Pampered daughter of a cold and
autocratic millionaire, Katya Morgan is living the high life - jet-setting around the
world, sipping margaritas, enjoying boy toys – in general, doing whatever her little
heart desires. Of course, what she really wants is her father’s love, but
unfortunately he’s never been able to bear the sight of her, as she’s the living
replica of her exotically beautiful but dead Russian mother, whom he’d loved very
much. Money is the only love Charles Morgan is capable of showering his only child with,
and Katya has long stopped expecting more. So when her father dies, Katya refuses to cry.
And when she finds that he’s disinherited her, she feels certain that her new
stepmother is the cause of it all.
Cutting off her money supply to Katya
is the same as cutting off oxygen to a human being. Having never been without money all
her hedonistic life, her first reaction is to get a lawyer and fight the will. But even to
hire one, Katya needs money. The thought of getting a job and earning money doesn’t
even enter her high-society thinking, until she finds herself getting evicted from the
Royal Palmetto hotel in Scottsdale, because she can no longer pay her bill. Then the
handsome hotel manager, Alex Sheridan has the gall to suggest that she work off her
debt….…by working as a maid in the hotel!
Soon Katya discovers the hard work
that one has to do to support oneself and though she grumbles a lot, she gradually finds
that earning her own way is fun, in its own way. But her ultimate goal is still to earn
enough money to hire a lawyer and get her father’s will overthrown. Will this upper
crust spoiled heiress and this middle-class ordinary hotel manager ever have anything in
common? And is it pure coincidence that unusual accidents start happening around the hotel
from the instant Katya starts working there?
‘Room Service’ is a wonderfully entertaining book
from the up and coming author Beverly Brandt. The author not only gives a humorous glimpse
at the jet-set lifestyle of the rich and the famous, but also manages to beautifully
contrast it with the simple, hard-working and immensely more satisfying life of the
ordinary working-class. Katya and Alex are two individuals who’re separated by a vast
gulf of lifestyle and bank balance. What romance there is, develops very gradually and
thus is very convincing. The majority of the book depicts Katya’s shocked and
sometimes outrageous and sometimes comical antics, while trying to come to terms with
being suddenly penniless. The plentiful humor, which at times is wonderfully
self-deprecating, is the highlight of this otherwise predictable story. The author
repeatedly justifies Katya’s reasons for being the way she is, and while this tends
to slow the pace intermittently, it also goes a long way towards softening the
reader’s heart towards this spoilt little rich girl. There are plenty of secondary
characters that greatly enhance the story, including some four-legged ones. This is a
romance story with a moral, and it delivers its message with panache.
Very entertaining, and immensely
satisfying!
Reviewed By Rashmi Srinivas for The
Road to Romance
April 8, 2003
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