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Egyptian Nights
Egyptian Nights by Joanna Mansell released on Jul 25, 1991 is available now for purchase.
187 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1990
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 31, 2017
Re Egyptian Nights - Joanna Mansell - dial your HP meter to Super Stalkerific with this one, JM brings us an H who just will not take NO for an answer.
To be clear, there is no rape or forced seduction in this one. In fact, the H is very charming - but he is a hag fish leech and even when the h is telling him that his attentions are seriously messing up her life, he just doesn't quit until he maneuvers the h into a position where she is dependent on his largess to make it out of Egypt. He is very much like one of those really intense military snipers. He is perfectly amiable and easy going normally, but when he sets his sights on his target, NOTHING will stop him from doing as he wants and it actually becomes kinda creepy.
This one starts with our 23 yr old h in Egypt with a group of fourteen year old girls. The h is an orphan, her parents and her siblings died in hotel fire when she was eight and she was raised by elderly grandparents. They passed while she was on the final year of her teacher training and the h also had a serious boyfriend that couldn't handle her pushing him for marriage, so he dumped her.
The h knows she was in the wrong on the relationship, but she was so desperate and depressed about losing what little she had left of her family that she clung too hard and demanded too much. Essentially for her, her relationship with her boyfriend wasn't really about love, it was about he had a huge welcoming family and she needed that, but he just wasn't ready for marriage and building a family, so he ran.
When the ex dumped her, the h crashed. She knows she probably needed some grief counseling, but instead she left school right before her qualifying finals and sank into a severe depression for six months. She finally dragged herself out of the pit of despair only to realize she has no qualifications and no skills. (Now why she couldn't reapply to take her final exams and a refresher course I don't know, but JM said it was so and I just rolled with it.)
One of her friends recommends the h try for a job at a private school. The h got the job and since the teacher that was supposed to accompany the headmistress on the Egypt trip couldn't make it, the h got forcibly volunteered. So now she and a group of 14 yr olds are wandering around Egypt under the ministrations of a severe and martinet headmistress, who won't allow for anything but boring cultural excursions and both the h and the young ladies are feeling the ennui.
While they are at the Cairo museum, one of the girls feels faint as a ploy to get out of more boring exhibits. A very attractive man steps up to help out and the h is instantly leery. The man is a bit cheeky and more than a bit flirtatious, the h does her best to shake him off, but he just keeps coming back.
He tells her that he is a photographer and wants to use the h as a model for a holiday travel brochure. He has been following the h around as she takes a few hours off to wander around the Egyptian Bazaar. She explains that she isn't interested. He has also been taking pictures of the h and she demands his film, she doesn't want to be in any photos and she doesn't want to be harassed. Tho she does get the pictures developed and she is shocked at how different she looks in them. The H even follows her back to her hotel and then does a sneak attack kiss right when the h's boss, the headmistress, walks up. The headmistress is not pleased and the h is put on warning.
The H is not giving up tho and he follows them to a tour of the pyramids and pretends to be a tour guide by dressing in robes and dyeing his skin. He even flirts with the martinet headmistress and the h is just hoping that no one recognizes him as the man the headmistress caught kissing the h on the street the preceding day.
The h tells him for the 1000th time that she doesn't want to know him, but the H just WON'T leave her alone. Back at the hotel, he goes to her room and there is a big fight where the H is determined that she will traipse around Egypt with him and be his model.
The h makes the very good point that it isn't up to him what she does and he doesn't know her and she isn't a curbside pickup. The H doesn't care tho and the h eventually goes back downstairs to wait for the headmistress and the students to return. The headmistress follows the h to her room later to pick up a book and then fires the h when she finds the H just out of the shower in the h's room. The h is just flabbergasted and the H is delighted cause now the h HAS to go with him, she has limited funds and her plane ticket isn't good until the end of the week.
So we get a travelogue of Egypt and the h and H get really close while staying in the nicest Egyptain hotels. The attraction builds and eventually they have a lurve club moment. Then the h and H run into one of his very chatty friends.
The friend spills the beans that the H isn't a photographer at all, he owns a big computer company and that he makes a habit of latching on to ladies he is interested in and then hounding them until he is done with them. The h is mortified, appalled and pretty much gobsmacked at the audacity of the H.
Then she gets really, really mad and when she finds the H, she tells him exactly where to go and how to get there. She walks out feeling totally used and betrayed and wondering if the H really intended to pay her for sleeping with him. She ends up at the same hotel with the school students she started at. She asks the headmistress for her job back, explaining that the H was just some harasser and the h had nothing going on with him. The martinet headmistress gives the h her job back and the h prepares to go home.
The H shows up again and tries to convince the h not to go, she isn't listening and she tells him she doesn't like liars. He begs a lot and tells her he really did have a valid photo job for a friend who owns a travel agency, it just isn't what he really does normally. But he likes taking pictures and he likes the h and surely she wants to continue to experience the big lurve mojo they share. The h isn't going there and kicks him out.
The next day, the H is waiting at the airport. He loudly proclaims he loves the h in front of the schoolgirls and the headmistress and then he proposes. The h is overwhelmed and since she loves him too and he is proposing, she accepts and surrenders to the H's roofie kiss for the big HEA.
This one isn't terrible except for the major, major creepy stalkerism of the H. It got to be unnerving cause it was for over half the book. I thought it was excessive, especially when his friend blurts out that the H had done that before when he liked a lady. If this wasn't HPLandia, I would be checking the H's bags for duct tape and ropes and sharp instruments and even now I am not entirely convinced it is unnecessary.
The h was pretty decent and tried hard not to be a doormat, but the H's sheer persistence kinda made for a dubious HEA. After all if this is something he frequently does, then how do we know he won't dump the h when a more interesting lady proposition grabs his attention?
Read this one if the stalkerific is your cuppa or if you like Egypt and want to visit it HPlandia style. The HEA is marginally believable and the h's big smackdown at the end was good, it was the intensity of the H I questioned and made this outing just okay in the annals of HPlandia.
To be clear, there is no rape or forced seduction in this one. In fact, the H is very charming - but he is a hag fish leech and even when the h is telling him that his attentions are seriously messing up her life, he just doesn't quit until he maneuvers the h into a position where she is dependent on his largess to make it out of Egypt. He is very much like one of those really intense military snipers. He is perfectly amiable and easy going normally, but when he sets his sights on his target, NOTHING will stop him from doing as he wants and it actually becomes kinda creepy.
This one starts with our 23 yr old h in Egypt with a group of fourteen year old girls. The h is an orphan, her parents and her siblings died in hotel fire when she was eight and she was raised by elderly grandparents. They passed while she was on the final year of her teacher training and the h also had a serious boyfriend that couldn't handle her pushing him for marriage, so he dumped her.
The h knows she was in the wrong on the relationship, but she was so desperate and depressed about losing what little she had left of her family that she clung too hard and demanded too much. Essentially for her, her relationship with her boyfriend wasn't really about love, it was about he had a huge welcoming family and she needed that, but he just wasn't ready for marriage and building a family, so he ran.
When the ex dumped her, the h crashed. She knows she probably needed some grief counseling, but instead she left school right before her qualifying finals and sank into a severe depression for six months. She finally dragged herself out of the pit of despair only to realize she has no qualifications and no skills. (Now why she couldn't reapply to take her final exams and a refresher course I don't know, but JM said it was so and I just rolled with it.)
One of her friends recommends the h try for a job at a private school. The h got the job and since the teacher that was supposed to accompany the headmistress on the Egypt trip couldn't make it, the h got forcibly volunteered. So now she and a group of 14 yr olds are wandering around Egypt under the ministrations of a severe and martinet headmistress, who won't allow for anything but boring cultural excursions and both the h and the young ladies are feeling the ennui.
While they are at the Cairo museum, one of the girls feels faint as a ploy to get out of more boring exhibits. A very attractive man steps up to help out and the h is instantly leery. The man is a bit cheeky and more than a bit flirtatious, the h does her best to shake him off, but he just keeps coming back.
He tells her that he is a photographer and wants to use the h as a model for a holiday travel brochure. He has been following the h around as she takes a few hours off to wander around the Egyptian Bazaar. She explains that she isn't interested. He has also been taking pictures of the h and she demands his film, she doesn't want to be in any photos and she doesn't want to be harassed. Tho she does get the pictures developed and she is shocked at how different she looks in them. The H even follows her back to her hotel and then does a sneak attack kiss right when the h's boss, the headmistress, walks up. The headmistress is not pleased and the h is put on warning.
The H is not giving up tho and he follows them to a tour of the pyramids and pretends to be a tour guide by dressing in robes and dyeing his skin. He even flirts with the martinet headmistress and the h is just hoping that no one recognizes him as the man the headmistress caught kissing the h on the street the preceding day.
The h tells him for the 1000th time that she doesn't want to know him, but the H just WON'T leave her alone. Back at the hotel, he goes to her room and there is a big fight where the H is determined that she will traipse around Egypt with him and be his model.
The h makes the very good point that it isn't up to him what she does and he doesn't know her and she isn't a curbside pickup. The H doesn't care tho and the h eventually goes back downstairs to wait for the headmistress and the students to return. The headmistress follows the h to her room later to pick up a book and then fires the h when she finds the H just out of the shower in the h's room. The h is just flabbergasted and the H is delighted cause now the h HAS to go with him, she has limited funds and her plane ticket isn't good until the end of the week.
So we get a travelogue of Egypt and the h and H get really close while staying in the nicest Egyptain hotels. The attraction builds and eventually they have a lurve club moment. Then the h and H run into one of his very chatty friends.
The friend spills the beans that the H isn't a photographer at all, he owns a big computer company and that he makes a habit of latching on to ladies he is interested in and then hounding them until he is done with them. The h is mortified, appalled and pretty much gobsmacked at the audacity of the H.
Then she gets really, really mad and when she finds the H, she tells him exactly where to go and how to get there. She walks out feeling totally used and betrayed and wondering if the H really intended to pay her for sleeping with him. She ends up at the same hotel with the school students she started at. She asks the headmistress for her job back, explaining that the H was just some harasser and the h had nothing going on with him. The martinet headmistress gives the h her job back and the h prepares to go home.
The H shows up again and tries to convince the h not to go, she isn't listening and she tells him she doesn't like liars. He begs a lot and tells her he really did have a valid photo job for a friend who owns a travel agency, it just isn't what he really does normally. But he likes taking pictures and he likes the h and surely she wants to continue to experience the big lurve mojo they share. The h isn't going there and kicks him out.
The next day, the H is waiting at the airport. He loudly proclaims he loves the h in front of the schoolgirls and the headmistress and then he proposes. The h is overwhelmed and since she loves him too and he is proposing, she accepts and surrenders to the H's roofie kiss for the big HEA.
This one isn't terrible except for the major, major creepy stalkerism of the H. It got to be unnerving cause it was for over half the book. I thought it was excessive, especially when his friend blurts out that the H had done that before when he liked a lady. If this wasn't HPLandia, I would be checking the H's bags for duct tape and ropes and sharp instruments and even now I am not entirely convinced it is unnecessary.
The h was pretty decent and tried hard not to be a doormat, but the H's sheer persistence kinda made for a dubious HEA. After all if this is something he frequently does, then how do we know he won't dump the h when a more interesting lady proposition grabs his attention?
Read this one if the stalkerific is your cuppa or if you like Egypt and want to visit it HPlandia style. The HEA is marginally believable and the h's big smackdown at the end was good, it was the intensity of the H I questioned and made this outing just okay in the annals of HPlandia.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 9, 2013
Book synopsis:
Things were improving, Ellie thought
She'd been through a bad time--her life had almost hit rock-bottom. But finally she'd gotten a teaching job and now she was accompanying the deputy head mistress and a group of schoolgirls on a trip to Egypt.
Then Leo Copeland came charging into Ellie's life and nothing would ever be quite the same.
He disrupted her days--and her nights-- and deeply disturbed her peace of mind. Then he went too far, and really got her into trouble....
--
The story begins in a rather slow pace, but afterwards it picks up more speed and gets more interesting and intriguing.
Ellie’s past has been difficult: she lost her parents and sister in an accident when she was 8 years old. Her grandparents had brought her up, but they were old and died and left her alone in the world at a very young age. And to make things worst, her boyfriend Steven left her. So she had suffered a depression and when she recovered from it, she had neither working experience nor references and had to accept her present temporary job helping the head mistress to take care of a group of schoolgirls visiting Egypt.
One day, while accompanying the girls, Ellie meets Leo (H) and after this, he appears wherever she goes with the girls and the strict head mistress, Miss Manson.
Leo’s approach is a flattering one. He says that she has the kind of face he has been looking for and only wants to take some shots of her. He is a photographer working on a friends assignment for a holiday brochure. And Leo manipulates things to suit him and when Miss Mason finds him in Ellie’s hotel room, she is fired.
Then Ellie has no other solution than accept Leo’s offer to help him finish his assignment. He will be travelling to Luxor and modell in his photographs. And as it is to be expected, Leo seduces Ellie and when he leaves her for some hours, she meets by chance an old friend of Leo, Philip, and learnts that Leo is not a photographer and that he has picked up many beautiful girls in the street in the past that have finally fall in his bed.
So we have here a certain intrigue, beautiful settings in Egypt (pyramids, the Nile, Luxor…) and a helpless heroine (but in no way in the TSTL type).
Things were improving, Ellie thought
She'd been through a bad time--her life had almost hit rock-bottom. But finally she'd gotten a teaching job and now she was accompanying the deputy head mistress and a group of schoolgirls on a trip to Egypt.
Then Leo Copeland came charging into Ellie's life and nothing would ever be quite the same.
He disrupted her days--and her nights-- and deeply disturbed her peace of mind. Then he went too far, and really got her into trouble....
--
The story begins in a rather slow pace, but afterwards it picks up more speed and gets more interesting and intriguing.
Ellie’s past has been difficult: she lost her parents and sister in an accident when she was 8 years old. Her grandparents had brought her up, but they were old and died and left her alone in the world at a very young age. And to make things worst, her boyfriend Steven left her. So she had suffered a depression and when she recovered from it, she had neither working experience nor references and had to accept her present temporary job helping the head mistress to take care of a group of schoolgirls visiting Egypt.
One day, while accompanying the girls, Ellie meets Leo (H) and after this, he appears wherever she goes with the girls and the strict head mistress, Miss Manson.
Leo’s approach is a flattering one. He says that she has the kind of face he has been looking for and only wants to take some shots of her. He is a photographer working on a friends assignment for a holiday brochure. And Leo manipulates things to suit him and when Miss Mason finds him in Ellie’s hotel room, she is fired.
Then Ellie has no other solution than accept Leo’s offer to help him finish his assignment. He will be travelling to Luxor and modell in his photographs. And as it is to be expected, Leo seduces Ellie and when he leaves her for some hours, she meets by chance an old friend of Leo, Philip, and learnts that Leo is not a photographer and that he has picked up many beautiful girls in the street in the past that have finally fall in his bed.
So we have here a certain intrigue, beautiful settings in Egypt (pyramids, the Nile, Luxor…) and a helpless heroine (but in no way in the TSTL type).
May 7, 2020
Boring enough. From beginning to end the heroine is abrupt jerky and always negative. Read this book only if you're interested in egyptian monuments.
March 5, 2016
I liked this one better than the other Joanna Mansell books I've read. Ellie is a sad heroine who has lost her whole family and thus is a little lonely. The H Leo, is attracted to her from their first meeting and follows her around. He tries to convince her to be his model for an Egyptian photo shoot he is doing. She is a teacher squiring her students around on an educational field trip. Since he is so persistent, he manages to loose her her job, so she is forced to be his model. She does go around Egypt w him taking photos for his brochure and the succumb to their attraction. They run into a fried of his who inadvertently reveals that Leo is not a professional photographer and sometimes uses that method to get girl since he is a playboy. Ellie feels betrayed and runs away from him. He catches up with her at the airport and proposes - awww.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 1, 2016
I really liked the hero, simply because he was neither excessively pushy and possessive but not coldly indifferent towards the heroine. The pace was pretty slow though, so the heroine's introspection really stood out to the point of being petty and exasperating.
January 27, 2016
I found it really difficult to complete this novel. So sillyactually, with a lot of simplicity. Not my type of an enjoyable pass-time novel. How could anyone fall in love within a week! Give me a break!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews