Review: Great New Romantic Suspense Novel (Prefontaine's Best Book Yet)
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 10, 2014
"Lovely Flawed" is a romantic suspense novel with a realistic and imperfect but always likeable heroine at its center.Li Hua is a violinist in the NYC De la Gottari Orchestra, but after her heart is broken for the first time at thirty she begins to lose her way, including drinking. She has an insatiable need to be loved and wanted, and is looking for it in all the wrong places. She has support in her best friend and occasional lover Jeff, who urges her to take her career to the next level by seeking lessons from the violin virtuoso Tony Alobardo--even though he's also a boozer, a womanizer, and emotionally stunted other than through his beautiful and expressive music.Someone seems determined to bring Li Hua's bad choices to light, however, and destroy her career--suddenly she's facing not only her own demons while she looks for love, but also fending off rumors and attacks that seem to come from all sides.I'm a fan of romantic suspense in general, but I particularly enjoyed how much care the author takes with character development in "Lovely Flawed." Li Hua is an honest narrator and also funny--I liked that she has a bar name and makes statements in assessing her own behavior like "I wish there was a way to stop being stupid." However, she also has enough problems that you empathize with her and really pull for her to get it together (I will admit that reading some of her decisions was hard and I wanted to shake her and yell "No, don't do that!").Another of the things I enjoyed about this book and that set it apart for me is Li Hua's cultural background--her musings on her Eastern upbringing, and her childhood as an Asian in overwhelmingly white Stockholm, give you a lot of insight into her character. Her relationship with Tony is also enjoyable, especially the banter and immediate ease between them--they get each other, with all their flaws.Recommended to readers who like romance novels that are about more than just two people getting together, and which have excellent character development.