Genuine Lies
Ratings4
Average rating2.3
IN HOLLYWOOD, A LADY LEARNS FAST: THE BAD CAN BE BEAUTIFUL, AND THE TRUTH CAN KILL...
EVE BENEDICT. The last of the movie goddesses, a smoky-voiced sex symbol with two Oscars, four ex-husbands, and a legion of lovers to her name. The glamorous screen star is still beautiful, still tough--and still has a heart as big as the legend that surrounds her. But Eve is a woman of mystery, whose passionate affairs and tempestuous marriages have fueled gossip columns for decades. Now she is ready to reveal her secrets to one woman... but will opening herself to Julia Summers's scrutiny endanger the only person who will tell her truth... her way?
JULIA SUMMERS. A renowned writer, as astonishingly lovely as she is private, Julia cares deeply for her young son--and not at all for a place in the spotlight. Transported from her quiet life in Connecticut to glitzy Beverly Hills, Julia hates the limelight but loves her work. But no subject is as irresistible as the glorious Eve... and no story more challenging to tell than the one nobody in Hollywood wants told. She cannot refuse the dream job Eve offers her... but can she be seduced into keeping the secrets she learns?
PAUL WINTHROP. Eve's stepson and the hottest novelist in a very hot town, Paul provokes a different kind of fantasy with his bronzed muscles and panther's grace. He has a stake in keeping Eve's image just as history has written it... but will he sacrifice the woman he's always loved for a chance to write his own happy ending?
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One of the things I've noticed going back and re-reading these older Nora Roberts books is how she's evolved her female characters. In these older books the women are all not looking for any sort of relationship and then here comes this irresistible man who nearly forces himself on them and they fall in love two days later. There are some exceptions to this, but this one, Genuine Lies, was probably the worst offender.
Maybe it didn't help that I didn't care for any of the characters and the book was so dang long. And transparent. Of course, I've read the book before so I can't say if I was remembering or if it really was that predictable, but I didn't enjoy this one the way I've rediscovered and enjoyed the Dream trilogy and the Concannon Sisters trilogy.
I don't know why it had to be so long. She spent a lot of time setting the scene and building up, but then there were other aspects of the story she seemed to gloss over quickly. And maybe that's my own preference. Sometime the aftermath is more interesting to me than the actual story!
Julia just wasn't my favorite Nora Roberts character. She was weirdly angered. Maybe that was Roberts way of expressing how repressed she was in everyday life, but really, it was just weird. Paul's heavy handed ‘romancing' of Julia was borderline creepy although I did like his relationship with Julia's son. Eve's whole plot to get all of this together was just badly planned and the monkey wrench thrown in sucked.
All in all, certainly not my favorite Nora Roberts book and in fact, the only book of hers I can think of that I'm rating lower than 3 stars. Oh well, they can't all be winners!
