Strapless: Australia or Bust: A Novel

Darcie Baxter is less than a year away from her thirtieth birthday, she lives with her eighty-something-year-old grandmother in New York who owns a killer cat, her parents want her to come to her senses and move back to Ohio and she has a married, gay boyfriend she sees once-a-week. Is it any wonder she'd like a change before she hits the big three-oh.Then Darcie gets a big break and is promoted to Assistant to the Manager of Global Expansion for Wunderthings International. Now she has a chance to show she has what it takes. She goes with her boss to Australia to scout locations for their new store, where she not only finds the perfect location, but the perfect man as well. Dylan Rafferty is tall, dark, handsome and charms the clothes off of her, but Darcie's a bit worried about his intentions. It seems he wants more than a fling-he wants a relationship, marriage. When it comes to deciding between her career and a hot romance, things heat up. Can she have both?Darcie is the kind of girl who wants the most out of life, even if it means changing her plans on occasion. She is an ambitious girl, determined to get ahead and she sure as heck is a gas to read about in this fun book that is very hard to put down.

Many reviews of this novel center around the fact that RDI has drifted from its usual straight, chick-lit genre. However, I find this to be the very reason that Strapless is a winner. While keeping with the desire to remain an independent woman, Darcie struggles with wanting to be loved by a man who will accept her for who she is. What woman doesn't want this in life?I feel that this edition to Red Dress Ink is one of the most powerful in the series. It was certainly my favorite and I think that readers need to take time to step back and accept the fact that change is a good thing. This novel may not be conventional RDI, but it is valuable with its lessons that are lurking just below the surface. You just have to look for them and keep an open mind, as with anything else in life!

Strapless is a winner! Gutsy writing, honest and likable characters, and a story that is funny, poignant, and very sexy! What's not to like? A fun read, but also a moving look at the choices a modern woman makes every day.

Darcie Baxter is nearing 30 years old and she isn't getting any younger. She hasn't found Mr. Right. Instead she has to settle for Mr. Once a Week. With Mr. Once a Week and her job that she feels like she is going nowhere Darcie feels like nothing right is going to happen. Her job at Wunderthings is something Darcie still somewhat enjoys to go to except for the fact of Greta the wicked witch who is trying to backstab Darcie in anyway possible, but when Darcie is offered the chance to go to Australia to hopefully get a store in the land down under. When Darcie gets to Australia she never expects to find what she does there, but she manages to find a hunky sheep rancher who rocks Darcie's world harder then she ever expected. After two wonderful weeks with Dylan, Darcie isn't quite ready to go back to New York and get back to her life there.As the books moves on Darcie continues to talk to Dylan, but as time goes on she realizes that things in her life are still the same. She is still living at her gran's and having to deal with the cat from hell and her grandmothers wild ways. As time goes on Darcie finds that she do things on her own and make things happen, but she is still to scaried to let go fully and do what she wants to do.Darcie I felt most of the time was weak and did as others told her and didn't listen to what she wanted, but overall this was a great book and I enjoyed it quite a bit.

Having read all of the books Red Drink Ink has published thus far, Strapless is the one that is closest to being a standard romance novel. While the other RDI novels concentrate more on dating in the big city while climbing the coorporate ladder, Strapless is a classic romance novel disguised as contemporary chick lit.Working for Whunderthings, a Victoria's Secret-like lingerie shop, New Yorker Darcey Elizabeth Daxter has been given the opportunity of a lifetime: she is now in charge of opening the store in Australia. Having had her heart broken in New York, she has nothing but work on her mind. But no sooner does she arrive in Australia than she meets Dylan -- a gorgeous Aussie sheep farmer. He is sexy, incredible in bed, and totally wrong for her. While Darcey's career is the main focus in her life, Dylan's dream is to have a housewife to have babies with. Should Darcey give up her career and life in the city, or should she follow her heart?While there are various aspects of Bridget Jones-type of modern chick literature in this novel, the description and overall style of writing screams contemporary romance a la Danielle Steel. Still, this is a novel worth reading, and another great read from Red Dress Ink. I recommend it.