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Always Love
When Luke Stanford wrote from Australia to cancel their marriage plans, Genevra Kingsley thought she would never recover. He had left her carrying his child, whether he knew it or not — and now, four years later, she was determined to find out what had happened to him, simply because she still loved him so much.
But that was before Christian Nemo came into her life, upsetting the quiet routine of her bookshop in St Ives and awaking memories Genevra had thought were dead. He reminded her so much of her beloved Luke, but there was absolutely no connection between them — was there?
But that was before Christian Nemo came into her life, upsetting the quiet routine of her bookshop in St Ives and awaking memories Genevra had thought were dead. He reminded her so much of her beloved Luke, but there was absolutely no connection between them — was there?
189 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1988
3 people are currently reading
179 people want to read
About the author
Emma Darcy
640 books326 followersEmma Darcy is the pseudonym created by the married writing team of Wendy (1940-2020) and Frank Brennan (1936-1995). Their life journey has taken as many twists and turns as the characters in their stories, whose international popularity has resulted in over sixty-million book sales. With more than a hundred titles, Emma Darcy appeared regularly on the Waldenbooks bestseller lists in the U.S.A. and in the Nielson BookScan Top 100 chart in the U.K.
Wendy was born 28 November 1940 in Australia. Her sister was the novelist Maureen Mary (Miranda Lee). Her father was a country school teacher and brilliant sportsman. Her mother was a talented dressmaker. She obtained an Honours degree in Latin and initially worked as a high school English/French teacher. She married Frank Brennan, an Australian businessman born in 1936. She changed careers to computer programming before marriage and motherhood settled her into a community life. She was reputedly the first woman computer programmer in the southern hemisphere.
As voracious readers, the step to writing their own books seemed a natural progression and the challenge of creating exciting stories was soon highly addictive. They were published since 1983. In 1993, for the Emma Darcy pseudonym's 10th anniversary, they created the "Emma Darcy Award Contest" to encourage authors to finish their manuscripts. After the death of Frank Brennan in 1995, Wendy wrotes books on her own. She lived in a beachside property on the central coast of New South Wales, and liked to travel extensively to research settings and increase her experience of places and people.
Wendy Brennan passed away on December 21, 2020. She is survived by her children, grandchildren, and sister, writer Miranda Lee.
Wendy was born 28 November 1940 in Australia. Her sister was the novelist Maureen Mary (Miranda Lee). Her father was a country school teacher and brilliant sportsman. Her mother was a talented dressmaker. She obtained an Honours degree in Latin and initially worked as a high school English/French teacher. She married Frank Brennan, an Australian businessman born in 1936. She changed careers to computer programming before marriage and motherhood settled her into a community life. She was reputedly the first woman computer programmer in the southern hemisphere.
As voracious readers, the step to writing their own books seemed a natural progression and the challenge of creating exciting stories was soon highly addictive. They were published since 1983. In 1993, for the Emma Darcy pseudonym's 10th anniversary, they created the "Emma Darcy Award Contest" to encourage authors to finish their manuscripts. After the death of Frank Brennan in 1995, Wendy wrotes books on her own. She lived in a beachside property on the central coast of New South Wales, and liked to travel extensively to research settings and increase her experience of places and people.
Wendy Brennan passed away on December 21, 2020. She is survived by her children, grandchildren, and sister, writer Miranda Lee.
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December 4, 2016
Re Always Love - This one is another that is almost universally hated. Once again in HPlandia we have a man who dumps the h to marry another woman. Deliberately, and with intent. That right there should totally demote the H from H status, cause really who wants to be anybody's sloppy seconds? As we all know from Smoke in the Wind - I am not into seconds at all. So imagine my surprise when I read this book and really, really liked it.
(I know, I know, please don't throw things at me.)
The H in this one does one of the most egregious acts in HPlandia ever, he falls in love with the h on a business trip when she is 21 and he is around 24 or 25, (it never says how old he is, but based on various things, I am suspecting he was fairly close in age to the h,) goes home for a family emergency and promises to return. Then writes the h three months later that he has to marry someone else and that their time is over. The h is absolutely shattered, she loves this man with everything she has and to top it all off she is three months gone in pregnancy. Her father is ill and dying and the only things she has is a very loving and kind aunt and a failing, indebted bookshop. Now she has also lost the man the she loves to another woman.
But somehow she just knows that her true love is coming back, and she decides to wait it out. She believes so strongly in her and the H's love that she is prepared to raise her child and wait until the heat death of the universe for him to return to her, because she KNOWS he will. She can't imagine how anybody could force the H's hand, he was full of charm and kindness and love and devotion when he was with her, but she knows there is an explanation and she will keep the faith until she hears it.
When the book opens, the h has made some decisions. Right after her father died and she was at her lowest point, she got a surprise inheritance from some unknown American woman. Apparently this women knew the h's father in some way and left a trust of £50,000 that was for him or for his next of kin in the event of his death. But since the h did not think her father knew any American ladies, the h considers the money to be her son's - and she plans to use it for his life accordingly. She has a very devoted and sweet solicitor, who takes the place of her father, and she asks him to track down the source of the trust and she also asks that he track down the H and find out if he is still married.
The solicitor doesn't want to do it. But he really likes how sweet and kind and optimistic the h is about everything. So he agrees to find out what he can, all the while urging the h to move forward and perhaps consider reintroducing romance to her life. The h is not on the romance train tho, she has written a few local guide books for the area and had them published. She recently got an offer to meet with a publisher and discuss another guide book of the great English estate houses that have been converted to hotels and are open to the public. The h is to meet with the prospective publisher after her business with the solicitor is finished and so her devoted solicitor tells her to take his Rolls Royce and his driver, since she lives very modestly and is meeting her potential publisher at the Dorchester.
The h goes to the meeting and it is a bittersweet experience, her lost love took her there for High Tea on one of the last occasions they were together before he had to go back to Australia. She was a bit intimidated by the grandiosity of the Dorchester, but her lost love made it a magical and wonderful experience and it is still one of the highlights of her memories. When the h gets to the hotel, she is asking about the man she is supposed to meet and sees a very familiar profile and hind view of the man she loves. She rushes over, convinced it is her lost love returning to her, and when he turns to speak with her, she realizes that this man has been in a very bad accident. He has only one eye, there is a lot of scaring and he walks with a cane. His eye is brown, not gray and his jaw and facial structure is subtly different than the man she knew.
When he speaks, he has an American not Australian accent and the h is suddenly unsure of what her intuition insisted was her former lover. Then it turns out that the man is the publisher she is supposed to meet with. They settle in for tea and he seems to be embarrassed by his looks - he calls the two of them "Beauty and the Beast" and the h very vigorously and assertively rejects that description. She tells him she is happy to be seen with him and that looks don't matter and she is positively fierce in her insistence that he not put himself down. The more the h and H talk about things, the more certain she is that this man is her son's father and that he has finally extricated himself from whatever situation he was in and that he has come back to claim her.
She becomes even more certain when the H describes the type of book he wants where she and he will go to various luxury estate hotels and spend some time there and she will write about them. The h tells the H that she can't be gone more than a night or two every month or so because she has a son. The H drops his tea things and blames it on spasms, he tells her of course she can't go gallivanting off if she is married. The h is quick to correct the H, and explains that she is a single mum with a three and half year old son and the H looks like he is going to pass out. She gets a bit indignant over the H judging her for being a single parent and decides that she is mistaken in who this man is and gets ready to leave. The H practically leaps upon her to keep her at the table and the h is overwhelmed by the feeling that this really is her true love returned.
She imagines that maybe he got into a really bad accident and lied about marrying someone else so that she wouldn't know that he was seriously injured. She thinks maybe his injuries were so severe that he did not want to lead her on if he did not make it. So, with her imaginings soothing all her inner questions, she goes shopping and spends some of her inherited trust fund in a all out effort to seduce the H. She wants him and she wants him undressed because her true love had a mole on his lower back and she is certain the man she just met must have one too.
They had decided to test out the hotel proposal by going to a local Estate located close to London. The h and H have separate suites and the hotel is all that a grand Country Estate should be, but the h wastes no time in seducing the H and gets him in bed a few hours after they arrive. The H wants to wait and build up a relationship, but if the h had a lasso, that H would have been hog tied in less than eight seconds. The boudoir experience is completely and overwhelmingly magical and the h knows the man she loves has returned, but she is a little thrown when she realizes that her H no longer has a mole. She doesn't care, she is certain sure about his true identity and tho she looks around for his passport, figuring you can use a fake name when you are in another country but you can't travel on one, she can't find the H's and resolves to look for it later.
The h happily introduces the H to her son and her aunt, she waiting for him to reveal who he really is and gives him lots of opportunities to do so. However he never says he is anyone other than who he has said and the h starts to not care. She does have a very, very bad moment when the H reveals that he has daughter a few months younger than her son and there is some very black jealousy when the H admits that he had been married and wasn't any longer and that he had sole custody of his little girl, even tho she is staying with her grandfather right at the moment.
The h is fraught with anger that he has a daughter, but she is also a kind person and likes kids and she is sooo happy to have her H back. She invites them both over for dinner and tries to get a hold of her jealousy of the little girl. Then she meets the child and the little girl is a total sweetheart who is very shy and has obviously been thru some traumas. The H, h and the two children seem to bond very quickly into a happy little family and the h starts to care less about where the H was and his former wife. She is helped along in that by the little girl's nightmares where she reveals that her mother died in having her. The h's tender heart is moved and she fully accepts the child. Everything is going along just perfectly and everybody is really happy for several weeks.
Then the h's solicitor shows up with the news that the H actually set up the trust for the h. He gives her the name of the woman he married, who apparently was his foster sister, and tells the h that she needs to let it go because the H sold out their love for a $12 million dollar partnership in his bride's father's company. He firmly asserts that the H did her very wrong. Then he tells the h that the H is dead. The wife died, and the H died in a plane crash a few weeks later.
The h is shocked, cause she figured she would have felt it if the H had really died. And if he really died, who on earth is this other man she feels so much for? Or does she feel so much for him? Now she can't be sure that she wasn't just transposing her feelings for the H onto the current H. She has some very bad moments while she recovers from the shock of this new dilemma. Then she finds out from her aunt that the H has arranged a special moment for the two of them out alone and the h knows he is going to propose. She doesn't know what to do, it is really obvious that the current H loves her and values her greatly. He is absolutely wonderful and he is also a really good dad to her son.
She has to do some really fast evaluation of her feelings before she comes to the conclusion that he may not be her first love, in fact the solicitor is probably correct in saying that she has been building fantasies and true love romances out of what the first H undoubtedly saw as a holiday fling. Then she thinks about her current H and resolves that she does care, she likes his parenting style and she will be financially secure if she marries him. She loves the little girl and she thinks she can be a good wife to the H.
So after some awkwardness, she makes up her mind and accepts the marriage proposal. The love struck H is overwhelmed with glee, he starts making plans and wants to introduce the h to his former father in law. The man has been an enormous support throughout his accident and recovery. Tho the H has never discussed his past in any depth, but he really respects and cares for this man who has supported him thru so much and he hopes the h will appreciate the place that he holds as his daughter's grandfather.
The h is ready to meet the man who cared for the H when she couldn't and they set out to have dinner with him. When the get to the FIL's hotel, the H introduces him by name and the h realizes that she has been horribly, greatly, wrongly deceived. The father in law speaks with an Australian accent and has the same last name as the H's wife and she demands to know what his daughter's name was. He tells her and the h goes totally ballistic.
In one of the very best h smack downs ever, it was rantily EPIC. The h tells off the H, the FIL and really verbally smites such gross, lying, using deceivers. She points out that his new name of Nemo means no one and that is now what he is to her. The H tries to explain and is begging hard for the h to stay and talk to him, but the h will have absolutely none of it and tells him to jump off and never darken her door again. Then she runs off into the gardens. The H's FIL follows her out and tells her the full story.
The father in law had met the H's mother on a business trip to America. They fell in love but she was married and afraid of something and wouldn't leave with him. The FIL's own wife had been brain dead and kept alive by machinery for years until she passed, they had a daughter tho and she developed scarlet fever that sent the father in law back to Australia when he wanted the H's mother to leave with him. The little girl suffered severe kidney damage from the scarlet fever but she did recover.
Then the H's mother wrote and begged the father in law to come back and get her and her son. When he got to the H's mum, she had been beaten severely by the H's father and as she lay dying, she asked the FIL to take her son and raise him. Since the H's father had disappeared and was now wanted on charges, the FIL took the H back to Australia at 9 years old. He raised him as his son along side his two year old daughter. Because the daughter was frail and sickly, both the H and the father indulged her. Then the H met the h and the daughter let herself go such an extent that it further damaged her health and she wasn't going to live long. The FIL got the H back and explained that the daughter was in love with the H and felt she lost him to another woman and that she was dying.
The father in law bullied, badgered and coerced the H into marrying his only child so that her last days would be happy. Then she got preggers and knew she wouldn't survive the pregnancy. (I kinda felt that was an incredibly Machiavellian move on the FIL's part - I had the feeling he encouraged the pregnancy because A) that was his daughter's dearest wish and B) they all knew she wasn't going to live long and this was a way of keeping part of his child with him always and a firm handle on the H - who we can all agree is not the typical assertive HP H and is in fact fairly beta.) So Australian legalities regarding incest laws (thanks Taylijane,) completely ignored, the H very reluctantly married the daughter and lied to her that she was his big true love and they had a child. As soon as the daughter kicked it, the H went rushing back to the h.
But the plane crashed and the H died on the way to the hospital. The excellent emergency staff brought him back, but he was seriously messed up. It took two and half years and a ton of surgeries and reconstruction. He has to wear a tinted lens because of the damage to his remaining eye, (thus explaining the eye color) and he was even paralyzed for a while until the father in law was able to get the H into a special treatment in the USA. The H is in fact an American and soon lost his adopted Aussie accent when he returned to his home country for the surgery, they cut his mole off too.
The FIL goes further in his explanation that the H did not want the h around while things were so dicey with his recovery. All the surgeries and treatments were life threatening at various points and the H obviously did not know about his son. So the H waited until he was mostly recovered and went to look up the h. He lied because truly-- how can you explain the heinous thing he had done to the h -- and yet the H wouldn't have been the good and kind person we all see him to be if he hadn't caved to the FIL's blackmail and he did not want to put the h thru anymore than he had already by making her suffer thru his chancy recovery. He came to find the h as soon as he possibly could.
The h realizes that the H really has suffered terribly, but even more she realizes that she already thought about most of these things for the last several weeks in her relationship with the H and when she thought he was a different H. She has already made her choice, but the shock of confirmation and her very justified anger had her addled in wits for a moment. She runs off to find and forgive the H, cause he is HER's and always will be. She tracks him down at her house. He looks like death and he is taking his daughter away with him. The h quickly lets the H know that the hissy fit is over and nobody is going anywhere. The H's daughter and the h's son all have some mum and dad cuddle time and the aunt is dispatched to sort out the H's FIL.
The H and h marry and go off for a month of honeymooning, the kids stay with the FIL and the aunt - who look to be developing a little romance of their own- and the h's devoted solicitor gets a big shock when the h explains the H's situation and the solicitor gets to give the h away at the wedding and everybody lives with a big always love forever HEA.
I think this book is the best trope twisting forced H marriage in all of HPlandia, and I put it on the HP required reading list. We are so used to the h having no agency of her own and being bullied and coerced into a marriage, that when the roles are reversed, no one seems to be quite sure about what to make of it.
How many times have we let an h off for marrying against her will and how many times have we still bought into her HEA? This H did some wrong, but he was young. His mother had been murdered and his father was clearly abusive. The FIL and his daughter were the only family he had and I can only imagine the kind of pressure and force the father in law (who freely admits he used quite a bit of coercion and blackmail,) subjected this H to. ED goes out of her way to make this H a very kind and decent person and really, when it comes to owing someone your life and doing your familial duty to what the man you consider a father knows is going to be a very limited time situation, what does any truly good person do?
Exactly what the H did, which is marry the woman and cut all ties to the past and try to make the best of a miserable situation that means everything to a dying girl. The H is clearly and absolutely not proud of what he did, he so despises himself for giving up on his true love that he insists that the man he was died in the plane crash. So that he can face the h with a somewhat clean slate and he would have kept that up, denying who he really was, if it meant that he could live his life in the h's love.
ED doesn't let this H get off lightly either, he suffers greatly for over two years by his near death experience and that is way more suffering that any other H in HPlandia every had to go through to win the girl. He isn't out and about lurving it up at the lovely lady buffet. He is rebuilding himself from the ground up, so when he does meet the h again - he really is a very different person than the one she knew.
We don't get any H pov in this, and I think that was a wise tho risky choice. All this H ever says to the h is how much he loves, adores and needs her AND how miserable and horrible his life was without her. I believe him, and I felt so saddened by his obvious pain and agony that I totally forgave him. Plus I never really disliked him to begin with. Beta males once in a while don't bother me, even in HPlandia, and it was so clear that the h was the more alpha of the two in this book. I saw a young and somewhat vulnerable young man manipulated by the ruthless Alpha predator male that the father in law was.
If anyone should have been kicked to the curb it should have been the FIL, he was as bad or as worse as the aunt and uncle in Smoke in the Wind and more importantly, he KNEW he was doing it, admitted he would have done it all over again (as the H admitted to, but the motivations were vastly different,) and just flat out did not give horse's patoot about anything but keeping his kid happy. Yet I kinda understood his motivations too, tho I wanted him marginalized as being a bad influence for the future and the h's aunt to wind up with the devoted solicitor. Still the h's aunt is pretty diplomatic and managing on her own, (in the nicest possible way,) and she at least will keep the father in line.
(I know, I know, please don't throw things at me.)
The H in this one does one of the most egregious acts in HPlandia ever, he falls in love with the h on a business trip when she is 21 and he is around 24 or 25, (it never says how old he is, but based on various things, I am suspecting he was fairly close in age to the h,) goes home for a family emergency and promises to return. Then writes the h three months later that he has to marry someone else and that their time is over. The h is absolutely shattered, she loves this man with everything she has and to top it all off she is three months gone in pregnancy. Her father is ill and dying and the only things she has is a very loving and kind aunt and a failing, indebted bookshop. Now she has also lost the man the she loves to another woman.
But somehow she just knows that her true love is coming back, and she decides to wait it out. She believes so strongly in her and the H's love that she is prepared to raise her child and wait until the heat death of the universe for him to return to her, because she KNOWS he will. She can't imagine how anybody could force the H's hand, he was full of charm and kindness and love and devotion when he was with her, but she knows there is an explanation and she will keep the faith until she hears it.
When the book opens, the h has made some decisions. Right after her father died and she was at her lowest point, she got a surprise inheritance from some unknown American woman. Apparently this women knew the h's father in some way and left a trust of £50,000 that was for him or for his next of kin in the event of his death. But since the h did not think her father knew any American ladies, the h considers the money to be her son's - and she plans to use it for his life accordingly. She has a very devoted and sweet solicitor, who takes the place of her father, and she asks him to track down the source of the trust and she also asks that he track down the H and find out if he is still married.
The solicitor doesn't want to do it. But he really likes how sweet and kind and optimistic the h is about everything. So he agrees to find out what he can, all the while urging the h to move forward and perhaps consider reintroducing romance to her life. The h is not on the romance train tho, she has written a few local guide books for the area and had them published. She recently got an offer to meet with a publisher and discuss another guide book of the great English estate houses that have been converted to hotels and are open to the public. The h is to meet with the prospective publisher after her business with the solicitor is finished and so her devoted solicitor tells her to take his Rolls Royce and his driver, since she lives very modestly and is meeting her potential publisher at the Dorchester.
The h goes to the meeting and it is a bittersweet experience, her lost love took her there for High Tea on one of the last occasions they were together before he had to go back to Australia. She was a bit intimidated by the grandiosity of the Dorchester, but her lost love made it a magical and wonderful experience and it is still one of the highlights of her memories. When the h gets to the hotel, she is asking about the man she is supposed to meet and sees a very familiar profile and hind view of the man she loves. She rushes over, convinced it is her lost love returning to her, and when he turns to speak with her, she realizes that this man has been in a very bad accident. He has only one eye, there is a lot of scaring and he walks with a cane. His eye is brown, not gray and his jaw and facial structure is subtly different than the man she knew.
When he speaks, he has an American not Australian accent and the h is suddenly unsure of what her intuition insisted was her former lover. Then it turns out that the man is the publisher she is supposed to meet with. They settle in for tea and he seems to be embarrassed by his looks - he calls the two of them "Beauty and the Beast" and the h very vigorously and assertively rejects that description. She tells him she is happy to be seen with him and that looks don't matter and she is positively fierce in her insistence that he not put himself down. The more the h and H talk about things, the more certain she is that this man is her son's father and that he has finally extricated himself from whatever situation he was in and that he has come back to claim her.
She becomes even more certain when the H describes the type of book he wants where she and he will go to various luxury estate hotels and spend some time there and she will write about them. The h tells the H that she can't be gone more than a night or two every month or so because she has a son. The H drops his tea things and blames it on spasms, he tells her of course she can't go gallivanting off if she is married. The h is quick to correct the H, and explains that she is a single mum with a three and half year old son and the H looks like he is going to pass out. She gets a bit indignant over the H judging her for being a single parent and decides that she is mistaken in who this man is and gets ready to leave. The H practically leaps upon her to keep her at the table and the h is overwhelmed by the feeling that this really is her true love returned.
She imagines that maybe he got into a really bad accident and lied about marrying someone else so that she wouldn't know that he was seriously injured. She thinks maybe his injuries were so severe that he did not want to lead her on if he did not make it. So, with her imaginings soothing all her inner questions, she goes shopping and spends some of her inherited trust fund in a all out effort to seduce the H. She wants him and she wants him undressed because her true love had a mole on his lower back and she is certain the man she just met must have one too.
They had decided to test out the hotel proposal by going to a local Estate located close to London. The h and H have separate suites and the hotel is all that a grand Country Estate should be, but the h wastes no time in seducing the H and gets him in bed a few hours after they arrive. The H wants to wait and build up a relationship, but if the h had a lasso, that H would have been hog tied in less than eight seconds. The boudoir experience is completely and overwhelmingly magical and the h knows the man she loves has returned, but she is a little thrown when she realizes that her H no longer has a mole. She doesn't care, she is certain sure about his true identity and tho she looks around for his passport, figuring you can use a fake name when you are in another country but you can't travel on one, she can't find the H's and resolves to look for it later.
The h happily introduces the H to her son and her aunt, she waiting for him to reveal who he really is and gives him lots of opportunities to do so. However he never says he is anyone other than who he has said and the h starts to not care. She does have a very, very bad moment when the H reveals that he has daughter a few months younger than her son and there is some very black jealousy when the H admits that he had been married and wasn't any longer and that he had sole custody of his little girl, even tho she is staying with her grandfather right at the moment.
The h is fraught with anger that he has a daughter, but she is also a kind person and likes kids and she is sooo happy to have her H back. She invites them both over for dinner and tries to get a hold of her jealousy of the little girl. Then she meets the child and the little girl is a total sweetheart who is very shy and has obviously been thru some traumas. The H, h and the two children seem to bond very quickly into a happy little family and the h starts to care less about where the H was and his former wife. She is helped along in that by the little girl's nightmares where she reveals that her mother died in having her. The h's tender heart is moved and she fully accepts the child. Everything is going along just perfectly and everybody is really happy for several weeks.
Then the h's solicitor shows up with the news that the H actually set up the trust for the h. He gives her the name of the woman he married, who apparently was his foster sister, and tells the h that she needs to let it go because the H sold out their love for a $12 million dollar partnership in his bride's father's company. He firmly asserts that the H did her very wrong. Then he tells the h that the H is dead. The wife died, and the H died in a plane crash a few weeks later.
The h is shocked, cause she figured she would have felt it if the H had really died. And if he really died, who on earth is this other man she feels so much for? Or does she feel so much for him? Now she can't be sure that she wasn't just transposing her feelings for the H onto the current H. She has some very bad moments while she recovers from the shock of this new dilemma. Then she finds out from her aunt that the H has arranged a special moment for the two of them out alone and the h knows he is going to propose. She doesn't know what to do, it is really obvious that the current H loves her and values her greatly. He is absolutely wonderful and he is also a really good dad to her son.
She has to do some really fast evaluation of her feelings before she comes to the conclusion that he may not be her first love, in fact the solicitor is probably correct in saying that she has been building fantasies and true love romances out of what the first H undoubtedly saw as a holiday fling. Then she thinks about her current H and resolves that she does care, she likes his parenting style and she will be financially secure if she marries him. She loves the little girl and she thinks she can be a good wife to the H.
So after some awkwardness, she makes up her mind and accepts the marriage proposal. The love struck H is overwhelmed with glee, he starts making plans and wants to introduce the h to his former father in law. The man has been an enormous support throughout his accident and recovery. Tho the H has never discussed his past in any depth, but he really respects and cares for this man who has supported him thru so much and he hopes the h will appreciate the place that he holds as his daughter's grandfather.
The h is ready to meet the man who cared for the H when she couldn't and they set out to have dinner with him. When the get to the FIL's hotel, the H introduces him by name and the h realizes that she has been horribly, greatly, wrongly deceived. The father in law speaks with an Australian accent and has the same last name as the H's wife and she demands to know what his daughter's name was. He tells her and the h goes totally ballistic.
In one of the very best h smack downs ever, it was rantily EPIC. The h tells off the H, the FIL and really verbally smites such gross, lying, using deceivers. She points out that his new name of Nemo means no one and that is now what he is to her. The H tries to explain and is begging hard for the h to stay and talk to him, but the h will have absolutely none of it and tells him to jump off and never darken her door again. Then she runs off into the gardens. The H's FIL follows her out and tells her the full story.
The father in law had met the H's mother on a business trip to America. They fell in love but she was married and afraid of something and wouldn't leave with him. The FIL's own wife had been brain dead and kept alive by machinery for years until she passed, they had a daughter tho and she developed scarlet fever that sent the father in law back to Australia when he wanted the H's mother to leave with him. The little girl suffered severe kidney damage from the scarlet fever but she did recover.
Then the H's mother wrote and begged the father in law to come back and get her and her son. When he got to the H's mum, she had been beaten severely by the H's father and as she lay dying, she asked the FIL to take her son and raise him. Since the H's father had disappeared and was now wanted on charges, the FIL took the H back to Australia at 9 years old. He raised him as his son along side his two year old daughter. Because the daughter was frail and sickly, both the H and the father indulged her. Then the H met the h and the daughter let herself go such an extent that it further damaged her health and she wasn't going to live long. The FIL got the H back and explained that the daughter was in love with the H and felt she lost him to another woman and that she was dying.
The father in law bullied, badgered and coerced the H into marrying his only child so that her last days would be happy. Then she got preggers and knew she wouldn't survive the pregnancy. (I kinda felt that was an incredibly Machiavellian move on the FIL's part - I had the feeling he encouraged the pregnancy because A) that was his daughter's dearest wish and B) they all knew she wasn't going to live long and this was a way of keeping part of his child with him always and a firm handle on the H - who we can all agree is not the typical assertive HP H and is in fact fairly beta.) So Australian legalities regarding incest laws (thanks Taylijane,) completely ignored, the H very reluctantly married the daughter and lied to her that she was his big true love and they had a child. As soon as the daughter kicked it, the H went rushing back to the h.
But the plane crashed and the H died on the way to the hospital. The excellent emergency staff brought him back, but he was seriously messed up. It took two and half years and a ton of surgeries and reconstruction. He has to wear a tinted lens because of the damage to his remaining eye, (thus explaining the eye color) and he was even paralyzed for a while until the father in law was able to get the H into a special treatment in the USA. The H is in fact an American and soon lost his adopted Aussie accent when he returned to his home country for the surgery, they cut his mole off too.
The FIL goes further in his explanation that the H did not want the h around while things were so dicey with his recovery. All the surgeries and treatments were life threatening at various points and the H obviously did not know about his son. So the H waited until he was mostly recovered and went to look up the h. He lied because truly-- how can you explain the heinous thing he had done to the h -- and yet the H wouldn't have been the good and kind person we all see him to be if he hadn't caved to the FIL's blackmail and he did not want to put the h thru anymore than he had already by making her suffer thru his chancy recovery. He came to find the h as soon as he possibly could.
The h realizes that the H really has suffered terribly, but even more she realizes that she already thought about most of these things for the last several weeks in her relationship with the H and when she thought he was a different H. She has already made her choice, but the shock of confirmation and her very justified anger had her addled in wits for a moment. She runs off to find and forgive the H, cause he is HER's and always will be. She tracks him down at her house. He looks like death and he is taking his daughter away with him. The h quickly lets the H know that the hissy fit is over and nobody is going anywhere. The H's daughter and the h's son all have some mum and dad cuddle time and the aunt is dispatched to sort out the H's FIL.
The H and h marry and go off for a month of honeymooning, the kids stay with the FIL and the aunt - who look to be developing a little romance of their own- and the h's devoted solicitor gets a big shock when the h explains the H's situation and the solicitor gets to give the h away at the wedding and everybody lives with a big always love forever HEA.
I think this book is the best trope twisting forced H marriage in all of HPlandia, and I put it on the HP required reading list. We are so used to the h having no agency of her own and being bullied and coerced into a marriage, that when the roles are reversed, no one seems to be quite sure about what to make of it.
How many times have we let an h off for marrying against her will and how many times have we still bought into her HEA? This H did some wrong, but he was young. His mother had been murdered and his father was clearly abusive. The FIL and his daughter were the only family he had and I can only imagine the kind of pressure and force the father in law (who freely admits he used quite a bit of coercion and blackmail,) subjected this H to. ED goes out of her way to make this H a very kind and decent person and really, when it comes to owing someone your life and doing your familial duty to what the man you consider a father knows is going to be a very limited time situation, what does any truly good person do?
Exactly what the H did, which is marry the woman and cut all ties to the past and try to make the best of a miserable situation that means everything to a dying girl. The H is clearly and absolutely not proud of what he did, he so despises himself for giving up on his true love that he insists that the man he was died in the plane crash. So that he can face the h with a somewhat clean slate and he would have kept that up, denying who he really was, if it meant that he could live his life in the h's love.
ED doesn't let this H get off lightly either, he suffers greatly for over two years by his near death experience and that is way more suffering that any other H in HPlandia every had to go through to win the girl. He isn't out and about lurving it up at the lovely lady buffet. He is rebuilding himself from the ground up, so when he does meet the h again - he really is a very different person than the one she knew.
We don't get any H pov in this, and I think that was a wise tho risky choice. All this H ever says to the h is how much he loves, adores and needs her AND how miserable and horrible his life was without her. I believe him, and I felt so saddened by his obvious pain and agony that I totally forgave him. Plus I never really disliked him to begin with. Beta males once in a while don't bother me, even in HPlandia, and it was so clear that the h was the more alpha of the two in this book. I saw a young and somewhat vulnerable young man manipulated by the ruthless Alpha predator male that the father in law was.
If anyone should have been kicked to the curb it should have been the FIL, he was as bad or as worse as the aunt and uncle in Smoke in the Wind and more importantly, he KNEW he was doing it, admitted he would have done it all over again (as the H admitted to, but the motivations were vastly different,) and just flat out did not give horse's patoot about anything but keeping his kid happy. Yet I kinda understood his motivations too, tho I wanted him marginalized as being a bad influence for the future and the h's aunt to wind up with the devoted solicitor. Still the h's aunt is pretty diplomatic and managing on her own, (in the nicest possible way,) and she at least will keep the father in line.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 5, 2020
I hate this book! The wimpy hero didn't show the heroine any love when he dumped her via a measly letter. Wimp had a reason but it was so lame. He must have thought so too on a subconscious level which is why I partially believe he didn't share the details with Genevra, who seemed fine with being chosen second-best. Because by forgiving him so easily that's the message she sent.
Wimp claimed that he would "die" without Genevra and that he would do "anything" for her. Sorry, but both of those claims rang false to me. He'd survived without her. And by abandoning Genevra, Wimp proved exactly how he wouldn't do anything for her and how weak his love really was.
If Wimp had been honest from the start, I probably would have thought better of him. If his reason for abandoning Genevra had been so noble, then why did he have to sneak his way back into Genevra's life? Oh, that's right. Wimp knew he'd hurt Genevra, but didn't want to confess because he feared facing Genvera's rejection, which was ironic since he'd had little difficulty rejecting her.
Always love? Bullsh*t! Only when it was convenient for him.
April 11, 2025
1988 publication
SPOILERS
Twenty-one year old Genevra was raised by her aunt in a coastal town outside London.
One day a handsome Australian came into her bookshop. They fell in love.
He was thirty year old Luke. He was in England on business.
The bond between them had been too strong, they spent six weeks together of magical days that she would never forget, a romantic dream that had come true, until he received a call from home pleading for his immediate return.
He left for Australia and Genevra had never seen him again.
The letter had come a month later.
He expressed regret but he could not turn his back on the love and obligation he owed his family.
He could not marry her as they planned.
By the time she received that letter he would be married.
It would be best for both of them to try and forget what could have been.
Genevra had not been able to forget. To lose the man she loved when she had only just learned she was carrying his child was unbearable.
She believed that if she waited long enough, he would come back to her.
But four years went by and he hadn't come back, nor had there been one word from him.
In a last ditched effort, she asked her lawyer to find out what had happened to Luke.
Only this way she was going to be able to leave the past behind her.
Genevra was an author. She had an appointment with an American publisher, Christian Nemo, at the Dorchester Hotel in London.
Entering the hotel, she saw the back of a man walking into the dining room.
She was sure he was Luke. She ran after him. He turned.
His face was one she had never seen before. A black patch covered one eye and his face bared the signs of corrective surgery. His eye was brown instead of gray. He walked using a cane. His accent was American not Australian, and as it turned out, he was the publisher she came to meet. Christian Nemo.
When at one point she mentioned she had a son, he asked her if she was married and how old was her son? No, she said, she wasn't married and her son was three and a half.
He said that he used to be married.
Genevra knew it was madness but she couldn't get the thought out of her mind that Christian might be Luke.
What if he lied in the letter because he had a terrible accident that left him disfigured, and that was the reason he had sent that letter.
Suddenly it hit her! The mole! Luke had a mole and she remembered precisely where it was.
She decided to seduce him, sleep with him in order to see if Christian had the mole.
And that was exactly what she did, but there was no mole.
It's absence eroded her confidence, but she still believed that Christian was Luke.
Genevra introduced Christian to her son and Christian introduced her to his three year old daughter.
Weeks passed. All was well.
Genevra met with her lawyer again. He had Luke investigated.
He said that Luke's wife Victoria died three years ago.
Luke only survived his wife by a few weeks.
He was a passenger in a light plane which crashed just after take off, killing everyone on board.
Genevra fainted. She came to, and pain came floating back. Luke was dead.
Christian Nemo was ...Christian Nemo.
She was confused. How much of her love belonged to Luke, how much to Christian?
Her pain over the loss of Luke was unbearable. She knew he loved her despite the letter, but her lawyer said that he sold her out. Luke married money, a great deal of it. The woman he married was his stepsister. He'd married into the John Preston family.
Genevra wondered if she was just a holiday affair to Luke after all.
Genevra told her lawyer about Christian Nemo.
"Nemo, what a curious name! Nemo is Latin, Genevra. In English it means no one."
Christian asked Genevra to marry him and she accepted.
He told her that if he couldn't have her, he wouldn't want to live, and Genevra realised that she loved him for himself.
Christian took Genevra to meet his father in law. He was his only relative. His name was John Preston.
He had spoken with an Australian accent. An Australian John Preston whose daughter had died three years ago!
These men had done it to her with their deceit and treachery.
"Tell me your daughter's name, Mr Preston. Was it Victoria? It's all been one huge deception, isn't it Luke Stanford?"
"I am not that man any more, Genevra. I did what was necessary to free you from any tie to the past. How could l come to you after what happened?"
"You denied who you were at the Dorchester Hotel. "
"I wanted your love. Not your pity. "
"You never loved me or you wouldn't have left me and married Victoria. You did it for the money. "
A great deal more was said, Genevra was furious, and when she left, Mr Preston went after her.
He said he wanted to tell her the truth :
Luke was American, the son of the woman he loved. She was dying. He raised Luke in Australia.
His daughter Victoria was weak and sickly. She had scarlet fever that left her with complications.
Her life expectancy was not good. She fell in love with Luke and was possessive of him and jealous of his girlfriends. Luke would tell her that she was the only important woman in his life and she was satisfied with that.
Until Luke came to England and met Genevra. It was obvious from his letters and phone calls that he was very serious about Genevra. Victoria went into a depression. She became so ill that she was hospitalised and she refused treatment. Luke was now lost to her and she wanted to die.
She only had a few more years to live but Victoria did not know that.
Mr Preston begged Luke to give Victoria the fulfilment of her dreams.
He had to emotionally blackmail Luke, but in the end it was Luke's own love for Victoria that forced the choice. Luke did not love Victoria as he loved Genevra, but he told Victoria that he was in love with her and he had come back from England to ask her to marry him, and Victoria believed him.
She was happy in those last fifteen months of her life. She died in childbirth.
Money never entered into it.
A few weeks after the funeral Luke booked a flight back to England.
The light plane he boarded to take him to Sydney airport, nosedived. Luke was pronounced dead, but he was revived. He suffered horrific injuries to his face, lost one eye, he had multiple broken bones and he was in Hospital for months. They said he'd never walk. He was helpless, disfigured.
Mr Preston flew him to America where he had numerous operations.
The healing took almost three years.
Luke changed his name to Christian. He'd come back to Genevra as Christian because he didn't want any emotional pressure hanging over from the past, and he was not the same man he was.
Luke had broken his promises to Genevra and felt he had no right to expect anything from her.
He was afraid that she would reject him out of hand.
He had no intention of ever telling her that he was Luke.
Mr Preston told Genevra to go back to Luke. He'd been through too much already.
Later Luke told Genevra he wished they hadn't met until now.
She pointed out that if that was the case, then they wouldn't have little Johnny and little Felicity.
A very happy ever after ensued!
I am sorry if l made anyone feeling depressed with this story.
SPOILERS
Twenty-one year old Genevra was raised by her aunt in a coastal town outside London.
One day a handsome Australian came into her bookshop. They fell in love.
He was thirty year old Luke. He was in England on business.
The bond between them had been too strong, they spent six weeks together of magical days that she would never forget, a romantic dream that had come true, until he received a call from home pleading for his immediate return.
He left for Australia and Genevra had never seen him again.
The letter had come a month later.
He expressed regret but he could not turn his back on the love and obligation he owed his family.
He could not marry her as they planned.
By the time she received that letter he would be married.
It would be best for both of them to try and forget what could have been.
Genevra had not been able to forget. To lose the man she loved when she had only just learned she was carrying his child was unbearable.
She believed that if she waited long enough, he would come back to her.
But four years went by and he hadn't come back, nor had there been one word from him.
In a last ditched effort, she asked her lawyer to find out what had happened to Luke.
Only this way she was going to be able to leave the past behind her.
Genevra was an author. She had an appointment with an American publisher, Christian Nemo, at the Dorchester Hotel in London.
Entering the hotel, she saw the back of a man walking into the dining room.
She was sure he was Luke. She ran after him. He turned.
His face was one she had never seen before. A black patch covered one eye and his face bared the signs of corrective surgery. His eye was brown instead of gray. He walked using a cane. His accent was American not Australian, and as it turned out, he was the publisher she came to meet. Christian Nemo.
When at one point she mentioned she had a son, he asked her if she was married and how old was her son? No, she said, she wasn't married and her son was three and a half.
He said that he used to be married.
Genevra knew it was madness but she couldn't get the thought out of her mind that Christian might be Luke.
What if he lied in the letter because he had a terrible accident that left him disfigured, and that was the reason he had sent that letter.
Suddenly it hit her! The mole! Luke had a mole and she remembered precisely where it was.
She decided to seduce him, sleep with him in order to see if Christian had the mole.
And that was exactly what she did, but there was no mole.
It's absence eroded her confidence, but she still believed that Christian was Luke.
Genevra introduced Christian to her son and Christian introduced her to his three year old daughter.
Weeks passed. All was well.
Genevra met with her lawyer again. He had Luke investigated.
He said that Luke's wife Victoria died three years ago.
Luke only survived his wife by a few weeks.
He was a passenger in a light plane which crashed just after take off, killing everyone on board.
Genevra fainted. She came to, and pain came floating back. Luke was dead.
Christian Nemo was ...Christian Nemo.
She was confused. How much of her love belonged to Luke, how much to Christian?
Her pain over the loss of Luke was unbearable. She knew he loved her despite the letter, but her lawyer said that he sold her out. Luke married money, a great deal of it. The woman he married was his stepsister. He'd married into the John Preston family.
Genevra wondered if she was just a holiday affair to Luke after all.
Genevra told her lawyer about Christian Nemo.
"Nemo, what a curious name! Nemo is Latin, Genevra. In English it means no one."
Christian asked Genevra to marry him and she accepted.
He told her that if he couldn't have her, he wouldn't want to live, and Genevra realised that she loved him for himself.
Christian took Genevra to meet his father in law. He was his only relative. His name was John Preston.
He had spoken with an Australian accent. An Australian John Preston whose daughter had died three years ago!
These men had done it to her with their deceit and treachery.
"Tell me your daughter's name, Mr Preston. Was it Victoria? It's all been one huge deception, isn't it Luke Stanford?"
"I am not that man any more, Genevra. I did what was necessary to free you from any tie to the past. How could l come to you after what happened?"
"You denied who you were at the Dorchester Hotel. "
"I wanted your love. Not your pity. "
"You never loved me or you wouldn't have left me and married Victoria. You did it for the money. "
A great deal more was said, Genevra was furious, and when she left, Mr Preston went after her.
He said he wanted to tell her the truth :
Luke was American, the son of the woman he loved. She was dying. He raised Luke in Australia.
His daughter Victoria was weak and sickly. She had scarlet fever that left her with complications.
Her life expectancy was not good. She fell in love with Luke and was possessive of him and jealous of his girlfriends. Luke would tell her that she was the only important woman in his life and she was satisfied with that.
Until Luke came to England and met Genevra. It was obvious from his letters and phone calls that he was very serious about Genevra. Victoria went into a depression. She became so ill that she was hospitalised and she refused treatment. Luke was now lost to her and she wanted to die.
She only had a few more years to live but Victoria did not know that.
Mr Preston begged Luke to give Victoria the fulfilment of her dreams.
He had to emotionally blackmail Luke, but in the end it was Luke's own love for Victoria that forced the choice. Luke did not love Victoria as he loved Genevra, but he told Victoria that he was in love with her and he had come back from England to ask her to marry him, and Victoria believed him.
She was happy in those last fifteen months of her life. She died in childbirth.
Money never entered into it.
A few weeks after the funeral Luke booked a flight back to England.
The light plane he boarded to take him to Sydney airport, nosedived. Luke was pronounced dead, but he was revived. He suffered horrific injuries to his face, lost one eye, he had multiple broken bones and he was in Hospital for months. They said he'd never walk. He was helpless, disfigured.
Mr Preston flew him to America where he had numerous operations.
The healing took almost three years.
Luke changed his name to Christian. He'd come back to Genevra as Christian because he didn't want any emotional pressure hanging over from the past, and he was not the same man he was.
Luke had broken his promises to Genevra and felt he had no right to expect anything from her.
He was afraid that she would reject him out of hand.
He had no intention of ever telling her that he was Luke.
Mr Preston told Genevra to go back to Luke. He'd been through too much already.
Later Luke told Genevra he wished they hadn't met until now.
She pointed out that if that was the case, then they wouldn't have little Johnny and little Felicity.
A very happy ever after ensued!
I am sorry if l made anyone feeling depressed with this story.
July 23, 2022
***SPOILERS***
CAVEAT: I think I need to take a break from Emma Darcy since her writing is not what I remember when I was 12 & reading my mom's Harlequin collection. Either that or my worldview & preferences has changed since I was a preteen.
Good unpredictable writing but the big secrets revealed around 85% tanked.
The GOOD:
1. Kept me guessing & second-guessing from the start. Really liked how the writing reflected my suspicions about H2 with hs POV. But events unfolded to deflect or negate things.
2. Good emotional involvement for the most part but it's more of a mystery romance centered on what happened to British bookshop-owner h's Australian ex-BF (H1) & if his resemblance to American publisher H2 was just a coincidence. Exciting but not angsty since it's focused on the current time and the past including h's romance with H1 & her heartbreak after was told instead of experienced.
3. Liked h's character for the most part. She was smart and direct yet wise in her honesty. She went after what she wanted, having learned from past mistakes. She wasn't a complainer and took the consequences of her actions with aplomb, even bad decisions like taking H back despite him rejecting her 4 years ago.
4. Romance development & sexual chemistry with H2 was good & pretty instant. The generalized sex details still showed their desire & emotions for each other.
The BAD:
Romance & mystery of what happened to H1 & who H2 is continued to crescendo until the last 85% when we finally find out the big secrets & then things fell after that:
1. Hated that H chose his foster-sister OW instead of sticking up for h 4 years ago to appease his guilt-tripping foster father & because of his mix pity (coz OW was sickly & didn't have long to live) and family-type-love for OW, who'd been obsessed with H since they were kids.
2. Hated that H had a normal marriage with OW & got her pregnant just a couple months later. So his daughter with OW is only a few months younger than his son with h.
3. H was too passive & weak. I think he'd likely still be married to OW if she didn't die.
4. H was also passive-aggressive and was sneaky in how he tried to get h to take him back. He was deceptive and lied majorly to h to emotionally trap her to loving him again, albeit with him having a different name/face/job/accent.
5. Hated that h took H back so quickly after hearing the truth from H's foster dad re: H's MOC with his daughter/her death/his near-death & surgeries from his accident. Some groveling from H and some time apart for h to really think things through would've helped.
Sexual History:
21yo h was a virgin with 30yo Australian construction-worker H who she met at her little bookshop. They had a 6-week romance with H de-virginizing her. Before he left to go back to Australia, H promised he'd come back to marry her. But she got a break-up letter from him instead to marry another woman, who she finds out from her attorney (who she asked to investigate H's current marital status) was H1's foster sister whose parents adopted H when he was young & who made marriage to OW the condition to H inheriting their successful construction business. H1 married his sickly foster sister who'd been obsessed with him since she was a kid. He soon got her pregnant & she insisted on having the baby, despite the major risk to her health. She died at childbirth 15 months after her wedding to H. H was flying to go back to h in England but his plane crashed. He almost died & went through extensive surgeries in the last 3 years to walk again & to fix his face & eye. As a result, he'd been celibate since his wife's pregnancy. Before h, H dated other women who OW was jealous of.
CAVEAT: I think I need to take a break from Emma Darcy since her writing is not what I remember when I was 12 & reading my mom's Harlequin collection. Either that or my worldview & preferences has changed since I was a preteen.
Good unpredictable writing but the big secrets revealed around 85% tanked.
The GOOD:
1. Kept me guessing & second-guessing from the start. Really liked how the writing reflected my suspicions about H2 with hs POV. But events unfolded to deflect or negate things.
@15%--25yo British local bookshop-owner h already suspected severely-scarred & limping stranger H2 of possibly being her ex-BF-of-6-weeks (H1) who went back to Australia & married another woman 4 years ago instead of coming back to England to marry h as he'd promised. However, H2 has an American accent instead of H1's Australian accent, has brown eyes instead of H1's gray eyes, has a heavily-scarred face with an eye patch on 1 eye & walks with a limp on his left leg, and has a different name than H1, & denies knowing h.
@40%--the mole h was looking for to undoubtedly prove that H2 was truly H1 was not there on H2's back.
2. Good emotional involvement for the most part but it's more of a mystery romance centered on what happened to British bookshop-owner h's Australian ex-BF (H1) & if his resemblance to American publisher H2 was just a coincidence. Exciting but not angsty since it's focused on the current time and the past including h's romance with H1 & her heartbreak after was told instead of experienced.
3. Liked h's character for the most part. She was smart and direct yet wise in her honesty. She went after what she wanted, having learned from past mistakes. She wasn't a complainer and took the consequences of her actions with aplomb, even bad decisions like taking H back despite him rejecting her 4 years ago.
4. Romance development & sexual chemistry with H2 was good & pretty instant. The generalized sex details still showed their desire & emotions for each other.
The BAD:
Romance & mystery of what happened to H1 & who H2 is continued to crescendo until the last 85% when we finally find out the big secrets & then things fell after that:
1. Hated that H chose his foster-sister OW instead of sticking up for h 4 years ago to appease his guilt-tripping foster father & because of his mix pity (coz OW was sickly & didn't have long to live) and family-type-love for OW, who'd been obsessed with H since they were kids.
2. Hated that H had a normal marriage with OW & got her pregnant just a couple months later. So his daughter with OW is only a few months younger than his son with h.
3. H was too passive & weak. I think he'd likely still be married to OW if she didn't die.
4. H was also passive-aggressive and was sneaky in how he tried to get h to take him back. He was deceptive and lied majorly to h to emotionally trap her to loving him again, albeit with him having a different name/face/job/accent.
5. Hated that h took H back so quickly after hearing the truth from H's foster dad re: H's MOC with his daughter/her death/his near-death & surgeries from his accident. Some groveling from H and some time apart for h to really think things through would've helped.
Sexual History:
21yo h was a virgin with 30yo Australian construction-worker H who she met at her little bookshop. They had a 6-week romance with H de-virginizing her. Before he left to go back to Australia, H promised he'd come back to marry her. But she got a break-up letter from him instead to marry another woman, who she finds out from her attorney (who she asked to investigate H's current marital status) was H1's foster sister whose parents adopted H when he was young & who made marriage to OW the condition to H inheriting their successful construction business. H1 married his sickly foster sister who'd been obsessed with him since she was a kid. He soon got her pregnant & she insisted on having the baby, despite the major risk to her health. She died at childbirth 15 months after her wedding to H. H was flying to go back to h in England but his plane crashed. He almost died & went through extensive surgeries in the last 3 years to walk again & to fix his face & eye. As a result, he'd been celibate since his wife's pregnancy. Before h, H dated other women who OW was jealous of.
February 15, 2017
Wow.
This Harlequin approaches the fifth dimension...it achieves a level of ridiculousness in fantasy fiction that is mind boggling and astonishing. A Harlequin like no other.
I can do no better than boogenhagen's review, so I will narrowly synopsize thenrant reflect on the angstiness that is Always Love.
Despite being OTT old skool, the h is no longer a virgin and has had a not-so-secret baby. Four years ago, she met a wonderful man and had six wonderful weeks with him. He left for Australia and less wonderfully sent her an angsty Dear Jane letter. He had married another because he HAD to. She's sad, but he is still the love of her life. About the time she had her son, she ended up receiving a legacy from an unknown woman in Canada. Hmmm.
Present day, the h is a shut down little h with sad, sad face, long hair and no dress sense. After a visit with the nicest attorney ever, she meets up with an editor who wants her to write travel books no one will read. Sadly, it's at the Dorchester where she and the H had a wonderful tea all those years ago, high tea no less. Pic of the real Dorchester, and I WANT TO GO!!!!
The h almost passes out because she thinks she sees the love of her life from the back. Nope, it's his scarred up, eye patch wearing doppelgänger aka the Beast aka the editor. He's a nice Beast. A really, really nice Beast. Too bad he can't be her lost love because his nose and jawline are different, but more importantly his eye, yes singular, his eye is brown and not grey. I was so tempted to skim down to find out about the eye change as this is well before vanity contact lenses. Okay, obviously I am not constraining myself on the review.
The Beast hires her to review some high end hotels. He will accompany her; she has no deadline at all, a decent salary, and they can explore these treasures at leisure. I would like a job interview like that. It's the Beast's turn to almost pass out when he finds out she has a plot moppet at home, but all is okey-dokey when he finds out she's a single mom and can he meet the plot moppet? The PM, by the way, is incredibly and unbelievably verbal for a 3 1/2 year old, but then my son was decidedly NON-verbal at that age so what do I know.
The h is convinced the one-eyed Beast is the love of her life who left her, and actually does her own makeover and spends what amounts to several thousand dollars on a new wardrobe to seduce the H. She puts out all the stops with what sounds like the tackiest dress ever, an Yves St. Laurent no less, and some saucy Christian Dior pink sandals with a black button. The book cover actually, for once, looks about right. Anyway, the shut down h is all aflutter with her seduction plan and knows she will know the H by the mole on his back. It's a perveted version of This is the house that Jack built...". This is the bed that Luke had sex in... This is the mole on the back of Luke in the... Only in HarleyLand would a woman determine the path of happiness for her and her child based on a mole.
So they had sex, and, yeah, it was awesome. You know something's not right because this H is just way too nice, way to eager, and way too not anything like a usual Harley hero.
Eventually, the h finds out some stuff about the H and the Beast that does not make her happy, but a long conversation with a secondary character convinces her that all is well. Plot moppets galore (he has one too), and a HEA.
The best line out of the whole book comes from her over-protective and unrealistic attorney when he finds out that the Beast is from America, "Still, with Americans, anything is possible.'
There is a lot of hate out there for this, and I can understand why. For some reason, I bought the koolaid on the hero's love for the h. His reason for leaving was STUPID, STUPID, STUPID, but he suffered and he does really love her.
This Harlequin approaches the fifth dimension...it achieves a level of ridiculousness in fantasy fiction that is mind boggling and astonishing. A Harlequin like no other.
I can do no better than boogenhagen's review, so I will narrowly synopsize then
Despite being OTT old skool, the h is no longer a virgin and has had a not-so-secret baby. Four years ago, she met a wonderful man and had six wonderful weeks with him. He left for Australia and less wonderfully sent her an angsty Dear Jane letter. He had married another because he HAD to. She's sad, but he is still the love of her life. About the time she had her son, she ended up receiving a legacy from an unknown woman in Canada. Hmmm.
Present day, the h is a shut down little h with sad, sad face, long hair and no dress sense. After a visit with the nicest attorney ever, she meets up with an editor who wants her to write travel books no one will read. Sadly, it's at the Dorchester where she and the H had a wonderful tea all those years ago, high tea no less. Pic of the real Dorchester, and I WANT TO GO!!!!
The h almost passes out because she thinks she sees the love of her life from the back. Nope, it's his scarred up, eye patch wearing doppelgänger aka the Beast aka the editor. He's a nice Beast. A really, really nice Beast. Too bad he can't be her lost love because his nose and jawline are different, but more importantly his eye, yes singular, his eye is brown and not grey. I was so tempted to skim down to find out about the eye change as this is well before vanity contact lenses. Okay, obviously I am not constraining myself on the review.
The Beast hires her to review some high end hotels. He will accompany her; she has no deadline at all, a decent salary, and they can explore these treasures at leisure. I would like a job interview like that. It's the Beast's turn to almost pass out when he finds out she has a plot moppet at home, but all is okey-dokey when he finds out she's a single mom and can he meet the plot moppet? The PM, by the way, is incredibly and unbelievably verbal for a 3 1/2 year old, but then my son was decidedly NON-verbal at that age so what do I know.
The h is convinced the one-eyed Beast is the love of her life who left her, and actually does her own makeover and spends what amounts to several thousand dollars on a new wardrobe to seduce the H. She puts out all the stops with what sounds like the tackiest dress ever, an Yves St. Laurent no less, and some saucy Christian Dior pink sandals with a black button. The book cover actually, for once, looks about right. Anyway, the shut down h is all aflutter with her seduction plan and knows she will know the H by the mole on his back. It's a perveted version of This is the house that Jack built...". This is the bed that Luke had sex in... This is the mole on the back of Luke in the... Only in HarleyLand would a woman determine the path of happiness for her and her child based on a mole.
So they had sex, and, yeah, it was awesome. You know something's not right because this H is just way too nice, way to eager, and way too not anything like a usual Harley hero.
Eventually, the h finds out some stuff about the H and the Beast that does not make her happy, but a long conversation with a secondary character convinces her that all is well. Plot moppets galore (he has one too), and a HEA.
The best line out of the whole book comes from her over-protective and unrealistic attorney when he finds out that the Beast is from America, "Still, with Americans, anything is possible.'
There is a lot of hate out there for this, and I can understand why. For some reason, I bought the koolaid on the hero's love for the h. His reason for leaving was STUPID, STUPID, STUPID, but he suffered and he does really love her.
November 1, 2017
Okay. I admit it. I just read this to rubberneck. I also wanted to discover the mystery of the changing eye color.
There were so many "tells" and foreshadowng in the story of Luke/Christian that nothing in the big reveal at the end was that much of a surprise. Which tells you that ED is a careful writer or that I've read too many of these plastic-surgery/you should be dead stories. :)
So for all the angst and sweet scenes with the children. I was struck by the descriptions of the Dorchester tea room, the Oxfordshire hotel with the flower room names, and the heroine's new wardrobe. Specifically this dress she wore on their first date:
The skirt and matching top featured brilliant bands of fuchsia- pink, red,orange, violet, green and turquoise, as well as black and white; and the beautifully set white collar on the low V-neckline of the sleeveless top was the crowning touch of class.
Not to mention the Christian Dior sandals! The soft leather crossover straps were the same marvelous shade of fuchsia-pink as in the dress, and the black button at the side of the ankle-strap and the black high heels lent a very sexy elegance to the design.
I may or may not have had a two piece skirt and top such as this. *cough*
Oh, the '80s. We had no fear of color in our clothes or make up. I'm imagining the strips of blusher the heroine troweled on to the match the fuchsia stripes of her skirt and shoes.
And I don't understand why the artist didn't want to put that dress on the cover. *pouts*
There were so many "tells" and foreshadowng in the story of Luke/Christian that nothing in the big reveal at the end was that much of a surprise. Which tells you that ED is a careful writer or that I've read too many of these plastic-surgery/you should be dead stories. :)
So for all the angst and sweet scenes with the children. I was struck by the descriptions of the Dorchester tea room, the Oxfordshire hotel with the flower room names, and the heroine's new wardrobe. Specifically this dress she wore on their first date:
The skirt and matching top featured brilliant bands of fuchsia- pink, red,orange, violet, green and turquoise, as well as black and white; and the beautifully set white collar on the low V-neckline of the sleeveless top was the crowning touch of class.
Not to mention the Christian Dior sandals! The soft leather crossover straps were the same marvelous shade of fuchsia-pink as in the dress, and the black button at the side of the ankle-strap and the black high heels lent a very sexy elegance to the design.
I may or may not have had a two piece skirt and top such as this. *cough*
Oh, the '80s. We had no fear of color in our clothes or make up. I'm imagining the strips of blusher the heroine troweled on to the match the fuchsia stripes of her skirt and shoes.
And I don't understand why the artist didn't want to put that dress on the cover. *pouts*
avoid
November 1, 2017It’s cheating in MY book. And betrayal of the worst sort.
He’d die without heroine and he’d do ANYTHING for her?
He’s still alive after, let me put it bluntly, fucking OW, isn’t he? So part one of his claim is invalid.
He’d do ANYTHING for her? No. He’d do ANYTHING for his FIL, which he did, AND to top it off claimed he doesn’t regret and given the chance would do it all over again.
So apart from paying for heroine financially, he did NOTHING and his promises are also superficial as it comes with a unmentioned condition that he’ll do ANYTHING for her as long as it doesn’t conflict with the interest of the FIL.
So that point is also fucking invalid.
He’d die without heroine and he’d do ANYTHING for her?
He’s still alive after, let me put it bluntly, fucking OW, isn’t he? So part one of his claim is invalid.
He’d do ANYTHING for her? No. He’d do ANYTHING for his FIL, which he did, AND to top it off claimed he doesn’t regret and given the chance would do it all over again.
So apart from paying for heroine financially, he did NOTHING and his promises are also superficial as it comes with a unmentioned condition that he’ll do ANYTHING for her as long as it doesn’t conflict with the interest of the FIL.
So that point is also fucking invalid.
October 9, 2014
Stupid "hero" and pathetic "heroine"
August 27, 2013
ugh... loved the angst hated the heroine who forgave the "hero" aka lying male character of this book masquerading as a hero. If he was a hero.....I am a princess....ARGH : SPOILER
"Hero" seduced/bedded and walked away from a young woman who stupidly adored him, to return to his country and wed a sickly woman who was raised as his sister....creeped out yet?
Oh yeah that tidbit comes to full light in the last 30 pages then after that tidbit comes to light the young lady he did love is supposed to feel sorry for him...while he has returned to her pretending to be someone else...once again betraying her, with new lies and manipulating her to once again fall for him and then allow this horrific nightmare story to come to light.
The heroine is now expected to forgive and forget the four years she was all alone pregnant and single parenting THEIR son while he was bedding ,impregnating someone else and then on top of that she should also now feel bad for begrudging a woman she did not know nor care a whit about and who who used a illness to get a husband as well as also forgive a man who raised the "hero" like a son only to manipulate him into marrying and seducing a woman he loved like a sister making him walk away from the woman he loved in doing so abandoning a child that he did not know about as the two of them manipulated him into prized stud?
Yeah... not so much... hated the sick woman who was off page completely.... how nasty of someone to manipulate someone "they love" to do their bidding... hated the hero who let himself be manipulated like a 10 year old child into that mess and walk away and destroy the women he claimed to love...then he comes back all beauty and the beast like to rip her world apart not caring a bit at what his arrival would do... and then the topper is the audacity of the father of that WOMAN to demand she listen to him while he tried to sugar coat his treatment and destruction of her life as "he didnt know her...so she didnt matter" explain to me mr wtf should she give a flying fig what your daughter or you suffered thru..as you know she don't know you and you don't matter and anyways you got what you wanted your daughter wedded, bedded and serviced and noosed to her prized stud ... while she struggled alone with their son..
I would tell daddy moneybags to take a big leap off a tall cliff while holding hands with the whipped anti hero as he didnt have enough balls to say sorry no thanks....and then snatch up my son and head to find a prince as there sure as heck was not one in this entire story... OMG rant over....LOL
"Hero" seduced/bedded and walked away from a young woman who stupidly adored him, to return to his country and wed a sickly woman who was raised as his sister....creeped out yet?
Oh yeah that tidbit comes to full light in the last 30 pages then after that tidbit comes to light the young lady he did love is supposed to feel sorry for him...while he has returned to her pretending to be someone else...once again betraying her, with new lies and manipulating her to once again fall for him and then allow this horrific nightmare story to come to light.
The heroine is now expected to forgive and forget the four years she was all alone pregnant and single parenting THEIR son while he was bedding ,impregnating someone else and then on top of that she should also now feel bad for begrudging a woman she did not know nor care a whit about and who who used a illness to get a husband as well as also forgive a man who raised the "hero" like a son only to manipulate him into marrying and seducing a woman he loved like a sister making him walk away from the woman he loved in doing so abandoning a child that he did not know about as the two of them manipulated him into prized stud?
Yeah... not so much... hated the sick woman who was off page completely.... how nasty of someone to manipulate someone "they love" to do their bidding... hated the hero who let himself be manipulated like a 10 year old child into that mess and walk away and destroy the women he claimed to love...then he comes back all beauty and the beast like to rip her world apart not caring a bit at what his arrival would do... and then the topper is the audacity of the father of that WOMAN to demand she listen to him while he tried to sugar coat his treatment and destruction of her life as "he didnt know her...so she didnt matter" explain to me mr wtf should she give a flying fig what your daughter or you suffered thru..as you know she don't know you and you don't matter and anyways you got what you wanted your daughter wedded, bedded and serviced and noosed to her prized stud ... while she struggled alone with their son..
I would tell daddy moneybags to take a big leap off a tall cliff while holding hands with the whipped anti hero as he didnt have enough balls to say sorry no thanks....and then snatch up my son and head to find a prince as there sure as heck was not one in this entire story... OMG rant over....LOL
January 28, 2019
I went in to this without reading any reviews, based only on the recommendations of my new friend Diya. Thank you very much for sending me the book love.
This was an emotional roller coaster. I dont want to give away any spoiler. The story had my whole concentration throughout. Like it kept me on it’s toes or something. Along with heroine I constantly guessed if Christian is infact heroine’s past love in new disguise. And when the truth finally came out I enjoyed that too.
That said I couldn’t forget hero’s one action. Forgive.., Yes. Forget, No!
I understand and sympathize with his situation and I respect heroine for being the bigger person. She smashed my misconceptions and made me realize I’m more possessive and selfish than her.
Like I said definitely worth my time.
Recommended.
This was an emotional roller coaster. I dont want to give away any spoiler. The story had my whole concentration throughout. Like it kept me on it’s toes or something. Along with heroine I constantly guessed if Christian is infact heroine’s past love in new disguise. And when the truth finally came out I enjoyed that too.
That said I couldn’t forget hero’s one action. Forgive.., Yes. Forget, No!
I understand and sympathize with his situation and I respect heroine for being the bigger person. She smashed my misconceptions and made me realize I’m more possessive and selfish than her.
Like I said definitely worth my time.
Recommended.
October 9, 2013
Pathetic characters. Seriously. Pathetic. Characters. I hope to one day have the ability to enter a book and smack some characters around... in this book's case, it would be ALL of them. LOL
This might seem heartless to some, but I found the character of Vickie to be wholly unlikeable and, quite frankly, disgusting. Dying or not, how horrible do you have to be to guilt your father into forcing a man (whom you CLAIM to love) to not only wreck his life by marrying her but also take her to bed to "experience child birth" - thus also wrecking the life of an innocent child? If she truly loved Luke, she would NEVER have pulled all of that crap - she should have found someone else to use... I mean, after all, she had the money to pay someone to play hubby and stud!
I honestly felt like smacking Vickie's pathetic father for taking part in his daughter's bull; he should have thrown her in some clinic and force-fed her her medication (along with some anti-depressants and strong sedatives) until she died. Both of those fools knew it was going to happen so, really, why destroy Luke's life for a few months of a soon-to-die woman's selfish, pathetic and downright WRONG farce?? Yes - I hated her THAT much! LOL
Luke... he needed to grow some balls and demand the clinic thing happen. Spineless fool.
And Ginny? Pathetic. Just... urgh. She forgave WAY too easy and should have told the truth: Vickie was a selfish, spoiled bee-yotch who needed a good smacking, therapy and hospice. Done! The Dimwited Duo may not have liked the truth but too bad, so sad: she deserved to say it and feel it.
*tapping foot* Can I enter this book now, please!?!?!?! O_0
This might seem heartless to some, but I found the character of Vickie to be wholly unlikeable and, quite frankly, disgusting. Dying or not, how horrible do you have to be to guilt your father into forcing a man (whom you CLAIM to love) to not only wreck his life by marrying her but also take her to bed to "experience child birth" - thus also wrecking the life of an innocent child? If she truly loved Luke, she would NEVER have pulled all of that crap - she should have found someone else to use... I mean, after all, she had the money to pay someone to play hubby and stud!
I honestly felt like smacking Vickie's pathetic father for taking part in his daughter's bull; he should have thrown her in some clinic and force-fed her her medication (along with some anti-depressants and strong sedatives) until she died. Both of those fools knew it was going to happen so, really, why destroy Luke's life for a few months of a soon-to-die woman's selfish, pathetic and downright WRONG farce?? Yes - I hated her THAT much! LOL
Luke... he needed to grow some balls and demand the clinic thing happen. Spineless fool.
And Ginny? Pathetic. Just... urgh. She forgave WAY too easy and should have told the truth: Vickie was a selfish, spoiled bee-yotch who needed a good smacking, therapy and hospice. Done! The Dimwited Duo may not have liked the truth but too bad, so sad: she deserved to say it and feel it.
*tapping foot* Can I enter this book now, please!?!?!?! O_0
June 4, 2020
Me Really Like This!!!!!!!!!!
Ever since i read my first book by Emma Darcy,"Marriage Meltdown" i know that she isn`t a really safe author at all.I gave the book 4 stars at that time because of its intensity.Since then i read "Impossible Woman" by her,which i gave full 5 stars,truly loved that book!
"Always Love" are truly a favourite of her from now,oh it was such a beautiful love story,about lovers that separated but never stop loved each other.Stories about lost love always makes me cry.I know many thinks the hero weak for not denying his stepsister,but should he really have done that,when it was about life and death?When it was a step-sister he really cared about?No,i think he did the right thing,the only choice he could have choosen.I fell really pity for him.He had to endure a abusive childhood,forced to deny the woman he really love and later on marry and pretend to love another woman for 15 months.Then he became crippled after a plaincrash that still left him scars and made him blind in one eye.And all that to return to his beloved Genevra.I have to admit i though from the start that Christian Nemo was a lost twin to Luke.Damn how wrong i was!
Either way,the romance and sexual chemistry between Genevra and Christian was sorching hot.And their children was so adorable.I really énjoyed this 5-star!Will certainly re-read it in the future.
Ever since i read my first book by Emma Darcy,"Marriage Meltdown" i know that she isn`t a really safe author at all.I gave the book 4 stars at that time because of its intensity.Since then i read "Impossible Woman" by her,which i gave full 5 stars,truly loved that book!
"Always Love" are truly a favourite of her from now,oh it was such a beautiful love story,about lovers that separated but never stop loved each other.Stories about lost love always makes me cry.I know many thinks the hero weak for not denying his stepsister,but should he really have done that,when it was about life and death?When it was a step-sister he really cared about?No,i think he did the right thing,the only choice he could have choosen.I fell really pity for him.He had to endure a abusive childhood,forced to deny the woman he really love and later on marry and pretend to love another woman for 15 months.Then he became crippled after a plaincrash that still left him scars and made him blind in one eye.And all that to return to his beloved Genevra.I have to admit i though from the start that Christian Nemo was a lost twin to Luke.Damn how wrong i was!
Either way,the romance and sexual chemistry between Genevra and Christian was sorching hot.And their children was so adorable.I really énjoyed this 5-star!Will certainly re-read it in the future.
March 20, 2022
Try to read the book before any reviews! Then after you read it go to the guru of reviews (Boogenhagen) and read hers. Oh and there are lots of great reviews out there so I am going to keep my thoughts short on this one.
I added this over a year ago. I read some reviews. I read too many reviews and it may have ruined my anticipation of the book. It comes up on my feed periodically, and it came up again this week. So, I decided to take the plunge. (Time and copious amounts of other HP’s made me fuzzy on spoilers, so it was time to try it)
I grew up in the 70’s and 80’s. I had lots of snow days in Michigan. Snow days were a great day to catch up on soaps(don’t judge, we didn’t have cable and there were 3 channels to choose from (I am not counting PBS) options were limited. However, I would honestly take a 70’s soap over most, if not all of the reality and talk shows, that have taken over tv now.
Anyhoo, this reminds me of some glorious daytime soap from the days of yore.
And according to reviews you will dislike this story, love this story, or be somewhere in the middle. (The ratings are pretty evenly split) Normally, I reserve my 5’s for a story I know I will reread again, I’m not sure this will be a reread, but I drank the kool-aid actually I think I swam in a pool of kool-aid… Oh and the hero has scars and an eye patch….
Just saying…..
I added this over a year ago. I read some reviews. I read too many reviews and it may have ruined my anticipation of the book. It comes up on my feed periodically, and it came up again this week. So, I decided to take the plunge. (Time and copious amounts of other HP’s made me fuzzy on spoilers, so it was time to try it)
I grew up in the 70’s and 80’s. I had lots of snow days in Michigan. Snow days were a great day to catch up on soaps(don’t judge, we didn’t have cable and there were 3 channels to choose from (I am not counting PBS) options were limited. However, I would honestly take a 70’s soap over most, if not all of the reality and talk shows, that have taken over tv now.
Anyhoo, this reminds me of some glorious daytime soap from the days of yore.
And according to reviews you will dislike this story, love this story, or be somewhere in the middle. (The ratings are pretty evenly split) Normally, I reserve my 5’s for a story I know I will reread again, I’m not sure this will be a reread, but I drank the kool-aid actually I think I swam in a pool of kool-aid… Oh and the hero has scars and an eye patch….
Just saying…..
July 5, 2020
"Always Love" is the story of Genevra and Luke.
Our heroine loved the hero madly. Even when he broke up with her and married another woman, and she had to leave carrying their baby, she never forgot him.
Four years later, she wants to find him when an enigmatic stranger enters her life. He reminds her of the hero in every way, and she finds all her passionate madness reignited..only to realize that the truth is way more convoluted than it seems.
This book might not be for everyone. I understood why things happened, sympathized with them yet had difficulty digesting them. Personally, I wouldn't read it again but it was a good one time adventure.
Unsafe
2.5/5
Our heroine loved the hero madly. Even when he broke up with her and married another woman, and she had to leave carrying their baby, she never forgot him.
Four years later, she wants to find him when an enigmatic stranger enters her life. He reminds her of the hero in every way, and she finds all her passionate madness reignited..only to realize that the truth is way more convoluted than it seems.
This book might not be for everyone. I understood why things happened, sympathized with them yet had difficulty digesting them. Personally, I wouldn't read it again but it was a good one time adventure.
Unsafe
2.5/5
February 2, 2015
2.5 stars, I'll be nice and round up.
This really just isn't my cuppa. I'm pretty sure I've seen this plot on one of the daytime soaps. It was so absurd. I half expected the H to have some sort of weird amnesia where he was still subconsciously drawn to the h. But, no, he was an absolute weiner who just pretended to be someone else with a fake American accent. In HPlandia, I like the OTT alphas. I'd kill one IRL, but they're fun to read about. This guy was quite a bit further down the Greek alphabet. SO easily manipulated. I thought he was pathetic. At the end the h thought he might actually attempt suicide since she'd rejected him. Really? P-A-T-H-E-T-I-C
The step-sister thing was weird, obviously. In the U.S. at least, I think there might be a legal issue there. Because the hero shared the step father's last name and I assume there was a legal adoption which would make the step-sister legally his sister. I'd think there would be some red tape involved in such a union. Not that reality means much in these books.
A lot of reviewers hate the step sister. Her actions were VERY selfish, but I also blame the H and her father. I'm not sure how I'd react if I had a child who lost one parent at a very young age and then contracted a disease that would shorten her life. I think it would be natural to coddle such a child and give them everything, since you know they will never really live out a full life and have to take care of themselves. Whether that's right or wrong is up for debate. You would certainly be keeping that person in a childlike state of never having to face reality or learn the meaning of the word 'no' - at least not to the extent that the rest of us do. However, I'd like to think I'd draw the line at indulging her fantasy of marrying her step-brother.
I was glad that the h didn't fall for the false identity. If she had, I'd have puked. Still, even though she was angry when she realized she was deceived - I think she would have fallen right back into his arms if he'd fessed up from the first. She forgave him far too easily as it was.
This really just isn't my cuppa. I'm pretty sure I've seen this plot on one of the daytime soaps. It was so absurd. I half expected the H to have some sort of weird amnesia where he was still subconsciously drawn to the h. But, no, he was an absolute weiner who just pretended to be someone else with a fake American accent. In HPlandia, I like the OTT alphas. I'd kill one IRL, but they're fun to read about. This guy was quite a bit further down the Greek alphabet. SO easily manipulated. I thought he was pathetic. At the end the h thought he might actually attempt suicide since she'd rejected him. Really? P-A-T-H-E-T-I-C
The step-sister thing was weird, obviously. In the U.S. at least, I think there might be a legal issue there. Because the hero shared the step father's last name and I assume there was a legal adoption which would make the step-sister legally his sister. I'd think there would be some red tape involved in such a union. Not that reality means much in these books.
A lot of reviewers hate the step sister. Her actions were VERY selfish, but I also blame the H and her father. I'm not sure how I'd react if I had a child who lost one parent at a very young age and then contracted a disease that would shorten her life. I think it would be natural to coddle such a child and give them everything, since you know they will never really live out a full life and have to take care of themselves. Whether that's right or wrong is up for debate. You would certainly be keeping that person in a childlike state of never having to face reality or learn the meaning of the word 'no' - at least not to the extent that the rest of us do. However, I'd like to think I'd draw the line at indulging her fantasy of marrying her step-brother.
I was glad that the h didn't fall for the false identity. If she had, I'd have puked. Still, even though she was angry when she realized she was deceived - I think she would have fallen right back into his arms if he'd fessed up from the first. She forgave him far too easily as it was.
September 22, 2018
Wow! I loved and hated and loved it. I’ve skimmed the spoilers so I knew the plot but details made me feel like that. Congrats Emma Darcy.
March 7, 2024
Jesus what have I just read.
The heroine and the hero meet and fall in love. They have sex, he has to go back home for an emergency, and of course he never comes back. Months later he writes her a letter to say he’s married another woman because, you know, family obligations.
The heroine was pregnant and alone. Of course, since she’s a doormat freak of a woman, instead of burning everything related to him in a bonfire outside her house, she keeps loving him and waiting for him to come back.
Yes, because a man who gets you pregnant then bolts away faster than the speed of light is worthy of waiting.
Four years later she decides to try and investigate what happened to him. During the four years she has had some kind of fund that nobody knows where it comes from, but she’s not broke anyway.
She is a writer and she meets an editor who’s interested in her writing and asks her to collaborate with him. The man is badly scarred. She believes it’s her lost love, but many things make her believe he’s a different person. The investigation about her lost love tells her he actually married a woman for her money, his stepsister, but she died one year later and he died soon afterwards in a plane accident.
Anyway the heroine is now happy because she has a new love, a man who has a child of his own but is a widower, so she can move on by the treacherous man who impregnated her and run away.
Sadly, they are the same person, and he was trying to manipulate her into falling in love with him again.
What makes the heroine stay is the explanation of his father in law aka foster dad, who basically admits he emotionally manipulated him into a guilt trip to marry his dying daughter who was terminally ill. The heroine accepts the hero back.
I hated this book.
First of all, the heroine was like a kicked puppy who can’t resign that she’s not loved enough. She wants the hero back even if he treated her abysmally.
He dumped her to marry another woman so this means only one thing, he didn’t put the heroine first, he put another woman first, or his foster father, all whatever, the heroine was not his priority. This is not forgivable.
He had sex with his wife, he had a daughter with her. So it wasn’t a moc, or a pity marriage. He could have sex with her so it was real. Supposing ow had live fifteen years he wouldn’t have come back to the heroine so no, to me it’s unacceptable.
The heroine was a sad woman who didn’t think she could deserve more, so she settled for that pitiful excuse of a man, who always put her second. Always second is the right title of the book because until the very end the hero admits he would have done the same thing anyway. So the heroine was less important for him than his wife and foster father were.
I wasted a couple of hours that I wish I could bleach from my memory.
The heroine and the hero meet and fall in love. They have sex, he has to go back home for an emergency, and of course he never comes back. Months later he writes her a letter to say he’s married another woman because, you know, family obligations.
The heroine was pregnant and alone. Of course, since she’s a doormat freak of a woman, instead of burning everything related to him in a bonfire outside her house, she keeps loving him and waiting for him to come back.
Yes, because a man who gets you pregnant then bolts away faster than the speed of light is worthy of waiting.
Four years later she decides to try and investigate what happened to him. During the four years she has had some kind of fund that nobody knows where it comes from, but she’s not broke anyway.
She is a writer and she meets an editor who’s interested in her writing and asks her to collaborate with him. The man is badly scarred. She believes it’s her lost love, but many things make her believe he’s a different person. The investigation about her lost love tells her he actually married a woman for her money, his stepsister, but she died one year later and he died soon afterwards in a plane accident.
Anyway the heroine is now happy because she has a new love, a man who has a child of his own but is a widower, so she can move on by the treacherous man who impregnated her and run away.
Sadly, they are the same person, and he was trying to manipulate her into falling in love with him again.
What makes the heroine stay is the explanation of his father in law aka foster dad, who basically admits he emotionally manipulated him into a guilt trip to marry his dying daughter who was terminally ill. The heroine accepts the hero back.
I hated this book.
First of all, the heroine was like a kicked puppy who can’t resign that she’s not loved enough. She wants the hero back even if he treated her abysmally.
He dumped her to marry another woman so this means only one thing, he didn’t put the heroine first, he put another woman first, or his foster father, all whatever, the heroine was not his priority. This is not forgivable.
He had sex with his wife, he had a daughter with her. So it wasn’t a moc, or a pity marriage. He could have sex with her so it was real. Supposing ow had live fifteen years he wouldn’t have come back to the heroine so no, to me it’s unacceptable.
The heroine was a sad woman who didn’t think she could deserve more, so she settled for that pitiful excuse of a man, who always put her second. Always second is the right title of the book because until the very end the hero admits he would have done the same thing anyway. So the heroine was less important for him than his wife and foster father were.
I wasted a couple of hours that I wish I could bleach from my memory.
February 25, 2017
I just didn't get the hero. Genevra was way too good for him. He was so weird... such a sad, sorry mix of whipped, beta, little puppy and not-there. Like literally not there... I feel like most of the book was in Genevra's head and even in scenes where Luke/Christian was present, it felt like he wasn't because he had such a non-presence. That overwhelming aura that most HP Heroes have where they electrify a room by walking into it? Yeah, Luke was the opposite. He had this underwhelming don't-look-at-me vibe like he wants to just sneak into Genevra's life by blending in with the background.
Genevra might have completely absolved him by the end, but I didn't. So he made his wife think he was in love with her for 15 months eh. Including giving her a baby eh. I mean he loved her like a sister, right. So how could he get it up to sleep with her? Oh whatever, not gonna think about it too closely. Stupid book, stupid AF Hero.
Genevra might have completely absolved him by the end, but I didn't. So he made his wife think he was in love with her for 15 months eh. Including giving her a baby eh. I mean he loved her like a sister, right. So how could he get it up to sleep with her? Oh whatever, not gonna think about it too closely. Stupid book, stupid AF Hero.
January 27, 2015
3.5 stars
This is a tough one to rate. Lots of angst made this the type of book I enjoy.
This is a tough one to rate. Lots of angst made this the type of book I enjoy.
November 15, 2017
This was moving story about lost love.
July 10, 2016
More a 3.5 this was an interesting read, which had me guessing how this would eventually play out, other than the HEA. Certainly different to a lot of series romances I have read recently.
Once again the story is wrapped too quickly, where all is forgiven in the course of one conversation. Dunno if I'm the vengeful type but surely it takes more effort than that. I'd put this on the keeper shelf just becuase of the over the top but interesting storyline.
Once again the story is wrapped too quickly, where all is forgiven in the course of one conversation. Dunno if I'm the vengeful type but surely it takes more effort than that. I'd put this on the keeper shelf just becuase of the over the top but interesting storyline.
April 10, 2012
I liked the book but that it seemed somewhat real is what's making me gloomy (I know, I know... first I complain the stories are absolute fabrication and now I'm like they're real... go figure!)
June 17, 2018
Written in the late 80’s this is a little dated. But it’s the plot that gets the one star. Genevra Kingsley meets an Australian Luke Stanford they fall in love and after 3 months he’s called back home on urgent business. The urgent business turns out to be that he is marrying another woman leaving Genevra devasted, she is also pregnant. She knows he’s getting married because he writes to tell her how sorry he is. Why she didn’t write back to tell him she was pregnant was a mystery.
So for 4 years she pines away for Luke whom she hopes will see the light and one day return for her. Genevra runs a book shop and takes care of her son Johnny. She then meets Christian Nemo a publisher who has a job proposition for her, upon first sight of him she thinks he’s Luke, in fact she’s so convinced she seems a little unbalanced as to how she behaves. But Christian is badly scarred and his facial features are not those of Luke, nevertheless Genevra has convinced herself that he’s her lost love. Of course one thing leads to another and I think the outcome is obvious. There are plenty of twists and turns to this too many to list. But the bottom line is I wasn’t keen on the characters they were both weak, she was obsessive and he was a wimp. After all he’d gone home and allowed himself to be pressured into marrying his jealous stepsister who was unwell, but upon hearing that he was in love with Genevra she made herself worse so that it shortened her life.
So for 4 years she pines away for Luke whom she hopes will see the light and one day return for her. Genevra runs a book shop and takes care of her son Johnny. She then meets Christian Nemo a publisher who has a job proposition for her, upon first sight of him she thinks he’s Luke, in fact she’s so convinced she seems a little unbalanced as to how she behaves. But Christian is badly scarred and his facial features are not those of Luke, nevertheless Genevra has convinced herself that he’s her lost love. Of course one thing leads to another and I think the outcome is obvious. There are plenty of twists and turns to this too many to list. But the bottom line is I wasn’t keen on the characters they were both weak, she was obsessive and he was a wimp. After all he’d gone home and allowed himself to be pressured into marrying his jealous stepsister who was unwell, but upon hearing that he was in love with Genevra she made herself worse so that it shortened her life.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 30, 2020
I don't usually like this type of romance where the hero is with someone else after apparently abandoning the heroine. Geneva has spent the last four years bringing up her son and hoping against hope that Lucien will come back to her. She is in England and Lucien left her to return to his family in Australia, writing a letter a month later to say he was getting married.
Geneva is ever hopeful that somehow he will return but cannot continue to live in suspense. She decides to visit her solicitor to put an investigation underway to find out what happened to Lucien on the same day she visits London to meet Slade Lassiter about a possible book contract.
Slade looks so like Lucien in so many ways but his face is scarred and different. But the biggest thing is the immense and instant attraction she feels for this apparent stranger.
There is a whole lot of is he, isn't he and gradually we get a picture of what has happened over the past four years. It's a roller coaster angst fest. As I said, I don't usually like this type of story but for once it worked okay for me.
Geneva is ever hopeful that somehow he will return but cannot continue to live in suspense. She decides to visit her solicitor to put an investigation underway to find out what happened to Lucien on the same day she visits London to meet Slade Lassiter about a possible book contract.
Slade looks so like Lucien in so many ways but his face is scarred and different. But the biggest thing is the immense and instant attraction she feels for this apparent stranger.
There is a whole lot of is he, isn't he and gradually we get a picture of what has happened over the past four years. It's a roller coaster angst fest. As I said, I don't usually like this type of story but for once it worked okay for me.
March 5, 2017
It's unanimous! Everyone hates the H in this book!
He falls "in love" with the h but leaves her to marry someone else cause he owes that family?! Dafuq?! The heroine has a child for him that she has had to raise by herself while he played happy families with his stepsister!
The h annoyed the crap out of me too. She was waaay to forgiving! Yes, he had a good reason for not returning to her after his wife's death. But honey, there shouldn't have been a wife in the first place! He was supposed to be in love with you, remember?!
While I sympathized with the trauma that the H survived, he still left the h to marry someone else, broke with her the h via a letter - the equivalent of breaking up via text today. And the stepsister...what selfishness! You knew he loved someone else but you still made such horrible demands on him. He should have manned up and said no. Just say no!
An engaging read but one that pissed me off more than anything else.
He falls "in love" with the h but leaves her to marry someone else cause he owes that family?! Dafuq?! The heroine has a child for him that she has had to raise by herself while he played happy families with his stepsister!
The h annoyed the crap out of me too. She was waaay to forgiving! Yes, he had a good reason for not returning to her after his wife's death. But honey, there shouldn't have been a wife in the first place! He was supposed to be in love with you, remember?!
While I sympathized with the trauma that the H survived, he still left the h to marry someone else, broke with her the h via a letter - the equivalent of breaking up via text today. And the stepsister...what selfishness! You knew he loved someone else but you still made such horrible demands on him. He should have manned up and said no. Just say no!
An engaging read but one that pissed me off more than anything else.
June 16, 2011
Angsty read but I can’t wrapped my head around the fact that he made love to another woman within that short of a timeframe. Yeah, yeah, he did the OW a favor as she was a dying childhood friend. -- But nope! still no merit badge for that, Boy Scout! -- His children with the heroine and the OW were less than a year apart. Ewww.
Emma Darcy is good with these angsty HPs, throwing complicated situations and unusual characters together, but she needs finesse with the longterm, unintended, moral and relational repercussions. I think this is why her books get mixed reviews.
Love can be like Humpty-Dumpty; there are times when relationships cannot mend after a great fall even with the best of intentions. Or for that matter, even with the best rewrites from the editors.
Emma Darcy is good with these angsty HPs, throwing complicated situations and unusual characters together, but she needs finesse with the longterm, unintended, moral and relational repercussions. I think this is why her books get mixed reviews.
Love can be like Humpty-Dumpty; there are times when relationships cannot mend after a great fall even with the best of intentions. Or for that matter, even with the best rewrites from the editors.
October 15, 2022
This was 3.5 star read for me but I rounded up. I honestly didn't hate the H but man I hated the FIL. Lets be real the H never would of married the OW but the FIL freely admits to the h that he emotionally blackmailed the H with everything and anything he could find. That he didn't give the h or the Hs happiness one ounce of thought. He just wanted his daughter happy. Did I like the choice the H made? No, but I understood it. Plus not even a month after the OW dies he's charting a plane to go after the h. I never doubted the Hs love for the h. I do think he should of kicked the FIL out of his life, but maybe he felt like they were even given all the help he gave him during his recovery.
October 20, 2015
0.5 stars
um, a heck no.
the heroine forgave the hero WAY TOO EASILY. she even told him that his abandoning her was the right thing to do.
yeah, no. weak heroine and weak hero.
he got his cake and got to eat it too. even though he was in an accident, I don't particularly like him any better.
nope. not my cup of tea
um, a heck no.
the heroine forgave the hero WAY TOO EASILY. she even told him that his abandoning her was the right thing to do.
yeah, no. weak heroine and weak hero.
he got his cake and got to eat it too. even though he was in an accident, I don't particularly like him any better.
nope. not my cup of tea
November 27, 2021
This book has it all - romance, betrayal, secrets and lies.
The H and h fell in love and all was going well till the H's adopted dad calls him home because his "sister" is dying.
The H came from an abusive home and his "dad" had been in love with the H's mum at some point and when his mum died he promised to look after the H so he runs the family business, is set to inherit etc. The H has met the h and is in love and getting married and because of this the "sister" is on a path to destruction. Shes in love with the H and has been spoiled as she is delicate and has an illness.
She no longer wishes to live and therefore is off her meds and sees nothing to live for. H is flown home and more or less blackmailed to marry the sis which he feels he has to do because of all the family has done for him so he sends a note to the h breaking up with her.
h is pregnant and never gives up hope that the h will return for her so is rather upset to hear he has "died".
The H had married the other woman, given her the baby she wanted then she died having got everything she wanted. H is straight on a plane back to UK and it crashes which is where his death comes in. He was very badly injured and they thought he was going to die. He is in surgery to walk again and repair his injuries, he has to wear a tinted lens to see changing his eye colour slightly among other physical changes.
He eventually tracks down the h and introduces himself as someone else entirely but the h is immediately suspicious as she just knows this is her man.
He then totally gaslights her into a relationship and she is rightly super angry when she finds out the truth ripping both the H and the FIL a new one when she finds out.
Its still a great story but the OW and the people around her enabling her really wound me up no end. The poor h has to put up with these muppets for the rest of her life!
The H and h fell in love and all was going well till the H's adopted dad calls him home because his "sister" is dying.
The H came from an abusive home and his "dad" had been in love with the H's mum at some point and when his mum died he promised to look after the H so he runs the family business, is set to inherit etc. The H has met the h and is in love and getting married and because of this the "sister" is on a path to destruction. Shes in love with the H and has been spoiled as she is delicate and has an illness.
She no longer wishes to live and therefore is off her meds and sees nothing to live for. H is flown home and more or less blackmailed to marry the sis which he feels he has to do because of all the family has done for him so he sends a note to the h breaking up with her.
h is pregnant and never gives up hope that the h will return for her so is rather upset to hear he has "died".
The H had married the other woman, given her the baby she wanted then she died having got everything she wanted. H is straight on a plane back to UK and it crashes which is where his death comes in. He was very badly injured and they thought he was going to die. He is in surgery to walk again and repair his injuries, he has to wear a tinted lens to see changing his eye colour slightly among other physical changes.
He eventually tracks down the h and introduces himself as someone else entirely but the h is immediately suspicious as she just knows this is her man.
He then totally gaslights her into a relationship and she is rightly super angry when she finds out the truth ripping both the H and the FIL a new one when she finds out.
Its still a great story but the OW and the people around her enabling her really wound me up no end. The poor h has to put up with these muppets for the rest of her life!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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