The Giving (Silhouette Desire, No 5868)

Rating:
Summary: Romance lacks courage to deliver its message.
Review: When Evan first meets Anna she is wrapped in bandages and recovering from plastic surgery brought upon by a traffic accident linked to the trucking company that has ties to Evan's family. Once Evan discovers the wonderful person under the bandages, he begins to court Anna. But the couple's callous and shallow relatives snidely believe Evan is only doing so to protect his family's business and avoid a bankrupting litigation, so the psychological games to break them apart begin.

That true beauty comes only from within is one of the messages offered up in The Giving. But author Modean Moon fumbles by having all of Anna's scarring (including an unsightly birthmark) removed from her face...thus making her "As beautiful outside as she is in." And that robs the story of some much needed emotional power. Sure it truly is what is inside that counts, but do the outside stuff anyway because you will need it anyway is what the book seems to be saying. There's better variants on the beauty within theme out there, you can skip this one.

Rating:
Summary: Romance lacks courage to deliver its message.
Review: When Evan first meets Anna she is wrapped in bandages and recovering from plastic surgery brought upon by a traffic accident linked to the trucking company that has ties to Evan's family. Once Evan discovers the wonderful person under the bandages, he begins to court Anna. But the couple's callous and shallow relatives snidely believe Evan is only doing so to protect his family's business and avoid a bankrupting litigation, so the psychological games to break them apart begin.

That true beauty comes only from within is one of the messages offered up in The Giving. But author Modean Moon fumbles by having all of Anna's scarring (including an unsightly birthmark) removed from her face...thus making her "As beautiful outside as she is in." And that robs the story of some much needed emotional power. Sure it truly is what is inside that counts, but do the outside stuff anyway because you will need it anyway is what the book seems to be saying. There's better variants on the beauty within theme out there, you can skip this one.