception to the JD rule of
high quality writing and interesting, believable
characters.
Reviewed by DeborahAnne MacGillivray
Posted September 29, 2004
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