3 out of 4 stars
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In the beloved fairy tale Beauty and the Beast, Belle meets an ogre who eventually transforms into a handsome prince with a good heart, and they fall in love and live happily ever after. In Shattered Perfection, the opposite happens. Mimi Bishop meets a kind and loving Adonis in Vance Ashcroft and marries him in haste; he eventually transforms into a beast.
The whirlwind love affair of Mimi and Vance starts with a chance encounter at the Los Angeles International Airport. They are preparing to board the same American Airlines flight to New York. He is going there for a business trip and she is going for a holiday with a friend. The two find themselves seatmates during the flight, get to know each other, and hit it off almost instantly. They “share a sparkling and dynamic chemistry.” “Humor, happiness and steamy sensuality” permeate their relationship. They soon marry in Las Vegas and settle in their lovely home in Los Angeles.
After a year of wedded bliss, Vance changes. Mimi is subjected to months of verbal abuse which she endures silently. On the night that Mimi is pushed to retaliate in kind, Vance loses his head and almost strangles her to death.
Fearing for her life, she leaves home and slowly tries to pick up the pieces of her shattered heart. Vance attempts a reconciliation. Will Mimi take him back? Will their perfect love ever be restored?
This is an amazing love story written by an author who has a wonderful ability to use just the right words to titillate her reader. The author herself says, “I hope (my story) will make you laugh, cry and ultimately feel as though you have loved right along with Mimi and Vance.” She does just that. Humor abounds; the dialogues are fun to read. For example, Mimi’s lady friend, describing her infatuation with a lover, says, “I swear, all I had to do was get a whiff of that musky cologne of his, and I set back the women’s agenda by at least 20 years.” Potent emotions are described vividly. One heartrending quote is, “One day bled into the next, a study of loneliness.” The book is also lavishly peppered with romantic quotes to thrill any lady (or man, for that matter). Consider this: “My heart is and has only ever been yours.” The reader falls in love along with Mimi and Vance and suffers the broken heart, too.
Mimi, a paralegal, and Vance, a lawyer specializing in mergers and acquisitions, are realistically depicted. The supporting characters all have important parts to play. I appreciate the romance against the backdrop of real life, with families, co-workers and bosses, and a few good friends in the picture. This enriches the story, making it more relatable. Some ho-hum romance novels obliterate other aspects of the lovers’ lives, focusing only on the love angle; this makes the stories ring untrue.
The book summary is forthright about the explicit sexual content. That is usually expected (other readers even require it!) of a novel in this genre. There are at least three such scenes and lots of pillow talk, but they are quite tastefully done and intensify the reader’s romantic experience.
This story has a beautiful ending, one that is extremely satisfying but leaves room for conjecture. Readers are wont to continue the story in their minds.
Considering the engaging story, the author’s facility with words, and the emotional highs I got from this book, I could have given it a perfect rating. Sadly, however, I found a lot of editing issues throughout the book. Punctuation marks, mostly commas for parenthetical elements and hyphens for compound adjectives, were not properly used. There were useless words that were not edited out (e.g., plenty of “time” of vacation time, studied it closely “it”, nodded encouragingly “me” at me) and misspellings (e.g., tears that “threated” earlier, “shoe-in” to win). These distractive errors could easily be addressed by a seasoned editor.
The editing issues make me subtract one star from perfection; thus, I award this story 3 out of 4 stars. Even as is, this story will surely please everyone who has loved, dreams of the perfect love (or even one that is not so perfect), or has lost faith in love. That’s practically everyone, but young readers may have to wait until they are 18.
In closing, I like to commend the author for this debut work that has made me laugh, cry and love along with Mimi and Vance. Yay, Heather, you did it!
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Shattered Perfection
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