Annabel Verhoven

Annabel Verhoven from The Kissing Ring   Character Post 19

Annabel Verhoven is close to forty when she encounters Tom Merriweather, on her doorstep. He has given her daughter a lift home to the place dubbed Million Dollar Mansions because her cousin, who was supposed to do it, has had too much to drink at a NYE party. It's the dawn of 1985 and Annabel is not at her best, since she's wrapped in a baby pink chenille dressing gown and is a bit cheek-creased from sleeping with her head on the couch while waiting for her daughter. Having ascertained Tom has simply acted as a driver for Michelle, Annabel retires for the night. That might have been that, but in the light of the morning, she decides she was a mite ungracious and allows Michelle to invite Tom to dinner.
   Dressed becomingly and with her hair styled and her face on, Annabel reveals herself as an attractive blonde, and puts her best face forward, playing the affectionate but firm mother for Tom's benefit. She likes the look of Tom, and when Annabelle likes something, she tends to want to add it to her collection. In fact, she has a trophy box in the bottom of her wardrobe. 
   Is Ms Verhoven a villain then? Not by her standards. She freely admits that she's amoral. She says, truthfully, that she loves her daughter. This doesn't mean everything that comes out of her mouth is true. She adjusts the truth to fit the situation. When cornered by someone who would rather not be her trophy, she admits she might just possibly be a sociopath, though not, she hastens to add, a scary one. Whatever she is, she plays games to win and takes her occasional defeats like a lady - mostly. 
    Annabel plays a small part as a catalyst in The Kissing Ring. I found her entertaining, and Tom did too, for a while. 

ABOUT THE BLOG

Sally is Sally Odgers; author, manuscript assessor, editor, anthologist and reader. She runs http://www.affordablemanuscriptassessments.com and Prints Charming Books. (Sally is me, by the way, and I am lots of other things too, but these are the relevant ones for now.)

The goal for 2017 was to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. If you're an author, an aspiring author, a reader or just someone who enjoys windows into worlds, you might find this fun. The books are not in any special order, but will be assigned approximate dates, and pictures, where they exist. 2017 is now behind us, but I ran out of year before running out of books. As of February 18th 2018 I STILL haven't run out of books, but many of those still to come are MIA by which I mean I don't have copies and remember little about them. There are more new books to come, and I'll certainly showcase those, but in between times, I'm profiling some of my characters, just for a change. Thank you so much to everyone who's come along on this journey so far!