‘FORTUNES’ BY VERA COWIE

 

After finishing up the underwhelming GAMES by Vera Cowie a few years ago it was a no-brainer for me that I should stay away from this UK author. After all she just wasn’t my cup of tea. Well, never say never again I guess, for I did end up giving her another shot. The book is called FORTUNES, a 1987 release from Onyx—her third and final outing in America. It is a 500+ page novel set in the lucrative world of the auction house. And, yes, I found this one better. Still flawed but better.

 

The plot focuses on two rival half-siblings vowing for a spot as the head of an auction empire (Despard’s International) left by the deceased father of one of the two (he abandoned woman and child to marry the love of his life who already had a daughter from a previous marriage). Of course, both women are as different as night and day. One is a manipulative vixen who will stop at nothing to get ahead. The other is a plain duckling turned into a swan who is a bit green but tries her best to stay afloat in business. In between stands a sexy Cherokee lawyer who is married to the vixen but ends up being very attracted to the swan. He is also the executor of the will which stipulates that whoever accumulates the highest profits wins the whole shebang. Who will end up on top? Well, mum’s the word, I say.

 

What I can reveal, however, is that there is a lot going on in this novel: fraud, attempted murder, arson, anything to trample on the competition. The chemistry between the swan and the lawyer is not as palpable as it should be but the narrative does its hardest to spice it up; as it does much more adroitly when focusing on the two female competitors. In fact, I would have loved a lot more confrontations between the two. They sort of reminded me of Alexis and Krystle in Dynasty, which is always a good thing. Speaking of which, there is also a queer character in this novel who I feel the author captured very realistically, but, alas, he is brushed aside too quickly to focus more on romance and double-crossing.

 

To say that FORTUNES is the best read of the year would be an inaccuracy on my part. It does its job well without rendering it a page turner. The bloated narrative may irk some but if you are able to overlook this you’ll probably have a nice time too reading this 80’s novel. I will definitely give Vera Cowie another try now that she has redeemed herself with this effort.

 

Until next post—Martin 

UK PB Edition

‘GAMES’ BY VERA COWIE

In my quest to find the best trashy book there is I often find myself salivating over eye-catching covers. Like this title by British author Vera Cowie (1987, Avon) whom I discovered while vacationing abroad. She was one of many authors I brought back home that day, and that cover alone just made me want to jump right in, especially with that blurb describing it as Dynasty-like. Sold, as they say! Though it took me a couple of years to finally get to it, I can now finally attest that, alas, as much as I wanted it to be Dynasty-like, in the end the content didn’t exactly match the drapes, if you know what I mean. 

GAMES (called THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL in the UK) is all about a gorgeous interior designer who marries a hot looking rich swinger who, we come to find out, has a scary mother fixation. This mother in question is a well-respected and well-feared socialite who, upon hearing of her son’s surprised wedding, schemes her way to destroy it and eventually does, big time I must add. Suffice to say, our talented but oh-so clueless when it comes to love heroine is soon left with a broken heart, not to mention a black and blue face after a major couple’s brawl.  

Cut to a few years later when our gorgeous but now divorced interior designer is a mother. The father is of course her hot ex, whom, BTW, she’s still mad about (!) despite having learned that he has remarried (the bride handpicked by his mother, this time). Since he has no clue he is a daddy our gorgeous heroine tries her hardest to keep it that way to avoid any unfavorable confrontation. No can do, it seems. Upon a chance meeting in Hollywood where her career flourishes even more, they talk, he cracks, the child gets kidnapped, he confronts his controlling mom (she apparently knew about the child but kept it from him). The socialite mom croaks, so does his second wife in a silly murderous subplot and eventually they all live happily ever after: the hot swinger, the successful and gorgeous designer and their safe and sound perfect little daughter.  

Perhaps I should have put a spoiler warning ahead but I figured, what the heck, live a little. Besides, I just couldn’t resist making fun of the whole thing. It’s not that it’s a bad book. The narrative, if bloated, is fairly competent but the story, boy, it’s like watching paint dry. The author loves to linger on beautiful things and descriptive dialogue (“I feel this, I feel that...”) to the point of making the reading experience almost cringe-worthy. But I do have to admit that when it’s good, it’s very good, especially when it involves Mommy Dearest. God, what a bitch she is. I loved everything about her. We need more characters like her in trashy novels. Just in better ones than this offering.

  

Until next post—Martin  

UK edition