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Amy Baker and her friends have made a challenge together – they’ll each overcome a fear. Amy’s fear was going to a strange place on her own. She’d done that by becoming a nanny on board a cruise ship traveling the Caribbean, but she’d also failed that by being fired half way through the cruise. If she went home now, she’d be the only one of the three who didn’t complete her challenge.
So she looks for work on the island, and finds that Guy Gaspar, locally considered to be a monster of some sort, needs someone to keep house and make meals for him in his island hide-away. As she loves to cook, Amy figured this would be the perfect job for a couple of weeks until it was time to go home.
She’s greeted by Lance Beaufort, Mr. Gaspar’s personal assistant, who instructs Amy on her duties and limitations – she’s not to go near Mr. Gaspar’s rooms under any circumstances. After Lance leaves the residence for the night, she develops a relationship with Guy through speakers, spending most evenings talking to him about things she’s never talked to a man about before. Inevitably, she wants to meet him, because she’s fallen in love with the man considered to be a monster, and it’s mutual.
But there’s more to Guy than meets the…. speaker.
Julie Ortolon’s third story in her ‘… Perfect’ series certainly was a fun read. Despite a bit of an awkward start – I felt the author had a bit of trouble introducing us to Amy and justifying her staying on the island – once we got past the introductions, the story became as crystal clear and technicolour as the island it was set on.
Amy is a woman in transition. She’s recently lost weight, is moving forward in her life by doing something she’s never done before, but she’s held back by her fears. In a case of the right place at the right time, Guy gives her something she needs to succeed – self-confidence.
Guy is in a bit of turmoil too. Confidence isn’t his problem – rather, he’s lost interest in his own life and has stepped out of it to decide who he is. At a crossroad, Amy steps into his life at a time when he needs a catalyst to push him
to the next phase.
I highly recommend TOO PERFECT. It was an extremely fun read with more weight to it than the cartoon cover suggests. It was one of those books that I looked forward to starting, and really didn’t look forward to finishing, because that would mean I had to leave two characters that I’d come to care about. An enjoyable story from a talented writer.
Reviewed by Sue Waldeck
for The Road to Romance
November 10, 2005
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