When She's Bad

October 27, 2003
Banks ably portrays a large cast of empathetic characters and develops three romantic threads in her second single-title romance (after Some Girls Do
). The most admirable of these characters is heroine Delilah Montague, a brassy, self-made woman who moved from shampoo girl to executive director at the ritzy Spa DeMay by virtue of her smarts and charm. Her friendship with Howard Bradford, the Texas millionaire who owned the spa, didn't hurt either, but now that her benefactor is dead, she must prove herself to her employees and to Howard's daughter, Lilly. At the same time, she must cope with her attraction to gorgeous attorney Benjamin Huntington II, appease a blackmailer and cope with a baby who's thrust upon her by one of Howard's old acquaintances. When Delilah isn't trading quips with Benjamin—who comes from a wealthy family and is therefore, she thinks, out of her league—she's doling out advice to her assistant, Sara, or clashing with Lilly, who plans to marry Benjamin's brother, Robert. These secondary characters are surprisingly fleshed out, but the intrigue subplot, involving an easily thwarted blackmailer, is flimsy. The romantic conflicts are familiar (wrong-side-of-the-tracks woman meets well-off man; divorcee falls for younger man, etc.), but that won't keep readers from enjoying Banks's zesty, dialogue-driven tale. (Nov.)

Forecast:
The book's sassy, red-hot cover image may catch the eye of chick-lit aficionados, but the blurb from Janet Evanovich will turn some browsers into buyers.

November 1, 2003
Banks, queen of the sexy feel-good contemporary romance, is at the top of her game with this tale of Houston spa owner Delilah Montague and attorney Benjamin Huntington. Having trouble sleeping in the month after her best friend and benefactor, a powerful businessman, died, Delilah has come to hate her unknown neighbor who practices home improvement projects all night long. Benjamin has just returned to Houston after losing his fiancee when he quit a high-profile law firm instead of compromising his values. Delilah, convinced that others think of her as white trash, doesn't want anything to do with Benjamin because of his upper-class roots and the fact that his brother may be marrying her not-so-silent and quite antagonistic partner. A baby, a blackmailer, and sizzling sex are involved in bringing them together. Fans of Katie, the star in Banks' " Some Girls Do" [BKL F 15 03], will enjoy meeting Delilah, Katie's half-sister, and will eagerly await the next in the series, which feature their younger half-sister, Lori.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2003, American Library Association.)