Kimani, $6.50, ISBN 978-0-373-86369-3
Contemporary Romance, 2014
Had Paris changed? Was she like all the other shallow, materialistic women he’d had the misfortune of dating in the past?
Yes, Seduced by the Heir is that kind of story – the hero Rafael Morretti traveled the world and the seven seas, sleeping with skanks while looking for that special something. Is Paris St Clair the pure non-whore diamond among all the whorey whores of whoredom in this world? It makes me wonder: is the world really full with mercenary women who only want to sleep with men because they are hot and famous, and if the answer is yes, am I supposed to lose sleep over this? Mind you, this is the third book in the The Morretti Millionaires series, and it’s also the third book in a row to feature this die-whores-die message. I half expect this book to come with a membership registration form to some kind of organization dedicated to the vigilante eradication of all women that do not meet our moral standards, because there has to be a reason why the author is fixated on dividing women into whores and Madonnas, I’m sure.
Rafael and Paris were once in love, but they broke up. Now, they meet again when their mutual friends get married, but Rafael wonders whether Paris has become a gold-digging shallow twit like all the women in his life while Paris wonders whether Rafael is a rich bastard like her ex. Oh, and along the way, skanks show up to try to pry Rafael from Paris. Can Paris’s shining beacon of “No whore! All pure!” light penetrate Rafael’s fog and show him the way? Will he be able to find happiness with her when the other skanks in his life are plotting to get their claws on him?
Just like in previous books, the “good” guys are the insane ones determined to see the main couple paired up at any cost. They all suffer from the “Oh, he murdered your siblings and ate your pet canary? But he’s so hot and you haven’t been getting any for so long, so girl, put out to that hot hunk at once!” syndrome – they only live to see our main couple’s genitalia all mashed up. Otherwise, how am I going to realize that those two are made for one another? There’s not much romance here, just a tale of how the heroine is much better than all the whores that whore the world, and therefore, the hero’s her reward for being such a wonderful person.
On the bright side, the story isn’t as blatant with the double standards as the previous books in the series were. Rafael, at least, isn’t a sleazy piece of work who sticks it to anything that moves, so at least I don’t have an unpalatable situation where the heroine is judged whether she is worthy to be the wife of a smarmy male town bicycle. However, the story starts with a blonde skank coming on very hard to the hero, and ends with another skank trying to trap Rafael with a paternity suit. Maybe the author is reaching for some kind of literary elegance by having skanks bookend her story, but if you ask me, inserting one-dimensional skanks just to prop up the heroine is a lazy way of going about trying to show me why the heroine and the hero belong together. No matter how I try to look at it, “We belong together because every other woman out there is a whore!” doesn’t seem like a strong foundation for the love of a lifetime.
If for some reason you need to read a story that puts down all women that pose a threat to the heroine in the pursuit of a man as sluts and whores, Seduced by the Heir may provide some vicarious enjoyment in its over the top hostility to the female sex in general. Me, I personally think the author needs a new gimmick. I’m a big girl and I don’t read stories to vicariously put down women who are thinner, sexier, and more beautiful than me, so three in a row is really pushing it as far as I’m concerned. Let’s not repeat that played out shtick in the next book.
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