Customer Reviews

Perfect Passion (Harlequin Presents, 501)

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THE GUY: Gabriel Winter, a famous author who has squirreled himself away in the countryside to get some writing done and work through personal problems involving his dead brother, Alex.

THE GIRL: Fay Drummond works as personal assistant to a film director and frisks off to Yorkshire to hole up with her Aunt Sophie and lick her wounds over her broken engagement to long-time friend and more-like-a-brother-than-lover fiancé Sam Dailey. She's also harboring a determination to not fall for any guy after what her dad put her mother through with affairs and general apathy towards responsibilities.

THE SETUP: At the train station, she's met by Gabriel, who has been sent by Sophie to pick her up because of the massive snowstorm. She takes an intense dislike to Gabriel while he takes an intense interest in her (but you saw that coming). Even before they reach her aunt's house, they fill the ride with heavy smoking, arguing, unwilling kisses, and more arguing through a haze of nicotine and tar. Fay hopes to see the back of Gabriel real soon ("The pig! Dayum, he looks nice and firm and hot and..." *lips glom together like horny catfish*) but crap, he's rooming in the upper part of the house and is a guest! She, like, has to be all pleasant and stuff. Which she totally fails. When the inevitable "Other Woman" Cecelia shows up with a kid in tow, Fay naturally thinks she's looking at Gabriel's lover and offspring and she gets all jealous over a guy she loathes. (I know, what a shocking break from the Harley formula.)

THE GOOD STUFF: Coming off from the bodice ripper Savage Ecstasy, I was still in alpha hero mode and so the über-jealous and possessive Gabriel wasn't as overbearing as he probably would have been had I just read something innocuous and fluffy. He's really all caveman "Mine!" right from the get-go and it's apparent that there's quite a bit of Insta-Love behind it - at least by his standard. Of course, Fay's tendency to turn into a puddle of goo whenever he grabs her roughly and slams his mouth down on hers gives the guy some encouragement to keep up the "Grok want!" schtick. Eh, I liked him though I know that isn't everyone's preferred type. There wasn't much in the way of characterization, though, that wasn't provided with back story dumps. The exception was his rescue of a fox caught in an old trap. Not all that subtle, but it provided the required "He's not all bad" moment, and the arrival of the child Danny opens up Gabriel's heart just a wee bit more. Awwww....

MY GRIPES: The clashes between Fay and Gabriel hinged on two Big Misunderstandings. Arrgh! He thinks she's still engaged to Sam (well, she told him so to keep him at a distance and then immediately regrets it after she gets a taste of his sweet savage kisses), and she thinks that Danny and Cecilia are his son and lover. (Remember Alex? Take a guess....) She won't tell him the truth about her break-up because then he'd get angry at her - but he does anyway at the drop of a hat, so I have no idea what's holding her back. I guess the voluminous clouds of cigarette smoke made it impossible to see clearly. There was more smoking than in film noir.

This book caught me in the right mood, because I don't think I'd have enjoyed it as much at another place and time with the head-butting insanity and adverb abuse that reached Carole Mortimer-esque proportions. Not to mention every other word about Gabriel being different forms of "anger" and "savage." Probably if I read this one again, I'd hate it. So I'll leave it as it is.