From what I understand, it is extremely difficult to become a published author, but after reading this crap I can't believe that that's true. Because some publisher somewhere read this rubbish and decided that it was worth the money, time, and the lives of many trees in order to bring it to market.
I don't know who to blame more, the author for writing this nonsense or Harlequin for publishing it.
As with all the Susan Stephens books I've read, this book actually started out well (hence the one star...I was deluded into thinking it would be a good read). The heroine (Savannah) is a singer who the hero (Ethan) engages to sing the national anthem, but while she is singing, her too tight, borrowed dress pops open and exposes her breasts to the public and Ethan rescues her from the ensuing fallout (no pun intended). Up to this point it was good & engaging. Everything written after that point was pure crap.
So many pages were spent on the getaway from the paparazzi that after awhile I was actually hoping for a Princess Di ending, just to get it over with.
They finally get to his palace and lo and behold, the entire place is in gloomy darkness, because Ethan is hiding from his facial scars. I say that if he is that deeply affected by his physical scars that his staff isn't allowed to turn on the lights, then what the hell was he doing out in the broad daylight at a stadium in front of thousands of people? He can't face his servants in his own home but he can face thousands of strangers with his deformity. They couldn't be bothering him that much.
So the big cathartic moment is that Savannah turns on the lights when she gets to his home and all the servants rejoice that there is light, and Ethan only then realizes how dark his home was before Savannah pointed it out to him. It was every pun, double entendre, and cliched psychobabble rolled together and jammed into a few crappily written chapters.
Then biff, bang, boom Savannah realizes that she is in love with Ethan for seemingly no other reason than he is a tortured soul and she wants to heal him.
If this book hadn't been included in a bulk lot from eBay, I would never have read another Susan Stephens book. I have read four books by her so far and they all SUCK! Each one is worse than the last. I don't know if she is related to a bigwig at Harlequin or what, but enough is enough. If she had been the first Harlequin author I'd read, I would never have picked up another Harlequin book...ever.
Bottom line: the love scenes were nonexistent and the storyline was crap-on-a-page. For a similar plot but far better romance, please read instead Beauty and the Beast or The Hunchback of Notre Dame; both were more realistic and more enjoyable than this author's version.
