Penelope "Penny" Jones was born on November 24, 1946 at about seven pounds in a nursing home in Preston, Lancashire, England. She was the first child of Anthony Winn Jones, an engineer, who died at 85, and his wife Margaret Louise Groves Jones. She has a brother, Anthony, and a sister, Prudence "Pru".
She had been a keen reader from the childhood - her mother used to leave her in the children's section of their local library whilst she changed her father's library books. She was a storyteller long before she began to write romantic fiction. At the age of eight, she was creating serialized bedtime stories, featuring make-believe adventures, for her younger sister Prue, who was always the heroine. At eleven, she fell in love with Mills & Boon, and with their heroes. In those days the books could only be obtained via private lending libraries, and she quickly became a devoted fan; she was thrilled to bits when the books went on full sale in shops and she could have them for keeps.
Penny left grammar school in Rochdale with O-Levels in English Language, English Literature and Geography. She first discovered Mills & Boon books, via a girl she worked with. She married Steve Halsall, an accountant and a "lovely man", who smoked and drank too heavily, and suffered oral cancer with bravery and dignity. Her husband bought her the small electric typewriter on which she typed her first novels, at a time when he could ill afford it. He died at the beginning of 21st century.
She earned a living as a writer since the 1970s when, as a shorthand typist, she entered a competition run by the Romantic Novelists' Association. Although she didn't win, Penny found an agent who was looking for a new Georgette Heyer. She published four regency novels as Caroline Courtney, before changing her nom de plume to Melinda Wright for three air-hostess romps and then she wrote two thrillers as Lydia Hitchcock. Soon after that, Mills and Boon accepted her first novel for them, Falcon's Prey as Penny Jordan. However, for her more historical romance novels, she adopted her mother's maiden-name to become Annie Groves. Almost 70 of her 167 Mills and Boon novels have been sold worldwide.
Penny Halsall lived in a neo-Georgian house in Nantwich, Cheshire, with her Alsatian Sheba and cat Posh. She worked from home, in her kitchen, surrounded by her pets, and welcomed interruptions from her friends and family.
La disfruté. Los sentimientos de los protagonistas me mantuvieron en estira y afloja hasta el final. Le faltó detalle a las escenas de pasión, pero me encantó en líneas generales.
The beginning of the story starts out a little risqué, with Jaz and Caid flirting like mad in a hotel elevator. Soon they are in bed together. The way the scene is written makes it seem as if the two are strangers. It's written through Jaz's point of view and her assessing Caid's "assets" as a potential lover. . . . Turns out they are already lovers, and are just indulging in a game of role playing. It's a playful beginning when seen in the correct context. Soon though, all sense of fun deteriorates because Jaz and Caid begin fighting. Constantly! Doesn't leave much room for romance.
Jaz is shrewish and selfish, always pointing out to Caid how important her career is to her. Jaz is probably my least favorite of Jordan's heroines (some I love, some I hate). Both she and Caid needed to compromise sooner than they did. Why fight so hard over an issue that has an easy solution, especially if one claims to love the other person? Jaz and Caid do finally find a resolution, but the reader is left in the dark as there is no disclosure on what the actual compromise is.
Side note: The title of the book is a little misleading. Jaz and Caid do marry on Christmas Eve, but the wedding isn't the focus of the book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
A trashy M&B book from 2002 (you can see how old my stash is of these books).
Being Xmas Eve today, I thought it would be a nice holiday read. However, this had next to no Xmas feel to it at all and really was a case of a male with outdated views about women (even for 2002) and then a woman who was so annoying in calling him out on it that it became soooo preachy. This book was 95% her telling him that he doesn't respect her choices and her desire to have a career and totally ignoring the fact that marriage is not about one person getting what they want (whether they are male or female) and more about compromise. By the end, I was just wishing he would get on a plane and save himself (and at the start of the book there was NO way I thought I would let the crap that he was sprouting ever redeem him). No Xmas sentiment to this book at all and 200 pages of nit-picking and preaching. Sigh. Into the charity bag this book goes to hopefully find someone who will enjoy it a little more than I did :-P
The beginning was one of those "what?" moments. Well written had me sucked in from the start. hahahaha. Once again I needed more at the end. What compromises were made? I know what I would've liked. But still a great story.
I like it when the man pursues the woman. There was no pursuing at all. The book starts off with them going to her room to have sex.
I read HP for the passionate love, the romance. Two (almost) strangers having sex, I don’t find that romantic at all. There was no pursuit necessary from his side. She fell into his arms and bed immediately. It’s a modern novel. She wasn’t a virgin.
They had many sexual encounters throughout the book, but because I didn’t feel that they loved each other, despite their declarations of love, it felt superficial.
The entire book they were bickering about her career. I don’t understand why she suddenly wanted to make a compromise near the end of the book.
I like Penny Jordan’s vintage books better. I even wonder if she really wrote this book.
My attention really wandered while getting through this book and a lot of it is because the book isn't about anything. I don't expect byzantine plots in a category romance, but this was one long, drawn out fight about one, single thing, until it wasn't, the end.
Jordan again getting desire across by spelling it out. Their aroused senses are noted and catalogued, and we're reminded of them often, lest we forget these two really turn each other's cranks.
The beginning setup reads like a stranger one night stand, but it's a little sleight of hand for Jordan and it's revealed this rendezvous is well into their tryst; they met due to their respective families doing business, were immediately attracted and started a heated affair, now it's love, and then the anvil drops that whoops in those few days (weeks? it's unclear) they've had a lot of sex but zero conversations so suddenly they're each Big Mad the other wants something incompatible to their own wants out of life.
And from there, cue the endless bickering and spelled out hot/cold, kiss/denial, want/repel circles they run in.
Jordan seems to want the hero to be domineering in an old skool way, but she (editors?) can't quite let it, given when this was written. So he's an ill-fitting mashup of "I want a wife who stays home!" and mushy with love thoughts and being miserable without her. He's supposed to be a tall, dark, silent and gets his way guy of old, but instead it smacks as regressive every time he denies them or her an inch of understanding because he wants an old fashioned marriage.
Similarly, the heroine is a flighty dishrag but also a career-minded woman who refuses to simply stay home, meaning she has no strong articulation of anything other than "but nOOO" any time the hero even hints she could be his wife. She's supposed to be modern, and while I don't mind that she parries his regressive instincts, she insistently repeats angry retorts and 'oh no I won't!' to his 'oh yes you will!' it hollows out and makes her as dumbly intractable as him.
Jordan takes the easy way out at every opportunity. I don't know her older books to compare to, so maybe some of it is where she was in her career and how much she wanted--or didn't want--to give to quickly jotting out another book. But if what should have been action, a tough decision, a long discussion, to the literal romantic arc itself on page could be done off page, and then summarized, she summarized and made it even briefer.
More time is spent worrying about, discussing, wondering over, and noticing a visible panty line in a slinky dress than any discussion of how they're going to go from in-heat lustful to making a marriage work.
Which, I don't think they will. I'm not even sure of their personalities other than how much they notice each other's attractiveness and what they're annoyed by--and presume against their own childhood traumas (which, again, they don't work out on page if at all, they're going with if the sex is good and we mean it, the rest will surely follow, it must). They're obviously compatible in bed but I have no reason to think they are in any other way, much less in love. Why? how? Who knows aside this is a romance novel and HEA is how they end, right?
Topiknya seksi banget! Tentang perempuan yang ingin tetap bekerja setelah menikah, ingin dihargai sebagai individu yang utuh dan tidak dikekang oleh kehendak pasangannya. Perempuan berani yang rela melepaskan cinta karena ia menolak dipaksa untuk tunduk dan menurut atas nama kodrat perempuan. Awalnya saya pikir ini topik yang sangat biasa, namun Penny Jordan mampu mengemasnya dengan apik, memberikan sudut pandang baru tentang menjadi diri sendiri setelah menikah.
Bercerita tentang Jazz yang jatuh cinta dengan Caid Dubois. Jazz adalah gadis penuh semangat dan sangat kreatif, keluarganya memiliki peternakan besar dan mereka sangat ingin agar Jazz kelak melanjutkan peternakan keluarga tersebut. Tapi Jazz punya mimpi yang besar, ia tertarik pada seni dan ingin hidup dari situ sehingga ia meninggalkan keluarganya.
Di sisi lain, Caid adalah seorang pria mapan yang masuk ke dalam bisnis keluarga karena diseret ibunya yang kaya raya. Caid dulu tumbuh dengan kenangan menyakitkan karena sering ditinggal ibunya pergi bekerja. Ayah Caid seringkali mencekoki Caid dengan omongan bahwa ibunya lebih cinta pada pekerjaannya jadi seiring Caid tumbuh besar maka ia bertekad untuk memiliki istri yang akan tinggal di rumah dan mencurahkan waktu serta kasih sayangnya kepada keluarga.
Tak disengaja Caid mendengar tentang latar belakang keluarga Jazz yang tumbuh di peternakan, Caid mengira Jazz nantinya akan mau meninggalkan karirnya demi berkeluarga namun Caid salah. Jazz justru mentah-mentah ingin lari dari semua itu. Namun cinta sudah terlanjur tumbuh sehingga terasa menyakitkan saat akhirnya mereka memutuskan berpisah. Caid bersikeras agar Jazz berhenti bekerja sementara Jazz tidak bisa mengerti kenapa atas nama cinta seorang pria bisa memaksakan kehendaknya sedemikian rupa.
Mereka berpisah. Jazz kembali ke Inggris dan Caid di Amerika. Mereka sama-sama terluka dan sama-sama berusaha untuk bertahan dari kekosongan. Tak dinyana, takdir mempertemukan mereka kembali dan sedikit demi sedikit Caid bisa melihat alasan Jazz begitu berkeras untuk mempertahankan dirinya sendiri dengan tetap memiliki pekerjaannya. Caid juga akhirnya berdamai dengan ibunya, akhirnya ia tau apa yang sebenarnya terjadi antara ibu dan ayahnya dan itu mengubah cara pandanganya akan perempuan yang harus di rumah saja.
Ditulis dengan bahasa yang ringan namun sarat perenungan. Suka banget sama keras kepalanya Jazz. Keras kepala namun tetap sopan, perempuan yang tau apa maunya dan tidak sereta merta menyerahkan kebebasannya atas nama cinta.
I've enjoyed books by Penny Jordan before. She writes the typical Harlequin Presents romance, complete with miscommunication, lots of sexual attraction, a dominant male (who can be a little arrogant sometimes) and usually the relationship is between an older man and a younger woman. While her books are not stellar reads to keep you up all night, they are a nice way to pass the time.
And since I'm a sucker for a Christmas romance, I was quick to snap up CHRISTMAS EVE WEDDING. But I was so disappointed with this book. The author was so quick to rush the characters into bed that it made my head spin. Seriously, they are complete strangers, get into the same elevator, and next thing you know, he's saying, "Let's go to your room." She agrees, and then they're having sex. On page 15. No buildup, no introduction to the characters, no dance of attraction, just boy meets girl, boy gets on top of girl.
Not that I have a problem with sex, but I don't find casual sex between complete strangers romantic. I like it when lovemaking is an added bonus to the love and tenderness between a hero and heroine. A relationship based on nothing but the fact that they are compatible horizontally holds no appeal to me, because I don't believe that sex alone is enough to make a relationship work, nor does it convince me that they are meant to be together. (If it were as easy as being sexually compatible, I hardly think divorce rates would be so high!)
Granted, I know that Harlequin Presents books are a bit "lustier" than other Harlequin lines, but a little buildup would have been nice. Maybe a little feeling that these people saw each other as more than just convenient sex objects. It was as if the author wanted to get the backstory part of the novel out of the way, and so rushed through it.
Sebenarnya bagus sih temanya, tentang perempuan mandiri yang tau tujuan hidupnya dan gak gampang menyerahkan diri atas nama cinta. Jadi ingat meme yang kemarin sempat viral, yang kalo bokek solusinya nikah (maap OOT, tapi meme itu bikin kesel deh. Kayaknya perempuan ini cuma modal diri aja udah, beres. Tapi sayangnya laki2 yg mikir perempuan itu harus dirumah, jadi istri yg urusannya dapur-kamar dan jadi ibuk yg sepenuhnya ngurusin anak itu masih banyak disekitarku, rasanya pengen diuyel2. Trs dengan bangganya mamerin keinginannya kayak gitu. Dikiranya perempuan gak punya kehidupannya sendiri apa).
Back to story. Awalnya bingung dengan kejadian Jaz-Caid di lift, kirain mereka gak kenal eh tiba2 aja langsung dikasih tau nama laki2 itu di narasinya Jaz. Caid itu bikin kesel dengan keras kepalanya dia. Dan konfliknya ya berputar2 aja disitu. Dengan Caid yang pengen punya full time mom untuk anak2nya dan istri yg duduk cantik aka ngurus rumah dan Jaz yang keukeuh jadi wanita karir. Ya kalo cinta kenapa sih gak diomongin solusinya apa, langsung kompromi kek bukan kalo ketemu udh nempel2 aja trs berantem lagi. Lelah hayati bacanya.