Life and love after lottery and luck
Lenora Stone is having a tough time of it. She's overweight and behind in her bills, and she's been dating a man for three years whom she just can't get to the altar.
By Connie Briscoe
Grand Central Publishing.
304 pp. $24.99
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Reviewed by Karen E. Quiñones Miller
Lenora Stone is having a tough time of it. She's overweight and behind in her bills, and she's been dating a man for three years whom she just can't get to the altar.
And though she's got a great job as a photographer for a popular Baltimore lifestyle magazine, she can't get along with her boss - the gorgeous and filthy-mouthed Dawna Delaney.
If only she had enough money to quit.
If only her life were different.
If only she could hit the state lottery.
Then she does - to the tune of $5 million.
She's so shocked, it's a week before she finally cashes in the ticket, but just hours afterward, she buys her dream car, a cashmere silver BMW 750Li. It is her first purchase, but it won't be her last. Because Lenora is certain that now that she's Maryland's newest millionaire, she can buy anything - including happiness. And possibly even love.
Money Can't Buy Love is the brainchild of Connie Briscoe, author of seven novels including the New York Times best-selling books Sisters and Lovers (1994) and Sisters and Husbands (2009).
Known for her skill in developing realistic characters, Briscoe has outdone herself in her depiction of Lenora. The 38-year-old woman is so realistic, she's sickening. In fact, it was sometimes difficult reading Money Can't Buy Love because some of the mistakes Lenora makes dealing with life after suddenly becoming rich are the same mistakes we would make - even though we know better.
Lenora makes a pact with herself; she is not going to let money change her. But as she looks around, there seem to be definite changes in everyone else.
Like her college buddy, Alise, who was the one with the money, having married a dentist shortly after graduating. Now, all of a sudden, Alise seems a little distant - after Lenora boasts about buying a 750-class BMW when Alise never went beyond the 500 series.
Lenora's boss - whom she describes as "Wilhelmina Slater and Cruella de Vil wrapped into one terrifying being" - is suddenly nice to her, even using the word please when summoning her to the management office.
A hoity-toity women's group that had turned her down for membership the year before is now swiftly reconsidering her application.
And her longtime boyfriend finally turns over a new leaf. No more late nights at the office; now he spends every evening with Lenora. No more running an hour late for dinner dates; now he arrives before she does. And the commitment-phobic Gerald finally pops the question. Would this have happened, could this have happened, if she didn't suddenly have millions in the bank?
But most important, Raymond Shearer has taken a sudden interest in her.
He's a young, hot landscaper Lenora was assigned to shoot for the magazine. Although he's rude to her at their initial meeting, the follow-up shoot goes more smoothly, and Lenora finds herself inexplicably attracted to the man who is about 10 years her junior. Though she sneaks one of his pictures home to fantasize over, she knows there can be nothing between them. Thirty pounds overweight, a decade older than he is -why would a man like Ray, who has everything going for him, want to go out with someone like her, she reasons.
But then, after winning the lottery, a new line of reasoning comes into play. Maybe the money will pique his interest in her. And once he gets to know her, well, maybe there could be something more.
Maybe. Just maybe.
Hey, what's the use of having money if you can't use it to make yourself happy? Right?
Ah, the best-laid plans of mice and men.
Money Can't Buy Love is an excellent summer read - it starts out a little slow, but you soon find you simply can't it put down. You want to feel superior to poor Lenora, but the truth is that as you come to the book's end you'll probably realize that her actions are no more than those you might have taken if you were in her situation.
But then again, maybe you would be smarter than Lenora, and resist temptation.
Maybe. Just maybe.