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Secrets #6
A Candle for the Devil
Everyone has something to hide!
'You think I'd allow you to make love to me?' She demanded hoarsely.
'Oh, I wasn't thinking of asking permission,' he murmured. 'Not that you'd refuse.'
Adam Taylor's time in prison hadn't dulled his arrogance. Who else could reappear after six years and lay claim to everything he'd left behind - including Olivia? Well, she was promised to someone else now, and she'd put Adam's betrayal behind her, hadn't she...?
Some family scandals were best left buried. But Adam seemed determined to rake over the old wounds and even older attractions. Olivia's mind was suddenly filled with doubts - that, maybe, Adam wasn't guilty, and that her love for him was just the same?
'You think I'd allow you to make love to me?' She demanded hoarsely.
'Oh, I wasn't thinking of asking permission,' he murmured. 'Not that you'd refuse.'
Adam Taylor's time in prison hadn't dulled his arrogance. Who else could reappear after six years and lay claim to everything he'd left behind - including Olivia? Well, she was promised to someone else now, and she'd put Adam's betrayal behind her, hadn't she...?
Some family scandals were best left buried. But Adam seemed determined to rake over the old wounds and even older attractions. Olivia's mind was suddenly filled with doubts - that, maybe, Adam wasn't guilty, and that her love for him was just the same?
192 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published November 1, 1991
About the author
Susanne McCarthy
102 books74 followersI'm a Londoner, though now I live in Devon, a twenty-minute walk from the sea. I love nothing more than walking my pretty Cavapoo on the beach in the rain (well, OK, I don't object to the sun, but when it's raining we usually have the whole beach to ourselves.)
Back in the day I had 25 novels published by Mills&Boon. After a long gap doing other things I found my love of writing again, and self-published three new novels.
But I knew that to reach more readers I needed an established publisher. Step in Joffe Books. They were top of my list so I was delighted when they accepted the first novel I sent them.
This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
Back in the day I had 25 novels published by Mills&Boon. After a long gap doing other things I found my love of writing again, and self-published three new novels.
But I knew that to reach more readers I needed an established publisher. Step in Joffe Books. They were top of my list so I was delighted when they accepted the first novel I sent them.
This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 16, 2018
Re A Candle for the Devil - Susanne McCarthy brings us the final entry in the Secrets series with this story of a falsely imprisoned H and the girl he left behind. She is now all grown up and ready to rumble over her supposed desertion of the H when he was sent to prison for a year, six years before the story starts.
The title is actually a play on words that comes from lighting candles in church. In one meaning, to hold a candle for the devil means that you are willingly supporting an evil action. In the other meaning, lighting a candle for the devil means that you are praying for even the most wicked sinner's restoration to redemption, mercy and love. SMcC plays that dichotomy very well in this little HP outing.
The story starts with the 23 year old h's father's funeral. The h wasn't very close to her father, but she is sad he is gone. She is even sadder that the last six years of his life have been spent in the aftermath of a huge stroke, she believes that stroke was caused by the actions of the H in that earlier time.
SMcC does a lot of flashbacking interspersed with present interactions in this story. It works well for the pace of the book, but for spoilerization purposes, I am going to lay out the backstory first and then we will see the ramifications six years later - when the actual story takes place.
When the h was a child, her father and his two business partners stared an engineering firm. Things were great business-wise and everyone made a ton of money. All of the partners were married and had children and each partner owned a third of the company.
Then one of the original partners died and the h's father, who had been widowed after the h was born, married the partner's wife to keep the company shares in his control. The widowed wife has two children and through them the h's father managed two thirds of the company - tho the girl and the son are the nominal share holders.
Then the H's parents, who were the third shareholders, died and the H was orphaned. He was semi-adopted by the h's father, he liked the H and thought he was the natural successor to taking over the company. So when the h was 17 and she and the 28 yr old H fell in love, there was no impediment to the H and h marrying - tho the h's stepbrother and more especially her stepmother protested the marriage at such a young age.
Then the H was arrested for art theft, apparently the tyre treads on his car matched the treads found at the scene of a famous painting theft and a witness noticed a part of the car's license plate was the same as the H's. The H was arrested and sent to prison for year, when he got out he went to Australia and the first time the h has seen him in years is at her father's funeral.
The h did not want to believe the H was guilty, but the step-family insisted he must have been. They made the h sit through the trial and sentencing and even the h's father doubted his innocence in the face of all the evidence. The h was only 17, very sheltered and her step brother was very quick to jump into the breach as a supportive male presence, especially as her father was so very ill.
The H writes to the h from prison, but a combination of the step mother's manipulation, the stepbrother's insistence that the H is a criminal and the h's own concerns about her father cause her to read one letter and then destroy the others and call off the engagement.
The H is painted a devil by the stepmother and stepbrother - the stepsister had her own fling attempt with the H when she was younger and when he wouldn't play up to her, she married another man in spite and so she has nothing good to say about him either.
The h soon took her own place as a junior company director, the step brother is running things and the h is fulfilling her father's wishes that she continue on in the company. Three years earlier the step brother, who has been nothing but kind and caring to the h, proposed to her.
The h accepted the engagement, but she doesn't have a wedding date set, nor does she sleep with her fiance. He is always too obsessed with the family firm and canceling dates and outings due to his takeovers of other firms to commit to a wedding.
Until the H returns, with the h's stepsister on his arm. The h's stepbrother fiance is certain the H is out for revenge and claims that the H has been partying it up in Australia and living high on the hog on profits the stepbrother made for the firm while he has been gone.
Right away the H starts in on the roofie kissing attempts at seduction of the h. The h becomes seriously confused, at 17 she loved the H with her whole heart and whole lot of Lurve Mojo Force made her knees pretty weak.
However she knows the H went to prison on what seemed a fair conviction, she knows she holds one third of the firms shares and that whomever she sides with essentially has controlling interest in the firm.
She also knows that some of the stepbrother's business moves leave her a little queasy, mainly cause local people are being made redundant and she doesn't like that, it seems to go against what her father taught her. Also, now that the H has returned and seems to be making a play for the h, the step brother fiance wants to set a wedding date.
When the h finds that the H has broken into her home she shares with the stepmother and taken confidential company documents from her safe, the h is very wary of the H's motives. She is also almost seduced on her very own study desk.
The H stops in the nick of time, but the h is left to wonder how can she marry her fiance if she feels this powerful pull for the H and also wonder why in three years her fiance has never made an attempt at passion with her.
She also is surprised when the H manages to spoke the fiance's takeover plans of other firms in the area. Tho she herself had some serious doubts about some of the targets for takeover and the ensuing loss of jobs for the locals that the takeovers would engender, she was still willing to support the fiance because she really believed he was being kind and because the rest of the family kept pushing the relationship.
Even when the H takes her to a dubious gambling club owned by one of his friends from prison and the h finds her priggish fiance there flirting with the scantily clad ladies, the h isn't too willing to abandon the fiance.
Mainly cause the gambling club owner looks like a thug and the H is looking like a man with dubious business dealings. The fiance never sees the h watching him from the gambling club's office, but to the h's surprise, the fiance tells her about his little night excursion and the h decides to agree to marry him because he is honest and he obviously cares about her.
A wedding date is set for six weeks away and the fiance gets more concerned that the h go through with the marriage and hires a bodyguard to keep the H away from the h. The h is starting to doubt more, but she can't figure out why the fiance would lie to her, he and the H were BFF's all through their growing up years and he really has been very kind and supportive of her personally.
Then the big wedding day is upon us and as the h looks at her dress, she realizes that she still loves the H and she wants her old wedding dress that she was going to wear for her marriage to the H. The dress she is wearing now is nice, but it isn't what she wants and she realizes she can't go through with the marriage.
However, she can't really abandon her kind and supportive step brother at the altar and embarrass him either, so she makes her way to the chauffeur driven bridal car to go to the church. Then we get a big surprise. The h is in the car and waiting for her uncle to join her, as he is escorting her down the aisle in place of her father, when the car takes off!
The h checks and the H is the driver and he is hijacking her away from own wedding. The h is scared when the H takes her to some secluded flat and ties her hands behind her and dumps her on the bed to go take care of business.
He tells the h that the step brother is the villain, not him and he hopes to have the proof for the h in a few hours. He also claims that the h wouldn't have a very long life expectancy if she married the step brother fiance. But the H is also very nice when the h starts crying and he tells her he loves her too much to let her marry a criminal slime pustule who probably intends to kill her to keep control of the family firm.
The h is in severe shock, but remembers her LaToya Jackson Online Detective School Flyer Investigation Pointers and realizes that the stepbrother has always been obsessed about running the family firm.
In fact if what the H says is true, the step brother could have stolen the art himself and then framed the H. All he would have needed to do was switch the tyres and license plates of the H's car onto a similar car to the H's and then called the police, after making sure there was clear tyre print at the robbery site and an anonymous tip that led to the H. Since the H's car was locked in his garage and he was off on his own, it would have been easy to switch things to make the H look guilty.
The h realizes that her love for the H has never died and the stepbrother's antics, seen in this new light are decidedly shady. The H has left the TV on for the h to watch while she is tied up and waiting and she also bemoans the fact that the local news flashes an old picture of her as the "Kidnapped Bride" and she wishes someone would have given them a better one.
(I laughed myself silly over that, but really that is a brilliant illumination of just what this h is, very nice and pretty sweet, but dumber than rocks over a lot of things.)
Eventually the H returns and he and the h declare their love after the H explains that he never trusted the stepbrother fiance slime pustule after he blatantly stole the H's college project for his own, nor has he become involved with the stepsister, she just happened to show up when he did for the funeral. The h admits that the slime pustule is obsessed with the family firm and she finally admits that she has been thinking of things he did and there is good reason to suspect him.
The H and h finally can consummate their love and take a nice little outing to the Golden Shores of Purple Transcendent Bliss, the h's unicorn grooming license is forever revoked and we find out that the H hasn't been partying it up all these years.
The H was in Australia building a multi-national conglomerate that makes the family firm look like a hobby and all the profits he get from the family firm go to a charity fund to help ex-cons get training and rebuild their lives.
The really, really rich H has also bought his old family home back and moved his operations center there. He only needs few fax lines and computer links, he wanted the h to be able to stay in her familiar area and he knows she doesn't want to continue to live with the stepmother, who gets lifetime use of the h's family home.
The H initially felt betrayed when the h dumped him, but when he saw her again he knew he still loved her and he knew she was being duped by the slime sewer relatives. He had to have proof of the bad behavior tho and so he went about getting it, cause he just can't let her go.
Eventually the slime pustule fiance shows up, the H left a trail for him to follow. The stepbrother fiance breaks in and waves a gun around, he tells the H he is going to shoot him and strangle the h and blame the whole thing on the H being insanely jealous.
The h finally shows she has some brains and tells the slime pustule that she and the H have the evidence that he switched the tyres on the cars six years earlier and that if they die, the evidence will go to the police and he will spend a long time in prison, cause he is the insanely jealous person and everyone will now know it.
The H throws in that he will buy the slime pustule's shares in the family firm and he can leave the country. But if anything happens to the h or himself, there is enough evidence of the slime pustule's dubious business doings to put him away for years and the H will make sure that evidence is found. The slime pustule gives up and slinks away into the HP mists and the h marries the H for the big HEA.
We get a tiny epilogue where the h is now running the family firm. She was able to marry the H in her original wedding dress and as the H intends to let her continue running the firm while he runs the rest of his empire, the h decides to start bedroom negotiations for a suitable amount of maternity leave for the really sparkly, baby expecting, happy conclusion to this HPlandia outing.
By some strange irony I also read Caitlin Crew's Imprisoned by the Greek's Ring, which deals with the same trope right before reading this one. The differences between the two book are major and if you would like a very clear comparison of Vintage HPlandia to the Modern HP outings, I don't think you could find two books who illuminate the differences better.
This was a great, fast paced story. The H was also pretty nice in lieu of what went on and the h was just TSTL and sweet enough to make it believably work, so give this one a go for a very entertaining HPlandia outing.
The title is actually a play on words that comes from lighting candles in church. In one meaning, to hold a candle for the devil means that you are willingly supporting an evil action. In the other meaning, lighting a candle for the devil means that you are praying for even the most wicked sinner's restoration to redemption, mercy and love. SMcC plays that dichotomy very well in this little HP outing.
The story starts with the 23 year old h's father's funeral. The h wasn't very close to her father, but she is sad he is gone. She is even sadder that the last six years of his life have been spent in the aftermath of a huge stroke, she believes that stroke was caused by the actions of the H in that earlier time.
SMcC does a lot of flashbacking interspersed with present interactions in this story. It works well for the pace of the book, but for spoilerization purposes, I am going to lay out the backstory first and then we will see the ramifications six years later - when the actual story takes place.
When the h was a child, her father and his two business partners stared an engineering firm. Things were great business-wise and everyone made a ton of money. All of the partners were married and had children and each partner owned a third of the company.
Then one of the original partners died and the h's father, who had been widowed after the h was born, married the partner's wife to keep the company shares in his control. The widowed wife has two children and through them the h's father managed two thirds of the company - tho the girl and the son are the nominal share holders.
Then the H's parents, who were the third shareholders, died and the H was orphaned. He was semi-adopted by the h's father, he liked the H and thought he was the natural successor to taking over the company. So when the h was 17 and she and the 28 yr old H fell in love, there was no impediment to the H and h marrying - tho the h's stepbrother and more especially her stepmother protested the marriage at such a young age.
Then the H was arrested for art theft, apparently the tyre treads on his car matched the treads found at the scene of a famous painting theft and a witness noticed a part of the car's license plate was the same as the H's. The H was arrested and sent to prison for year, when he got out he went to Australia and the first time the h has seen him in years is at her father's funeral.
The h did not want to believe the H was guilty, but the step-family insisted he must have been. They made the h sit through the trial and sentencing and even the h's father doubted his innocence in the face of all the evidence. The h was only 17, very sheltered and her step brother was very quick to jump into the breach as a supportive male presence, especially as her father was so very ill.
The H writes to the h from prison, but a combination of the step mother's manipulation, the stepbrother's insistence that the H is a criminal and the h's own concerns about her father cause her to read one letter and then destroy the others and call off the engagement.
The H is painted a devil by the stepmother and stepbrother - the stepsister had her own fling attempt with the H when she was younger and when he wouldn't play up to her, she married another man in spite and so she has nothing good to say about him either.
The h soon took her own place as a junior company director, the step brother is running things and the h is fulfilling her father's wishes that she continue on in the company. Three years earlier the step brother, who has been nothing but kind and caring to the h, proposed to her.
The h accepted the engagement, but she doesn't have a wedding date set, nor does she sleep with her fiance. He is always too obsessed with the family firm and canceling dates and outings due to his takeovers of other firms to commit to a wedding.
Until the H returns, with the h's stepsister on his arm. The h's stepbrother fiance is certain the H is out for revenge and claims that the H has been partying it up in Australia and living high on the hog on profits the stepbrother made for the firm while he has been gone.
Right away the H starts in on the roofie kissing attempts at seduction of the h. The h becomes seriously confused, at 17 she loved the H with her whole heart and whole lot of Lurve Mojo Force made her knees pretty weak.
However she knows the H went to prison on what seemed a fair conviction, she knows she holds one third of the firms shares and that whomever she sides with essentially has controlling interest in the firm.
She also knows that some of the stepbrother's business moves leave her a little queasy, mainly cause local people are being made redundant and she doesn't like that, it seems to go against what her father taught her. Also, now that the H has returned and seems to be making a play for the h, the step brother fiance wants to set a wedding date.
When the h finds that the H has broken into her home she shares with the stepmother and taken confidential company documents from her safe, the h is very wary of the H's motives. She is also almost seduced on her very own study desk.
The H stops in the nick of time, but the h is left to wonder how can she marry her fiance if she feels this powerful pull for the H and also wonder why in three years her fiance has never made an attempt at passion with her.
She also is surprised when the H manages to spoke the fiance's takeover plans of other firms in the area. Tho she herself had some serious doubts about some of the targets for takeover and the ensuing loss of jobs for the locals that the takeovers would engender, she was still willing to support the fiance because she really believed he was being kind and because the rest of the family kept pushing the relationship.
Even when the H takes her to a dubious gambling club owned by one of his friends from prison and the h finds her priggish fiance there flirting with the scantily clad ladies, the h isn't too willing to abandon the fiance.
Mainly cause the gambling club owner looks like a thug and the H is looking like a man with dubious business dealings. The fiance never sees the h watching him from the gambling club's office, but to the h's surprise, the fiance tells her about his little night excursion and the h decides to agree to marry him because he is honest and he obviously cares about her.
A wedding date is set for six weeks away and the fiance gets more concerned that the h go through with the marriage and hires a bodyguard to keep the H away from the h. The h is starting to doubt more, but she can't figure out why the fiance would lie to her, he and the H were BFF's all through their growing up years and he really has been very kind and supportive of her personally.
Then the big wedding day is upon us and as the h looks at her dress, she realizes that she still loves the H and she wants her old wedding dress that she was going to wear for her marriage to the H. The dress she is wearing now is nice, but it isn't what she wants and she realizes she can't go through with the marriage.
However, she can't really abandon her kind and supportive step brother at the altar and embarrass him either, so she makes her way to the chauffeur driven bridal car to go to the church. Then we get a big surprise. The h is in the car and waiting for her uncle to join her, as he is escorting her down the aisle in place of her father, when the car takes off!
The h checks and the H is the driver and he is hijacking her away from own wedding. The h is scared when the H takes her to some secluded flat and ties her hands behind her and dumps her on the bed to go take care of business.
He tells the h that the step brother is the villain, not him and he hopes to have the proof for the h in a few hours. He also claims that the h wouldn't have a very long life expectancy if she married the step brother fiance. But the H is also very nice when the h starts crying and he tells her he loves her too much to let her marry a criminal slime pustule who probably intends to kill her to keep control of the family firm.
The h is in severe shock, but remembers her LaToya Jackson Online Detective School Flyer Investigation Pointers and realizes that the stepbrother has always been obsessed about running the family firm.
In fact if what the H says is true, the step brother could have stolen the art himself and then framed the H. All he would have needed to do was switch the tyres and license plates of the H's car onto a similar car to the H's and then called the police, after making sure there was clear tyre print at the robbery site and an anonymous tip that led to the H. Since the H's car was locked in his garage and he was off on his own, it would have been easy to switch things to make the H look guilty.
The h realizes that her love for the H has never died and the stepbrother's antics, seen in this new light are decidedly shady. The H has left the TV on for the h to watch while she is tied up and waiting and she also bemoans the fact that the local news flashes an old picture of her as the "Kidnapped Bride" and she wishes someone would have given them a better one.
(I laughed myself silly over that, but really that is a brilliant illumination of just what this h is, very nice and pretty sweet, but dumber than rocks over a lot of things.)
Eventually the H returns and he and the h declare their love after the H explains that he never trusted the stepbrother fiance slime pustule after he blatantly stole the H's college project for his own, nor has he become involved with the stepsister, she just happened to show up when he did for the funeral. The h admits that the slime pustule is obsessed with the family firm and she finally admits that she has been thinking of things he did and there is good reason to suspect him.
The H and h finally can consummate their love and take a nice little outing to the Golden Shores of Purple Transcendent Bliss, the h's unicorn grooming license is forever revoked and we find out that the H hasn't been partying it up all these years.
The H was in Australia building a multi-national conglomerate that makes the family firm look like a hobby and all the profits he get from the family firm go to a charity fund to help ex-cons get training and rebuild their lives.
The really, really rich H has also bought his old family home back and moved his operations center there. He only needs few fax lines and computer links, he wanted the h to be able to stay in her familiar area and he knows she doesn't want to continue to live with the stepmother, who gets lifetime use of the h's family home.
The H initially felt betrayed when the h dumped him, but when he saw her again he knew he still loved her and he knew she was being duped by the slime sewer relatives. He had to have proof of the bad behavior tho and so he went about getting it, cause he just can't let her go.
Eventually the slime pustule fiance shows up, the H left a trail for him to follow. The stepbrother fiance breaks in and waves a gun around, he tells the H he is going to shoot him and strangle the h and blame the whole thing on the H being insanely jealous.
The h finally shows she has some brains and tells the slime pustule that she and the H have the evidence that he switched the tyres on the cars six years earlier and that if they die, the evidence will go to the police and he will spend a long time in prison, cause he is the insanely jealous person and everyone will now know it.
The H throws in that he will buy the slime pustule's shares in the family firm and he can leave the country. But if anything happens to the h or himself, there is enough evidence of the slime pustule's dubious business doings to put him away for years and the H will make sure that evidence is found. The slime pustule gives up and slinks away into the HP mists and the h marries the H for the big HEA.
We get a tiny epilogue where the h is now running the family firm. She was able to marry the H in her original wedding dress and as the H intends to let her continue running the firm while he runs the rest of his empire, the h decides to start bedroom negotiations for a suitable amount of maternity leave for the really sparkly, baby expecting, happy conclusion to this HPlandia outing.
By some strange irony I also read Caitlin Crew's Imprisoned by the Greek's Ring, which deals with the same trope right before reading this one. The differences between the two book are major and if you would like a very clear comparison of Vintage HPlandia to the Modern HP outings, I don't think you could find two books who illuminate the differences better.
This was a great, fast paced story. The H was also pretty nice in lieu of what went on and the h was just TSTL and sweet enough to make it believably work, so give this one a go for a very entertaining HPlandia outing.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 8, 2016
I guess it was okay as a quick read. It certainly kept me interested. Olivia and Adam were about to get married when she was 17, but then he was accused of theft. Six years after, they meet again in her father's funeral when she is already engaged to Richard whom Adam despised.
April 24, 2022
Μια υπέροχη ιστορία , που με κέρδισε από την πρώτη λέξη, από την πρώτη σελίδα!!!! Με μια λέξη: ΦΑΝΤΑΣΤΙΚΗ!!!!
June 10, 2023
This was a great one! I don't want to spoil it by revealing details, but I'll just say that it's easy in this case to forgive the h, Olivia for jumping to a wrong conclusion, not just because of the evidence against the H, Adam, but because she was barely 18 at the time, and it was too young an age for the couple to get together (he was 29). Their story's done in flashbacks, so the main part takes place six years after the dramatic events, so, at 24 and 35, the ages are okay now.
The OM, Richard (Olivia's fiancé and Adam's former friend) appears to be the perfect guy, if a bit of a workaholic and maybe a tad ruthless in his business deals, but he treats Olivia with such kindness and respect, she can always lean on him, depend on him, and count on him to be a gentleman, a calm after the storm of Adam. Perhaps a bit too good to be true???
There's a bit of an ICK factor here, as Richard is also Olivia's stepbrother, which kind of gives things a shade of incest, though nothing sexy happens, at least not with them.
Throw in a snobbish, self-centered stepmother, a stepsister who still has the hots for her former lover, Adam, a few shady characters, another OW, a kidnapped bride, attempted murder and a crime solved by the romantic duo, and you've got a very entertaining story (if you can buy the idea that Olivia, only two years out of business college, is capable of running a company like those with years of experience, or that Adam was able in a few short years to build up a multimillion dollar empire, but after all, this is HP La La Land).
Enjoy!
The OM, Richard (Olivia's fiancé and Adam's former friend) appears to be the perfect guy, if a bit of a workaholic and maybe a tad ruthless in his business deals, but he treats Olivia with such kindness and respect, she can always lean on him, depend on him, and count on him to be a gentleman, a calm after the storm of Adam. Perhaps a bit too good to be true???
There's a bit of an ICK factor here, as Richard is also Olivia's stepbrother, which kind of gives things a shade of incest, though nothing sexy happens, at least not with them.
Throw in a snobbish, self-centered stepmother, a stepsister who still has the hots for her former lover, Adam, a few shady characters, another OW, a kidnapped bride, attempted murder and a crime solved by the romantic duo, and you've got a very entertaining story (if you can buy the idea that Olivia, only two years out of business college, is capable of running a company like those with years of experience, or that Adam was able in a few short years to build up a multimillion dollar empire, but after all, this is HP La La Land).
Enjoy!
September 8, 2023
DNF p.97. It was just so boring I found I just couldn't be bothered with it. I've pushed myself to finish some stinkers in my time, I even enjoy a good hate read, but this was bland, dry white toast with a cup of water - beige - dull - soporific... you get the idea. Board room meetings, business chat, I've got 33% of company shares, if we close this factory then the workers will have to relocate. This book is the romance equivalent of me zoning out while my husband goes on about the minutia of his job.
The h was kind of lamentable too. I thought she was a bitch for immediately not believing/turning on the H when he was accused of the terrible terrible crime of stealing a Chinese vase. This is a guy she grew up with and was mad in love what... wait he stole a vase? He's dead to me now.
Also hated how we are led to *loathe* the OW character simply because she wears heavy makeup and tight skirts. She honestly seemed like the nicest damn character here but never mind because she a *gasp* slut. At least she's not engaged and two timing her fiance by having heacy petting makeout sessions with her ex. That is skanky.
The h was kind of lamentable too. I thought she was a bitch for immediately not believing/turning on the H when he was accused of the terrible terrible crime of stealing a Chinese vase. This is a guy she grew up with and was mad in love what... wait he stole a vase? He's dead to me now.
Also hated how we are led to *loathe* the OW character simply because she wears heavy makeup and tight skirts. She honestly seemed like the nicest damn character here but never mind because she a *gasp* slut. At least she's not engaged and two timing her fiance by having heacy petting makeout sessions with her ex. That is skanky.
pback-to-read
July 5, 2018You think I'd allow you to make love to me?' She demanded hoarsely.
'Oh, I wasn't thinking of asking permission,' he murmured. 'Not that you'd refuse.'
Adam Taylor's time in prison hadn't dulled his arrogance. Who else could reappear after six years and lay claim to everything he'd left behind - including Olivia? Well, she was promised to someone else now, and she'd put Adam's betrayal behind her, hadn't she...?
Some family scandals were best left buried. But Adam seemed determined to rake over the old wounds and even older attractions. Olivia's mind was suddenly filled with doubts - that, maybe, Adam wasn't guilty, and that her love for him was just the same
'Oh, I wasn't thinking of asking permission,' he murmured. 'Not that you'd refuse.'
Adam Taylor's time in prison hadn't dulled his arrogance. Who else could reappear after six years and lay claim to everything he'd left behind - including Olivia? Well, she was promised to someone else now, and she'd put Adam's betrayal behind her, hadn't she...?
Some family scandals were best left buried. But Adam seemed determined to rake over the old wounds and even older attractions. Olivia's mind was suddenly filled with doubts - that, maybe, Adam wasn't guilty, and that her love for him was just the same
August 27, 2013
I liked this book, it was interesting, although I did have the 'mystery' portion of the book figured out early on. I did like that it was different than most of the books that I have read. I may read this book again.
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