Rich girl-poor girl who are very divergent personalities
have a moment in time together in this one.
Jacqueline Shea is the youngest of the Sheas who own a chain
of hotels. The business was established by her grandfather but after him, only
Jacqueline is really serious about looking after and growing the business. She
is serious and hardworking which makes her the black sheep of the family and
she is often treated as an outsider. To add to her ‘outsider’ status in the
family, Jacqueline suspects that she is gay, but doesn’t know for sure. After
studying hard and doing well in her studies, when time comes for her to join
the family business, she is assigned Masquerade, a Halloween-themed Shea hotel
in Las Vegas, which is treated as a joke and with disdain within the family.
Jacqueline chafes at the way she is treated but takes what is dished out to her
because so far she knows no other life. She is twenty-five and a part of her
trust fund is available to her, though she’ll only get the rest of it at
thirty. She comes to Vegas when ShudderCon is just starting in her hotel. As
she is wallowing over a drink in the bar of the hotel, Trick or Treat, she
meets Agatha Neumeier, a struggling writer, who is going to be on one of the
panels. Jacqueline ends up exploring her suspected lesbian side with Agatha and
then asks Agatha to be her guide to understanding the attraction of ShudderCon
and the Halloween-themed property that is now under her care.
Jacqueline and Agatha start evenly but as the book
progresses, Agatha keeps shrinking as a person while Jacqueline keeps growing
better and better. Jacqueline is intelligent, vulnerable, willing-to learn and
above all, really kind. We applaud the author for not ending this one in HEA
(we never thought we’d ever make this statement). Instead of an HEA, the book
ends with Jacqueline reconnecting with Agatha – and the future is open. We like
to believe that Jacqueline makes a success of herself, starts her own business,
gets the Sheas grovel to her to come back into the family fold and finds
someone who matches her personality (definitely not Agatha).
More than a romance, this is a finding-herself book which is
very, very readable.
⭐⭐⭐★
