Fortunes

by Vera Cowie

After Charles Despard's death, his estranged English daughter, Kate, and his French stepdaughter, Dominique, are pitted against each other in a contest for profit and ultimate control of the Despard international auction empire

Genres: Fiction

538 pages, Hardcover

Published October 14, 1987

Reviews

[Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

After finishing up the underwhelming GAMES by Vera Cowie a few years ago it was a no-brainer for me that...
https://sleaze-factor.blogspot.com/20...

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

I pulled this out of a Little Free Library. It was better than terrible. If this same book was written today by a big name author I think it would be a little thinner on all the art and auction details. But...still pretty terrible.

[Tanya Boulter · Rating 5 out of 5]

an old favourite

[Nicole Dyer · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a lot more interesting then I thought it would be I will definitely read more from the author.

[Maura · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is definitely one of those epic like contemporary romances from the 80's, where people are slick and sophisticated and the intrigues are happening. This story starts with Blaise Chandler, wealthy businessman and part-Native American (yes, it's mentioned frequently and supposedly contributes to his personality) watching his wife Domonique du Vivier take leading an auction at the her recently deceased stepfather's auction house, and make motherloads of money in style. This of course turns him on and they have lots of sex before he jets off to London to learn that Domonique didn't inherit everything like they thought. Despard's auction house in London was bequeathed to his estranged daughter Catriona Despard, who he lost touch with when he left her mother for the love of his life, Domonique's mother. Blaise is charged with bringing Catriona (Kate) back to her legacy and getting her on equal footing so, at the beginning of the following fiscal year, she and Domonique could compete against one another to see who could bring in the most money for their respective auction houses. The winner would inherit everything. And Blaise would have to be the impartial judge. But Blaise's task isn't so easy. At first he has trouble convincing Kate to accept the inheritance, since she was so hurt by her father's abandonment. Afterwards, Blaise finds that he likes Kate very much and begins to see his own wife through a different lens. This story takes them all over the world, through intrigues and spying and plenty of sex for business advantage.

This has just about every character trope you could imagine for this time period. Let's start with Domonique, the evil, promiscuous and sociopathic rival whom Blaise is actually married to. Yes, Blaise, the stoic part, Native-American who is so closed off to his emotions he decides it's a good idea to marry a sociopath because he gets an erection every time he's near her and wants everyone to know she's his. Not that it stops her from sleeping around and not that he cares. Kate is the feisty, red-headed, morally upright and inexperienced ingenue who wins over Blaise's cold heart and pits good against Domonique's evil. Then of course there's the dramatic gay friend (who is a bit creepy in his protectiveness over Domonique). Despite the cliched characters, it was still an enjoyable ride. I enjoyed seeing Blaise wake up, so to speak and this is much more a contemporary drama than it is a romance. My biggest complaint was that it was SO long. I also didn't care much for the fact that for 85% of that book, we get to watch Domonique have sex with multitudes and Blaise, who we're routing for as the hero (and is falling in love with Kate) have lots of sex with Domonique. It's kind of disappointing watching him get led around by his baser urges for so long. Then, the romance kicks in at about 85% and I get my HEA...though I wouldn't have minded a reminder that the whole divorce thing was moving full-steam ahead. .

I did have trouble with one thing, an assumption that rather drives the entire first half of the story. Turns out Charles Despard only married Kate's mother because he'd gotten her pregnant and was really desperately in love with another woman. There was no love between Charles and Kate's mother, and no sex either. So when Kate is 14, Charles goes to the woman he's always loved now that she's widowed. He never expects that Kate would refuse to forgive him for leaving and he's kind of trapped by the fact that the woman he loves doesn't want to acknowledge that he had a life without her. So we're led to believe that Charles leaves behind his daughter whom he supposedly loves more than life itself, without a decent explanation or any assurance that she could even be part of his life again, so he can finally get some love and sex (the sex was heavily emphasized). I don't know what constitutes parental love in this story, but I KNOW that my father would never have left me, no matter the reason, without first knowing that I understood why and that nothing would ever come between us. No father who loves his daughter would hurt her that way. His leaving and the pain it caused a teenage girl who didn't understand was, to me, extremely selfish. And yet, everybody in the story saw his actions as perfectly acceptable and her as a spoiled brat.

[Sharon L · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first time I read this book I was in complete awe at Vera's writing talent. I'm still awed, however, this time the imperfections couldn't escape my notice.