True Enchanter by Susan Napier (HP 1051)

Reviewed by Janet85 on August 15th, 2008, 12:02am

by Susan Napier

Format: Print Books

Series: Harlequin Presents

Back Cover:

Their love was staged in the public glare

Joanna was unimpressed by the tinsel of movie making and star director Richard Marlow. In fact, she remained unmoved when thrown into his company as tutor-chaperon to her starlet niece, Becky, who was infatuated by Marlow.

This made it hard for Joanna, who saw Marlow—a man other women flung themselves at—as an overgrown egotist, yet one with commanding charm and talent.

As a teacher of delinquent teenagers, Joanna could hold her own in dramatizing outrageous acts, and she was intent on beating Richard Marlow at his own game. But the challenge required her to distinguish acting from sincerity...

Spoiler Warning: All my reviews contain spoilers to some degree  

Favourite Scene: (the heroine is an appalling athlete, and she is cute about it) 

'You're a very graceful loser.'
'I get lots of practise,' said Joanna feelingly    

Another Fav Scene: (he's all set to tease her about her lovers, and gets a nasty shock when she says she's a virgin) 

' ... Do you put all your lovers to the rack like this? I ache all over just thinking about how it would be for us .. .' 'I don't have lovers,' Joanna snapped, shattered by the dreamily sensual curve of his mouth, the sea-green depths of his eyes as they loved her as his body would like to do. 'What, none?' An interrogative eyebrow teased her. 'Never!' 
He choked on his glass of iced water and looked at her in a way that made her want to laugh, or cry, or hit him---or do all three at once. Was he looking for defects?
'Are you serious?' he asked hoarsely. 
 

Yet Another Fav Scene: (way to shout this in public!) 

'Yes, I'm a virgin ... no thanks to you,' she said with frigid clarity.
He coughed again and looked down at his plate. 'Er ... Joanna, I think the waiter wants to .. .' Joanna's head whipped around to see the scarcely concealed grin of the waiter standing beside their table with two steaming plates in his hands. She also saw the frankly assessing stare of the businessman at the next table and the smirk of his companion.   

My Review:

I'm going to start off this review by saying this: someone needs to send Susan Napier a gold medal and chocolates galore.  I have a bit of a crush on her writing style.  I haven't read a book yet by her that I've been turned off of.  And her style just makes me laugh out loud and choke half to death.  I can't even come close to picking out all my fav scenes, there's dozens of them.    

So the premise of the story is that Joanna is a teacher and goes on set to supervise the education of her niece (who is a minor and a young actress).  Joanna strikes sparks with the hero, Richard, the director.  Richard pursues her, and Joanna runs from him, it hits comical extremes as he chases her.  I'm laughing my butt off at the opening chapter: the hero is a film star director and he's called in to meet the heroine at the school she works at.  She's playing field hockey when she's called to go see him, and she hilariously get nailed by the ball when his name is mentioned. 

Then she rushes over to him because she's running late and he's about to leave, and at the sight of her, he starts walking away FASTER because he's mistaking her for a rabid female fan.  *chokes*  He signs an autograph for her and gives her a quick hard kiss so she can have something else to brag about to her friends.  The hero then gripes about the interfering maiden aunt on the way to the airport he's rushing to, and gives his assistant the job of seducing the aunt to keep her from interfering in production.  (he's going to regret that once he realizes he wants the aunt) 

The H/h met at a party before, and the hero got flashed by an aspiring actress with impressive breasts, and when he saw the heroine watching, he checked out her chest and gave a mocking laugh/wink.  When they meet again on set, the heroine torments and teases him with little jibes and jokes about how they met before, playing with the fact that he can't remember meeting her. 

It's such a fun courtship, all the characters have a riot together.  One good-girl actress in the story brags proudly about having the heart of a pure tramp.  One bad boy separated-from-his-wife actor makes a joking play for the heroine, then starts a drinking competition with her where she shamelessly cheats and feeds the plant her whisky shots.  The hero accuses her of flirting with him, but she calmly corrects his mistake and slaps his ego, informing him that her contacts are bothering her.  The hero has a limp and uses a cane, and the heroine is caught beating the "cripple" by a shocked disapproving old lady.  The hero tries to win her over by cornering her in public with all of her students so she can't run out on him.     

My Rating: 4.5/5 stars, keeper!  It's an old HP sure, but I was rolling in the laughs.  It's shockingly funny.