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IBM 499 | Harlequin Book Report

Kien Lai | IBM 499 | 4/22/02 | California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

1. Title: The Secret Love-child / Author: Miranda Lee

2. The key people in this story are Rafe and Isabel.

3. Rafe, who is a ©top-flight fashion and magazine photographer©, receives a phone call from a good friend, Les, who asks for a favor because of a personal emergency. The favor is to photograph a wedding that will soon take place. Isabel, the bride to be, drops by Rafe©s studio to discuss terms and conditions about the wedding and tying any lose ends before the big event. When Isabel arrives, she is immediately attracted to Rafe©s physical appearance and the feeling is mutual for Rafe, but neither displays their interest in each other because of their circumstances. That same day Isabel finds out her fianc©e has cheated on her with another woman and has called off the wedding. Luke, her x-fianc©e, feels guilty about calling off the wedding and offers Isabel his home and investment stocks, resulting in her having enough money to last her for the rest of her life. An issue arises regarding the honeymoon trip that has already been prearranged and cannot be canceled. Isabel decides to invites Rafe, despite his outlook on life about not wanting to get married or have children, to accompany her as a personal sex toy. He agrees to join her for a week in paradise and the plot thickens. After making passionate intercourse over the span of their stay and experiencing multiple orgasms, Rafe sees a side of Isabel that complimented her physical beauty and falls deeply in love with her.

The surprise comes during a lovemaking session with Isabel when Rafe finds out after his orgasm inside her that the condom had a large opening on its tip. Rafe decides not to tell her because he didn©t know how she would react. For the first time, Rafe knew that he wanted to be a father and to be Isabel©s husband. Back home, Isabel panics because she is late on her period. Rafe confesses what had happened with the condom and announces his love for her. She takes a pregnancy test and it turns out to be negative. A few days later she takes the test again and its positive. They get married and live happily ever after.

4a. I enjoyed reading the story and I©m a guy! Surprisingly, it©s a real page-turner. However, I personally think that this book belongs in the erotica section of a bookstore rather than the romance section. The detail that the author goes into explaining the lovemaking sessions paints a pretty explicit picture. It was like watching an x-rated video, but just having to read about it and letting your imagination generate the visuals. I was shocked in many ways by the content. Is this what women think and fantasize about? If they do, they sure know how to hide it, which is a shame. The only drawback about the book was the storyline. Although it©s always nice to have a happy ending, it was very predictable in some areas. The highlights of the book were short chapters and easy reading. Overall, it was good reading.

4b. Approaching it from a business prospective, I believe that these books are definitely targeted towards women. However, I also believe with the right marketing and changing the appearance of the front cover, males could also be targeted. The reasoning behind why I think this is because the price of the book is relatively cheap and it involves sex. With these two combinations, these books could certainly appeal to the average guy. In addition, the chapters are fairly short, giving the reader a place to stop and rest before continuing. This is a good quality to have in books because men tend to lose interest quickly. In short, these books are great and have given me a better perspective on how to market them on a global scale, in this case my group country.