RSVP by Tara Moore Orion HK$91 RSVP is an old school bonkbuster of the sort Jilly Cooper used to write. There is love, sex, lust, sex, betrayal and sex, but it's also short. None of Cooper's recent determination to cram her stories into only 798 pages. This being a throwback, it's a family saga: or a two-family saga to be exact. In the red corner are the Granvilles, in the blue the Morrisons. Both have their share of strangely named daughters: Coppelia Morrison v Rossa Granville anyone? There is a fabulous matriarch called Honoria. And lots of star-crossed loving: Rossa loves Ashling Morrison; not content with fancying Fintan Granville, Coppelia also yearns for his older brother, Carrick. But it is the prose that maketh Tara Moore. No old trick is left unturned. 'Indolent, [Coppelia] turned to gaze at her sleeping companion, marvelling at the clean perfection of his jaw-line'. There is Fintan's 'young athletic frame', which is not only 'putty in her hands', but 'a delightful toy'. Five hundred clich?s for the price of one! It is great fun. Characters leap on and off each other. Fates are dashed and repaired. Happy Valentine's Day.
