Wow, what an absolute hatefuck from DP. Have we touched bottom in her well of cruelty towards her heroines with this one? Or is it another false bottoWow, what an absolute hatefuck from DP. Have we touched bottom in her well of cruelty towards her heroines with this one? Or is it another false bottom? I can’t even imagine sinking lower than our PRINCE (he’s related to minor royalty!) of a zhero. Warning: lots of profanity ahead.
(view spoiler)[I should have known what I was getting into with the massive tragic-backstory infodump that occurs about a couple of pages in, when we learn that the heroine was beaten by her own mother with a baseball bat when she was a kid, leaving her permanently damaged and lame; when her father was framed for the abuse, sent to prison, and shanked; when she was placed in foster care and was abused and sodomized by two teenage foster kids, and then RETURNED to the foster family because no one believed her (fortunately, she was saved by her wealthy step-siblings, who came in the nick of time to avoid worse abuse and took her to live with them at their fabu Jacobsville mansion).
What’s our zhero’s damage? His sister was murdered by a drug lord. He’s a whiny little Bitch-Ass_MoFu whose heart is broken when his ex-partner, who leads him around like a dog on a leash throughout this story, in the name of “friendship,” remarries her ex-husband in some other DP torturefest (I haven’t read that one yet).
The plot: our heroine is a smart, tough assistant DA who is sent to Jacobsville, that retirement community for ex-mercenaries and commando types, to hide out from a drug lord who wants her assassinated. Her stepbrother owns the fruit farm where she’ll be working as an assistant cook, helping to launch a line of canned fruit. (The “can can” jokes are really bad.) The zhero is an undercover DEA agent who is pretending to manage the farm while infiltrating the same drug gang that is after the heroine. Their mutual assumptions that the other is poor, uneducated, and unworthy of their sophisticated self would be funny if DP’s hero snobbery wasn’t so pervasive in EVERY FUCKING BOOK and ludicrous in light of their conversations, their mutual tastes in reading and music, their ability with languages (our prince, Bitch-Ass-Rodrigo, speaks like 6 languages, but, yeah, we’re supposed to believe our sharp-as-a-tack asst DA believes he’s some uneducated migrant. And, while we’re at it, Bitch-Ass Rodrigo must be the WORST SECRET AGENT EVER, given that he thinks the heroine is some white-trash farm worker—despite her educated speech, her knowledge of poetry (they share tastes!) and history, and so forth.
Anyway, lots of spies like us nonsense and misunderstanding, as they make ridiculous assumptions about one another that they NEVER QUESTION despite all evidence to the contrary. Bitch-Ass Rodrigo is too busy crying over his lost love to notice the obvious, I guess. But he suffers an “inexplicable” and undeniable attraction to the heroine, who similarly is able to jettison her childhood trauma when she encounters his manly manliness and fall into bed with him, sacrificing all unicorns forever more.
What was Bitch-Ass Rodrigo’s shining moment, I ask myself?
- Was it when he seduces the damaged virgin and immediately afterwards feels guilt and thinks to himself (not for the last time) that she’s an uneducated “wage earner” and not in the same league as his related to minor royalty! Bitch-Ass self?
Nah, that’s what passes for post-coital cuddling in DP’s world.
- Was it when he avoids her and is a cold asshole afterward, and basically tells her she was a bad lay?
- Was it when he runs her down, again and again, to anyone who will listen? Including the other cook (whom he doesn’t suspect of malfeasance because he is the WORST SECRET AGENT EVER)? “The truth is that she’s attracted to me and I find her unappealing…. she’s hardly the type of woman I would choose,” he added coldly. “She is uneducated and has nothing to offer a man of experience…. I felt sorry for her, and I was kind [enough to fuck her]. She misinterpreted my compassion [LOL] for affection. And, let’s face it, she’s no man’s idea of an American beauty…no man would fall all over himself trying to seduce a woman so plain, who lacks even the most basic dress sense.”
She is working on a FARM canning fruit—what fucking dress sense does she need?
Ah, but that’s a dip of a toe in our bottomless well compared to what comes.
- Was it when he marries her as a distraction from his undying Bitch-Ass “love” for said former partner, and immediately regrets it and starts planning a divorce? Or when he promises her that he’ll keep her from being hurt (by the drug dealer who is after her) and will never himself harm her (hahahaha!), and then basically leaves her unprotected so that she is almost killed not once but twice because he is the WORST SECRET AGENT EVER? Now I’m all for a heroine who saves herself, but Bitch-Ass Rodrigo and the Keystone Cops that make up Jacobsville’s law enforcement cabal are the worst protectors EVER.
- Was it when he gives her the rings, at their across-the-border wedding, that he’d bought with the intention of proposing to his ex-partner (and our heroine knows it because they don’t fit her)?
- Was it when he immediately makes it entirely clear how miserable he is that he married her and still longs for his ex-partner and her perfect little plot moppet—so clearly, in fact, that the heroine decides she can’t tell him she’s pregnant? And how much he regrets marrying her and looks down on her: “She was a sweet woman, but uneducated and unsophisticated and plain. She would never fit in his world. He’d made a terrible mistake when he married her. It had been a spur of the moment thing, to spite Sarina for throwing him over. But all it had done was make him aware how miserable he was. He couldn’t spend the rest of his life tied to this prehistoric woman. He was going to have to approach the subject of a divorce.”
- Was it when she rushes to the hospital when she hears he’s been taken there after the big drug bust and he’s ASHAMED of her in front of his law-enforcement friends (most of whom know her and admire her) because she didn’t stop to dress up and put on makeup? And takes a phone call from his beloved ex-partner in front of her and is so affectionate to the OW, yet so dismissive and cold to her, embarrassing her in front of his cronies?
No no no, we have barely sunk below the surface of this shitshow! Although, to her credit, the heroine decides at this point she has had enough and packs up and is leaving him the next morning, when his leash-holder ex-partner shows up (AGAIN!), and the heroine overhears him running her down YET AGAIN to his One True Love: “…but you’re married,” Sarina was saying. “To a little country hick who dresses like a bag lady and has no social graces or education to speak of,” he said coldly. “I was ashamed to even have my colleagues see her with me last night!” He drew in a harsh breath. “She’s crippled and…I only married her out of pity. It was the worst reason in the world.” He didn’t add that he’d felt a raging desire for her that he couldn’t deny.” Not only is Bitch-Ass Rodrigo an asshole, he’s a liar, not even to himself; just to anyone who will listen to him spout his cruel self-justifying bullshit.
Ugh, but no, we are still drifting downward, searching for the muck that will indicate the bottom. I thought we’d hit it when she goes to see him to let him know she’s pregnant (a pregnancy that she is determined to go through with, knowing it can kill her because she has a congenital heart problem). Bitch-Ass Rodrigo, who claims to feel guilty and sad when she left him, greets her with this: “What do you want?” Before she can tell him about the baby, she is accused of being a gold-digger who has found out that he’s [ related to minor royalty!] wealthy, meets his latest girlfriend, who he’s been “making paella” with, and told that paella lady is “great in bed” (unlike her).
Not surprisingly, our heroine ends up having major angina and a miscarriage that lands her in the hospital on her way back from NOT telling the zhero about the baby. DP tries to make us believe that she was feeling pains before her little visit to the Prince of Darkness (he’s related to half the royal houses in Europe!), but I think it’s the emotional trauma and that he deserves all the blame. So whatever DP.
And finally, ladies and gentlemen, I think we hit bottom! We sink a few feet in the murk and mire, but it holds, for now, as DP’s lowest point (that I've read so far, anyway) for a zhero: he shows up personally in the hospital to deliver the divorce papers when the sheriff refuses to serve them to a woman who has just suffered a minor heart attack (or close enough) and a miscarriage. Now even if he has no clue about her medical condition or that she was pregnant, this fucking dude STILL thinks this is the moment to drop off the divorce papers, while his “unsuitable” and ill-used bride is in the fucking hospital. Whatever the reason. “What do you want?” she asked icily. “Your sheriff refused to serve divorce papers on you.” He started to pull them out of his pocket, but he hesitated [what a prince!]. “What the hell are you doing in here? Is it your hip again?” Her green eyes flashed at him. “What the hell do you care?” she asked. “You didn’t even ask me why I’d come to see you. You think I’m mercenary, do you? You think money is all I want out of life?” His teeth clenched. “That’s all women ever wanted from me,” he said coldly. “Except…” “Except for Sarina,” she finished for him. “But you can’t have her, can you? I guess Conchita is your present consolation. Pity I didn’t know I was standing in for your ex-partner!” His eyes darkened, and he smiled coolly. His pride stung, and he retaliated: “You were a poor substitute. ”
Ding ding ding! We have a winner for rock bottom! This hospital scene—I don’t even have words. I. can’t. even.
We’re supposed to believe that Bitch-Ass Rodrigo is just DESTROYED to find out afterward that she had a heart attack, lost his secret baby, and his unparalleled cruelty is likely the reason why. Boo fucking hoo, DP. There’s no coming back from this, as far as I’m concerned.
Good riddance, Coltrain thought. She deserved better. I’m with you, Coltrain.
NO coming back from this, DP. Bitch-Ass Rodrigo doesn’t even suffer more than a slight beating at the hands of drug dealers in the blah blah spies-like-us wrap-up of the “suspense” part of this tale. And to add insult to injury, he’s still saying to anyone who will listen that she just “wouldn’t fit into his world”—because she’s poor and plain and stupid, remember. STILL saying it! Until he sees her back in San Antonio in her element, in the courtroom, and realizes she’s the assistant fucking DA, and dresses nicely and is attractive when she’s not dressed to can fucking fruit on a fucking farm! (Excuse my mouth, I am just gobsmacked by this story and I would have told you in advance that I am pretty much unshockable when it comes to heroes behaving badly. But I was wrong.)
And all of a sudden, our heroine is good enough for him. And pimped out by her stepsiblings and her friends, none of whom punch this Bitch-Ass loser in the face, but instead rescue him from the trap he walks into because he is the WORST and DUMBEST secret agent EVER. “Remember me?” she spits at him when he is invited to her step-sibs party (wtf? Way to NOT have your back!) “The plain, crippled, stupid assistant cook you were ashamed for your colleagues to see with you?” He’d said that. He couldn’t deny it. But he was furious with her for bringing it up.
And that says it all.
Alas, our spineless heroine organizes a team to save him when he walks into a trap set by drug dealers, who hold him for ransom. Stupid stupid stupid—a fitting epilogue would have been them finding his body parts strewn across the Mexican desert, but alas, no. DP has the gall to go for “redemption.” Hilariously in the form of a lame apology or two (pfffttt!), some roses and chocolates, and a mariachi band! Seriously? Oh, and a marriage proposal complete with rings that he actually bothered to buy for her this time, rather than passing off the Sad Rings of Eternal Love Denied that he bought for his ex-partner. Gag! GAG!!!!
Epilogue with baby two years later does nothing to redeem this mess. (hide spoiler)]
I have an almost inexhaustible tolerance for vintage asshats. I take the “plain heroine” nonsense in stride (I read a LOT of Betty Neels, so trust me, I'm inured). I love trainwrecks and mega-angst and cruel heroes. But maaaan, I don’t even know how to rate this? As a romance? All the zeroes! As an OTT fucked-up wreckidrama? So many 10s (even though we only go to 5s). So I guess I’ll go with a 3, because I can’t say it wasn’t compelling and I seriously couldn’t stop reading it to see how horrible he could possibly get.
I can’t say I wasn’t warned. Vintage was right to advise skipping the drinks and going straight for the bottle when reading DP. I will have to go read Margo’s “healing revisionist epilogue” again now, and take like 18 showers to wash off this shit show. Wow....more
Cruel hero alert! On a scale of 1 to Robyn Donald, this guy's a solid 8.5--at least! Heroine would have been better off to just keep avoiding him, as Cruel hero alert! On a scale of 1 to Robyn Donald, this guy's a solid 8.5--at least! Heroine would have been better off to just keep avoiding him, as she does, sequestered in his manor in the "granny apartment," for most of the book. He even comes between her and her puppy! Some nicely angsty moments but if you have little tolerance for vintage dbags, your head may explode upon reading this one. ;-) ...more
An early one by RD that touches on some of the tropes and character types (icy, scary heroes and self-possessed but overwhelmed heroines) she'll writeAn early one by RD that touches on some of the tropes and character types (icy, scary heroes and self-possessed but overwhelmed heroines) she'll write to great effect in later books. All the elements are here but the intensity isn't built to the necessary levels to make this a pulse-pounder like some of her later stuff. St. Margarets explains why in her review. I enjoyed this one but it's pretty forgettable in comparison to some of RD's others.
The cover is by the prolific but mysterious "El"--haven't been able to dig up anything about this artist, anyone (hi Iris! :-D) know anything?...more
The Fateful Bargain is my 100th Betty book! Although I didn’t realize that until after I’d finished it and marked it “read” on my list of Betty books.The Fateful Bargain is my 100th Betty book! Although I didn’t realize that until after I’d finished it and marked it “read” on my list of Betty books. If I had to pick one that was a solid, middle-of-the-road example of her work, it might be TFB. It’s not one of her best and not one of her worst—it’s reassuringly comfortable and familiar territory, with a Poor British Nurse, Emily Grenfell, going to work in Holland at the behest of the arrogant (but ultimately kind-hearted) surgeon, Sebastian van Tecqx, with whom she falls in love.
I say behest, but it’s really emotional blackmail—the hero will operate on the heroine’s father, replacing both hips free of charge, if the heroine will go to Holland to nurse his sister, who is having a hard time emotionally, recovering from polio. (Polio was an unlikely choice of ailment in Holland by 1989, as Pamela Shropshire notes in her excellent review, but since we know that Betty operates in an alternate universe in which Victorian/Edwardian mores and lifestyles (and hospitals) exist cheek by jowl with modern cars and surgical techniques, we will allow for it.) Sebastian is very high-handed about their bargain, as he is about most things. Even Emily, one of Betty’s quieter, shyer, not-so-seething heroines, complains “Orders, orders,” at one point (to which he replies, “Tiresome, aren’t I?” hee).
Their fateful bargain is one of the more memorable aspects of this story, along with the nicely done travelogue of Delft, where the hero lives and to which Emily travels to help nurse his sister. With a hero and heroine who share a liking for “old buildings and quiet canals” (and animals and babies and small children, of course), Betty gives full rein to her descriptions of this small historic city, as our hero takes our heroine on moonlit walks on cold nights to see the sights. But as with most of BN’s heroes, Sebastian never lets on that he’s in love with the heroine, determined that they must each complete their end of the bargain until, once free of obligation, he can confess his love (he seems to be in no doubt of hers). It’s clear to his sisters where his interests and intentions lie, and poor Emily, despite her best efforts, can’t hide her feelings at all (his sister can tell Emily has spotted Sebastian in the garden: “I can tell from the way the back of your head looked”).
Being in love doesn’t stop Sebastian from watching Emily wriggling on the pin of her seemingly unrequited love just a little. Sebastian does that BN hero thing where he tells Emily he’s planning to marry soon—he just doesn’t tell her that he’s planning to marry HER. Jerk (although not so much that he makes my list of Top 10 BN jerks, which has now grown to 15 or so and counting—I will have to figure out how many of them are surgeons. At least 2 are non-doctors!).
Nope, Sebastian plays his cards close until the very end, after he’s successfully completes her father’s second hip replacement, and then confesses his love and proposes in the spot where they first met and where he first fell in love with her, outside of her former bedsitter in a run-down part of London, light years removed from his pretty Knightsbridge house and glorious Delft mansion. Not to worry—it’s all fur hats and luxuries, babies, and tea around the fire served by Faithful Family Retainers from here out, Emily!
No extended Big Misunderstandings in this one (except that the heroine doesn’t realize she’s the prospective bride), and only a blink-and-you’d miss her potential OW who never really earns the title, making this one relatively low-angst. We visit with Jeroen and Constantia van der Giessen of The Little Dragon, still blissful after 10 years of marriage, surrounded by kiddies and their now-venerable rescue dog from that book.
The MCs in TFB are likable enough, and there’s a nice sense of family that runs throughout this one, but neither MC is particularly memorable and I’m not sure Betty really makes the case for why our handsome, wealthy, in-demand hero falls for our mousey heroine, who is maybe just a touch TOO quiet and “restful.” But it’s well-trodden territory, and who doesn’t like when the genuinely nice, unassuming girl wins the prize? TFB is enjoyable and, yes, kind of restful, if not particularly memorable, and a solid 3 stars.
After 100 books, I still love Betty’s books, despite their idealized anachronisms; MCs so reserved that really they’re repressed; no sex (a thumb stroke down the back of the neck is about as explicit as Betty ever gets—which is freakin HOT in the context of Betty somehow); arrogant, uncommunicative heroes with a penchant for horrible trophy girlfriends/fiancees; and heroines who run the gamut from doormat to overly snappy paragons but still mostly manage to be likable. The attitudes and behavior I overlook/accept in Betty books that I wouldn’t for any other author confound me! But there it is.
Betty’s particular magic isn’t for everyone—but it IS magic for me, and what comfort and pleasure I’ve derived from her books during this very weird year of our pandemic. Toasting the Incomparable La Neels on this occasion of my 100th BN read: Cheers! Betty, and I hope that if there is an afterlife, yours is filled with fabulous food, magnums of champagne, sumptuous surroundings filled with historic and well-loved treasures, beautiful designer clothing, Faithful Family Retainers to smooth your path, and, of course, an arrogant, managing, truly GOOD and kind-hearted, vast Rich Dutch Doctor to make your every romantic dream come true.
Betty car porn:
Sebastian drives a Bentley (we’ll go with the 1988 Turbo R, since our RDDs love speed): [image]...more
Total catnip for fans of implacable alphahole vintage heroes and lippy heroines. It took me a long time to get around to reading this one, mainly becaTotal catnip for fans of implacable alphahole vintage heroes and lippy heroines. It took me a long time to get around to reading this one, mainly because I didn't like the title. As they say, don't judge a book by its cover! Jeneth Murray liked "forced MoC" stories, and she was good at them--she managed to write very funny and yet intense stories with autocratic heroes and amusing, defiant heroines who may be a bit out of their depth with the much more ruthless and older heroes but who do their best to go toe to toe.
(view spoiler)[ Kate Forrester is a schoolteacher-turned-supermodel, who reluctantly began modeling when her young stepsister, whom she raised since the death of their parents, leaves her husband and shows up on her door with a baby boy. Kate's successful as a model but her model persona is nothing like virginal, down-to-earth Kate. When her stepsister and husband die in an accident while on vacation (having left the toddler with Kate for a couple of weeks), she takes the boy and hides out at a friends remote cottage in Cornwall, determined that her brother-in-law's wealthy and (she thinks) horrible family won't get him.
Her brother-in-law's ruthless older brother, Jerome Manfred, shows up, he holds all the cards--wealth, power, and some near-nudie girlie photos of Kate that her sister had talked her into doing when they needed more money for a larger apartment. The "girlie calendar" pics had never been published, and Jerome had bought the prints and negatives, hanging onto the negatives for a bit of extra blackmail to pressure Kate into marrying him. Her choice is to either go along with his demands for a "loving and obedient" wife or lose all access to her nephew and lose any chance of ever teaching again once he circulates the photos of her.
Kate furiously goes along with his demands (and her mother-in-law-to-be blithely tells her Jerome's just like his father and there's really no gainsaying him, when Kate complains to her). She has a terrible case of treacherous body syndrome from the start, and our hero makes it clear that it's going to be an "ordinary" marriage with all that that entails, and he's quite looking forward to it.
Murray seems to have great fun writing Jerome to be a total autocrat--he's forever issuing decrees and being used to having things all his own way (his mother tells her he'll probably be a difficult husband because of it but he has his good side). Kate is actually pretty funny--first, she's determined to bore him to death by playing up her very practical "schoolteacher" side, but since she's always flying into rages and delivering speeches about whatever it is that he's irked her about, their clashes are pretty amusing. JM did this to great effect in Bittersweet Marriage too--her heroines are overwhelmed (and usually fall in love pretty quickly with their tormenting and enigmatic husbands), but they are usually firecrackers who amuse the heroes as much as they try to infuriate them.
This is largely a "getting to know you" story, as our heroine comes to put aside the very skewed misconceptions about Jerome and his dog-loving, briskly kind mother and accept that her selfish and immature stepsister has misled her about them and about her own actions (painting herself a victim when she was anything but). A young stalkerish OW tries to derail the marriage, too, but she's a minor irritant really. Well-drawn secondary characters (a nanny who develops a maddening habit of phrasing everything as "we"; a sour-faced mouthy housekeeper with a soft heart) rounds this out nicely. (hide spoiler)]
In other hands, this would have been an angsty story, but JM leavens the intensity and the heroine's dismayed realization that she's fallen for her often remote and somewhat tyrannical husband with a lot of really funny lines and moments. Some points off for the hero not saying the ILYs back to the heroine at the end ("don't I say it every time I touch you?" isn't the same--I like an explicit admission of surrender, thank you--but it's in character with our cool and reserved alphahole so there's that).
Very vintage, with a ruthless and dommy hero who coolly goes after what he wants, forced seduction of a heroine with a bad case of treacherous body syndrome, cigarette smoking, a little handsiness (shaking and wrist grabbing--out heroine tries to smack him once or twice, too), and some anachronistic terms and views (as to be expected in a 40 year old book) that might offend more modern sensibilities. But like I said, for fans of vintage asshat heroes who happily stoop to blackmail to achieve their ruthless ends: pure catnip!...more
I went in to this read with a chip on my shoulder for some reason--it's written in first person, which I don't usually like; the heroine is an ex-cheeI went in to this read with a chip on my shoulder for some reason--it's written in first person, which I don't usually like; the heroine is an ex-cheerleader and daughter of a beauty queen; it's a romantic suspense novel, which are never really my cuppa (I love romance and I love suspense but find the combo usually too diluted in both measures).
Well, I should have known Linda Howard could pull it off. For one thing, she writes southern characters, with all their quirks and conventions, really well, being one herself. For another, she's funny as hell sometimes. And that humor shines in TDF! Blair Mallory is a hilarious heroine, full of self worth and confidence, ready to act the ditzy blonde that she most assuredly is NOT if it will smooth her path, and definitely ready to make the hero, who dumped her two years prior without explanation after a couple of dates, work hard to get her back (in keeping with her ethos: if he walks out, he crawls back, hee).
Ah, but cop hero Wyatt Bloodsworth is a worthy match (and he has a secret weapon in his arsenal when it comes to breaking down her defenses). These two scrap and spar and very sexily come together when he strides back into her life after she witnesses a murder. When she becomes a target, Wyatt's all in in his efforts to protect her and to resume a relationship that he's ready to commit to now. Blair definitely puts him through the ringer. She won me over too, because for all her strategies to make him a little crazy and her games, there's a sense of fun and self-knowledge that made her, for me, truly likable. Her family dynamics were fun to read too.
And first person voice really worked in this one--we get a real sense of who our heroine is at the core and amusing insights into her thought processes and value system. Really funny stuff, with the trademark Howard heat. Sure, I guessed easily and early who the likely villain was, but it was still fun getting to the end.
Another winner from Ms. Howard, and I'm looking forward to more antics from Blair and Wyatt in LH's sequel, Drop-Dead Gorgeous. I guess Howard liked these characters as much as I did and probably had a good time writing about them. I definitely enjoyed reading about them!...more
Lots of great reviews/recaps for this one, so I won't belabor it, but will say that I'm a fan! I find that Coldbreath's books can get a little draggy Lots of great reviews/recaps for this one, so I won't belabor it, but will say that I'm a fan! I find that Coldbreath's books can get a little draggy in the middle but overall I love the combo of the mostly sweet but smart and resilient heroines and the uber-possessive alpha heroes. The characters from the other books in the series make repeated appearances too. The worldbuilding is just enough to provide a frame (mostly Disneyfied medieval setting although there are shadowy nods to past wars, court intrigue, and plague (more directly a plot point in Coldbreath's "The Unlovely Bride.").
The hero in this one is cooler, more subtle, and in some ways more dangerous than his brawny brothers at the center of the other two books, but the elements that AC works so well are all there--a marriage that starts off as an MoC but soon has the hero turning jealous and possessive (in hot ways) and the couple pretty much in instalove from the start; steamy scenes with enough space between that the sexual tension doesn't get lost; fun and engaging secondary characters; and enough intrigue and misunderstanding to keep the plot moving along as our MCs start to really know and love one another. The heroine in this one is very likable as well, dealt a lousy hand, but determined to do something about it (although the hero takes advantage and what she gets isn't what she was looking for but definitely turns out a lot better).
Cute, steamy, escapist fun that's well done, especially for fans of possessive and sexually dominant heroes and interwoven stories about a cast of connected characters.
I’m three for three with Sara Craven (and thank you Iris for reminding me about her!). The sexual tension in DA is unrelenting from beginning to end, I’m three for three with Sara Craven (and thank you Iris for reminding me about her!). The sexual tension in DA is unrelenting from beginning to end, with heat shimmering between our mutually infatuated MCs whom circumstances have forced to be antagonists. Is there anyone who did sustained sexual tension with a side of angst better than SC?
She was conscious of him all the time. Above the laughter and chatter of the women there seemed to be a silent zone where the two of them existed alone. A place where she could look at him, and smile, and say the words of love and desire that she dared not even think. Where his kisses burned on her parted lips and her body bloomed under the touch of his hands. A secret place, she thought, which would haunt her for the rest of her life, tormenting her with all kinds of unfulfilled yearnings.
The innocent (but not naïve) heroine’s desperate determination to NOT succumb and become just another of “Xandreou’s women” is palpable throughout and makes her a good match (both as an antagonist and future mate) for our ruthless, autocratic hero. Nic potentially holds all advantage in their “negotiations,” really, but to his credit, he doesn’t really steamroll the heroine as he probably could, and overall his intentions are good, although he needs to realize his sibs are grown up and that his experiences will not necessarily be theirs. It’s a pretty angsty read because Camilla is netted by her own unmanageable reactions and growing feelings for the arrogant Greek hero, who is just as infatuated but determined not to become emotionally involved with her, at first because he thinks she and her sister are out for a payoff but also because of a previous disastrous marriage to someone who was not from his culture. It’s clear he’d be happy to have sex with her but our heroine makes it clear (with a good wallop at one point) that that’s not going to happen if she can help it. SC sets up a conflict/relationship that should be unbalanced, given the hero’s wealth and power, neither of which the heroine has, but in making their roles as defacto parents to their younger siblings so similar and in making it clear that their mutual attraction is equal on both sides, the balance of power isn’t really so uneven, the heroine’s inexperience notwithstanding. It’s nicely done.
(view spoiler)[Camilla’s younger sister, Katie, and Nic’s younger brother, Spiro, had previously met in Greece and Katie came back with a souvenir (the kind that emerges after a nine-month gestation). When Spiro fails to show up in England as promised, Katie insists that they go to Greece to find him, and Camilla reluctantly agrees.
They travel to our Greek shipping magnate hero’s Aegean island, where Camilla finds her inquiries blocked by the locals and soon determines that Spiro is the scion of a wealthy family, and his brother is more or less the big man on the island. She manages to find out where the Xandreous compound is located and rides a scooter up to their eyrie. She is met by an armed security guard who, once it's approved, escorts her into the compound, where she meets the “dark Apollo” of the title—hero Nic Xandreou, who purposely insults her, as he wouldn’t a woman of his own country she is aware, by emerging naked from the pool and casually drying himself off as he tells her curtly to state her business. She thinks he is Spiro; he thinks she is Katie, and the spat at cross purposes, as he slut shames and she furiously demands he take responsibility for “his” actions. She storms out and gets accidentally run off the road by his sister and is taken back to the house for first aid. From the very start, there’s an explosive physical reaction between our MCs. They bicker some more as he cleans up her scrapes (and strips her ruined shirt off her to her outraged chagrin), and drives her back to her hotel, where he loses his temper and punishing kisses ensue. The heroine is enraged and humiliated to know that the sniggering townspeople now think she’s just an easy conquest for our hero Nic.
Nic is autocratic and ice cold, and is determined that neither of his younger siblings, whom he (like the heroine) has parented from a far-too-young age, will make the same mistake that he made and marry outside their culture. As a young man, Nic had fallen for and married an aspiring actress who soon became bored with being the wife of a busy and often absent businessman and returned to Hollywood, where she found the success that had previously eluded her. She also found one hell of a drug problem and ended up dying of an overdose. Nic is haunted and bitter about the past and sees his attraction to Camilla as a weakness. He’d be fine with a fling, it soon becomes obvious, but Camilla is not that kind of girl.
Or is she? She suffers terribly from treacherous body syndrome. But she detests him for his refusal to consider letting her sister even see his brother Spiro, who is recovering from a car accident (and amnesia, that classic Harley trope, yay!). Given that they are the impetus for most of the action and conflict in the story, we actually see very little of sister Katie (who is generally resting or on the beach) and even less of Spiro.
His sister Arianna becomes Camilla’s and Katie’s ally, mainly because she is in love with the local doctor and thinks that by helping Katie and Spiro, she might help herself avoid an arranged marriage if they can crack Nic’s inflexible and old school attitude toward his younger siblings. When Katie and Camilla get thrown out of their hotel (because the witchy owner’s wife hates Camilla for getting her cousin in trouble with Nic for renting her a dangerous scooter), Arianna insists that laws of hospitality require that they offer alternative accommodation, and since both Nic and Camilla react with vehemence against the idea that the sisters move into the villa for the rest of their stay, they are offered the family beach house, a short distance by sea (but not by land) from the villa.
We have a near seduction when Nic shows up early one morning at the beach house, but Camilla comes to her senses and he backs off. Yay for a self-protecting heroine who can say no (despite wanting very much to say yes). But it’s clear where things are going, even though Camilla knows she's fallen in love and is doing her best to keep Nic at arms-length because she knows there's no future for them. And when Camilla agrees to keep Nic out of the say for a day so that his sister can bring Katie to see Spiro, hoping the shock of seeing her will help him to recover his memory, Nic and Camilla end up having sex on the beach (after he rescues her from drowning when she swims out too far).
More angst and misunderstanding, as Camilla accuses Nic of a cynical seduction and Nic thinks Camilla deliberately let him seduce her to buy time to bring their siblings together against his wishes. He still seems vehemently opposed to the couple marrying but his brother, memory recovered, tells him that he doesn’t care—he’s marrying Katie with or without big brother’s approval, so suck it. Nic realizes he will destroy his relationship with his brother forever if he doesn't back down, and he finally realizes Spiro is all grown up (and he and Katie are the real deal), so he relents and our baby-making couple will get their HEA.
Camilla doesn’t see Nic after their blowup and is heartsick and fearful that she, like her sister, might end up pregnant from her ill-advised moment of weakness, but she’s heading back to England and not sure if she’ll be back for Katie’s wedding. She’s packing to leave on the late afternoon ferry when Nic’s sister shows up hysterical, saying that Nic is sending her away to stay with some aunts until he has arranged a marriage to her. Camilla refuses to help her flee to England with her, knowing that poor little rich girl Arianna isn’t going to live in a tiny flat with her and thinking that Nic hates her enough as it is, so Arianna says she’ll be on a flight to anywhere asap and takes off. Camilla is fearful that she’s set an even worse scenario into play and decides—like an idiot, given that she almost drowned once already—that she’ll swim across the bay to the villa to warn Nic about his sister’s stupid plan (and to clear up some misunderstandings about her motives in sleeping with him before she leaves for good). Apparently sex with hot Greek millionaires scrambles the brain, because she sets off in the night to do her Channel crossing and almost drowns midway.
But as Fate (resident on the island of course) would have it, Nic fishes her out of the water onto his obligatory Greek tycoon caique and takes her back to the villa to be dried out, wrapped up, warmed up, and mildly (for him) admonished for idiocy. Explanations (including that he’s dumped his Athens-based mistress, whom we know he hasn’t seen since the heroine’s arrival, so no cheating), plot threads tied up, marriages in the near future for all three Xandreou siblings (Arianna will get to marry her doctor), and an HEA for our happy couple. (hide spoiler)]
SC did old-skool so very well in this one—a deliciously dommy hero who manages not to be a complete ass; a mostly steel-spined heroine who doesn’t give up too easily and isn't cowed by the powerful, arrogant hero; some really great heat and sexual tension as only SC can deliver; and a tight focus on the MCs even though a central conflict between them rests heavily on secondary characters. This should read as far more cliched than it does, especially given HP’s love for arrogant Greek heroes, but SC makes it her own somehow, despite the familiar tropes. She’s rapidly becoming one of my fave vintage Harley authors....more
Think "Romancing the Stone" with a Conquistador-descended sexy Colombian hero (with an eyepatch!) and a young nitwit heroine bungling in the jungle loThink "Romancing the Stone" with a Conquistador-descended sexy Colombian hero (with an eyepatch!) and a young nitwit heroine bungling in the jungle looking for her spoilt brat geologist brother who has disappeared looking for a legendary emerald (the titular "flame of Diablo"). Good sexual tension between our virginal English miss and the dashing and dangerous hero who saves her from all manner of danger (rape, snakes, bad guys) but wants payment "in kind" (wink wink). It's pretty clear from the beginning that our hero is smitten, and our heroine is in insta-love, but they argue and miscommunicate to the point where all seduction attempts end in mutual frustration. (view spoiler)[ On route through the jungle to find her brother, with the hero as her guide, the hapless heroine gets captured by the villain who half-blinded the hero when he was a child and killed his father, finds that he's also holding her brother, and the hero has to bargain the long-held family secret location of the emeralds in exchange for their lives. The evil desperado agrees (OK) to let the heroine spend a last night with the hero, since they'll be, I dunno, torturing and killing him after he shows them the mine? and our hero and heroine FINALLY knock boots. The hero effects their escape (with the help of the army, which was closing in on the bad guys) as the mine collapses; takes the heroine home to mama at his ancestral manor; and insists they get married because she might be pregnant. More misunderstandings almost tear them apart, but explanations and love will out, and we have our HEA. (hide spoiler)]
The heroine (and her brother, for his brief chapters) were annoying but this wildly romantic and improbable story was actually a lot of fun. Great heat between our hero and heroine, some very old skool happenings (bratty, immature heroine; dangerous but patrician alpha hero; a spanking!--SC seems to have liked to throw those into her earlier novels), and a satisfying resolution. I forgot how good SC was--silly escapist fun!...more
So much hate for this book (mainly aimed at its alphahole hero) that of course I had to read it. I'm on a Lowell kick anyway (thanks Boogenhausen--herSo much hate for this book (mainly aimed at its alphahole hero) that of course I had to read it. I'm on a Lowell kick anyway (thanks Boogenhausen--her early stuff is an angst junky's delight!). I did not hate this book--I actually liked a lot about it, and best of all was the heroine, who was steel to the core! Yes, she loved the hero no matter what and yes she had feelz and sadz, but she literally tells herself that she's not going to let that (or him) destroy her, and she doesn't. She slaps him down, the wanna-be OM down, she hilariously strips the OW of all vanity and illusions about her desirability (OW deserved it for being mean to hero's 15-yr-old sister), and she refuses to give up her work (as a Top Model), her pride, or her independence. Holly might have been vulnerable, but once her model persona Shannon came on the scene, Holly/Shannon kicked everyone's ass.
Linc, well, whatever--one of Lowell's tortured jerk cowboys with mommy AND stepmommy issues (two-two-two traumas in one!), so he thinks all beautiful women are heartless sluts and isn't shy about saying so and is overall just a jealous little manboy bitch. But he rides Arabians around the desert and has a hairy chest and a big....mustache so of course he's irresistible to our otherwise man-impervious heroine (who imprinted on him like a little baby bird when she was an adolescent) and all the other ladies in the wilds (hahahaha) of Palm Springs. I will say this though: Lowell does a pretty convincing job of showing that Linc changes by the end of the book, and we see it in how he becomes more relaxed about his little sister growing up into a beautiful woman rather than just trying to convince us that the heroine has magically cured him. So I actually DID pretty much buy their HEA. Mainly because the heroine will kick his ass and walk away if his conversion doesn't stick.
So I guess this was Lowell's first book, Summer Thunder, which was a short category that she later expanded into Desert Rain (mainly by having chapters-long sex scenes, if I had to guess). It definitely shows what a talented writer she was from the start, because her hallmark descriptive landscapes are there, along with some sizzling sexual tension and angst. I'll have to read the unexpanded version to see how different it was, if I can find a copy, but overall I enjoyed this one....more
This fourth book in Lowell's MacKenzie-Blackthorn series features as its MCs the siblings of the MCs in Fire and Rain (the second book). We're on famiThis fourth book in Lowell's MacKenzie-Blackthorn series features as its MCs the siblings of the MCs in Fire and Rain (the second book). We're on familiar territory here--the Rocking M ranch, literally, but also a hero whose past experience (mommy issues, first wife) have left him cynical and suspicious of women, a virginal heroine with a case of instalove who is headed for angsty heartache, and a few visits with other characters in the series, all whom live on the ranch.
(view spoiler)[Heroine Mariah MacKenzie is the estranged sister of ranch owner Luke MacKenzie. She was taken away by their mother when she was just a girl and hasn't seen Luke since, but never stopped missing him or the ranch. She returns as a young adult with little money, a beat-up car that dies on route, and all of her meager belongings in boxes.
The first person she meets at the ranch is Luke's bestie and brother-in-law, Alexander "Cash" McQueen, a geologist and gambler who is Luke's wife Carla's brother. Cash takes an instant dislike to Mariah, thinking she's looking for a free ride from her brother, since he basically thinks all women (other than the sainted women of the two preceding books) are mercenary liars and cheats. Yeah, he's one of those--mommy issues and a bad marriage in his past. Luke starts as he goes on, being hostile to Mariah and only reluctantly agreeing to help her hunt for the legendary goldmine on the ranch because Luke asks him to.
He's such a jerk that of course Mariah falls for him almost instantly (typical of the heroines in this series, for the most part). To be fair, he's good with babies, loving to his sister, and a good friend to Luke and Tennessee (hero from the second book), so there's more to him than the jerk alpha side he shows Mariah. He blows hot and cold with her, extremely jealous of her friendship with Ten's brother Nevada (hero of the 5th book), and alternating between succumbing to his irresistible attraction to her and pushing her away quite coldly and cruelly. He manages to rein in his desire for her for a while, but before too long, we have the Lowell purplish passion exploding between them, with all kinds of mutual gratification going on. Luke doesn't glove up because he believes that he's infertile from mumps, so when our heroine gets preggers, as all Lowell heroines in this series soon do, he is very cruel and thinks she's passing off someone else's baby as his to force him to marry her.
Our heroine decides that if she can just find the gold mine, she can somehow convince him of her love. She gets caught in a storm, and it's our hero to the rescue. She not only finds the gold; she finds her HEA as well. (hide spoiler)]
Lots of angst, a vulnerable (and somewhat doormatty) heroine, and Lowell's usual gorgeous descriptions of the high country and ranch life made this a decent read, but of the four, it was probably my least favorite. None the less, I rated it the same as the others because it doesn't differ that much from the others. Amazing how much successful retread Lowell got from this series, with her not-quite-cookie-cutter cynical, love-averse, damaged heroes and the women who "heal" them with them love and magic vaginas.
EL plays in Diana Palmer's sandbox, with a virginal heroine haunted by her rejected adolescent love; a tortured rancher with mommy issues who calls thEL plays in Diana Palmer's sandbox, with a virginal heroine haunted by her rejected adolescent love; a tortured rancher with mommy issues who calls the heroine "baby" (and "sunshine"), ranch life, heated passion, stone-cold rejection, and what should have been a barn-load of angst but somehow missed the mark for me. EL can write lyrically, but this early Silhouette got a little overwrought at times (tears falling silver as rain). Not sure why I didn't like this more, but I liked it enough that I'll give her other MacKenzie-Blackthorn books a go. St. Margarets has a lovely detailed-filled review, so check her out for the full scoop/analysis. Some good heat (including euphemistic oral gratification); intros to characters who get their own books for those invested enough, and a decent enough Western romance--overall, pretty good but, for me, forgettable....more
Love grows between a girl and the wild horses she lives among in the Utah Territory in the years following the Civil War. Oh--she meets a guy too. (viLove grows between a girl and the wild horses she lives among in the Utah Territory in the years following the Civil War. Oh--she meets a guy too. (view spoiler)[Janna rescues Ty Mackenzie from a band of renegade Utes and nurses him back to health. He initially thinks she's a boy but when he discovers she's not, lust in the dust consumes them both. He's got a vision of the well-bred "silken lady" he will eventually woo and wed, and our mustang girl isn't it, so although he feels guilt about deflowering our wild (but Shakespeare-reading, doctor's daughter) heroine, he tells her that all that can be between them is sex. He backs off, but they are helpless against their irresistible attraction, so it's hot-and-cold running sex between them for chapters and chapters as they elude the renegades and assorted baddies that are after them. In the end, it's the cavalry (and Ty's brothers) to the rescue, a fortune in gold, a move the the Mackenzie ranch in Wyoming, and some My Fair Lady makeovers that I guess make Janna worthy of our conflicted-hero Ty, pfftttt (although he claims it's her fair maiden self enchanting his unicorn self 4EverMore in some cheesy retconning). I wish she'd ended up with his more interesting and damaged brother Case instead, but oh well. (hide spoiler)]
Some decent heat, an enjoyable Western (Utah Territory) setting, some angst that to me felt a little contrived--I enjoyed this about as much as I did the second book in this series (Fire and Rain)--which is to say it was entertaining enough but kind of forgettable. Lowell can write for sure (although she edges into purple territory--likely b/c of the conventions at the time)--her heat and the emotional intensity/angst of her books are good. (Her books remind me a lot of Linda Howard's books from the same time period--they covered a lot of the same ground.)
I upped this a star on a reread--EL was good at Western romance; the genre played to her strengths, particularly in her ability to really conjure the landscapes and difficulties of frontier and ranch life. It's a real shame that EL wasn't able to write more about the original MacKenzies and this was the only historical romance she wrote featuring them (she clearly had some sequels in mind, given how she introduced Ty's brothers). The rest in this (MacKenzie-Blackthorn) series deals with the current-day descendants of Case MacKenzie (Ty's brother), who unfortunately never gets a book of his own (some details about him in this book and Fire & Rain, the second book in this series, makes it pretty clear that Lowell, at the time, was at least thinking about a book for him--pity it never got written).
Overall, a pretty good one from EL that fans of Western historical romance would likely enjoy. I did....more
A later BN book (1996) that, like The Vicar’s Daughter, published that same year, features an old-fashioned stay-at-home-daughter heroine—no poor BritA later BN book (1996) that, like The Vicar’s Daughter, published that same year, features an old-fashioned stay-at-home-daughter heroine—no poor British nurse here. Mary, one of BN's very pretty Junoesque heroines, runs her hapless parents’ household, despite little help or money, with sensible competence. Her artistic mother and scholarly father are loving but impractical, so most of the responsibility and worry of family life falls to Mary, and she's in a rut and wishing something exciting would happen. (Fate, that force in the BN universe, listens.) Overall, it’s pretty standard Betty fare (albeit “the one with the visit to the homeless encampment”), complete with little communication between the MCs, a meddling and malicious OW, a visit to the ancestral manse in Holland, and some nicely drawn secondary characters (the heroine’s younger sister Polly in particular).
It’s love at first sight when pretty Mary meets the Rich Dutch Doctor, Roel van Rakesma, but she knows it’s ludicrous and hopeless and does her best to avoid or act coolly toward him for far too many scenes in the book. He also is irritated that he can’t seem to stop thinking about Mary, even going so far as to try to distract himself by inviting his “suitable” woman-friend/potential fiancee, the awful Ilsa, to accompany his younger sister, Pleane, on a visit to his fab London flat. Ilsa and Mary instantly dislike one another, and Mary, nice as she is, holds her own with the snooty, jealous, and rightly threatened OW. Roel soon realizes that he has zero interest—and little liking—for Ilsa and, once she and Pleane return to Holland, begins popping up to see Mary and hustling her off for fabulously detailed meals and arranging visits for Mary and her sister to his country cottage, his home in Holland--generally deepening his (initially reluctant) pursuit.
Between the two MCs, their mutual unwillingness to reveal any warm feelings makes the romance/growing relationship a little thin and undeveloped, not helped by a rushed HEA ending. Mary’s younger sister, 13-year-old Polly, who becomes boon companion and confidante to our Rich Dutch Doctor, had a much more satisfying and warm relationship with our RDD than did our heroine. The MCs do too good a job of hiding their growing regard for one another, except for a few warm scenes of Mary helping him to pick out curtains and accessories for his country cottage and a kiss or two. There’s a brief Big Misunderstanding caused by the OW’s duplicity, but the good doctor gets the truth of the matter out of the heroine and clears the path to mutual declarations and a baby-filled future. In true RDD fashion, he more or less tells her she’ll be marrying him. She’s happy to agree. Hopefully their HEA will include better communication!
Not remarkable but overall a decent one from Betty with a nice amount of her unique charm and warmth. ...more
The GR reviews and accompanying pics were so much better than the book. A familiar plot from YW--ridiculously naive Mary Sue heroine marries bullying The GR reviews and accompanying pics were so much better than the book. A familiar plot from YW--ridiculously naive Mary Sue heroine marries bullying hero to save some idiot member of her family from ruin. The hero and heroine have known one another maybe half a day before he issues his marriage ultimatum. It's supposed to be an MoC for a year, but we know how that goes. 70s South African setting guarantees cringey racist moments. The hero is very into punishing kisses and hard bruising grips and a shaking now and again (so yeah, typical Whittal). The seduction is forced but the heroine definitely has blushing, trembling, breathless treacherous body syndrome throughout, so she only minds that he doesn't love her. No spoiler to reveal that it was Twue Wuv all along! Vintage in the extreme with some shaking-my-head moments but an amusing and silly way to pass a couple of hours. ...more
After the irredeemable ogre in Judith, I really needed a swoon-worthy BN hero, and boy did yummy Jake deliver. Oh, this one was fun and had some memoAfter the irredeemable ogre in Judith, I really needed a swoon-worthy BN hero, and boy did yummy Jake deliver. Oh, this one was fun and had some memorable divergences from the usual Betty tales! Yes, it follows a familiar format—multiple locations (Three! England/Norway/Holland), an MoC midway through, some OM/OW dramarama. Ah, but also some of the strongest intimations that sexytimes would be imminent that I’ve read in a BN! (Alas, the only way my lascivious musings about BN's big handsome heroes will ever be realized is if I write my own fan-fic, I guess. ...more
One of my favorite BN tales--I love the RDD hero, Radmer: he likes Lavinia from their very first sparky meeting and is very forthright about it and hiOne of my favorite BN tales--I love the RDD hero, Radmer: he likes Lavinia from their very first sparky meeting and is very forthright about it and his pursuit of her. Of course, he claims to offer the standard BN MoC so that he can focus on his work without any romantic nonsense, but it's pretty clear from the start that he is attracted to (and soon falls for) our likable heroine. I enjoy Betty's earlier heroes so much more than some of her later, inscrutable, "placid" heroes--Radmer is communicative most of the time, he loses his temper occasionally, he is not out to rescue Lavinia, who is managing all right on her own, but he sees a mutual benefit in their marriage and so pursues her. I love an active, involved Neels hero, and Radmer delivers--until he gets cold feet about his own growing involvement and pulls away.
Ah, but much to his chagrin, our heroine, determined to stick to the terms of their bargain, despite being in love with him when she agrees to the MoC, not only allows him to do so (to some degree anyway, when she's not yelling at him for coming home at 3 a.m. without calling, heee)--she starts to avoid him as well. It takes a conniving pair of teenage girls to force a confrontation, and our HEA declarations amusingly occur in the middle of a department store with interested shoppers as witnesses. Very cute overall with just a touch of angst, no OW/OM drama, no Big Misunderstanding, and a hugely likable pair of MCs made for each other. ...more
Back to the Betty binge! Stormy Springtime was good; a semi-Cinderella stories but not OTT about it--this heroine has family (two bossy sisters) and iBack to the Betty binge! Stormy Springtime was good; a semi-Cinderella stories but not OTT about it--this heroine has family (two bossy sisters) and isn’t completely destitute. Many familiar elements but, as with so many of Betty’s stories, SS has a freshness that makes it enjoyable no matter how many BN books you’ve read. The heroine isn’t passive either—she sets out, in her quiet way, to make the hero notice her: conversely by making herself almost invisible in his presence after he’s come to expect her directness and sometimes sharp tongue. She’s basically playing her own version of The Rules almost a decade before that dating advice book came out—particularly Rule No. 1: Be a “Creature Unlike Any Other.” ...more
If the hero is engaged to someone else, does that make the heroine the OW? I guess it depends how you view an engagement—is it a commitment or a trialIf the hero is engaged to someone else, does that make the heroine the OW? I guess it depends how you view an engagement—is it a commitment or a trial? Our RDDs seem to consider it the latter, given that they're prone to kissing the heroines before they've quite unencumbered themselves. (Not that it matters with BN heroines, whose code of honor includes do not poach, along with no tattling and no self pity.)
At any rate, An Apple from Eve is one of Betty’s “hero is engaged to someone else” stories with an RDD and a beautiful British nurse who is not wealthy but from more or less the same upper-class background as the hero and the OW. The Rich Dutch Doctor and Poor British Nurse in this one are really likable, the OW is wonderfully unlikable, and while it’s a familiar plot from Betty, there are some nice touches that make it a 4-star BN for me. There’s a warmth about this one that I truly liked.
(view spoiler)[The hero Tane meets the heroine Euphemia (Greek for “well spoken” and a burdensome name everyone remarks upon) when he is called in as medical consultant when her father is gravely ill. It’s too late for him to do anything, and her father dies. The 27 year-old heroine is the eldest of four, and upon discovering that there’s no money and the shabby-genteel family home is mortgaged, has the added worry about the dire family finances. A family friend advises her to rent the house out, and our RDD, who spends a lot of time in England consulting, becomes her tenant. Her younger sister goes to live with an aunt, her brothers are in boarding school, and our PBN lives at the Nursing Home at the hospital where she is Ward Sister.
Initially, as in many BN books, the hero and heroine dislike one another. He seems snooty and cold and so, most definitely, does his awful fiancé, the skinny, fashionable, snobbish Diana. (In an amusing meta moment, Neels has the heroine, upon meeting Diana, think “She was like the Other Woman in a bad novel”—haha!)
The hero and heroine meet and squabble frequently, but he is soon revealed to have a much nicer side (mostly to people other than the heroine). Our heroine soon feels sorry for the hero because it’s clear that there’s no feeling, not even affection, between him and his fiancée and that he’s likely marrying her because she is “suitable” for his posh lifestyle. Although Euphemia doesn’t much like Tane, she briefly thinks that perhaps she should rescue him from the awful Diana, but at that point, it’s just idle musing.
As with many BN heroes, the good doctor has a pretty keen intuition regarding the heroine’s feelings. So he picks up on the fact that she’s worried about what to do with her brothers over their school holidays and offers her a trade: if she will accompany his fiancée, Diana, to Spain, where she will recuperate from mumps, then he will vacate the heroine’s home temporarily and let the siblings stay there over their school holidays while he returns to Holland. She agrees, even though she very much dislikes Diana, who is a total bitch to her at every opportunity. So we’re off to Spain—but no travelogue, for all Diana and her equally Diana-ish aunt want to do is languish upon chaise lounges in billowy chiffon.
Diana doesn’t really need nursing, so Phemie spends most of her time fetching and carrying and acting as lady’s maid. One day, she starts to walk to the nearby town and comes across an injured boy lying in the road, victim of a hit-and-run. She checks him over and carries him to the house, but Diana and her aunt tell her that she can’t bring the “dirty peasant” boy in and refuse to even call for help. She is upset and angry and carries him back to the road, intending to flag down a ride to the hospital, and Tane pulls up in a cab. He takes over and they get the boy to the hospital. He asks what happened (“just the facts, not opinions”) and she says that Diana’s aunt wouldn’t let her bring him in (but she doesn’t tattle on his fiancée, because that goes against the BN heroine code).
Later, though, the aunt says that Diana agreed with her and the housekeeper, thanking Phemie for helping the boy (who is her nephew), wonders why neither Diana nor her aunt asked them to call an ambulance. Tane overhears this, so Diana’s true colors are revealed even more than usual.
Tane is there for a few days and will accompany them back to England, with a stopover at his house in Holland. Since Diana seldom leaves her room before midmorning and spends a couple of hours napping in the afternoon, he and Phemie spend some time together at the Spanish villa, and before long she has her Dawning Realization (and it’s pretty clear that our RDD has had one as well). He kisses her one night for the first time, and she is torn and confused—she loves him, but he’s engaged to Diana, and while it was fun to think about “saving” him beforehand, now that she has skin in the game, it wouldn’t be honorable. For Phemie, with an outsize sense of fairness and a strong aversion to hurting even people she doesn’t like, “all’s fair in love and war” is not an adage to which she subscribes.
They visit his lovely old family manse in Holland, and Phemie realizes just how wealthy and old-money the hero is. She sees even more that Diana, also from a moneyed background, would be suitable to run his large home and be his hostess, but it’s Euphemia who actually fits in beautifully, with an equally good upbringing and an appreciation for his beautiful treasures. (Diana says she’ll banish everything to the attics and install all modern furniture.) Phemie is completely at ease with Tane’s visiting parents, too, who genuinely take to our quiet, classy heroine and are politely taken aback at Diana’s Whore of Babylon orange jumpsuits and clangy bangles at a casual (for rich people) family dinner.
We know it’s true love when Tane takes Phemie on the deluxe tour of his home, exploring every room in detail and pointing out its many treasures to his delighted and appreciative audience. (In contrast, it was a clear sign that things were really really bad in Neels’ The Hasty Marriage when Reilof just unkindly dumped his new wife of convenience Laura at the house the day he first brings her home and leaves it to the FFRs to show her around.) Phemie’s nice to the faithful family retainers, too (unlike Diana who ignores them) -- and the dog likes her too.
Phemie loves his home, which only makes her more unhappy, because the man she loves so desperately and would be so right for is going to marry someone else. She puts on a brave face, and she can’t help but be happy in his company, but she resolves to see as little of him as possible when they return to England. Tane is biding his time and, like any good RDD with an awful fiancée standing between him and his own true love, sets plans in motion to disentangle himself honorably, in time-honored BN fashion (i.e., he finds a rich and equally horrible prospective partner for Diana, and sure enough, she is clearly interested in the pompous, wealthy Dutchman whom she’d met on a previous visit).
They return to England, and Tane drives Phemie home, where he’s welcomed by her siblings with pleasure. He takes his leave with just a casual farewell to Phemie, who knows she’ll see him occasionally at the hospital but is still determined to limit contact. She has a nice break with her siblings for a few days and then returns to work. She doesn’t see Tane for a while. She gets a letter from her solicitor telling her that Tane has bought the mortgage, and she’s furious. When she does see him, she blows up at him, accusing him of plotting to steal her house for himself and Diana (BN heroines ascribe the worst behavior to the RDDs sometimes) and just generally freaking out on him. He’s coldly angry in that intimidating RDD way but also tells her to remember this: he can be infinitely patient when he wants something.
She feels bad when she calms down. She goes to see her own solicitor, who tells her that what Tane did wasn’t nefarious and is likely to her benefit, but she still does her best to avoid him, because she can’t bear to see him knowing that he belongs to someone else. She’s successful too, until the Classic Betty Catastrophe occurs to bring them together in danger and valor: a gas main blows up the hospital, and, between them, they rescue the patients in her ward.
Since her ward is out of action, Phemie is temporarily without a job (except as “relief nurse” for the time being) and is bullied into going to her old home – Tane, at his most managing, has set it up while he will be away for a few days. She reluctantly agrees and goes home, to putter around despondently. He shows up one morning as she’s scrubbing the kitchen floor and crying, in a rare moment of weakness, about her lost love. But not for long.
He gives her a gift—an envelope with the deed to her home in it. “A wedding present,” he tells her. He and Diana broke their engagement a couple of days after they returned from Spain, he tells her, and the day Phemie blew up at him about the mortgage, he’d planned to ask her to marry him. He asks her then, and our happy heroine joyously agrees, and it’s HEA in the best Betty way. (hide spoiler)]
Betty car porn (especially appropriate in this one, because the hero and heroine first encounter one another while stuck in traffic, and he makes her angry with his look of “glacial dislike” when he catches her staring at him and his overbearing advice to pull in her indicator):
The heroine has an elderly Morris 1000: [image]
The hero has a Bentley (we’ll assume a 1981 Mulsanne): [image]...more
OK, I was wrong about Winter Wedding. I get it now (4.5*), on a re-read. It’s Betty doing what she does best; a self-sacrificing, sweet heroine; an arOK, I was wrong about Winter Wedding. I get it now (4.5*), on a re-read. It’s Betty doing what she does best; a self-sacrificing, sweet heroine; an arrogant RDD hero who is mostly well-meaning; angst; shitty relatives; misunderstanding; OW drama. Straight out of the BN playbook, and Betty works it! One of her angstier tales.
(view spoiler)[ Boy, does Betty torture our soft-hearted nurse-heroine, Emily Seymour, with responsibilities and heartbreak. Her sister Mary is in the Middle East, where her husband has been imprisoned (we never find out why exactly), leaving Emily and sister Louisa to care for her infant twins for MONTHS. Louisa is a selfish 18-year-old brat (worse even than Joyce in The Hasty Marriage), and Emily is a bit too enabling (Betty gives some backstory to explain it). Emily is a classic BN uncomplaining, loyal type--maybe too much so but likeable nonetheless.
So much angst in this book, beginning when Emily overhears RDD hero Renier Jurres-Romeijn complain at having the “prim miss” nurse assigned to him; “a small, plump creature who merges into the background from whatever angle one looks at her.” He much prefers “beautiful blondes who don’t go beetroot red every time I look at them,” he tells his colleague, who defends Emily as a top-notch nurse and a nice girl who “grows on one.”
Emily seethes in true BN heroine fashion after overhearing this, but is hurt because it seems (given all that blushing) that she has a crush on Renier. His derisive words cut deep.
Betty piles it on. First, the hospital ball: Renier invites Louisa; Emily goes with vile lab assistant Sammy, who only asks her for a bet. She plans to buy a new dress that will make everyone—especially Renier, despite her “dislike”—sit up and take notice, but Louisa throws a tantrum, wanting a new dress of her own, so Emily-the-enabler wears a frumpy old floral. Then craptastic Louisa STEALS AND PAWNS the locket Emily inherited from Grandma to buy new shoes.
Emily makes her own way to the dance; Louisa gets picked up in Renier’s fab Jag. The iniquity, Betty! Undaunted, Emily has fun at first. But Sammy plies our unaware heroine with spiked punch, then abandons her for a hotter prospect, and Emily, “feeling most peculiar” takes refuge behind a potted plant.
Louisa, beautiful in her ill-gotten finery, dances with Renier and brags about selling the locket, making herself the victim somehow. He’s not amused but doesn’t chastise her (because RDDs only ever give the heroines crap). He does at least get an idea of the b/s Emily is dealing with every day.
He offloads Louisa and rescues Emily, unaccustomedly tipsy and abandoned. To soused Emily, Renier looks “a little wooly around the edges and she had a strong desire to get up and dance with him whether he asked her or not.” It’s a funny line, but the scene is not; talk about fremdschämen—vicarious embarrassment. Renier sobers her up and takes her home, and when she says he’s being very kind, he says “I can remember being very unkind to you, Emily.” So…progress?
Well, he feels a little badly about his earlier comments, maybe, and is coming to realize her selflessness and her worth, maybe. But it doesn’t prevent him from misjudging her horribly at the book’s darkest moment: the baby drugging!
After a tough day at work, Emily comes home to a dark, silent house and two babies in a coma! There’s a bottle of Seconal on the mantle and a memory of MIA Louisa grumbling about a fashion show she wanted to go to. To her relief, Renier shows up but then: The Professor glanced up briefly and she was horrified at the icy look in his eyes; his voice was ice too. “You’ve been on duty all day?” And when she nodded: “Is this how you keep them quiet? Dope them? Only now your hand has slipped….”
Jeez, Renier, seriously? Emily, scared and shocked, wordlessly goes with him to the hospital. Once there, as he’s working to stabilize the babies, he tells her harshly to go away. And her response is exactly as it should be:
She gave him a look of loathing. “No, I’m staying.”
Louisa shows up and tearfully incriminates herself. Renier, for once, is unsympathetic and sends her home. Betty signals his self-disgust and remorse with her usual subtlety: Long after [the taxi] had disappeared, he stood there, apparently absorbed in the dreary view of the hospital yard before him, so that Emily started to walk away…. He catches up with her: “I judged you harshly Emily, and I’m sorry. I hope you will forgive me--I should have known better. My only excuse is that the sight of those two babies angered me so much.”
Emily, being Emily, and thrown by the sight of his blue eyes “strangely friendly” for once, “gruffly” tells him it’s all right. This scene is something of a turning point for our MCs in a relationship that’s been mostly antagonistic so far.
Renier continues to take Louisa out (Betty hints he does it so that Louisa will behave and that he treats Louisa as an “indulgent uncle would treat a favorite niece”). To Emily’s relief, sister Mary and the freed BiL finally return. Emily decides to quit her job and move back to London.
But she’s in a funk, and when she sees Renier, she realizes why: she’s in love with him, and “how like me to fall in love with someone I’m never going to see again and who’s never taken any notice of me at all.” Renier notices instantly something’s up: ”You look as though someone had lighted a torch inside you.” Her eyes flew to his face and she reddened. “No,” she said, and meant “Yes—you.”
She says she’s given her notice, and he insists on driving her home, where he asks her to accompany his patient (their mutual friend) Dr. Wright and his wife to his home in Holland for the holidays. Emily is tempted but knows it means heartbreak. But she agrees: “Very well,” said Emily, and watched the Professor’s face relax. “You’ll be late for lunch,” she reminded him, “and Louisa hates being kept waiting.”
For a fleeting moment, he looked frighteningly ferocious. “I seldom forget dates with pretty girls,” he told her silkily…. (I get why BN heroes try to make the heroines jealous, but this “dating pretty girls to torture you” crap never fails to piss me off.)
Emily stays with Renier’s friends in London, where he takes her out and they have a wonderful day together. He even kisses her, but he’s hot and cold, so she thinks it doesn’t mean anything.
Holland! Emily is overawed by Renier’s stately Dutch mansion and feels even more out of her depth. She buys a pretty pink chiffon party dress for the social whirl Renier has planned. Pink, as we know from many a BN book, “does something” for our mousy heroines.
Renier’s a good host but shows no particular partiality for Emily’s company. But she fits his home nicely, and she’s “restful” (that quality so desired by RDDs in a wife). This “compliment” causes her to recall The Overheard Words. “You’re not going to forget, are you?” he asks. “Will you believe me when I say…that you no longer fade into the background?”
“Yes, I believe you and even though I—I haven’t forgotten, I don’t hold it against you, you know. Only I don’t think I’m prim.”
He gave a bellow of laughter that made her jump. “No, I don’t think so either.”
Friends and family descend for the holidays. Isn’t she…pretty in pink? The family approves of Emily, including Renier’s young Modelizing brother, Franz, but it’s Renier’s clumsy compliment (pffttt) that makes her night at the Christmas party: “Emily, I hardly recognized you.” He twirled her round to get a better view. “Quite superb. And unexpected.”
For Christmas, she gives him “a silver mouse with a long tail,” and is happy when he instantly slips it into a pocket. And he gives her… the purloined locket! Even the stiff little card—“With best wishes, from Renier Jurres-Romeijn”—doesn’t lessen its impact. I imagine our RDD going posthaste to the pawn shop after the hospital ball to buy it back for her and then holding it until Christmas, knowing she’d see it as inappropriate or, worse, pitying if he tried to give it to her earlier. Both their gifts are sweet.
At the parties, though, Renier is awash in pretty girls “and from what she could see, he was enjoying it immensely.” Since Emily has zero belief that Renier feels anything for her, she takes it on the chin. Even worse, Mrs. Wright tells her that Renier is planning to marry but doesn’t say to whom. (As I said wrt a similar scene in Never Say Goodbye: don’t “HELP,” people!) Emily thinks it’s the ever-present Heleen, just Renier’s professed type: blond, beautiful, and unblushing.
Granny goes missing on New Year’s Day and it’s Emily to the rescue! She keeps her safe until Renier and a search party find them. “Are you all right, little Emily?” he asks tenderly. Back at the house, coddled and put to bed, she wakes to find Renier holding her hand. After bellowing for Mrs. Wright to observe the proprieties (“Maud!”), he’s all doctor, cool and professional, and Emily sniffles into his hanky but pretends she’s just caught a cold. Afterwards, Maud says he’s had a rough day, and Emily, still upset, asks how, since he’d spent the morning with Heleen. “Yes dear,” says Mrs. Wright. “[She’s] One of any number. They all look alike to me….it’s like putting oil of cloves on an aching tooth: it soothes it for a time, but it doesn’t cure it.”
Clearly, Emily is the cure: when Renier checks on her late night, Betty tells us that though Emily looked, if truth must be told, like any ordinary girl with a cold, the Professor looked at her as though he had never seen anyone quite as beautiful in all his life.
The next day, she won’t tell Renier why she was crying. He kisses her and asks with unaccustomed uncertainty in his voice if she’ll stay “to look after Granny” instead of leaving with the Wrights in a couple of days. She quickly refuses, inventing job opportunities. He apologizes with an “edge to his voice,” and seems to avoid her the next couple of days.
Granny’s birthday party! Renier tells Emily that he says he’s afraid the girl he wants to marry will refuse him, and she thinks he’s talking about Heleen. He doesn’t set her straight (claiming during the ILYs later that he didn’t think she’d believe him, pffft). He asks Emily if she’s set on a career and has no wish to marry, and she can’t respond. He uttered a satisfied “Aha!” and caught her close in a grip that almost pulverized her rib cage and kissed her with force. “You remember that, my girl,” he said softly….
Unlike the girls at the party in “silver tissue trouser suits and slinky tunics,” Emily fits in beautifully with Renier’s old-school family. Granny tries to tempt her with the family diamonds, which will go to Renier’s wife someday, but Emily’s clueless. Later, Granny says to Renier: “She won’t come for the diamonds, boy.” “No,” he agrees, “she will come for love, but she has to discover that for herself.”
But he doesn’t act very loverlike toward Emily in the final days of her visit, and wishes her a cool farewell when she leaves with the Wrights for England.
Homestretch! Back in England, Emily looks for jobs and finds a bedsitter—no rowdiness allowed! Things aren’t looking bright, and she’s forlorn. But she comes back one gloomy day to find Renier sitting in her room, waiting for her. We FINALLY get the Big Declaration we’ve been waiting for. It’s a good one. ILYs and a hard-won HEA. Betty wins me over once again. (hide spoiler)]
Great car porn! Hero drives a Jaguar XJ Spider (concept car; never actually produced commercially): [image]
And a 1940 Lagonda V12 drophead coupe: [image]
Heroine drives an elderly Rover to Holland: [image]...more
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