Kimani, $6.50, ISBN 978-0-373-86467-6
Contemporary Romance, 2016
Blossoms of Love introduces the Torres family, but the series-opener of California Passions ends up being too bland for its own good. This book got lost in my mountain of unread books shortly after it arrived at my doorstep, so I ended up reading the following book Love Tango first. That other book was much better, I have to say.
Daniel Torres’s family has a yearly tradition of watching the Rose Parade of Pasadena. Since they are all wealthy – duh – the Torres money often ends up sponsoring at least a float every year, and for this year, Daniel has a bet with his brothers – they will each sponsor a float, and the winner of the best float will get the losers to donate $100,000 to his favorite charity. Taking no chances, he enlists the help of Greer Courtland, whose family is in the float designing business, to give him the best float ever. Of course, they will fall in love along the way.
And that’s it for the plot. I wish I can say that there are drama, angst, issues to overcome, but this one is all about the lifestyles of the rich and famous, stripped of the sex scandals, drug use, domestic labor abuse, and other fun stuff that would have made things interesting. What I get is just perfect, talented, beautiful, wealthy people without any concerns that affect us mortals talking, chatting, hanging out with other beautiful people, pointing out how awesome all of them are to me. Eventually, when Daniel and Greer make love, of course it’s perfect like everything else in their lives and oh my goodness, there is still some way to go, and pages to turn, before the last page. So, it’s more of the same talking, going places, and pointing out of things that add little value to the story such as how awesome they are (dead horse, let’s move on) or the background stories of the Torres folks that will be getting their stories next.
It’s probably a testament as to how bored I am that I would have welcomed even the tired and lazy Kimani trope – the evil whore ex-girlfriend of the hero – but unfortunately in this case, the other-women-are-unworthy thing goes only as far as an unnecessary dig at women who buy themselves bigger breasts. Look, I know these heroines all spring to life perfectly proportioned and looking like goddesses even without make-up, but come on, what’s wrong with paying people to fix up our looks if we can afford it? If someone tells me that they will fix me up to look like Rihanna for free, you bet I will say yes, and then I will be the biggest town bicycle and make my way through all the hot boys in town and I guess that’s why I am not a romance heroine. Ahem.
Oh well, I suppose I need to go back to talking about this book. Do I have to? Like I’ve said, it’s bland to the point of being completely forgettable. The characters are likable, intelligent sorts who never say or do anything even a little bit oopsie, and their perfection only underscores their flavor-free plain cracker quality, and without any interesting conflict to test their resolve or feelings, Blossoms of Love is more like the boredom of love. It’s competently written and painless to read, hence the three oogies, but surely there are more interesting ways to tell a love story.
