LynneC’s review of Meddling with a Millionaire by Cat Schield
Contemporary Romance Ebook published by Harlequin Desire 1 Jun 11

I love discovering new authors to follow and enjoy, so Schield’s debut book with Harlequin Desire is a perfect candidate. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work out too well and I don’t think I’ll be hunting down her future releases. But a heroine who is bemoaning the fact that she’s down to her last $100,000 doesn’t really get much sympathy from me.

I really don’t like doing these reviews, especially with new authors, but this book is so clunky, with such dislikeable characters, that I had to force myself to read to the end. I did it because I wanted to give Schield a fair shake—perhaps the book would improve in the second half. Sadly, it doesn’t.

Emma has already slept with Nathan once when they meet at a New Year’s party at her father’s house—they’d done it against the door of his apartment a while back—but now Nathan is pursuing her with a different purpose. If he marries her, he gets the deal with her father that he’s after. The first scene is Emma trying to get away from Nathan at the party, and failing. I’m not sure why Emma is running. Because it makes a good scene, I suspect.

Emma is a poor little rich girl. Her father cut off her access to the Trust because she’s spending too much on clothes and shoes. Instead, he gives her $100,000 to survive on for a year. And we’re supposed to feel sorry for her, or smile at her predicament? Sorry, no. Emma is also supposed to be a talented jewelry designer. She promises to pay her father back the $30,000 she’s already spent, and then he won’t insist on her marriage to Nathan. This makes no sense at all. And we never get the feel for Emma as a designer. We’re just told that she is.

At one point, she is in her workshop rooting through a box of sapphires, looking for a stone for her latest creation. I winced. Once a stone is cut and polished, it’s not kept with others. That’s only for the rough designs. Cut and polished precious stones are kept in padded cases, separately, to avoid scratches and the sharp edges of the cut being rubbed off. It’s details like that that stops this story gaining any feel for the real. Vague descriptions, together with the odd product placement (honestly, it feels like that) stop the background from becoming real. At one point, she empties her wardrobe, thinking she should sell the clothes. Okay, since they’re designer, but stuffing them into garbage bags isn’t doing them any favors, and hoping to get more than thrift shop prices is a bit daft. Since this is one of Emma’s consistent habits, i.e. doing dumb stuff, it could have been endearing. But it turns out annoying. She shouldn’t be allowed out alone, and she keeps insisting that she’s competent and bright. No on both counts.

Product placement? At one point Nathan is concerned and worried. He drives his car, a BMW, out in pursuit. But the text describes the car, specifically a BMW 650i coupe. Are we expected to believe that Nathan is thinking of the model of his car in this situation? Or is this an unintentional slip into omniscient POV? Either way, it jars, and makes me laugh. Maybe Nathan’s a snob and the model of his car means more to him than Emma’s predicament. I wouldn’t be surprised.

Now we come to Nathan. A more selfish, egotistical, wrong-headed person it would be more difficult to meet, and he doesn’t reform until far too late into the story, and then for the wrong reasons. We’re expected to believe that he’s a successful, hard-headed businessman. One who doesn’t seem to have heard of a company portfolio or spreading the risk or even risk assessment strategy. He is opposed to his brothers’ safer strategy of buying into a different firm, and he wants the deal with Emma’s father. It’s basically a plot device, as it turns out, giving him an alternative. And when he changes his mind, he does it for family reasons, not business ones. Way to run a business, gambling with the futures of employees. I guess the brothers are sequel-bait, but they’re very loosely drawn, so I’m not really pulled to read their stories. Nathan wants what Nathan wants. He insists on it.

There are lots of clumsy backstory drops. They are sprinkled through the text, but, particularly at the beginning, the story comes to a screeching halt for yet another paragraph of what Emma feels and what she’s done in the past. The reason she’s determined on love in marriage is explained with the usual clichéd backstory, and disappointingly, so is Nathan’s excuse for not looking for love in marriage—it destroyed his mother, so therefore, everyone who falls in love is deluded and he doesn’t want any of it. Say what? Would you work for a man who makes such crashing generalizations?

There is a consistent error, too. The author uses “that’s” and “it’s” when she really should have put “that was” and “it was.” Consistency of tense is quite important, and every time it’s used wrongly, it jarred.

There are some odd metaphors that don’t make sense. For example, at the start of Chapter Two, “where a jackhammer had started drilling into her brain.” Jackhammers drill? A little more attention, replacing “drill” with a more appropriate word would have worked better. And there are more of these that make a reader stop and do a mental double take before reading on.

The lack of “showing” in favor of “telling” too – telling us Emma is a great designer without describing her designs, for instance, doesn’t lead to extra closeness with her. I could understand if she is really a talented designer and just needs a break, but the story isn’t told like that.

Oh, yes, and an old Harlequin trope shows its head again. Emma and Nathan are about to get down and dirty, when…when…the doorbell rings. I have so not missed that one. And, to make matters worse, it’s Emma’s BFF, and after Nathan leaves, she talks everything over with her. Sigh. The BFF discussion is so 1990s, and so obviously a way for Emma to explain her feelings without going into more introspection.

One thing that actually moves irritation up to anger is the lack of contraception/protection. Unless it’s so brief I missed it, there are no descriptions of condoms, neither character mentions any worries about babies or disease (which is another Stupid Emma moment) or mentions that their religion forbids it.

I am so sorry, but this book just didn’t work for me on any level. I can’t give it an F, because it is at least coherent, and to give an F for a debut novel smacks of unnecessary cruelty. But I wouldn’t be honest if I didn’t give it a D. So D it is, and I’m so sorry. All I can say is try it, you might like it a lot more than I do. At least there aren’t any secret babies.

Grade: D

Summary:

Sydney Chase may have sworn off relationships—but she still has needs. So she heads to the Panther’s Lair in search of sex: no strings, no emotions. The club owner, dark, mysterious Raimond Decoudreau, is exactly what she’s looking for—his French accent alone makes her hot. Fortunately, his mouth has other sinful talents, as well…

After just one night with Sydney, Raimond knows she’s his. And when the time is right, when she loves him in return, he’ll reveal his deepest secret. For now, he’ll enjoy pleasuring her in the most intimate of ways.

But when Sydney’s life is threatened, Raimond’s instincts take control, and she gets a glimpse at the beast within…

Read an excerpt.