Book Review: A Lost Love by Carole Mortimer and Hiromi Kobayashi
I’ve always wanted to read one of these Mills & Boon Manga editions, so when the opportunity to request one via Net-Galley came along, I thought I’d give it a go.
The reading backwards thing was easier to master than I thought it would be. I thought it would take a little getting used to at least but I found I was doing it no worries after the first page.
I didn’t have any issues with the illustrations either. I felt they were all exactly how I imagined a Manga book’s drawings should be depicted. That is, sometimes a little dramatic and exaggerated but essentially fun.
Mortimer’s story, however, was the weak point for me. I’ve read a lot of crazy plots in Mortimer books but this one really takes the cake.
Jacquii was married to Rafe (there’s a classic M&B hero name if there ever was one!) and they had a baby before they divorced. Soon after, Jacquii was involved in a car accident. Rafe was such a tyrant during their marriage and subsequent divorce that Jacquii lets him think she’s died in the accident. While she’s in the hospital being attended to by doctors, she asks them to perform plastic surgery on her face. The plan is to change her features completely so that she can return to live near Rafe and see her son without his knowledge.
Yes, Jacquii becomes Brooke and moves in next door so she can see her son. Okay, I understand a woman doing anything for her kids but surely in this case plastic surgery was a little extreme. No one in the hospital suggested a visit from a psychiatrist? Or checked to see if reruns of Return to Eden were being shown?
As much as I usually enjoy Mortimer’s books (she’s easily my most read Mills & Boon writer), I certainly won’t be racing to read the normal edition of this book. I did wonder whether the publishers deliberately look for over the top plots like this for their manga editions. I’ll have to read another couple to work out if this is the case.
2 out of 5 The book was a quick read and the manga drawings enjoyable due to their uniqueness but the storyline was just too whack for me.
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