Scruples Two - Review

Scruples Two Book Two in series by Judith Krantz Genre: Romance, Drama

     Granted I'm reading this series at least two decades after it was all the rage. I had bought it when it was on the best sellers list but never found time to read it. I don't understand how it was so wildly popular.

     After Krantz writes Valentine and Spider out of the storyline and concentrates fully on Billy, I lost complete interest. Maybe it is sour grapes on my part. Maybe I am jealous and wish I was filthy rich and could become as self-indulgent, self-absorbed, and entirely hypocritical as Billy becomes. No, I don't buy that theory.

     Bored Billy decides to buy a "house" in France. A twenty room mansion that she feels is the architectural equivalent to a soul mate. She delves into restoring it, working with the contractors personally and not bothering to hire a decorater. While slumming to find bargain rates on antiques and baubles for her new house, she meets a guy. Her beloved house falls to the wayside when Billy finds this new obsession.

     This new guy has no clue who she is and Billy supplies him with the much hated childhood nickname of Honey. Now this charmer she has met, decides that Honey sounds too much like an endearment and they just met after all, so he calls her "babe". Really? Billy does more than omit her true background but makes up a whole new persona. Is this the same woman who went batty when Vito never got around to mentioning a good deal of his past? After 48 hours of lying to this new guy, she dares to wonder if this new relationship, based entirely on falsehoods, could possibly be love. This is even more distasteful than when she was guzzling champagne and brandy while pregnant.

     The big twist at the end of the book I saw coming a mile away but had held out hope that I was wrong. The poor guy that she ends up with at the end of this book deserves so much more than Billy can give him, in my opinion. The sad thing is that if I had read this book 20 years ago when I had bought it, I probably would have loved it. I also would have found out that there is actually a third book in the series, Lovers, which I do not have. I'm sorry but I can't even call up any slight resemblence to curiosity to find out where Billy will end up, and do not plan to read or review this third book.