Gwen’s review of Tall, Dark, and Cajun by Sandra Hill
Contemporary romance re-published 1Â Jul 07 by Warner Forever
This contemp is set partially in Washington, DC and mostly in and near Houma, Louisiana. The heroine, Rachel Fortier, is a decorator specializing in Feng Shui working for a prestigious firm in DC. The hero, Remy LeDeux, is a charter pilot (formerly in the Air Force) living on a houseboat near Houma. The story is a relatively predictable boy meets girl and, after some interesting situations, finally get their HEA.
Here’s the book blurb:
HOT, BOTHERED, AND IN OVER HER HEAD!
Men! After finally dumping her fiancé, whose idea of romance was making sure she toned her butt and abs, decorator Rachel Fortier hightails it out of D.C. straight for Cajun country. But her ex-taxidermist grandma’s cabin on stilts in the Louisiana bayou isn’t quite the grand estate she imagined. Throw in a pet alligator named Useless, a herd of Southerners born and bred, and Remy LeDeux, the smoldering-eyed pilot angling for her family’s property, and Rachel’s in for a passel of trouble-especially since their chemistry is hotter than the Atchafalaya Swamp in July. With his miniskirted great-aunt itching to marry him off and her rifle-toting grandma ready to shoot Remy the second he sets foot on her land, the sexiest bad boy this side of the Mason-Dixon line will need a special kind of voodoo to win this civil war.
Read an excerpt.
I didn’t hate this book. I didn’t particularly like it either. The romance was good. The hero and heroine were interesting and engaging. What was bad was all the extraneous crap that really detracted from a nice story: almost all of the secondary characters were bad stereotypes of all things Cajun. And I do mean BAD. Aligators for pets. Tobacco-chewing granny. Big hair and bigger boobs. Mullet-headed cousins who trap for a living. A great aunt who wears mini-skirts and is a folk healer, etc.etc. It was all supposed to be light-hearted and amusing. It wasn’t. I don’t think I guffawed once reading this book and I really wanted to!
Now, I’m not saying that some Cajuns don’t do these things. I just don’t buy it that you’ll find all of these bad stereotypes in one group of people. It was wearing to wade thru all the chaff to find the story.Â
Like I said – I didn’t hate it. I just wish it had been better.
Grade: C- (it narrowly escapes a D because the romance was really very nice)
