Saturday, May 30, 2009

Review - True Love and Other Disasters




Title: True Love and Other Disasters
Author: Rachel Gibson
Publishing Date: May 2009
Genre: Contemporary
Rating: B-
Sensuality: Hot

Faith Duffy's husband and owner of the Seattle hockey team has recently died, leaving Faith as the owner. Faith is only 30 years old and has a stigma attached to her as a gold-digger since her former husband Virgil was 80 years old and a billionaire. With all the negative buzz surrounding her, the hockey team doesn't want to be caught in the middle of it, especially Captain of the team, Ty Savage. He wants to win the Stanley Cup and nothing is going to make him loose focus, not even a beautiful bimbo like Faith Duffy.

I had trouble relating to Faith. Faith being a former stripper and playboy bunny, I have very little in common with her. She is unashamedly a gold-digger. She totally owns up to the fact that she married her former husband because he was rich and would provide her with the security she has always longed for. I don't really agree with this kind of marriage and not knowing anything about her, I would probably be one of those people who would judge her. So I kept thinking there was going to be a catch as to why she married a man 50 years her senior, but there wasn't. Honestly, she was a gold-digger. Okay... so not exactly heroine material in my book.

Having said that however, there was an innate honesty and conviviality to Faith that does work. When interacting with Ty this playful side to her comes out. She rediscovers herself, because Virgil molded her into this polite, proper woman for the upper crust society she had to be around. That really wasn't who Faith is and so she is rediscovering herself. Occasionally, there were these odd references to Faith's wild side that she dubs "Layla". A few times the references bordered on creepy, like Faith has a multiple-personality disorder. I could have done without that part of it.

I did like Ty. He comes across as a man's man, but not overly so. I would say it's a good balance. He wants to focus on winning the Stanley Cup, but he keeps finding Faith distracting. Ty and Faith have some good interaction to build up the sexual tension. I love how the author shows the process of how he perceives Faith. She goes from being a hot body to have sex with, to a woman he cares about and enjoys spending time with. I felt that the pacing of Ty and Faith's relationship was appropriate and believable, but the ending came much to swiftly. I could have used a few more pages tacked onto the end of the book.

Here is what others had to say:

Breezing Through
Romance Novel TV
Romance Reviews Today
Book Binge
The Romance Bookworm

4 comments:

Holly said...

Good review, Jill. I agree with you about Faith. She was hard to relate to and that whole "Layla" thing was creepy.

I did like her and Ty together, though.

Jill D. said...

Holly, Glad to hear I wasn't the only one who thought "Layla" was creepy! This wasn't Gibson's best work, but I still enjoyed it for the most part. I liked Ty quite a bit.

nath said...

Well at the same time, she's not entirely a gold-digger... as in, she didn't chase after Virgil, he's the one who asked and convinced her. What I meant is that she didn't actively pursue the guy... and seriously, there are NO reasons a woman would marry a man 50 years her senior. 15, 20, 25 years - perhaps... but 50? none at all. I wonder if she would still have married him if he was still sexually functioning... hmmm.

Anyway, you know what I think of this book, so I won't go on too long :P

Tracy said...

Good review Jill. I think I'll have to pass on this one though. It just doesn't sound like it's up my alley. :)