Dance to the Piper, by Nora Roberts (O'Hurleys! #2)

Continuing with The O'Hurleys! (yeah, I usually try to skip around subgenres, but I can't do that with Nora Roberts. With her, I will read the entire series in a row): book # 2, Dance to the Piper.

Recording mogul Reed Valentine saw the world in black and white...and women were on the dark side, not to be trusted. So when eternal optimist Maddy O'Hurley whirled into his life, bringing color and laughter, he was instantly suspicious. After all, if he danced to her tune, began believing in miracles, wouldn't he ultimately have to pay the piper...?

Funny, when I read the first book in the series, The Last Honest Woman, I thought the setting in the horse farm in Virginia would have felt current today, but the actual story felt dated. It was exactly the opposite with DTTP: the romance feels perfectly fresh and new, while the setting feels distinctly, well, 80's. Which, BTW, is totally not a problem for me. A B+.

It's a simple story. The middle O'Hurley triplet, Maddy, is well on her way to becoming a Broadway star. After years of hard work, of being a "gypsy" and auditioning and auditioning and being on the chorus and playing small parts, and then even playing the lead in a very successful play, Maddy is about to get an even bigger break. She was cast as the lead in a promising new musical, which she's just sure will make it even bigger than her last one.

So promising is this new musical, that Valentine Records has arranged to finance it in exchange of getting the exclusive rights to the cast album (sorry if the theatrical terms are wrong, I don't have the book in front of me right now!). When Maddy and CEO Reed Valentine meet, the attraction is immediate on both sides, but only Maddy is ready to do something about it. Reed, like seemingly all the other men in this series, was hurt by a woman in the past and so he doesn't want to love (yadda, yadda, yadda). His attraction to Maddy being so strong, Reed doesn't want to risk it going anywhere. But he didn't count on Maddy's persistence!

I loved, loved, loved Maddy. I loved her cheerfulness and optimism and refusal to play silly games with Reed. She's intrigued by Reed and sees that he reciprocates those feelings, so when he doesn't pursue her, Maddy simply goes after him herself. And she does it with no coyness at all; she puts everything out there. I thought Nora struck the perfect balance between persistence and openness and a healthy sense of self-preservation. Maddy continues to make overtures when Reed blows hot and cold, but she also is afraid of putting herself a little bit too much out there with him.

I have to say, though, Maddy's day-to-day routine just exhausted me! Man, the woman was an insanely hard worker and amazingly disciplined! Well, I can't say I'm surprised, as so many of Nora's heroines are. Maybe it comes from being written by an author who publishes so many books a year and who must have an incredibly tough work ethic herself to do it. *g*

Anyway, continuing with the book, Reed was nice, but I'd say his motivation was the weakest point in the book. The whole thing about how his mother had hurt his father, and this meant he'd never put himself in a position of letting a woman hurt him (i.e. he'd never care enough to actually be hurt), was a bit eh. The good thing was that this idiocy of his doesn't mean that he thinks badly of Maddy, or treats her like crap. What he does is simply try his best to keep his distance, and fail. And that was just incredibly satisfying to see! I just loved to see the dignified, somewhat straightlaced Reed reacting to the impulsive Maddy.

The setting was great, and really added to the romance. We've got Manhattan here, the Broadway scene 20 years ago, and the atmosphere is fantastic. I know nothing about musicals, so all the little details about the work involved in putting on a musical was fascinating to me.

This one was a winner, and I hope the next one is, too. At least I quite liked Chantel in her scenes here, when she visited Maddy!