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Book Reviews - Romance, Fantasy, Science Fiction - By an Adult for Adults

Count Valieri’s Prisoner by Sara Craven Harlequin Presents

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Oh boy. You know the author is good when you read right by the idiotic plot because you care about the characters. Count Valieri’s Prisoner (#ad) is the story of (surprise!) Andrea, Count Valieri, an Italian businessman, and Madeline Lang, an English researcher for a television company. Madeline is engaged to Jeremy Sylvester, an up and coming man with a driven autocrat for a father. Andrea detests and despises Jeremy’s father and wants to use Madeline as leverage to force him to document how he framed Andrea’s father for embezzlement. Andrea uses the bait of a soprano who suddenly stepped away from music to entice Maddie to Italy where he holds her in his mansion.

At this point you are rolling your eyes and thinking Melodrama! Stockholm Syndrome! Inane Plot! but don’t. Hold your fire and read this. Count Valieri’s Prisoner (#ad)is very good!

First Maddie is no whiny Wilma. She’s tough and uncompromising with Andrea at first, tells him that eventually he’ll have to let her go and then she’ll press criminal charges. She knows that Jeremy’s dad won’t pay a penny for her release, and since Jeremy himself has no money she tells the Count he’s not going to get anything he wants out of this, only a world of hurt when the police arrest him.

The Count holds her in a bedroom with trompe l’oeil scenes and doors that confuse and disorient her and he hid her clothes, leaving her nightgowns and robes to wear. Her room is in a high story so escape is difficult. Nonetheless Maddie persists and manages to get to an abandoned village where – guess who! – is waiting for her. She has encountered a big snake and a wolf by then so Andrea looks pretty good in comparison.

Andrea and Maddie develop first a reluctant friendship, then a type of love for each other, but both are tiptoeing around the fringes of emotion when Andrea takes Maddie to meet his mother. Mom is the singer Maddie came to Italy to interview; Mom is also the lady who’s first husband – Jeremy’s dad – betrayed. Needless to say, Mom isn’t too happy with Jeremy’s family and although she likes Maddie, she and Andrea suspect Maddie is as bad as the family she intends to marry into.

Eventually Andrea convinces Jeremy’s dad that he has incriminating documents and unless dear old dad confesses all in writing and gives up his expected knighthood, Andrea will release everything. Dad complies and sends a toad flunky to bring the papers and get the girl. Maddy takes one look at Toad and decides to make her own way home.

By the last week of her imprisonment Maddie agrees Andrea is justified and once past that hurdle she allows herself to feel the emotional connection and physical attraction that flows between them. However, Maddie is still engaged to Jeremy and still convinced she loves him and will marry him, faith sorely tested when Toad arrives, not Jeremy. She is dumbfounded when Andrea pushes her away to go back to England and he never acknowledges the emotional connection she feels so strongly. She leaves.

It is only when she’s back home she sees Jeremy again and this time he’s pressuring her to marry now, at once. And his mother, who is going to be the mother-in-law from hell, has told the dressmaker to finish the wedding gown NOW. By now Maddie is confused. She believes Andrea. Maddie’s getting suspicious about Jeremy and she’s wondering how much he loves her when he never tried to come to her, and she’s wondering how much she loves him if she could fall for Andrea. She visits future mother-in-law and learns that Jeremy isn’t just a passive dupe with his dad, but a real, bona fide contributing partner and he knows all about the corruption and theft years ago. And it doesn’t bother Jeremy a bit.

Now poor Maddie is in a bad spot. The Count is gone. He pushed her aside and onto a plane. Jeremy is gone. The man she loved didn’t exist and she cannot love the man he is now. Of course a couple months later the Count comes to London and professes eternal love and they have their happy ending.

Let’s look at this story as story.

  • Plot is ridiculous. Who would kidnap the future daughter-in-law of the man you want to destroy? Anyone else see any flaws with this plan? Especially since it should have been obvious to the Count that father-in-law cared nothing for Maddie and Jeremy was not all that keen either.
  • Setting and clothing choice are gothic. A room with painted doors that don’t open? Satin nightwear?
  • Characters are lively and engaging; I was sympathetic to the Count even before learning why he kidnaps Maddie and of course Maddie makes a great heroine, a girl who wants to run her own life and doesn’t roll over either for Jeremy or Andrea.
  • We feel the emotional connection between Maddie and the Count.
  • Somehow the overall story works. It just does. Yes, the plot is nuts but the combination of goofy plot and great characters and strong emotional interactions makes Count Valieri’s Prisoner another winner from Sara Craven.

4 Stars

I got my Ebook copy from Harlequin.com, reading it on the Glose app. You can get the Kindle Ebook from Amazon and the Nook book from Barnes and Noble too. If you prefer a printed book then look at Barnes and Noble or Amazon or used books from Thriftbooks.com or eBay. All links are paid ads.

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Girl for a Millionaire – Intense Romance by Roberta Leigh

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Wow. Girl for a Millionaire is good! The emotions and plot are complex and I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. Overall it is a story of faith and the simple question of how much to believe in someone else.

Roberta Leigh gives us not one but two romances. The main story with Laurel and Nicholas builds slowly, starting as two people make a pact to get through a cruise without compromising their principles. They spend time together, have the inevitable lying other woman, pass through a violent scene, separation, misunderstanding and lies, then finally into love. The second romance is sweet, touching and refreshingly normal as Laurel’s doctor friend Lewis falls for Laurel’s 40-something boss Bunty; they court then marry.

Laurel and Nicholas have a difficult road to loving happiness. They meet when Laurel is asked to join a small group of people on Tony Minelli’s yacht; Laurel thinks she’s to chaperone Tony’s girlfriend but Tony and everyone else knows she’s there to um, “entertain” Tony’s guest Nicholas. Laurel doesn’t figure this out until the yacht is well off shore and Tony refuses to return to let her off. Instead she makes friends with Nicholas who is also there under pretense; he wants a contract with Tony and has to be friendly to get it, but he’s not interested in a girl brought onboard for him. They agree to pretend to be romantic in order to keep the other guests from making Laurel miserable or costing Nicholas his contract. The first two days together Nicholas thinks she knew the score and simply chickened out, that she’s welshing on the deal. As he gets to know her they get along great and by the second week of the cruise Nicholas is actively courting Laurel and she’s falling in love.

At Monte Carlo Nicholas and Laurel spend the day the day together happy, then in the evening a lady and her lovely daughter Gillian join them. The girl’s mother tells Laurel that Gillian and Nicholas are engaged, that he is waiting only for his company prospects to improve so he can support the girl. There doesn’t seem any reason to doubt her, so broken hearted, Laurel decides she needs to leave now, to get away from Nicholas before she listens to any more lies. She gets her passport but once more the yacht is moved off the harbor, she needs transport to get back to land and the crewman she asks demands 100 pounds. She has only 10 and decides to borrow from Nicholas.

Now here is where we get into trouble. Laurel doesn’t want to tell Nicholas she’s leaving – pride apparently – and she takes the money, then just as she’s sitting down to write an IOU and farewell note, Nicholas comes in drunk and furious. He got the contract and the crewman told him that Laurel is leaving and that she’s in his cabin stealing his money. (Apparently no one ever closes drapes and he could see through the porthole.) Nicholas furiously tells Laurel that he didn’t think she was a thief but now knows she’s not only a thief but a liar and grabbing her, he’s going to get his back now. They have a knock down fight where he accidentally throws Laurel into the wall before she manages to conk his head with a vase. She comes back to consciousness before Nicholas, gets off the boat and flies back to London. She has a terrible headache and nausea which doesn’t go away.

After months of missteps Laurel and Nicholas clear up their misunderstandings and marry. It’s the path to that understanding that makes Girl for a Millionaire so good.

Both Laurel and Nick have problems with faith. Laurel expects Nick to have faith in her to realize she’s honest and not a thief or sleep around. Nick expects Laurel to have faith that his courtship was honest.

Laurel has three main problems:

  1. Laurel expects Nicholas – if he loves her – to know her well enough to realize her integrity. She forgets they only knew each other for two weeks, and even with love one can have doubts.
  2. She is proud. Laurel lets her pride dictate how she responds when Nicholas says he loves her. Between expecting Nicholas to know her better and being too proud to say anything, Laurel does not tell him why she’s leaving (he’s engaged) and even the next time they meet she still doesn’t tell him.
  3. Laurel believes Nicholas is engaged, thus his courtship was a lie and she thinks she is out of his class.

Nicholas has three main problems:

  1. He expects Laurel to know him well enough to believe he is in earnest when he courts her, and to believe him when he says he loves her. (Same problem as Laurel’s #1!)
  2. He’s got a niggling doubt about Laurel; he loves her, he doesn’t think she’s really a good-time girl or a thief, but finding her with his cash infuriates him.
  3. He’s aggressive. In business this is why he’s on the yacht and in personal affairs it’s why he acts as if he’s going to rape Laurel when he finds she took his money.

Somehow they both must reconcile their unrealistic expectation that the other will somehow automatically know them well enough to bury all doubts, and open themselves up to rejection, to bury pride and connect now for the rest of their lives.

In contrast, Lewis Freed courts Bunty by dating, by talking, by visiting, by kissing, by marriage. He’s not afraid of rejection and he doesn’t let pride or some utopian belief in the power of love keep him from claiming his bride. Eventually Nicholas follows suit, convincing Laurel that he loved her enough to have faith without another’s testimony.

I liked Girl for a Millionaire for the dual romance and the emotional insights. Laurel was not willing to allow Nicholas to believe her based solely on someone else’s word, she knew that if he couldn’t believe her based on his own knowledge of her character that they would have many incidents of distrust in the future. She had to eventually believe that Freed only helped cement Nick’s own faith.

Nicholas shows greater faith and perseverance than Laurel. He tracks her down twice to apologize and restate his faith and love and it’s only the second time, when he states Freed simply precipitated the meeting, that Laurel believes him.

I enjoyed Girl for a Millionaire immensely. I loved seeing Nick and Laurel stumble their way past distrust and fear through forgiveness to faith and love. I liked seeing Lewis convince Bunty that they would be happy together. And I was very pleased that Nick and Laurel are off to get married at the end.

5 Stars

I got my paperback copy on eBay. Amazon has copies in stock; Thriftbooks does not at this moment.

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Caribbean Encounter Kay Thorpe Harlequin Presents

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Kay Thorpe writes with plenty of verve and imagination, she combines setting and plot and character with good pacing and writing to create novels I almost always love to read. Caribbean Encounter is very good but I had a hard time liking the people and the revenge element.

Alex had almost been in love with Ian when he told her he was married; she, shocked and only wanting to get away, joined the ship Andromeda as a singer to escape. Clay is the cruise director and is Ian’s brother in law and he knows all about Alex. Except he doesn’t know, not the truth. He thinks Alex is one step up from a tramp and out to catch a rich husband. He warns her off the crew and warns her off the kind, older man who spends time with her. Clay sets himself up as the all-in-one arbiter, determined to punish Alex for chasing his brother-in-law.

The weakest part of the story is that Alex falls hard for Clay almost immediately, realizing how she feels when Clay’s attitude badly hurts her. Anyone would want to clear their name in this situation, especially with a nominal boss, but Alex doesn’t tell Clay anything, wanting him to realize based on her actions that she’s not a man chaser.

I have a very hard time with the whole you’re-a-bad-person-so-I’m-going-to-punish-you schtick. Sure Clay can judge Alex, although it’s a weakness to judge based solely on second hand accusations, but to be so self-righteous to think it’s his job to hold her accountable? I don’t get it. It’s normal to want someone will reap what they sow but it’s wrong to take delight in it or to be the instrument of vengeance oneself.

The romance is a bit weak. It just happened. Both characters are attracted to each other even though neither wants to be, and most of their interactions are each trying to get by the other. I didn’t feel love building as much as physical attraction compounded with being frustrated with themselves for caring about someone they distrust.

Minor characters range from barely there to also well-developed, with the exception of Clay’s sister, a self-entitled, vindictive brat stock character. Glenn, the older man who spends time with Alex (leading Clay to assume Alex is after a rich husband. Sigh.) gets short shrift. Alex sees him as delightful but someone who truly wants their dead wife or facsimile, and not someone that she would want to marry. Pretty insightful and a good plot device to use a foil to Clay to show Alex’s judgement and integrity.

It’s a tribute to Kay Thorpe’s skill building characters, setting and plot that we can read right through events we don’t like and still enjoy the story.

Thorpe set the cruise in the Caribbean, hopping from one port to another, islands and Venezuela’s capital Caracas, and Alex goes on several shore jaunts telling us about the magnificent beaches and hills and scenery. I enjoyed reading about places I’m not likely to visit. Thorpe shows us these through Alex’s eyes and we experience the sunny beaches and the Caracas hills through her vivid observations.

Overall Caribbean Encounter is a good book, I enjoyed reading it although the romance itself is somewhat lacking. The setting and good character development compensate, making this a strong

3 Stars.

I purchase my paperback copy in a lot on eBay and you might look there or on Thriftbooks as well as Amazon for used copies. There isn’t an E version other than the pdf available on Archive.org.

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One Stolen Moment – Rosemary Hammond Harlequin Presents

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I’m not sure how One Stolen Moment got into the Harlequin Presents imprint because nothing much happens and the romance is barely there. Claudia is at her brother’s home recovering from a serious car crash that left her unable to walk before months of intensive therapy. She had been a prima ballerina until the accident and now she can never dance again; she limps. Julian is an widower artist living near her brother’s home and has a daughter.

Claudia and Julian are immensely attracted to each other but he is emotionally crippled from his wife’s death in a car crash and not willing to consider any long term commitment to a woman who is crippled physically. In fact he rejects Claudia.

The story proceeds along with Claudia making friends with Julian’s daughter, while a former co-worker at her dance company drives up to Seattle to court her. (Just once I’d like the nice guy to win and not the jerk.) Julian and Claudia try to avoid each other but finally they end up in bed together, leading Claudia to see a future together for oh, about 5 minutes. She walks out of the bedroom into the kitchen to find Julian and his voluptuous agent Sharon together and obviously more than fond of each other. Of course eventually they get the problems cleared up, the hopeful other man and other woman disappear and Julian and Claudia plan to marry.

One Stolen Moment is SLOW. Glacial. Ponderous. Boring. I didn’t much see any reason for the two people to fall in love, much less fall into bed and then marry, nor is the plot at all interesting. Romance and characters are not compelling.

Author Rosemary Hammond makes her settings come alive (too bad the characters don’t) and we can almost feel the grassy farmland on the San Juan island, see the foggy mornings. She writes good descriptions of people and how they act, how they dress, she just doesn’t have a good set of characters or plot to work with here.

Overall One Stolen Moment is 2 Stars, readable but nothing at all special and nothing to make me want to reread it.

I purchased my paperback copy on eBay, where you will usually find copies of this author’s novels, and it is also available on Amazon and Thriftbooks in paperback format.

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Bittersweet Revenge Rosemary Hammond Harlequin Presents

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Yes, another revenge romance. And this revenge is particularly stupid, which is a shame because the rest of the story is quite good. Ten years ago Val and David had been high school best buddies, dating and falling in love. The year she was a senior, Val’s parents died in a drunk driving car crash and Val left the small California town to live near Seattle with her aunt. Val knew David drank too and had become concerned with it, and after her parents died she was unwilling to continue in any romance with David.

Now, 10 years on, Val is back for her high school reunion and has a good heart to heart with David before he leaves the party, drinks and dies in a car accident. David’s brother Michael, a successful cardiologist, blames Val for this because she broke David’s heart 10 years ago. Oh, give me a break! What sort of brother would expect any 17 year old girl to remain in love once she moves away after her folks die and she doesn’t see the guy any more? And what sort of brother would blame her for dumping the guy when he consistently drinks too much, especially when her folks died due to drinking? And who would be anything but glad that his alcoholic 17 year old brother wasn’t planning marriage??

But Michael did blame Val. It was her fault David drank for the last 10 years, and obviously she must have upset him so much at the reunion that he drove off drunk. Clearly Val is responsible and clearly she must PAY!

The whole revenge thing makes no sense whatsoever. It’s a darn shame Hammond included it because it detracts from an otherwise solid romance.

Val and Michael have chemistry plus similar interest plus genuine liking going for them, and Michael decides to forego his seduction/dump revenge but unfortunately for them both, Val finds out his plans after they sleep together and before he tells her that he’s moving to Seattle where she lives. Val can’t quite believe that he intended to tell her and based on his earlier accusations figures he is lying now and had planned revenge all along.

Incidentally, what is with the whole seduction-as-revenge thing anyway?? Does it make any sense to you that a guy who believes he’s top of the walk and perfectly positioned to be judge, jury and executioner, would decide that he wants to sleep with a woman he despises? No? It doesn’t make sense to me either. Plus the idea of turning lovemaking into punishment is icky.

Hammond creates good characters including Val’s best friend and employee, and the Other Woman and Other Man, neither of whom have much to do with the story aside from causing worry and concern. The dialogue is good and Hammond uses dialogue with internal musings to move the story along and give us glimpses of Val’s feelings and hurt. She tells the story entirely from Val’s point of view so we see MIchael only as Val sees him, an ever-evolving portrait.

Hammond writes reasonably well. I had a hard time getting through this novel but that’s because I couldn’t get past the idiocy of wanting revenge for a high school romance gone bad, especially when there were excellent reasons for the romance to end and it wasn’t Michael’s romance anyway. The pacing is a little slow and there isn’t a ton of plot here.

Overall Bittersweet Revenge is good, a solid entry in the Harlequin Presents Romantic Revenge category, but it’s not great and I found it slow. Let’s be generous and round up to

3 Stars.

I got my copy from eBay, where you often can find Harlequins in good condiiton, and Thriftbooks and Amazon both have the print version. Bittersweet Revenge is not available now in E format. I didn’t see it on Archive.org.

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The Christmas Eve Bride by Lynne Graham – Not Much There

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Doesn’t the title, The Christmas Eve Bride, sound like a romantic courtship, wedding and honeymoon? Instead this is a hurried little story about Amber, now working as a gardener for a rich couple who live near her married sister, and her former love Rocco. Amber was deeply in love with Rocco and mentioned to a former school friend that they were together; the school friend then embroidered this into a juicy tell-all tabloid scoop.

Rocco didn’t even give Amber a chance to explain, he dumped her and told her not to call him again or he’d file stalking charges. A week or so later Amber discovered she was pregnant, her employers fired her and she couldn’t get a job that paid enough to raise her baby. She eventually ended up working as a gardener on an estate near her sister because the job came with a small cottage. Our story opens with Rocco visiting the estate and spotting her, assumed she was there researching for another tell-all story. Various insults and kisses later Rocco asks her to move to London to be his mistress. He knows nothing about her baby but is exhilirated to discover they had a child and quickly falls back in love with Amber and they marry on Christmas Eve.

The basic problem here is the story and characters stay just that, not real people we can imagine being. There is no immediacy, no sense of empathy. I can imagine a man being glad to discover he has a child – but only after he gets over being flabbergasted, dismayed and angry. Yet author lets us think that Rocco is surprised, yes, but delighted.

Add to the weak characters to the silly plot and you have a book that is barely readable, certainly nothing worth spending a couple of hours on. So why did I read it? It was part of a bundle borrowed on Hoopla and it was a very fast read on New Year’s Eve.

I reserve 1 Star ratings for books I couldn’t finish, so let’s be generous,

2 Stars

The comic version of The Christmas Eve Bride standalone novel is available on Amazon; I didn’t find the bundle.

Full Circle – Rosemary Hammond’s First Harlequin Romance

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Rosemary Hammond wrote well over 40 romances under the Harlequin and Harlequin Presents brands and Full Circle is her very first, debut novel. It is set in Seattle and the San Juan islands, as are most of her other books, and features two characters, Katie and Luke, who tend to live in their own heads, making trouble for themselves and each other because they don’t think to listen to each other.

Luke and Katie lived next door on an island and were soulmates from grade school on, meant for each other and both expected to marry. It’s not clear whether they actually had promised anything but both felt committed. Unfortunately Luke, four years older, was at Stanford studying engineering, playing football and working, and seldom made it home nor did he write. Katie was still committed but went on a few dates with Brian, and sadly Brian kissed her the first time and Luke saw it. Luke then walked off and refused to talk to Katie or listen to her or read her letters.

Ten years on Katie is a legal secretary and Luke comes from a high-flying New York legal practice to lead an anti-trust civil suit, and Katie is assigned to help him. They clash. Luke kisses her silly then walks off, claiming he just wanted revenge for her dumping him. Things proceed from there, with him alternately yelling at her to type stuff and making out. Poor Katie thinks it’s all in pursuit of his revenge.

Full Circle is not a bad novel but it isn’t very good either. Had I read this first I wouldn’t have bothered to purchase several Rosemary Hammond books and probably wouldn’t have bothered to read many on Archive.org either. Keeping in mind this is a first novel here’s the parts I liked and loathed:

Like: Hammond uses beautiful settings and makes us feel like we’re there. Excellent, atmospheric descriptions of the beaches and older homes in the islands.

Like: The other woman is vain and silly but not malicious.

Neutral: The overall plot of former girl/boy next door getting back together. There is some emotional tug of war going on in both of them although it’s not shown very well.

Loathe: Katie realizes she still loves Luke but she doesn’t say anything. When he’s kissing her senseless and carrying her upstairs she doesn’t ask whether it’s for love, simple sex or revenge. She assumes it’s revenge. It’s not crystal clear to readers but Hammond hints that Luke is not seeking revenge after the first incident.

Loathe: Both characters let pride get in the way of happiness and future joy. Katie knows she still loves Luke but ignores him at work and does her darnest to send keep-away signals. Luke is just as bad, watching her constantly but never saying anything.

Really Loathe: What the heck did Luke have as grounds for revenge anyway? He wouldn’t talk to Katie after seeing her with the other guy, jumped to conclusions, then held on to his anger for ten years. Katie had just as much reason to be angry as Luke.

Really Really Loathe: The whole revenge thing. I don’t care for revenge plots much – they have to be something special to be any good – and this one makes even less sense than most.

Hammond shows us Katie’s point of view only, and she uses inner thoughts more than verbal dialogue or action to build her character. That’s OK but it leads to a weaker romance than had she shown us Luke’s mind or used other characterization techniques.

Overall I was a bit bored reading this. I’ve a stack of Rosemary Hammond romances and am slowly working my way through; some are excellent and some less so. It took me a couple weeks to get through this because I kept picking up other books to read. I couldn’t relate to either character and the plot left me cold.

2 Stars

I got my paperback copy on eBay and Full Circle is available in print format on Amazon and Thriftbooks.

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Bought for Marriage Harlequin Presesnts Romance by Margaret Mayo

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This is not a good book. The writing style is juvenile with go-nowhere dialogue and short, choppy sentences and little to no description, no setting and poor characterization. I did not believe the romance.

The novel has a lot of sex scenes and some are explicit. Outside of sleeping together the hero and heroine have little connection – there is a mention of her enjoying his company but that’s it – and there is virtually no sense of them becoming a family or caring about each other.

The plot is Harlequin Presents goofy la-la. She’s half Greek, half English and her Greek dad used devious methods to keep her with him while growing up. Now she’s grown up and still lives with Dad and works for him too, even though she knows he’s a pretty bad egg, mean and selfish to the bone. Good ol’ dad is going bankrupt so like any good smart dad sends his gorgeous virginal daughter to ask his dearest enemy for a bazillion dollars (or Euros as the case may be) and just as any dear enemy would do, our hero takes one look at gorgeous lady and says sure thing, sweetums, but you gotta marry me too. One thing progresses after another, all in this same vein.

So the story lacks any depth or believablility, the characters are 2-dimensional at best, there’s too much kissing and not enough caring, we never see or read much about the lovely Greek locations (aside from noting gardens exist) and the writing style is aimed at mid teens. Other than that this is a lovely novel.

So why am I reviewing it when I’ve a stack of others that I’ve left high marks on Good reads? For one thing I almost liked this the first time I read it, about 6 months ago, and gave it 3 stars on Goodreads, which is funny because I recalled it as not good at all and have avoided Margaret Mayo ever since. For another, Bought for Marriage is part of the Forced to Marry Harlequin E book bundle which I purchased and I try to review what I buy. (I’m behind over 60 books but who’s counting.)

I recommend you avoid this novel unless you are really tired and really bored and just want something fluffy to keep you going for a couple of hours.

2 Stars / 1+ Star

I read this first as a standalone pdf on Archive.org. Amazon has the Forced to Marry bundle in Kindle and the standalone novel Bought for Marriage is available on Kindle or, more expensively, in hardback or paperback.

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Taken Over by Penny Jordan

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I like books about people, books that have an emotional connection among the characters and to me. Too often romance novels are sex scenes draped with a thin plot and characters who don’t feel real. I finished Betty Neels’ romances and have looked for more romance authors who create people to care about.

Taken Over is the first Penny Jordan novel I read and the reason I am reading my way through our library’s digital editions of her books. She is unlike Betty Neels in many ways, writing much racier stories with far more emotional turmoil and many of her heroines are fearful and unwilling to take a venture. However some Jordan novels are quite good, rich in emotional content and with the same sense of immediacy and presence that I love in Betty Neels.

Taken Over tells us about Cassie, a brilliant lady who used her math skills and imagination to write top computer games (this takes place over 30 years ago so the terminology differs) and leveraged this into a small, innovative and profitable company. Now she fears her firm is ripe for a takeover. (We aren’t told why/how someone could take it over without her consent but then Taken Over is a romance, not a business text.)

Joel Howard approaches Cassie with a buyout offer and a lot of attitude. He is rich, good looking and used to beautiful ladies wanting him and Cassie wears drab clothes and hunches. He’s snarky and scary so Cassie rejects Joel’s offer and in fact looks for an alliance with a rival firm, whose owner just happens to have an unmarried son willing to marry Cassie in order to secure her company. Not wanting his company to fall to number 3 in the games industry, Joel kidnaps Cassie and forces her to marry him.

Things proceed with plenty of tension as Cassie and Joel fight their own physical and emotional attraction to each other. There are plenty of conflicts. Cassie and Joel don’t want to fall in love, don’t even want to like each other. Joel is insulting and crude yet somehow still caring and Cassie’s danger bells aren’t enough to warn her to keep away. We readers get to follow along and it is an enjoyable ride.

The turning point is Joel’s estranged mother shows up and sweeps Cassie back with her to Florence, where mom plays fairy godmother and teaches Cassie how to dress and present herself. Turns out that Cassie looks pretty good when she’s not wearing beige or hunching! Joel arrives under pretext of stepdad’s birthday party and takes Cassie home. He wants her to hostess a cocktail party for him. Hmmm.

Joel comes home with a migrane and Cassie helps him with it and then end up making love. Like most Penny Jordan heroines she’s too unsure of herself to believe Joel actually meant to make love with her or that he cares about her or wants her. And also like most PJ heroines she’s too proud to hear Joel say anything demeaning and she plows ahead, telling him she didn’t mean anything, blah blah blah. Both are miserable and once the cocktail party makes it clear that Joel no longer has to worry about financing Cassie decides to leave before he kicks her out.

Once more mom-in-law makes a fortuitious appearance and plays good fairy and finally Cassie and Joel fess up to themselves and to each other.

On the good side Taken Over has:

  • Strong characters who are most appealing and likeable
  • A heroine who is extremely smart and uses her brains to help herself
  • A believable and flawed hero
  • Enjoyable side characters, especially good fairy mom-in-law
  • A bit of a Cinderella flavor which I am a sucker for
  • A marriage of convenience that plays off against a strong, but unacknowledged sexual attraction. (I love love love MOC novels with tension between the spouses.)
  • Beautiful descriptions of settings in English country home, London and Florence
  • A great kidnapping move
  • Excellent, believable romance

On the down side Taken Over has a heroine whose tortuous lack of confidence got a bit annoying to read about and who’s awfully quick to get her licks in first after they sleep together. (This by the way is a standard Penny Jordan moment, which I didn’t know until I read more of her books.)

4 Stars

Taken Over is available in E format on Kindle and via Glose from Harlequin. Amazon and Thriftbooks have the paperback version and you can read it for free on Archive.org

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The Forced Marriage by Sara Craven – Revenge Romance

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The Forced Marriage features an outstanding romance between Flora and Marco plus some funny lines, lots of emotion, a wonderful grovel and good side characters. The downside is that this is a revenge romance although neither we nor Flora realize it until about two-thirds through the story.

Marco is rich and drop dead sexy gorgeous and he just rescued Flora from a mugger. Things proceed from here…

Flora is engaged to nice, safe Christopher but she’s starting to wonder whether this is a good idea. You see, Flora is not particularly attracted to Chris and manages to avoid sleeping with him despite him pressing her. Flora’s best friend Hester chides her and challenges her to think this through: Should she marry a man she’s lukewarm about? A man whose main attraction is safety and security? Plus Chris hasn’t been quite the same since he returned from a Caribbean holiday.

On the other hand Flora’s mom likes Chris and Flora’s sister wants her obnoxious son to wear a page boy suit and be a ring bearer at the wedding. And Chris claims to want to marry her. What’s a girl to do?

Answer: Sleep with the warm and loving guy who beat off a mugger. Then run off to Italy with him and live in his spiffy country home, send Chris back his ring, tell Mom and sis to tough it out. Things proceed some more. Now Flora and – apparently Marco – are deeply in love and Flora is sexually entranced by him and thanking her stars she didn’t marry Chris.

Dum-da-dum-dum. Marco goes away for business, leaving Flora behind, ripe for his godmother’s nephew to wreck nasty mischief. Godmom’s evil nephew drags Flora off to see the godmother – who is the evil fairy, not the good one – and godmother informs Flora the whole thing was a set up. Marco was taking revenge on Chris and incidentally on Flora because Chris had a fling with godmother’s niece Ottavia with whom Marco had been engaged and left the niece miserable, high and dry. Marco didn’t give a rip about losing Ottavia but his godmother nagged him and nagged him to seek revenge.

Here’s where this great romance leaves me cold. I can dimly see why someone – preferably Ottavia herself or possibly her brother – might want payback from Chris for leading her on, promising marriage then disappearing – but at what point does this affect Marco? Instead of telling Ottavia to grow up, that holiday flings are notoriously short of permanence, to be responsible for her own behavior, Marco agrees to go along with the scheme.

It gets even sicker. Flora had been engaged to Chris when Chris was flinging with Ottavia, and that makes Flora the injured party, not Ottavia. But no! Ottavia is injured because Chris preferred Flora. Cockeyed logic to me. Dopey.

GRRR! At this point I’d seriously consider taking Marco and tossing him over the villa wall! Flora comes close. Evil godmother has a nice plane ticket for Flora – after all she doesn’t really want to stick around and talk to Marco before decamping in high dungeon, does she? – and Flora goes back to London, to fatigue and yep, morning sickness.

Flora truly loves Marco and even after discovering his rat-ness longs to be with him, misses him, would happily go back, but she believed Bad Godmother’s unsaid story too, that Marco never loved her. In fact Marco did and does still love her and comes for Flora, to ask her to marry him. In fact he says he was coming back to his villa to fess up and offer marriage the afternoon evil godmom spilled the beans. Flora tells him off and kicks him out, but not to fear, the proverbial phone call plot twist intervenes and Marco learns he’s a daddy-to-be. Now he insists on marriage, thus the title, The Forced Marriage.

Flora goes along with it, heart broken by Marco’s deception and miserable. She adopts a stray mutt, leading to more lighthearted moments that lift our spirits (and Flora’s) during this time of sadness and mourning for lost love.

Since this is a Harlequin our happy-ever-after is guaranteed – good! – and eventually both spouses learn to trust each other and in their love.

What I liked:

  • Flora is strong-willed, perfectly happy to ignore Chris and her family, (even sister with the pageboy suit) and willing to cope with single parenthood if need be.
  • Flora truly loves Marco, Marco truly loves Flora; the romance is real.
  • Sara Craven includes lovely descriptions of the Italian setting along with the grittier London flats.
  • Marco grovel is sincere and heartfelt.
  • Evil Godmother doesn’t come to a sticky end but she does get turned out of Marco’s island and life
  • The emotions are strong and feel real and Sara Craven builds a sense of immediacy, it is as though we are there, participating, not watching.
  • There are some funny moments. I love how Flora’s stuck up sister whines about who will pay for the pageboy suit that Flora never wanted to see anyone wear, much less her obnoxious nephew.
  • Flora’s best friend Hester is great. Sara Craven uses dialogue between the two to explain some events and thoughts but Hester is a character all her own, not a plot device.

What I don’t like:

  • Did I mention this is partly a revenge plot? OK, it is a revenge-that-backfired plot, but still. I detest this revenge stuff and I don’t see how it can motivate such behavior.
  • Flora never points out to Marco or anyone else that she is the injured party – twice in fact – not Ottavia.
  • Flora flees Italy without talking to Marco because she believes the nasty stuff from evil godmom.

4 Stars. Would be close to 5 stars if not for the ridiculous revenge motivation.

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Amazon has The Forced Marriage in print version as does Thriftbooks and Archive.org has the pdf of the book.