REVIEW: The Millionaire’s Prospective Wife by Helen Brooks
Dear Ms. Brooks:
I bought this book at the WH Smith 50% off sale thinking that I hadn’t bought this before, but alas, I had. Fortunately I only paid $1.57 (1.07 £ ). When I wrote up this poll the other day, I thought of your books or at least the ones that had this storyline: man falls for woman who is emotionally battered from a past relationship. He pursues her relentlessly and refuses to give up even when the woman rejects and rebuffs him and essentially throws his love back in his face. The Millionaire’s Prospective Wife has that storyline wherein the hero who really loves a heroine and goes balls out to get her, no matter the roadblocks.
Cory James, a social worker, is out walking her aunt’s dog. Against her aunt’s advise, Cory allows Rufus off the lead and he runs amok in the park ending his romp by knocking over Nick Morgan. Much to Cory’s chagrin, Nick is “tall, lean and muscled with an aggressive masculinity that was rawly sexy-‘or that the jet-black hair topped a face that was out-and-out dynamite.” Rufus destroys Nick’s phone and slobbers all over his clothes. Cory insists on paying for the damage and Nick tells her that the only renumeration he’ll accept is Cory’s appearance as a date to a dinner he is hosting this evening. He needs a date and his model friend bailed on him in favor of an assignment.
Silly setup taken care of, Cory and Nick begin their prickly courtship. Cory’s past includes a very difficult past relationship with another man which affirmed her belief that something was lacking in her, a belief that was fostered by the cavalier treatment she received by her parents. Nick is superficially like Cory’s previous fiance, rich, smooth, magnetic; and she tells herself that falling for Nick is a direct path to heartache. Although we don’t get Nick’s point of view, we get alot of dialogue from him which tells the reader that he not only cares for Cory but that he loves her. Eventually, though, even Nick gets frustrated by Cory’s inability to move on from her past.
There are things that will offend the progressive reader. Heck the whole casting of “career” women in the negative offends me. The hero is vaguely paternalistic with a “father knows best attitude” at times. However, the storyline is one that I find immensely appealing. Maybe these stories are my guilty pleasure. It’s hard to grade these books but I’ve read it twice now and wasn’t much concerned that I paid twice for it as well. So it’s a B with caveats.
Best regards
Jane
This book can be purchased in mass market from Amazon and ebook format from Sony and other etailers.
I always feel a bit hesitant about romance novels where either the hero or heroine is in a persistent pursuit of the other, because the pursuit can so easily tip over to datestalking if the author isn’t careful. But then again, where does the line between pursuit and datestalking go?
I think I read this book a while ago as well, when I was reading a lot of Helen Brooks (all because of you, Jane!). I also remember thinking the heroine was taking way too long to come around, but the hero was appealing and Brooks frequently delivers a very satisfactory read, even with the retrograde gender stuff. I think it was about a B- for me.
If you like hero in pursuit stories, one of my favorites is by Liz Fielding, Reunited: Marriage in a Million. It features a lust Marriage of Convenience (also a favorite trope) in which the heroine leaves the husband to stand on her own two feet and find her younger sister, and the hero tries to figure out a way to win her back. Fielding is for me what Brooks is for you, someone whose writing style and storylines I like very much, and even when the book is just a meh read I don’t wish I had the two hours back.
@Sunita: Oh Sunita, this book better be in eform or I will be cursing you.
You are safe from the heat of a thousand suns because it is in eform!!
Jane, would I do that to you? If it’s not in eform, I’m not reading it. Except for Meredith Duran. And Meljean’s first Demon book. And Anne Stuart’s first Ice book. Curses on publishers who don’t go back and ebookify the earlier books in a series!
@Sunita I read it last night and loved it. Will have to go on a glom.
@Jane
Oh, that’s excellent! If you liked the hero’s sister, Miranda, Fielding just gave her her own book, Wedded in a Whirlwind. I didn’t like it as much, but it’s very readable. I like prickly heroines, although the Big Secret doesn’t do much for me. But it’s not too annoying, and the setting is fun. I also recommend The Secret Life of Lady Gabriella, which has a heroine who is a young widow. She’s a cleaner who winds up in the house of the hero, a hottie academic. Usually the academic characters and settings don’t ring true for me, but the archaeologist in Wedded and the philologist in Secret Life are pretty good.
ETA: One of the things I like about Fielding is that she takes traumatic life events and weaves them into the characters’ behaviors and contexts, but they don’t overwhelm the story. Which is important in a short book.
I have to admit that these are my guilty pleasures as well. My bf and my best friend are the only ones I admit this to.