Rating:
Published: 1984
Illustrator: Ray Olivere
Imprint or Line: Harlequin Presents #747
Published by: Harlequin
Genres: Category Romance, Contemporary Romance
Pages: 188
Format: Paperback
Buy on: Amazon
Reviewed by: Introvert Reader
SPOILER ALERT ⚠
The Book
Sad to report, but A Naked Flame has to be the worst Charlotte Lamb book I’ve read so far.
The Plot
Christie married Logan, a man 12 years her senior when she was only 18. They lived in California and she hoped to start a career in Hollywood, but her chauvinist husband wouldn’t allow it. Logan controlled her life totally and wanted children ASAP, but Christie wanted to wait.
They argued, he raped her, and she left and filed for divorce. The rape resulted in a child.
For five years Mommy and Daddy never see each other while sharing custody of their son. Now Christie is a hot movie star with a male “friend” whom she mercilessly cock-teases. The press hounds Christie so much that she moves to England with her son–-without telling her ex-husband. This obviously angers Logan and he and Christie fight it out for custody.
Drama ensues and Christie and Logan realize their feelings for each other still run hot.
My Opinion
It’s not the plot of A Naked Flame I object to; it’s the horrific execution.
Up until page 100, the hero and heroine interact twice, except for a brief flash-back into their marriage. It’s as if Charlotte Lamb wanted to write a longer book, but found she had almost maxed out her word count. So she just summarized all the interesting parts and drew out all the boring, mundane scenes of Christie going to lunch and parties with another guy.
The actual romance portion of this book is limited to two, maybe two and a half chapters. I wouldn’t have minded if the scenes with the other man were fun, or at least we saw the heroine’s personal journey to “enlightenment” or sumthin’…but no.
Final Analysis of A Naked Flame
Christie is a Cnidarian of the lowest order. (That’s a fancy word I learned for jellyfish. See, home-schooling works for parents and kids.)
As for the other man…why isn’t he ever named something strong like Wolf or Magnus? Instead, he’s named Sheldon or Arnie or Dilbert or in this case Ziggy!
So our major conflict in Charlotte Lamb’s A Naked Flame consists of a love triangle between the Sensitive-New-Age-Guy slacker type:
And our manly hero Logan:
Enough said.
What a pointless boring book with a wishy-washy, stupid heroine who wouldn’t know her butt crack from the Grand Canyon.
Uggh.
1 Star
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| Overall: | 1.4 |
Synopsis
This time Christie would stand up to him
Christie had been far too young and intoxicated with love when she and Logan had married. He’d wanted a family. She’d needed sometime to pursue her career.
After their painful breakup Christie had resented carrying Logan’s child. But now her son was even more vital to Christie’s happiness than her career as a famous film star had ever been. And she wouldn’t let Logan use lies and gossip to take Kit away from her.
Losing Logan’s love had almost destroyed Christie. She couldn’t bear to lose their son as well.
A NAKED FLAME by CHARLOTTE LAMB