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California Temptress
In search of her father, a man she has never known, fashionable and rich New Yorker Elizabeth Forrester arrives in San Francisco and falls for her father's haughty but handsome friend
- GenresHistorical Romance
Paperback
First published June 1, 1991
31 people want to read
About the author
Millie Criswell
49 books34 followersNational bestselling author Millie Criswell didn't start out to be a writer. Instead, she had aspirations of joining the Rockettes as a toe-tapping member of their dancetroop, or tapping her heart away in one of those big, corny MGM musicals. Of course she was only ten at the time, had absolutely no talent as a dancer, and cannot be blamed for her failure to succeed.
To date, Ms. Criswell has written twenty-one historical, category, and contemporary romances. She has won numerous awards, including the Romantic Times Career Achievement Award, the Reviewers' Choice Award, the National Reader's Choice Award, and the coveted MAGGIE Award from Georgia Romance Writers.
Ms. Criswell resides in Virginia with her husband of thirty-two years. She has two grown children, both lawyers, and one neurotic Boston terrier
To date, Ms. Criswell has written twenty-one historical, category, and contemporary romances. She has won numerous awards, including the Romantic Times Career Achievement Award, the Reviewers' Choice Award, the National Reader's Choice Award, and the coveted MAGGIE Award from Georgia Romance Writers.
Ms. Criswell resides in Virginia with her husband of thirty-two years. She has two grown children, both lawyers, and one neurotic Boston terrier
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
February 8, 2020
I read this book more than 5 years ago and I still love it I remember the story line word for word (almost). It was one of the books that made me fall in love with reading. 😍😍😍
October 5, 2016
I am SHOCKED that this book has such good ratings. Boring story, boring characters, and the "hero" is simply abusive. Hard to root for this cad. I enjoy a good romance novel but this one BOMBED.
May 11, 2022
And what I mean by "I'm finished" is that I'M FINISHED! Just to clarify I did not finish the book. For so many reasons.
1. The male lead, Cole, is a dick. While I typically like a bad boy and enjoy assertive characters this guy was just a complete jerk. Actually there are stronger words but I'm trying to cut back on swearing. He hates the female lead, Elizabeth, from the beginning based on gossip and her treatment of her father (which was not her fault actually). He refers to her as a bitch, baggage, fool, and compares her intelligence to that of a mule. And lets not forget the part where he suggests that she is the first woman to aggravate him enough that he might consider hitting her. Are you swooning yet? No? Me neither.
No wonder women have such skewed views of healthy relationships. Sheesh.
2. Holy racism. The book was published in 1991 - that makes it fairly modern. SO, like, what the hell?! The story takes place after slavery was abolished in 1865. You meet her father's servants (God I hope they were servants) who all seem to be of Chinese descent. They speak broken English and are written with poor dialect. Then, Ah Sing, the main house servant offers to read Elizabeth's tea leaves. The book has no supernatural overtones so I can only assume this was to add more mysticism/otherness to the character. Thanks for those racist stereotypes.
ON top of that one of the characters is BLATANTLY racist. I suffered through a page and a half of that harmful nonsense. I was very uncomfortable and pretty angry.
3. Slavery is mentioned. Mostly in the form of sexual slavery. Including discovering that the servant girl, Sally (also Asian), was a sex slave at the age of 12. This was actually the final straw in my reading the book.
4. Sexual assault. First off Cole kisses Elizabeth to "punish" her within the first thirty pages. Then he decides she is a whore because she responds and makes a plan to seduce her so he can show her father what she is "really" like. The next few intimate scenes all follow this theme. Including him pushing her up against a tree and fondling her while she begs him to stop. Assertive and aggressive can be hot ... WITH CONSENT. My last straw was when Cole rescues her from slavers. She is naked and drugged. He takes her to a hotel room where he cleans her off and then feels her up WHILE she is naked and unconscious! He briefly hates himself and then gets drunk. So now that I have thrown up in my mouth I have like two sentences left in the chapter.
Her father catches them and they have to get married.
I'd like to also mention that all of this happened in the first 100 pages of the book. I didn't even make it a third of the way through.
And that's where I stopped reading. The best part of the book was dedication which I had initially thought was sweet but now that I have read her "hero" characters I wonder what it means when she says her son is "hero material."
1. The male lead, Cole, is a dick. While I typically like a bad boy and enjoy assertive characters this guy was just a complete jerk. Actually there are stronger words but I'm trying to cut back on swearing. He hates the female lead, Elizabeth, from the beginning based on gossip and her treatment of her father (which was not her fault actually). He refers to her as a bitch, baggage, fool, and compares her intelligence to that of a mule. And lets not forget the part where he suggests that she is the first woman to aggravate him enough that he might consider hitting her. Are you swooning yet? No? Me neither.
No wonder women have such skewed views of healthy relationships. Sheesh.
2. Holy racism. The book was published in 1991 - that makes it fairly modern. SO, like, what the hell?! The story takes place after slavery was abolished in 1865. You meet her father's servants (God I hope they were servants) who all seem to be of Chinese descent. They speak broken English and are written with poor dialect. Then, Ah Sing, the main house servant offers to read Elizabeth's tea leaves. The book has no supernatural overtones so I can only assume this was to add more mysticism/otherness to the character. Thanks for those racist stereotypes.
ON top of that one of the characters is BLATANTLY racist. I suffered through a page and a half of that harmful nonsense. I was very uncomfortable and pretty angry.
3. Slavery is mentioned. Mostly in the form of sexual slavery. Including discovering that the servant girl, Sally (also Asian), was a sex slave at the age of 12. This was actually the final straw in my reading the book.
4. Sexual assault. First off Cole kisses Elizabeth to "punish" her within the first thirty pages. Then he decides she is a whore because she responds and makes a plan to seduce her so he can show her father what she is "really" like. The next few intimate scenes all follow this theme. Including him pushing her up against a tree and fondling her while she begs him to stop. Assertive and aggressive can be hot ... WITH CONSENT. My last straw was when Cole rescues her from slavers. She is naked and drugged. He takes her to a hotel room where he cleans her off and then feels her up WHILE she is naked and unconscious! He briefly hates himself and then gets drunk. So now that I have thrown up in my mouth I have like two sentences left in the chapter.
Her father catches them and they have to get married.
I'd like to also mention that all of this happened in the first 100 pages of the book. I didn't even make it a third of the way through.
And that's where I stopped reading. The best part of the book was dedication which I had initially thought was sweet but now that I have read her "hero" characters I wonder what it means when she says her son is "hero material."
March 18, 2008
Good book -- I've read it several times!!
March 2, 2009
This was a good book, but I seem to be stuck in a rut. Lately the books are about the same era, 1800's western romance novels. And the same characters, good women and great men finding love.
July 2, 2010
Absolutely great... enjoyed every moment of it. This is one of my fav book.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews