Unexpected Pleasures: An Anthology

by Penny Jordan

Secrets from the past emerge in the present�and the consequences are unexpected for these two couples.

YESTERDAY'S ECHOES

Tragedy had befallen Rosie when she was a vulnerable sixteen-year-old�and Jake Lucas had witnessed the entire thing. Since then Rosie has built a successful career, not allowing anyone near the woman behind the cheerful face she shows to the world. But Jake has entered her life again, and he isn't about to let her forget the past.

MASTER OF PLEASURE

Sasha walked away from handsome millionaire Gabriel Calbrini to marry another�and he's never forgiven her. Now widowed, Sasha is shocked when Gabriel is named heir to her late husband's wealth and guardian to her two sons. But Sasha won't surrender. There's far too much at stake�especially the one thing that Gabriel must never know.…

Genres: Contemporary Romance

346 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Penelope Jones Halsall
aka Caroline Courtney, Annie Groves, Lydia Hitchcock, Melinda Wright

Penelope "Penny" Jones was born on November 24, 1946 at about seven pounds in a nursing home in Preston, Lancashire, England. She was the first child of Anthony Winn Jones, an engineer, who died at 85, and his wife Margaret Louise Groves Jones. She has a brother, Anthony, and a sister, Prudence "Pru".

She had been a keen reader from the childhood - her mother used to leave her in the children's section of their local library whilst she changed her father's library books. She was a storyteller long before she began to write romantic fiction. At the age of eight, she was creating serialized bedtime stories, featuring make-believe adventures, for her younger sister Prue, who was always the heroine. At eleven, she fell in love with Mills & Boon, and with their heroes. In those days the books could only be obtained via private lending libraries, and she quickly became a devoted fan; she was thrilled to bits when the books went on full sale in shops and she could have them for keeps.

Penny left grammar school in Rochdale with O-Levels in English Language, English Literature and Geography. She first discovered Mills & Boon books, via a girl she worked with. She married Steve Halsall, an accountant and a "lovely man", who smoked and drank too heavily, and suffered oral cancer with bravery and dignity. Her husband bought her the small electric typewriter on which she typed her first novels, at a time when he could ill afford it. He died at the beginning of 21st century.

She earned a living as a writer since the 1970s when, as a shorthand typist, she entered a competition run by the Romantic Novelists' Association. Although she didn't win, Penny found an agent who was looking for a new Georgette Heyer. She published four regency novels as Caroline Courtney, before changing her nom de plume to Melinda Wright for three air-hostess romps and then she wrote two thrillers as Lydia Hitchcock. Soon after that, Mills and Boon accepted her first novel for them, Falcon's Prey as Penny Jordan. However, for her more historical romance novels, she adopted her mother's maiden-name to become Annie Groves. Almost 70 of her 167 Mills and Boon novels have been sold worldwide.

Penny Halsall lived in a neo-Georgian house in Nantwich, Cheshire, with her Alsatian Sheba and cat Posh. She worked from home, in her kitchen, surrounded by her pets, and welcomed interruptions from her friends and family.

Reviews

[Leona · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not a great fan of this author. Her heroine's always walk around in a stupor. Average at best. Nothing new here.

[Patrice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Both stories in this anthology deal with personal issues/traumas that the character has to deal with in their own way and time. If you're a reader that doesn't like to read about date rape or child mistreatment; then I would not recommend this to you.
The first story is about Rosie and the traumatic experience she had as a sheltered girl of 16 and how that has shaped her life thus far. Someone found her on that fateful occasion and in her traumatized state felt that they abhorred her for bringing the incident upon herself. Almost 2 decades later she is still haunted by events of that day. Now she has run into that person twice in as many days and it is bringing all the emotions back to the forefront of her mind. Can Rosie confront the demons that have been haunting her or will she go slowly insane....

In the second story, young Sasha straight out of "the system" is on holiday with some of the girls from her job. Not liking what they are doing; she finds herself fascinated by a gentleman, Gabriel, she saw in town. She sets her sights on introducing herself to him; figuring he works on one of the boats in the marina. Unfortunately, Gabriel had a rough upbringing and never had anyone actually care about him for himself. He has no idea how to relate to women in a cerebral sense. Their similar terrible youth does nothing to endear Sasha to him; so in desperation she leaves him only to have him back in her life 10 years later....

These are both very well written stories about traumatic events that can happen to people and how not seeking help or realizing that one should be seeking help; can shape us for the rest of our lives.

[MBR · Rating 4 out of 5]

Suddenly Sasha turned her head and saw him. For a second she simply stared at him, and then abruptly she turned on her heel and started to run.
Gabriel’s reaction was instinctive and immediate. Sasha could hear the fierce pounding of his feet on the sand above the shocked thud of her own heartbeat. He was closing the distance between them but she still ran on, driven by the instinct of the prey to escape from the hunter.

Unexpected Pleasures by Penny Jordan, first published in January of 2012 is a novel that delves deep into the psych of two characters who have had rotten childhoods and carried the trauma with them for the better half of their lives. It is striking how at times category romances such as this number published under Harlequin, romance novels that people usually pick up for a light read or label as fluff, can end up being stories that pack a significant punch way above what anyone expects of them.

Such is the story of Gabriel Calbrini and Sasha, whose pasts are entwined in a way that makes a clean break from each other impossible. When the story begins, Sasha is mother to nine year old twins and newly widowed, facing the prospect that with her husband's death she had gone overnight from being the pampered wife of a rich man to a virtually destitute widow.

Sasha had been an impressionable, emotionally vulnerable, and needy seventeen years old when she had met Gabrielle in whose arms she had known true sexual awakening and desire. Her mother having died during childbirth, Sasha had grown up in an environment that had been insufficient to address her great need for love and emotional security.

A year later, Sasha had married the much older Carlo, pregnant and unable to reconcile or accept the depth of devastation that Gabriel had wreaked on her heart when he had so callously turned away from the love that she had to give. In hindsight, ten years on, Sasha is able to understand that it was with Carlo that she had managed to make peace with her past, and had flourished in the safe environment that her husband had provided for her.

Sasha's past comes calling when Carlo leaves guardianship of the twins to his second cousin, none other than the father of the twins, Gabriel. He has never forgiven Sasha for the way she had left his pride in tatters, and Gabriel has always refused to examine his battered emotions too closely lest he find something he did not want to face particularly.

Gabriel has so much baggage from his childhood, being an unwanted child discarded by his maternal relatives who had been richer than sin, abandoned by his father once he found someone to replace Gabriel's mother, and a mother who had never looked back once she walked out on him and her father. Foster homes had been it for him until circumstances had forced Gabriel back into the circle of his maternal grandfather, where he had led a loveless existence which had solidified his resolve as a man.

Gabriel is a man in whose heart lies a wealth of bitterness, judging every woman by his own mother's standards, which makes him the worst sort of cynic. In Gabriel's opinion, Sasha had proven her worth when she had walked out on him and sold herself to the highest bidder. As Gabriel makes a comeback into Sasha's life and things start to add up, it is he that must reconcile with the past and examine his own actions which had destroyed what was between Sasha and him at the very beginning. Perhaps they both needed the time apart to really be together, one could argue, and I would be one of them if you ask me.

I had a hard time rating this book, not because this did not deliver a riveting read. I had some issues with how the story handled Gabriel's issues for the most part. It was evident that Sasha had dealt with her scars from childhood in a healthier manner, her years with her older husband having given her the comfort, luxury, and time to pace herself through the recovery and reconciliation process.

Gabriel however, is a tougher nut to crack, with his childhood having hardened him to a point where he has a tough time separating his mother's cruelty from every single overture made to him by any woman attempting to establish emotional ties with him. The protective shield around Gabriel's heart seems almost impenetrable, that is until the truth about Sasha and their past slaps some sense into him. My issue lies with how such a character seemingly healed overnight and changed into a loving man, even though it is evident that Gabriel loved Sasha even before, though he never acknowledged the fact.

That brings me to the other issue I had with the story. While I understood the need for flashbacks, I also felt as if a major portion of the story was told through memories of the past than incidents in the present, which perhaps would perhaps have made more sense in the long run.

Recommended for those who love a good second-chance romance and fans of Penny Jordan. Ms. Jordan is a definite favorite when it comes to category romances.

Final Verdict: With flashbacks into the entwined pasts of the main protagonists, Unexpected Pleasures delivers the ultimate second chance romance with interwoven threads of sensuality in the mix!

Rating = 4/5

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