Bittersweet Revenge

by Kelly Adams

Book by Adams, Kelly

278 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1982

About the author

Linda Buechting writes as Kelly Adams and Kelly Jamison.

Reviews

[reeder (reviews) · Rating 2 out of 5]

A revenge-by-marriage romance fueled by misunderstandings, lies, jealousy, and the constant threat of marital rape.

The hero and heroine were involved in a whirlwind love affair when she sees him at a fancy restaurant, giving a ring to a gorgeous redhead and kissing her. (Spoiler: this was a set-up by the heroine's evil stepbrother. Evil stepbrother didn't want the alpha business male hero getting his hands on his stepsister's company shares and inevitably wresting control of the family company away from him.) The next day, the heroine breaks off her relationship with the hero, claiming it had only been a fling while she was visiting Quebec and now she's going back to her lover in Syracuse. (*snicker* I guess that's better than her lover in Boise.)

A year later, the company's in trouble and the only way the hero will agree to save it is if the heroine marries him. Why? He needs a hostess, of course. The heroine agrees, but only if they don't sleep together and can separate in three months, at the end of Quebec's winter carnival. Fine, but if she takes lovers or attempts to "escape" their marriage (telling language), he will make it a "real" one.

He immediately starts controlling what the heroine wears, including selecting her wedding dress (pink, because she has so many lovers she doesn't deserve to wear white). He introduces her to his sexy assistant...*gasp* the redhead from a year ago. He tries to force the heroine to have lunch with them, but she's always ducking out for lunch with the friend from Syracuse she had claimed was her lover.

They go to various holiday parties where the OW is always a guest, and the heroine drinks too much at every single one. Hard to blame her. At the first party, the OW declares that their marriage looks miserable and she's looking forward to the heroine's leftovers. At an office party, someone urges the hero to kiss the heroine, since she's standing beneath the mistletoe. Immediately afterwards, he gives the OW a kiss "which lasted a fraction of a second longer" than the one he gave his wife and everyone whoops with laughter while the heroine burns with humiliation.

The heroine continues to use the not!OM from Syracuse as a shield, so the hero decides to fire him. This is the breaking point for the heroine, who heads to the airport to buy a ticket for Syracuse to apologize to the OM. The hero intercepts her and now she must pay the price for breaking their agreement by trying to flee the marriage. Of course, the sex reminds her that she loves this man. At least until the next day, when she drops by his office for lunch only to be coolly dismissed in front of his sexy redheaded assistant. (Lunch has been a huge battleground for this pair. There's no way he didn't understand the significance of what he was doing, even if he was busy with work. Since we as romance readers know he is in love with his wife, I honestly don't understand his motivation here. This is his opportunity for rapprochement, and he blows it. Was he feeling guilty for the night before?)

The stepbrother makes trouble. The OW continues to drape herself all over the hero in front of everybody. Finally, the heroine breaks down in the middle of an argument with the hero and races into traffic, where he gets hit by a car while pushing her to safety. Of course she's crying out her love as she cradles him in her arms. Allowed to go home from the hospital that afternoon despite his undoubtedly life-threatening concussion, the hero unpacks all the heroine's accusations about him and the OW.

• The OW's father is a jeweler, and she was only delivering the ring to him, which he was going to use to propose to the heroine the next day. (Who lets another woman try on their intended's engagement ring and then kisses her??)
• He kissed the OW at the heroine's last drunken party and sent her flowers afterwards as a goodbye, since the OW had accepted a job the hero had arranged with another company (because he knew the OW "wasn't willing to let go").

And HEA...assuming your idea of an HEA involves the heroine becoming a full-blown alcoholic in the next 5 years. Aside from her drinking, his threats of marital rape were extremely troubling. I can usually shrug that off in a vintage romance because pre-1990s sexual hang-ups require a ridiculous amount of fictional force, but I realize I need a hint of vulnerability from the hero to excuse that behavior and I just wasn't getting any here.

I'm only reviewing this because it's an Open Library title, so I have no other record of having read it and I'll need the trail in a few months when I try to remember "which book was it where the hero humiliates the heroine in front of the OW by refusing to go to lunch with her...?" This book.

[Debby · Rating 4 out of 5]

She lied over and over again, she slapped the H in his face and she was using the OM to hurt the H and save face because she thought the H was cheating on her.

The H was a nice guy and he didn’t deserve to be treated like that. Because of the besotted H it’s 4 stars.

Crazy how such awful behaviour from the h is accepted. If it were the H slapping the h in her face and telling so many lies, then the female readers would hate on him.

[StMargarets · Rating 2 out of 5]

Heroine jumps to conclusions. Hero jumps to conclusions. Evil stepbrother plays them both for money and blackmail and giggles.

H/h never communicate - just trade insults and half-truths. It got tedious waiting for them to grow up.

While they were equally at fault, I blame the heroine more for how she almost got her coverstory OM fired for being a nice guy to her. She was the worst.

Also, I just can't do Canada as a romantic setting.

[Ellyn (Mrs. Darcy in my Dreams) · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️This was a painful, angst ridden book to read! I wish the miscommunications hadn’t lasted so long.

[Isha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing read! One of my best book till time.

I can read this anytime, It takes me to a dream world :)

Would love to have a man like Brent in my life :D he he he