Smitten by Books

Falling For You
Author: Julie Ortolon
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Orig Pub. Date: April 15, 2002
Reissue Date: July 2, 2010
Retail: $2.99
Pages: 336
Format: Digital

What happens when Mr. Slow and Steady…

The forecast is smooth sailing for Oliver Chancellor, scion of Galveston’s premier financier. Destined to take his place in the hallowed marble corridors of his family’s bank, Chance is content with the future that’s been mapped out for him, right down to his upcoming engagement to a prim debutante enthusiastically approved by his socialite mother.

Finds himself on a collision course…

But when beautiful Rory St. Claire crosses his path, Chance recklessly plunges into uncharted territory with nothing but his heart to guide him-and a beautiful woman to tempt him…

With Ms. Full-Speed-Ahead?

Propelled by a lifelong goal to buy the island home reportedly haunted by her colorful ancestors, Rory desperately needs Chance’s help in securing a business loan, and she won’t take no for an answer. In the midst of convincing the hesitant blue blood to take a chance on her dream, Rory unexpectedly lands in Chance’s arms, stunned by his red-blooded passion-and her own awakened desire. Now, the mismatched pair can’t keep their hands off one another, and something tells Rory she’s headed for trouble-trouble in the name of love…

~*~*~

A vivacious heroine plus a feeble hero equals a missed opportunity.

When a historic house is foreclosed on, Aurora St. Claire (Rory) decides she and her siblings must buy it and turn it into a B&B. Their ancestor was killed in the house 150 years ago in a romantic tale that’s become local legend, and Rory has always felt connected to the house.

She finds out it’s on the market when she sees Oliver Chancellor (Chance) pounding a foreclosure sign into the ground, an act he’s been cowed into doing by the east-coast owners of his father’s bank. Chance went to school with Rory’s brother and was attracted to her in high school, when he was a skinny geek and she was quite young. He hasn’t seen her in years and is immediately taken by her exotic beauty.

Rory comes to him to find out about getting a loan, but Chance advises her to put together a business plan first. Rory struggles with analytical tasks, which gives Chance an opportunity to help her out, and puts him in direct opposition to his father, who wants to give the island’s owner—and long-time bank customer—an opportunity to get the place back.

I had some major issues with this novel, but I’ll start with what I liked—the heroine. Though Rory is bubbly and outgoing, she sometimes has low self-esteem moments because of her dyslexia. She worries about people thinking she’s stupid, but she has no qualms about accepting Chance’s help putting together a business plan. I loved that she’s a complex character who works to overcome her limitations and recognizes when she needs help. Rock on, Rory.

My main problems were with the hero and the conflicts. Chance is weak and immature, and I found him difficult to respect. I’m all for a beta hero and a flawed hero, but Chance lets his parents make his most important decisions for him and toys with the affections of two women while he vacillates between them. What’s more, I got the feeling I was supposed to be sympathetic toward him because his flaws are never adequately addressed.

Within a few pages of the reader meeting him, he thinks about his fiancée Paige. It later turns out he hasn’t proposed to her; it’s just always been assumed (including by him) that they’ll get married. This convention works in historical novels, when arranged marriages between the upper classes were more common, but unless it’s connected to a contemporary character’s culture, I’ll need a good reason to buy it. “It’s the easy option” makes the hero seem spineless, and “He’s from money” doesn’t cut it for me. Plenty of rich people marry the person they want, not the person their parents choose. Furthermore, because it’s unrealistic it comes across as a false problem—something the author put in the characters’ way simply to create conflict.

Though Chance and Paige have had an understood arrangement for years, he hasn’t even kissed her. It was moments like this one that made me think the hero had the emotional maturity of a teenager:

He should want to kiss Paige. But once he kissed her—kissed her the way a man kisses a woman he wants to take to bed—the courtship would officially begin. It would no longer be a thing in the future. They’d be headed straight down the path of dating, engagement, matrimony, mortgage, children, diapers, IRAs, retirement, and vacations spent on cruise ships.

It all loomed over his head, ready to crash down on him the minute his lips made contact with hers.

Yet instead of telling Paige he doesn’t want to marry her, he continues to let her and their families think the engagement will eventually happen, all the while fighting his growing attraction to Rory.

He’s overcome by lust and has sex with Rory while Paige (and all of Galveston) believes they’re getting married. This is a massive mark against him. Paige may be as interesting as skimmed milk, but she still deserves better than that. He mistreats Rory as well. After having sex with her the first time, he decides just not to call her, hoping she’ll realize herself how unsuited they are. Of course, she thinks she’s in love and is broken-hearted that he’d use her.

I found his actions not only deplorable but unrealistic. Unless he’s under 15, I can’t imagine his lust is so uncontrollable that he’d repeatedly fall on Rory pelvis-first without thinking about Paige first. He always remembers her afterward, and hustles Rory out of his apartment at dawn the first time they sleep together, telling her it’s in order to protect *her* reputation.

It’s also hard to warm to a hero who fights his attraction to the heroine because it’s impractical. As far as I could see, there are two “impractical” things about it: 1) she’s exciting; and 2) his parents didn’t choose her for him.

When Rory and Chance finally admit their feelings for each other, there’s still quite a bit of the book left. Unfortunately, the story is kept going through a series of misunderstandings that could easily be resolved if the hero and heroine had one good conversation.

I’m sorry I didn’t like the novel more, but I couldn’t help thinking Rory deserved a much better hero, and I needed more realistic conflicts to draw me in.

Rating: 5 (Fair)

Heat-Level: 3 (Sensual)

[starrater tpl=10 style=’christmas’]