Searching for Beautiful

by Jennifer Probst

May 26, 2015 · Gallery Books

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C

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This RITA® Reader Challenge 2016 review was written by Mina Lobo. This story was nominated for the RITA® in the Long Contemporary category.

Here is Mina Lobo's review:

My review takes a quasi-newspaper article type format, with each section being worth a point.

Who/Why
Genevieve, the Heroine: didn’t love her. I found Gen to be a largely ineffectual heroine in her dealings with her prick-weasel ex-fiancé (and with life just generally) ’til about halfway into the book. As often as the reader’s reminded of how educated and tough she is, and of how many people love and support her (her huge family, her BFFs–and the reader’s reminded of them a LOT*), I find it hard to understand how she was so ripe for her ex’s manipulation. Plus, her immature behavior (whining, pouting–and the many times she stuck her tongue out at the hero, for lack of a better comeback) grated on me.

She sort of grew up a bit at the end, I guess. Well, kind of. I mean, I dug that she’d shaken off all the ick her ex had laid on her so she could let herself be vulnerable to the hero. But right after a brave, and major, disclosure on her part, she issues the hero an ultimatum along the lines of, “So you give me what I want from you, right now, or I’m walking away.” I mean, that just didn’t make sense to me, after the journey she’d been on throughout the novel. Anyway, her major motivation is reclaiming the person she’d been before her ex-fiancé screwed with her head (as a divorced gal, I can relate to, and respect, this).

Wolfe, the Hero: he’s just another multimillionaire womanizer. Except he has a BAMF snake tattoo and a pierced dick. Whoop-de-do. I’m down with the ink, but the piercings don’t do it for me. OTOH, I really liked the way he supported the heroine and took care of her, which seemed to be his primary motivation.

*The other thing that sticks in my craw about the heroine’s support system is how her family didn’t immediately buy what Gen was telling them about why she had to leave her (ex-) fiancé. OK, so maybe that would explain how the ex could destroy Gen’s self-esteem as well as he did. Bah, I still subtract half a point from this section.

What’s Happening & Where
It’s your basic runaway bride story, with Wolfe supporting Gen’s decision to ditch her dude at the altar and protecting her from those who’d have intruded on the time she needed to heal. Apart from this, not much of a plot, really (though, strangely, I’m not bothered by that, as I felt the heroine’s journey back to herself, and the hero’s journey to belief in his intrinsic self-worth, were enough). I have to say, I envy the closeness Gen and Wolfe already feel at the beginning of the narrative, as they’d been BFFs for quite some time. And I did enjoy the various settings, from the remote cabin in the woods, to the suburbs of NYC, to Milan, and then back to the ‘burbs. The author did a good job of bringing me into the story that way, so a full point here.

How Things Happen
The first half of the book lumbered along irritatingly–I mean, I got really annoyed with how much I had to slog through without anything of import occurring. But something caught fire for me midway through–maybe all the hot sex–and I found myself vested in how they’d arrive at HEA.

I liked the little bits of magical realism we caught at the very end of the tale. I realize this is the third book in a series so the back-story for the hocus-pocus likely took place in the first book (though this story would not qualify as a paranormal). Still, I’d have liked more info about that sprinkled throughout the story. Minus a quarter of a point.

WhatTheFuckery
Mainly that some of the heroine’s behavior annoyed me, but also the bits where the hero feels the need to prove to her she’s desirable and a good kisser/lay. Minus .25 here.

Overall Feeling & Final Score/Grade
This book would’ve been greatly served by judicious trimming of its first half. And I’m a little tired of heroes so rich and powerful that they can afford to just hang out with the heroine for days on end. But I enjoyed the trip once it picked up some speed, and the author did manage to make me care enough about what would happen with the H&H that I wanted to read through to the end. Too, I liked the set-up for the next book (one of Gen’s friends clashes amusingly with a tough cop and, actually, I’m interested in seeing how those two get together so I may keep an eye out for it).

So for my overall feeling, I give Searching for Beautiful three-quarters of a point. Added to the rest, it’s a total of 3.75 out of 5, or a grade of C.