Charlotte Lamb said once that she could write a book a month, and with that pace a few duds will slip in along with her many stellar stories. Dangerous (paid ad) is a romance between Laura, a nurse chaperoning a resentful, rebellious 16 year old daughter of a very rich man, and that man Domenicos.
Charlotte Lamb tends to take her time and word count to build strong secondary characters, in Dangerous she writes a good, believable story about Laura and Amanda. Amanda starts to grow up and leave behind rebellion for rebellion’s sake, mostly because Laura is wisely indulges her on small things and lets Amanda to meet the boy she likes under the aegis of her grandmother.
Dangerous has side stories: Amanda grows up, Domenicos begins to know her, Domenicos relationship with his mother, Laura’s friendship with Marcel, the uncle of the boy Amanda wants to date. Lamb does a nice job sketching in these stories, enough to keep us interested in the characters, but she doesn’t actually tie off the loose ends.
My biggest disappointment is the romance between Laura and Domenicos is not believable. Domenicos despises women in general and Laura fascinates him because she is honest, does not chase him nor play games and she obviously cares for Amanda and his mother. Plus she’s attractive and radiates innocence. Laura finds Domenicos attractive and she enjoys the time they spend together but she’s sensible enough to be wary of him and not want an affair.
So why do they end up planning to marry? Would Domenicos, a brilliant businessman whose first marriage was a disaster and who doesn’t trust anyone, truly propose after just a month or less, probably less than 24 hours total spent with Laura? I don’t think so. Laura thinks he is propositioning her when he does propose (he words it that way) yet she is willing to risk all for a few moments of joy. It doesn’t ring true to me.
I did not get emotionally involved with any of the characters nor engaged with the story. It was a book I could put down and pick up a day later.
Overall Dangerous is a decent read, well-written with plenty of scenes in and around Paris, with well-done secondary characters. It is meant to be a romance and on that level it doesn’t rate above a skimpy 3 stars. I didn’t love the story, or the characters nor did I get so irritated that I wanted to whack them over the head with a 2×4. (I give 5s for books that engage me to the point where I fume about the jerky hero for days after reading.)
I got my copy of Dangerous from Thriftbooks. Amazon has used copies as of this writing and you likely will find copies on eBay and other used book sites.
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