Consumer Critique: The Booby Trap

If you like romance novels, especially those with a twist, consider The Booby Trap, a book about a girl (Bambi) who, despite her name - a name often given to fluffy, ditzy characters - is a PhD candidate at Harvard, who gets a job as a waitress at a seedy bar, in order to conduct research for her dissertation on women's studies. While there, a local celebrity decides to "date" her to annoy his family (who would be appalled at dating below their station), and compensate her for her time. She accepts, thinking it'll be a fun switch to pull when he finds out she's not the person he thinks she is, and he'll learn not to judge on appearance.

But then...the somewhat predictable twist - she falls for him.

I don't typically read romance novels, but it was fun to read something light for a change. And yet, it wasn't just fluffy chick lit - it was an absorbing, well-written story with an interwoven commentary on how women are often stereotyped.

The novel, Anne Browning Walker, wanted her heroine to be different from many romance novels.

"I wanted my heroine to reflect the many smart, savvy, thoughtful, and driven women in my life," Walker says. “Bambi is a modern-day heroine who values ambition and success in her own career, and also makes time for love.” Currently living in Washington, D.C. with her husband, Walker is a member of Romance Writers of America and is working on her next romance novel. 

Disclosure, I received a complimentary e-version of this book to facilitate this review.