Rowena’s review of Nadia Knows Best by Jill Mansell.
The bigger the mistake, the more tempting it is …
When Nadia Kinsella meets Jay Tiernan, she’s tempted. Of course she is. Stranded together while a snowstorm rages outside … who would ever know?
But Nadia’s already been together with Laurie for years—they’re practically childhood sweethearts. Okay, so maybe she doesn’t get to see much of him these days , but she can’ t betray him.
Besides , when you belong to a family like the Kinsellas—glamorous grandmother Miriam, feckless mother Leonie, stop—at—nothing sister Clare—well, someone has to exercise a bit of self—control , don’t they? I mean , you wouldn’ t want to do something that you might later regret…
What a pretty cover, don’t you think?
Anyway, I’m always interested in reading anything by Jill Mansell. I’ve enjoyed most all of the books that I’ve read by her and I’m always eager for more. She’s written some stories that have kept me bent at the waist, laughing my ass off but she’s also written a book that made me so bleeping mad that I had to get the book out of my sight for good. This book was another delightful addition to Mansell’s back list.
Nadia is in a relationship with Laurie. Thanks to Nadia submitting a picture of Laurie (who’s such a good looking hunk) to some show, Laurie wins a modeling contract and off he goes on a whirlwind trip around the world, modeling that pretty face of his. Nadia and Laurie have been together for quite some time now and they’re secure in their relationship. They love each other but one night, Nadia’s car ends up in a ditch and she meets Jay Tiernan who pals up with her and makes the hike into town to wait out the snow storm. There’s only one room left and Jay snaps it up. He offers it to Nadia and when some other people come in and are about to bunk down where Jay was going to sleep, Nadia agrees to share the bed in her room with Jay.
While she’s in bed with Jay (sleeping side by side, no funny business), she’s tempted for a little monkey business but she’s faithful to Laurie and only feels a little bad about a wasted opportunity.
The next day, she goes on with her life and Jay goes on with his. Weeks later, when they run into each other on the road, Nadia finds herself newly single and following Jay into an art gallery that sells her sisters paintings and things get real interesting from here on out. Nadia is still heartbroken over Laurie’s dumping of her (he took her to her favorite restaurant to dump her, ruining her favorite restaurant for her) and before she knows what’s what, she’s quitting her job and going to work for Jay. Jay flips houses and sells them, Nadia does landscaping work and so it’s really a perfect fit since he’s looking for a gardener.
From the minute Jay Tiernan comes into the story, I’m Team Jay. His personality, his obvious attraction to Nadia and really, just everything about him made me love him. He was such a “what you see is what you get” kind of person that I couldn’t help myself. He helped Nadia out with the hotel room and then, she was a virtual stranger to him and he was always going out of his way to make Nadia feel better – even when he had issues of his own that he had to tackle.
Overall, I enjoyed this book. I enjoyed Nadia and I enjoyed Jay. I even enjoyed the other characters. Tilly and Cal. James and Annie but I couldn’t stand Clare. I hated Piers and I hated the way that Clare treated everyone. She was always mucking something up and far too many times, I wanted to punch her in her throat. The way she treated Annie (without just cause), the way she never seemed to have her sisters back and the way that she treated Malcolm, all made me want to kick her in the shins. Even at the end, when everything works out, I didn’t really like Clare. Annie may have forgiven her but I didn’t. She came around, yeah, but she wasn’t nearly as contrite as I would have liked.
The whole secret behind the Grandma and her past, that was a storyline that was built up so much that when the big reveal happened, I was a bit let down by it. I thought Edward forgave the Grandma far too soon (dude, I can’t even remember the Grandma’s name. I know it started with an M) and Laurie was a complete fart face. While I’m glad that I read this book, it wasn’t my favorite but I would definitely recommend this book to fans of Mansells work. It was still enjoyable.
Grade: 3.5 out of 5
This book is available from Sourcebooks. You can buy it here or here in e-format.
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