Book Review: Drop Dead Gorgeous

Dear Ms. Howard,

I have loved your books ever since I first read Sarah's Child back in college. Since then, I've followed your career from writing category for Silhouette into single title. Son of the Morning is one of my favorite books. When I first heard that you were going to write a book in the first person, I was a little trepidatious, but from the minute I picked up a copy of To Die For, I was hooked. Blair Mallory's voice was so strong, it made me wonder why you had never written in the first person before.

When I heard that you had written a sequel called Drop Dead Gorgeous, I couldn't wait for it to come out. Unfortunately, the wait was entirely worth it. Don't get me wrong, I still love Blair, she's as sassy and brassy as ever. I particularly loved that Wyatt had given her just a month to plan the wedding, considering that they'd only been dating for like two months. Wow, I wish I could find a man that good-looking who wanted me so badly that he couldn't wait to marry me after two months. I guess that's why I read fiction!

I even loved the little sub-plot of Blair having to get Jazz and Sally back together. In fact, I enjoyed reading about Blair and Wyatt so much, it's a shame that I didn't like the book more. I think it's because the mystery of who was after Blair was so derivative of what happened in the first book.

SPOILER ALERT! DON'T KEEP READING IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE BOOK!

To have the stalker turn out to be Wyatt's ex-wife was a little slip-shod and not really worthy of either Blair or the book. I would have bought it more easily if a disgruntled customer of Great Bod's decided that he/she hadn't gotten their money's worth, and couldn't get a refund, before I believe that Wyatt's ex-wife waited years for him to fall in love, to decide to hurt him. Or maybe I'm just not that crazy. I mean, I've loved guys or like guys that didn't love me as much or whatever, but I've never stalked their new girlfriends.

Once the relationship is over for me, or I've been dumped I move on. Only once have I ever called an ex-boyfriend after the relationship was over, and when I found out he was engaged, I stopped thinking about him so much and I moved on. Yeah, every now and then I wonder what might have happened to him, but I haven' t stalked him or sent him an email.

So unfortunately, I can only give this book a B-. It was hovering at an A-/B+ until I discovered who the stalker was.

EKM