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Barclay Twins #2
Ghost of the Past
'Don't get me wrong Alex, you're a nice guy, but there's no way I want to step into my dead sister's shoes and be called by her name for the rest of my life.'
Brave words. Bust just who did Ginny think she was fooling? Five years ago she and her identical twin-sister, Venetia, both had fallen madly in love with the same man—Alex Warwick—and Venetia had emerged the victor. Ginny had gone away, determined not to wreck her twin’s happiness. But now Venetia was dead and Alex was on his own again. Could there be a future for him with Ginny? And could she believe him when he said he cared for her?
Brave words. Bust just who did Ginny think she was fooling? Five years ago she and her identical twin-sister, Venetia, both had fallen madly in love with the same man—Alex Warwick—and Venetia had emerged the victor. Ginny had gone away, determined not to wreck her twin’s happiness. But now Venetia was dead and Alex was on his own again. Could there be a future for him with Ginny? And could she believe him when he said he cared for her?
288 pages, Hardcover
First published November 8, 1991
About the author
Sally Wentworth
108 books95 followersDoreen was born on 1936 or 1937 in Watford, Hertfordshire, England, UK. She married Donald Alfred Hornsblow, with whom she has a son Keith, in 1968. The family lived in Braughing, England.
Doreen began her publishing career at a Fleet Street newspaper in London, where she thrived in the hectic atmosphere. She started writing after attending an evening class and sold her first novel to Mills & Boon in 1977, she published her novels under the pseudonym Sally Wentworth. Her novels were principally set in Great Britain or in exotic places like Canary Islands or Greece. Her first works are stand-alone novels, but in 1990s, she decided to create her first series. In 1991, she wrote a book in two parts about the Barclay twins and their great love, and in 1995, she wrote the Ties of Passion Trilogy about the Brodey family, that have money, looks, style, everything... except love.
Doreen was an accounts clerk at Associated Newspapers Ltd. in London, England, and accounts clerk at Consumers' Association in Hertford, England. In 1985, she was the founding chair of the Hertford Association of National Trust Members, and named its life president. She also collected knife rests and she was member of The Knife Rest Collectors Club.
Doreen Hornsblow died from cancer on 30 August 2001, at 64 years of age.
Doreen began her publishing career at a Fleet Street newspaper in London, where she thrived in the hectic atmosphere. She started writing after attending an evening class and sold her first novel to Mills & Boon in 1977, she published her novels under the pseudonym Sally Wentworth. Her novels were principally set in Great Britain or in exotic places like Canary Islands or Greece. Her first works are stand-alone novels, but in 1990s, she decided to create her first series. In 1991, she wrote a book in two parts about the Barclay twins and their great love, and in 1995, she wrote the Ties of Passion Trilogy about the Brodey family, that have money, looks, style, everything... except love.
Doreen was an accounts clerk at Associated Newspapers Ltd. in London, England, and accounts clerk at Consumers' Association in Hertford, England. In 1985, she was the founding chair of the Hertford Association of National Trust Members, and named its life president. She also collected knife rests and she was member of The Knife Rest Collectors Club.
Doreen Hornsblow died from cancer on 30 August 2001, at 64 years of age.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
February 16, 2025
At the end of part 1 (Twin Torment) the identical twin sisters, Ginny and Venetia, were about to toss a coin to determine which was to go away for good and which to stay and pursue Alex, the handsome scientist that both girls fell in love with.
Part 2 commence 5 years later. Venetia got married to Alex and spent 3 happy and fulfilling years together before she was killed in an auto mobile accident 2 years earlier.
Ginny left England right after the toss of the coin incident and had a very successful modelling career in America.
The 2 girls never saw, never talked or wrote to each other again.
When Venetia died, Ginny had a nervous breakdown and was hospitalised. She never attended the funeral.
Now Ginny had returned to England for the first time for her father's funeral. Alex was hostile and accused her of not caring enough to even come to her sister's funeral.
Venetia left in her will the house that was given as a wedding present by her father, to Ginny.
That's the place Alex and Venetia made their home.
Alex wanted to buy it of her as he did not want Ginny to "taint" it but Ginny refused mainly because he was so rude to her since her return.
Ginny believed that his hostility derived from the fact that she kept the house, for looking exactly like Venetia and reminding him of her and most of all for being alive when she was dead.
He asked her if she was still in love with him, she said she wasn't and he expressed his relief as he had no interest in her.
A few times he would accidentally call her by Venetia's name and Ginny assured him that there was no way she wanted to step into her dead sister's shoes and be called by her name for the rest of her life.
Ginny took residence at the house she had inherited and Alex would appear in her life periodically.
One day he admitted that he hadn't been very nice to her since her return back to England.
It was because he felt guilty about her as he knew she was in love with him before she left 5 years ago, and he felt confused after the big reveal and there was the possibility that he was in love with both girls.
He had let Venetia back into his life because he couldn't resist her and as Ginny went away for good it was easy to get married and live his life as she never existed.
There were times when he couldn't shut her out and he would remember the night they spent together, among other things, the most wonderful night of his life,and he would feel guilty that he drove her away.
He also felt guilty because he used to think of Ginny when he was with Venetia. When she was killed he went to pieces.
As Ginny came back he didn't want to see her again as he felt safe not having feelings, you couldn't be hurt again this way.
But now he was shaken out of his apathy and there was no way back.
They would spent time together, very platonically not even the slightest touch. Alex admitted that he was happier now that he was seeing Ginny but he had a feeling betraying Venetia's memory and he didn't want to think of Ginny as taking Venetia's place and wondered if he was really pretending that Ginny was Venetia. That she was still alive. He asked her if she could live with the fact that he was using her to replace Venetia as he had no idea if he was doing that.
They decided to stay away from each other to sort his feelings.
That did not last very long, they started dating and this time there was physical contact but no intercource.
At some point Alex asked her to marry him. She asked him why he wanted to and he said for companionship and because he needed and loved her since the first day they met on the plane and that's why he had tried so hard to cut her out of his and Venetia's lives 5 years ago because he could never completely get her out of his mind.
Ginny expressed concern as they hadn't been to bed yet and he said that it taken him a while to come to terms with everything.
Ginny asked him to give her some time as she had doubts about his commitment.
One day while driving in a car together they witnessed an auto mobile accident that shook Alex to the core as memories of Venetia's accident came to mind.
Ginny tried to console him and he said he needed her at that point in an intimate way.
They went upstairs to the bedroom and very bed that used to be his and Venetia's marital one and Alex failed to rise to the occasion no matter how much Ginny tried.
Alex said maybe they ought to reconsider his marriage proposal.
She asked him what kind of marriage did he expect them to have when he had proposed, a platonic one? A paper marriage? A nice companionship?
He said they should forget the whole thing and left.
Days later he unexpectedly returned, led himself in and found Ginny in Venetia's wedding dress.
He got mad and an altercation ensued both verbal and physical as how dare she wear Venetia's wedding dress.
They ended up making love and professing their love for each other.
Ginny implied that she did not lose the coin toss.
Venetia was regarded by the other main characters as a saint but she was far from that. She had deliberately stolen her sister's love interest using deception and did not relent even when Ginny told her to tell the truth to Alex and stop pursuing him.
The Hero got deceived, big time, to the point that he did not know who was who and even which one he loved. He never fought for Ginny.
He even did not rule out the possibility that he loved both sisters. I think this is the main reason that this book has such low ratings.
Readers want the Hero to love only the heroine while here we have a Hero in love with two women simultaneously.
Ginny was not proactive enough in exposing her sister's deception and that enabled Venetia to end up with Alex.
Ginny did not fight for Alex the same way Alex did not fight for her.
I wonder if Ginny on her wedding day to Alex wore Venetia's wedding dress...
Part 2 commence 5 years later. Venetia got married to Alex and spent 3 happy and fulfilling years together before she was killed in an auto mobile accident 2 years earlier.
Ginny left England right after the toss of the coin incident and had a very successful modelling career in America.
The 2 girls never saw, never talked or wrote to each other again.
When Venetia died, Ginny had a nervous breakdown and was hospitalised. She never attended the funeral.
Now Ginny had returned to England for the first time for her father's funeral. Alex was hostile and accused her of not caring enough to even come to her sister's funeral.
Venetia left in her will the house that was given as a wedding present by her father, to Ginny.
That's the place Alex and Venetia made their home.
Alex wanted to buy it of her as he did not want Ginny to "taint" it but Ginny refused mainly because he was so rude to her since her return.
Ginny believed that his hostility derived from the fact that she kept the house, for looking exactly like Venetia and reminding him of her and most of all for being alive when she was dead.
He asked her if she was still in love with him, she said she wasn't and he expressed his relief as he had no interest in her.
A few times he would accidentally call her by Venetia's name and Ginny assured him that there was no way she wanted to step into her dead sister's shoes and be called by her name for the rest of her life.
Ginny took residence at the house she had inherited and Alex would appear in her life periodically.
One day he admitted that he hadn't been very nice to her since her return back to England.
It was because he felt guilty about her as he knew she was in love with him before she left 5 years ago, and he felt confused after the big reveal and there was the possibility that he was in love with both girls.
He had let Venetia back into his life because he couldn't resist her and as Ginny went away for good it was easy to get married and live his life as she never existed.
There were times when he couldn't shut her out and he would remember the night they spent together, among other things, the most wonderful night of his life,and he would feel guilty that he drove her away.
He also felt guilty because he used to think of Ginny when he was with Venetia. When she was killed he went to pieces.
As Ginny came back he didn't want to see her again as he felt safe not having feelings, you couldn't be hurt again this way.
But now he was shaken out of his apathy and there was no way back.
They would spent time together, very platonically not even the slightest touch. Alex admitted that he was happier now that he was seeing Ginny but he had a feeling betraying Venetia's memory and he didn't want to think of Ginny as taking Venetia's place and wondered if he was really pretending that Ginny was Venetia. That she was still alive. He asked her if she could live with the fact that he was using her to replace Venetia as he had no idea if he was doing that.
They decided to stay away from each other to sort his feelings.
That did not last very long, they started dating and this time there was physical contact but no intercource.
At some point Alex asked her to marry him. She asked him why he wanted to and he said for companionship and because he needed and loved her since the first day they met on the plane and that's why he had tried so hard to cut her out of his and Venetia's lives 5 years ago because he could never completely get her out of his mind.
Ginny expressed concern as they hadn't been to bed yet and he said that it taken him a while to come to terms with everything.
Ginny asked him to give her some time as she had doubts about his commitment.
One day while driving in a car together they witnessed an auto mobile accident that shook Alex to the core as memories of Venetia's accident came to mind.
Ginny tried to console him and he said he needed her at that point in an intimate way.
They went upstairs to the bedroom and very bed that used to be his and Venetia's marital one and Alex failed to rise to the occasion no matter how much Ginny tried.
Alex said maybe they ought to reconsider his marriage proposal.
She asked him what kind of marriage did he expect them to have when he had proposed, a platonic one? A paper marriage? A nice companionship?
He said they should forget the whole thing and left.
Days later he unexpectedly returned, led himself in and found Ginny in Venetia's wedding dress.
He got mad and an altercation ensued both verbal and physical as how dare she wear Venetia's wedding dress.
They ended up making love and professing their love for each other.
Ginny implied that she did not lose the coin toss.
Venetia was regarded by the other main characters as a saint but she was far from that. She had deliberately stolen her sister's love interest using deception and did not relent even when Ginny told her to tell the truth to Alex and stop pursuing him.
The Hero got deceived, big time, to the point that he did not know who was who and even which one he loved. He never fought for Ginny.
He even did not rule out the possibility that he loved both sisters. I think this is the main reason that this book has such low ratings.
Readers want the Hero to love only the heroine while here we have a Hero in love with two women simultaneously.
Ginny was not proactive enough in exposing her sister's deception and that enabled Venetia to end up with Alex.
Ginny did not fight for Alex the same way Alex did not fight for her.
I wonder if Ginny on her wedding day to Alex wore Venetia's wedding dress...
June 6, 2012
But wait there's more. Twin No. 2 is dead because she was always a lousy driver. Twin No. 1 comes back to clean up her stuff. She went off and had a career and married a loser photographer for the stupid reason of making it easier on TWin No. 2 and the stupid guy. Naturally it didn't work out. So stupid guy is still all weird and grief stricken and No. 1 doesn't know if the attraction is for her or because she reminds him of No.2
And this guy is a scientist and still hasn't figured out that he really did fall in love with No. 1 back at the beginning of the first book. Having ploughed all the way through the most appalling combination of stupid guy and two incredibly annoying sisters it was almost a relief when they sorted it all out.
And just to leave me with the nastiest taste in my mouth at the end. She implies that she won the toss and decided to give him to her sister at the end of book one.
Huh!
This is a writer I really loved and read many of her books and enjoyed them. Somehow I missed this duet and it only confirms me in my opinion that duets are about the worst idea in the Harlequin M&B universe. The only one I've ever remotely enjoyed is Penny Jordan's one with Giselle and Paul because she managed not to have them sleeping around.
And this guy is a scientist and still hasn't figured out that he really did fall in love with No. 1 back at the beginning of the first book. Having ploughed all the way through the most appalling combination of stupid guy and two incredibly annoying sisters it was almost a relief when they sorted it all out.
And just to leave me with the nastiest taste in my mouth at the end. She implies that she won the toss and decided to give him to her sister at the end of book one.
Huh!
This is a writer I really loved and read many of her books and enjoyed them. Somehow I missed this duet and it only confirms me in my opinion that duets are about the worst idea in the Harlequin M&B universe. The only one I've ever remotely enjoyed is Penny Jordan's one with Giselle and Paul because she managed not to have them sleeping around.
November 18, 2011
My God what a horrible book by the time i read the end i was like"what the hell" don't even wanna waste my time n energy by reviewing it
Seton how i wish i had seen your warning of avoiding it *sigh* but now that u read it i wanna warn those who have not read please don't read it,avoid it
If possible i don't even wanna give 1 star to it
Do Not Recommend it
Seton how i wish i had seen your warning of avoiding it *sigh* but now that u read it i wanna warn those who have not read please don't read it,avoid it
If possible i don't even wanna give 1 star to it
Do Not Recommend it
December 16, 2016
this one was sad, tragic and painful ! i felt heartbroken for Ginny bcoz she lost Alex to Venetia when she was the one really deserving him ! it tore my heart when Alex confessed he knew they had tossed a coin to decide which twin wud have him and which wud go on without him. he shud have said no, he wud decide. but then i have not read the previous book, and from what i gathered of this second one, he fell in love wid both twins. the poor man really had no choice !
September 6, 2017
I’m a spoiler. Not because I want to discourage/encourage anyone in reading this book. I just want to write the highlights for me to remember by in the future. (There are really instances when I forgot about the story and I don’t want to waste my time in re-reading books that have bad plots.)
I actually do not like it. The plot is too complicated and the characters are not very likable. I did not want to finish it but I'm so OC because no matter how bad the plot is, I get stressed out if I don't finish what I started.
Basically this is the entire story:
Ginny and Venetia are twins who fell inloved with Alex. Ginny saw Alex first. Alex was interested in her and tried to contact her but Ginny wasn't able to connect with. Venetia found the letters (or whatever) and pretended to be Ginny. Then Ginny pretended to be Venetia one night and shagged Alex. Then Alex found about the whole fiasco and got angry. Then the twins tossed a coin and decided that whoever losses would go away. Venetia and Alex got married and Ginny was in America doing well with her career and Then Venetia died, Ginny got a nervous breakdown the reason why she never went to her twin's funeral (AND NO ONE KNOWS ABOUT HER BEING IN A CLINIC - i really have to shout that out loud). Then 2 years later, she went back for her father's funeral and met Alex again. Then she found out that Venetia gave her the house (love-nest of Alex and Venetia) BLAH BLAH BLAH.
Later I read that she and Alex were kissing. Then they quarrel. Then they made up. And oh I forgot to mention that Alex
AND THEY LIVE HAPPILY EVER AFTER!
And then I realized
To Ginny, HELLO? Run girl, I don't think Alex loves you. My gerd! He
To Alex, I DO NOT LIKE YOU. PERIOD. COMMA. EXCLAMATION MARK! PERIOD. CROSS MY HEART. LOCK THE DOOR. THROW THE KEY AWAY.
To Venetia, Ginny and Alex: Maybe maybe you could have tried
I don't know why am I making an effort to write this down. Maybe because I got really frustrated with the outcome. And so
July 3, 2015
Quite possibly the worst harlequin ever. Left me feeling very unsettled. Wentworth's heroines are gluttons for punishment and this one is no different.
June 16, 2023
The story starts with the heroine Ginny coming to attend her father’s funeral. It’s been five years since she left UK to shift to America to become a top model and a public figure.
Her identical twin sister meanwhile had married the man they both were in love with. They had quite a fight of it trying to get him but Ginny lost believe it or not through the toss of a coin at the end of the first book (Twin Torment).
The deal was that the one who lost the toss would become a model and the one who won would keep the man.
He was confused. The hero. He fell in insta love with one girl. Then met her identical twin who fooled him to think she was the one he had met and made him fall deeper into love with her.
The one who lost poor thing had back bone and was a better human being. Well, almost. She did sleep with the hero who all the time was thinking it was the twin he was with. They had a beautiful night. He detected nothing till the second time when the other girl came to his bed. She had a surgery scar.
Anyway. He did not have to choose between them. They flipped a coin.
Our heroine left.
So now she’s back for the funeral. After the burial she walks over to her sisters grave. Yes the other twin spent two idyllic years with the man but then she died in a road accident. She had been a terrible driver in the first book.
The heroine felt the pain of the accident and blacked out and was terribly sick afterwards.
Yes the two twins were energetically connected and sometimes or mostly sensed the other’s feelings.
So she collapsed and was terribly mentally sick. Doctors couldn’t understand why she hurt so much when she just rolled down a ski slope.
Anyway she could not attend her beloved and hated sister’s funeral.
The hero accuses the heroine of being callous and cruel and a bitch. He forgets very easily that he himself had told the heroine to begone and never darken their doors ever again.
He is livid to see the heroine trying to lay a yellow rose on the grave. Prevents it. Hurting her. Then he slaps her. He’s not very nice is he? He blames her for being alive while her identical twin is dead.
He was madly and deeply in love with his wife. She was sweet and very housewifely and a shrinking Violet. She sewed curtains. I have nothing against people who sew curtains. I just hate the twin who stole the man. She stole him. She was a low down thief.
Anyway, she kept house for him and he took care of her. He was the protector. He thought she was a saint.
They lived in a house in bath gifted by the girl’s father. Now that that twin is dead. The house passes to the other twin as willed.
The hero loved that house. He had spent terribly happy years with his adored wife here. They were in fact building a nursery to welcome a child. They went to play tennis and were coming back in separate cars. It was raining. An accident happened. His loved wife died.
He had adored her. If sometimes a memory of the night he spent with the other twin surfaced or if he thought of the other twin when in bed with his wife he suppressed both facts deep in his psyche.
When he realised that the house had been left to the hated other twin he left it and moved into rooms at the university where he taught.
He grieved immensely. He would sometimes go and sit in that house or lay on the bed. As trails in the dust show the heroine.
She is still madly in love with him. Even though she got married to her mentor and spent two years with him.
They had a good sex life. But it was nothing like the night she spent with the hero. When she collapsed after her sister’s death her husband could not cope and left her and went on to wife number three.
So now she’s back in bath. Redoing her sister’s /her house. The hero and his close friend help her. Hero because he connects with her over the house.
He keeps mistaking her for her sister in their interactions. Calling her by her sister’s name and then becoming miserable and leaving. She looks exactly the same after all.
But she is no homebody like her sister. She carries on with her career as a freelance model.
Hero is drawn to her. This I could not stomach. For a man who said he hated her throughout the first book to suddenly be wanting to spend time with her makes zero sense.
But it was her looks after all that had attracted him to her in the first place in first book. She was the one he had initially fallen for. She was the one he slept with first because she fooled him to think she was her twin.
So that confused awareness and attraction is there. She’s very different from her sister by nature though. So it’s like he falls for a different woman this time.
Strangely till the end he struggles between attraction and hatred.
They go away on a boat with his friend one weekend. He kisses her. They sleep in the same cabin. Facing each other. When he wakes up he thinks she’s her twin and then remembers.
Till the end he’s struggling to remember she is not her twin.
That was what was unpleasant. He did not compare her favourably with her twin. Till the end he acts like the other one was precious and this one- she’s the slut who sleeps with random men. Who he turns to rather than her turning to him.
He grows into her. It’s not that falling in love which happened for the other twin. She of course loves him no matter what. He’s always been the one. The one whose happiness she counted above her own.
He is unable to sleep with her when they do decide to. He sees an accident and wants to affirm he’s alive in the most basic way. Sex. But he’s unable. Guilt and fidelity to his first wife.
He goes away. Breaks up. He leaves his wallet behind. Sends someone to get it. Heroine refuses to give it.
She starts unpacking her clothes (when she’s planning to sell the house and go away. Author made this mistake here).
Anyway. She starts finally to empty her sister’s wardrobe.
She comes across sister’s wedding dress. Wears it to understand how her sister looked on her wedding day. The day the hero forbade her from attending.
She wears the dress. The sister she had adored. The sister who cheated her of the love of her life. She’s wearing the dress looking at the mirror.
The bell rings. The hero who still has the keys to the house enters. She’s at the top of the stairs and he’s at the bottom. He sees her in the wedding dress and goes mad with rage. Tells her take off the dress how dare she wear it. A slut like her.
She screams at him. That he’s a lily livered coward who can’t even make love to a woman.
He tears the dress off her. They make love.
They finally declare love. He admits he loved both of them till they flipped a coin. Since he could not distinguish which was which.
He says his night with her was the best of his life.
He also says he would have lived with whichever of them chose him at that point.
This is the biggest weakness of the book.
If he had loved the heroine more throughout. Or secondly If he had slowly seen she is the better of the two girls then the readers would have liked it more.
This book left me unsatisfied and angry on behalf of the heroine. She deserved as much love as she felt for the man. She got less.
She literally moved continents so that her sister could be happy with the man. When all she wanted was to be with him any which way he chose. She was not hankering for marriage like her twin.
I felt the lack of an epilogue too. That wasn’t the era of epilogues.
Maybe some years down the line. Them. Now in love and happy.
The hero did not show the madness for her he showed (mistakenly and by wrong intent of wrong twin) for the heroines sister.
So that is my review.
Hope there are no typos. I daren’t scroll up to check in case my hard work disappears. As it does on goodreads. One wrong finger movement and all your typing goes into the abyss.
Read it. 1000 times better than the current lot.
Here’s my review of book 1. 👇🏽
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Her identical twin sister meanwhile had married the man they both were in love with. They had quite a fight of it trying to get him but Ginny lost believe it or not through the toss of a coin at the end of the first book (Twin Torment).
The deal was that the one who lost the toss would become a model and the one who won would keep the man.
He was confused. The hero. He fell in insta love with one girl. Then met her identical twin who fooled him to think she was the one he had met and made him fall deeper into love with her.
The one who lost poor thing had back bone and was a better human being. Well, almost. She did sleep with the hero who all the time was thinking it was the twin he was with. They had a beautiful night. He detected nothing till the second time when the other girl came to his bed. She had a surgery scar.
Anyway. He did not have to choose between them. They flipped a coin.
Our heroine left.
So now she’s back for the funeral. After the burial she walks over to her sisters grave. Yes the other twin spent two idyllic years with the man but then she died in a road accident. She had been a terrible driver in the first book.
The heroine felt the pain of the accident and blacked out and was terribly sick afterwards.
Yes the two twins were energetically connected and sometimes or mostly sensed the other’s feelings.
So she collapsed and was terribly mentally sick. Doctors couldn’t understand why she hurt so much when she just rolled down a ski slope.
Anyway she could not attend her beloved and hated sister’s funeral.
The hero accuses the heroine of being callous and cruel and a bitch. He forgets very easily that he himself had told the heroine to begone and never darken their doors ever again.
He is livid to see the heroine trying to lay a yellow rose on the grave. Prevents it. Hurting her. Then he slaps her. He’s not very nice is he? He blames her for being alive while her identical twin is dead.
He was madly and deeply in love with his wife. She was sweet and very housewifely and a shrinking Violet. She sewed curtains. I have nothing against people who sew curtains. I just hate the twin who stole the man. She stole him. She was a low down thief.
Anyway, she kept house for him and he took care of her. He was the protector. He thought she was a saint.
They lived in a house in bath gifted by the girl’s father. Now that that twin is dead. The house passes to the other twin as willed.
The hero loved that house. He had spent terribly happy years with his adored wife here. They were in fact building a nursery to welcome a child. They went to play tennis and were coming back in separate cars. It was raining. An accident happened. His loved wife died.
He had adored her. If sometimes a memory of the night he spent with the other twin surfaced or if he thought of the other twin when in bed with his wife he suppressed both facts deep in his psyche.
When he realised that the house had been left to the hated other twin he left it and moved into rooms at the university where he taught.
He grieved immensely. He would sometimes go and sit in that house or lay on the bed. As trails in the dust show the heroine.
She is still madly in love with him. Even though she got married to her mentor and spent two years with him.
They had a good sex life. But it was nothing like the night she spent with the hero. When she collapsed after her sister’s death her husband could not cope and left her and went on to wife number three.
So now she’s back in bath. Redoing her sister’s /her house. The hero and his close friend help her. Hero because he connects with her over the house.
He keeps mistaking her for her sister in their interactions. Calling her by her sister’s name and then becoming miserable and leaving. She looks exactly the same after all.
But she is no homebody like her sister. She carries on with her career as a freelance model.
Hero is drawn to her. This I could not stomach. For a man who said he hated her throughout the first book to suddenly be wanting to spend time with her makes zero sense.
But it was her looks after all that had attracted him to her in the first place in first book. She was the one he had initially fallen for. She was the one he slept with first because she fooled him to think she was her twin.
So that confused awareness and attraction is there. She’s very different from her sister by nature though. So it’s like he falls for a different woman this time.
Strangely till the end he struggles between attraction and hatred.
They go away on a boat with his friend one weekend. He kisses her. They sleep in the same cabin. Facing each other. When he wakes up he thinks she’s her twin and then remembers.
Till the end he’s struggling to remember she is not her twin.
That was what was unpleasant. He did not compare her favourably with her twin. Till the end he acts like the other one was precious and this one- she’s the slut who sleeps with random men. Who he turns to rather than her turning to him.
He grows into her. It’s not that falling in love which happened for the other twin. She of course loves him no matter what. He’s always been the one. The one whose happiness she counted above her own.
He is unable to sleep with her when they do decide to. He sees an accident and wants to affirm he’s alive in the most basic way. Sex. But he’s unable. Guilt and fidelity to his first wife.
He goes away. Breaks up. He leaves his wallet behind. Sends someone to get it. Heroine refuses to give it.
She starts unpacking her clothes (when she’s planning to sell the house and go away. Author made this mistake here).
Anyway. She starts finally to empty her sister’s wardrobe.
She comes across sister’s wedding dress. Wears it to understand how her sister looked on her wedding day. The day the hero forbade her from attending.
She wears the dress. The sister she had adored. The sister who cheated her of the love of her life. She’s wearing the dress looking at the mirror.
The bell rings. The hero who still has the keys to the house enters. She’s at the top of the stairs and he’s at the bottom. He sees her in the wedding dress and goes mad with rage. Tells her take off the dress how dare she wear it. A slut like her.
She screams at him. That he’s a lily livered coward who can’t even make love to a woman.
He tears the dress off her. They make love.
They finally declare love. He admits he loved both of them till they flipped a coin. Since he could not distinguish which was which.
He says his night with her was the best of his life.
He also says he would have lived with whichever of them chose him at that point.
This is the biggest weakness of the book.
If he had loved the heroine more throughout. Or secondly If he had slowly seen she is the better of the two girls then the readers would have liked it more.
This book left me unsatisfied and angry on behalf of the heroine. She deserved as much love as she felt for the man. She got less.
She literally moved continents so that her sister could be happy with the man. When all she wanted was to be with him any which way he chose. She was not hankering for marriage like her twin.
I felt the lack of an epilogue too. That wasn’t the era of epilogues.
Maybe some years down the line. Them. Now in love and happy.
The hero did not show the madness for her he showed (mistakenly and by wrong intent of wrong twin) for the heroines sister.
So that is my review.
Hope there are no typos. I daren’t scroll up to check in case my hard work disappears. As it does on goodreads. One wrong finger movement and all your typing goes into the abyss.
Read it. 1000 times better than the current lot.
Here’s my review of book 1. 👇🏽
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
February 7, 2018
Second book in two part series.
A was bitter sweet story, this was different kind of story from harlequin. I really like this one despite the mix reviews it has been gubernatorial it's worth giving a try.
A was bitter sweet story, this was different kind of story from harlequin. I really like this one despite the mix reviews it has been gubernatorial it's worth giving a try.
October 11, 2021
Just horrendous. I read the previous one (Twin Torment) and thought surely this sequel couldn't be so bad, surely the writer would find a way to redeem the grossness of the first story. But nope. This was just as disturbing and repellant. Hated both the h and the H.
Toxic story.
Toxic story.
December 28, 2023
I couldn't help skimming through this one, even though I hated the first book in this moronic series, mostly because I couldn't believe this author who'd written so many good novels didn't realize her goof with #1 and actually had the non-smarts to write a sequel!
But she did, more's the pity! Any story where the h gets her HEA at the expense of her dead twin sister is a story that never should have been written!
But she did, more's the pity! Any story where the h gets her HEA at the expense of her dead twin sister is a story that never should have been written!
July 19, 2020
Love this second book it's a great look at how life goes on after death. I love how ginny and Alex try fighting the mutual love between the two of them. The both lost someone so close to them and they try to be honest but it's obviously loves going to happen
April 10, 2026
1.25⭐️’s
“𝓘’𝓿𝓮 𝓪𝓵𝔀𝓪𝔂𝓼 𝓵𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓭 𝔂𝓸𝓾— 𝓻𝓲𝓰𝓱𝓽 𝓯𝓻𝓸𝓶 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓫𝓮𝓰𝓲𝓷𝓷𝓲𝓷𝓰? 𝓕𝓻𝓸𝓶 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓯𝓲𝓻𝓼𝓽 𝓭𝓪𝔂 𝔀𝓮 𝓶𝓮𝓽.”
𝚃𝚛𝚘𝚙𝚎𝚜:
♥️Second Chance
♥️Forbidden Romance
♥️Slow-burn
𝙷𝚊𝚙𝚙𝚒𝚕𝚢 𝙴𝚟𝚎𝚛 𝙰𝚏𝚝𝚎𝚛: Yes
*𝙿𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚎 𝚌𝚑𝚎𝚌𝚔 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚝𝚛𝚒𝚐𝚐𝚎𝚛𝚜 𝚋𝚎𝚏𝚘𝚛𝚎 𝚙𝚛𝚘𝚌𝚎𝚎𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚘 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚍*
February 14, 2021
Too slow. I finished it but only because I want to read everything Sally Wentworth wrote.
avoid
June 15, 2023Self note
Anna’s spoilers.
Anna’s spoilers.
January 21, 2025
que mierda acabo de leer?
April 17, 2025
Poor Ginny deserved so much better.
February 5, 2025
DNFFFFFF!!!
One of the worst books ever written.
One of the worst books ever written.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews