Corazones en deuda

by Julia James

Corazones En Deuda by Julia James released on Jan 25, 2005 is available now for purchase.

Genres: Harlequin, Harlequin Presents, Romance, Ebooks, Hqn, Fiction, Contemporary Romance

160 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published July 2, 2004

About the author

Julia lives in England with her family. Mills and Boon novels were Julia's first "grown up" books she read as a teenager ("Alongside Georgette Heyer and Daphne du Maurier."), and she's been reading them ever since.

Julia adores the English countryside ("And the Celtic countryside!"), in all its seasons, and is fascinated by all things historical, from castles to cottages. She also has a special love for the Mediterranean ("The most perfect landscape after England!") — she considers both are ideal settings for romance stories! In between writing she enjoys walking, gardening, needlework and baking "extremely gooey chocolate cakes" — and trying to stay fit!

Reviews

[KatieV · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

The title suggests the book is much more lascivious than it actually is. Damn it! ;) But, lol, we all know that's par for the course in HPLandia.

Toward the end, the hero ends up paying off a debt of the heroine's that she'd been hiding from him. She meant to pay it herself, but it ended up looking like she'd strung him along to get $ from him. For a brief period of time after he pays the debt, he acts like a jerk and tries to treat her like a prostitute. After failing to convince him otherwise, the heroine leaves.

Despite his brief spat of jerkface behavior, which really was understandable if not excusable, he was very nice by HP tycoon standards. After all, I think anyone in his position would have felt betrayed, and he was very hurt.

Blessedly, this was much less ridiculously OTT melodramatic than some of the stuff JJ has written.

[Leona · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! Full of conflict, chemistry and love! I think the author does a superlative job of making one hunk of hero....What I liked most about this book was that they had a wonderful, passionate, respectful relationship.....They both invested so much in the relationship and were reaping the benefits. Of course, there was the BIG misunderstanding. Roz reluctantly kept a secret wanting to keep it out of their relationship, fearing it would damage everything... Of course when Cesar finds out, he goes crazy and of course breaks the trust that has been built and they separate.

Love, Loved, this book. Even though, at one point...I just wanted to smack Cesar and say WAKE UP!

[StMargarets · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had no patience for the heroine in this one. She had run up a bunch of credit cards to give her dying mother the vacation of a lifetime in Spain. and was now stuck in Spain trying to pay off her debt working in a dodgy cafe and hanging out with the quasi-prostitute, Sable.

She runs across the casino owner hero when she is supposed to be "babysitting" Sable's mob boss boyfriend. The hero is intrigued with the heroine who enjoys history and a good travelogue, but can't tell the truth to save her life.

I felt bad for the hero who had to hear about the heroine's debts from the mob boss, her back story from Sable (a year after she left him) and his secret baby when he finally tracked her down. I don't think I could trust this heroine as far as I could throw her. Lying and living in denial seems to be a pattern for her and at least she realizes this when acknowledges her daughter's life was going to be one of poverty and hopelessness until the hero tracked them down.

Good lord. This heroine pretended not to have agency. She could have told the hero about her debt at any time - or that the hero had a child. She brought her problems on herself and the hero was remarkably patient.

[Chinablue_25 West Bostedor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good story this one. Takes place in Spain on the coast. Rosalind is English and has been in Spain for 3 years now.

It opens up with Rosalind getting hookered up by her friend Sable to go out with her rich boyfriend in place of her. Sable came down with some food poisoning and didn't want her rich fish Yuri to get snatched up by another woman in her absence so she gets Rosalind to do the favor of hanging out with Yuri and his entourage at the casino that night.

Rosalind didn't know that Yuri and his friend with gold teeth, were Eastern European drug runners, arms dealers, among other things. She just thought they were rich business men. At the casino with Yuri's friend pawing at her most the night, the casino owner, Cesar, approaches Yuri to get rid of him. Not allowing trash in his respectable establishment so he paid Yuri a lot of money to leave. He had trouble keeping his eyes off Rosalind even though he believed her to be the trash that she was dressed as and had far too much make up on. As they were leaving, Rosalind asked where they were going, and Yuri's all too friendly friend informs her they are going back to the hotel and that he was looking forward to scrubbing her clean in the hot tub. She refused to get in the car with them so they left. She didn't have the money to take a cab so she set out to walk the miles home.

A few hours later, Cesar is on his way home to one of his more quiet homes, when he sees Rosalind walking down along the busy road. He stops and tries to give her a lift. Rosalind recognizes him immediately, and declines. Eventually he talks her into getting in his car, she makes it clear that she is not impressed with him borrowing his boss's car to show off, that she assumes he is the Casino House Detective or head of security. He reveals to her after finding out that she didn't know what kind of man Yuri was, and that she was doing a favor for a friend by going out with them in the first place and why she ended up walking home, that he is in fact the owner of the hotel and the car is in fact his. When it becomes evident that she isn't impressed by the car, he is even more enamored with her. Once he gets her to her little cafe that she works at and lives above, he tries to get her to go out with him. She declines. THen he kisses her and the sparks fly. He once again tries to get her to go home with him and she very crisply refuses and then leaves.

The next day while at work, Sable comes in and is upset cause Ros didn't stick with Yuri the whole night. She complains that another woman swooped in and now she has to work extra hard to get rid of her and get back in with Yuri. They also discuss the money that Ros borrowed from Sable when she needed it to pay off other debts where the interest rates were getting out of control. Sable keeps trying to get Ros to do what she does by landing rich guys to take care of her and spend money on her, and even give her money. Ros refuses and Sable keeps saying she needs to "lighten up" which means fall into bed with men with money so that she can get a piece of the pie.

The next day Sable comes in all nervous and tells her that she needs Ros to go out with her and Yuri tonight cause he is still really upset about how she walked off the other night. Ros says no, then Sable breaks it to her that the debt that she owes her, she transferred to Yuri, because she lost too much of his money gambling. She informs Ros that she has been taking her payments and giving it to Yuri and now he is upset with her so that she should try to make it up to him and stay on his good side since she owes him so much money. Ros freaks out and makes up the excuse that she can't cause she has a date. Sable asks if he is rich and Ros says yes. That evening she dresses in the last designer dress she owns from better days, and looking elegant heads to the casino, knowing that she would be safer in the company of Cesar than in the company of Yuri who has been banned from Cesars casino.

Cesar feels triumphant when she shows up and immediately starts wooing and focusing all his attention on her. He gives her some chips to gamble, she wins a little and loses a little. She walks away from the table with a few chips left handing them back to Cesar. He leads her out to the terrace that overlooks the ocean. Then he takes her to dinner and they discuss history and war, and he finds she is much more than a pretty face and perfect body. He starts to recognize after dinner that she was ready to bolt, so he offered coffee. She said yes, then he rose from the table and said that they would have it on the terrace. She starts to follow him then freezes when he leads her to an elevator. He informs her that the terrace he is taking her is higher up with a better view. She goes, and when the elevator opens she finds her in a private apartment. She begins to get nervous and Cesar swiftly leads her out to the terrace and distracts her. Then the coffee is delivered and they sit down and start drinking and talking history and politics. By the time her second cup was finished she rose to say good night and he stopped her by kissing her. The chemistry so strong between them that she surrenders to him taking her to his bed. She fell asleep in his arms and when she woke up she just knew it was over and time for her to go and deal with the Yuri situation. As she was getting dressed, Cesar wakes and watches her. Once she was done he informs her that it was a waste of time and then he gets up undresses her and makes love to her again. Then they shower again and he makes love to her again. While he is shaving, she gets dressed to leave and he comes out and asks her what she is doing and then tells her that he will have the boutique downstairs send up some day clothes for her and then he informs her that this was not a one night stand and she better not dare cheapen what happened between them. Then he sends her home to collect her belongings and hands her an envelope of the money she had won the night before. She takes it and deposits it in Sable's bank account.

Over the next two months, her and Cesar spend just about 24/7 together. Making love, touring up and down the coast of Spain on mini trips, dining in 5 star restaurants, attending business related engagements of Ceasars. Cesar continued to buy designer dresses and outfits for Ros. But what struck Cesar was that unlike all the other women he had dated, she never asked for a thing, never hinted at needing something, and never threw a tantrum or complained about anything. She was doting on him and very accommodating in the bed to whatever Cesar wanted. The only thing that bothered him was that he didn't know much about her. The only thing about her past or personal life he knew was that she came to Spain 3 years previously with someone and refused to talk about it or visit certain places that she indicated she saw when she first arrived and wished not to see again. Cesar assumes that it was a lover that she came to Spain with and that he broke up with her while in Spain. Rosalind realizes that she is in love with Cesar. It scares the crap out of her cause she knows that when he tires of her their affair will be over and he will simply move onto a different woman. She feels that if he knows exactly how she feels about him then he will end it.

One weekend they headed to another rich coastal town and went to a hip upscale restaurant where they ran into Yuri and Sable. Cesar immediately tried to duck out but they were spotted and Sable starts running her mouth. She started saying things like "Im so glad you landed a rich guy. You have needed this. It's not natural the way you have buried yourself the last 3 years especially after you had a taste of the high life!" Then Yuri starts taunting Cesar, which he ignores until Yuri calls Rosalind a whore, then Cesar punched him out. Then he removes his wallet and thrusts several large bills into Sables hand and tells her it's time she took her leave, and suggest Portugal. She hints that Portugal is expensive, he hands her more money, and she leaves. Once alone at the hotel, Cesar starts to ask Rosalind about why there are certain places she doesn't like to visit. She starts crying and saying she doesn't want to talk about it. He shatters at seeing her cry and holds her and tells her not to worry about it.

A couple days later, Yuri shows up at Cesars office and surprised him with a piece of paper listing to the affect of a large dollar amount that Ros owes him. Then he tells him he will be more than happy to leave him to his whore as soon as he gets his money, and not to worry, he never bedded her because he prefers the blonds like the one Cesar just cost him to lose!! Cesar pays him the money, and Yuri leaves with some crude parting words to the affect of enjoying his whore cause he certainly just paid enough for her.

Cesar confronts Rosalind with the piece of paper, and informs her of Yuri's visit. Rosalind immediately gets upset and tells him that she didn't want him to pay her debts for her. That she didn't tell him about it cause she didn't want to taint the magical time that they were having together. He gets furious with her and accuses her of being with him to pay her debt in the first place and using him just like her friend. He tells her she better be ready when he gets back for the party they are going to and he leaves. When he gets back she is still in her robe and says that she isn't ready yet and he says you look ready to me, and then he attacks her and drags her off to bed. Afterward, he gets up and goes into the bathroom to get ready instead of holding her like he usually does. She feels like something is different and doesn't know what to do. She starts planing what to say to him and to have a long talk when they get back from the party and thinks to ask for a job from him so that she can pay him back every penny and then know that she isn't with him for his money.

After the party, she tries to engage him to have the talk but he tells her that he doesnt want to talk and that he wants to have a shower with her. While in the shower they start making love. He stops and turns her around and continues from behind. Then he tells her to dry her hair and leaves the room. When she is finished she walks into the bedroom and finds him in bed but aroused again. He tells her to come to him. She begins to climb into bed with him and he tells her to lie down on her stomach. She realizes that things have changed and now he is treating her like a whore. She refuses and he tells her that she owes him 7,000 Euros worth. She tried to tell him that she is going to pay him back that she never wanted him to pay her debt for her and that she was going to ask for a job. When he makes it clear that he doesn't believer her, she turned and walked to the closet and began dressing. He jumps up and goes to her asking her what she is doing and she tells him she is leaving. She tells him that he is making her into his cheap whore and that she wont stand for that. She tells him that she will make monthly payments to him until he is paid back all his money. He starts to argue with her and then all of a sudden she gets sick and runs to the bathroom and throws up several times. When she comes out he goes and gets her water and informs her that he called a doctor and he will be there shortly. While waiting for the doctor to finish his assessment he sits out on the terrace and thinks that she is faking the sickness so that she doesn't have to leave or sleep with him. He thinks she is just playing more games. The doctor while alone with Ros comes to the conclusion that she is pregnant but offers to come back in the morning to do a test. But once she counted back to her period she is convinced and even more sure she needs to leave Cesar. When the doctor was leaving he simply tells Cesar that she took a sedative and should sleep through the night. Cesar leaves and goes out on a tiny little dingy out in the harbor to think. When he comes back the sky is graying and Rosalind is gone, but all the clothes he bought her remained. He assumes that she is playing him again. That she would come back for the clothes or that she would show up with another man trying to make him jealous, but she never shows.

Several months later, Cesar is at the opening of a project he worked on with a golf course designer, when he runs into Sable. They get to talking and because over all those months, he tried to bed other women but couldnt bring himself to touch them, he longs to discuss the reason for his loneliness. That reason being Rosalind. Sable asks why they split up and when Cesar tells her it was actually because of what she had enlightened him about Rosalind, Sable went off on him. She says, "I can't believe you could do that to her after what she went through when she first got here." Then she saw that he didn't know what she was talking about so she schooled him.

It is now a year since Rosalind left Cesar and Spain. She has her daughter bundled up napping in one corner of her government studio apartment. There is a knock at the door, and its Cesar. She tries to shoo him off assuring him that she will start making payments when she gets a job and can afford it. He doesn't want to leave. He wants to talk to her. Then all off a sudden he hears a mewing sound. He asks her if she has a cat. She says yes. Then the mewing turns into a baby's wail. They both freeze. She leaves the door open and goes to her baby. She tells him calmly that for all he knows it is some other rich guy she picked up after him. She begins breast feeding while they talk. He asks her why she didn't tell him. She tells him that she didn't want him to accuse her of getting pregnant on purpose so that she could make him pay her for having his child. She assures him that she won't be coming after him for money and that she didn't put a name on the birth certificate so he doesn't have to worry. He gets very upset but not with her. With himself. Then he tells her that he saw Sable and she told her the truth. Then he asks her to tell the story to him herself.

As the reader you find out for the first time that it was her mother that she came to Spain with after finding out from the doctor that her mom had only 9 months to live (cancer) and she felt so guilty for not realizing that she was sick while she was in love with some shmuck that took her virginity and asked her to marry her but didnt want her to live with or be close to her "needy mother". She sold all their possessions and gathered all their money and left for Spain flying first class and staying at the best resorts and eating at the best restaurants and shopping at the best boutiques. The Alhambra had been the last place they had visited together. She avoided it because of the memories. She had accumulated all the credit card debt while giving her mother a little happiness that she had never before experienced before she died. Her mother died in her arms at a convent hospice that took them in for her mothers last few weeks of life.

Then she had all the debt that she had to pay off.

Cesar feels horrible and apologizes. Then gets down on his knee and asks to see his daughter. While she continues to breast feed, Cesar strokes his daughters head. He looks up to see Rosalind crying and he shatters. He starts hugging and kissing her telling her how sorry he is. After they put the baby down to nap he comments that they will have to invite Sable to their wedding. Rosalind shocked looks at him and he hugs her and tells her that he loves her and begs her to love him back. She tells him that she always did love him and always would. In the end they are watching their wedding guests leave and talking about Sable and how she beat Rosalind to the isle having married the very rich old man that she was at the golf opening with. Happy ending all around!

[Becky · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book...could truly feel hero's developing emotions for heroine, and it was actually very understandable that he wouldn't trust her, given the evidence before him. For once, hero's cruelty while obnoxious was sort of hot and a critical part of the story, and heroine standing up for herself and leaving was exciting. His fidelity made his feelings believable. Love how the trampy roommate got to be slightly more than 1 dimensional (ok, maybe just 1 and a half, but still better than most such depictions). I actually cried at the reunion scene...so refreshing to see a hero accept his culpability for the secret baby aspect and not try to blackmail or threaten the heroine!!!!

[Susan in Perthshire · Rating 1 out of 5]

This story was so unpleasant. There was so much nastiness in this and I really found it difficult to read.

The heroine is TSTL. Really - unutterably , too stupid to live. I had no sympathy for her at all. It made no sense that she didn’t simply tell him the truth and failing to tell him about the baby was unforgivable. Right to the end almost she behaved like an utterly selfish idiot. I hated her. This was one of the most unappealing, unengaging stories I’ve read . These are not romances.

[Erica · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found the need for keeping the heroine's secrets from the reader unnecessary. It was hard to then have the conflict be believable because it was almost like the heroine didn't want to admit it to herself. When I finally found out I was disappointed in general.

[shms · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was kinda meh because while I had some sympathy with the H's behavior, the h surely didn't help herself by deluding herself and ignoring the red flags. Buying into the reasons for self delusion is key to the enjoyment of the book, in this case I couldn't and just found her stupid.

[Roberta Curmi · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars :)

[Krita · Rating 3 out of 5]

Light fluffy read

[Raffaella · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was not bad, both characters were stupid and dumb, but the heroine much more. He sees her with a russian criminal boss and thinks she's a hooker, then she reveals she was with the russian only to do a favour to her best friend but never intended to go. They start an affair, she's in debt with her friend but what does her friend do? She sells heroine's debt to the russian! Olè! So now she has a debt with the criminal... Obviously she doesn't tell anything to the hero, and goes on as nothing happened, trying to relax and enjoy their relationship. She never tells him anything about her past, which is not very smart because he thinks by some hints that she was a mistress to a rich man and he left her penniless. So when russian criminal asks him to pay the heroine's debt he's angry and feels betrayed. Understandable since she never told him anything. He pays him back and treats the heroine as a slut, telling her she has to pay him back with her body. Heroine refuses and collapses. A doctor is called. Hero thinks she's faking to soften him, when he's back in their room she's gone. After one year he is still thinking about her, his sex life in null and he's very angry. He finds her friend at a party and asks her about heroine. She tells him the truth and is that obviously the heroine is a saint and a martyr. So he feel a scum and looks for her. When he finds her she's had a baby and after a minimum groveling theyìre back together. I appreciated some novelty here: heroine's best friend selling her debt to a russian criminal was really entertaining. But both character were TSTL. I didn't understand why heroine never told him about her previous life, about the sacrifices she made for her dying mother, was this so shameful? It would have avoided so many misunderstandings. I didn't understand all the fuss about her debt. If the hero was so very rich what is seven thousands euro for him??? Nothing at all, and anyway she never asked him a penny, it was the russian who asked him to pay and she wasn't even previously informed about that. This hero was really stingy. I didn't appreciate in the end all the details about his sexual failures and with whom, it was not necessary, it was enough to say he didn't have any other woman... Anyway a nice and fun reading.

[Kes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading this book is like eating candy - it's not good for you, but it is predictable. Features:

- not like the other girls: Rosalind is working in Spain to pay off her debt. Her best friend, Sable, sleeps around and relying on her sex appeal to make money. Cesar dislikes people like Sable, even though it's ok to sleep with them. Rosalind Not Being Like that is a part of her appeal to Cesar. It's sexist.

- job? what job?: Rosalind gets swept up with Cesar after a night of passion and just... stays. There's an explicit mention early in the book that the cafe owner gave her a free room because the owner likes someone to be there... There's no mention of her quitting.

- sex scenes: YMMV

- UK council flats - this is a theme with this author.

- Misunderstanding: Cesar finds out that Rosalind has a debt and jumps to the conclusion that she's using him for his money. The debt is EUR7,000. This may be privileged of me, but: it's not that much. In Spain, ["A salary with which you can live without difficulties is 1,500€ per month"](https://www.quora.com/What-is-a-good-...). Rosalind then runs off back to UK, pregnant. She gets a council flat, where Cesar finds her with their child. Cue marriage and happy ever after.

- Virtuous debt: Rosalind incurred the debt after going on a 7-month spending spree with her mother so that her mother could have a great end-of-life experience. Um. If I were the mom, I wouldn't be that pleased that my child is sacrificing to that extent on my behalf. Also, it seems irresponsible.

[More Books Than Time · Rating 4 out of 5]

Julia James is a bit hit or miss for me but this one was a hit, an easy, pleasant read with two likable main characters. They begin by liking and enjoying each other's company, plus bedtime and it grows from that to love.
I liked that she didn't tell him the backstory until after she left and he found her.

[A · Rating 1 out of 5]

The only reason H wanted h back was because he was a sycophant and couldn't manage to get it up with a supermodel or scholar or his ex who had personalities and needed to go back to someone like the h who worshiped him.

[Priscilla · Rating 1 out of 5]

Inglesa vivendo na Espanha se veste como garota de programa, vai para um cassino junto a um grupo de garota de programas e fica surpresa e ofendida e magoada quando um homem a trata como garota de programa.

Essa é a trama.

[Consuela Rossetto · Rating 4 out of 5]

«Non è di questo mondo.» Rosalind non sa cos'altro pensare di Cesar Montarez. Non ha mai conosciuto un uomo tanto bello, autoritario e affascinante, oltre che capace di farle battere il cuore all'impazzata. Proprietario di un grande casinò spagnolo, Cesar comincia a corteggiarla subito in un modo raffinato e sensuale, con gite romantiche e cene in ristoranti esclusivi. Coinvolta da quell'avventura, che assomiglia pericolosamente a un giro di roulette, Rosalind ha paura che la posta in gioco, il suo cuore, sia troppo alta. Quando decide di rischiare e cedere ai sentimenti che prova per Cesar, lui la sorprende con un rilancio inaspettato.

[Νίνα Δοδούδη · Rating 5 out of 5]

ΕΞΑΙΡΕΤΙΚΟ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ΑΠΟ ΤΑ ΠΟΛΥ - ΠΟΛΥ ΑΓΑΠΗΜΕΝΑ ΜΟΥ ΕΔΩ ΚΑΙ ΠΟΛΛΑ ΧΡΟΝΙΑ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ΤΟ ΛΑΤΡΕΥΩ!!!!

[Bibi · Rating 3 out of 5]

HP readers know how difficult it is to find a memorable book.; one that grips your emotions and has you reaching for the tissues. Well, this is one of those books. Yes, it has its flaws (for example....the H was constantly being referenced by his full name..Cesar Montarez..César Montarez... why?), but it was a rich tale of love and passion and humour. Very 3 dimensional and completely immerses you into the lives of all the characters (yes, even the irrepressible Sable). It's been a decade since I first read a hard copy( which I loaned out and never got back...... don't you hate that?) and once an e-version came out, I knew I had to read it again.

Give it a try, you will not regret.

[RomLibrary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spanish millionaire Cesar Montarez wants Rosalind the moment he sees her; this electrifying attraction is like nothing he's ever felt before. But Cesar has little respect for money-hungry women--mistresses or trophy wives. Rosalind is determined she'll never be either, until Cesar discovers that she has secret debts. Now he can buy her as his mistress...and Rosalind has little choice but to pay his price

[Carole Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent read but the ending fell flat for me, rather anticlimactic.

[Elisa Vangelisti]

delinquenti? anche no.