Bliss

by Judith Ivory and Judy Cuevas

Initially, Nardi de Saint Vallier, a disillusioned young Frenchman who has abandoned his passion for sculpting, thinks Hannah Van Evan is merely a naive young American, but during a summer in... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0515115878
• ISBN13: 9780515115871
• Release Date: April 1995
• Publisher: Jove Books
• Length: 373 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 4.2" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

Bliss - Judy Cuevas

The first time I read Bliss, I was absolutely intoxicated by it. It absorbed me and kept me completely in its power. For a whole two days all I did was eat, sleep, dream, breathe Bliss. I read it over and over, wondering each time that it should so affect me. Because by any measure this book should not have worked for me. The hero is a washed-up artistic genius who never met a drug he didn't like, and the heroine is a materialistic, ambitious upstart of a little thing who thumbs her nose at society's strictures. But somehow it worked. It really worked. Hannah Van Evan is a woman with a sordid past. It is entirely necessary for her to leave Miami because, due to some rather scandalous behavior, she has become known as Miss Seven-Minutes-of-Heaven. She applies for a job as an assistant to Mrs. Amelia Besom, an American antiques and arts appraiser who is going to Europe to search for finds. They wind up at a ramshackle estate in rural France, and Hannah is intrigued by the owner's warning to stay away from a certain cottage. Nardi de Saint Vallier comes from a blue-blooded family, has had every advantage given to him, and is possessed of a most spectacular talent. An acclaimed sculptor, he has been feted by all of Europe. And then a few years ago some of his pieces were not so well received. He did not take the criticism constructively and went on a bender that has included every intoxicating substance known to man. At the start of the story he has not been sober in a good long time, and his current escape of choice is drinking ether. His family has become concerned. Due to some rather fancy Saint Vallier maneuvering, Nardi finds himself imprisoned in a cottage on the ancestral estate, engaged to the daughter of a wealthy industrialist, and denied any contact with artificial stimulants. He has been the subject of a proto-intervention, and he is none too happy about it. So when Hannah stumbles curiously into his lair, he tries to charm her into giving him what he wants: ether first, and then, s'il vous plait, Hannah herself. I have to tell you that I was very, very prepared to dislike Nardi. He's such a mess and so terribly unrepentant about his own chaos. When we meet him first he's barfing into a grand piano at a party. He is a liar and a manipulator whose only enjoyment is telling his brother/jailor Sebastien where he can go. So how did Cuevas make him sympathetic? By making him sexy as hell, charming as the day is long, and entirely aware of all his own flaws. Nardi has no illusions about himself. He knows he's a screw-up and far too sensitive. He just doesn't know how to do anything about it. And he's so anesthetized that he doesn't care anymore about anything. Until Hannah shows up and reminds him about life and hope and beauty. And Hannah is flawed and fully human too. She wants to be rich and successful, and so is highly ambitious. She is quite impressed with the Saint Vallier chateau, more impressed with it at times than she is with

Flawless. Why isn't she still writing?

To the reviewer who mentioned that Judith Ivory used to write as Judy Cuevas, thank you, whoever you were. I devoured every Judith Ivory book i could find after the delicious "Untie My Heart," and was delighted to learn there were a few more under the Cuevas name. I've begun to suspect that "Untie My Heart" was my first but her last. I hope not. Anybody know? I had forgotten what an original she is. If I hadn't been familiar with her work, the character of Nardi would have turned me off at the beginning. I knew she'd turn him into a man worth falling in love with, and that she'd make me laugh and cry along the way. (When pain like Nardi's is written this believably, humor is essential for me. There are writers whose characters suffer quite well, but I can't read them because the anguish is unrelieved until the final pages.) As much as I loved Nardi, I was most impressed with the unexpected reality of Hannah, a good girl whose bad reputation was earned. The sense of shame that might drive a girl to give her body away and regret is not unique in period romance, but what's most surprising about Hannah is that the author offers no artificial excuse for Hannah's remembered sexual encounter with someone she didn't love - and who happened to be the best friend of a young man who loved her. She used one man to break off with another. Not because she was misled or seduced, but because she feared her weakness for material things. She didn't trust herself to resist marrying for such a shallow reason, so she created an intolerable situation and the boy's family reacted as she knew they would. Now she's living on optimism as the paid traveling companion to a woman who would, in the hands of most writers, have been a despicable old dragon and nothing more. That's the best thing about Judy Cuevas/Judith Ivory: even her secondary characters have layers. If one appears to be a cookie-cutter "type" when first introduced, get ready for a subtle and entirely believable peeling away of layers to reveal the depth and complexity that makes us all human, for better or worse. The most startling such person waits to be discovered and awakened by Hannah in a charming reversal of roles: it's the prince who's been cursed and banished like Sleeping Beauty. Nardi is the childhood nickname of Bernardo, who at thirty-something has still not been allowed to outgrow the childhood nickname. He's a former art prodigy whose career went down in flames. His family blame Nardi for failing to fulfill their investment in his career, a fact that seems to concern them more than his opium addiction and his untidy habit of vomiting into pianos at dinner parties. To make amends, Nardi has agreed to a marriage of convenience that will restore the family fortune - provided he can be kept prisoner until he's sober enough to walk down the aisle without embarrassing the bride's family. Believe it or not, this is the premise of a richly sensual, wholly satisfying historical romance. Trust Jud

A WONDERFUL AND TREMENDOUSLY MOVING READ!!!! :)

I absolutely adored the romance between Hannah and Nardi; it was so very honest and real! I finished this book in 3 hours and am currently scouring the bookstores for the sequel "Dance!" I truly hope that this book wins the award it's up for because I can't recall reading anything more soul moving!!!

A very intelligent romance

I really enjoyed this "romance". A great love story between two very interesting and well developed characters. Enjoyed the 1920's, art world, and French backdrop