Iris's Reviews > Sweet Promise

No visible signature but this lovely and distinctive cover is almost certainly Harry Nørstrand's work and well suited to this ball of fluff story.



There is a young, violet-eyed, spoiled, rich, innocent daddy's girl named Erica starved for affection and attention because her father doesn't care for anything beyond his business deals. There is a dark, handsome, virile, aloof, cultured, patient hero Raphael from an old and wealthy Mexican family who the h mistakes for an older woman's boy toy. Within a few days of meeting in Acapulco, after spending almost no time together, Erica, who's irate that her father is ignoring her asks Raphael to marry her. Raphael says no, no, that's not how it's done in my tradition I'm asking you to marry ME. Neither seems to care why the other agrees. They are quickie married by a priest an hour later.

They consummate the union. Erica had intended to skip out prior to this so she could report all to her father who would be satisfyingly furious while handling the annulment but she couldn't help herself—Raphael's foreign man moves were just that smooth—Erica sneaks away during the night.

Janet Dailey, the queen of subtle. But somehow I can't work up the appropriate level of ire for the bratty brat girl who's all terrible and immature and who needs to grow up before she'll deserve a wonderful guy like Raphael. Why the focus on the girl's flaws when there's an elephant sitting at the grownup table: the sheer idiocy of this type of HP hero, oh so mature, marrying a young woman he barely knows. And as always ending with author dignifying hero's hard-on induced stupidity as love at first sight. So implausible and irritating as heck yet this once the unusually understanding hero, and the cover of course, lift the story to a weak 3 stars.