GUEST REVIEW: Bad for Each Other by Kate Hathaway
By Guest Reviewer • Nov 26th, 2007 • Category: A Review Category, Reviews • •Dear Jane,
You (or maybe Jayne or Janine) asked awhile back for category recommendations. Et voila, I have one for you.
Sometimes you fall in love with a book that you ought to despise. Big Mis, Big Secret, Secret Baby, Marriage of Convenience. Normally, I can deal with one or two of these romance staples in a novel. But all four? I should gag on any book that includes them all. But Kate Hathaway made all of them work in Bad For Each Other.
Charlie “Kick” Cochrane is enjoying life as a country music star when Molly, his ex-girlfriend, knocks on his door She needs his bone marrow - her son Tobie has cancer and as his father - surprise!-Kick may be a match. Since Kick and Molly haven’t seen each other in eight years, when she threw him out for cheating with a groupie, Kick is skeptical at first, but quickly sees that Molly’s telling the truth: Tobie’s his son. Being a stand up, family-oriented guy, the Marriage of Convenience rolls into play.
Molly and Charlie weren’t just lovers eight years ago, they’d been friends since childhood, and knew each other’s weak spots, families and dreams. So they’ve got a lot of things to work through. The biggest issues revolve around trust: cheating and the opportunity to do so while out on the road; the Big Secret, and how Molly could keep a child from Charlie when she knew how much he loved his family; and sex - beyond Molly’s lack of trust and expectation of cheating, it was never that great between them…which led back to the first issue again, trust/cheating.
Frankly, there’s so much stuff that I’m always a little surprised when I do a reread - how does Hathaway work through it all in the tight constraints of a category romance? But she does, somehow.
I especially like how Hathaway alternate’s POV. The reader gets to see inside Charlie’s head and Molly’s through the alternation. Hathaway also uses flashbacks to illustrate how some of the dynamics between Molly and Charlie came to be.
Often I have a hard time with reunited lovers. I wonder what has changed? But here, Hathaway has Molly and Charlie actually <gasp> talk about what went wrong between them before, and they work on fixing it.
Bad For Each Other is a gem of a category romance, and I wish that Hathaway had written more.
~ JMC (one of my favorite bloggers)
ISBN-10 : 0373077912
ISBN-13 : 9780373077915
Publisher : Silhouette
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I loved that book! Kate H was a member of RWA and in the Maryland chapter–but I haven’t been there for years. Don’t believe she finished the last book she was working on. What a shame!
I looked up this book on Amazon. It’s available used. The only review was 2 stars and the reviewer stated it was another weak heroine. Whom do we believe? The Dear Author reviewer or the Amazon reviewer?
Also, Amazon has the author’s name listed as Katie, not Kate!
Bev - this review was sent in by a guest reviewer as part of our Favorite Things series. I cannot find who sent me the review. I hope someone pops up and lays claim to it.
I think the cover says “Kate Hathaway.”
Bev, I haven’t read the book but I know that it also got an A grade from Ellen Micheletti at AAR.
I’m the guest reviewer.
As I read the guest review, I see a bunch of typos that I meant to fix before I hit Send. Sorry about that, Jane.
As to the weak heroine: she wasn’t a strong or fully-fleshed a character as the hero, certainly. But I think a lot of that has to do with POV — the hero was the narrator for much more of the book than the heroine, and most of the action and conflict was filtered through him.
I know I was one of the readers who was hoping for more category recommendations, so I’m glad JMC sent this one in. If only someone would convert all the old category books to ebook format, I’d be even happier.
Robin, give them time. They will. Several of my older books have been converted when they were reprinted.
Hero/heroine who don’t make sweet music together is an interesting twist. You know, it’s usually all throbbing ecstasy. I haven’t read any troubled h/h sex since some of Catherine Coulter’s old stuff. Kinda retro.
I bought the book from Amazon Marketplace (Used Books) and it was wonderful! I can’t believe this author hasn’t written more as she is quite good. Everything worked because it was enhanced by particularily good writing. Probably no one will read this because it is an old post but if they do, buy the book!
yeah. I know this