When we left Stacy and Franco, our lovers from The Millionaire's Indecent Proposal, she had accepted his offer of one million euros to be his around-the-clock mistress for the month before the wedding of a shared acquaintance. Unbeknownst to Stacy, of course, Franco had bought her as part of a bet with his father, the winner due to command the controlling stake in Midas Chocolates, the family business. Stacy was instantly seduced by the millionaire chocolatier's Gallic charm, strapping physique, ability to speak two languages, insistence that she have sex with him, and his luxurious mansion. Equally, Franco was intrigued by Stacy's sexy ordinariness, practical shoes, and willingness to trade her body for money. It seemed a short-term match made in Mills & Boon heaven, and for several chapters the relationship had all the hallmarks of an actual relationship. The couple talked and ate meals together, made love in a series of conservative locations, went clubbing and danced with their bodies pressed into one another, and constantly worried what their friends thought of their union. It was only when emotions got in the way that trouble brewed. Suddenly, Stacy's initial infatuation had turned into genuine infatuation and her casual attitude towards the financial aspect of their agreement had Franco questioning whether Stacy was even a prostitute at all. Would the twosome be able to recover and enjoy a lifetime of wedded bliss and baby-making?
Stacy Reeves is not your standard unemployed accountant from a city in the United States that probably doesn't exist, however. She has an unaffected beauty, long chestnut hair and azure eyes. As the book nears its conclusion the author, Emilie Rose, finally rewards us with a physical description of her heroine, where we learn her breasts and bottom are splendid and she has psychic nipples. Even more important than these vital statistics is her haunted back-story which Stacy is reluctant to confess to anyone, until she confesses all to Franco in a fit of narrative necessity. This might have come as a revelation to the suave millionaire, but we readers had suspected something was screwy all along, as Rose could not help slipping hints at this previous tragedy into the narration. Would you care to know the shocking bombshell without facing the unenviable task of reading the book? Well, when Stacy was a child her mother fled her abusive, wealthy husband and lived a life on the lam, struggling to make ends meet and always afraid the man she deserted would track her down and have his revenge. Stacy's full comprehension of the truth would come one day when returning home she found her parents dead, by that classic cliché of romance fiction, a murder-suicide. Naturally, the poor girl has never been the same since, and has developed a vehement distrust of rich men, red carpeting, violence and obsessive love affairs that end in murder, suicide or a combination of the two.
Meanwhile, Franco has his own sordid confession to reveal. His ex-wife had an abortion without alerting him of her pregnant status, causing the many awkward lulls in conversation that led to their divorce. Furthermore, Franco's mother was a wanton harridan, indulging in drugs, partying, drinking and men who weren't Franco's father, which somehow resulted in her death, by what Franco claims was a chemical overdose. With such a tragic past and unwillingness to trust, love or have respectful attitudes towards the opposite sex it would appear Stacy and Franco have all the groundwork needed for a long and successful coupling. Despite what should be happy news, both characters remain pensive and libidinous. If Stacy is not the gold-digging, one-track-minded, mercenary harlot all women are then Franco loses the bet with his father and, because of the terms of their wager, will owe him nothing. For Stacy, if she and Franco are in love she will have to remain in Monaco and turn her back on the United States, the country of her birth and neuroses, where she has no friends, family or prospects. Truly there is much riding on whether Franco and Stacy can get over themselves, be reasonable and conclude that while their relationship is based solely on sex and personal admittances alleging murder against family members that is more than enough to mean they're soul-mates and suitable to raise children together.
Unlike the majority of Mills & Boon novels we read as examples of the genre The Millionaire's Indecent Proposal offers distinct arcs to both hero and heroine, with each mirroring the other, allowing Rose to study the healing power of commitment and the inconsequentiality of capitalism in matters of the heart. The romantic interludes of our leads is played against a typical backdrop of resplendent grandeur, but thankfully because of Stacy's history all the glamour and wealth is framed by a paranoia of money's corruptive force. Intertwined is a supposedly charming sub-plot involving Candace and Vincent's nuptials, he the millionaire sports car enthusiast and she the nurse who treated him after his crash and fell for him despite his facial scarring. With such strong potential for a multi-layered examination of themes through the journeys of compelling characters with often self-destructive motivations The Millionaire's Indecent Proposal becomes even more disappointing. By choosing to tell her tale through the genre of badly-written pornography, author Emilie Rose undermines the emotional twists of the story and sacrifices nuance in favour of sex scenes, hedonism and occasional unsubstantiated dithering. The predictable, penultimate sidestep all romances contain where the couple fight over a misunderstanding only to realise their stupidity pages later is replaced here with a broken condom. Stacy and Franco fear their month-long orgy might have led to a baby and are forced to re-evaluate their feelings for one another. Franco offers to buy the child for a second million euros, but explains he will never marry. At this point Stacy begins to wonder if he actually is the man for her. All ends perfectly half a page later though, when he admits the whole thing had been a bet with his dad, which she finds adorable, and they kiss and promise to wed.
Any semblance of hope the reader might have had for the high quality of the first in this Desire 2-in-1 evaporates and we realise we have been cheated out of anything meaningful or fun and instead given an endless parade of frivolity where the only threats to happiness aren't so much squandered as completely abandoned. The story is nothing more than an old-fashioned, sexist fairytale involving a relatively innocent might-as-well-be-a-virgin who discovers her sensuality through being bought and taught by an arrogant, experienced foreigner. Emilie Rose's attempts to characterise Stacy's lack of worldliness by making her the victim of domestic violence means she writes herself into a thematic cul-de-sac, trivialising the misfortune and solving everything with a well-placed penis and a mind-boggling amount of money no one could relate to. Instead of exploring any of the subjects raised by the concept the book seems determined to avoid them. Franco's greatest concern is losing his true identity to his material worth. He rejects women for finding his millions more compelling than him, but he defines his seduction techniques as acts of cost and only respects Stacy when she refuses his extravagant gifts. His challenges merely validate his prejudices, yet he receives no comeuppance and learns no lesson. His father loses his young girlfriend when he hands over his business and Vincent only knows Candace's affections are real because of his grotesque disfigurement. A story involving the usually rightfully ignored territory of how the wealthy search for appreciation of who they are and not what they represent should find more interesting ways to do so and should not blatantly fetishise opulence in every sexual scenario.
As for the ladies, Rose treats them with a shallow disregard typically associated with a contemptuous billionaire or a Harlequin writer. Either the women are superficial, calculating whores only interested in themselves, as with Angeline, Franco's mother and Lisette, or they are virtuous angels dedicated to the desires of their men, such as Candace and Stacy. Finally, in the case of Madeleine or Amelia so peripheral are they to the central story they are forced to run away to the bathroom in the final chapter for reasons only explained in sequels, continuing the adventures of holidaying Americans in Monte Carlo. Perhaps we can expect a cameo appearance from Stacy and Franco, or Candace, Vincent and their baby, and we can catch a glimpse of their futures of countless offspring and disagreements over decorating the living room. By this time Franco may have found a role for Stacy in the Midas accounting office, and she will have thrown herself into work to avoid accepting the ten year age gap between she and her husband as they await the birth of their first child. Amelia and Madeleine will visit with their own millionaire princes and playboys and everyone will sail out on yachts to watch fireworks to the faint noise of the Grand Prix. Stacy will look to her friends and say all this could too be yours if you're willing to over-look your man's egotism and misogyny and concentrate instead on less fleeting virtues such as his muscular frame and abundant affluence, and Amelia and Madeleine will stare off picturing their own glorious wedding days and Emilie Rose will type THE END and she will have churned out yet another book.
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