Helen Brooks - More Books than Time

In Cruel Conspiracy Helen Brooks can’t make up her mind whether she has an office romance, a revenge romance, a travelogue, or a batter-her-down-with-overwork romance. It is not very successful.

Normally I enjoy Helen Brooks’s romances; she writes quite well and her characters are engaging and the plots fun. This time she has a few fundamental flaws in her plot and the romance itself is not credible.

Plot Synopsis – Click to Skip Spoilers

Aline Marcell’s 24 year old twin Tim embezzled from his employer, our hero Cord Lachoni who is in his late 30s. Knowing Cord and the police are on his trail Tim hides in Aline’s apartment while she is on vacation, and when she gets back Tim asks her to pick up some papers from his office. Of course Cord catches her, does not believe she was completely uninvolved, thinks she paid for her vacation with money she helped Tim steal. Aline is unable to prove she came by the funds honestly. (Plot Hole #1)

Because Cord greatly values Aline’s uncle, a long term friend and employee, he will allow them to repay him by working for him however, where ever and whenever he wants, for room and board. He conscripts Aline, who is a school teacher, to go to the French town where he is setting up a new office and be his personal assistant and basically do all the dog work needed to get everything ready for Cord and his English employee contingent and the new French employees. (Plot Hole #2)

Aline is working 50+ hours a week in very hot weather, presumably with no air conditioning, before Cord arrives, then once he comes she acts as his confidential assistant and translator setting up his new business. (Plot Hole #3)

Cord’s French business partner has a glamorous daughter Claudia – and we all know what that means in a romance novel – yes, she had a short affair with Cord years ago and intends to pick it up again. Other Woman Claudia shows up uninvited at the office, makes nasty comments to Aline, hangs all over Cord, the usual OW tactics. Meanwhile, some of Aline’s coworkers act friendly and Cord takes great exception to this.

There are the usual dinners, semi-seduction attempts, suggestive comments, more Claudia nastiness. Finally Cord holds an office get together barbeque at his enormous villa on the Mediterranean. At the barbeque Claudia tells Aline flat out that Cord and she are engaged. Aline walks away down the beach where Cord finds her, tells Aline that she danced with some friends solely to provoke him, that she knew “what it would do to him seeing other men touch her”. Aline asks Cord how can he try to make love to herself when he’s marrying Claudia? Cord does not deny the engagement.

The next week a gloating, ecstatic Claudia and her father come to the office, and Cord calls in Aline. There is a document missing that someone cribbed from and handed to a competitor. Claudia is certain Aline is guilty and gloats that Cord will look like a fool when everyone finds out that a bit of a secretary did him in. Cord is gentle with Aline but she’s sure he blames her and blows up, tells him to stuff his job and leaves.

Cord follows her home, tries to convince her to stay, threatens her and her brother, tries again to get her to sleep with him (he still hasn’t said whether he’s marrying Claudia), then gives her the funds for her fare back to London and tells her uncle and brother her flight so they can meet her. Later he calls to tell her that Claudia’s dad is hospitalized with a major heart attack and Claudia admitted to taking the document. (He still hasn’t said anything about marrying Claudia.) Aline tells Cord she loves him, and decides to get a long way away before he can find her.

Aline goes to a small inn in Yorkshire. Cord follows her, admits he had known for months that she had nothing to do with the embezzlement, that he’s not marrying Claudia, that he loves Aline and wants to marry her, that he’s been too cowardly to admit it to himself or to her. Final words from Cord: ‘And then I will possess you, utterly, completely, until the earth melts and the only thing that matters to you is me.’

Plot Holes

Plot Hole #1: Aline does not need to prove her innocence, the court must prove her guilty. If she wants to avoid a court charge and prove it to Cord, she could do it. She got the vacation funds when an old friend repaid the money Aline had loaned her, but friend is on a cruise and cannot be reached. Even back in the 1990s, before ubiquitous cell phones one could communicate with a ship if one needed to.

Plot Hole #2: Aline is smart, but she’s a school teacher with zero business experience. Yes, she can translate French to English, but can she do all the things a confidential personal assistant to a business leader like Cord? Later the story mentions that she’s typing with two fingers. (Note to the wise, learn to type, it’s a good skill, comes in handy.)

Plot Hole #3: This is the big one. Aline is Cord’s confidential PA. She handles all sorts of private documents, must keep secrets, treat business matters and information in confidence. Yet Cord thinks she’s an embezzler. If he believes she is a crook then he wouldn’t put her in a position of trust.

Characters

I like Aline. She sticks up for herself, and even though she could have/should have told Cord to go jump in a lake, she loves her brother and allows Cord to pressure her into working for him. Aline works hard and learns fast and acts with great honor. She also does not sleep with Cord despite several seduction attempts and her own growing love.

Cord is a jerk and a coward. He admits it at the end, he was too afraid to allow himself to love and he wanted to get to know Aline because she attracted him, and that’s why he pressured her to be his PA despite realizing she wouldn’t have helped Tim embezzle.

The worst thing about Cord and the romance itself is that Cord sees it through what he wants, he needs, he fears. Even at the end it’s all about him possessing Aline. That is not love.

Summary

Even after Cord admits he loves Aline, he’s still focussed on himself and he’s still an obsessive, possessive jerk. It makes their romance unbelievable because I have to think Aline will wake up after a few months of glorious bedtime adventures and realize she goofed. Sometimes books with overly possessive heroes are fun to read, and I enjoy this up to the last chapter while I read it, but all the time the plot holes, age difference and Cord’s actions make me seriously doubt whether there is a happy ever after in Aline’s future. The last chapter, when Cord kinda sorta apologizes, disappoints me, especially the very end where he displays his possessive streak in full glory.

2 Stars

I got my E book copy of Cruel Conspiracy from Harlequin.com and you can read a Nook copy from Barnes and Noble or a Kindle version from Amazon. Or look for paperback copies on Amazon, eBay or used book sites.

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Why I like The Baby Secret by Helen Brooks:

She grows up
He never lies
He realizes she needs and wants to be fully part of his life and tells him so
He’s forceful but not a bully, determined to keep her, loving
She learns to trust
And she grows up, stops looking for the easy answers and sees the complexity in people, in herself, in him.

The Baby Secret is worth reading to see a heroine visibly mature in 180 pages. Victoria fled her husband the morning after their wedding because her mother told her things about her husband that were true but so slanted to make him look like a womanizing, manipulative creep, not the loving man he is. Victoria must accept that some things that are not pretty nonetheless do not taint and that knowing facts is no substitute for knowing her husband.

Plot Synopsis – Click Here to Skip Spoilers

The story opens about 3 months after Victoria marries Zac. She is in Tunisia, staying at a villa her best friend’s brother William owns, and has just learned that her illness and fatigue are because she is pregnant.

Victoria married Zac because she loved him and believed he loved her, but he had to leave their hotel room during the night to attend Gina, a distant cousin and guest at their wedding, who tried to commit suicide and called him for help. Tory’s grasping socialite mother told her about it and that the cousin is Zac’s mistress. Further, Zac married Tory because he wants a well-bred wife and to cement a business deal. These statements are misleading but true, except that William broke off his affair with Gina before he met Tory and has not been with another lady since.

Tory asks Zac about each statement in isolation, refuses to listen when he tries to explain that he loves her, that he had to help Gina in all humanity, that he has no mistress. Zac confirms each statement and tries to explain but Tory decides that he is too much like her mother, part of the seedy world she wants to leave. She thinks Zac only wants a pretty doll that he could bring out when he wants and put aside when he does not, much as her parents and their friends act about people. She wants to be real to her husband, part of decisions, part of his life.

Tory and Zac return to London and Tory rents a charming mews house that Zac arranged through her mother unbeknownst to her. Zac sees Tory with William and thinks the baby might be his, which Tory does not dispel. Zac keeps trying to see Tory, to take care of her, to show her how much he loves her, but he’s afraid she might prefer William and Tory can’t bring herself to trust him.

They have a lovely afternoon on the river and Zac tells her that he saw William and knows for certain that he is the only man Tory has slept with, that he knows Tory loves him, that he loves Tory, explains about Gina and that this nonsense has to stop. Tory believes him but she’s still afraid.

Tory has a temporary job in a florist shop and falls hard, gets a customer to call Zac. Zac scoops her up, takes her to the hospital to be checked, then home to their house, the home they bought together and decorated for their lives together. Tory is still rejecting Zac but she’s beginning to realize the problem is hers, not his, that she may not be cut out for marriage. After she heals from the fall they have a wonderful afternoon of love and passion; Zac tells her how much he loves her, how beautiful she is and how pregnancy makes her look wonderful. Tory thought he might simply be saying that to be kind, but finally believes him.

Tory is about 5 weeks from her due date and Zac informs her that he intends they will live together after the baby, or if she cannot do that, then they will separate but remain married and he will take care of her and the child. This makes Tory think about herself, her parents whom she found cold and unloving.

Tory goes to see her father’s long time lover, Linda, who explains that her dad loved both herself and Tory and stayed with her mother for Tory’s sake, that he was not cold and uncaring, nor did he play games.

Tory decides she has to grow up now, that she has to start trusting Zac and herself, that she must believe he loves her, she loves him and they can be happy together. The baby starts to come when she arrives home to a frantically worried Zac in a snow storm. They make it to the hospital, baby is born and they see their happy ever after.

Characters and Why This Story Works

Many, maybe most, category romances have characters who need to grow up before they can be happy in a marriage. Usually the characters flit around the issue or perhaps work to develop trust or to communicate, but it’s a rare Harlequin where the heroine knows she must mature and then does it.

Tory is only 20 when the book opens and Zac is 35 and far more worldly and experienced. Tory had a miserable childhood with parents to avoided her, a mother who is angry that Tory is pregnant (apparently she got pregnant solely to ruin mom’s life), a few friends and not much self knowledge. She is smitten with Zac from the beginning, loves spending time with him, the laughter and kisses and she had eagerly looked forward to their wedding, wedding night and married life.

The wedding and wedding night were great, Zac was sensitive, caring and passionate. He admits later that he should have told her about Gina’s phone call, must include her in the rough part of his live along with the smooth. Zac makes it clear throughout the book that he loves Tory totally, forever, and tells her that he was incredulous when this wonderful girl loved him back, he couldn’t believe his luck.

Author Helen Brooks handles Tory’s increasing maturity with skill; this is not a heavy-handed coming of age story but a romance where the girl needs to grow up a bit, learn to trust. The turning point for Tory is when she realizes that is she who has the problem, that Zac didn’t betray her in any way, that she must learn to trust or she’s going to be miserable her whole life. As she puts it, if it hadn’t been Gina it would have been something because she was looking for something.

Tory could have tried to use OM/good friend William to play games with Zac’s head and heart but she does not. Instead she backs off from relying on William when she realizes that he’s a little in love with her. She could have been a brat about coming home with Zac after she fell, or could have stuck her head in the sand and refused to talk to him or to think through the problem.

Tory talked to Linda who helped her immensely. One reason Tory didn’t trust people was she didn’t think either parent had cared much about her, once she found her dad had cared she was able to step back and not let the past hurt so much. I doubt lack of parental caring would be sufficient all by itself to cause such deep distrust, but certainly it was a part.

Zac is a wonderful character. He is obviously deeply in love with Tory, doesn’t want her to leave him, and if she does leave him he doesn’t want to get revenge or see her hurt in any way. He arranges an inexpensive rental for her without touching her pride, he keeps tabs on her, he dates her, he courts her. (We all need a Zac in our lives!)

Tory’s mom Coral is a caricature of a rich socialite who’s grasping, cares only about herself, selfish, self-centered, bored with her daughter, fixated on status. She’s well-written; given the short length the author had to take some shortcuts with the minor characters.

Overall

I liked The Baby Secret a lot because it explicitly covers the theme of growing up within the context of a romance and without being a dull coming-of-age story. The characters are excellent and plot is simple enough that it doesn’t get in the way of the story.

4 Stars

I read this on Archive.org and purchased E book from Harlequin.com. You can get paperback copies at most used book sites and both the Kindle version and the E book on Amazon.