Angie Daniels

Genesis Press

1-58314-044-X

March 2001

(4) Jeanette Cogdell

Debut Release

PLOT SYNOPSIS: 

REVIEW: 

If you love murder, mystery, mayhem and a whole cast of suspicious characters, then you will love INTIMATE INTENTIONS.  It reminded me of the game CLUE.  Who dun-nit?  It was the psycho boyfriend in the kitchen with a knife.  No wait; it was the jealous model in the lady's room with a brush.  No!  Maybe it was the PR guy with a coat hanger in the garage.  I laughed, I cringed, I got misty eyed and more.  This book was such a pleasure to read.

Sasha Moore is a retired model with aspirations of owning her own bridal design company.  Only Sasha finds that her funds are lacking due to her broker mishandling her account.  Also, she cannot obtain a bank loan because she is no longer employed.  Her agent talks her into signing one more contract with Diva Designs, “the largest black-owned and operated dress designing corporation in the region.”  Diva Designs’ top model has been murdered which opens the door for Sasha to grab the coveted position.  She agrees to the contract, but has ulterior motives that she doesn’t mention to her agent.  Sasha wants Diva Designs to showcase her line of wedding gowns.

Terraine Andrews has inherited Diva Designs from his recently deceased grandfather, whom he hadn’t spoken to in years.  Richard Andrews, Pops, started grooming Terraine to take over the company when he was very young.  He never asked Terraine what he wanted out of life.  To escape his controlling grandfather, Terraine joined the Army once he graduated from college.  His brother Jay did the same.  After his tour in the Army, Terraine then took a job with a major finance corporation.  Now 5 years later, he is CEO of Diva Designs, back where his grandfather always wanted him.  Only Terraine isn’t sure this is where he wants to be.

Diva Designs has been losing money and Terraine wants to formulate some changes in order to make the company profitable again.  Not only is he making changes within the company, but in his personal life too.  Terraine feels that there is something missing in his life.  He is tired of the love’em and leave’em scene and wants to find real love and start a family.  When he sees a picture of their new lead model, he knows that he has found what he’s been looking for.

Sasha and her roommate, Honey Love (“My friends just call me Lovely.”) decide to go out and celebrate Sasha’s new contract.  Terraine is waiting at the club to meet his brother Jay, a private investigator, who is very late.  Just as Terraine is about to leave, in walks Sasha and Honey.  He can’t believe his luck.  He spends the rest of the evening talking and dancing with Sasha, but neglects to tell her what he does for a living. (Isn’t withholding information the same as lying?)

Sasha is leery of Terraine in the beginning, because she is still recovering from the pain of her broken engagement 6 months ago.  Plus her mentally unstable ex-fiancé has been released from the mental institution and she fears what he may do.  She is also ashamed of her past experiences with men, so she has steered clear of them to avoid getting involved.  Still she feels comfortable with Terraine, so she opens up and shares her dream with him.

Terraine is smitten with Sasha and wants to spend more time getting to know her.  He still hasn’t told her that he is her boss and as time that goes by, the harder it becomes to tell her.  But come Monday morning she’ll find out, so he has to tell her soon.  Just as he is about to spill the beans, Sasha gets a call from her home security system.  Someone has broken into her home.  Sasha fears that it is Robbie, her ex, but she doesn’t mention this to the police nor to Terraine.  Her first day on the job, Sasha accidentally learns whom Terraine is.  With her trust in him broken, theirs is now a business relationship ONLY.

INTIMATE INTENTIONS has models being killed, a stalker, a crazed ex-fiancé, a lecher, a queen “B” (and I don’t mean bee), equipment being destroyed and an attempted rape.  No wonder this book has 542 pages.  There are so many characters, that at one point I reached for the pen and paper to keep track of them.  Now who was the marketing director?

I found the mystery part of the story more interesting than the romance side.  But, because they are balanced, one subject matter doesn’t overshadow the other.

The relationship between Honey and Jay garnered my attention more than the hero and heroine.  Honey is living a double life, wherein she pretends to be something she is not.  Then Jay comes along and starts to penetrate her barrier.  I do hope that Ms. Daniels is planning to write their story.

There were several misspelled or missing words and words that should have been a contraction.  This slowed the reading for me, because I found myself contracting them as I read.  Also, a Sigma (Phi Beta Sigma) was referred to as a “Q-Dawg” (Omega Psi Phi) and this is definitely a faux pas.

All in all, I did enjoy INTIMATE INTENTIONS and would highly recommend to anyone.  My favorite line is at the very end of the book.  Now don’t peek!

jeanette@romanceincolor.net (26^th March 2001)