An Offer He Can't Refuse
Grade : B

Miss the days of the Rat Pack? Charmed by 1950's "modern" architecture? Have a thing for Frank and Bobby and Doris and Peggy?

In this homage to all things Rat Pack, Christie Ridgway certainly succeeds in conjuring up a mood. But, even more importantly, the author also succeeds in creating a darn good tale of a mob daughter gone straight and the gambling syndicate owner who woos her.

Téa Caruso, granddaughter of the head of the California mob, is making a go of life on her own by running her own interior design business in her hometown of Palm Springs. She needs the lucrative commission to completely redesign Johnny Magee's newly purchased home even if his "captain of the varsity squad" good looks and oh-so-smooth way with women make her want to run a mile. Johnny, it seems, is the very embodiment of the unattainable and the kind of guy Téa knows all too well would never want her.

Except he does. Really. Of course, matters are complicated by the fact that Johnny has an agenda beyond simply hiring Téa to design his cool new digs: His father is believed to have been the man who killed Téa's fathers years earlier. The way Johnny sees it, getting close to the young woman is his first step on the path to discovering the truth. Since Johnny took the name of his stepfather years earlier, the oblivious Téa doesn't have a clue as to Johnny's real identity.

Complicating matters even further is the impending retirement of Téa's grandfather and his determined efforts to bring her back into the familial fold – efforts she is, not surprisingly, determined to resist. Add in the mysterious men following her, Johnny's recurring nightmares about the day his father died, two irrepressible sisters (can you say "future heroines"?), and a blazingly stupid Hollywood bimbo with designs on Johnny, and the path to true love is anything but smooth.

There is, admittedly, a lot going on here. Happily, however, the author largely succeeds in her efforts to deftly manage her eclectic mix. Téa is a woman you can quite easily both understand and like and Johnny – brother of the hero of The Thrill of it All – is a flawed, satisfyingly three-dimensional hero. Add in the palpable atmosphere and this one is a book that might well appeal to many readers of contemporary romance.

What didn't work? Well, Téa's mom is a bit too perfect to be true and I'll have to admit that both of her sisters managed to grate on my nerves. (This does not bode well for my luck with the author's future books, I'm sad to say.) Equally, matters here hinge on a plot encompassing the Inescapable Doom Sure to Follow the Revelation of the Big Secret problem. (I hate it when that happens.) Still, with all that said, when the focus is on Téa and Johnny and Frank and Bobby and Doris and Peggy – as it is for much of the book – things move along swimmingly.

For readers turned off by some of the self-consciously "wacky" elements in the author's previous books – and I'm raising my hand here – the good news is that there's nary a wacky moment here. (And that, fellow readers, is a very, very good thing.) But, while the author's jettisoned the w-a-a-a-y over-the-top flavor of some of her previous books, An Offer He Can't Refuse is nevertheless a unique book with its own unique flavor. To put it simply, Téa isn't your everyday girl next door and the setting is far from that generic small town in Texas we're all getting to know a bit too well.

Frothy, intelligent, and fun, Christie Ridgway's latest just might be a perfect book for the dog days of summer. As for me, even though my primary experience with Frank Sinatra consists of The Manchurian Candidate and the All Frank All the Time soundtrack accompanying lunch at Magiannos, I've got a new interesting in checking out all things Rat Pack. Those guys were cool, you know?

Reviewed by Sandy Coleman
Grade : B

Sensuality: Warm

Review Date : July 21, 2005

Publication Date: 2005/08

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