Natalia Antigua’s first name may be a familiar name for many lovers of Rachael Leigh Cook’s romance novels, but her last name, Racquel Natasha, may not be. This author’s debut novel, Racquel Natasha, doesn’t just another story about a young woman in a relationship. Natalia is a thief and a con artist who rob others’ identity for profit – but she also has a strong connection to the National Hotel, an establishment where she works as a maid and a valet while living with her birth identity, Remy.
What’s interesting about Racquel Natasha is that the reader never really knows if she is being honest about her past, or simply using it as a way to cope with present day events. As in cook’s previous novels, this character is not totally wrapped up in who she is. In one scene, she is casually leaving a party late at night, but in the next, she is suddenly rushing to meet her hairdresser for a haircut. And in yet another, she is sitting on a beach with an umbrella as she chats with a man named Alex.
While most of the book is written in first person, we get a little more detail about Alex from the main character, Remy. It is here, though, that we learn that Remy had once been engaged to a man named Alex, but the two broke up. Before deciding to pursue his wife’s case, however, he had become suspicious of her activities-she’d been seen going to parties dressed in fancy costumes and taking on men-and decided to investigate. In the end, Remy learns that her friend Natalia is nothing like she was first depicted, and that her current employer is a very dangerous con artist.