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Gioco di specchi
Quando le viene commissionato il progetto per la trasformazione di un palazzo Beaux Arts in un ristorante di lusso, a San Francisco, l'architetto Holly Fairfield s'illude che sia la grande occasione della sua carriera. Presto, però, si trova coinvolta in un gioco morboso tra i componenti della famiglia Cutty, proprietaria dell'edificio, e scopre che la sua assunzione non è avvenuta per caso. Per convincerla ad abbandonare l'incarico, l'enigmatico e sensuale Ryan le mostra il ritratto di Nina, l'ex fidanzata della cui morte molti lo ritengono responsabile. Holly non può permettersi di ignorare la tragica storia di Nina, perché guardando quel dipinto è come se si guardasse allo specchio.
277 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 1, 2003
1 person is currently reading
30 people want to read
About the author
Olga Bicos
36 books14 followersOlga Bicos made an entrance into the romance writing world that few other writers have taken.she was working as an entertainment lawyer in Los Angeles and decided to pursue her dream of becoming a writer. Since that monumental decision, Olga has devoted her time to both writing and being a mother. Readers are glad she made this career change since she has made such a hit with her well-written romances. In fact, Olga has earned much kudos for her work including a nomination for Best First Historical Romance for her book, By My Heart Betrayed and the K.I.S.S Award for Best Hero from Romantic Times. She was also selected as "Bestselling Romance Author" by Bookrak and her fourth romance, More than Magic was a finalist for the RITA Long Historical Category.
Olga was born in Cuba and fled with her parents to California when she was a small child. She became a lawyer and served as staff attorney at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. When she started her own family, she decided to try her hand at writing. She now lives in Southern California with her husband and two children and is currently working on her next book. Olga speaks five languages and has traveled abroad extensively researching her books, plus she and her family share their home with a menagerie of animals.
Olga was born in Cuba and fled with her parents to California when she was a small child. She became a lawyer and served as staff attorney at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. When she started her own family, she decided to try her hand at writing. She now lives in Southern California with her husband and two children and is currently working on her next book. Olga speaks five languages and has traveled abroad extensively researching her books, plus she and her family share their home with a menagerie of animals.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
July 26, 2021
I am going to have to agree with my GR friend, Lynn Spencer, on this one though she rated it slightly higher than I did.
Holly Fairchild finds herself in a new architectural job in San Francisco after her brief marriage goes bust. Her older brother moves with her. She has been hired to return the Cutty house to all of its former glory.
The longer I read about Daniel East, her new boss, the more confusing I became. Then, within a short time, she meets the mystifying Ryan Cutty. Tension simmers below the surface between these men. Holly has her hands full trying to figure out what is going on.
A few of the characters bordered on disturbing. The plot was a matter of connecting the dots with Holly in the middle. All I can say is the story gives new meaning to 'families matter'.
Holly Fairchild finds herself in a new architectural job in San Francisco after her brief marriage goes bust. Her older brother moves with her. She has been hired to return the Cutty house to all of its former glory.
The longer I read about Daniel East, her new boss, the more confusing I became. Then, within a short time, she meets the mystifying Ryan Cutty. Tension simmers below the surface between these men. Holly has her hands full trying to figure out what is going on.
A few of the characters bordered on disturbing. The plot was a matter of connecting the dots with Holly in the middle. All I can say is the story gives new meaning to 'families matter'.
July 26, 2021
B- at AAR, so 3.5 stars Here's what I had to say about it on the blog:
For my recommended romance read, I went in a somewhat different direction than Caz and dove into a romantic suspense novel. Keishon and several other Twitter folks had recommended various romantic suspense novels by Olga Bicos to me in the past. As it turns out, I only had 1 in my TBR, so Shattered, a 2003 release, ended up being my pick.
Even though it’s marketed as regular romantic suspense, this novel has more than a touch of the gothic about it. There’s even a deceased former lover of the hero who weaves in and out of the story, giving it a Rebecca-ish feel at times.
Improbable though her story is, I found myself liking the heroine. Architect Holly Fairfield desperately needs a shot at redemption. Once upon a time, her fabulous designs graced magazine features and her star was definitely on the rise. However, a bad marriage and even messier divorce left her bankrupt and unemployed. A mysterious offer to come to San Francisco and renovate the posh Cutty House restaurant could get her back on track.
Once in San Francisco, Holly finds herself in one heck of a fix. For starters, anyone observing the situation can tell that her employer, Daniel East, might just be too good to be true. He alternately fawns over and bosses around Holly, placing her in all kinds of uncomfortable situations and making crazy, impossible demands. And then there’s the way in which he showed up out of the blue to get her to work on Cutty House. It’s all more than a little weird, though Holly is probably the last to admit this to herself.
This is a partial review. You can find the complete text at All About Romance: https://allaboutromance.com/tbr-chall...
For my recommended romance read, I went in a somewhat different direction than Caz and dove into a romantic suspense novel. Keishon and several other Twitter folks had recommended various romantic suspense novels by Olga Bicos to me in the past. As it turns out, I only had 1 in my TBR, so Shattered, a 2003 release, ended up being my pick.
Even though it’s marketed as regular romantic suspense, this novel has more than a touch of the gothic about it. There’s even a deceased former lover of the hero who weaves in and out of the story, giving it a Rebecca-ish feel at times.
Improbable though her story is, I found myself liking the heroine. Architect Holly Fairfield desperately needs a shot at redemption. Once upon a time, her fabulous designs graced magazine features and her star was definitely on the rise. However, a bad marriage and even messier divorce left her bankrupt and unemployed. A mysterious offer to come to San Francisco and renovate the posh Cutty House restaurant could get her back on track.
Once in San Francisco, Holly finds herself in one heck of a fix. For starters, anyone observing the situation can tell that her employer, Daniel East, might just be too good to be true. He alternately fawns over and bosses around Holly, placing her in all kinds of uncomfortable situations and making crazy, impossible demands. And then there’s the way in which he showed up out of the blue to get her to work on Cutty House. It’s all more than a little weird, though Holly is probably the last to admit this to herself.
This is a partial review. You can find the complete text at All About Romance: https://allaboutromance.com/tbr-chall...
July 13, 2018
My mum bought this book absolutely years ago but it was one that went onto the shelf and has never been touched again. She gave it to me when she moved house and it has since sat on my shelf for years. I have never heard of this author before, which is probably why I didn't ever reach for it until now.
There wasn't much given away in the blurb so I didn't quite know what to expect. My pre-reading opinion was that it wasn't going to be the best written book in the world, but this was mainly built on the fact that in all my years of reading, I'd never heard of Olga Bicos or seen one of her books before.
The prologue changed my negative opinion almost immediately. Though it wasn't the most action-packed of prologues, it left me with a lot of unanswered questions. Not in a terrible, they've not told me anything way, but because so much about that incident was unknown. I raced to the main chapters hoping for more of the slow building tension and the reveal of answers.
Unfortunately I just couldn't quite make it to finish this book because the main content just wasn't the same level as the prologue.
In the prologue, Ryan had been a mysterious character but clearly had history and facets. His personality was defined and I 'got a feel' for him immediately. Yet, Holly was written as this insipid character with few personality traits. She lacked passion, she lacked verve. She let people embarrass her, talk down to her and outright stalk her without once saying a word. She seemed naïve with regard to both business and people. She resolutely believes that Emma will be her friend, though the woman is nothing but rude to her the first time that they meet. She refuses to question her new boss about his reasons for selecting her as his designer and for throwing her a glitzy party before she had even started, or for his crazy design themes. She was so flat that reading about her was boring, and I kept finding myself looking for distractions. I mean, I almost watched football willingly, just to avoid reading.
Yet, the plot wasn't entirely uneventful. The opening party clearly continued from the prologue, though some years down the line, and increased my interest in Ryan, his life and the plot surrounding him in this novel. Ryan seemed unable to leave Holly alone, and his protective stance intrigued me, and I may have continued reading, had Holly been even a bit better.
The writing style was overly - something that I can't think of the right word to describe - wordy? Literary? Metaphorical?.
Essentially, it felt like an English creative writing task from school where you had to write something using similes and metaphors. I noticed this while reading the paragraph in the prologue about Ryan tapping his fingers on the coffee stained table. It contained metaphors, similes and adjectives but it painted such a vivid picture, that I thought, how lovely!
But I suppose that there is a reason that authors don't tend to use this level of technique in their books, because after a while you get bogged down by the detail and what happens is, 50 pages into the book, you can describe a coffee table in detail but there have been no major events and your lead character is a wet sack. Review metaphor. Bonus point.
I reached well over 50 pages in the end but I was really dragging my feet in reading and kept looking for other distractions. It wasn't holding my interest at all, and I think this was mostly due to the writing style and Holly/characterisation in general. I eventually stopped because I didn't see me getting over Holly unless she suddenly grew a backbone and it didn’t look very likely.
There wasn't much given away in the blurb so I didn't quite know what to expect. My pre-reading opinion was that it wasn't going to be the best written book in the world, but this was mainly built on the fact that in all my years of reading, I'd never heard of Olga Bicos or seen one of her books before.
The prologue changed my negative opinion almost immediately. Though it wasn't the most action-packed of prologues, it left me with a lot of unanswered questions. Not in a terrible, they've not told me anything way, but because so much about that incident was unknown. I raced to the main chapters hoping for more of the slow building tension and the reveal of answers.
Unfortunately I just couldn't quite make it to finish this book because the main content just wasn't the same level as the prologue.
In the prologue, Ryan had been a mysterious character but clearly had history and facets. His personality was defined and I 'got a feel' for him immediately. Yet, Holly was written as this insipid character with few personality traits. She lacked passion, she lacked verve. She let people embarrass her, talk down to her and outright stalk her without once saying a word. She seemed naïve with regard to both business and people. She resolutely believes that Emma will be her friend, though the woman is nothing but rude to her the first time that they meet. She refuses to question her new boss about his reasons for selecting her as his designer and for throwing her a glitzy party before she had even started, or for his crazy design themes. She was so flat that reading about her was boring, and I kept finding myself looking for distractions. I mean, I almost watched football willingly, just to avoid reading.
Yet, the plot wasn't entirely uneventful. The opening party clearly continued from the prologue, though some years down the line, and increased my interest in Ryan, his life and the plot surrounding him in this novel. Ryan seemed unable to leave Holly alone, and his protective stance intrigued me, and I may have continued reading, had Holly been even a bit better.
The writing style was overly - something that I can't think of the right word to describe - wordy? Literary? Metaphorical?.
Essentially, it felt like an English creative writing task from school where you had to write something using similes and metaphors. I noticed this while reading the paragraph in the prologue about Ryan tapping his fingers on the coffee stained table. It contained metaphors, similes and adjectives but it painted such a vivid picture, that I thought, how lovely!
But I suppose that there is a reason that authors don't tend to use this level of technique in their books, because after a while you get bogged down by the detail and what happens is, 50 pages into the book, you can describe a coffee table in detail but there have been no major events and your lead character is a wet sack. Review metaphor. Bonus point.
I reached well over 50 pages in the end but I was really dragging my feet in reading and kept looking for other distractions. It wasn't holding my interest at all, and I think this was mostly due to the writing style and Holly/characterisation in general. I eventually stopped because I didn't see me getting over Holly unless she suddenly grew a backbone and it didn’t look very likely.
May 27, 2009
The old adage that everyone has a double somewhere really plays out well within the pages of this book. Add to that an entire family hiding secrets that destroy all that they love, while playing a game of who is using who? All adds up to a suspense filled read that is hard to put down. Join Ryan and Holly, along with all the other characters to see who is guility of what, and who killed Nina...or is she really dead?
October 19, 2011
I'd never read any books by this author but I'm glad I picked it up. it is a thriller-whodunit-who is that real bad guy type book. I liked holly because she was finally doing something for herself. only age didn't realize it was all to someone else's benefit. it kept you guessing what was really going in until the end. good twists. looking forward to more books by thus author.
June 27, 2009
A lot of similarities with Paint it Red by Carla Cassidy. 3/5 stars.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews