B+
Title: Doukakis's Apprentice
Author: Sarah Morgan
Publication Info: Harlequin Presents 2011
ISBN: 978-0263886702
Genre: Contemporary Romance
This review was written by Jenny D. This story was nominated in the Best Contemporary Series Romance category.
The summary: With her family business in crisis, Polly Prince does her best to keep calm and carry on. But hard work alone can't save her London company from a takeover by the infamously ruthless Damon Doukakis…or her traitorous body from the lethal sensuality of her boss! As his new apprentice, Polly accompanies Damon to Paris to negotiate the most challenging business deal of her life! Worse still, Polly must at all costs resist Damon in the most dangerously romantic city in the world.…
And here is Jenny's review:
A Review of Sarah Morgan’s Doukakis’s Apprentice in 250 Words Even Though That’s a Really Tiny Amount of Words
Let’s get the bad things out of the way up front:
Bad Thing #1: The title. Seriously. Is it a rule that all HPs have absurd titles that don’t match the plot?
Bad Thing #2: Continuity errors. Our hero has a sister whose name changes throughout the book. Our heroine starts off a dinner in flats, and then somehow changes out of heels into flats after the dinner. But they’re relatively minor issues.
And now the good things, which is EVERYTHING ELSE! Specifically…
While the hero is an overbearing alpha male (he’s a billionaire tycoon whose had to raise his baby sister while he was still a teenager, so of course he’s an overbearing alpha male) and prone to making hasty judgments, he’s not afraid to say he’s sorry when proven wrong, and he doesn’t insist on punishing the heroine for decisions he doesn’t agree with or actions taken by her father. Quite simply, he’s good at being Not A Jerkface, despite his alphamaleness. The author makes me believe in his apologies and his changes, and that the changes stem from a desire to do what is best, not an attempt to get the girl. (Okay, there might have been a little of that in there too…)
Aaaand I’m almost out of space. Already. But rest assured, the heroine balances out our hero very nicely. She’s intelligent, caring, and independent, while still being real and remarkably not-annoying. The plot supports the excellent characters, making for a good, if short, read.
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“Good, if short, read.” I think this is a perfect description of this book, not often i come across a review of a book I have already read (sometimes feel like I am reading on a decade behind) but have read this one and totally agree except my attention to detail not great so did not even notice bad thing #2.
The review is also, a short but good read. I hope Jenny d
does more reviews – or is she doing reviews elsewhere?
Great review, especially considering that it’s short. Like Thoreau said, “Not that the story need be long, but it will take a long while to make it short.”
I love alphamales but I actually enjoy watching their “jerkface” antics early in a book. I enjoy it for the same reason I like shows like “Columbo”, “Criminal Minds”, “Hawaii Five-0” – I can watch and even enjoy the bad guy’s villany because I know he’s about to get caught. Extreme “jerkfaces” often unravel—extremely, and that’s lots of fun.
Ms. Morgan’s book sounds like a good read though – even with a toned down alphamale hero.
O_o I didn’t notice any continuity errors when I read it the first two times… I obviously must reread again, soonest! Thanks for giving me the excuse. 🙂
I swear, in the original request for reviews, there was something about keeping our review to 250 words. But it seems I’m either the only one who noticed, or I imagined it, as none of the other RITA reviews are that short. =)
No, you’re not the only one, Jenny. 250 words was the count given in the original post. I about tore my hair out trying to be comprehensible with so few words, and I still ended up going a little over.
Um, the author makes a point of the hero being impressed that she had brought appropriate flats for walking on the cobblestones to change into after dinner. Because her attire is a matter of conflict, this is kind of a plot point.
Shannon –
You’re right about her attire being a significant issue between the characters. I said the shoe thing wasn’t a big deal because I assume there was supposed to be a line in there about her changing into her heels before the dinner so she could change back out of them again afterwards. Because we can see what the author was doing with her clothes in general, and her shoes in specific, the missing bit of info didn’t seem like a huge deal to me—more along the lines of a typo than a real mistake. But that’s just me. =)
I noticed the heel/flat shoe thing too! I was racking my brain trying to figure out how she changed into those heels so quickly!
You didn’t imagine it. I struggled to keep my review under 250 as well. I rewrote it until I was sure it made no sense whatsoever.
There was a request for 250 and under – because I didn’t want anyone to send me a 1000+ word opus that I’d try to edit down. But if the reviews go over 250, it’s not the biggest deal in the world. I do appreciate the effort to edit, though, and I do go over each entry as they come in.
When they were on their way to dinner, there’s a line about Damon is aware that Polly if fidgeting but refuses to look at her (he doesn’t want to lose his focus). I always thought she was changing into her heels then, but this might be a wrong assumption 🙂
I had the same impression—she changed into her heels in the elevator. In fact, I was so sure it had been described that way I went back and checked the book—and indeed it never says so! The power of reader’s imagination…
The sister’s name is *almost* consistent. She’s called one name almost all the time, or a nickname. There’s a couple of points where she’s called something else (which also works with the nickname, interestingly enough). I suspect the sister was initially given the second name, until somebody along the line said “that doesn’t sound Greek”, and it was changed except for a couple of missed instances.
Nitpickery aside, it’s a really fun book, one of Morgan’s best (she can be uneven though—her most recent is very disappointing).
Oh man, I went nuts tring to stick to 250 words! Great review, Jenny. You made me want to read a book I probably would have passed by otherwise.