Header PromotionSmokescreen by Anne Mather (HP 509)
Olivia Gantry's husband has just died – she's 22 and he was some 40 odd years older than her – now his sole heir she is looking forward to dismantling his corporate empire and giving the proceeds to charity, but Henry put some restrictions on the inheritance to ensure his legacy survives intact and if she remarries the estate will pass to any children of his disinherited son Alex. No one has heard from Alex in 15 years although they know he is somewhere in Africa, but apparently the lawyer knew how to contact him because he shows up shortly after the funeral making insinuations about Olivia's motives in marrying the older man and manipulating his way into the home, to say nothing of the sensual menace he presents. If Liv can't destroy the empire the next best thing might be to make the estranged son Chairman! But is Alex who he claims? And how do Lilian Eve who calls Alex “Leon” and her son Sacha fit into the picture?
This book has a lot of my favorite elements – I'm a sucker for these set ups that push the boundaries of proper relations and Alex is of course laboring under the impression that Olivia is an evil gold digger --- but the book doesn't really work for me, as much as I want it to. There is way too little time spent developing Olivia and Leon's relationship, even just in terms of time spent in each other's presence or thinking about each other – the book is much more focused on answering the question of what shall be done with Henry's estate. As such it was just not all that satisfying, but I liked the characters very much – would've been interesting to see a re-write!
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