Fans of Naylor's previous books, including DOG HANDLING and
LOVE: A USER'S GUIDE will enjoy THE GODDESS RULES.
Kate Disney lives in a garden shed in the posh London
Primrose Place on her friend, Leonard's, lovely and large
property. Her mainstay is painting portraits of people's
pets while keeping her caddish on-and-off boyfriend, Jake,
in check. Kate adores her musician lover, but is
continually disappointed by his lack of devotion to her.
Kate yearns for a diamond ring to seal the deal after three
years of relationship ups-and-downs. That's when Mirabelle
Moncur, an aging but still ravishing French starlet,
reappears on Leonard (and Kate's) doorstep, followed by
scads of paparazzi. Mirri commissions Kate to paint a
portrait of her cat, Bébé, a tiger cub she's brought from
the wildlife preserve she maintains in Africa.
Mirri and Kate initially seem to repel one another, but
grow closer when Kate watches Mirri's adept nature with
men. Mirri never seems to fall in love, and Kate wishes she
could emulate it. It doesn't help that Mirri refers to Jake
as "The Slug" and refuses to say much about him other than
that he takes Kate for granted.
Kate begins to believe it, too. Then Louis returns to her
life, at the zoo of all places! Louis is a college friend,
as well as an artist who's made a name for himself, and
comes to ask Kate to paint a large portrait for an
installment at the Tate Museum. Kate's thrilled, and when
Louis admits his adoration for her, she's torn between two
loves -- Jake, who's begun to realize what life is like
without her loveliness in it, and Louis, whose 10-year-old
crush on her is in full effect.
When Jake finally proposes, what will Kate do? Accept the
proposal and live with "The Slug," or wait and see if she
and Louis, with the smoldering eyes and raven hair, will
burn more brightly? Read and see.
THE GODDESS RULES is an engaging book, full of believable
story twists and turns. It's British chick lit at its
finest.
When obsessed pet owners have pooches or kitties they want
immortalized on canvas, Kate Disney is the artist of
choice. From her shed (which doubles as a studio and
apartment) in London's Primrose Hill, Kate caters to the
whims of the rich and famous while herself living a
decidedly bohemian existence. The problem is, she has a
tendency to cater to her on-again, way-off-again boyfriend
as well. Jake is so erratic, that most of her friends
don't
understand why she even bothers. But it's hard to fall out
of love with a man who writes her songs and calls her
Angel—
even if he disappears for weeks at a time.
Luckily for Kate, Mirabelle Moncur isn't buying any of
that
claptrap. Mirri was an actress, a legend in her time. Now,
at age sixty, she's given up on fame and men and lives in
Africa, where she raises lion cubs. But her reclusive
nature has done nothing to dull her beauty, mar her
incredible figure, or dampen her outrageous joie de vivre.
After sweeping into London to have Kate paint a portrait
of
her favorite cub, Mirri seizes hold of Kate's life—from
the
baggy wardrobe to the hopeless taste in men. Under Mirri's
tutelage, Kate learns to dance on tables with abandon,
drink like a dockworker, and flirt like a goddess. And
when
her old friend Louis reenters the picture, she begins to
see things in a whole new light. But Mirri has secrets
that
hint at a less than divine future. Now it's Kate's turn to
teach Mirri a thing or two about life, love, and being
fabulous.