"The one romance of her life foiled by a spinach salad."
(I don't know what the author was thinking having a line like that in here. For the record, it's a commentary on twins liking the same things to eat...or date.)
I don't know why I do these things. My mom is a big ol' Debbie Macomber fan, and I've occasionally read books of hers over the years and found them to be kinda...odd. I'm not sure why the heck I picked up this 80's special my mom had lying around the house when I was over for the weekend, but it was interesting.
Carrie and Camille Lockett are fraternal twins. Camille is a sultry brunette with big blue eyes that all the guys go for. Carrie is a hazel-eyed redhead with freckles who has always felt like the ugly duckling in comparison to her twin. Carrie's also been "the brains" and "the mom" in the family to boot, as she's a professional artist. When Carrie paints a portrait of her sister (I'm assuming she really needed the money), she expects it to go fast because everyone loses their shit over Camille, and pretty much any dude Carrie's dated that she introduced to Camille has dumped Carrie for her twin. For the record, Camille does come off as a bit shallow/not super filled with depth, but she doesn't sound like a bad person who deliberately tries to steal men from her sister. Camille does genuinely care for her sister and her happiness, but Carrie seems so utterly blinded by I'M A LOSER NEXT TO MY TWIN that hoo boy, she can't see it. Anyway, when Carrie's dealer wants to introduce her to a gorgeous fellow who's bought several of her paintings, Carrie has a hard time trusting it. But after he turns down buying the Camille painting, Carrie thinks well of him enough to want to meet the guy. And when she sees Shane at a party her dealer throws, things look promising.... until Carrie finds out that Shane bought the painting after all and she flips the hell out and backs out on the match. Shane wonders what the heck went wrong and makes darned sure he actually talks to her a few times until she calms down, and even manipulates her a bit into painting him so that they can hang out.
Shane has secretly had a crush on Carrie for quite awhile, apparently (both because he loves her work and because he thinks she's a fox), but she's been completely oblivious at best--and frankly, whenever she sees that painting around his home or office again, she gets very cold and abrupt and rude to him. "You're hot and you're cold" totally fits her. But Shane presses on and eventually Carrie lets herself get involved with him, and happily. But she's constantly afraid that once he meets Camille, it'll be over in a flash, and she freaks out at the idea of Camille running into them in a restaurant due to her twin sense/liking of the same restaurants/liking of the same dudes. Even though Camille is involved with a fellow named Bob and seems to be kinda hot and cold on him herself. It must be a twin thing because both of them get the idea to "test" their guys to see if they're really loved and it doesn't go well when either of them pull shenanigans like that. (Take note, ladies, don't do it. It's not working even in a romance novel.) Sometimes Carrie is all "okay, FINE, let's just get this over with and I"ll have you meet her and run off with her" and then chickens out, and both Shane and Camille are trying to figure out on their ends why the hell she's acting so weird about her sister/about this guy she likes. Heck, at times Carrie acts like she's going to fix Shane up with Camille and Camille is kinda like "I'd never deliberately steal a guy from you but if you're not interested, I'd go..." That doesn't help any.
Anyway, this book is far more about Carrie's whopping insecurities than anything else. I give the author credit for making Shane a decent fellow--I'm not overly thrilled with Alpha Male 80's Stalking Technique stuff in romance novels, and Shane's doing that at the start, but I think in this case it was kind of needed given how often she kinda snaps and flips out--a push to get past her defense is clearly needed when she is also obviously interested back but chickening out. I felt sorry for him because he is clearly doing his damndest to figure out what the hell is going on, but at the same time the author's had to hand him the Idiot Ball so that he's kinda "close but no cigar" as to figuring out what the hell is making Carrie suddenly snap and run so many times. You want to yell DUDE, SHE FLIPS OUT EVERY TIME SHE SEES THAT PAINTING, TAKE A HINT a lot, but Shane never quite gets (until page 131 after he's actually finally met Camille) that Carrie has issues about her sister. Hell, at one point he figures out that the painting has something to do with it, but that's because it must be some kind of secret self-portrait of Carrie herself in which she was fudging her own looks. Uh...what? The author tries to make this make sense, but it doesn't really.
Camille does get a little brattier toward the end, which seemed like she got the Brat Ball or something. For a girl who seemed genuinely not interested in stealing Carrie's man, she seems to appear as if she'd be interested, and there's a crack she makes about Carrie's "minor deficiencies" that is such an OW that Shane gets really ticked on Carrie's behalf, but he restrains himself from saying anything about Camille's "sensitivity of corn husks" in public. I wasn't thrilled with that, but she does rebound back into decency later.
The book makes it clear that Shane is so besotted with Carrie and her talent that you pretty much know he's not going to stray even when he meets Camille. And after The Worst Happens and they do meet, it gets a little amusing when Camille's dude Bob finally goes to see Carrie and talk about his romantic angst with her sister. After both of them find out that Shane asked to see Camille privately and are stewing about it, then it occurs to them that it could be perfectly innocent--like Bob and Carrie's own conversation is at the moment. They both like the idea of stirring a little jealousy up and being seen together by Shane and Camille, but then they get over it pretty quickly and Carrie vouches to Camille that Bob really was interested in commitment after all, etc. And both sisters admit to being jealous of the other one--Camille's always been envious of Carrie's brains and talent.
Though when Camille suggests a double wedding, Carrie still kinda has an obvious flip out about it. Sigh. Well, I'd like to think that someday they could get over it. At least enough to be maids of honor for each other without thoughts of "stealing the show."
Overall I enjoyed this for some reason, but it did make me think that Debbie Macomber sure does write heroines who are really easily insecure and overwrought in about three seconds every time they feel threatened by another woman. (I still remember vividly a book of hers I read once, Love By Degree, in which a heroine literally up and moved out of her place within a day because her boyfriend took the "wrong" car to work.) I think I'm giving this three and a half stars overall because the Idiot and Brat Balls annoyed me, but somehow I was touched reading it, so go figure.
(Oh, and for the record, check out this pink manga cover update of the book, because DAMN. Shane is drawn accurately, but why is Carrie now a blonde? As a review of it I saw pointed out, it makes a lot less sense for a blonde to be angsty about her looks compared to a redhead. Also, why is his named spelled with a Y? Oy.)
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