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Secrets #4
A Woman Accused
A Woman Accused by Sandra Marton
Olivia Harris was desperate! She needed money...and fast. Trouble was, the only person she could turn to for help was the last man whom could offer it. Edward Archer wanted the truth behind Olivia's relationship with his stepfather, but she was determined to keep her secrets! So when Edward started taking over Olivia's life, she was worried. Instead of hating Edward, she began to like him all too much...but how could she? She was a woman accused and Edward had set himself up as prosecutor, judge and jury...and Olivia's only defense was love!
Olivia Harris was desperate! She needed money...and fast. Trouble was, the only person she could turn to for help was the last man whom could offer it. Edward Archer wanted the truth behind Olivia's relationship with his stepfather, but she was determined to keep her secrets! So when Edward started taking over Olivia's life, she was worried. Instead of hating Edward, she began to like him all too much...but how could she? She was a woman accused and Edward had set himself up as prosecutor, judge and jury...and Olivia's only defense was love!
Mass Market Paperback
First published March 15, 1995
About the author
Sandra Marton
589 books540 followersI've been a writer, one way or another, all my life. Before I could read, I made up poems and my mom wrote them down for me. In elementary school, my teachers almost always let me write poems or stories instead of requiring me to do art projects. Always, I dreamed of becoming a published writer...and that dream came true! I write novels about sexy, powerful men and independent-minded women, and what happens when they find each other and fall in love. My books are sexy and romantic, and they've very often full of romantic suspense. I write the kinds of books I love to read, and I hope that makes my readers happy.
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July 11, 2018
Re A Woman Accused - Sandra Marton does book four of the Secrets series, with a book that probably fits into the Too Hot to Handle series better.
This time the martyr TSTL h's greed and her loyalty to an undeserving friend lets her in for an orgy of Tart Shaming, semi-forced seduction and disgrace, with an H that is determined to use her and abuse her and she can't seem to do anything about it.
The book opens with the h rushing to meet her old childhood friend for lunch. The two of them have the same birthday and met each other when her distant guardian aunt was the housekeeper for the other woman's very wealthy parents.
The h has spent a great deal of her life around the wealthy and privileged and has been abused by those same people too, so for some reason she thinks it is a good idea to continue a friendship with a woman who is clearly only interested in friendship with the h only for her own reasons.
Mainly the h's friend wants to use the similarly looking h as convenient dupe to cover up the woman's affair with an older married man so that her wealthy parents won't disown her. The h is a very talented interior designer who wants to open her own design studio and the h allows her greed to lure her into the deception, unknowing of the friend's and the older guy's real motives.
When the h gets to the restaurant, she is looking around for her friend and gets scotch dumped on her in a collision with a man at the bar. Right away the man is all about eyeballing the h's charms and propositioning her. The h knows that kind of rich sewer slurper when she sees one, so she brushes him off and goes to the table for lunch.
When she is escorted to her lunch date, her friend isn't there, instead an older man is and the h thinks she has the wrong table. It turns out that the older man is her friend's married lover and he also invests in small start up firms as a business experiment.
He offers the h a huge loan to start her own design firm and he hands her a check. Just then the man at the bar comes over and it is clear that he thinks something dubious is going on. The h is too stupid to just explain that the older man is offering her a business loan and the older man is too scared of the bar guy to do anything but mumble.
The bar guy wanders off after making threats to the older man and making trampy tart comments to the h and then her friend shows up. The h wants to reject the loan offer, but her friend and the older guy are persistent and the h allows her greed to override her good sense and her moral compass and accepts the loan - even tho she disapproves of her friend's relationship.
Things go along great until the bar guy shows up at the h's new brownstone home and design studio. The older man is dead and it turns out that he was the bar guy's, (now officially the H,) stepfather. The H is all about feeling the h up and tart shaming remarks are piled high and deep.
The h still refuses to tell him that he has the wrong woman and that he needs to go talk to her friend and instead accepts his forceful groping because her knees are getting weak and she just can't resist the forceful passion of the H's assault.
Tho eventually she does manage to get the H to leave and she checks her loan documents to make sure everything is on the up and up. Then the story about the h being the older man's lover hits the tabloids and even her assistant thinks the photos in the paper are the h at first.
The h's business is going down the drain, but at least the older man's will forgave her the loan and so she doesn't really have to keep making payments, tho supposedly she intends to. The h's friend takes off for parts unknown and the h is desperate to find her, she thinks if the friend comes back and admits to being the older man's lover, the heat will be off of her and all will be well again.
The H shows up once more and in between tart shaming the h and propositioning her, it comes out that his stepfather left the h's friend shares in the H's business. The business is a huge financial conglomerate that belong's to the H's mother and the stepfather got his hands on part of the shares and distributed them to his lady friends. The H needs to get those shares back to spare his mother the pain of knowing just how badly she was used.
The H wants to jump on the h too and he believes the h knows where her friend is. So the hunt for the friend is on and the h is happy to help, because the H promises to pay her bills if she will search for her friend with him. The h tells the H it is a loan only, but the h is also quite ready to jump on the H's tower of power, her spine is dissolving faster than a popsicle on the sidewalk in the summer sun.
The tart shaming harlot remarks continue as well, with several almost Purple Passion moments where the H draws back because he really has a distaste for bedding his stepfather's sloppy seconds. The h is in despair, because she is convinced she now loves the H.
Eventually the h realizes that her friend is probably in the Bahamas based on a postcard the woman sent her once and she decides she has to rush right over there to find her.
So we are all off to the Bahamas armed with a picture postcard. The h tries searching for the place on the postcard, but there are 700 Bahamian islands and she doesn't think to stop in a travel agency and ask.
The H shows up and this time he manages to override his distaste and seduce the h. She is all for it because she thinks the H has given up on finding her former friend and the h realizes she was only desperately searching for the woman to make her admit that the h was never the H's stepfather's mistress.
(Why the h thought that the friend saying that would have any effect on the H, I have no clue, but it is a great way to show just how in lust and obsessed with being the H's toy this h is.)
Anyhows, the h's innocence is proven by the revocation of her unicorn grooming license and the H moves her into his Bahamian beach house. The h feels something isn't right in her little Nirvana of Purple Passion Bliss, but goes along with the H as they have fun in the sun.
Then the h realizes that she really should help the H track down her former friend to get the shares back for him and his mother. She tells the H that she has a clue where her friend might be hiding at, but the H already knows. He had detectives all over the h and her credit card transactions and he took the postcard from her suitcase hiding place when he moved her in.
So now he has the h all tucked up in his cozy little out of the way love nest and she can stay there and he can go get the shares back and things will just be ducky while the H does business in New York. The h realizes she has been used, again, and takes off, throwing some really pricey jewelry the H bought her back in his face.
She goes home to New York, the scandal has died down and the h decides to try and restart her business. Then she gets a notice that the H is contesting the clause in the will that forgives her loan and she is in arrears on the payments.
The h is desperate again and goes to see the H. He managed to buy the stock back from her former friend, but he still wants the h for boudoir bouncing interludes. He hasn't dipped his wick enough yet and she is still owing him for his time and frustration.
Ostensibly the H loves her and she loves the H back, but really the h just wants to save her dream cause she sees her business as her path to respectability. In return the H tells her he loves her and she agrees to be his Tart Bedwarmer for as along as he wants her. There is a mention of marriage in the last lines of the book, but overall I doubt that will actually happen.
This one was a huge disappointment in the character of h. She consistently sets herself up to be interpreted in the worst possible light and she is so greedy to have her own business that she sells herself out. This h really is a tart and then has the audacity to be offended when the H treats her like one.
She got what she deserved in the end and I wasn't really liking either one of these people, but the book was pretty angsty overall, tho the love portion of the story was pretty non-existent. An h selling herself in HPlandia is not an uncommon occurrence and normally I don't give the notion a glarey face.
This time tho the h was so hypocritical I couldn't support her machinations and I really did not understand the weak-kneed desperation for a man who was verbally nasty and physically assaultive. Had that lurve force mojo been introduced after the H showed a nicer side to him, I probably would have liked this better.
As it is the whole thing was a morass of tart shaming and the h was all too eager to lap that treatment up in pursuit of her monetary goals. It made for a very disappointing and more than tacky HPlandia outing, but if you like the angsty trainwrecky drama, you probably can't do better than this one.
This time the martyr TSTL h's greed and her loyalty to an undeserving friend lets her in for an orgy of Tart Shaming, semi-forced seduction and disgrace, with an H that is determined to use her and abuse her and she can't seem to do anything about it.
The book opens with the h rushing to meet her old childhood friend for lunch. The two of them have the same birthday and met each other when her distant guardian aunt was the housekeeper for the other woman's very wealthy parents.
The h has spent a great deal of her life around the wealthy and privileged and has been abused by those same people too, so for some reason she thinks it is a good idea to continue a friendship with a woman who is clearly only interested in friendship with the h only for her own reasons.
Mainly the h's friend wants to use the similarly looking h as convenient dupe to cover up the woman's affair with an older married man so that her wealthy parents won't disown her. The h is a very talented interior designer who wants to open her own design studio and the h allows her greed to lure her into the deception, unknowing of the friend's and the older guy's real motives.
When the h gets to the restaurant, she is looking around for her friend and gets scotch dumped on her in a collision with a man at the bar. Right away the man is all about eyeballing the h's charms and propositioning her. The h knows that kind of rich sewer slurper when she sees one, so she brushes him off and goes to the table for lunch.
When she is escorted to her lunch date, her friend isn't there, instead an older man is and the h thinks she has the wrong table. It turns out that the older man is her friend's married lover and he also invests in small start up firms as a business experiment.
He offers the h a huge loan to start her own design firm and he hands her a check. Just then the man at the bar comes over and it is clear that he thinks something dubious is going on. The h is too stupid to just explain that the older man is offering her a business loan and the older man is too scared of the bar guy to do anything but mumble.
The bar guy wanders off after making threats to the older man and making trampy tart comments to the h and then her friend shows up. The h wants to reject the loan offer, but her friend and the older guy are persistent and the h allows her greed to override her good sense and her moral compass and accepts the loan - even tho she disapproves of her friend's relationship.
Things go along great until the bar guy shows up at the h's new brownstone home and design studio. The older man is dead and it turns out that he was the bar guy's, (now officially the H,) stepfather. The H is all about feeling the h up and tart shaming remarks are piled high and deep.
The h still refuses to tell him that he has the wrong woman and that he needs to go talk to her friend and instead accepts his forceful groping because her knees are getting weak and she just can't resist the forceful passion of the H's assault.
Tho eventually she does manage to get the H to leave and she checks her loan documents to make sure everything is on the up and up. Then the story about the h being the older man's lover hits the tabloids and even her assistant thinks the photos in the paper are the h at first.
The h's business is going down the drain, but at least the older man's will forgave her the loan and so she doesn't really have to keep making payments, tho supposedly she intends to. The h's friend takes off for parts unknown and the h is desperate to find her, she thinks if the friend comes back and admits to being the older man's lover, the heat will be off of her and all will be well again.
The H shows up once more and in between tart shaming the h and propositioning her, it comes out that his stepfather left the h's friend shares in the H's business. The business is a huge financial conglomerate that belong's to the H's mother and the stepfather got his hands on part of the shares and distributed them to his lady friends. The H needs to get those shares back to spare his mother the pain of knowing just how badly she was used.
The H wants to jump on the h too and he believes the h knows where her friend is. So the hunt for the friend is on and the h is happy to help, because the H promises to pay her bills if she will search for her friend with him. The h tells the H it is a loan only, but the h is also quite ready to jump on the H's tower of power, her spine is dissolving faster than a popsicle on the sidewalk in the summer sun.
The tart shaming harlot remarks continue as well, with several almost Purple Passion moments where the H draws back because he really has a distaste for bedding his stepfather's sloppy seconds. The h is in despair, because she is convinced she now loves the H.
Eventually the h realizes that her friend is probably in the Bahamas based on a postcard the woman sent her once and she decides she has to rush right over there to find her.
So we are all off to the Bahamas armed with a picture postcard. The h tries searching for the place on the postcard, but there are 700 Bahamian islands and she doesn't think to stop in a travel agency and ask.
The H shows up and this time he manages to override his distaste and seduce the h. She is all for it because she thinks the H has given up on finding her former friend and the h realizes she was only desperately searching for the woman to make her admit that the h was never the H's stepfather's mistress.
(Why the h thought that the friend saying that would have any effect on the H, I have no clue, but it is a great way to show just how in lust and obsessed with being the H's toy this h is.)
Anyhows, the h's innocence is proven by the revocation of her unicorn grooming license and the H moves her into his Bahamian beach house. The h feels something isn't right in her little Nirvana of Purple Passion Bliss, but goes along with the H as they have fun in the sun.
Then the h realizes that she really should help the H track down her former friend to get the shares back for him and his mother. She tells the H that she has a clue where her friend might be hiding at, but the H already knows. He had detectives all over the h and her credit card transactions and he took the postcard from her suitcase hiding place when he moved her in.
So now he has the h all tucked up in his cozy little out of the way love nest and she can stay there and he can go get the shares back and things will just be ducky while the H does business in New York. The h realizes she has been used, again, and takes off, throwing some really pricey jewelry the H bought her back in his face.
She goes home to New York, the scandal has died down and the h decides to try and restart her business. Then she gets a notice that the H is contesting the clause in the will that forgives her loan and she is in arrears on the payments.
The h is desperate again and goes to see the H. He managed to buy the stock back from her former friend, but he still wants the h for boudoir bouncing interludes. He hasn't dipped his wick enough yet and she is still owing him for his time and frustration.
Ostensibly the H loves her and she loves the H back, but really the h just wants to save her dream cause she sees her business as her path to respectability. In return the H tells her he loves her and she agrees to be his Tart Bedwarmer for as along as he wants her. There is a mention of marriage in the last lines of the book, but overall I doubt that will actually happen.
This one was a huge disappointment in the character of h. She consistently sets herself up to be interpreted in the worst possible light and she is so greedy to have her own business that she sells herself out. This h really is a tart and then has the audacity to be offended when the H treats her like one.
She got what she deserved in the end and I wasn't really liking either one of these people, but the book was pretty angsty overall, tho the love portion of the story was pretty non-existent. An h selling herself in HPlandia is not an uncommon occurrence and normally I don't give the notion a glarey face.
This time tho the h was so hypocritical I couldn't support her machinations and I really did not understand the weak-kneed desperation for a man who was verbally nasty and physically assaultive. Had that lurve force mojo been introduced after the H showed a nicer side to him, I probably would have liked this better.
As it is the whole thing was a morass of tart shaming and the h was all too eager to lap that treatment up in pursuit of her monetary goals. It made for a very disappointing and more than tacky HPlandia outing, but if you like the angsty trainwrecky drama, you probably can't do better than this one.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 9, 2016
The obsessed hero is not usually my cuppa, but this story gets four stars for the sustained intensity of his obsession. Hero was a force to be reckoned with and heroine didn't stand a chance.
Their "meet cute" isn't cute at all - but it set the tone for the whole story. Interior designer heroine is going to meet her rich friend for a birthday lunch and causes the hero to spill his drink in the dim interior. He is angry until he gets a good look at the heroine and the sexual innuendos begin. He is attracted and he lets her know. She is confused and excited and knows danger when she sees it. She was the orphaned niece of a housekeeper to the very rich and she knows an entitled privileged male when she sees one and she knows how that species treats women.
She shakes off the H, only to find a former client at her rich friend's table. Seems her gift is going to be financial backing for her own interior design business. Her rich friend is having an affair with this older married man, and she has talked him into handing over some money to the heroine. This older married man is also the hero's stepfather and the hero sees the check going into the heroine's hands . . . and we're off to the misunderstanding races.
Whew. Nothing says love like contesting a will, but in this case it makes sense. This hero used every trick in the book to reconcile his own overwhelming feelings for the heroine as he went from lust to slut-shaming to having to re-calibrate his view of her. The slut-shaming and the sexual innuendo appealed to the heroine, otherwise I don't think I could have enjoyed this story - hero was over the top. The chemistry between them was obvious - the author did a great job showing and not just telling. Heroine held up well through all of this and didn't give in to her overwhelming attraction to the hero until the last third of the book. Well done, heroine, you were no push over.
Their "meet cute" isn't cute at all - but it set the tone for the whole story. Interior designer heroine is going to meet her rich friend for a birthday lunch and causes the hero to spill his drink in the dim interior. He is angry until he gets a good look at the heroine and the sexual innuendos begin. He is attracted and he lets her know. She is confused and excited and knows danger when she sees it. She was the orphaned niece of a housekeeper to the very rich and she knows an entitled privileged male when she sees one and she knows how that species treats women.
She shakes off the H, only to find a former client at her rich friend's table. Seems her gift is going to be financial backing for her own interior design business. Her rich friend is having an affair with this older married man, and she has talked him into handing over some money to the heroine. This older married man is also the hero's stepfather and the hero sees the check going into the heroine's hands . . . and we're off to the misunderstanding races.
Whew. Nothing says love like contesting a will, but in this case it makes sense. This hero used every trick in the book to reconcile his own overwhelming feelings for the heroine as he went from lust to slut-shaming to having to re-calibrate his view of her. The slut-shaming and the sexual innuendo appealed to the heroine, otherwise I don't think I could have enjoyed this story - hero was over the top. The chemistry between them was obvious - the author did a great job showing and not just telling. Heroine held up well through all of this and didn't give in to her overwhelming attraction to the hero until the last third of the book. Well done, heroine, you were no push over.
July 20, 2024
Even if the hero’s slut shaming was too much, it was a fast paced and entertaining reading!
Read
September 17, 2018DNF
Quit midway - this felt like it was dragging ...
Quit midway - this felt like it was dragging ...
February 7, 2012
Not a bad one -- one of those older stories where the hero spends most of the book assuming the heroine is a money-grubbing whore (when of course actually she's an innocent, extremely principled virgin). I wish we'd gotten a little more of a glimpse into the hero's feelings, but it was still a decent read.
July 8, 2018
Not all Sandra Marton's novels are actually good or in my favourite bookself, but this one is really good. I loved it and recommend it.
January 29, 2026
I was so infuriated by both the H and the h's "BFF" and the H's stepfather that it kinda ruined the book for me.
Heroine is an interior designer working for a man named Pierre's design company. She's from a poor background- orphaned at a young age, she moved in with her distant aunt, who was a housekeeper/cook? in a wealthy-ish household. While growing up there, the daughter of the house befriended her and while their lives had gone in different directions as the daughter, her BFF Ria, was wealthy and did rich people things and the h was poor and had to work for a living, they still sort of kept up their friendship.
So they share a yearly birthday brunch and the rich girl has been talking up her gift to the h.
When the h walks into the restaurant, a man backs up from the bar as she's walking in and spills his drink all over both of them, then blames *her* for it. Then they have an instant attraction. NBD, but h goes over to her table where a strange man awaits.
This man informs her that for her birthday he wants to invest money in her. So she can open her own interior design business. She naturally thinks he's weird/mental, and is refusing while he's trying to hand her a check when the man from earlier (Hero) comes up, seems to know the man, sees the check, and assumes she's the man's mistress.
Things go downhill from there; H yells at the older man (his stepfather although h doesn't know this yet), insults the h as a gold-digging hoooor, then finally leaves.
THEN h's erstwhile bestie Ria shows up and introduces the other man, clearly her boyfriend, even though he's old enough to be her father and is still married although supposedly on the brink of divorce.
Between them they convince the h to accept the money to start her business. She insists on making it a loan, and eventually the dude, BFF's lover, agrees.
FFWD 3ish months later and the h has her own design business with a flat, a partner/worker, and is doing well.
H comes into the shop, furious, and begins accusing h of all sorts of shenanigans and demanding to know where her friend Ria is. Apparently the man who gave/loaned her the money has died. He was still married and had no intentions of divorcing (not that that has anything to do with h) and apparently also passed away after spending the night with his mistress, whom the H erroneously assumes to be the h. Also, he left a controlling amount of shares in his company in his will to the BFF, his mistress.
Now this is where h starts to get TSTL syndrome, as instead of just explaining the entire situation including Ria's part and naming her as the mistress, she decides to PROTECT her rich biotch friend until she can talk to her.
Then Ria, the BFF goes into hiding bc she doesn't want her mommie and daddie (her words) to know their precious angel is less than pristine.
And all hell breaks loose, because a tabloid found some people to claim to have witnessed the h accompanying dirty old stepfather here, there, and yon, and reporters were camping out at her business, and H kept coming around to insult and degrade h while also asking her to find her BFF so he could get those shares back, while also threatening her that he could do anything to her and she couldn't stop him, then threatening to call in her "loan" but oops he couldn't do that bc Stepdad forgave it before he died, so he got all mad about that, and then there were more tabloid stories, BFF still missing, h still TSTL, etc.
Anyhow, after this it went back and forth and back and forth between H hating the h and considering her a golddigging low-class woman and also being attracted to her and also hating her for his being attracted to her, and mauling her and insulting her and just it was pretty miserable right up to and including the end. There's some more stuff where she realized horrible BFF went to the Bahamas so she went to the Bahamas since her design store was failing anyway to try to track her down. Because "the Bahamas" consists of some 700 islands, lol.
The H found her there and convinced her to stay with him in his beach house in bed indefinitely instead of looking for BFF and the h just... did? Then she realized he'd tricked her so he could rifle through her things and find the evil BFF himself, so she left him and went back to England, where she decided that things had blown over so she started up her business again.
Then H lured her to his lair for a final confrontation and proposed to her and she said okay.
Yeah this story kinda sucked really.
Heroine is an interior designer working for a man named Pierre's design company. She's from a poor background- orphaned at a young age, she moved in with her distant aunt, who was a housekeeper/cook? in a wealthy-ish household. While growing up there, the daughter of the house befriended her and while their lives had gone in different directions as the daughter, her BFF Ria, was wealthy and did rich people things and the h was poor and had to work for a living, they still sort of kept up their friendship.
So they share a yearly birthday brunch and the rich girl has been talking up her gift to the h.
When the h walks into the restaurant, a man backs up from the bar as she's walking in and spills his drink all over both of them, then blames *her* for it. Then they have an instant attraction. NBD, but h goes over to her table where a strange man awaits.
This man informs her that for her birthday he wants to invest money in her. So she can open her own interior design business. She naturally thinks he's weird/mental, and is refusing while he's trying to hand her a check when the man from earlier (Hero) comes up, seems to know the man, sees the check, and assumes she's the man's mistress.
Things go downhill from there; H yells at the older man (his stepfather although h doesn't know this yet), insults the h as a gold-digging hoooor, then finally leaves.
THEN h's erstwhile bestie Ria shows up and introduces the other man, clearly her boyfriend, even though he's old enough to be her father and is still married although supposedly on the brink of divorce.
Between them they convince the h to accept the money to start her business. She insists on making it a loan, and eventually the dude, BFF's lover, agrees.
FFWD 3ish months later and the h has her own design business with a flat, a partner/worker, and is doing well.
H comes into the shop, furious, and begins accusing h of all sorts of shenanigans and demanding to know where her friend Ria is. Apparently the man who gave/loaned her the money has died. He was still married and had no intentions of divorcing (not that that has anything to do with h) and apparently also passed away after spending the night with his mistress, whom the H erroneously assumes to be the h. Also, he left a controlling amount of shares in his company in his will to the BFF, his mistress.
Now this is where h starts to get TSTL syndrome, as instead of just explaining the entire situation including Ria's part and naming her as the mistress, she decides to PROTECT her rich biotch friend until she can talk to her.
Then Ria, the BFF goes into hiding bc she doesn't want her mommie and daddie (her words) to know their precious angel is less than pristine.
And all hell breaks loose, because a tabloid found some people to claim to have witnessed the h accompanying dirty old stepfather here, there, and yon, and reporters were camping out at her business, and H kept coming around to insult and degrade h while also asking her to find her BFF so he could get those shares back, while also threatening her that he could do anything to her and she couldn't stop him, then threatening to call in her "loan" but oops he couldn't do that bc Stepdad forgave it before he died, so he got all mad about that, and then there were more tabloid stories, BFF still missing, h still TSTL, etc.
Anyhow, after this it went back and forth and back and forth between H hating the h and considering her a golddigging low-class woman and also being attracted to her and also hating her for his being attracted to her, and mauling her and insulting her and just it was pretty miserable right up to and including the end. There's some more stuff where she realized horrible BFF went to the Bahamas so she went to the Bahamas since her design store was failing anyway to try to track her down. Because "the Bahamas" consists of some 700 islands, lol.
The H found her there and convinced her to stay with him in his beach house in bed indefinitely instead of looking for BFF and the h just... did? Then she realized he'd tricked her so he could rifle through her things and find the evil BFF himself, so she left him and went back to England, where she decided that things had blown over so she started up her business again.
Then H lured her to his lair for a final confrontation and proposed to her and she said okay.
Yeah this story kinda sucked really.
April 19, 2024
This was really interesting in an old school kind of interesting. Which is, it has all the elements for great angst because of nothing really important.
- innocent, charming heroine who finds herself in a compromising situation
- judgemental and chauvinist hero who is besotted by the heroine and can’t help it.
- big misunderstanding
- stubborn and proud heroine that doesn’t try to clear a bad situation and ends being the innocent victim
- great passion, really great chemistry between the characters, made of intense and endless kisses, scorching hot make out sessions, and a lot a lot of dark desiring for both.
- slut shaming like there’s no tomorrow, unfairly judged heroine, pain, pain pain. The pain was on both sided though, since the hero really thought the heroine to be a gold digging hoe, but he was in love with her anyway.
- heroine with a sad past, and alone in the world.
- insta love and insta lust for both, the hero first.
- the hero who relentlessly pursues the heroine each time she flies, and she flies a lot.
I loved it. It has been a long dry spell as regards a good reading for me, all the books that I’ve chosen lately were unsatisfactory for some reasons, this one is surely in my list of fave books, one that I will surely reread.
The plot briefly.
The heroine accepts the helps of her bff, which introduces her to a mature gentleman who is ready to lend her a loan for her business. The heroine is very happy, and can’t believe her luck. The hero though, sees her at dinner with the gentleman and makes a scene, treating her as if she’s a slut.
Later, he goes to her shop and announces that the gentleman has died. He thinks she’s one of his mistresses, and guess what, the man was his stepdad, a playboy with which her bff was having an affair. Bff tells the heroine he told her he was going to divorce his wife, and the heroine decides to protect her friend by the press, becoming the other woman by default.
The hero treats her like a gold digger, and he has reasons since the old man in his will canceled her loan, giving everyone the impression that she was really something more.
He also left some shares of the hero’s mother’s company to the bff, which is now MIA.
The hero blackmails the heroine to find bff to have the shares back before his mother finds out.
A lot of kissing, slut shaming, making out, rejecting, happens during their research.
Eventually the heroine dumps the hero, that blows hot and cold, and seems really unable to decide if she’s worthy of his attentions or not. I can understand that since he thought she had been his step daddy mistress, his thoughts are quite muddled.
The heroine has a sudden insight and goes to Bahamas where she thinks bff is hiding.
The hero follows her, they become intimate in every sense but when she finds out he rummaged between her things to find something about her bff, she dumps him again.
Poor hero was trying to find bff without the heroine involvement, by her own request. And was going to propose when she dumped him.
In the end he is once again the one who pursues her and I loved it because he admitted he was crazy for her from the first time he saw her with his stepdad, and since she’s totally crazy and unpredictable he knows that he will probably end an alcoholic but wants to marry her all the same. I liked it because yes, the heroine was quite the unstable kind of woman, with her past of emotional deprivation and social rejection, but he’s quite determined and strong and will probably be the one to keep the relationship working, since he never ever dumped her, not even when he thought she was his stepdad gold digging mistress. Nice, angsty and with a good alpha hero, even if he was prejudiced and chauvinist, but the book is quite old and I wouldn’t expect a more open pov.
- innocent, charming heroine who finds herself in a compromising situation
- judgemental and chauvinist hero who is besotted by the heroine and can’t help it.
- big misunderstanding
- stubborn and proud heroine that doesn’t try to clear a bad situation and ends being the innocent victim
- great passion, really great chemistry between the characters, made of intense and endless kisses, scorching hot make out sessions, and a lot a lot of dark desiring for both.
- slut shaming like there’s no tomorrow, unfairly judged heroine, pain, pain pain. The pain was on both sided though, since the hero really thought the heroine to be a gold digging hoe, but he was in love with her anyway.
- heroine with a sad past, and alone in the world.
- insta love and insta lust for both, the hero first.
- the hero who relentlessly pursues the heroine each time she flies, and she flies a lot.
I loved it. It has been a long dry spell as regards a good reading for me, all the books that I’ve chosen lately were unsatisfactory for some reasons, this one is surely in my list of fave books, one that I will surely reread.
The plot briefly.
The heroine accepts the helps of her bff, which introduces her to a mature gentleman who is ready to lend her a loan for her business. The heroine is very happy, and can’t believe her luck. The hero though, sees her at dinner with the gentleman and makes a scene, treating her as if she’s a slut.
Later, he goes to her shop and announces that the gentleman has died. He thinks she’s one of his mistresses, and guess what, the man was his stepdad, a playboy with which her bff was having an affair. Bff tells the heroine he told her he was going to divorce his wife, and the heroine decides to protect her friend by the press, becoming the other woman by default.
The hero treats her like a gold digger, and he has reasons since the old man in his will canceled her loan, giving everyone the impression that she was really something more.
He also left some shares of the hero’s mother’s company to the bff, which is now MIA.
The hero blackmails the heroine to find bff to have the shares back before his mother finds out.
A lot of kissing, slut shaming, making out, rejecting, happens during their research.
Eventually the heroine dumps the hero, that blows hot and cold, and seems really unable to decide if she’s worthy of his attentions or not. I can understand that since he thought she had been his step daddy mistress, his thoughts are quite muddled.
The heroine has a sudden insight and goes to Bahamas where she thinks bff is hiding.
The hero follows her, they become intimate in every sense but when she finds out he rummaged between her things to find something about her bff, she dumps him again.
Poor hero was trying to find bff without the heroine involvement, by her own request. And was going to propose when she dumped him.
In the end he is once again the one who pursues her and I loved it because he admitted he was crazy for her from the first time he saw her with his stepdad, and since she’s totally crazy and unpredictable he knows that he will probably end an alcoholic but wants to marry her all the same. I liked it because yes, the heroine was quite the unstable kind of woman, with her past of emotional deprivation and social rejection, but he’s quite determined and strong and will probably be the one to keep the relationship working, since he never ever dumped her, not even when he thought she was his stepdad gold digging mistress. Nice, angsty and with a good alpha hero, even if he was prejudiced and chauvinist, but the book is quite old and I wouldn’t expect a more open pov.
April 1, 2018
امرأة متهمة
انت اوليفيا هاريس في منتهى اليأس، فقد كانت بحاجو إلى مال…وبسرعة. والمشكلة هي أن الشخص الوحيد الذي بإمكانها التماس المساعدة منهن هو
آخر رجل ممكن أن يقدمها إليها، ذلك أن إدوارد آرتشر كان يريد أن يعلم حقيقة العلاقة التي كانت بين أوليفيا وزوج أمه. ولكنها كانت مصممة على الاحتفاظ بسرها، وهكذا، عندما استلم اددوار قيادة حياة اوليفيا، تملكها القلق
انت اوليفيا هاريس في منتهى اليأس، فقد كانت بحاجو إلى مال…وبسرعة. والمشكلة هي أن الشخص الوحيد الذي بإمكانها التماس المساعدة منهن هو
آخر رجل ممكن أن يقدمها إليها، ذلك أن إدوارد آرتشر كان يريد أن يعلم حقيقة العلاقة التي كانت بين أوليفيا وزوج أمه. ولكنها كانت مصممة على الاحتفاظ بسرها، وهكذا، عندما استلم اددوار قيادة حياة اوليفيا، تملكها القلق
September 5, 2020
I have read this similar trope but I liked the characters portrayal here very much.Loved the independent heroine and besotted hero(in some ways).But hated the heroines friend for what she did to her.She didn't even apologize at the end..... That's why it a 4star read for me
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 31, 2020
Jealous hero, not my cup of tea! Story takes place in NYC. Two friends, one having an affair with an old man, the stepson and hero accusing the other friend to be the one having an affair with his stepdad. Tabloid! Hero despising the heroine but still wantig her…Not my cup of tea!
August 30, 2018
perfect....
November 18, 2018
Awesome read....just sufficient to quench my thirst for angst and groveling
Want to Read
December 13, 2020How can I read it
April 11, 2024
Was this poorly written? It was such a slog to get through it! Skip, boring, not good.
April 2, 2017
Loved this, but my copy was missing the last page. Some great sexual tension and a tortured smitten hero. I label this hymenally challenged because I consider it a niche in Harlequin's. Where the woman is guilty of being "loose with her morals" until he takes her virginity.
July 13, 2021
A Woman Accused by Sandra Marton
Olivia Harris was desperate! She needed money...and fast. Trouble was, the only person she could turn to for help was the last man whom could offer it. Edward Archer wanted the truth behind Olivia's relationship with his stepfather, but she was determined to keep her secrets! So when Edward started taking over Olivia's life, she was worried. Instead of hating Edward, she began to like him all too much...but how could she? She was a woman accused and Edward had set himself up as prosecutor, judge and jury...and Olivia's only defense was love!
Olivia Harris was desperate! She needed money...and fast. Trouble was, the only person she could turn to for help was the last man whom could offer it. Edward Archer wanted the truth behind Olivia's relationship with his stepfather, but she was determined to keep her secrets! So when Edward started taking over Olivia's life, she was worried. Instead of hating Edward, she began to like him all too much...but how could she? She was a woman accused and Edward had set himself up as prosecutor, judge and jury...and Olivia's only defense was love!
August 6, 2016
A woman finds a backer for her design firm from a friend who happens to be having a secret affair with the married man. Backer dies, and stepson accuses designer of being the other woman, and for financial gain to boot. Hard to believe designer falls in love with stepson who basically calls her a whore, but hey, he's handsome.
May 12, 2018
It is a pocket story, i read it when i stuck in the traffic. Interesting story and would recommend it for those who are a fan of tragedy and excitement events.
April 2, 2017
Very good!!
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