Dr. Andrea Trapani, formerly an ER doctor with a
hospital was on a sabbatical after freezing at a critical moment. She is easing
back with an assignment to look after a ‘difficult’ super-rich, super-bitch
patient, Darcy Silver who has a rather serious heart condition. Additionally,
Darcy has just been in an accident and all her four limbs are in the cast after
multiple surgeries. Andrea arrives at Darcy’s mansion right in middle of a
massive scene between Darcy and her girlfriend, Gerri. As Andrea starts taking
care of Darcy, both the women get closer and closer.
In her introduction scene, Darcy is quite reprehensible. Sadly,
she doesn’t become any more likeable later. In fact, despite the fact Andrea
tells her more than once that she (Andrea) doesn’t appreciate or approve of
Darcy’s flirting or sexually innuendo laden comments and they make her
uncomfortable, Darcy doesn’t show any respect for Andrea’s feelings. The author
tries hard to justify the bad behaviour as being lonely, frightened and
vulnerable, but really, nobody has a right to such bad behaviour. Then there is the whole ‘inner circle’ – a group
of Darcy’s friends since college. There is something unsettlingly incestuous
about this group of rich, successful women in addition to being super-bland.
Bland and vapid are the two words that jump to the mind
about this book despite the fact it included all the lesromance template
essentials. Of the supporting characters, Tori is alright – though we have no
clue why she’d be Darcy’s friend after Darcy dumped her so badly when she
(Tori) was merely twenty that Tori needed therapy to get a handle on it. We
felt sympathy for the antagonist, Cadence. In her relationship with Cadence
also, Darcy shows herself in poor light wherein she knows what is bothering
Cadence but makes no effort to reach out to or help the woman she’s been
friends with since they both were three-and-a-half. There is something utterly
selfish and rather callous about Darcy most exemplified by her behaviour with
Gerri, a perfectly lovely human being.
Andrea feels like a good character, with the potential to be
more interesting, trapped in a bad book.
This is an exhausting, plodding and totally unrewarding
read.
⭐
