Crescendo, by Adrienne Staff & Sally Goldenbaum

On Friday afternoon I'd finished the book I was reading and didn't want to start Slightly Dangerous, which I'd been saving to start Saturday morning. I needed something short and quick, something I wouldn't mind putting aside in favour of SD if I hadn't finished it by the next morning. So I just grabbed a random Loveswept from my pile, the one which sounded best: Crescendo, by Adrienne Staff & Sally Goldenbaum.

Ellen Farrell screamed as she raced her little car down the highway -it felt terrific to let off all that steam! Then she noticed she had company: an utterly gorgeous driver was keeping pace with her, and giving her the most devastating smile she'd ever seen! Conductor Armand Dante was no ordinary pick-up: he was dazzling -and the romantic hero of Ellen's secret dreams. When he sent her flowers on her nightshifts at the hospital and embraced her as the sun rose over the Potomac, she just had to fall in love. But could she cope with society column gossip and the hordes of adoring fans who wanted to share the man she'd chosen for her own?

It wasn't awful and the hero was yummy, but it was nowhere as interesting as it sounded. A C-.

The story went like this:

Armand: "I love her and adore her. I want to spend the rest of my life with her".

Ellie: "I love him and adore him. I want to spend the rest of my life with him. But our worlds are too different -never mind that he seems to fit well in my world and I in his. And those gossip columns are mean!".

That's it, that's the conflict between them. Ellen came off as a twit devoid of all self esteem. Also, I found her worries about the gossips a bit foolish. Ok, as a dashing bachelor, it's possible that Armand would get that much attention. But if they got married and settled into a quiet-ish life, I find it hard to believe that he'd be that hounded by them! My problems with this were similar to the ones I had with The Sexiest Dead Man Alive.

The whole thing about Ellen's past at a convent felt a bit pointless. I guess it was a big issue in a previous book, the one about her friend Laurie (Banjo Man, I suppose), so the authors felt they had to keep mentioning it here, but they never did do much with it, so all the references to this were a waste of time, as it added nothing to Ellen's character.

This book also had one of the worst boo-boos I've ever seen. Ellen tells Armand his name sounds familiar, and he says that perhaps she's thinking of the poet who wrote Paradise Lost. Right. I really, really hope it was written as a joke, but it truly didn't sound like a joke in the context. I can't believe something like this could get past two authors and assorted editors!