LynneC’s review of The Notorious Gabriel Diaz by Cathy Williams
Contemporary Romance published by Harlequin Presents 19 Feb 13/Mills & Boon 5 Jul 13
This story started badly for me, with a jerk hero and a wimp heroine. However, things got more interesting when Gabriel grows a conscience. A shame Lucy never grew a backbone.
The blurb is somewhat misleading and would make the reader believe she’s reading the standard trope. The story starts when Lucy’s father embezzles from the company he works for, forcing Lucy to find Gabriel and plead for her father’s freedom.
Can I tell you how much I dislike that idea? Lucy’s father might be pathetically unworldly and desperate for money, but in that case the right course of action is to remortgage or ask for a loan, either from the bank or from one’s employer. Not to steal money from someone he’s in a position of trust with. I want her father to go to jail, and, of course, he gets away with it.
Gabriel actually listens to Lucy, although he demands a few nights with her in return. She agrees, despite the fact that she’s a virgin. Gabriel is hot for her and believes she’s experienced. But Lucy has been “saving herself” for the man she wants to marry. This is so close to unbelievable, but there are still women who believe that, and so I could go along with it, even with all the anti-feminist implications that involves. A woman isn’t in control of her body, she needs a man to bring it to life, to take possession. That, to me, is anathema, but an innocent daughter of elderly parents might think that. Although I’m puzzled as to how elderly her parents are, because her father is still working, which would make him under 65. Not particularly elderly and certainly not of a generation that prized virginity.
Anyway, it is my irritation with Lucy’s sweetness that made me irritated. Lucy is well drawn, she is the kind of sweet, slightly stupid girl who might think that. Because one thing Lucy isn’t, is intelligent. Maybe she does need a wealthy man to lavish her with presents and make all the decisions for her. Is there a “too sweet to live” label? If not, maybe there should be.
Unfortunately, Lucy never grows a spine. If there’s a way to avoid the truth, she’ll take it, preferring the rose-tinted glasses she seems to wear on a daily basis. Gabriel wanted her a few years ago and sent her gifts. She sent the expensive one back. Now he says he’ll ensure her father’s debt is paid if she’ll sleep with him. This is where the story starts to improve, because Gabriel isn’t the heartless man everyone assumes. He points out that Lucy is in the wrong, or her father is, and assumes she’s experienced. When he discovers she isn’t, he sends her home and assures her the debt is paid. Behaves like a gentleman, although I was still doubtful that he should allow Lucy’s father to get away with his crime.
She wants to pretend that they’re an item, because her parents assume it, and Gabriel falls in with her plan. Although she stays at his house, they don’t sleep together. Of course eventually they do, when Gabriel is satisfied that Lucy is sure. Then she falls for him, and expects him to fall for her. This being a Presents, he does, but I feel quite sorry for Gabriel. All through the story Lucy avoids the truth, seems to be congenitally opposed to it. She’d rather weave a web of lies. Like father, like daughter, maybe. From being a reasonably sympathetic character at the start, she becomes supremely annoying, dragging Gabriel through deceptions and forcing him to adapt and adapt, whereas she expects everything to stay the same with her. She is a snob, assuming that women who take care over their appearance and sleep with men are sluts, something that never fails to annoy me when it turns up in a book.
Another annoyance is the swift point-of-view shifts. I can’t say head-hopping, because the reader is usually aware whose head she’s in, but in some of the scenes, particularly the sex scenes, the jumps are paragraph to paragraph, so it feels like a mental game of tennis, constantly bouncing from one head to another.
So this book doesn’t work for me because of the spineless, deceitful heroine who is never forced to face her shortcomings but accepts everything that comes her way and is an anti-feminist snob. If I’d read a book with a different heroine, I’d probably have liked it a lot better.
Grade: D
Summary:
Of all the arrogant billionaires in all the world, why is Gabriel Diaz the only one she can turn to?
The last time Gabriel heard the word no was when Lucy Robins rejected his skilled advances—a moment that is still etched on his bruised ego!
Now, with her family in trouble, Lucy desperately needs help. Gabriel is happy to strike a deal, but his price is high: Lucy’s virginity! Except he wasn’t prepared for their night together to leave him hooked, and when Lucy refuses to be his plaything, he throws that same little word back at her… No!
Read an excerpt.
