Tender Lies

by Kay McMahon

When shipwrecked Englishman Reid Hamilton washes ashore in Ireland, an Irish lass mistakes him for her betrothed, and after recovering in her care, he leaves her wondering if she can ever love another

Genres: Historical Romance, Romance

448 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1990

Reviews

[KatieV · Rating 1 out of 5]

I can't believe this book has an avg rating of almost 4 stars. It was so bland and blah. Plus we heard the same things over and over and over again, because we get inside everyone's head and have to listen to them rehash and analyze the same events NUMEROUS times. In real life if party B doesn't know the things party A does, then party A will tell them step-by-step what happened. In pretend life, we generally prefer to skim over those things. For example: Bob related the entire story to Alice. NOT: Bob told Alice this happened, then that happened, and then... When we the reader have already been subjected to the damn story two or three times.

Also, warning for appalling treatment of slaves at the H's plantation. It was all the evil overseer's fault though. The H wasn't paying any attention, he was more concerned with other things. He never wondered about all the 'runaways' that were actually buried in the back 40. Plus, he fired the overseer once our lovely, fearless, spitfire heroine became the savior of the blacks. And yes, the text actually states something very close to that. Sheesh.

Since there are no reviews, below is a synopsis of this crazy, confusing train wreck. This coming from someone who loves a good train wreck. Sadly this wasn't one of those.

1790's Ireland; The h, Bevan O'Rourke, and her brothers are desperate to save their condemned father who was arrested at an anti-English demonstration after taking a weapon to a British soldier. They are told of an English Lord who may help them for a price. Turns out the price is that Bevan will marry the Lord's nephew, Graham. Problem is, there is no nephew. The English Lord is actually a serial killer/sexual sadist who is dying to get his hands on the legendarily beautiful Irish girl he'd been told about (Bevan). She was to be his next "mistress" until he finally killed her and dumped her at the docks like all his other victims.

Enter Reid Hamilton, wealthy planter from NC who also owns a trading vessel. He's come to England to recoup the money that a certain English Lord cheated his captain out of. There's a scuffle down on the docks and Reid becomes separated from his crew while chasing Lord Evil. He then discovers that Lord Evil has chartered a ship to Ireland (he's taking some dude posing as his fake nephew to Ireland to swindle Bevan away from her bros). Reid's pissed that he's getting away, so he charters his own ship to chase him. Big storm, Reid's ship goes down and he's washed up on an Irish shore. In the exact spot that the O'Rourke brothers were waiting for Lord Evil and nephew. They assume drowned-guy must be the nephew/fiance and take him to their home where Bevan nurses him back to health and falls in lust.

Reid finally comes around, but he has amnesia. He's told he's fiance-Graham and that he's supposed to marry Bevan and so forth. He falls in instalove with Bevan, so he's all for it... except he has this niggling feeling that something isn't quite right. He remembers he's from NC and feels like there is unfinished business back there (hint:fiance). For reasons that only make sense if you're very drunk, he decides to just play along with being Graham instead of telling them the truth that he honestly has no friggin clue who he is.

They sex it up in a very boring scene. At this point Reid/Graham has decided he wants to marry Bevan, but he needs to go back to NC first and learn who he is so he can marry her an honest man. But, before he goes back, he hatches a plan with the brothers to break Daddy O'Rourke out of prison since he's about to be hanged. That doesn't work out so well and he is shot (actually grazed) in the head and Bevan believes he's dead. Actually, he's not dead. He gets tossed in prison and his crew magically turns up and take him back to NC. He comes around enroute and remembers who he is, but has mysteriously forgotten everything that happened after he arrived in England. Yes, he has amnesia again.

Months later Lord Evil shows up to take Bevan to marry his nephew. Huh? Oh well, she'll go anyway, since it's their only hope to get Daddy out of prison. Lord Evil locks her in a room at his manor and tells her the nephew has changed his mind, but she'll be his new mistress instead. He then leaves to take care of his various evil enterprises and Lady Evil helps Bevan escape after the maid discovers a log detailing all the "mistresses". Lots of drama ensues since Lord Evil isn't happy about losing his new toy. She gets away from him on the docks and hides on a merchant ship where she falls asleep and almost dies of pneumonia. This ship just happens to be the one owned by Reid and is on its way back to NC. The kindly captain takes her to the Hamilton plantation and ensures her they'll find her work/take care of her until she can earn her way back to Ireland. So, she becomes an indentured servant on Reid's plantation where she lives in the slave's quarters, toils all day, and eats gruel. Meanwhile, Reid doesn't understand why this chick hates him so much and who the hell is this 'Graham' dude she keeps ranting about? Good God, I can't go on. You get the idea.

[L. · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a zippy little read (as in I skimmed right through it) even though the paperback is 448 pages. (I don't know why GR describes it as having only 1 page.) This is McMahon's take on Hilton's classic, Random Harvest: A Novel. Bevan O'Rourke and her brothers are expecting a man named Graham to arrive. When they discover an injured shipwreck survivor, they just assume this is the man they've been expecting. When Reid Hamilton wakes up, he has amnesia, so he assumes he must be this Graham. He attempts to help the Irish lads to free their father from prison but instead Reid/Graham gets injured. When Reid wakes up, he's regained his memory but now has totally forgotten all about Bevan and the boys.

Reid returns home to America (and his fiancée) with Bevan not far behind him and a homicidal maniac not far behind her. As trainwrecks go, I've read worse/better ones.