Rana Ramsey is a successful model who chucked aside the glitz and glamor of the lifestyle thanks to a stage mother from hell. When the straw breaks the camel's back, she heads south to Galveston, Texas where she's renting an apartment from an elderly landlady and supporting herself as a textile artist. However thanks to her unique look, to stay truly hidden and away from the prying eyes of the public, she takes to disguising herself with frumpy, oversized clothes, tinted glasses, no make-up, and she's started eating like a normal person, so she's put on about twenty pounds. Life is going well for Rana until her landlady's nephew arrives to upset the apple cart.
Trent Gamblin (no, I am not making that up...) is an NFL quarterback who has a few weeks until spring training and his injured shoulder just isn't healing properly. The problem is his lifestyle. Trent is Mr. Good Time, partying and playing it up in Houston, women falling at his feet, the world being his oyster. Now on the wrong side of thirty, he knows his playing days are numbered and he wants to go out on his own terms. Which means getting out of Houston, away from temptation, and nursing that shoulder. His aunt has a vacant apartment in Galveston, that seems like a solid plan - until he meets Rana who he knows as "Miss Ramsey" and then "Ana."
Rana hits the ground running in the prickly department. Frankly she starts out as bit of a over-sensitive bitch, and then you realize why she's like that. She takes one look at Trent and just KNOWS the type of guy he is. The ego on this guy is amazing. He's used to women falling all over themselves and here's dowdy spinster Miss Ramsey who looks like she stepped in something smelly every time she's around him. So, naturally, because he's a jerk and bored he thinks he'll get his jollies by seducing the spinster - that is until Rana calls him out on ALL his bullshit and seriously just read this book if only for that scene (Chapter 3, you're welcome).
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Of course these two have more in common then they first realize because Rana is hiding her true identity. She's never had any genuine affection in her life, no one being capable of seeing past her looks to get to know the real person. Trent's worth is wrapped up entirely in his ability to throw a football, what happens when he's put out to pasture before he even hits 40?
Brown says some interesting things about youth and beauty culture in this book that feel downright progressive for 1986, but that doesn't mean there's still not plenty of grossness. Rana's 5'9" and at the height of her career she was 110 lbs. Then when she starts eating more than just lettuce and water, she puts on 20 lbs. Folks, maybe it's because I'm 5'9" that I spent this entire book wondering how Rana was able to stand upright and be conscious. At my skinniest I weighed in at about 125 lbs, had the figure of a No. 2 pencil, and was passing out from iron deficiency anemia. I mean, no two bodies are the same and modeling is, well, modeling but c'mon. Also, I'm not gonna lie, I felt some kind of way when a waitress at a Mexican restaurant Trent and Rana go to is described as "fat."
So, yes, this is very interesting but it was still 1986. However to liven up some of that grossness we are regaled with some fantastic fashion descriptions, right down to Trent wearing cut-off jean shorts and midriff baring T-shirts while working out 😂.
As much as I loved the completely over-the-top bananapants of A Treasure Worth Seeking, I feel like this one works slightly better because while the supermodel living as a spinster trope is equally as absurd, there's not a piling on of the bananapants. Sometimes less is indeed more.
Final Grade = B
3 comments:
So glad you enjoyed it! =) Our thoughts about the book are almost 100% the same: for something published nearly 40 years ago now, some of it (including that beautiful rant in Chapter 3) still resonates today.
I read this at the end of my SB tear all those years ago. IIRC the one I read before this was so bad I DNFed it. Digging into my GR I see that it is "In a Class By Itself," which I rated one star and said was everything that was awful about 80s romances. "Class" was also originally a Loveswept title, so just goes to show that there was little consistency back in the day, LOL.
I have this book...somewhere, but all I remember is the cover--will have to find a moment to dig it up and read it. Or at least chapter 3.
@eurohackie: looking back, it's interesting to see how some authors managed to do a lot of experimenting, for good or ill, pushing the envelope in several directions at once; it's probably because some of those lines were also an experiment by the publishers as they competed with one another for a rapidly growing market.
The reason for my SB reading extravaganza was I moderated a library event she did in my neck of the woods - and I had the opportunity to chat with her before the event. I had the BEST time talking about her early career because she wrote for, at least, three different category lines (it was a local indie bookstore owner that suggested she submit to Vivian Stephens - which just FLOORS me!).
Anyway, talking with her that "growing market / competition" thing really came through. Even though she wrote under different names depending on the line, she had a lot of opportunity coming her way until finally the experimenting she wanted to do was a bridge too far for most category publishers.
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