Customer Reviews

Miss Fortune (Lear Family Trilogy, Book 3)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Rachel is the awkward Lear sister. Currently forced to fend for herself, she suffers from low self esteem and allows her ex-lover to come and go since she has no other romance until British heart throb Flynn bumps into her repeatedly. What she does not realize is that he is an insurance investigator, and she is his prime suspect in a series of museum robberies.

This was a really hard book to finish. The first two in the trilogy were great - the heroines were spunky and the heroes were hunky. This one was just... well, clunky. The heroine is so spineless and insipid - a perennial college student who is shocked when daddy cuts her off at 31. As for the mystery - anyone could see where the author was going within the first 50 pages.

I had the feeling that author London managed to obtain a British slang dictionary and used just about every cockney colloquialism and attributed them to Flynn in order to give the story some British validity. The biggest problem with that is that Flynn is upper class, and would never utter a cockney phrase, so the dialogue just grates on the nerves and becomes distracting. This was just a really horrible end to what was an enchanting series of novels punning a Shakespearean classic.

Disgusted with how soft a mark his youngest daughter is and her role as a "perpetual student", ailing billionaire Aaron Lear cuts off her hefty allowance that she seems to always give away to others like her sponge ex boyfriend Myron. In Providence, Rachel decides she needs to find a way to make money, lose weight as she dubs herself "Tubby", and obtain a new lover.

Her best friend, practicing witch Dagne casts a spell for Rachel to meet a lover with a James Bond looks and accent. Not long afterward Rachel meets and keeps running into Flynn Oliver. As they begin to see one another and fall in love, he wonders how she will react to him when he reveals the truth about his identity.

The third Lear daughter tale (see MATERIAL GIRL and BEAUTY QUEEN) is a fun contemporary romance that ties up the loose ends of the previous stories. Rachel is a terrific protagonist as a caring chump who is unconcerned with material things and believes she too overweight to be a beauty. Jake is an intriguing male lead as he shows up wherever Rachel is; making the weird Dagne believe her spell is causing this to happen. Fans of the series will appreciate this lighthearted romp and want to see one more sequel starring the good witch of Providence.

Harriet Klausner

In two previous titles, "Material Girl" and "Beauty Queen", we read the stories of Rebecca and Robin Lear. Now it is time for the youngest sister's story.

Rachel Lear lives in Providence, R.I. is the youngest of Aaron Lear, multi billionaire. Aaron has told all three of his daughters that he is going to cut them off unless they make their own way. Bonnie, Aaron's ex-wife, has Aaron going to marriage counseling by "Daniel the Jerk". Aaron hates it, but will do anything to win Bonnie back and smooth out the mess he has made with his daughters. Rachel is the only one left for Aaron to worry about. And she is the one he has hurt worst of all.

Rachel is too soft hearted. She teaches weaving class, but most of her students cannot afford it so she lets them attend for free. Rachel also pays for the supplies for them. Problem is, Rachel is flat broke herself! Rachel has a broken upstairs window, a tree that has fallen down on her neighbor's fence and he is taking her to court, she had loaned out money to a friend, Myron, who keeps stealing her T-Mobile phone and claims he cannot pay her back yet, and her best friend, Dagne, keeps popping over and convincing her to practice witchcraft. Rachel wishes for a true love with a British accent and sure enough, there he is in the form of Flynn Oliver. Flynn is a computer programmer, temporarily in America and he has his eyes on Rachel. But lately, a series of art crimes have swept the area and the truth surprises everyone!

***** Okay, it is easy to figure out what is going on and who the bad guy is. But that is such a minor part of this wonderful tale that I could care less about because watching Rachel and Flynn together is astounding! The secondary character named Dagne needs her own story. She is totally into white magic, but is very bad at it. She never has the needed ingredients and keeps substituting items. It seldom works the way expected either. Dagne's story would be just as fascinating as Rachel and her sisters'. Anyhow, back on track. This novel is unputdownable! I had an awful time pulling my nose out of the book long enough to deal with my own everyday life. I could not get enough. The characters are easy to love and believable, the plot is very good, the story is filled with wit, and a sub-plot or two keeps things hot. Highly recommended reading! *****

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

...out quickly within the first 100 pages. I was very intrigued with the premise of the novel--poor little rich girl has to learn to make it on her own. I thought, this one could be really fun! However, what I found instead was a story about a walking doormat, who let everyone and their family up to the 6th cousins take advantage of her. With this statement, I have in mind visions of MYRON floating through my head. At one point, Rachel has a box of macaroni and something else left in her fridge, with no money to get more food to make it through a whole week, but she blithely shrugs off Myron's raid on her pantry. Her attitude is, "Who cares if he eats all my food and clutters up my house? He's my FRIEND". This attitude safely does fall under the TSTL category, which I was relieved to see another reader point out. Furthermore, Rachel teaches a weaving class OUT OF POCKET...and we're all expected to believe she does it out of the goodness of her little heart, and for sheer love of weaving? Please! I could understand Rachel waiving the wee for a student or two, or bringing weaving materials for a student or two, but PAYING HERSELF for the class to take weaving? Come on! No one is that desperate and lonely that they need to PAY for other people to enjoy their company! And if they are, I certainly don't want to read about them!

One of the worst and most annoying things about this book was the horrid slang Julia London had Flynn speak in. I could understand a few slang comments thrown in, but his entire character spoke in dialect. (Most people, when taking beginning writing courses, are warned to use "dialect" SPARINGLY. So what does Julia London do? She writes a whole character who speaks in nothing BUT dialect. Help me rip out all the hairs on my head one by one for each "nancy boy" and "bit of all right" and "I rather suspect..." and "lucky chaps"!) Two of my best friends are British, and do they speak like that? NO! They have a few expressions we don't use in America, but they still speak ENGLISH! Instead of being charmed, I was desperately annoyed.

One more thing that bothered me was the way Rachel's dad was painted as a horrible villain who, although dying, didn't deserve to see his daughter for Thanksgiving. No matter how awful your parents are, if they're dying, you could at least agree to go spend the holidays with your family! This coming from a girl who pays for other people to take her classes, who rescues kittens from cruel owners, and who buys groceries for a vilely grouchy widower. But yet we're expected to believe she won't go see her dying father for the holidays? Whaaaat? Oh no, he tells her she needs to finish school--she's THIRTY! What does she expect? Yet of course, once she starts having a relationship with a man and falls in love, she suddenly is able to finish her long-stagnant thesis. Gag me!

Now, after all my ranting, were there any redeeming qualities to this novel? I'll admit, there was quite a lot wrong with this novel. However, I did enjoy the way Rachel's character tried to take her life into her own hands by doing things she'd never been good at before. She stopped whining about being overweight and went to the gym, she stopped saying she could never get a date and started flirting with a nice, normal seeming guy. Also, the tone of the novel was mostly light and humorous, especially throughout Rachel's first encounters with Flynn. It made the novel more appealing and comedic, which I enjoyed. However, all in all, I found Rachel's repeated put-downs of herself to be too much of a hindrance to the story, and her newfound self-confidence blossomed much too late in the story for me. Sorry guys, but I give this one a miss.

In two previous titles, "Material Girl" and "Beauty Queen", we read the stories of Rebecca and Robin Lear. Now it is time for the youngest sister's story.

Rachel Lear lives in Providence, R.I. is the youngest of Aaron Lear, multi billionaire. Aaron has told all three of his daughters that he is going to cut them off unless they make their own way. Bonnie, Aaron's ex-wife, has Aaron going to marriage counseling by "Daniel the Jerk". Aaron hates it, but will do anything to win Bonnie back and smooth out the mess he has made with his daughters. Rachel is the only one left for Aaron to worry about. And she is the one he has hurt worst of all.

Rachel is too soft hearted. She teaches weaving class, but most of her students cannot afford it so she lets them attend for free. Rachel also pays for the supplies for them. Problem is, Rachel is flat broke herself! Rachel has a broken upstairs window, a tree that has fallen down on her neighbor's fence and he is taking her to court, she had loaned out money to a friend, Myron, who keeps stealing her T-Mobile phone and claims he cannot pay her back yet, and her best friend, Dagne, keeps popping over and convincing her to practice witchcraft. Rachel wishes for a true love with a British accent and sure enough, there he is in the form of Flynn Oliver. Flynn is a computer programmer, temporarily in America and he has his eyes on Rachel. But lately, a series of art crimes have swept the area and the truth surprises everyone!

***** Okay, it is easy to figure out what is going on and who the bad guy is. But that is such a minor part of this wonderful tale that I could care less about because watching Rachel and Flynn together is astounding! The secondary character named Dagne needs her own story. She is totally into white magic, but is very bad at it. She never has the needed ingredients and keeps substituting items. It seldom works the way expected either. Dagne's story would be just as fascinating as Rachel and her sisters'. Anyhow, back on track. This novel is unputdownable! I had an awful time pulling my nose out of the book long enough to deal with my own everyday life. I could not get enough. The characters are easy to love and believable, the plot is very good, the story is filled with wit, and a sub-plot or two keeps things hot. Highly recommended reading! *****

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

I've read few published books that were a mess from beginning to end, so this book didn't lack in achieving something for me. It was also entertaining, though probably not in the way the author intended.

Rachel Lear is the sort of person I do not form relationships with simply because she's the sort of person who cannot live without some sort of chaos in her life. That chaos has a way of spilling over into friends' lives, no matter how much she may not want it to. Hell, her sisters have so little respect for her as a person that there's no interest in reading their stories. Where Rachel is a directionless mess, they seem more self-involved and nasty.

That being said, Rachel is a total disaster, tore up from the floor up. The most frustrating and annoying heroine I've encountered in my 41 years. She's a doormat, needy, and whines endlessly. Her life is filled with people who take from her and she doesn't seem to think enough of herself to demand more from them as friends. The only person Rachel stands up to is her father, which is just another example of her selfishness and lack of common sense given that the father is dying of cancer.

If Rachel makes me cringe at every turn, there is hero Flynn Oliver, who London must have cobbled together from "Everyday British Slang For Dummies." I've known and worked with British people numerous times. None of them have talked like Flynn, who is so annoying in his bits of all right, bloodies, smashings, chaps, lads, nancy boys, and other dated vernacular that I ground my teeth every time he opened his mouth.

The secondary characters weren't any better. They seemed more like stereotypes of characters. Dagne Delaney is Rachel's best friend and she's as flaky as a pie crust. When Rachel bemoans the fact that she's jobless, broke, and manless, Dagne thinks it's a good idea to cast a spell to fix all that's wrong in Rachel's life. Dagne is exactly what you expect, buying her spell book on eBay and embracing all things crunchy and granola.

Rachel also teaches a weaving class that doesn't make her money unless the participants pay for the class. It's filled with just about every stereotype you can imagine, parodies of characters. 1) a hypochondriac who regales the class with the endless nonexistent medical problems she suffers; 2) a gay senior; 3) two African-American women, both complete with neck poppin', "no he did'ents, and 5 children between them. They're shrill and engage in every stereotype you'd expect, and 4) a Goth kid who is naturally in love with Rachel.

And really, let's not forget the freeloading exboyfriend Myron. Rachel has so little backbone that when she comes home to find that he's eaten the last of her brownies, she says nothing when he tells her that she didn't put a note on them. It's her house! It's her food. He doesn't live there, although I'd argue that fact as he still has a key and comes and goes whenever he wishes, whether she's there or not. He doesn't buy her food, doesn't pay rent, doesn't share in any expenses of her house and she can't even stand up for herself over a pan of brownies.

By the book's end, Rachel has gotten all she's ever wanted, but I don't feel she worked toward any of it. No, when things got tough either she or Dagne cast a spell. I'm sure some will find that charming, but I found the entire mess annoying and laughable, something I'm fairly sure the author never intended.

After reading 'Beauty Queen' and 'Material Girl' from Julia London, I somewhat hesitantly requested 'Miss Fortune' from the local library. Truthfully, I did not expect to love the book, much less like it. I'm not a fan of reading romances where the ditsy and childish heroine needs to learn to grow up and be an adult. I thought that was what I'd be getting from 'Miss Fortune' - I was very pleasantly surprised otherwise.

From the getgo, I didn't sense the usual baby-nature and airheadedness from Rachel that usually drives me crazy. Instead, I found her a warm character who was just struggling during a part of her life. London makes Rachel's less-than-satisfying life very easy to sympathize with. A+ main character.

As for Flynn Oliver, well... let's just say that I was warm for Flynn's form. Something about him seemed decidedly realistic to me, and I turned out loving him by the middle of the book. Another A+ main character.

Now, it wasn't just the main character's that really had me loving this book. London very craftily combined the protagonists, the plot, and the antagonists (who, in my opinion, were very well written in their sleezy-ness and assholish natures) to leave a reader very satisfied by the end.

Some people, like me, may feel hesitatnt to read this book. However, some people, also like me, may be pleasantly surprised.

This conclusion to the Lear family trilogy is good, as London is a fun and fresh writer with great characterization and hip storytelling. Perhaps I didn't personally relate as well to Rachel as the other two sisters, and could not get into the witchcraft part of the story at all.

London's "brit-speak" for the character Flynn is funny and witty, and I loved the way she continued the story of Bonnie and Aaron and neatly tied in the other sisters and grandparents. If you enjoyed the first two, then you should read this, but you just may not re-read it as many times as "Material Girl" and "Beauty Queen".

Julia London delivers character-driven comedy with an emotional edge. Like her sisters, Rachel has to find her way to fulfillment with the help of an engaging cast of characters, like the charming Flynn Oliver. The chemistry between Rachel and Flynn burns right off the pages- hot, hot, hot! Romantic, intriguing, poignant, and a whole lot of fun, Miss Fortune is this season's must-read.

Miss Fortune finishes Julia London's Lear family trilogy in great style. Rachel, the youngest of the three sisters, is a good friend and sister, a long-suffering daughter, overweight, too kind, and a bit lost - and she gets the hunky guy! The book has lots of laughs, some very poignant moments and the wonderful subplot of her parents story. I'd looked forward to reading this one and was delighted to find it just as strong and wonderful as the others in the trilogy. Rachel is an endearing heroine and Flynn the stuff dreams are made of.

What a lovely way to wrap up the Lear sisters' stories!