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The Sins Of His Past
The Sins of His Past by Roxanne St. Claire released on Jan 10, 2006 is available now for purchase.
192 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 10, 2006
6 people are currently reading
103 people want to read
About the author
Roxanne St. Claire
268 books1,835 followersI don’t know about you, but when I check out an author's bio, it’s usually because I’ve read a book I liked and wondered about the person behind it. Let's skip the formal bio and I'll give you the inside scoop on who Roxanne St. Claire really is.
First of all, call me Rocki. Everyone does. Evidently, when my mother brought me home from the hospital I seemed too scrawny and small to pull off “Roxanne” (she’d read Cyrano de Bergerac while pregnant or I would have been Judy) so they called me Rocki.
I grew up in Pittsburgh, PA, the youngest of five (overachievers, every one), and fell in love with words and stories the summer I read Gone With The Wind. That year, for my twelfth birthday, my parents gave me a typewriter (with italic font – it was the coolest thing) and from that day on, I’ve had my fingers on a keyboard, pounding out love stories for fun. My AP English teacher taught me the two most important lessons an aspiring author ever needs: 1) verbs are the key to life and 2) a writer should get a real job. After attending UCLA and graduating with a degree in communications, I tried acting and television broadcasting. Oh, they aren’t real jobs? I learned that the hard way. I changed my last name from Zink to St. Claire because a news producer told me Roxanne Zink had too many harsh consonants for a TV personality – apparently Katie Couric didn’t get the memo. I got some fun gigs, and even met Tom Hanks when I did a guest appearance on Bosom Buddies. I liked on camera work, but wasn’t too crazy about starvation, so I moved to Boston and got that “real” job. In fact, I placed my foot on the bottom rung of the corporate ladder and didn’t look down until I’d climbed all the way up to the level of Senior Vice President at the world’s largest public relations firm. On the way up, I met the man of my dreams in an elevator. Two years later – in the same elevator! – he asked me to marry him and I wisely said yes.
I stayed in PR, moved to Miami, had a few babies, lost my home in a hurricane, built another one a few hours north and all along, I kept writing my “stories” for fun. One night, I read a particularly fabulous romance novel that changed my life for good. That night, I decided I wanted to make someone else feel as whole and happy as that author made me feel. (Everyone asks! It was Nobody’s Baby But Mine by Susan Elizabeth Phillips.) With two small children and one big “real” job, writing my first novel wasn’t easy, but I did finish a manuscript that managed to get the attention of a literary agent. She told me to do one thing and one thing fast: write another book. (The first one is usually a “learner” book, honestly.) That second manuscript sold to Simon & Schuster’s Pocket Books and was released in 2003 as Tropical Getaway. Since then, I’ve written almost thirty more, in multiple genres, and long ago replaced the corporate ladder with the rollercoaster of publishing as a full-time novelist. Finally, writing is my real job.
Today, I live in a small beach community in Florida with my husband and two dogs. Our kids are off to college and law school, which means my nest is empty! I spend my time writing, working with the kids at my church, enjoying my husband's gourmet cooking, and hanging with my many writer friends. Of course, I love to read. I’m still crazy about words and stories and hope to write at least a hundred books in my lifetime. And, yes, verbs are the key to life. My favorites? Love. Work. Believe.
xoxo
Rocki
First of all, call me Rocki. Everyone does. Evidently, when my mother brought me home from the hospital I seemed too scrawny and small to pull off “Roxanne” (she’d read Cyrano de Bergerac while pregnant or I would have been Judy) so they called me Rocki.
I grew up in Pittsburgh, PA, the youngest of five (overachievers, every one), and fell in love with words and stories the summer I read Gone With The Wind. That year, for my twelfth birthday, my parents gave me a typewriter (with italic font – it was the coolest thing) and from that day on, I’ve had my fingers on a keyboard, pounding out love stories for fun. My AP English teacher taught me the two most important lessons an aspiring author ever needs: 1) verbs are the key to life and 2) a writer should get a real job. After attending UCLA and graduating with a degree in communications, I tried acting and television broadcasting. Oh, they aren’t real jobs? I learned that the hard way. I changed my last name from Zink to St. Claire because a news producer told me Roxanne Zink had too many harsh consonants for a TV personality – apparently Katie Couric didn’t get the memo. I got some fun gigs, and even met Tom Hanks when I did a guest appearance on Bosom Buddies. I liked on camera work, but wasn’t too crazy about starvation, so I moved to Boston and got that “real” job. In fact, I placed my foot on the bottom rung of the corporate ladder and didn’t look down until I’d climbed all the way up to the level of Senior Vice President at the world’s largest public relations firm. On the way up, I met the man of my dreams in an elevator. Two years later – in the same elevator! – he asked me to marry him and I wisely said yes.
I stayed in PR, moved to Miami, had a few babies, lost my home in a hurricane, built another one a few hours north and all along, I kept writing my “stories” for fun. One night, I read a particularly fabulous romance novel that changed my life for good. That night, I decided I wanted to make someone else feel as whole and happy as that author made me feel. (Everyone asks! It was Nobody’s Baby But Mine by Susan Elizabeth Phillips.) With two small children and one big “real” job, writing my first novel wasn’t easy, but I did finish a manuscript that managed to get the attention of a literary agent. She told me to do one thing and one thing fast: write another book. (The first one is usually a “learner” book, honestly.) That second manuscript sold to Simon & Schuster’s Pocket Books and was released in 2003 as Tropical Getaway. Since then, I’ve written almost thirty more, in multiple genres, and long ago replaced the corporate ladder with the rollercoaster of publishing as a full-time novelist. Finally, writing is my real job.
Today, I live in a small beach community in Florida with my husband and two dogs. Our kids are off to college and law school, which means my nest is empty! I spend my time writing, working with the kids at my church, enjoying my husband's gourmet cooking, and hanging with my many writer friends. Of course, I love to read. I’m still crazy about words and stories and hope to write at least a hundred books in my lifetime. And, yes, verbs are the key to life. My favorites? Love. Work. Believe.
xoxo
Rocki
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
March 13, 2021
I couldn't stand Deuce - he's a selfish, arrogant, manipulative POS who thinks the world revolves around him. He couldn't be bothered to call or see his father for years - even when his father had a pacemaker put in. Deuce had no clue that his father changed the bar or was engaged to be married. Yet he goes home expecting everyone to be thankful he's home and have his father turn over the bar to him. Same arrogance & self of entitlement with the way he treated Kendra and she had no backbone at all with him. He was crushing her dreams/life yet again and not only did she do nothing about it but thought it was ok to fall into bed with him again.
Finally within the last 10% of the book, he grew a conscience and became tolerable but it was way too late to save this story for me.
Finally within the last 10% of the book, he grew a conscience and became tolerable but it was way too late to save this story for me.
March 23, 2013
Ms. St. Claire's contribution is "The Sins of His Past" which features two people who had a thing years ago and features them reuniting years later in a competitive manner. Basically Deuce and Kendra slept together years ago and then he left town because he was playing baseball or something. He promised to call and then didn't. Thus leads to the competition that had me throwing the book across the room.
See Deuce's father owns a bar and Deuce, in a fit of stupidity, decides to return home and manage the family business with no experience or double-checking to see if it is even possible. Of course, Kendra now runs the bar which is not really a bar anymore and has great plans for the cyber-cafe.
The second the son returns the father begins to question the plan for the cyber cafe and just sort of goes "Well he's my son so forget you Kendra." I almost stopped reading at that. Deuce hasn't been back to town in ten years or seen his dad much in that time but he expects everyone to drop everything and hand him the business?! Seriously?! Forget the surrogate daughter because the hot-shot baseball player is back in town?
Well of course they go into working together because the father's fiancee decrees it. Deuce runs a bar at night while the cyber cafe runs during the day. Throughout the whole bit they begin a romance and deal with their past and a huge secret. Of course Deuce wants to leave town the second his baseball team will take him back (do you see the words 'big misunderstanding' looming?).
In general it was a fine story but I had major issues with the 'drop everything for the returning son' bit. I actually wanted someone to tell him he was being ridiculous and a bit selfish. No one did of course.
2 Stars
Published by Silhouette (#1702)
192 Pages
Originally Published: January 10, 2006
See Deuce's father owns a bar and Deuce, in a fit of stupidity, decides to return home and manage the family business with no experience or double-checking to see if it is even possible. Of course, Kendra now runs the bar which is not really a bar anymore and has great plans for the cyber-cafe.
The second the son returns the father begins to question the plan for the cyber cafe and just sort of goes "Well he's my son so forget you Kendra." I almost stopped reading at that. Deuce hasn't been back to town in ten years or seen his dad much in that time but he expects everyone to drop everything and hand him the business?! Seriously?! Forget the surrogate daughter because the hot-shot baseball player is back in town?
Well of course they go into working together because the father's fiancee decrees it. Deuce runs a bar at night while the cyber cafe runs during the day. Throughout the whole bit they begin a romance and deal with their past and a huge secret. Of course Deuce wants to leave town the second his baseball team will take him back (do you see the words 'big misunderstanding' looming?).
In general it was a fine story but I had major issues with the 'drop everything for the returning son' bit. I actually wanted someone to tell him he was being ridiculous and a bit selfish. No one did of course.
2 Stars
Published by Silhouette (#1702)
192 Pages
Originally Published: January 10, 2006
March 19, 2012
Very good book, with lots of emotion. When Deuce came home, he expected to walk in and take over running his dad's bar. He had lots of good ideas about turning it into a fantastic sports bar. He got a rude shock when he discovered it had been turned into a cyber-cafe, and Kendra was running it. She had big plans also, and when Deuce's dad gave them six weeks to work out a compromise, she wasn't sure what to do. She didn't want to give up her dreams again, but spending time with him hurt too much. Deuce knew he had messed up, and he wanted a chance to make things right. Could he get her to give them a second chance, or would he be able to give up his dream this time? I loved watching them as they danced around each other and their attraction. I also thought they did a great job of compromising and making Monroe's work for both of them.
March 20, 2019
I read the first couple of chapters as it didn't hook me in, skipped to the last two. The H was an arrogant jerk and h doesn't use her Harvard brain around H and just comes across as pathetic more than anything else.
May 21, 2018
Parents do the darndest thing. Like giving away Malone’s!
June 12, 2018
Parents do the darndest thing. Like giving away Malone’s!
October 1, 2013
It's weird but I feel like I started reading in the middle of the book; it just starts off kind of awkwardly.
The writing style is a little immature and low quality. The author never digs deeply into her characters and they are definitely not multifaceted. This story wasn't even what I would call a guilty pleasure read, you know the fast, dirty, but not particularly intelligent read with quality writing. This whole story was dull.
This was an "eh" book for sure, not even positive I would call it enjoyable. If you were going to a doctor's appointment and needed something to read though, I would totally recommend this for you to read during your two hour wait. You won't ever get too terribly involved with the story and characters and if you get pulled away from reading it's super easy to pick up and read again without forgetting what happened.
**Ok, so I had to go to amazon to get a summary for this book, I am waaaay to lazy to come up with my own, and there were 5 reviews and all of those 5 people gave this book 5 stars! WTF, I read through what they said but I completely do not see what they do. This is a "Desire" read from Silhouette so maybe people were expecting less than I was. I personally think these reviewers are amateur romance readers or relatives of the author. Oh and saying a character is a pitcher in the MLB does not make a sports story my friends, especially if you don't compound on this and have the professional athlete breaking a contract that is worth millions. I'm really feeling bitter and mislead by this book now...
D
The writing style is a little immature and low quality. The author never digs deeply into her characters and they are definitely not multifaceted. This story wasn't even what I would call a guilty pleasure read, you know the fast, dirty, but not particularly intelligent read with quality writing. This whole story was dull.
This was an "eh" book for sure, not even positive I would call it enjoyable. If you were going to a doctor's appointment and needed something to read though, I would totally recommend this for you to read during your two hour wait. You won't ever get too terribly involved with the story and characters and if you get pulled away from reading it's super easy to pick up and read again without forgetting what happened.
**Ok, so I had to go to amazon to get a summary for this book, I am waaaay to lazy to come up with my own, and there were 5 reviews and all of those 5 people gave this book 5 stars! WTF, I read through what they said but I completely do not see what they do. This is a "Desire" read from Silhouette so maybe people were expecting less than I was. I personally think these reviewers are amateur romance readers or relatives of the author. Oh and saying a character is a pitcher in the MLB does not make a sports story my friends, especially if you don't compound on this and have the professional athlete breaking a contract that is worth millions. I'm really feeling bitter and mislead by this book now...
D
August 13, 2012
Read this story as part of the "Kiss Me I'm Irish" anthology. I am going to count the 3 books individually for my challenge because all of them were previously published as single books. (I seen 2 of the 3 on the Swap Book cart at the library just last week...how weird). Anyways, I enjoyed this book, it hooked me right from the start. It was also a nice quick read. It's been awhile since I've read anything by her, and all of that was her NASCAR related books so it was a nice change of pace.
April 3, 2012
I had trouble with this one at the beginning because I really didn't like Deuce Monroe. What an arrogant jerk and I was nearly in tears for poor Kendra when he arrived back in town, ruining her plans by announcing he was taking over his family's bar! Luckily, Ms St Claire has an incredible ability to change your mind about Deuce and quickly was able to make me like him. This is the first story by this author that I have read, and I'll definitely be reading more.
July 30, 2008
As usual, Roxanne writes a compelling book!
March 23, 2012
A quick enjoyable read. This story was a sweet little romance that filled an enjoyable couple of hours. I liked Roxanne's style and will probably look up some of her other stories.
September 19, 2012
Gotta love a romance for easy, light reading.
February 10, 2014
been a while since i've read an actual category romance..no real surprises but a nice lite read
March 4, 2014
Vary quick read, but very human characters with believable and relatable backstories. I found this book to be incredibly emotional and quite heartbreaking, though it had a HEA ending.
September 29, 2015
I enjoyed this book. But then I usually like sports guy books! Enjoy
August 26, 2012
Cute romance!! Quick read!
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews