ImaJinn, $8.50, ISBN 1-893896-06-4
Fantasy Romance, 2000

After their adventures in Cupid: The Amorous Arrow, Venus and Cupid are so inspired by their matchmaking success that they are back again, this time against Jupiter’s orders, in Cupid: The Bewildering Bequest.

This time around, interior decorators/limo drivers Cupidano and Vena are out to pair Merrill Prescott, prissy prim lawyer from uptown, with Jason Stavros, cheerful construction dude from downtown. Trouble is, the goddess Fortuna, Venus’s rival, wants Merrill to end up with her favorite (she wants to prove to Jupiter that she can be a great Goddess of Love too). Jupiter wants Merrill to be his newest plaything.

Adding to the headache is Merrill being forced to live with Jason in a posh fabulous mansion to be caretakers of a cat that is worth $75,000,000. There are cat-napping relatives afoot waiting to get their grubby hands on Rich Kittie. Can Merrill and Jason find time to make lovely, beautiful babies?

Well, unlike the first book, I want to know too. Jason and his ever-wonderful too-tight briefs are great fun. Sexy, charming, if tad too perfect, he can keep me reading anytime. Merrill isn’t too bad too. Some extra depths in their characters won’t hurt, but they’re okay.

But the plot! The one-dimensional villains that would make even Wile E Coyote on his bad day cringe! It is bad enough the authors resort to some silly coincidences, but some of the things the bad guys do in Cupid: The Bewildering Bequest seems right out of Home Alone or Beethoven. Loud, silly, and juvenile. Add in some definitely adult love scenes and it’s like The Bugs Bunny Show with sex. The whole effect is disconcerting.

Judging from Cupid: The Bewildering Bequest compared to Cupid: The Amorous Arrow, the authors are definitely improving. But they need to get the characterization and plots right first. Some more thought out character development as well as tighter plots would be nice.