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No Surrender
No Surrender by Mary Lyons released on Jan 25, 1991 is available now for purchase.
- GenresHarlequin Presents
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1989
About the author
Mary Lyons
130 books21 followersMary-Jo Wormell, whose nom de plume is Mary Lyons, was a popular British writer of over 40 romance novels for Mills & Boon from 1983 to 2001. She was also a Conservative Party parlimentary candidate.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 14, 2017
Re No Surrender - Mary Lyons does her version of fluffy suspense and takes us to the country of Syria with a stuffy Boston Brahmin banker H who is touring the country for the International Monetary Fund and who keeps cataclysmically colliding with the Doctorate of Medieval History h. The h is touring the country after the death of her famous archaeologist father, who was buried with full State Honors in Syria after discovering a lot of relics of the old empire of Palmyra.
When I say cataclysmic, I mean that literally. From the first day each of them arrived in the country they keep running into each other and falling over or into things. Even tho the verbal antagonism between is extremely high, for some reason each of these encounters ends in a big roofie kissing moment, usually instigated by the H. Neither one of them can figure it out, they really don't like each other and are total opposites, but the physical attraction is driving the H mad and the h is concerned she might have a brain tumor.
The multiple collisions and various encounters seem to be never ending as well. The H and h have a falling over run in at the local bazaar. When the h gets on the wrong side of a bale of cloth and blindly stumbles over the H and they both end up on the ground, there is another roofie kissing moment and then the H drags the h back to her hotel and tells her to stay there until he can leave the country the next day.
Unfortunately, the Minister of the Interior likes the h's tall, blonde English good looks and he invites her to travel with him in his air-conditioned state limo to the airport at Damascus. Even more unfortunately, the H is also being given the privilege of riding in the Minister's limo as well and he can't believe his bad luck. So when they all set off to Damascus with the H, the h, the Minister and the curvy new beautiful female interpreter, there is a certain amount of mutual chagrin between the H and h.
The limo takes a detour and the h is excited because they are driving by the recently restored ruins of the Citadel of Salah Ed-Din or in regular terms, the medieval fortress of Saladin - the guy that conquered the Christian crusaders. The h has recently written a book on medieval warfare and has a publisher, but she was hoping to get in some exploration of an actual Crusade era fortress and lo and behold in the synchronicity of HPlandia, ML kindly throws the best one in.
Most unfortunately, the beautiful, curvy and very radicalized new interpreter is a kidnapper and she wants to take the Syrian Minister to Beirut as a hostage. She forces the h and H away from the limo when they stop near the fortress for a lunch break and then she takes off with the Minister and blows the limo up. The H and h are knocked back and the h is unconscious from the explosion.
When the h wakes up, the only shelter available for miles around is the castle. Fortunately the h has a doctorate in Medieval studies, cause she knows all the tips and tricks of living in a medieval fortress. Things like finding the internal reservoir for water, how to make pallets from sacks and grasses to sleep on and most importantly, how to defend a castle against an attack.
The H is a big international banker and the H figures the kidnappers will soon be on their way back, once they realize how valuable the H would be as a hostage for ransom. By this time the mutual antagonism has given way to mutual attraction and some more roofie kisses, so the H and h are slowly but surely making their way to the big lurve club moment.
They eventually get there, but not before the h finds an ax to cut wood with and some half used petrol drums she can use to pour petrol down the meurtrière (murder holes). The h tries to talk the H into building a trebuchet or at least a big crossbow, but the H is a banker, not a carpenter, so he nixes those idears while wondering at the enthusiastic bloodthirstiness of the h.
Then the beautiful kidnapper comes back with some armed men and while they are fighting to get through the castle's lowered portcullis, the h realizes that she has to light the petrol to ward them off. The h manages to not only light the petrol, she tosses the drum after it and blows up the narrow bridge that crossed the 100 ft deep moat to the castle. Now that the bad guys are on the run and the H is in awe of the h's battle tactics, they lurve it up on the roof and wait for the cavalry. Who happens to show up while the H and h are still running around naked, to both the H and h's mutual embarrassment.
After the big rescue the H and h are split up and the h ends up back in her regular professorial post at Oxford. Two months have gone by and the h hasn't heard from the H and she is having a bit of a mopey moment. She is suffering from unrequited love and has been unable to contact the H and it seems as if it has done nothing but rain for the two months she has been back at home. She is in the middle of a lecture about the Crusades when the H comes storming in.
He has been trying for two months to find the h, but Oxford is a big place and there is no internets and he did not know what College the h lectured in. He tried calling everyone with her last name in the phone book, but the h's aunt, who works with Amnesty International, had filled the h's house with refugees. So every time the H called, nobody spoke any English.
Now that the H has finally tracked the h down, he means to carry her off forever. Since his very stuffy Boston mother is a bit put out over his choice of a wife instead of hers, the H, who cheerfully admits he is 'stinking rich', has wangled the American ambassador post to Italy and the h can lecture in Florence. Which is a big medieval mecca for history types. He demands that the h avow her love in the middle of the lecture, cause he loves her madly and he sweeps her off in his arms to the cheers of her students for the big HEA.
This one was cute and fairly funny. The medieval details aren't too scholastic and ML does a great job of working them into the story line. The H and h have a lot of banter, but it isn't vicious bickering - mostly cause the H can't help but kiss the h every time she starts to argue. This isn't the deepest delving plot and everything is fairly light in tone, but it is a mostly believable HEA with a pretty good fairy tale ending.
Plus, I can't help but admire an h who can defend a castle using medieval battle tactics to save her H --shouting out her motto of 'NO SURRENDER' (with that being such a medieval thing to do,)-- which makes this a fun romp in the usually more serious dramatics of HPlandia.
When I say cataclysmic, I mean that literally. From the first day each of them arrived in the country they keep running into each other and falling over or into things. Even tho the verbal antagonism between is extremely high, for some reason each of these encounters ends in a big roofie kissing moment, usually instigated by the H. Neither one of them can figure it out, they really don't like each other and are total opposites, but the physical attraction is driving the H mad and the h is concerned she might have a brain tumor.
The multiple collisions and various encounters seem to be never ending as well. The H and h have a falling over run in at the local bazaar. When the h gets on the wrong side of a bale of cloth and blindly stumbles over the H and they both end up on the ground, there is another roofie kissing moment and then the H drags the h back to her hotel and tells her to stay there until he can leave the country the next day.
Unfortunately, the Minister of the Interior likes the h's tall, blonde English good looks and he invites her to travel with him in his air-conditioned state limo to the airport at Damascus. Even more unfortunately, the H is also being given the privilege of riding in the Minister's limo as well and he can't believe his bad luck. So when they all set off to Damascus with the H, the h, the Minister and the curvy new beautiful female interpreter, there is a certain amount of mutual chagrin between the H and h.
The limo takes a detour and the h is excited because they are driving by the recently restored ruins of the Citadel of Salah Ed-Din or in regular terms, the medieval fortress of Saladin - the guy that conquered the Christian crusaders. The h has recently written a book on medieval warfare and has a publisher, but she was hoping to get in some exploration of an actual Crusade era fortress and lo and behold in the synchronicity of HPlandia, ML kindly throws the best one in.
Most unfortunately, the beautiful, curvy and very radicalized new interpreter is a kidnapper and she wants to take the Syrian Minister to Beirut as a hostage. She forces the h and H away from the limo when they stop near the fortress for a lunch break and then she takes off with the Minister and blows the limo up. The H and h are knocked back and the h is unconscious from the explosion.
When the h wakes up, the only shelter available for miles around is the castle. Fortunately the h has a doctorate in Medieval studies, cause she knows all the tips and tricks of living in a medieval fortress. Things like finding the internal reservoir for water, how to make pallets from sacks and grasses to sleep on and most importantly, how to defend a castle against an attack.
The H is a big international banker and the H figures the kidnappers will soon be on their way back, once they realize how valuable the H would be as a hostage for ransom. By this time the mutual antagonism has given way to mutual attraction and some more roofie kisses, so the H and h are slowly but surely making their way to the big lurve club moment.
They eventually get there, but not before the h finds an ax to cut wood with and some half used petrol drums she can use to pour petrol down the meurtrière (murder holes). The h tries to talk the H into building a trebuchet or at least a big crossbow, but the H is a banker, not a carpenter, so he nixes those idears while wondering at the enthusiastic bloodthirstiness of the h.
Then the beautiful kidnapper comes back with some armed men and while they are fighting to get through the castle's lowered portcullis, the h realizes that she has to light the petrol to ward them off. The h manages to not only light the petrol, she tosses the drum after it and blows up the narrow bridge that crossed the 100 ft deep moat to the castle. Now that the bad guys are on the run and the H is in awe of the h's battle tactics, they lurve it up on the roof and wait for the cavalry. Who happens to show up while the H and h are still running around naked, to both the H and h's mutual embarrassment.
After the big rescue the H and h are split up and the h ends up back in her regular professorial post at Oxford. Two months have gone by and the h hasn't heard from the H and she is having a bit of a mopey moment. She is suffering from unrequited love and has been unable to contact the H and it seems as if it has done nothing but rain for the two months she has been back at home. She is in the middle of a lecture about the Crusades when the H comes storming in.
He has been trying for two months to find the h, but Oxford is a big place and there is no internets and he did not know what College the h lectured in. He tried calling everyone with her last name in the phone book, but the h's aunt, who works with Amnesty International, had filled the h's house with refugees. So every time the H called, nobody spoke any English.
Now that the H has finally tracked the h down, he means to carry her off forever. Since his very stuffy Boston mother is a bit put out over his choice of a wife instead of hers, the H, who cheerfully admits he is 'stinking rich', has wangled the American ambassador post to Italy and the h can lecture in Florence. Which is a big medieval mecca for history types. He demands that the h avow her love in the middle of the lecture, cause he loves her madly and he sweeps her off in his arms to the cheers of her students for the big HEA.
This one was cute and fairly funny. The medieval details aren't too scholastic and ML does a great job of working them into the story line. The H and h have a lot of banter, but it isn't vicious bickering - mostly cause the H can't help but kiss the h every time she starts to argue. This isn't the deepest delving plot and everything is fairly light in tone, but it is a mostly believable HEA with a pretty good fairy tale ending.
Plus, I can't help but admire an h who can defend a castle using medieval battle tactics to save her H --shouting out her motto of 'NO SURRENDER' (with that being such a medieval thing to do,)-- which makes this a fun romp in the usually more serious dramatics of HPlandia.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 19, 2012
Fast, fun, light read. No angst, no thrilling romance strictly a for fun quick read. If you don't like bicker fests then don't bother. The H/h don't fall in love at first sight, they in fact take an immediate and strong dislike for each other. Each succeeding encounter is equally as brief and explosive but inexplicably always ends in an angry, searing, toe tingling kiss.
The H/h are not the best candidates to be paired off in a life threatening quest to evade terrorists.
They end up in rugged terrain in Syria with no transportation. Fortunately there is an abandoned medieval castle that they can take refuge in until they are either rescued or found by the terrorists. Of course with all that explosive chemistry running afoul, one thing was bound to lead to another.
The H/h are not the best candidates to be paired off in a life threatening quest to evade terrorists.
They end up in rugged terrain in Syria with no transportation. Fortunately there is an abandoned medieval castle that they can take refuge in until they are either rescued or found by the terrorists. Of course with all that explosive chemistry running afoul, one thing was bound to lead to another.
September 17, 2017
Light hearted fast moving fun story. I did wonder how the so smart hero managed to get to be 35 and never have heard of Saladin or know anything at all about the crusades. Still with a bit of willing suspension of disbelief I enjoyed this one.
abrierto-to-read-hr-other
January 30, 2018she defends the castle. The feeling was mutual
They hated each other. Oriel thought American banker Jake Emmerson was a thoroughly nasty, bad-mannered male chauvinist.
Based on their first unfortunate encounter, Jake thought Dr. Oriel de Montfort was a certifiable lunatic.
They would certainly never, even as a last resort, have chosen to become traveling companions through Syria. So it was ironic that Oriel and Jake ended up stranded together in dangerous circumstances. But perhaps the close contact would force them to review their opinions of each other
They hated each other. Oriel thought American banker Jake Emmerson was a thoroughly nasty, bad-mannered male chauvinist.
Based on their first unfortunate encounter, Jake thought Dr. Oriel de Montfort was a certifiable lunatic.
They would certainly never, even as a last resort, have chosen to become traveling companions through Syria. So it was ironic that Oriel and Jake ended up stranded together in dangerous circumstances. But perhaps the close contact would force them to review their opinions of each other
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews