Give Fair Trial a fair trial!

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

You may not know this, but I work in the exciting field of corporate litigation! Maybe that’s why I like Elizabeth Duke’s Fair Trial so much. Although now that I think of it, nothing THIS exciting happens at my job. Fair Trial is set in Australia and is from Harlequin’s “First Class” series, which promises to take the reader to all sorts of exotic locales. The weird thing about “First Class” though, is that many Harleys are set worldwide already (need I remind you of The Eagle and The Sun?!). I don’t think they needed a special series just to do that.

Let’s not quibble about details, though. I must say, I really enjoy Fair Trial – there’s actually a little bit of believable character development and it’s not SUPER cheesy, but it’s still entertaining. You learn a lot about Australian foliage, too!

Tanya Barrington, a lawyer in Melbourne, is a true city girl and comes from a wealthy family. In fact, her father is a highly respected local judge. She’s not too thrilled to be paired up with dashing yet arrogant Simon Devlin on a case - and it doesn’t seem like he’s too excited either. Simon is originally from the bush and put himself through law school. He thinks Tanya’s a flighty gal who only got into the legal field because her of her influential father. He’s got no time for rich girls who won’t put in the work on a case because they’re too busy partying.

So the two have to prepare a brief for court and the only time they’ll be able to work on it is over the weekend. However, Simon’s already got weekend plans at his second house in the country, so he informs Tanya that she’ll just have to go over there with him for a weekend jaunt. (The phrase for going to the country is “go bush”, by the way. Learn it. Use it. Love it.) Well, Tanya’s not about to let that crazy lout push her around and she informs him she has important plans for the weekend (something like playing tennis with her richie –rich friends). Eventually she gives in, though, because otherwise the plot would go nowhere.

Come Friday after work, they head out in Simon’s luxurious-but-not-ostentatious car and make a late stop for dinner at a pub. Simon thinks Tanya won’t set foot in one, but she’s game to give it a try. She grudgingly enjoys her giant piece of steak and ale. They even chuckle over the Cosby Show playing on the bar TV. Then they get back on the road. By now it’s dark, the road is really curvy, and it’s raining. Tanya’s worried that they’ll never get to their destination (which she is imagining to be a dilapidated shack in the woods), although if I were her, I’d be more worried that Simon’s a psycho killer. That doesn’t seem to occur to her, though.

Finally, they pull up to a house in the woods – the lights are on and literally, no one is home. Tanya starts to think maybe Simon’s married which would be a relief to her. (Of course, she’s quite virginal.) But no, Simon’s sister stops by and turns on lights for him and such. Now if Harlequins have taught us anything, it’s that any guy worth his salt has an awesome bachelor pad. Simon is no exception. His house is very modern and nicely built and decorated, with plenty of guest rooms and bathrooms, a huge living room with large windows, what have you. Tanya is duly impressed.

Since it’s late, she decides to unpack and take a shower. She gets undressed and yanks open the shower curtain to turn on the faucet. BUT – there’s a tarantula in the shower! Well, she does what just about anyone would do and screams. Not surprisingly, this sends Simon running to check on her and again not surprisingly, she hasn’t had time to grab a towel first. Of course, after his eyes have memorized every tantalizing curve of her youthful body, THEN she covers up and points out the spider. Turns out it’s a harmless little creature and Simon assures her you just get used to them. (Tanya vehemently announces that she never would get used to them and I AM WITH HER ON THAT!)

The weekend continues on with more hijinks and hilarity. A couple that Simon knows is joining them on Saturday as well as a local woman named Dimity Donahue, who is totally jonesing for Simon. She constantly tries to focus only on him, but he is a conscientious host and makes sure to include all of his guests in conversations. The group goes for walks on Simon’s property, and Tanya almost gets bitten by a snake when she strays from the safety of the path. Oops! On Saturday evening the group goes to a gala affair where Simon is a featured speaker. Naturally, his speech is interesting and humorous, while the other speaker is about as exciting as day old bread.

By this time Tanya’s realizing that maybe Simon’s pretty dreamy and he is rich, but their personalities are still clashing. Simon doesn’t seem to think that Tanya can handle any outdoorsy challenge, so he decides to take her mountain climbing the next day. (The best part is that when he asks if she brought boots, she whips out some fancy leather high heeled things. Seriously, even I know what hiking boots are.) Off they climb, and Tanya does much better than Simon ever would’ve thought, and we also learn the Simon has a real tree fascination.
On Sunday evening, they head back. Of course, the case goes on and on so there are plenty of opportunities to spend time with each other. They start to realize they have more in common than they would’ve thought – they both enjoy music (Simon plays the piano and Tanya the violin) and they go to a concert and an art show. Tanya begins to dislike spending time with her superficial gang of friends – she goes to a party but heads out early when some schmuck starts to hit on her, and she refuses to see Nick Manning-Smith again, even though her father assures her that he’s a real up-and-comer in high society. (Unbeknownst to Daddy, however, is that Mr. Manning-Smith was not very respectful of our Tanya’s boundaries and said she was “frigid”.)

One thing interesting about this Harlequin is that about two-thirds of the way through the book, Tanya and Simon realize they are attracted to each other and actually admit it. Usually the big revelation comes at the tail end, so Elizabeth Duke does mix it up a little bit. However, the two aren’t sure if they’ll ever be able to make it work due to their differences. Simon is set on raising his future children in the bush, and Tanya doesn’t think she could ever give up city life. They even come up with some ways that they could both compromise so that they could be together. The problem is that Tanya’s high-status parents probably wouldn’t be too keen on her dating a country boy like Simon. And he has made it clear that he has no interest in pandering to the Melbourne elite, including Justice Barrington. Of course, there’s a whole backstory here that explains just why Simon so loathes the rich folk he works with and also some secrets about Simon’s family, not to mention plenty of romance and misunderstandings to keep things interesting. Can these two legal lovebirds find a way to settle their differences out of court, or will the judge declare a mistrial? Find out in Fair Trial!