Harlequin Presents # 804
2 1/2 Stars
What can I say about Carole Mortimer’s Trust in Tomorrow (published as Cherish Tomorrow in the US & Canada)? Sadly, that I wasn’t really feeling this one. The romance aspect of the book was fine, kind of adorable, actually, with a very young heroine, Chelsea, in pursuit of the much older hero, Lucas. She knows she wants her man and is willing to fight for him. I really wish Chelsea and Lucas could have had a better plot to go along with their romance. The romance was fine, but it was the story that had me going, huh?
The Plot
Chelsea’s mother has just suddenly died, and since her father is a famous tv celebrity, he dispatches her from California to England to get away from the press. He sends her to stay with Lucas, an old family friend Chelsea hasn’t known since she was 12 and he was 27 when she had a HUGE crush on him. Creepy, but whatever. Since they haven’t seen each other in years, neither recognizes the other. So this leads to a bit of a misunderstanding that’s quickly cleared up.
He thinks she’s a hooker on the prowl; she thinks he’s an uptight prig.
Chelsea upturns Lucas’s staid life, from his disapproving housekeeper, to his very disapproving mistress. But the sparks fly between the two, and Chelsea quickly realizes she’s in love and will do what she has to to make Lucas believe her love is true.
That was the good part of the book.
The Bad Parts
Within a matter of days, Chelsea finds her mother dead from suicide, finds out her father has secretly married their close family friend, mere months after her parent’s divorce, and it was due to this marriage that her mother committed suicide. But Chelsea’s not upset. She’s delighted for her Dad and friend, and is madly in love with Lucas, so what’s there to worry about? Mom would’ve kicked the bucket one way or another anyway. So, everybody gets to have a happy ending, right?
Or maybe it’s just me. I know if all this happened to me in one week:
1)My parents had recently divorced
2)I found my mom dead from a suicide that I blamed myself for not being there to stop
3)Was sent out of my country to stay with someone who I hadn’t seen since I was a child
4)Was tricked into spilling my life story to someone who seemed like a kind stranger, only to find that said stranger was a reporter and that my life was splashed all over the front pages
5)Found out my dad’s hasty and secret new marriage to my mom’s friend was the cause for the suicide attempt
6)And that my mom had been suicidal for years while my parents had a loveless marriage…
I’d have at least some turbulent emotions to deal with and wouldn’t be as happy-go-lucky.
Final Analysis of Trust in Tomorrow
I know Mortimer was trying to show how mature and resilient Chelsea was, despite being only 19. Although I doubt people 20 years older would have such an easy time adjusting after such a series of tragic events in so brief a time.
But maybe it’s me, and I’m just a judgemental, emotional curmudgeon. Whether the book is called Cherish Tomorrow or Trust in Tomorrow, it makes no difference; both the hero and heroine deserved to be in a better one because this was not one of Mortimer’s bests. For a better Harlequin with a similar free-spirited heroine in love with an older man, I’d recommend Darkness into Light instead.