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Shades of Sin
The rebel is back....
Ruan Gardini had been the local 'bad boy.' Four years ago, his zest for life and love of danger had made Natasha come alive for the first time...
Natasha Trelawyn had been unhappy and withdrawn - until she'd met Ruan. But they'd parted bitter enemies, and she'd started a new life without him...
Now Ruan was back - to claim his revenge. And Natasha hadn't bargained for the power that he, with his darkly smoldering charisma, still possessed! How long could she keep on resisting him when he seemed intent on making her pay in full the price of their shared past?
Ruan Gardini had been the local 'bad boy.' Four years ago, his zest for life and love of danger had made Natasha come alive for the first time...
Natasha Trelawyn had been unhappy and withdrawn - until she'd met Ruan. But they'd parted bitter enemies, and she'd started a new life without him...
Now Ruan was back - to claim his revenge. And Natasha hadn't bargained for the power that he, with his darkly smoldering charisma, still possessed! How long could she keep on resisting him when he seemed intent on making her pay in full the price of their shared past?
- GenresHarlequin Presents
188 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1993
1 person is currently reading
28 people want to read
About the author
Sara Wood
254 books35 followersSara Wood was born in England. She has wonderful memories of her childhood. Her parents were desperately poor but their devotion to family life gave her a feeling of great security. Sara's father was one of four fostered children and never knew his parents, hence his joy with his own family. Birthday parties were sensational her father would perform brilliantly as a Chinese magician or a clown or invent hilarious games and treasure hunts. From him she learnt that working hard brought many rewards, especially self-respect. During her degree course she met her husband, a kind, thoughtful, attentive man who is her friend and soulmate. At 21, she married and had her first son at 22. Now she has another three children. She loved teaching in Sussex which she did for twelve years.
Her switch into writing came about in a peculiar way. Richie, her elder son, had always been nuts about natural history and had a huge collection of animal skulls. At the age of fifteen he decided he'd write an information book about collecting. Heinemann and Pan, prestigious publishers, eagerly fell on the book and when it was published it won the famous Times Information Book award. Interviews, TV and magazine articles followed. Encouraged by his success, she thought she could write too and had several information books for children published. Then she saw Charlotte Lamb being wined and dined by Mills & Boon on a television programme and decided she could do Charlotte's job! But she'd rarely read fiction before, so she bought twenty books and analysed them carefully, then wrote one of her own. Amazingly it was accepted and she began writing full time.
Sara and her husband moved to a small country estate in Cornwall which was a paradise. Her sons visited often; Richie being married to Heidi and with two daughters; Simon rushing in after some danger- filled action in Alaska or Hawaii etc, protecting the environment with Greenpeace. Sara qualified as a homeopath, caring for the health of her family and friends. But Paradise is always fleeting. Sara's husband became seriously ill and it was clear that they had to move somewhere less demanding on time and effort. After a nightmare year of worrying about him, nursing and watching him like a hawk, she was relieved when they'd sold up and moved back to Sussex. Their current house is large and thatched and sits in the pretty rolling downs with wonderful walks and views all around. They live nearer to the boys (men!) and see them often. Richie and Heidi are expecting another baby, Simon has a baby son and a new, dangerous, passion flinging himself off mountains (paragliding). The three hills nearby frequently entice him down. She adores seeing her family (mother, mother-in-law too) around the table at Christmas. Sara feels fortunate that although she's had tough times and has sometimes been desperately unhappy, she is now surrounded by love and feels she can weather any storm to come.
Her switch into writing came about in a peculiar way. Richie, her elder son, had always been nuts about natural history and had a huge collection of animal skulls. At the age of fifteen he decided he'd write an information book about collecting. Heinemann and Pan, prestigious publishers, eagerly fell on the book and when it was published it won the famous Times Information Book award. Interviews, TV and magazine articles followed. Encouraged by his success, she thought she could write too and had several information books for children published. Then she saw Charlotte Lamb being wined and dined by Mills & Boon on a television programme and decided she could do Charlotte's job! But she'd rarely read fiction before, so she bought twenty books and analysed them carefully, then wrote one of her own. Amazingly it was accepted and she began writing full time.
Sara and her husband moved to a small country estate in Cornwall which was a paradise. Her sons visited often; Richie being married to Heidi and with two daughters; Simon rushing in after some danger- filled action in Alaska or Hawaii etc, protecting the environment with Greenpeace. Sara qualified as a homeopath, caring for the health of her family and friends. But Paradise is always fleeting. Sara's husband became seriously ill and it was clear that they had to move somewhere less demanding on time and effort. After a nightmare year of worrying about him, nursing and watching him like a hawk, she was relieved when they'd sold up and moved back to Sussex. Their current house is large and thatched and sits in the pretty rolling downs with wonderful walks and views all around. They live nearer to the boys (men!) and see them often. Richie and Heidi are expecting another baby, Simon has a baby son and a new, dangerous, passion flinging himself off mountains (paragliding). The three hills nearby frequently entice him down. She adores seeing her family (mother, mother-in-law too) around the table at Christmas. Sara feels fortunate that although she's had tough times and has sometimes been desperately unhappy, she is now surrounded by love and feels she can weather any storm to come.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 9, 2018
Re Shades of Sin - Sara Wood - need I say more - takes us on another whacktastic mess of a plot with an idiotic h and an H who really should have known better but went ahead and tried to get his girl back anyway.
This book just goes OTT in TSTL drama and it all starts when the H crash lands in front of the h's humble Cornish seaside cottage in a big red hot air balloon. The h, who just returned to her home village after four years in London becoming a beauty consultant, runs out to help the balloonist.
She and the H are buried under the silk of the deflated balloon and roofie kisses ensue. That is when the h realizes it is the H and lets her inner Fury loose. It seems the h and the H and the OM were all childhood friends.
The h's parents were just regular people and the h is now an orphan after her father was lost at sea. She adored the Sicilian H as a teen and a child, they were an item for a bit when she was 18 or so. Then the H's diving and charter business was ruined when the h said she saw him signalling a yacht at night and there were rumors of smuggling.
There were also newspaper stories about the H's equipment being faulty and the H's father got cancer on top of everything else. The ensuing bad publicity bankrupted the H's business.
The h, jealous because the H never had time for her anymore due to his work, believed all the ladies he had been taking out on dives and drinking in the pub with were also being used as appetizer samples on his lady buffet.
The OM, who the h considers a childhood friend as well, is really quick to fan the story that the H is cheating on the h and when she offers to loan the H money to help out his family and then gets caught in an embrace with the OM, bitter words are spoken and the H leaves town. His Manly Macho Mojo has been insulted and he has to be free to rope wild rivers and wilder ladies with equal abandon.
The h is heartbroken and knows she has to earn her own living, so she goes to London and gets trained in cosmetology.
The OM, who is a local solicitor somehow, starts 'helping' local elderly ladies with their wills and their care home arrangements and mysteriously manages to become the owner of the local grand estate that the H always wanted for his own.
The OM also offers the h a chance at a being a partner in a very exclusive beauty spa franchise. The company the h is planning on setting up a franchise with does natural cosmetics, with a focus on skin treatments for burn and scar victims.
The h is really excited about setting up a medical/beauty spa and the OM is going to be her financial backer. All the h and the OM are waiting on is the arrival of beauty company's representative to go over the details and interview the h to see if she will make the cut.
There is lots of angry words between the H, the h and the OM every time they meet. We get H POV and he is all about revenge and he has a really attractive woman in tow that he uses to seduce the OM while he works his wiles on the h.
The H believes the h and the OM have a love for sale thing going on, but the h is really only there because of the new potential spa and because it is her home and she misses the area.
(This h is incredibly dumb and drama oriented, but she totally isn't a tart - yet.)
The H makes all sorts of threats that scare the OM and the h rattles on about how the H is a bad man and the OM is a really nice person and she sticks to her inanities until the H manages to slide in another roofie kiss or three.
Then we find out that the H is owner of the big beauty firm. When he left town four years earlier, he went to the rain forest and found all sorts of medicinal plants and hooked up with a French cosmetics firm, that he now owns. So the H is actually the company owner/director that will decide if the h gets a spa or not.
The H also tells the h that he is looking for evidence that the OM solicitor is defrauding his elderly clients, some of whom are quite wealthy. The h again rattles on about how the H is a bad man and the OM is a saint. Even tho the OM is living in the grand estate house of one of the elderly clients and claims he owns it and the elderly lady has disappeared.
The H personally knows the elderly lady from when he lived in the village and is now using his LaToya Jackson Detective School Online Degree to hunt her down, get evidence on the OM's fraudulent ways and push the h into trading purple passion lurve mojo moments for her clinic.
SW is keeping it clean tho, there is just a whole lot of roofie kissing with added Manly HP H Posturing going on, cause the h is very concerned about her unicorn grooming reputation - she needs that grooming license to show she is fit to run the potential beauty/med spa, doncha know.
The H finally agrees to let her start a franchise and the h is burbling about being happy about her new career opportunity and getting her spa set up, while also being insanely jealous of any woman who looks at the H. The h flips back and forth between being in love with the H and viewing everything he does as some kind of criminal activity.
Finally the big day of the spa opening arrives and the h and the press all show up and the whole spa is trashed. The OM is complaining his confidential files have been stolen and he claims the H took them. The H is doing his official Alpha Manly H Posturing and getting a roofie kiss or three in.
Then the fraud squad arrives, the h is crying over her ruined business and the OM is arrested and hauled off. The h goes back to berating the H and accuses him of yet more criminal behavior and the H finally has enough and wanders off for six months.
We next see the h, having had six months of mopey moments in between working with scar and burn victims at the local hospital, crying by her fireplace and listening to the huge storm outside when the H crawls through her window.
The H came back to let the h know that he found the missing elderly lady and he is now her conservator and she is really, really rich, but mentally incompetent. So the H is taking her back to her grand manor house, that the OM tried to steal, to live out her last days being cared for by the H.
The H now gets all of the elderly lady's property and money and the house and he loves the h and wants her to marry him because he really only ever loved her, none of his other buffet samples had the same satisfying flavor.
The h has a little ranty moment against the H, until the magic words of property, money and grand manor house are heard and then she is all about declaring her love and avowing she always believed in the H and his integrity for the big HEA.
That is what I got out of this mess anyway. Tho others might get more out of it if they have more patience than I did for all the trainwrecky, highly emotional OTT drama of the very volatile idiot that is the h in this little wreck of an HP adventure.
The H was kinda silly too, with all his Manly Sicilian Mojo, but he turned out to be a decent guy in the end, mostly. I kinda felt a little bad that he just had this thing for crazy, ranty ladies and got stuck with the h, tho SW made sure it paid off for him in the grande finale of this HPlandia outing.
This book just goes OTT in TSTL drama and it all starts when the H crash lands in front of the h's humble Cornish seaside cottage in a big red hot air balloon. The h, who just returned to her home village after four years in London becoming a beauty consultant, runs out to help the balloonist.
She and the H are buried under the silk of the deflated balloon and roofie kisses ensue. That is when the h realizes it is the H and lets her inner Fury loose. It seems the h and the H and the OM were all childhood friends.
The h's parents were just regular people and the h is now an orphan after her father was lost at sea. She adored the Sicilian H as a teen and a child, they were an item for a bit when she was 18 or so. Then the H's diving and charter business was ruined when the h said she saw him signalling a yacht at night and there were rumors of smuggling.
There were also newspaper stories about the H's equipment being faulty and the H's father got cancer on top of everything else. The ensuing bad publicity bankrupted the H's business.
The h, jealous because the H never had time for her anymore due to his work, believed all the ladies he had been taking out on dives and drinking in the pub with were also being used as appetizer samples on his lady buffet.
The OM, who the h considers a childhood friend as well, is really quick to fan the story that the H is cheating on the h and when she offers to loan the H money to help out his family and then gets caught in an embrace with the OM, bitter words are spoken and the H leaves town. His Manly Macho Mojo has been insulted and he has to be free to rope wild rivers and wilder ladies with equal abandon.
The h is heartbroken and knows she has to earn her own living, so she goes to London and gets trained in cosmetology.
The OM, who is a local solicitor somehow, starts 'helping' local elderly ladies with their wills and their care home arrangements and mysteriously manages to become the owner of the local grand estate that the H always wanted for his own.
The OM also offers the h a chance at a being a partner in a very exclusive beauty spa franchise. The company the h is planning on setting up a franchise with does natural cosmetics, with a focus on skin treatments for burn and scar victims.
The h is really excited about setting up a medical/beauty spa and the OM is going to be her financial backer. All the h and the OM are waiting on is the arrival of beauty company's representative to go over the details and interview the h to see if she will make the cut.
There is lots of angry words between the H, the h and the OM every time they meet. We get H POV and he is all about revenge and he has a really attractive woman in tow that he uses to seduce the OM while he works his wiles on the h.
The H believes the h and the OM have a love for sale thing going on, but the h is really only there because of the new potential spa and because it is her home and she misses the area.
(This h is incredibly dumb and drama oriented, but she totally isn't a tart - yet.)
The H makes all sorts of threats that scare the OM and the h rattles on about how the H is a bad man and the OM is a really nice person and she sticks to her inanities until the H manages to slide in another roofie kiss or three.
Then we find out that the H is owner of the big beauty firm. When he left town four years earlier, he went to the rain forest and found all sorts of medicinal plants and hooked up with a French cosmetics firm, that he now owns. So the H is actually the company owner/director that will decide if the h gets a spa or not.
The H also tells the h that he is looking for evidence that the OM solicitor is defrauding his elderly clients, some of whom are quite wealthy. The h again rattles on about how the H is a bad man and the OM is a saint. Even tho the OM is living in the grand estate house of one of the elderly clients and claims he owns it and the elderly lady has disappeared.
The H personally knows the elderly lady from when he lived in the village and is now using his LaToya Jackson Detective School Online Degree to hunt her down, get evidence on the OM's fraudulent ways and push the h into trading purple passion lurve mojo moments for her clinic.
SW is keeping it clean tho, there is just a whole lot of roofie kissing with added Manly HP H Posturing going on, cause the h is very concerned about her unicorn grooming reputation - she needs that grooming license to show she is fit to run the potential beauty/med spa, doncha know.
The H finally agrees to let her start a franchise and the h is burbling about being happy about her new career opportunity and getting her spa set up, while also being insanely jealous of any woman who looks at the H. The h flips back and forth between being in love with the H and viewing everything he does as some kind of criminal activity.
Finally the big day of the spa opening arrives and the h and the press all show up and the whole spa is trashed. The OM is complaining his confidential files have been stolen and he claims the H took them. The H is doing his official Alpha Manly H Posturing and getting a roofie kiss or three in.
Then the fraud squad arrives, the h is crying over her ruined business and the OM is arrested and hauled off. The h goes back to berating the H and accuses him of yet more criminal behavior and the H finally has enough and wanders off for six months.
We next see the h, having had six months of mopey moments in between working with scar and burn victims at the local hospital, crying by her fireplace and listening to the huge storm outside when the H crawls through her window.
The H came back to let the h know that he found the missing elderly lady and he is now her conservator and she is really, really rich, but mentally incompetent. So the H is taking her back to her grand manor house, that the OM tried to steal, to live out her last days being cared for by the H.
The H now gets all of the elderly lady's property and money and the house and he loves the h and wants her to marry him because he really only ever loved her, none of his other buffet samples had the same satisfying flavor.
The h has a little ranty moment against the H, until the magic words of property, money and grand manor house are heard and then she is all about declaring her love and avowing she always believed in the H and his integrity for the big HEA.
That is what I got out of this mess anyway. Tho others might get more out of it if they have more patience than I did for all the trainwrecky, highly emotional OTT drama of the very volatile idiot that is the h in this little wreck of an HP adventure.
The H was kinda silly too, with all his Manly Sicilian Mojo, but he turned out to be a decent guy in the end, mostly. I kinda felt a little bad that he just had this thing for crazy, ranty ladies and got stuck with the h, tho SW made sure it paid off for him in the grande finale of this HPlandia outing.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 6, 2012
This is one of those books that for the first thirty pages or so you have absolutely no idea what is going on yet it is difficult to put down.
The basic theme of this book is revenge, but the plot is much more complicated and intriguing than your usual revenge-style romance. This made for a very up-and-down read; the book manages to be both gripping and frustrating.
I like Sara Wood’s style, very ‘classic’ yet with plenty of passion and depth. The inclusion of the hero’s POV (strange in a book of this time) is a definite plus and helps the plot flow a little more smoothly.
The love story between the hero and heroine is very powerful, with lots of tenderness steming from the hero and heroine being childhood sweethearts, as well as some stormy emotions when they are reunited. I felt that there was so much going on in the story that the actually romance got lost amongst it and the book ended up feeling a little disjointed.
A good read, just not quite there.
Originally posted at http://everyday-is-the-same.blogspot....
The basic theme of this book is revenge, but the plot is much more complicated and intriguing than your usual revenge-style romance. This made for a very up-and-down read; the book manages to be both gripping and frustrating.
I like Sara Wood’s style, very ‘classic’ yet with plenty of passion and depth. The inclusion of the hero’s POV (strange in a book of this time) is a definite plus and helps the plot flow a little more smoothly.
The love story between the hero and heroine is very powerful, with lots of tenderness steming from the hero and heroine being childhood sweethearts, as well as some stormy emotions when they are reunited. I felt that there was so much going on in the story that the actually romance got lost amongst it and the book ended up feeling a little disjointed.
A good read, just not quite there.
Originally posted at http://everyday-is-the-same.blogspot....
May 15, 2013
I'd always been fascinated to see what went into a Mills and Boon. This one is set in Cornwall and there's certainly plenty of action. I was fortunate enough to fall asleep on the Metropolitan Line and wake up in Wembley park at the exact same time that a Tom Jones concert had finished. On seeing my reading material a carriage full of hormonal 40-something women demanded I read the 'juicy bits' out loud. One of the maddest train rides of my life. And probably theirs.
January 7, 2022
This was an interesting book. It started off very intense and there wasn’t a whole lot of Romance. The romance didn’t really hit until the end. I felt myself holding my breath wondering what kind of crazy was going to happen next.
abrierto-to-read-hr-other
February 8, 2021The rebel is back...
Ruan Gardini had been the local "bad boy." Four years ago, his zest for life and love of danger had made Natasha come alive for the first time...
Natasha Trelawny had been unhappy and withdrawn - until she met Ruan. But they'd parted bitter enemies, and she'd started a new life without him...
Now Ruan is back - to claim his revenge. And Natasha hadn't bargained fo rthe power that he, with his darkly smoldering charisma, still possessed! How long could she keep on resisting him when he seemed intent on making her pay in full the price of their shared past?
Ruan Gardini had been the local "bad boy." Four years ago, his zest for life and love of danger had made Natasha come alive for the first time...
Natasha Trelawny had been unhappy and withdrawn - until she met Ruan. But they'd parted bitter enemies, and she'd started a new life without him...
Now Ruan is back - to claim his revenge. And Natasha hadn't bargained fo rthe power that he, with his darkly smoldering charisma, still possessed! How long could she keep on resisting him when he seemed intent on making her pay in full the price of their shared past?
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews