Loveswept, $3.50, ISBN 0-553-44329-1
Contemporary Romance, 1994
Okay, I’m late with this and I also cheated, as Marcia Evanick’s My Special Angel didn’t spend much time in my TBR pile. I bought it at the hospital bookstore during my stay there. If you can’t tell why I bought it, well… let’s just say that the cover looks much better in real life – if that guy is an angel, I’m ready for my baptism already. Anyway, I cheated, but look at the bright side, I keep to the theme correctly. Old school books at least 10 years old – well, this one is just that.
This story isn’t too bad, but it relies a lot of dotty family behavior antics, and I suspect your enjoyment of it hinges a lot on how much you can tolerate destructive behavior that is passed off as “cute”. Your trial by fire starts right away from the first page, when heroine Nadia Kandratavich’s family and some other family members attempt to lynch him in a manner that the KKK would approve. No, it’s not that Owen J Prescott is black – according to them, he called them liars and such. Nadia arrives in time to stop the nonsense, and he falls in love with her right away. In a way, she has struck the love lottery – he’s very wealthy, which means he would be able to pay the bail for every other family member of hers for at least three lifetimes.
Nadia and her family are Gypsies, and this is definitely a book written in 1994 because some of the stereotypes and ridiculous antics of Nadia’s family may not fly today. Some people would see the whole thing, right down to hexing people with evil eyes and such, as offensive stereotyping, I suspect. As I’ve said, the story is powered by such antics, however, so if you are not keen on people acting all “We are just like Gypsies from Scooby-Doo cartoons, we read your palm long long time!” on you, maybe it’s best to just buy this one for the cover and don’t bother reading the story.
Nadia and Owen act as enablers of her family, so they don’t really have much in terms of personality and depths. They often resemble long-suffering babysitters, come to think of it. When they are alone, Nadia would act like she’s one with nature and ooh, Gypsy traditions, ooh, see her touch the wood and sense the magic of being one with nature – that kind of thing. She had lived in the big city before, having dabbled in the music industry (which probably explains her current outlook in life), but even then, it’s hard to explain some of the contrived shenanigans she had with some bloke that led Owen to believe that she’s getting it from someone else. Everyone in this story seems to act in ways that are designed solely to get things to happen, even if the things they do sometimes don’t make sense.
At any rate, My Special Angel is an easy read, so it’s not too bad. But there isn’t much conflict or emotional drama here, just silly family antics and sitcom moments that never strike me as that funny. As a result, this one isn’t too good either. It’s an average read that would be completely forgettable were not for the cover, so three oogies would be a just about right score for it.
