May 7 2009
Thursday Haiku Moment: True Love and Other Disasters by Rachel Gibson
You are new to me
And I love a good contemp
(And hockey heroes)
Sadly, this was not
The read I was looking for.
Almost, but not quite.
Faith is ex-Playboy
Bunny and stripper who wed
A millionaire
Sound familiar?
Yep. It’s a romance spin of
Anna Nicole Smith.
But Faith is ‘special’.
Because she loved the geezer
Not just his money.
The geezer bumps off
And leaves Faith his hockey team.
(Sounds like SEP)
Team Captain Hero
You saw this coming a mile
away, didn’t you?
They bicker, smolder
And eventually land
in bed together
Predictable plot.
I’ll spare you all the rehash.
Carebear ending too.
My main problem? Faith.
Kept waiting for her to grow
A spine. Still waiting.
The story conflict?
‘Evil’ son of tycoon who
Bullies heroine.
Faith is also very
Nonchalant about stripping
But in a weird way.
Players would treat her
Like a ho, but she was fine
With it…why? Oh wait.
Her thought? She DESERVES
The lewd comments. She took off
her clothes for money.
She is fine with her
Sexuality…but dresses
Like a dowdy nun.
Her fogey husband
Wanted a lady, you see!
Not a stripper ho.
So to recap Faith:
No spine. Gold digger. Moral
Stripper. Nun Wardrobe.
Don’t get me started
On Layla, Faith’s ‘bad’ stripper
alter-ego. Ugh.
Your writing style? Cute.
Could have been a great story.
But I am unmoved.
C
This book can be purchased in mass market from an independent bookstore or ebook format from the Sony Store and other etailers.
Send to Kindle
May 07, 2009 @ 22:32:51
Her last book left me cold. I didn’t even finish it and I’m a big fan.
On another note, I love professional athlete heroes. Why on earth are there not more of them??
May 07, 2009 @ 22:45:33
That’s so funny, my first thought was that athlete heroes are one of my least favorite types (up there with movie star heroes). I think there are just too many well-publicized anti-heroic athlete/stars for me to believe in HEA. I also have a hard time getting emotionally invested in playoffs/championships. No matter how much the hero/heroine cares, all I can think is “It’s just a game!”
One exception for me is the “injured athlete” who has to give up playing. I like watching this type of hero redefine himself.
May 08, 2009 @ 06:27:50
This really does sound like a cross between SEP and Gibson’s own past books. And not in a good way.
May 08, 2009 @ 07:45:14
I never understood why these two fell in love. They didn’t date, spoke to each other mostly in the bedroom and the timeline was short. I’m not sure they’d last past the off season. I also didn’t get Faith’s reasoning about her past. She seemed more like a “Girls Next Door” type, and I have conflicted feelings about those three women.
I would grade this a little higher because it got me through a layover and long flight, but I don’t think I would recommend to anyone.
May 08, 2009 @ 07:48:48
Uh oh. I picked this up at Hastings last week even though I promised myself she was off my auto-buy list because her last several books- the female authors series- were pretty meh for me, but I couldn’t resist.
I’ll still go ahead and read it and give her one last chance.
May 08, 2009 @ 08:10:04
I have never been able to get into Rachel Gibson. Something about her stories always left me ‘meh’. They aren’t wallbangers, but I also don’t want to spend $8 on them. After reading SEP’s backlist, I get the feeling that RG may be trying to imitate SEP.
May 08, 2009 @ 09:02:04
A pro athlete and a stripper turned Playboy playmate? I can’t think of anything more unappealing. :( Maybe it’s because I can’t get the real life versions of those types of couples out of my head, but an HEA is rarely in store for them.
I agree with Randi. I’ve tried Gibson in the past and she’s never done it for me. A big part of it is my dislike of pro athlete heroes, though. I’ve known some and romantic heroes they ain’t. To put it mildly.
May 08, 2009 @ 10:58:09
@Jayne: It Had To Be You is one of my least favorite SEP’s, and yet I cannot tell you how many parallels I found without trying between the books, down to the pesty little white dog!
Gibson’s hockey books are my faves, but here, there was IMO no more to the relationship between Faith and Ty (was that his name? See, already faded) than sex and a reaffirmation of too many Romance stereotypes.
May 08, 2009 @ 12:08:29
I’ve tried a few of Gibson’s books but have never finished one. I find that there’s just nothing there.
May 08, 2009 @ 12:12:30
Her See Jane Score is a keeper for me, but I haven’t had much luck with her other books. I wanted to like Lola Carlyle Reveals All, but the dog killed it for me. What is it with the dogs? Must they be so irritating?
May 08, 2009 @ 14:24:26
I agree with most of the points, but dang if I didn’t devour this book in a couple of hours….
I doubt I would have liked it so much if others in the Chinooks hockey books aren’t some of my all time favorite books, so I enjoyed revisiting it..
I actually enjoyed Faith a bit after I got used to it, because Gibson didn’t try to make her that spunky plucky misunderstood heroine that most authors would have done with this plotline…
May 08, 2009 @ 17:37:50
I’ve been off Gibson for awhile but I like your haiku a lot.
“They bicker, smolder
And eventually land
in bed together”
Very nice!
May 11, 2009 @ 14:02:14
You said it EXACTLY! Truly, Madly Yours is her best. Who cares about a rich floozie?
RITA Open Thread | Dear Author: Romance Novel Reviews, Industry News, and Commentary
Mar 26, 2010 @ 14:44:54
[...] actually read 5 of the 8 nominations. Woo woo. Â Our Haiku-ist wrote a review of Talk Me Down and True Love and Other Disasters. The most that I can recall about the Gibson book was how closely it paralleled Susan Elizabeth [...]