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SINGLE MAMA DRAMA - Kayla Perrin Harlequin/Mira January 2008 |
SYNOPSIS: Vanessa Cain had no idea that her fiancé Eli was already married. After Eli is murdered, Vanessa's cozy world becomes even more complicated, and she needs lots of money. With a business plan and a bikini, the single mama heads to the Bahamas, unaware that the drama in her life is just getting started.
CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE |3| Roslyn Carrington
REVIEW:
Vanessa Cain’s tornado of a love life has landed her into trouble. Her
fiancé Eli Johnson is skewered by an arrow while making love to another
woman. If that’s not shock enough, the former Mrs. Johnson is actually
the present Mrs. Johnson, a detail Eli neglected to mention to Vanessa.
Now the outraged widow wants back the apartment she and Eli shared, a
move which would throw Vanessa and her two year old daughter, Rayna, out
on the street.
Open the book, and you’re plunged into delicious scandal. Not only does
Vanessa have to deal with the shock of her lover’s death and the
knowledge he was cheating with her, but in the eyes of the world, she’s
the original Scarlet Woman. On top of it all, she needs to come up with
the cash to buy out Eli’s vengeful widow. But how? Her ex, Lewis, is
willing to offer her money, but there are strings attached. Her baby’s
daddy can’t even cough up the child support he owes her. But what if she
reels in motivational speaker Chaz Anderson to the agency where she
works? The commission would carve a huge chunk out of her debt. And it
so happens that Chaz Anderson is holding a seminar in the Bahamas soon…
The book moves from trendy Miami to the sublime Bahamas, and both worlds
are vividly detailed. Vanessa’s character is smart, at least where work
is concerned, knows her designers, and knows how to do her job. I
admired her unabashed devotion to her daughter, and her insistence that,
whatever happens, Rayna should always come first.
But when it comes to men, she’s a dope, as is every female she knows.
That’s where the book begins to drag. Once the insane aftermath of Eli’s
death—including crashing his funeral—is over, things slow down. Vanessa
and her girlfriends get sucked down into a whirlpool of stupid choices.
Is every man on planet Earth a jerk?
I also thought it was a little repetitive, with a few too many
flashbacks. Even the great Chaz is diminished by an abundance of
details.
In the end, I was a little disappointed in Vanessa; it didn’t seem that
she’d emerged a better, smarter person for her trials, although the
ending was so ambiguous I couldn’t say for sure in which direction she
finally decided to take her life. Speaking of endings, this one was so
abrupt I actually shook out the book to make sure a few pages weren’t
missing.
SINGLE MAMA DRAMA might not reassert your faith in men, but was a fun,
relaxing read, with lots of laughs. Kayla Perrin promises drama, and she
delivers.
reviewer@romanceincolor.com | 10th February 2008