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Mentira Perfecta (2012)

by Brenda Novak(Favorite Author)

4.08 of 5 Votes: 4

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Harlequin Ibérica

series

Last Stand

review 1: DNF (85% in).This story was doing very well, although it is hard to swallow one of the main running threads of the story: that a man as handsome as the devil, charming, sociable, amiable and likable would simply be 'in love' with the memory of a girl he met in his teens (and who married his best friend), until the heroine arrives at the scene. The not so cliched premise of the hero being the one who's stalked makes the story quite intriguing should have made for an intriguing read, but it did not. The relative novelty of the theme was thrown away when the hero started behaving like the vast majority of heroines in RS books do, he suddenly turned TSTL. This is a man, a captain of the USA Air Force, unlawfully accused for rape and GBH by a woman, about whom he later learn... mores a ton of bad and disturbing things (he finds out that there's a great chance she murdered her mother, that she murdered/ was an accessory to the murder of a very young hitchhiker when she (the psycho) was in her late teens) yet he allows this psycho (who tried to ruin his life, and she could) to pick up his laundry and lets the police who turned up at his place (while the psycho is in his shower!!!), after the heroine alerted them, to leave without ever telling them that the woman the police in Arizona want for questioning is in his flat!!! As if the psycho dropping the charges against him was all that he cared about!!!! . This woman has also openly tried to blackmail him to get into a relationship with her, a woman whom he knows to be a consummate and devious liar, a woman who broke into his flat and looked through his things, read his private correspondence , got his mother on the phone and spun unbelievable tales about herself and the hero playing happy families (the hero knows all these). A woman whom moments before he allows her to re-enter his life he thought to be (and had plenty of facts at his disposal, enough to freak anyone out) a dangerous psychopath. A woman whom he knew the police wanted for questioning, yet captain Luke-peabrain-Trussell lets her do his laundry! Because he wants to be left in peace!!!! Hell, the man didn't even think to change his locks, while he knew that the woman was stalking him. When Kalyna starts feeding him the 'I'm pregnant' story he simply buys it. He doesn't ask for an independent pregnancy test, no, a simple document she produces and which we all know can be easily forged is enough for him to start thinking of the psycho as 'the mother of my child'. This ridiculous attitude is forced on heroes by the awful, reactionary ideology of romance writers. They will try anything but they will never have a heroine have an abortion, or a hero not want to be a daddy. It is only the 'bitch' who does not want to have children. Indeed, Kalyna (the psycho) has had two abortions (that is how evil she is, dear reader) but now she wants to have a baby in order to trick the hero into being with her. See, if you don't want children you must be an evil villainess and if you do you're a radiant angel. Pass me the bucket! The hero turns so stupid that one wonders how the Air Force entrusts him with flying a bomber plane. Heaven protect us!When characters that appeared kind of interesting for half the book suddenly turn stupid I blame the writer. It is obvious that Brenda Novak run out of steam and rushed to up the nonsense factor. In any case, her story suffers from an unconvincing couple. There's nothing about these two that signals anything towards a passionate attachment, let alone romantic love. Most of the time, the hero reminisces about the girl he and his best friend loved (he valiantly backed down) -a woman who's now a widow- and the heroine avoids her feelings and snaps at the hero (she has a kind of 'boyfriend' whom she does not love and does not often see). About 75% into the story and suddenly they spend a night together (very vanilla), and the hero is in love with her (or he doesn't know, but he does, oh wait, he doesn't etc.). And suddenly she's in love with him too, but she wants to run away from him (he mustn't know, etc.). Their whole affair rings more hollow than his one night stand with Kalyna, the psycho. I gave up, even though I was close to the finishing line, without feeling the slightest curiosity about these two or the villainess. I did skip to the last page though, where under the heading 'Epilogue' this writer has her characters speed through the whole gamut of romancia's hilarious view of happiness (engagement, loving in-laws, wedding, planning to have at least 3 children). Bleeeeh.
review 2: This was an interesting book which moved at a fast pace. What I love about the villain in this book is that it's a woman. Nice change. Luke ends up having a one night stand with Kalyna which he totally regrets as she now claims that he raped and physically abused her. He left her in the middle of the night fine and well. But that's the problem. She wants him all night every night and she'll do whatever it takes to get him even if that means destroying his life personally and professionally. If he so much as looks at another woman she'll kill her and she means it. The lengths this woman went to are unbelievable. The author really created a great character with Kalyna, one who is obsessed and totally nuts. less

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