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Tender Deception
After the crash that took her memory and altered her appearance, Lilly Parker began to search for the identity that eluded her. As she searched she could not escape the memory of Kirk Remington, the husband of whose love she had never been sure. As an unsuspecting Kirk fell in love with the woman she had become, she longed to tell him the secret of her past and become his true wife once more.
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1983
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August 13, 2024
There was nothing "tender" about that deception, more self-centered to me! Be that as it may, this book was entertaining, and if you like jazz music, you'll absolutely love this one, and if you ever wanted a bit of an education in jazz music, you'll get it here. You'll also get the rudiments of how to fly a plane, a mini tour of New Orleans and San Francisco and a glimpse of carnival atmosphere that makes you feel like you're really there.
The book also starts out with a bang, with the h wandering through the southwestern desert outside Nevada, disoriented, dehydrated, bruised, bleeding, suffering from severe sunburn, exposure and heatstroke, then she collapses, half dead. An exciting start, as well as a mysterious one.
She's rescued by a Native American man, and he and his family (especially his daughter, who's a nurse) care for her and with the help of a local doctor (who, not surprisingly, falls for her) start her on the long road to recovery. I liked the family, and I was hoping to learn more about them, especially since it seemed like they'd be playing a bigger part in the story at the start. Instead, only the nurse shows up from time to time, as well as the smitten doc, who's soon forgotten by the self-centered h. (I had hoped he and the nurse would get together, but no such luck.)
I also like the way her memory starts coming back, when she hears a piano in a nightclub, and she's drawn to it, then she travels to her old hometown, and while she stares at the house she grew up in, it all comes back to her, and we get the story, too.
That being said, this story had its flaws when it comes to character (or lack of) in both the H, h and OM. The h is one of those larger-than-life types, who is a musical prodigy, can sing and play piano like a virtuoso (even before formal lessons), becomes an overnight success, learns to fly a plane like an expert pilot in no time at all. soloing by her second lesson (OH, COME ON!!!), and (naturally) she's drop dead gorgeous, too! Makes you glad she messes up her personal life, crashes her plane and is a real mess for months, needing surgery skin grafts, the works, as well as losing her memory!
If I sound harsh, it's because she had no business taking a plane up when she was in an emotional tailspin, thinking the H was cheating! Typical, especially given her age, not yet 22.
Her character sure had flaws. She considers her late parents' failures because they never had money, she holds onto a teenage crush for the local musician/bad boy (the OM) she knew in high school for more than seven years, following him to New Orleans after she graduates college, even though they haven't been in touch all that time, and almost immediately gets hired to play piano in his jazz band (big surprise there)! She wants OM to see her as more than the kid from his hometown, but just when it appears that may happen, the H (his older brother) enters the story!
Yes, one of those two brothers and the same woman stories, except that the H had unresolved feelings for his ex-girlfriend and was at first attracted to the h because of her beauty and music talent (he was a frustrated musician, as well as a frustrated artist, but a very successful businessman) and then liked the idea of taking her away from his kid brother, while the OM was a "no strings attached" kind of guy, who thought of marriage and commitment like a hangman's noose. The h was torn between her love/lust for the H and her romantic fantasy feelings for the OM. And, BTW, both the H and the OM have a tough time keeping their hands off the h's breasts, but she doesn't seem to mind a bit, though she won't go further without a serious commitment from the OM, while the H just overwhelms her with intense desire, which both frightens and turns her on.
What a convoluted mess! And it just gets worse, when the OM's career nosedives for a time (partly his own fault) and the H tells the h he'll help him get back on his feet if she marries him! Of course she does, even though she's convinced he doesn't love her (by now, she loves him but still has feelings for OM/brother-in-law! H is determined to make her a star in her own right, no more playing with the OM's band, and in no time at all, she's on the road to fame, gets her pilot's license (the H taught her to fly and bought her a plane), thinks the H is cheating with his ex, leaves, gets sick with flu, goes to the hospital, the H shows up, they argue and she says she's through, but he threatens to tank the OM's now successful career if she doesn't come back to him, she does, they have hot sex whenever they're not fighting or he's listening t her play the piano he bought her, once again she thinks he's cheating (the evidence was pretty damning, I'll give her that much), she takes off on the plane, and you know the rest, at least for a time.
Since her recovery included a lot of cosmetic surgery, she now looks like a different person. She also had some vocal cord damage and sounds different, too. Thinking her husband (and everyone else) assumes she's dead, and that he must be back with his ex, she decides to find the OM again, pretend to be someone else, and hopefully get him to fall for her. (It doesn't seem to bother her that she's still married, he'll be getting unwittingly involved with his brother's wife, and the truth will have to come out sometime. Like Scarlett O'Hara, she'll think about that tomorrow!)
It sort of works a bit, as she meets the OM, pretends to be a fan of his, they go on a few dates, (he's still the play around type who wants to get her naked) but it doesn't go beyond a kiss or two (and a boob fondle, of course), but then she gets a job playing piano at a club where businessmen hang out, and there's the H, looking the worse for wear, drinking a lot and telling his troubles to the piano bar lady that he doesn't recognize, including how he misses his late wife, who apparently died when her plane crashed! Next thing you know, she agrees to go on a date with him, they sightsee then go to his place, he talks a lot about his wife, admits he did love her but was too dumb to realize it at the time, that he did meet up with his ex, but it was strictly platonic, though his wife must have thought otherwise and that's why she took off, how she's the first woman he's wanted since he became a widower, they kiss, start to get naked, then he gets all choked up and says he can't make love to her while he's thinking about his wife! She steps out to the balcony, looks at the locket she wears around her neck (one the OM gave her when they used to play music together in high school, a gift to a kid sister for him a promise of the future for her), with pictures of both her and the OM as teenagers, takes it off, says goodbye to the past, throws it off the balcony, goes back inside, tells the H not to feel bad because he'll soon be happy again, then goes to the piano and plays "their song".
What a lot of hoke!!!! It didn't work and was too abrupt an ending! I also thought it was crummy of her to play games and hide her identity all that time from both the H and the OM. She needed a good butt kick!
This should have been written a lot differently.
The book also starts out with a bang, with the h wandering through the southwestern desert outside Nevada, disoriented, dehydrated, bruised, bleeding, suffering from severe sunburn, exposure and heatstroke, then she collapses, half dead. An exciting start, as well as a mysterious one.
She's rescued by a Native American man, and he and his family (especially his daughter, who's a nurse) care for her and with the help of a local doctor (who, not surprisingly, falls for her) start her on the long road to recovery. I liked the family, and I was hoping to learn more about them, especially since it seemed like they'd be playing a bigger part in the story at the start. Instead, only the nurse shows up from time to time, as well as the smitten doc, who's soon forgotten by the self-centered h. (I had hoped he and the nurse would get together, but no such luck.)
I also like the way her memory starts coming back, when she hears a piano in a nightclub, and she's drawn to it, then she travels to her old hometown, and while she stares at the house she grew up in, it all comes back to her, and we get the story, too.
That being said, this story had its flaws when it comes to character (or lack of) in both the H, h and OM. The h is one of those larger-than-life types, who is a musical prodigy, can sing and play piano like a virtuoso (even before formal lessons), becomes an overnight success, learns to fly a plane like an expert pilot in no time at all. soloing by her second lesson (OH, COME ON!!!), and (naturally) she's drop dead gorgeous, too! Makes you glad she messes up her personal life, crashes her plane and is a real mess for months, needing surgery skin grafts, the works, as well as losing her memory!
If I sound harsh, it's because she had no business taking a plane up when she was in an emotional tailspin, thinking the H was cheating! Typical, especially given her age, not yet 22.
Her character sure had flaws. She considers her late parents' failures because they never had money, she holds onto a teenage crush for the local musician/bad boy (the OM) she knew in high school for more than seven years, following him to New Orleans after she graduates college, even though they haven't been in touch all that time, and almost immediately gets hired to play piano in his jazz band (big surprise there)! She wants OM to see her as more than the kid from his hometown, but just when it appears that may happen, the H (his older brother) enters the story!
Yes, one of those two brothers and the same woman stories, except that the H had unresolved feelings for his ex-girlfriend and was at first attracted to the h because of her beauty and music talent (he was a frustrated musician, as well as a frustrated artist, but a very successful businessman) and then liked the idea of taking her away from his kid brother, while the OM was a "no strings attached" kind of guy, who thought of marriage and commitment like a hangman's noose. The h was torn between her love/lust for the H and her romantic fantasy feelings for the OM. And, BTW, both the H and the OM have a tough time keeping their hands off the h's breasts, but she doesn't seem to mind a bit, though she won't go further without a serious commitment from the OM, while the H just overwhelms her with intense desire, which both frightens and turns her on.
What a convoluted mess! And it just gets worse, when the OM's career nosedives for a time (partly his own fault) and the H tells the h he'll help him get back on his feet if she marries him! Of course she does, even though she's convinced he doesn't love her (by now, she loves him but still has feelings for OM/brother-in-law! H is determined to make her a star in her own right, no more playing with the OM's band, and in no time at all, she's on the road to fame, gets her pilot's license (the H taught her to fly and bought her a plane), thinks the H is cheating with his ex, leaves, gets sick with flu, goes to the hospital, the H shows up, they argue and she says she's through, but he threatens to tank the OM's now successful career if she doesn't come back to him, she does, they have hot sex whenever they're not fighting or he's listening t her play the piano he bought her, once again she thinks he's cheating (the evidence was pretty damning, I'll give her that much), she takes off on the plane, and you know the rest, at least for a time.
Since her recovery included a lot of cosmetic surgery, she now looks like a different person. She also had some vocal cord damage and sounds different, too. Thinking her husband (and everyone else) assumes she's dead, and that he must be back with his ex, she decides to find the OM again, pretend to be someone else, and hopefully get him to fall for her. (It doesn't seem to bother her that she's still married, he'll be getting unwittingly involved with his brother's wife, and the truth will have to come out sometime. Like Scarlett O'Hara, she'll think about that tomorrow!)
It sort of works a bit, as she meets the OM, pretends to be a fan of his, they go on a few dates, (he's still the play around type who wants to get her naked) but it doesn't go beyond a kiss or two (and a boob fondle, of course), but then she gets a job playing piano at a club where businessmen hang out, and there's the H, looking the worse for wear, drinking a lot and telling his troubles to the piano bar lady that he doesn't recognize, including how he misses his late wife, who apparently died when her plane crashed! Next thing you know, she agrees to go on a date with him, they sightsee then go to his place, he talks a lot about his wife, admits he did love her but was too dumb to realize it at the time, that he did meet up with his ex, but it was strictly platonic, though his wife must have thought otherwise and that's why she took off, how she's the first woman he's wanted since he became a widower, they kiss, start to get naked, then he gets all choked up and says he can't make love to her while he's thinking about his wife! She steps out to the balcony, looks at the locket she wears around her neck (one the OM gave her when they used to play music together in high school, a gift to a kid sister for him a promise of the future for her), with pictures of both her and the OM as teenagers, takes it off, says goodbye to the past, throws it off the balcony, goes back inside, tells the H not to feel bad because he'll soon be happy again, then goes to the piano and plays "their song".
What a lot of hoke!!!! It didn't work and was too abrupt an ending! I also thought it was crummy of her to play games and hide her identity all that time from both the H and the OM. She needed a good butt kick!
This should have been written a lot differently.
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