4 unrelated stories...
Just Curious by Jude Deveraux
Karen Lawrence hasn't totally moved on from her husband's death 2 years ago that also cost her the family business. Now she works for McAllister Taggert as a typist, arranging it so that all important papers cross across her desk so she can give herself the background she needs to open her own business. She's also decided that she needs a baby and is making plans to pick a sperm donor. But then her boss, he of the many selfish prenup agreements, finds her in his office and proposes that she pretend to be his latest fiancée (who rejected the prenup that morning) for a friend's wedding over the weekend. She's had a bit to drink and agrees – if he gives her a baby (no sex of course), so off they go!
While I could enjoy this book, I felt that it was really confused about what it wanted to be. It felt to me like an older Harlequin Romance (you know the kind that read like Dorris Day movies) and I felt it would've worked better had it been written as a semi-historical, postdated in the 1960's or something. I mean sure there were modern elements – the sperm donor thing, the idea Karen has to have a shop where children would wear RFID bracelets in a childcare center while mom tries on clothes, etc., but overall I had trouble believing that this woman was 30 in 1995. That's the bottom line and because of it little thngs kept pulling me out of the story every other page.
Miracles by Judith McNaught
Julianna Skeffington is being forced to have a London Season by her mother. Julianna wanted to use her small inheritance as her grandmother urged, to try to become a writer, but her mother would have nothing to do with it. On the night of a masquerade ball, Julianna flees to hide in the hedge maze as she's so uncomfortable with the unwilling beaus her mother keeps accosting. There she drinks some brandy that she somehow got handed and starts to realize that if no better man proposes, she will be stuck the elderly local guy who did – so she needs to get ruined. While speaking to God about this, the eligible Nicholas DuVille comes along – and Julianna asks him to ruin her, thinking he's God...Nick thinks Julianna must be a courtesan who had a tiff with her lover and is now playing a game, so he takes her to his bedchamber...where her mother finds her. And then there is the wedding, but will Nicki ever believe that Julianna didn't mean to trap him?
The first part of this was great – until they got to the whole Julianna thinks Nick is God part and everything that came after it. Sorry, just not not something that washes with me. I mean yeah she's 18 but seriously? Also, I wasn't a big fan of the flashbacks so overall this just wasn't the story for me.
Change of Heart by Jude Deveraux
Miranda Stowe's son Eli is a 12 year old genius working on artificial intelligence and being courted by Princeton, but he's not willing to consider going or even telling his mom about the opportunity because he knows that she's way too naïve and trusting to be left on her own. So he and his friend Chelsea hatch a plan to fix her up with this guy Frank Taggert who Eli met when stealing letterhead from Frank's business on a class field trip 2 years ago. (Eli and Chelsea use the letterhead to write letters to do things like convince deadbeat dads, such as Eli's own, to pay back child support, etc.) So, they get Randy hired as a nurse for Frank who has conveniently just broken his arm... Only once Randy gets to Frank's cabin he takes one look her and thinks she's a gold digger trying to get him to marry her or something.
Seriously this book has to have the most implausible plot ever. A good third of the plot focused on Eli as he puts the plot into motion, and it's a short story so of course Frank and Randy have to fall in love instantaneously for no good reason. And that's not even mentioning the fact that Randy is soo naïve and helpless that her 12yo son is protecting her (from things like loaning her ex $200 when he owes her 7 months of back child support and has just bought a super nice car, etc.). Not for me.
Double Exposure by Judith McNaught
Growing up, Corey Foster had a huge crush on Spencer Addison, starting the first time she met him at age 14 (a year after her mom married her new sister's dad). She took advantage of her new camera as an excuse to follow him around photographing his every move and making a shrine to him in her bedroom. Then she tries to seduce him into kissing her, (he's 23 to her 17) etc. She and her sister even hatch a plan to trick him into taking her to her senior prom by pretending that her date backed out at the last minute, which worked – except that Spence then stood Corey up, breaking her heart forever, so that they literally never speak again... Until now when Corey's family's magazine has an opportunity to feature Spence's half-niece's society wedding which will take place at Spence's house in Newport.
This is another story that spent waaay too much time in the story set up (this time through flashback). My biggest problem (apart from the ridiculous misunderstanding towards the end) is with extensive teenage flashback: I hate it when I am more embarrassed for the heroine than she is, and Corey's behavior in trying to snare Spence is very cringe-worthy to me.
