4.5*
Phew, that was hot!
I wish I hadn’t known this was based on The Devil Wears Prada fanfic, because it took me a while to get the images from the movie out of my mind and let new ones appear. Not that I have anything against fanfic but this is so well-written that it doesn’t need any visual aid.
Diana Parker is a hotshot lawyer in Atlanta looking for an assistant. Laurie Holcombe is a sociology student from Zebulon, Georgia, hoping to get to law school while paying her bills. She doesn’t seem like the right fit for the job but Diana soon learns that where Laurie is concerned, what seems wise might not actually be wise. Diana is so deep into the closet that acknowledging her attraction to Laurie kinda feels like the end of the world, and then feelings get into play and it gets even worse. But before that, the two women agree on some sort of arrangement that is supposed to protect Laurie from feeling used by her boss (and from getting her heart broken) and Diana from taking responsibility for her actions and admitting she might be gay (she’s married to a man and all that). It also inadvertently prevents them from talking about what they really want and feel. Which in a way makes the sex even hotter since it’s desperate.
So obviously the sex was steamy – and not repetitive, which is in itself remarkable when there’s so much of it – but what really got to me were the tender gestures, as reluctant as they were. Every time Laurie asked Diana if she’s okay, my heart sighed.
This ice queen / age gap / workplace erotic romance was my first book by this author, and this time I know why. It’s because I can be stubborn and foolishly snobbish when it comes to books (or movies or TV series) that everyone seems to love. It probably goes back to when I was a teenager and my way of coping with feeling different from every one else was to pretend I was above the hype. I’ve had Truth and Measure by Telanu (Sinclair’s fanfic pen name) at hand forever and never got around to reading it. Same with The Lily and the Crown. From the reviews I’ve read, they’re even more delightful than this, so my loss, obviously. The good news is, it’s never too late to set things right.
Jude in the Stars 