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Goat Heads and Sand Burrs, P. Kirby's Reading Blog

The good, bad, and fugly books I've read.
Come As You Are - Theresa Weir

** spoiler alert ** "Molly Young has a secret. To keep it she holds the world at a distance."

A secret I figured out a few paragraphs into the book. The story begins with Molly hosting an after-funeral soiree (snerk, I don't know what you call it? -- the "We've Planted the Corpse, Now It's Time for Casseroles" Party?) at her childhood home. The stiff is her father, who was loved by everyone, except his daughter, who thinks he's a monster.

So what's the most obvious possibility for her estrangement, especially when she alludes to daddy being possessive, controlling and later, "a perv?"

Yeah. He sexually abused her.

And knowing exactly what the problem was, all the while Molly refused to acknowledge it -- not to the reader, or other people -- made Molly prevarication about the issue seem too coy, rather than compelling. Maybe that's just me, because I'm an asshole. But...meh.

Anyway, so faced with Daddy's clueless fan club, Molly melts down and flees the party to go bar hopping and slaughter her liver. (These kind of scenarios make me sooo glad I quit drinking in my early twenties, because, oy vey, does drinking made asshats out of people, or what?) She meets a guy and goes back to his hotel room (him, not being from around these here parts), for the hooking-up portion of the evening. But she comes on too strong and he takes a pass on the sex. She passes out, destined to remember nothing of the evening.

The next day, she drags her hung-over self to her Dad's lawyer's office for the reading of the will. Guess who's there too? Guy from last night, who turns out to be her father's long-abandoned biological son, Ian. Molly is adopted, by the way. The adopted thing being the plot device that allows Molly and Ian to have their love story without a chance of breeding web-toed children.

The remainder of the story follows Ian's Herculean efforts to get past Molly's emotional walls. Ian is a sweetheart, emotionally accessible, and a nice change from the alpha-holes in much of romance. Molly is ... okay. Not as irritating as some NA heroines, but, seriously? Can't writers come up with a way to generate conflict and angst in their female heroines that doesn't involve some manner of sexual abuse. Beep, beep, beep, "Cliche alert!"

Really quick read, but not very memorable. Interesting reveal at the end with Dad not only being a pedophile, but also a kidnapper. I.e., Molly wasn't adopted; she was stolen from a hospital as an infant.