As the curator of the costume collection at the Fashion Institute of Chicago, Athena Smith lives and breathes couture dresses. They’re her entire life. And while she’s in a vast underground bunker where the Insitute houses their private collection of vintage couture clothing, examining the dresses, she falls desperately ill and is rushed to the hospital. Word around town is that Athena has been poisoned. Dr. Drew Montgomery, a physician at Northwestern Hospital, knows all about Athena’s gal-about-town reputation. He’s seen her picture in the society rags and he can barely contain his disdain. But he’s perplexed by her illness. As they together unravel the secrets behind her illness to figure out who might have poisoned her and why, an attraction blooms between this society gal and this no-nonsense doctor. But is love enough to keep them together?
A Black Tie Affair by Sherrill Bodine
January 1, 2010
Contemporary Romance
Paperback, 226 Pages
Forever
Athena Smith is desperate to get her hands on four couture dresses for her museum. With the profits the collection could bring in, it could help her young intern have enough money to attend college. The problem is, the dresses are owned by the prestigious Clayworth family and Athena has a very big history with them. Years ago, she fell hard for Drew Clayworth, but things ended badly between them. Since then she has kept her distance. Making matter worse, her father, who was employed by the Clayworth’s, was let go due to what the Clayworth’s say was shady business dealings. Athena refuses to believe her father would be anything less than honest, and those hurt feelings add to her already rocky relationship with the family.
Athena gets the opportunity to go into the Clayworth’s secret closet, a vault where all of their treasure is stored to confirm these dresses are the originals. As she is inspecting the gowns, she unknowingly becomes infected with a truth serum, that the gowns are laced with. After starting to hallucinate and becoming very confused, she ends up in the hospital. While there, the four gowns go missing. Now Drew is forced to keep close company with Athena while they look for the gowns and rekindle love lost.
A Black Tie Affair is a book that I had a hard time finishing. I think the author was going for lighthearted and fluffy, but I found the story and characters to be ridiculous and flat. The situations they were put in seemed quite silly. Athena becomes sickened by a truth serum, which of course leads her to discover inside herself that she truly loves Drew. As the stolen gowns are found, Athena and Drew race to each scene with no legal authorities – Athena is the one wearing plastic gloves to take the gowns off of these people.
Worse, the book ends without completely solving the mystery. The rekindling of their relationship and the romance scenes are decent, but for much of the book you don’t know why they broke up so many years ago. The reason makes sense for them to break up at the time, but I don’t understand why they then couldn’t see each other for fifteen years.
I found A Black Tie Affair to be a disappointing book, lacking romance and humor.
Rating: 2/5
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I agree, I was a bit let down that the mystery wasn't wrapped up nicely. Several holes in the story but I get a few laughs here and there. The truth serum affect was funny at times.
I thought this story was ho-hum but had its cute moments.
Also the price is ridiculous because it is the length of a category read and should be priced as so.
Flat characters is no bueno. To be honest the excerpt reads like a HQN book, which I'm not a fan of.
flat characters AND unfinished business at the end…that ain't my thing either. Does the whole mystery evolve around the four dresses that go missing, do others who stole the gowns get infected by the truth serum too…do they actually get stolen? HHmmmmm don't think it's my kind of mystery :S
It seems like the last few books you've read lately haven't been good! I hope you get to read something you actually like soon.
Oh, and thanks for reading all these bad books so that I know to stay away from them. ;-)
Sorry to hear that mandi :(
I hope the next book you read has more romance for you
Oh Mandi;
I agree with you. I've been struggling through this book and I should have finished it in a few hours.
I had to set it aside and read something else.
Sadly, I have to finish and review it.
Thanks, for sharing your thoughts.
L
FV-I don't know..I just didn't get the humor.
KB-yes! It is only 226 pages, yet full price.
Smokin-yeah, have to say to skip this one
leontine-the ones that come in contact with the gowns do become affected. I don't feel like the mystery is properly wrapped up at the end.
Caitlin-I have had a couple recently. That is just what happens :)
blodeuedd-don't worry about me :)
Lea- yeah..I understand that:)
I'll be staying away from this one. I've read one too many blah books to want to suffer another one.
Mandi – is Dr Drew Montgomery in the summary the same person as Drew Clayworth? Doesn't sound like the book for me. As soon as I read truth serum I was like – what? And that didn't ruin the dresses?
I'm really sorry to see this book didn't work for you. I was just thinking about buying this, but held off because I didn't hear great things about her least release. Now I'm glad I did.
Too bad. The premise sounded really good.
Orannia – OK..I am completely confused. I just copied the blurb from goodreads…and Dr. Drew Montgomery is NOT Drew Clayworth. HUH?
Went to author's site and I believe the above blurb to be the wrong one. here it is from her site:
Fashion curator Athena Smith will do anything to get her perfectly manicured hands on the Clayworth family’s celebrated couture collection for her exhibit. So when she’s called in to make sure the gowns are the real deal, she’s ecstatic…until a dress she’s examining turns out to be loaded with toxins (talk about killer threads!) and Athena faints dead away, only to wake up face-to-face with the One That Got Away, notorious Chicago banker Drew Clayworth.
Drew still believes Athena betrayed him all those years ago, and he’s sure he can’t trust her. But when the priceless gowns go missing, she offers to help track them down. Reluctantly allied in the quest, Drew and Athena are soon stunned by the barely restrained passion still sizzling between them…and memories both bitter and sweet. Is their new partnership just a business arrangement? Or is this something more than . . . A Black Tie Affair?
That is better:) Sorry about that.
Holly – yeah, can't recommend this one.