Renee Conoulty, $0.99, ISBN 978-0463903452
Contemporary Romance, 2019

Folks that pay attention to authors’ dedication may notice something interesting in the one in Renee Conoulty’s Cheek to Cheek: the author has named the villain of the story after her cousin, and this cousin shares the same name as the main female character, Nadiene.

This goes a long way to explaining why the heroine is the way she does here, as the author adds in her dedication that all this is part of the plan for the heroine’s redemption arc.

Our heroine starts off hilariously over the top in how horribly self-absorbed and bitchy she is. A dancer, she dismisses all semblance of competition to be inferior and she certainly thinks she is much better than the girlfriend of her dance partner, Matt. She’s been trying to steal him from her too, although her thoughts of Matt- and world-dominion are rudely crushed in the first few paragraphs of this story when Matt instead proposes to his girlfriend.

She doesn’t want to date another guy so soon, as people may think she’s just looking for a rebound, but you know how it is. She shortly finds a guy that may not meet fully her criteria for the perfect boyfriend, but he can do the dip very well. That counts, right?

This is a very short story, so I don’t see much of a redemption arc here, to be honest. I suspect some readers will find the heroine insufferable and unlikable, and I can understand why they would think that.

Fortunately for everyone, I find Nadiene entertaining as she is, warts and all. I know, I am shallow in that as long as the narcissistic leading lady makes me laugh, she’s alright with me, and Nadiene is hilariously bitchy, self-absorbed, and all around horrible in a fun ways.

The author is well aware of how bad the heroine can be too, and tampers this with some tongue-in-cheek humor that makes Nadiene seem self-aware at times. This only makes me more amused, so hey, it’s all good.

My only grouch is with the length of the story. Is that all, really? I’m entertained by the heroine’s antics up to the ending that feels so premature; it’s like having a bucket of ice water poured all over my head.

Oh well, maybe that’s for the best, as I suspect that Nadiene’s antics may soon get old and I’ll tire of her should the story be any longer. Then again, I’d also wonder whether things might actually get more fun as well if things had been longer.