The Sassy One
Grade : C-

A cast of secondary characters straight out of a bad sitcom and a series of painful plot contrivances that are . . . well, painfully contrived irrevocably mar what could otherwise have been an entertaining romance. Think I'm exaggerating about those secondary characters? Try this: An Italian grandmother who thinks "everything in life can be healed with more pasta." An Irish grandma straight from the "faith and begora" school of Central Casting. (Both of those adorable scamps, of course, think their Ph.D. candidate granddaughter should stop all that education nonsense and get cracking on what's really important: Getting married and having babies.) A socialite mother who calls her daughter "dear" and a dad totally under the thumb of his manipulative father, both of whom - even worse, in my opinion - fail to defend their daughters from grandpa's cruel and selfish actions.

Think I'm exaggerating about that bad behavior? Though I can't reveal most of them here for spoiler reasons, suffice it to say that Grandpa has done and said the kind of emotionally abusive things to his family that any truly loving parent would step in and stop. And, as for painful plot contrivances, suffice it to say that both dear old grandpa and the hero's late mother were so e-e-e-v-i-l that their - I've got to say it again - cruel and selfish actions have impacted on their families in truly unforgivable (and largely unbelievable) ways.

The second in a trilogy, The Sassy One is Francesca Marcelli's story. A graduate student in social psychology, Francesca meets hero Sam Reese while posing in a behavioral psychology experiment as a deliberately unattractive pregnant woman in need of assistance. Though others pass her by as she fumbles with the large boxes she's supposedly attempting to deliver, Sam is the sole person to step up to plate to help. Thankfully, however, the Big Mis is quickly averted when Francesca fesses up to her ruse and Sam, who sees the attractive woman behind her disguise, asks her to dinner.

The owner of a successful security company, Sam is the kind of guy that long-time celibate Francesca knows she should avoid - especially since she has no desire to get involved and even less to marry. But hormones win out and her first dinner with Sam leads to an invitation to dine at his Santa Barbara mansion.

Intensely attracted to the tall and handsome nice guy hero, despite her best intentions Francesca soon finds herself happily succumbing to Sam's charms. But their budding affair - and an affair it is since Francesca is immediately upfront with Sam regarding her anti-relationship stance - suddenly takes an unexpected direction when a new character previously unknown to Sam suddenly appears on the scene.

What did work here are the characters of Francesca and Sam. Francesca, with a bad marriage years behind her, is devoted both to her studies and to her wine-making family. And, considering the pressure constantly placed on her by those relatives and her own reactions to her previous marriage, Francesca's aversion to marriage is a believable facet of her personality.

Sam, the son of a truly despicable mother, is an affable and appealing, if not an overwhelmingly dynamic hero. He is also, regretfully, saddled with two additional characters straight from the Stereotype Division of Central Casting: The cheeky housekeeper who thinks he should get married and the crusty, but lovable grandfather. During the course of the story, Sam is forced to confront some major issues in his life and I found his reactions and behavior to be both real and understandable.

Still, two likable central characters couldn't make up for the cliched and over the top people and circumstances that clutter the story. Equally problematic was the fact that I found characters I was supposed to like (such as Francesca's mother and father) to be disturbingly passive when it came to the welfare of their children. And all this get-married-and-have-children stuff coming from Francesca's family, directed at an accomplished woman, no less, seemed both dated and just plain obnoxious.

All in all, I found myself largely disappointed with my first book from an author I was interested in trying. However, if you're willing to overlook an abundance of cliched characters and soap-opera level melodramatic plot developments in favor of two appealing central characters and some pretty hot love scenes, you may find yourself more entertained than I was.

Reviewed by Sandy Coleman
Grade : C-

Sensuality: Hot

Review Date : September 27, 2003

Publication Date: 2003

Review Tags: 

Recent Comments …

Sandy Coleman

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

64 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
64
0
What's your opinion?x
()
x