I received this book for free from the library in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Source: the library
Double Standards
by
Judith McNaught
contemporary romance in a paperback edition that was published by Pocket Books on January 15, 1991 and has 310 pages.
Explore it on Goodreads or Amazon
Other books by this author which I have reviewed include Every Breath You Take, Paradise, Night Whispers, Perfect, A Gift of Love, Someone to Watch Over Me,
A sweet romance.
My Take
Yes, it is formulaic in the general plotline but, oh, so interesting in how McNaught lays it out. I especially loved the retorts from Lauren as that angry 9-year old!
Part of it made me furious, another made me sad, and overall, it just made me laugh to watch Lauren unconsciously driving Nick so crazy and how his frustrations manifested in a driving pace in the office.
While the story was enjoyable, it read more like an early manuscript in McNaught’s writing career. Too shallow.
The Story
It’s only the thought of her father’s need for medical treatment that has Lauren considering Whitworth’s suggestion. A suggestion she’s already discarding even as she purposely fails the employment tests and wrecks her way through the job application. It’s meeting that gorgeous engineer that has Lauren reconsidering a job with Sinclair Electronic Components.
It’s Nick’s goading that causes Lauren to throw her natural reserve to the wind and take off with Nick for the weekend. A weekend in which a very naive girl from Missouri believes she can make a man like Nick fall in love with her. A weekend in which to fall in love. Two-and-a-half weeks in which to realize the futility of it.
The Characters
Lauren Danner is a much-removed cousin of the Whitworths with a much-remembered disgust of the family from a visit fourteen years earlier. With her father out of work and no health insurance, the major heart attack he suffered needs mass infusions of money. It’s why Lauren is here considering the idea of spying at Sinco to find out which Whitworth employee is sabotaging the company.
Nicholas Sinclair is the owner of Sinco and Global Industries. A womanizer. A playboy. After his first night with the virginal Lauren, he informs her that he “didn’t mind if they’d had sexual relationships with lots of other men”. That people didn’t have to be in love to make love. Tony owns a lovely Italian restaurant started with a loan from Nick’s grandfather. The two families have known each other forever; Ricco, Dominic, and Joe are Tony’s sons. Mary Callahan, Nick’s corporate secretary, has been with Nick from the very start when Nick and his grandfather started the company. Mr. Weatherby is the poor unfortunate personnel manager at Sinco. Jim Williams is one of Nick’s oldest friends and Lauren’s boss at Sinco. Much quicker on the uptake than Lauren, he quickly realizes that Nick is falling in love with her and greatly enjoys pushing Nick’s buttons. It’s Jack Collins in security who set Lauren’s doom in place; he’s also one of her fairy godfathers at the end.
Ericka Moran is just one of the women in Nick’s life. She’s the one who caused Nick to send Lauren home early from that weekend. Vicky is another. Of course, at the weekend party, Lauren encountered a number of Nick’s old lovers.
Philip Whitworth and his wife Carol with their son Carter are such scum. I’d have loved it if McNaught had written a sequel detailing their financial demise.
The Cover and Title
The cover is autumnal reds with a peach band through the middle with the author’s name and title is one, Double Standards, that accurately reflects the change in Nick’s perspective on people being free to explore their own desires.
