Rosemary Hammond - More Books than Time

One Stolen Moment – Rosemary Hammond Harlequin Presents

January 1, 2021 by Kathy Leave a Comment

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

January 1, 2021 by Kathy Leave a Comment

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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Full Circle – Rosemary Hammond’s First Harlequin Romance

December 20, 2020 by Kathy Leave a Comment

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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