Harlequin Pink: Idol Dreams

    (Dark Horse, 2006)
™ and © 2006 Harlequinn Enterprises, Ltd.

Quincy can’t believe it when international pop idol Joe Ardness arrives on her doorstep. She’s won the designation of “number one fan” and is off on a whirlwind tour of London. The only thing is, she didn't actually enter the contest—her brother did because he hoped to win second prize. She’s happy for the vacation, but the constant publicity wears her down. She's packaged and primped within an inch of her life until she hardly recognizes herself. The one bright spot in the whole ordeal is the moments she spends getting to know more about Joe. Can Quincy believe the way he seems to feel about her, or is it all part of the illusion?

— Lorie Witkop

From the Comics Buyer’s Guide:

While on holiday, young British nurse Caroline briefly meets the dreamy, older Marius, who next pops up in her hospital as a “renowned anesthesiologist” (one so lacking in medical ethics he treats his own deathly ill nephew). He feels that special sort of annoyance for her that could only be love, but she, afraid of his shadowy past, keeps finding reasons he’d never be attracted to her.

Eyes don’t get much dewier, looks don’t become much more meaningful, and it’s hard imagining plot contrivances more contrived than these. Now, this is a Harlequin romance. But it’s hard believing anyone but middle-school girls and maybe your grandmother in our Sex and the City-fied world getting much out of this wholesome romance that ends (I’ll spoil it for you) with a wedding and a single chaste kiss.

As profoundly silly as it is, you’ve got to admire the craft that keeps this featherweight plot aloft as long as it does; but the pink ink is going to take some getting used to.

— S. A. Bennett
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