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Double Deception
She was caught up by two lives at once...
"Would you do your sister a good turn?" Karen Greer had asked Gail Branstead, the twin she hadn't seen since birth, to step into her shoes for a couple of weeks and experience the exciting life of a model.
Had there been anything to the alleged telepathic communication between twins, Gail would have sensed danger. But then, she wouldn't have met Luke Prentis--nor deceived him, either.
She appealed to Luke--on two entirely different levels, as two different women: the uninhibited siren and the gentle woman he loved.
"Would you do your sister a good turn?" Karen Greer had asked Gail Branstead, the twin she hadn't seen since birth, to step into her shoes for a couple of weeks and experience the exciting life of a model.
Had there been anything to the alleged telepathic communication between twins, Gail would have sensed danger. But then, she wouldn't have met Luke Prentis--nor deceived him, either.
She appealed to Luke--on two entirely different levels, as two different women: the uninhibited siren and the gentle woman he loved.
187 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1985
About the author
Kay Thorpe
185 books67 followersKay Thorpe was born on 1935 in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, UK. An avid reader from the time when words on paper began to make sense, she developed a lively imagination of her own, making up stories for the entertainment of her young friends. After leaving school, she tried a variety of jobs, including dental nursing, and a spell in the Women's Royal Airforce from which she emerged knowing a whole lot more about life - if only as an observer.
In 1960, she married with Tony, but didn't begin thinking about trying her hand at writing for a living until she gave up work some four years later to have a baby, John. Having read Mills & Boon novels herself, and done some market research in the local library asking readers what it was they particularly liked about the books, she decided to aim for a particular market, and was fortunate to have her very first, completed manuscript accepted - The Last of the Mallorys, published in 1968. Since then she has written over seventy five books, which doesn't begin to compare with the output of some Mills & Boon authors, but still leaves her wondering where all those words came from.
Sometimes, she finds she has become two different people: the writer at her happiest when involved in the world of books and authors; and the housewife, turning her hands to the everyday needs of husband and son. Once in a while, she finds it difficult to step from one role to the other. She likes cooking, for instance, but she finds that it can be an irritating interruption when she's preoccupied with work on a novel, so the quality of her efforts in the kitchen tend to be a little erratic. She says, "As my husband once remarked, my writing gives life a fascinating element of uncertainly: one day a perfect coq au vin, the next day a couple of burned chops!"
Luckily Kay has daily professional help with her housework, and that leaves her time to indulge in her hobbies. Like many other Mills & Boon authors, she admits to being a voracious consumer of books, a quality she shares with her readers. She likes music and horseback riding, which she does in the countryside near her home. But her favorite hobby is travel - especially to places that will make good settings for her books.
Kay now lives on the outskirts of Chesterfield in Derbyshire, along with husband, Tony, and a huge tabby cat called Mad Max, her one son having flown the coop. Some day she'll think about retiring, but not yet awhile.
In 1960, she married with Tony, but didn't begin thinking about trying her hand at writing for a living until she gave up work some four years later to have a baby, John. Having read Mills & Boon novels herself, and done some market research in the local library asking readers what it was they particularly liked about the books, she decided to aim for a particular market, and was fortunate to have her very first, completed manuscript accepted - The Last of the Mallorys, published in 1968. Since then she has written over seventy five books, which doesn't begin to compare with the output of some Mills & Boon authors, but still leaves her wondering where all those words came from.
Sometimes, she finds she has become two different people: the writer at her happiest when involved in the world of books and authors; and the housewife, turning her hands to the everyday needs of husband and son. Once in a while, she finds it difficult to step from one role to the other. She likes cooking, for instance, but she finds that it can be an irritating interruption when she's preoccupied with work on a novel, so the quality of her efforts in the kitchen tend to be a little erratic. She says, "As my husband once remarked, my writing gives life a fascinating element of uncertainly: one day a perfect coq au vin, the next day a couple of burned chops!"
Luckily Kay has daily professional help with her housework, and that leaves her time to indulge in her hobbies. Like many other Mills & Boon authors, she admits to being a voracious consumer of books, a quality she shares with her readers. She likes music and horseback riding, which she does in the countryside near her home. But her favorite hobby is travel - especially to places that will make good settings for her books.
Kay now lives on the outskirts of Chesterfield in Derbyshire, along with husband, Tony, and a huge tabby cat called Mad Max, her one son having flown the coop. Some day she'll think about retiring, but not yet awhile.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 10, 2016
Re Double Deception - I had forgotten about this book and after I reread it today, I totally see why - this book is bad enough to make the cultic list except that it is just soooooo disgusting when I think about it that I just want to cringe in disgust and take a shower. In the end, I wasn't even sure really who was slimier - the h for what she did or the H for what he did.
Since I am still in shock and horror, I am just going to recap the story and then I am off to find a very large drink and half a dozen cookies.
The story starts when the 33 year old H kidnaps the 22 year old h by drugging her. He drags her off to some remote North of England location with an imminent snowstorm brewing. The h comes to when they get to the cabin and the H lays into her for having an affair with his little brother.
The only problem is the h did not have an affair, she is a twin who has been separated since birth from her identical sister and a few weeks previously they met for the first time because the sis is becoming a famous model. The sis has a line on a rich man to marry and wanted to take off for a few weeks to tie him down. She gets her twin to take her place. They look exactly alike once the h highlights her hair, and the h wants to get out of her tiny village - so she agrees to take over the sis's photo jobs.
The H's brother came around, but since the sis has a long stream of multiple partners, the h was tired of dealing with them and gave them all the boot. Then the H kidnaps her to punish her for tempting his married brother who left his wife and kids apparently. He plans on holding her until a new model for a big perfume campaign has been chosen as right at the moment the h is the number one choice. The h tries to tell him that she isn't her sister but he doesn't believe her.
The h tries to escape but the H finds her and then he tells her she has to wait on him or she doesn't eat. She holds out but finally gives in and then when she tries to steal his car keys while he is asleep, he forcibly seduces her. It doesn't say she is a virgin, but if she isn't, she isn't very experienced. She does wind up participating eventually and the next morning the H takes her home. He is apparently disgusted at himself for sleeping with the same girl his brother slept with.
The h gets the modeling job, but she signs her sister's name. Turns out the H is the grandson, (but he is a Clive Cussler type writer), of the owner of the cosmetics company that she is modeling for. She has to go to the lady's house and there she meets the H again. She decides to impersonate her twin to get her revenge on the H and she says her sister told her that the H raped her. He sorta freaks out, but he is starting to believe that she is a twin.
A little interjection here - technically the h was feeling pretty lustful towards the H, so while it started out forcibly it did not end that way. However, the words KT uses to describe the scene are words like violent, punishing, brutal etc - the whole scene does play out like a rape scene in the words and tone, if KT hadn't said the h was wanting it, I would have called it a rape.
(The words used were also used in the last M. Pargeter forced seduction scene in Born of the Wind - except that h blamed alien possession in that one. Either way it is clear in these two books that both KT and MP are interpreting the editorial decision for more actual and passionate sex before marriage to mean more brutality in physical seduction. Now I question if these brutal, but supposedly mutual, seduction scenes are really an attempt by these two long time HP authors to turn up the heat or a subtle rebellion over the new, looser sex edict that is becoming more prevalent as the HP line continues. It is sorta interesting that I really did not notice these changes when I originally read the books. When you read them all in a row, it becomes much more obvious.)
The H and the h start an affair after the visit to his grandmother's, but he thinks she is her sister - the real model, (I guess he got over the sleeping with his lil bro's seconds fairly quickly). Then the h gets a guilt trip home call and so she lies to the H and goes to see her dad. The dad is bugging her about seeing her sister and I was rather appalled that he thought he had any right to, the reason the sister and h were separated is that during the divorce of the h's mum and dad, they each decided to take one child and not fight over custody and NOT tell the girl's about each other.
Anyways, the H shows up and sees the h as her own self. He is obviously attracted and he wants to lay any mention of rape aside. The h lets him slide, he sorta apologizes and gives her his phone number. The h goes back to London as her sister and hooks up with the H again, but his passion is waning so she decides to call the H as herself to see if she can reel him in.
The H and the h as herself start an affair - I guess I shouldn't be surprised, if he slept with a woman he knew had slept with his brother he obviously wouldn't be bothered by sleeping with a woman and her identical sister. He actually takes the h to meet his brother as herself and when the brother's wife shows up at the h's flat a few days later to warn the h off, it comes out that the wife of the brother may have had something going with the H. (This is only hinted at, not confirmed but it just shows how disgusting practically everyone in this book is.)
The h keeps switching back and forth in her roles and getting away with it - the H hasn't broken it off with the h as her sister yet, but the h doesn't care cause she knows he hasn't ever slept with dear ole' sis and he is starting to hint about marriage. The h is basically taking what she can get with some minor pangs of guilt for her lies. All seems to be going well and the deception is almost finished when the sister comes home unexpectedly while the H is at the h's flat to break up with the sister.
The H leaves in a big ole huff and the h figures he will announce her duplicity at his grandmother's launch party for the ads for the perfume. The h goes and eventually announces who she is herself, the grandmother decides to pick up the contract option for the h to appear in more adds and the h decides to do it as she will have enough money to open her own salon. (She is a beautician in real life).
The H shows up in her room later and they have a lot more brutal sex, (and this H is very domineering and sorta gross about what he says in bed - even with some of the smut I have read I was a bit icked and this was way icky by HPlandia standards. - It was practically tacky.) The H is planning on dumping her forever after he invokes his will on her in bed, but after the night of lurve clubbing he changes his mind. The h has been in lurve with him since the beginning, and so it ends with the union of two nematode parasites basking in their very own little slime trail and happy in the muck.
I am going to go find some brain bleach now and hopefully forget this book exists for another 30 years. It wasn't quite on par with the horror that is Sally W's Twin Torment series, but it wasn't that far from it and now I need some oblivion.
Since I am still in shock and horror, I am just going to recap the story and then I am off to find a very large drink and half a dozen cookies.
The story starts when the 33 year old H kidnaps the 22 year old h by drugging her. He drags her off to some remote North of England location with an imminent snowstorm brewing. The h comes to when they get to the cabin and the H lays into her for having an affair with his little brother.
The only problem is the h did not have an affair, she is a twin who has been separated since birth from her identical sister and a few weeks previously they met for the first time because the sis is becoming a famous model. The sis has a line on a rich man to marry and wanted to take off for a few weeks to tie him down. She gets her twin to take her place. They look exactly alike once the h highlights her hair, and the h wants to get out of her tiny village - so she agrees to take over the sis's photo jobs.
The H's brother came around, but since the sis has a long stream of multiple partners, the h was tired of dealing with them and gave them all the boot. Then the H kidnaps her to punish her for tempting his married brother who left his wife and kids apparently. He plans on holding her until a new model for a big perfume campaign has been chosen as right at the moment the h is the number one choice. The h tries to tell him that she isn't her sister but he doesn't believe her.
The h tries to escape but the H finds her and then he tells her she has to wait on him or she doesn't eat. She holds out but finally gives in and then when she tries to steal his car keys while he is asleep, he forcibly seduces her. It doesn't say she is a virgin, but if she isn't, she isn't very experienced. She does wind up participating eventually and the next morning the H takes her home. He is apparently disgusted at himself for sleeping with the same girl his brother slept with.
The h gets the modeling job, but she signs her sister's name. Turns out the H is the grandson, (but he is a Clive Cussler type writer), of the owner of the cosmetics company that she is modeling for. She has to go to the lady's house and there she meets the H again. She decides to impersonate her twin to get her revenge on the H and she says her sister told her that the H raped her. He sorta freaks out, but he is starting to believe that she is a twin.
A little interjection here - technically the h was feeling pretty lustful towards the H, so while it started out forcibly it did not end that way. However, the words KT uses to describe the scene are words like violent, punishing, brutal etc - the whole scene does play out like a rape scene in the words and tone, if KT hadn't said the h was wanting it, I would have called it a rape.
(The words used were also used in the last M. Pargeter forced seduction scene in Born of the Wind - except that h blamed alien possession in that one. Either way it is clear in these two books that both KT and MP are interpreting the editorial decision for more actual and passionate sex before marriage to mean more brutality in physical seduction. Now I question if these brutal, but supposedly mutual, seduction scenes are really an attempt by these two long time HP authors to turn up the heat or a subtle rebellion over the new, looser sex edict that is becoming more prevalent as the HP line continues. It is sorta interesting that I really did not notice these changes when I originally read the books. When you read them all in a row, it becomes much more obvious.)
The H and the h start an affair after the visit to his grandmother's, but he thinks she is her sister - the real model, (I guess he got over the sleeping with his lil bro's seconds fairly quickly). Then the h gets a guilt trip home call and so she lies to the H and goes to see her dad. The dad is bugging her about seeing her sister and I was rather appalled that he thought he had any right to, the reason the sister and h were separated is that during the divorce of the h's mum and dad, they each decided to take one child and not fight over custody and NOT tell the girl's about each other.
Anyways, the H shows up and sees the h as her own self. He is obviously attracted and he wants to lay any mention of rape aside. The h lets him slide, he sorta apologizes and gives her his phone number. The h goes back to London as her sister and hooks up with the H again, but his passion is waning so she decides to call the H as herself to see if she can reel him in.
The H and the h as herself start an affair - I guess I shouldn't be surprised, if he slept with a woman he knew had slept with his brother he obviously wouldn't be bothered by sleeping with a woman and her identical sister. He actually takes the h to meet his brother as herself and when the brother's wife shows up at the h's flat a few days later to warn the h off, it comes out that the wife of the brother may have had something going with the H. (This is only hinted at, not confirmed but it just shows how disgusting practically everyone in this book is.)
The h keeps switching back and forth in her roles and getting away with it - the H hasn't broken it off with the h as her sister yet, but the h doesn't care cause she knows he hasn't ever slept with dear ole' sis and he is starting to hint about marriage. The h is basically taking what she can get with some minor pangs of guilt for her lies. All seems to be going well and the deception is almost finished when the sister comes home unexpectedly while the H is at the h's flat to break up with the sister.
The H leaves in a big ole huff and the h figures he will announce her duplicity at his grandmother's launch party for the ads for the perfume. The h goes and eventually announces who she is herself, the grandmother decides to pick up the contract option for the h to appear in more adds and the h decides to do it as she will have enough money to open her own salon. (She is a beautician in real life).
The H shows up in her room later and they have a lot more brutal sex, (and this H is very domineering and sorta gross about what he says in bed - even with some of the smut I have read I was a bit icked and this was way icky by HPlandia standards. - It was practically tacky.) The H is planning on dumping her forever after he invokes his will on her in bed, but after the night of lurve clubbing he changes his mind. The h has been in lurve with him since the beginning, and so it ends with the union of two nematode parasites basking in their very own little slime trail and happy in the muck.
I am going to go find some brain bleach now and hopefully forget this book exists for another 30 years. It wasn't quite on par with the horror that is Sally W's Twin Torment series, but it wasn't that far from it and now I need some oblivion.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 1, 2021
Trainwrecky goodness! Kay Thorpe delivers an old-school outing that is just chock full of ridiculous, wonderful soapy tropes--tacky good fun! Page 1 abduction! "Parent Trap" style seekrit twins! The heroine gets herself into an awful mess playing both her model-girl new-found sister and herself, and the hero sleeps with "both" of them (ewww, but not at the same time, KT carefully establishes, and it's really just the heroine). The hero is vintage Kay Thorpe's typical autocratic jerk alphahole, and the heroine definitely has TSTL moments but the mess she gets herself into is pretty amusing, even if it goes on a bit long. Did I mention page 1 abduction to a remote and primitive cabin? I'm in!
A lot of reviewers seem to hate this one but I reveled in the awesome old-school WTFery! Fans of ludicrous soap-opera plots and asshat uber-alphas: this one's for us.
A lot of reviewers seem to hate this one but I reveled in the awesome old-school WTFery! Fans of ludicrous soap-opera plots and asshat uber-alphas: this one's for us.
January 27, 2023
22-year old heroine has newly learned about and found her twin sister, who is a model. The twin convinces the heroine to take her place while she temporarily leaves the country. Our 33-year old hero is a total louse. He kidnaps the heroine while mistakenly thinking she is her twin sister who had slept with his brother (and as a result, broke up his brother's marriage). He refused to believe that she is the twin sister. When she tries to sneak away with his car keys to escape, he pulls her into bed and rips off her undergarments and has his way with her. He takes her back home (e.g. her twin's flat) and then later he runs into her at his grandmothers house who is overseeing a modeling campaign that the heroine is secretly filling in for her sister. Heroine pretends to be her twin, so the hero is starting to catch on that the twin thing is for real. Later the hero visits the twin's flat and the heroine keeps up the pretense that she is her twin, while the hero takes her to bed and starts up an affair with the heroine thinking she is her twin. Later he seeks out the heroine as herself to apologize for the kidnapping, admits to having an affair with her twin (who is really the heroine), and expresses interest that it is the heroine that he really wants. When the twin returns from out of the country, shocking the hero to learning the truth that the whole time it was the heroine he was with, the hero is angry (unjustifiably so) at the heroine for her deception. Dude, you kidnapped and practically raped one twin, started up an affair with the other twin (while also knowing she had slept with your brother), and then try to marry the twin you rapped whose sister you had been bonking... not exactly a saint here, so what do you have to be mad about? Total wtfery fabulousness!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 5, 2020
Ugh. And this started off so good with our heroine waking up in the car kidnapped by the man she met that night. That's a bit over the top but could be the start of something good. However, he kidnapped her to pay her back for hurting his brother; you see she is a model up for a lucrative contract and he wants to destroy her career.
Now we're sliding into the muck but there's still more dirt to go.
He takes her to a deserted cottage and semi-rapes/forcibly seduces her completely without love or prospect of feeling. He doesn't believe she is Gail, not her twin Karen who actually did hurt his brother, yet when he gets her back to London and runs into the same girl, now pretending to be Karen, he again goes to bed with her and proceeds to sleep with her over the next few weeks, even though he despises Karen.
When they again meet as her in her Gail role he seems to realize he has feelings for her but they go out the window when her sister Karen finally shows her face. Not to worry, Gail sleeps with him again for real and they end up happy ever after.
So this creepy man-slag guy is willing to sleep with girls he despises, sleep with the girl's sister, treat sex as a punishment method, willing to cripple someone's career, wants to sit in judgement on others, yet is unhappy that Gail played him for a fool.
Neither he nor she is worth a darn.
On the good side Kay Thorpe writes well and we actually see more of his feelings than hers, despite the book nominally being from Gail's point of view. The good writing does not make up for the completely unlikable, despicable characters and inane plot.
Now we're sliding into the muck but there's still more dirt to go.
He takes her to a deserted cottage and semi-rapes/forcibly seduces her completely without love or prospect of feeling. He doesn't believe she is Gail, not her twin Karen who actually did hurt his brother, yet when he gets her back to London and runs into the same girl, now pretending to be Karen, he again goes to bed with her and proceeds to sleep with her over the next few weeks, even though he despises Karen.
When they again meet as her in her Gail role he seems to realize he has feelings for her but they go out the window when her sister Karen finally shows her face. Not to worry, Gail sleeps with him again for real and they end up happy ever after.
So this creepy man-slag guy is willing to sleep with girls he despises, sleep with the girl's sister, treat sex as a punishment method, willing to cripple someone's career, wants to sit in judgement on others, yet is unhappy that Gail played him for a fool.
Neither he nor she is worth a darn.
On the good side Kay Thorpe writes well and we actually see more of his feelings than hers, despite the book nominally being from Gail's point of view. The good writing does not make up for the completely unlikable, despicable characters and inane plot.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 8, 2020
She was caught up by two lives at once...
"Would you do your sister a good turn?" Karen Greer had asked Gail Branstead, the twin she hadn't seen since birth, to step into her shoes for a couple of weeks and experience the exciting life of a model.
Had there been anything to the alleged telepathic communication between twins, Gail would have sensed danger. But then, she wouldn't have met Luke Prentis--nor deceived him, either.
She appealed to Luke--on two entirely different levels, as two different women: the uninhibited siren and the gentle woman he loved.
"Would you do your sister a good turn?" Karen Greer had asked Gail Branstead, the twin she hadn't seen since birth, to step into her shoes for a couple of weeks and experience the exciting life of a model.
Had there been anything to the alleged telepathic communication between twins, Gail would have sensed danger. But then, she wouldn't have met Luke Prentis--nor deceived him, either.
She appealed to Luke--on two entirely different levels, as two different women: the uninhibited siren and the gentle woman he loved.
October 29, 2022
I would've been ok with this if the H hadn't thought that he had been boinking both sisters at the same time! I thought that he would reveal that he knew about the double deception all along. But no. He ,in his mind, first slept with the h and then spent a week sleeping with the twin. The fact that he knew nether of them before sleeping with them didn't help.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 31, 2013
Aha, the classic twin trope!
Luckily the hero grovelled considerably towards the end.
Luckily the hero grovelled considerably towards the end.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews