Title: The Love Scam
Author: MaryJanice
Davidson
Release Date: August 4,
2020 (
ARC Version)
ARC Version)
Published By: St.
Martin’s Griffin
Category: Contemporary
– Romance – Comedy
Type: Digital –
Paperback
Blurb:
Rake Tarbell is in
trouble. When the fabulously wealthy and carefree bachelor wakes up horribly
hungover in Venice, it’s not something that would normally be a
problem...except he has no idea how he got there from California. Or who stole
his wallet. Or who emptied his bank account of millions. Or who in the world is
Lillith, the charming little girl claiming to be his long lost daughter. For
the first time in his life, Rake is on his own and throwing Benjamins around
aren’t going to solve his problem. Now if only the gorgeous, fun, and
free-spirited woman who brought Lillith into his life was willing to help the
situation…
Claire Delaney finds Rake’s problems hilarious and is not in the
least bit sorry of adding to them by bringing Lillith into the mix. A pretty
Midwestern girl with a streak for mischief, Rake is not the kind of man Claire
hangs around with. Even if he is drop-dead handsome and charming as all
get-out. Even if he needs help and she has all the answers. But if this helps
Lillith, she will go out of her way. And with a guy like Rake, she’s willing to
bend her rules a bit for some fun. But when adventure-filled days turn to
romantic nights as they search for answers, and someone starts following them
through the streets of Venice, Claire realizes she's playing more than just a
game. And maybe, just maybe, she isn't willing to let go of Rake or Lillith
just yet.
By reading any further, you are
stating that you are at least 18 years of age.
If you are under the age of 18,
please exit this site.
Favorite Lines:
Unfortunately, I didn’t
notate anything due to the difficulty getting through the format of this book.
It was quite distracting.
Example:
In this case, I only
included an example of what I am speaking of in the review below. Refer back as
needed.
Normally he would have apologized for ruining her sandals and offered to buy replacements, but that was when he came to another sickening realization. “My wallet! I forgot that, too!”He was patting his soaked pockets and realized it was worse than that. Because now that he gave it some thought, he wasn’t sure he’d forgotten it. In fact …“I lost my wallet!”
“Naw, you didn’t.”
“The hell I didn’t.”
“Where was the last place you saw it?” the child asked helpfully.
“I. Don’t. Know.”
“I said you didn’t lose it.”
“How the hell would you know?”God, she was infuriating. Her good mood in the face of his very serious problem was aggravating—
Aggravating beyond belief, Blake’s voice spoke up helpfully.
Well, it was!
It’s like she has no understanding of the seriousness of your situation. Thinks your problems are funny.
Well, she did! The only time she stopped grinning was when he threw up on her. And even then she’d left the child with him, resulting in an awkward chat
(“You’re having a bad day.”
“I am having an unfathomably bad day, sweetie. Um. No offense.”
“It’s fine. Sweetie.”
“It’s nothing to do with you personally—”
“It’s fine,” she insisted.)
ducked into the bagno delle donne and emerged a few minutes later with damp but clean( ish) feet while he and the kid set up camp in the lobby, near the enormous double beverage dispenser. Oh sweet, sweet beverage dispenser, one side lemonade, the other side cold water in which floated a dozen spring strawberries. He guzzled glass after glass, until he could no longer taste vermouth barf; the resulting Mr. Misty headache, in the face of his hangover
(“Aaaaaggggghhhh—”
“Press your thumb against the roof of your mouth!”“
—ggggggghhhhh—hey, that worked!”)
was no biggie.
Anyway, there was no, repeat, no parallel between this woman’s behavior and how he related to the rest of the world in general and Blake in particular, and what was with this kid, anyway?
“C’mon,” he said abruptly when the woman rejoined him, leaving a trail of wet footprints between the bathroom and the lobby. “Let’s talk.”
“Oh, goody.”
“Let’s go over here.”He (gently) jerked his head toward the ristorante to the left of the lobby. He might be able to get a single slice of bruschetta down his gullet without dying. Once he scraped off the tomatoes and olive oil and garlic. And crumbs. And crust. Maybe. Maybe he wouldn’t die. “Have a—” He swallowed a gag. “Snack.”
Her ever-present grin reappeared. “My treat, I bet.”
“I can pay,” the child said quickly.
He could feel his face get hot. God, when was the last time he’d let someone else pay for anything? Years. “I’m not a chauvinist,” he snapped. “It’s got nothing to do with my penis.”
“Thanks for clearing that up. In front of a child, no less.”
“Well, it doesn’t!”
“I’m only a kid if you count in years. And I can pay.”
“That’s not necessary, but thank you, hon.”
The child didn’t look convinced. “Are you sure?”
“I can’t believe I’m—look, it’s just we were poor for a long time, so we hated when other people paid.”
She blinked, neutral. “Okay.”
“It makes sense if you know the background.”
“I think it’s nice that when you weren’t poor anymore, you treated other people.”
“Thank you,” he told the kid, then glared at the woman. She was infuriating, standing there all calm and judgmental, judging him calmly with her judge face. “Look, let’s just go sit down and you can tell me—”
“Nope.”
God, she was infuriating! “Nope, what?”
“Nope, we can’t just go sit down.”
“Why not?” he (almost) yelled.
“Because of that guy.”She pointed, and he turned and beheld a man wearing dark trousers, black belt, shiny black shoes, white shirt, dark blazer, name tag on one lapel (Matteo), small gold letters (Sicurezza) on a pin on the other. He was polite, he was professional, he spoke terrific English, and he made it clear that people who barfed and then drank half the lobby water could not linger in the bar scraping tomatoes off bruschetta unless they were paying guests.
“Well, you’re not,” she said once they’d been politely escorted back out to the sidewalk. “Guy hadda point, you gotta admit.”
“I know.”
“You’re kind of a bum.”
“Why?”
“How should I know? Poor work ethic?”
“No, I mean why do you—do you find everything funny?” he managed through gritted teeth, his temples pounding with every syllable. God, was this how Blake felt when they argued? How could he stand it?
“Naw.” Again with the smirk. “Just stuff you do, I guess.”
“I don’t think you’re funny,” the kid said earnestly. At one point, she’d dropped the woman’s hand and was now clutching Rake’s. He found it oddly flattering. “It’s just, funny things seem to happen to you. A lot. Y’know, because…”She gestured at his (still) dripping clothes.
He blinked, sighed, and shielded his eyes from the spring sunshine. “I woke up in Venice, which is not where I was yesterday. I have no memory of the hotel. I lost my wallet. I don’t know what I’m doing here.”
“Yeah, I know.”She nodded at the kid. “We both do.”
“You know?”
“I mean, I got that. It’s basically all you’ve been bitching about since they fished you out of the canal. Speaking of, don’t take this wrong way or anything—”
“Oh, this’ll be good,” he snapped.
“—but you’re kinda ripe.”
“Of course I’m ripe!” he all but screamed. “I fell in that cesspool of a il Canal Grande! E sto incazzato!”
“What?”
“It’s Italian for ‘pissed off’! I’m also a polyglot, which my twin brother thinks is a polymath!”
“Okay.”
From the kid: “Why does he think—”
“Blake thinks he’s so smart, but you know what?”
“Naw, but I bet you’re gonna tell us.”
“He’s not!”
“Yep. Figured.”
“Oh my God.” He clawed his fingers through his wet hair and shivered in the breeze. “Nothing’s gone right since I woke up.”
“You said that already.” Argh. Hateful child.
“Actually, things were going wrong with you last night, and prob’ly earlier,” her companion pointed out with aggravating cheer. She had shrugged out of her light linen jacket and was now holding it out to him. He looked at it, puzzled
(Is she going to wave it at me? Like a bullfighter? It’s not red! What kind of a bullfighter doesn’t know the red rule?)
so she took it back, stepped forward, and started drying his hair with it with the impersonal efficiency of a hairstylist. “That’s what I gathered from what you were saying, anyway.”
“Ack! Okay, this is decent of you and all, but I’m ruining your jacket, seriously.” And yet, doglike, he refused to move. He might have leaned into the jacket a little. It felt soooo nice to have that revolting water wicked from his hair. “You’re literally using your jacket to soak up the shit and germs in my hair. Thank you.”
“You say,” she sighed, “the sweetest things.”
“Aw, stai zitto.* That means—”
“No need,” she said drily. “I can guess what it means. C’mon, let’s find a new place to sit down.”
“And I’ll get ice cream,” the child announced. “My treat.”
“Right. We’ll get comfy and get ice cream and I’ll tell you what you forgot.”
“Starting with your name.”It finally occurred to him that she’d come to him when she recognized his voice, suffered to let him puke on her, stuck with him while he tried to gather his senses, came back to him after cleaning her weirdly long feet, and allowed the security guard to kick them both out. And all with a small, pale, black-haired child in tow.
She could have taken off at any time. Most people wouldn’t have gone near anything that came out of the canal, much less came out of the canal spitting and swearing and just generally being an enormo pain in the ass. Yeah, her constant amusement as he struggled through the worst day of his life was aggravating, and the kid was weirding him out a little, and he was beginning to suspect karma was, in fact, a bitch. This woman, though, didn’t seem to be one.
Like it or not, he was clueless
(and wouldn’t big brother love to hear him admit that)
and she, at least, had some answers. And not just about him. The kid—what was the backstory there?
“Yeah, your name,” he replied. “I forgot it. Along with everything else.”
“No you didn’t.” She reached out and tucked her hand into his damp paw. “I never told it to you. And you never asked.”
“I’m occasionally an asshole.”
“No, just…”The child trailed off tactfully. “Um, stressed. And a smidge snappy.”
“Now that I did know,” she said, and laughed. He wasn’t quite ready to find any of this amusing, but he managed to find a smile from somewhere.
Review:
Claire is quite secretive about
everything involving Rake as well as herself. She has the upper hand because
she actually knows more than she’s letting on to and the longer she can delay
Rake from discovering the truth, the better things will be for all of them. The
billionaire playboy won’t be but a memory of a short time spent in Venice when all is
completed. Except the man she believes she has pegged turns out to be anything
but. The image thrust in the public’s face merely a facade. In a short amount
of time, as she begins to form a delicate bond with Rake, she quickly finds
herself in danger of much more than anticipated at the start of this
journey. Her heart could very well be lost to her when they inevitably part
ways; her resistance toward Rake rapidly crumbling. As long as she focuses on
the importance of this Venice encounter, she will be able to hold her ground
and resist his distracting charms…maybe.
Rake is a rich playboy. Rather than
embrace responsibility, he shirks anything serious; running through life full
of sass, booze, and women. His twin brother is the polar opposite and
constantly taking the form of an annoying little voice in Rake’s head,
admonishing him for the choices he makes as he flits through life with no
purpose. After one drunken night of…unknown…Rake finds himself in Venice with
no ID, no possessions, and no money. His bank has been drained of millions. The
only clue available to him comes in the form of Claire. A conundrum to be sure,
initially, he can’t quite seem to figure her out. There’s also the slight hiccup
that she’s toting around a highly observant and intelligent girl who she claims
is Rake’s daughter. Challenge accepted. He’s going to get to the bottom if this
situation. Claire may think she holds all of the cards in Rake’s momentary loss
of – everything, really – but he’s just as intelligent and observant as the
young Lillith, if not more. Preferring to play the role he’s been cast in given
his fast life, Rake soon unravels the mystery. Not only that, he plans to put
his own spin on it and Claire will certainly hold a place in the new reality he
chooses to create. He’s just got to make his plea believable and trust that she
has had enough time getting to know his true self – one he never reveals to
anyone.
OK guys … all I can say is that I I sincerely hope that between now and August, this book gets some serious edits.
My review copy is an ARC, so some things can be forgiven as ARCs frequently
have a few issues. Not near this many typically, but generally speaking, you can
be a little less stringent on editing errors within an ARC. There is so much
wrong with this fantastic plot. It’s maddening!
The first thing that I immediately
disliked was that Rake’s twin brother is named Blake. No. Stop it. My first impression
was, “Are you kidding me?” Second, there are so many internal monologues going
on. Some of the pages appear as though the keyboard barfed italics and refused
to revert back to the standard font. Due to this issue, much of the writing
became confusing. Many times, I was sure that the text appeared to be an inner
thought, but had been spoken instead. And vice versa. There are also several
side comments contained within parenthesis. The moral of the story here is to
make up your mind. Write the inner monologue as part of the scene instead of
creating so much separation. I could have read this book twice as quickly had I
not been forced to keep track of where the text was attempting to take me.
Third, whatever the descriptions are, they should remain consistent. Rake’s
initial description of Claire did not bring me to believe that he found her
attractive. In fact, one portion of the description included that she had big
feet. What? The? Hell? Not a couple of chapters later, he’s describing her as
gorgeous. By this time, I’m seriously contemplating stamping a humongous DNF on
this book. The only thing that kept me going was the fact that it was an ARC
and I argued with myself that I was being too hard on the plot due to a large
percentage of my complaints encircling…yep. Editing. I persevered. Fourth,
Claire is clearly annoyed by everything Rake. His dashing looks, his blasé
attitude, his money, his inability to take anything serious. Yep. Everything
Rake annoys her. All of a sudden, we find her giggling at something he’s said
or done. This ends up happening several times. But giggling? She’s clearly some
sort of bad-ass investigator. Maybe. Giggling just took her badassery down a
notch. I didn’t care for it at all. Fifth would be the language and by language
I am referring to the Italian and whatever else is used. Now this would not regularly
annoy me, but the fact that the author felt the need to translate what was
being said, did. In fact, several chapters have footnotes explaining either the
translation or something else. For example, stating that something that
occurred is referring to a previous book. Huh? Never in all of the books I have
read have I come across an author that actually referred to a previous book. Adding
to the muddle, if this story is part of a series, it is not indicated anywhere.
I mean nowhere. I searched and I couldn’t find it. I didn’t even turn up the
book the footnote referred to. Aggravating! Sixth was the fact that Claire – I
mean Delaney – she doesn’t go by Claire and pretty much all of the text refers
to her as Delaney. What? But I digress. Claire leaves Lillith with Rake, not even
knowing for sure if he is her father. I didn’t at all care for this action. It
was later explained, but still didn’t sit well with me; especially given how
Claire feels about Rake at the time. Ugh. I was literally about to
end the book right there. This thing has fifty-three chapters! Fifty-three! And
some of them are maybe ½ a page. Why? I don’t know. All mentioned thus far occurred
by the conclusion of chapter thirteen. Thirteen you guys! And you know what
kept me going after that? No lie. I was literally about to shut off the
e-reader. It was the last flipping line of the chapter. I’m not even kidding!
So maybe start reading at chapter fourteen at this point. Blessedly,
once I got past those first thirteen chapters, everything got so much better.
There was still a bunch of the editing, italics, parenthesis, etc. occurring.
However, it was much less than initially. So those are the problems.
Here’s what I liked. This book wasn’t at
all what I expected. Aside from all of the confusing aspects, it was generally a
very good plot. The jocular dialogue and thoughts were quite entertaining.
Lillith was unlike any child I have read about and I enjoyed her out-of-the-box
character development. I wouldn’t say I became overly attached to Claire and
Rake. However, by the time Rake put in his two cents as to what was occurring
over the course of their time in Venice, I fell just a little bit in love with
him. With the way he handled everything and his solution to each curve ball
thrown at him, I was impressed. Want to know the dumbest thing? Corresponding
to Rake’s disaster in Venice, Blake is going through his own turmoil. We glimpse
a bit of it as Rake communicated with Blake. Shockingly, I became curious about
what Blake was enduring! What? I’m not even sure how that happened. I’m really
not. I suppose in some small way, despite all of the glaring snags, somehow
this author got to me. For that, I have to give her kudos. Pretty freaking
amazing given my determination not to finish the book originally. Or crazy.
Maybe both. I am a bit dismayed that Ms. Davidson has so many published books
and yet the ARC has so much formatting difficulty. It looks as though many of
her books are a part of one series and involve vampires. So perhaps this is a
new writing journey into less than uncharted territory. I am unsure. Come to
think of it, I don’t know how much my review will help anyone. But this is the
way I see it currently. An ARC is not the final copy. If I am not honest about
the negative areas, then I shouldn’t be reviewing. And if I let everything
remain in the negative without speaking to those instances that I ultimately
enjoyed, then I am doing everyone a disservice. From this review I am taking
away the following: The ARC needs a lot of work and likely will not bring this
author a new following; might actually cause her to lose some of her current
following. However, with the adjustments made – and I find it truly
unfathomable to entertain the thought that there wouldn’t be a deep edit prior
to publishing in August – it’s actually quite an entertaining read. If you are
a reader and you don’t tend to review, then just wait for the final copy to be
released later in the year. That way, hopefully, none of the above problems I
encountered will become your burden. If the book does not get cleaned up, then
I wouldn’t come back. Despite my curiosity in the companion book (if there is
one), there are just too many issues that interfere with my reading enjoyment
to allow me to knowingly go through anything like this again.
Kindle
version provided by NetGalley/St. Martin’s in exchange for an honest review.
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