Review: To My Senses by Alexandrea Weis

When we first meet Nicci Beauvoir at her cousin Colleen's debutante party, she is portrayed as sensible and practical. She has her eyes on the prize and that is a career in nursing. She does not want to depend on anyone. Nicci expresses much disdain at the whole practice of parading young women about just to attract a husband, one that is not only deemed "socially suitable" but very successful. But in New Orleans, this social practice is still in vogue. Most of the main characters are introduced at this party and Weis is expert at giving the reader a good description of their physical and moral attributes.There is also quite a bit of humor in these initial scenarios.

Nicci and her cousin Colleen couldn't be more different if they tried. Colleen is out to lure Sammy Fallon's son, Eddie, into a relationship. Nicci has so far managed to shy away from any type of intimacy. Her theory is, if you don't let anyone close, then you can't be hurt. This is a good theory on paper, but when she meets a struggling, passionate artist and falls under his spell, her resolve melts faster than ice cream in the summer sun.

Of course, true love never runs smoothly and this is surely the case with Nicci and the artist, David. To help his fledgeling career, he is Sammy Fallon's toy boy and Sammy just happens to be a vicious business rival of Nicci's father. When Nicci overhears a conversation between Sammy and David, she feels betrayed and breaks off with him, turning to Dr. Michael Fagels, a recent acquaintance.

So, now we have all the elements of an intriguing romance story: the independent Nicci whose emotional feelings have just been awakened, the passionate, artist/gigolo David who is not what he appears to be. Or is he? Throw in the vicious business rival, the calculating, pompous Dr. Fagels who proclaims to love Nicci, the bimbo headed cousin and the drunken, sometimes violent Eddie and a few peripheral family members with a penchant for meddling, you have the recipe for a story fraught with tensions, passions and a lot of surprises.

Weis cranks up the heat in this emotional cauldron where people will do whatever is deemed necessary to get what they want, not taking into consideration that other people might want the same thing or the same someone. The characters are vividly described and it is easy to get a mental picture of them. For the most part, I found the characters to be believable except for the main character, Nicci. At times, she appeared to be independent and at other times just let herself be manipulated without caring what the outcome was. I found it hard to believe a woman would let someone tell her what to wear, what to say and what to do to the extent that she does. It is not in character as Nicci was portrayed at the beginning of the book but even so, overall, this is a very enjoyable romance with an extremely surprising ending. If you like diverse characters in a romance story with a twist, then I think you will like this one. 3 1/2***

A sincere thank you to Alexandrea Weis for sending me her debut novel. Alexandrea's website is here.

About the book:

Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: BookSurge Publishing (June 20, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1419661116
ISBN-13: 978-1419661112
Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.3 x 1 inches