Harlequin Happy...Part deux (Spoilers)

Title/Author: The Bought and Paid For Wife by Bronwyn Jameson
Line: Silhouette Desire
Miniseries/Tagline: The Secret Lives of Society Wives--Some scandals even money can't hide...
Plot: REVENGE!
Hero: Tristan Thorpe--bitter stepson, rich Australian footballer and businessman
Heroine: Vanessa Thorpe--former waitress from Yonkers, trophy wife/widow

Review: So I bought this one because of the title. It must've sounded interesting at the time, but when I pulled it out, I was like, Dang, what were you thinking? Because:

a) A romance heroine cannot really be a golddigger, so she must have a mentally disturbed or developmentally disabled sibling or child to support, and that's why she married a rich old coot.

b) Sex with old men is icky if you're not an old lady, so the marriage must've been platonic. Hubby was the daddy that her alcoholic, jailbird father could never be.

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These chesnuts never get old. Yes, yes they do. I must have been in weird mood the day I bought this one, because golddiggers with hearts of gold? Not my bag. Plus, now I think that I'm psychic. The Bought and Paid For Wife, revolves around Tristan Thorpe, who is contesting his father's will. Twenty years ago, Tristan's father divorced his mother, and they moved to Australia with nothing. And now the old man's left his entire estate to some young chippy? Tristan's going to get his (and his mother's) piece from the father who abandoned him. And if he has to go to Eastwick CT and prove the golddigger's infidelity, so be it. For her part, Vanessa has tried to be as polite as possible to the stepson she has never met, but she's not going to take his crap any more. Of course, sparks will fly and nothing is what it seems.

Sooo...not bad, not great, pretty standard. Yes, indeedy, Mrs. Thorpe, Tristan's Stepmama, who's not really a golddigging slut, has an autistic younger brother who she has taken care of since she was a teenager. Sigh. She also never slept with her late husband. In fact, she is a 29 year old virgin widow. Sigh. I would assume that this extra measure of purity was taken to make up for the extra ick points caused by the possibility of sleeping with a father and son. She didn't just not screw your daddy, she hasn't screwed anyone but you, Tristan! He comes off rather hard and mean, but soon softens under the spell of lust. Vanessa's a bit colder. I don't quite understand why the heroine, Vanessa, was quite so insistent on keeping her brother a secret from everyone she knew, including her closest friends. I guess there wouldn't have been much of a story otherwise. But there was nice chemistry between the two, and it kept me reading.

Also, Jameson did a nice job of interesting me in the other books in the mini-series. Speaking of, which, eHarlequin.com doesn't keep much of a record of its backlist, huh? This book was from 6/06, and I couldn't find it, or any of the others in the mini-series on the site. I also appreciated how the book ended. Often in categories, I'm frustrated by the leap at the end to marriage and babies. It seems too quick for the story given. But in this one, they acknowledged that they were in love, but they still had a lot to work on and learn about each other. I felt like the story of Tristan's upbringing and his mother's possible lies was given short shrift, and it would've added to the story/character development more. Also Jameson's Australian, and her writing did not seem very American, know what I mean? Certain phrasing and usage...just not what an American would say. It didn't bother me really, I found it a bit amusing, just noting it. I'd give this one a C. I enjoyed it, not a keeper.

Now I remember why I cut back on the categories. They always sound good at the time, then I get disappointed.