Review: A Black Tie Affair by Sherrill Bodine

Title: A Black Tie Affair
Author: Sherrill Bodine
Published: January 1, 2010
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Format: Mass Market Paperback
Pages: 220
Source: Public Library
Characters: Athena Smith, Drew Clayworth
My Rating:

Synopsis

SUITED FOR SEDUCTION

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, only to wake up face-to-face with the One That Got Away, notorious Chicago bachelor 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...

This was the day.

I loved Talk of the Town, so of course I was excited to read A Black Tie Affair. I have to say I was disappointed.

Athena has been in love with Drew since she was seventeen years old, but due to her betrayal (which was not even something serious), they have not spoken to each other in fifteen years. A little too over dramatic for me, but whatever. Fast forward to present day. Athena is thrown together with Drew after some priceless vintage dresses are stolen, and they are the only two who can track them down. I could have done without that whole aspect; I din't find the mystery with the dresses entertaining at all. Then you have the whole ordeal with the Clayworth family firing Athena's dad from the company because he too has betrayed them.

Overall it's a quick read, but didn't really hold my interest. I felt no connection what-so-ever to the characters and didn't care one way or the other what became of them or the dresses. The situation with Athena's dad is left unresolved in this book, leaving it open for another book to follow up. I do believe the next one will involve Drew's cousin Conner and Athena's sister Venus.

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