A Treasure Worth Seeking

by Rachel Ryan, Sandra Brown

Erin Finds unexpected Love as She Searches for Her Long-Lost Brother

Erin...After years of searching for the brother she'd never known, Erin O'Shea had finally found his San Francisco address. She stood on the doorstep, unaware that she was about to walk into a shocking drama of family lies-and to meet an intriguing, infuriating man who would change her life.

Lance...He was a G-man for the government's toughest cases-like the big-money scan involving Erin's long-lost brother. But although Lance was immediately attracted to her, he never dreamed that his feelings would drive him to break every ruls in the book-and put his career and even Erin's future on the line.

Genres: Romance, Contemporary Romance, Contemporary, Fiction, Romantic Suspense, Harlequin, Audiobook

285 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

Rachel Ryan is the pseudonym of Sandra Brown

Reviews

[Mo · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5.
Its an oldie so we have to give it some bit of leeway. Yes, he is an Ass, yes, I love an Ass. Set in San Francisco, where I visited recently. 30 years ago would have swooned over him. If you are stuck for something to read and want something quick... go for it... Cannot compare it to her recent books.




and yes, we have the hairy chest....

[*TANYA* · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super cute!! I loved it, I can’t help loving anything Sandra Brown writes. Lol.

[Preeti ♥︎ Her Bookshelves · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick hot read. Fun too, for most parts.
Who wouldn’t love an alpha lawman who keeps misplacing his glasses – up and down that straight narrow nose? Adorable? As a riled lion!
The beginning was a cracker - hot, hilarious and a hoot.
The plot seemed well sketched and promising.
The chemistry fast and fiery. Sex similar.
And it delivers on most counts…not all.

Problems?
The h was sweet, likable, but seriously lady, do you accept proposals on humanitarian grounds?
Married once, engaged again, thirtyish (I could add a model to boot– but then I’d sound a tad prejudiced)….and still a virgin?
The suspense/thriller part …shook me out and not in a good way.
The h kept switching roles between concerned sister and lust/love crazed woman disturbingly fast.
The poor om deserved better …but then the ‘other people’ generally do!

Overall, the romance was cheesy and easy.
Not quite the rest of the plot.

[Barbara · Rating 2 out of 5]

The subplot with the brother was disturbing and not neccessary to have it go the way it did.
Lance was also disturbing to me. Too violent and irrational. Erin was an ass.
If you think about it, this story has a lot of ick factor.
But 30 years ago, maybe that's what you got in a romance story.

[Ron Wroblewski · Rating 1 out of 5]

A lusty romance with very little plot. A waste of my time.

[Joyceee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Never thought to be this marvelous! When I started reading this book right from the very first chapter, I could not already stand not to turn the next page for what might going to happen because the story is such an art for it to be more unpredictable as far as the story goes on. I also love the strong and courageous attitude of Erin O'Shea that represents how an individual should face devastating events and how to ride on the ups and downs of our lives. Never felt savvy like this for a long time to read novels that contain great lessons in life especially in terms of relationship with the one you really love. Worth to read and will never waste a second of your life! Alright, I found myself to be in a different era. But who cares, I am just fascinated with the fantasy.

[SuperWendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Originally published in 1982 this was Brown's fourth book for the Candlelight Ecstasy category romance line and it does not disappoint. It's got all the requisite bananapants plotting that I just expect in romances from this era, complete with a heroine who meets her long lost brother, only to have him kiss the hell out of her and find out he's not her long lost brother, he's an agent for the Treasury Department. Seems the family she's so desperately been searching for is a wanted criminal. On top of that, she's a virgin widow, because of course she is - and he's a Neanderthal (seriously - romance hero, 1982, none of us is new here....) but at least he doesn't follow through with raping her so let's chalk this one up to progress for the time.

From a history of the romance genre standpoint, this one is very interesting. Brown slips in a few scenes from the hero's point of view (a rarity in those days) and while it's not a suspense subplot in the traditional sense, it's still a dollop of suspense. It's basically a baby-step towards the career Brown has now. I wouldn't recommend this to someone like I would a book published in the here and now, but from a genre history standpoint, from a looking back on a prolific author's career standpoint, it's very interesting and actually holds up in some places.

[Anne Sawyer · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 Sterne

Es hätte so gut werden können...
Ich kam mit der ganzen Geschichte und vor allem den Protagonisten überhaupt nicht klar.
Das soll Sandra Brown geschrieben haben?
Das kann ich kaum glauben.
Mich haben einige Punkte gestört: zunächst einmal ist Erin beinah besessen davon schlank zu bleiben. Aussagen wie u.a.
"ich trinke keine Milch und ich esse kein Brot, denn beides macht dick" haben mich fast wahnsinnig gemacht.
Dann wird sie von Lance fast vergewaltigt aber ist das schlimm? Nein, sie tut es einfach ab. Hätte ja jeden passieren können ...
Überhaupt hätte es mich mehr interessiert was nun genau mit ihren verschollenen Bruder war, wo das Geld ist, könnten sie noch verfolgt werden usw.
An sich hatte die Grundstory so viel Potential ...

Um noch etwas Positives zu sagen: der Schreibstil von  Sandra Brown war wie immer so gut, das ich weiterlesen musste, obwohl mir die Protagonisten weitgehend egal waren.
Ich glaube ich bin einfach nicht die richtige Zielgruppe für diese Art von Romanen. Ihre Thriller mag ich viel lieber.

[Cee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not sure how to review this book without sounding condescending. It's not my intention to either insult the authors of books like this, or people who enjoy reading them.

That being clarified, this books reads like a daydream fantasy. Something you make up when you're staring out of the window on a long train trip, or during your lunch break when you're having a boring day at work. I have conjured thousands of stories like this, and while they are entertaining, in the end you know they don't make sense at all. This book makes absolutely no sense.

The story starts with the adopted Erin O'Shea looking for her lost brother. When she arrives in San Franscisco unannounced (of course you wouldn't call before hopping on a multiple hours flight) it turns out her brother is suspect of stealing a huge amount of money from the bank he works. Then the story is one string of events, the second even less plausible than the first.

What struck me as odd was the dysfunctional relationship Erin and Lance have. They understand absolutely nothing about each other. One second everything is all sweet words and tender touches and a second later they are in some kind of fight without any inducement. And somewhere in the middle of that on-off thing they draw the conclusion that they love each other. Huh?

You cannot love someone unconditionally when you have just met this person. Yes, you can be in love, but that is something else entirely. Love needs a foundation, a basis on which it can be built. And I just can't stand it when characters in books just decide from one moment to the other they "love" someone. Love is more than that, and it deserves to be treated more carefully.

This book is like a written form of a television soap series. It is entertaining, and a way to escape reality. Only I prefer to escape into a world were there are vampires or dragons or zombies, not into a world where virgins get swiped of their feet by special agents. I can see why these books are popular. They are easy to read and fast paced, without themes that require deep thought. And I repeat, there is nothing wrong with this book, or any other book of this kind. They are just not for me.

[Elvan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Bad early 80's stereotypes. Hero is an arrogant a$$hat. Heroine is a doormat. Brown uses as many three and four syllable words as she can find to describe....everything.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the ending!

[Diana Iovan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pe când eram la jumătatea cărții ma gândeam ca o să las 3 stele și nu o să scriu nimic, iar acum 4 stele mi se pare rating-ul potrivit. Ce m-a facut să îmi schimb părerea: finalul, deși cea de-a patra stea nu se datorează numai finalului ci și evenimentelor incipiente.
Roman de dragoste 100%, recomandat pasionaților de acest gen. :)

[Dirk · Rating 1 out of 5]

It was not my typical sort of book I am reading normal.
Therefore I am sorry that I stopped reading after the first 50 pages.
The book came to me as a Goodreads giveaway.
In the German translation I found no real failiures

[Alexia · Rating 3 out of 5]

this was a really good palette cleanser book after so much fantasy. I read this book in one day and I flew through it. really enjoyed it.

[Judy Churchill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Erin was searching for her birth brother who was adopted into a different family. When she finally found his address and arrived in San Francisco she had no idea what she was getting into. This is a tale of bitter turns, mystery and happiness.

[Gramedia Pustaka Utama · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kesan ganteng tapi cool melekat erat pada tokoh Lance, si agen pemerintah, yang bertugas mengawasi rumah seseorang yang dicurigai terlibat skandal keuangan. Di sanalah ia bertemu dengan Erin yang cantik bak model dan kaya raya karena bisnis fashion nya. Sementara Lance hanyalah seorang agen dengan gaji tak seberapa. Inilah yang membuatnya rada minder. Setengah mati ia berusaha menyangkal perasaannya pada Erin. Apalagi Erin sudah punya kekasih.

Bagian yang sangat mengharukan terjadi saat Erin mendadak sakit, betapa Lance tak sanggup menutupi perasaan sayangnya pada Erin. Sikap Lance yang kadang penuh perhatian, kadang cuek dan angkuh, membingungkan Erin. Hingga saat mereka harus berpisah karena keadaan, Lance pun tak sanggup berkata apa-apa selain membiarkan Erin pergi. Benarkah mereka tak mungkin bersatu? Silakan baca sendiri... :)

Dibaca berulang kali pun nggak bakal bosan. Dijamin!

[Mskychick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Got this book thrown in with In a Class by Itself which I won through Goodreads First Reads. It is by Sandra Brown, under an earlier pen name of Rachel Ryan. It was published in 1982, and has a very dated feel appropriate to the year that it was published in.

This book reads like it is from 1982. While I might have given it a much higher rating if I were rating it in 1982, it's just too old fashioned for me to enjoy now. I found Erin to be wimpy, which annoyed me to no end. She would be "spunky" right off the bat then quickly crumble. Lance was an overbearing jerk. Of course, typical for the era, she's a virgin when they first have sex, and ends up pregnant.

While I enjoyed the book enough to keep reading it when I picked it up and idly started leafing through it, I would not recommend it to others simply because it felt so dated. Again, this was probably a great book back in its day.

It took 1 hour to read this book

[Kath · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some of Sandra's older works are quite charming, but I didn't care for this one. The audiobook indicated this was originally written and released in 1982, but it's not that the book is dated. This is really a story of a successful woman who meets a man under stressful circumstances. He bullies her, kind of violates her civil rights and is downright rude to her because he can't control his own insecurities.

There were some sweet moments, but they were always quickly overshadowed by nasty ones, because of insecurity and jealousy.

These are pretty forgetable characters, because I read this book several days ago and I can't recall any of the character's names. While this story held my interest long enough to finish it, that's about it.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good Book, Get a Dictionary

Although this is a typical romance novel love story, Ms. Brown writes it so that you want a happy ending for the heroine Erin O'Shea. Without giving away anything from the book, the story is sad in parts, but sweet throughout. I do warn you though, the book felt like it was the writers outlet to use every "big word of the day" that she has learned over the last twenty years. Words that I had never heard, much less used before even though I am a voracious reader with a pretty decent vocabulary were thrown in for what seemed like no other reason than to impress the reader. So, read the book, it's worth your time if your at the beach, but don't forget to take your dictionary, and possibly your thesaurus along too.

[Mallorie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have mixed feelings about this book. If I could, I would give it a 3.4/3.5 rating, but since I can't, I decided to go with a 4 to round it up.

I felt like the beginning of the book was odd. I won't go into detail, because I don't want to ruin the story for others, but needless to say, the story with the brother made things a bit-- different. However, once the story got started, I didn't find it that bad. There were a few places where I felt that there could have been more, but overall I'd say it's a good book to read on a day where you just want to laze about.

[Melissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

****I won this book from Goodreads giveaways***

I usually really like Sandra Brown's books but this is the 1st time I've read one of her older books. I think her newer stuff is a lot better. This book is ok, but not great.

This is the type of book I take with me to read in waiting rooms, it is an easy story to pick up and put down again for interuptions but still an entertaining story.

The characters are ok but the book is meant as a quick romantic read so both the characters and plot are a little on the light side.

[Jody · Rating 3 out of 5]

This older (1982) book by Sandra Brown was included with another First Reads giveaway that I won. It is written under one of her earlier names, Rachel Ryan.

This book is a romance similar to Harlequin Romances. Others have given summaries of the storyline so I won't bother. It was uncomfortable seeing Erin accept Lance's violent streak. You can tell it was written in a different era with more stereotypical gender roles of the eighties.

[Jaime · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is just a run-of-the-mill romance, with all of the proper elements... instant attraction followed by a personality conflict, reluctant surrender, a situation that makes it impossible for romance to continue, a dramatic event where true feelings are revealed... all that's missing is the ripping bodice. A fun read if you’re into that sort of thing.

[Darcy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was very schmaltzy, bland, and boring. You could guess chapters ahead what was going to happen and how things were going to end.

[Michelle Robinson · Rating 1 out of 5]

this book is pretty far fetched and I could not stretch my credulity enough to enjoy it

[Emily · Rating 1 out of 5]

Where do I even begin with this book? First, the book makes this book more scandalous that it was.
Second, this book was written in 1982, and while I want to say it's a product of it's time, I also want to hope that we knew better. This is the story of Erin who is looking for her brother (both were adopted by separate parents as children). Instead of meeting her brother, she meets Lance Barrett, an agent who is investigating her brother for embezzling money and running off with it. It's a short romance (250 pages), so I don't expect much, but problems abounded with this book from the start. First, there is the fact that Lance french kisses Erin when they first meet - and Erin at this time thinks that Lance is her brother and starts responding to the kiss. Gross. Next, Erin is engaged to another man. Not because she loves this man, but because she didn't say no to him because she wanted to avoid conflict and felt bad for saying no. Umm.... I think it would be worse to lead someone on as opposed to being honest with them. Then, there is Lance who is verbally abusive to Erin because he first thinks that she's involved with her brother's illegal activities and then because he's angry that she responds to him though she's engaged to another man. And then he tells her that she can't sleep in the guest room, but has to sleep on the couch in the study for no reason other than he can sleep in the same room as her (in a chair), but he then comes on to her in the middle of the night. And he's on the clock. Then at one point they are arguing (she doesn't tell her fiance over the phone that she had sex with Lance because she wants to do that in person). He says something, she slaps him. He then tells her to watch it because the next time he'll break her arm and then proceeds to force himself on her. He does stop before raping her. And she still forgives him and later has sex with him again. And then when she leaves to go back home, she doesn't tell her fiance. She later ends up pregnant and breaks off the engagement. But her fiance and later Lance both ask if she wants to have an "operation." And lastly, Erin (who runs a modeling agency of some sort) asks a co-worker if the live in that one of her models wants to take with him on a job is a male or a female. It's alluded that it's a male, and she then says, "well, the person who is hiring him for the job is conservative" and he wouldn't be able to take a live in - male or female. So then WHY ask? There was no point. And lastly, Erin and Lance both claim to love each other and want to spend their lives with each other after spending a week only together which was spent mostly fighting, slinging verbal insults, and full of misunderstandings.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book landed in my hands directly from Argentina. It was gifted to me by two dear friends of mine. Needless to say that I had to read it right away, even though it is a bit out of my comfort zone.

I have conflicted thoughts about the story. Overall, I enjoyed the book and I felt invested in the story. I liked the main characters. The romance was really cute and hot. The chemistry between Erin and Lance was on fire. I liked the banter. It was fun.

However, I had some issues with the story.

- In my opinion, this book had so much potential but, plot wise, it needed more pages and more development. I know this is considered a romance, but the mystery could’ve been more explored. It would be a good complement to the story if well developed.

- About the romance, even though I liked it, I’m not the biggest fan of insta-love stories.

- I also had some problems with the way women were treated sometimes, but considering the time period this book was written, it’s understandable.

Overall, it was a very quick read and fun for the most part. I enjoyed it. But the plot development was weak. It deserved a better execution. My rating is not based on my enjoyment in the book, but more about some technicalities.

Português:

Este livro chegou às minhas mãos diretamente da Argentina. Foi-me oferecido por dois queridos amigos meus. Escusado será dizer que tive que lê-lo imediatamente, embora seja um género um pouco fora da minha zona de conforto.

A minha opinião acerca da história é um bocado conflituante. No geral, eu gostei do livro e senti-me investida na história. Gostei também das personagens principais. O romance foi fofo e hot. A química entre a Erin e o Lance estava on fire. Achei divertidas as picardias entre ambos.

No entanto, também tive alguns problemas com a história.

- Na minha opinião, este livro tinha bastante potencial, mas, em termos de plot, precisava de mais páginas e de mais desenvolvimento. Eu sei que é considerado um romance, mas o mistério poderia ter sido melhor explorado. Seria um bom complemento para a história se tivesse sido bem desenvolvido.

- Acerca do romance, apesar de ter gostado, não sou muito fã de histórias de amor instantâneo, à primeira vista.

- Às vezes também tive alguns problemas com a forma como as mulheres eram tratadas, mas considerando o período em que o livro foi escrito, é compreensível.

No geral, foi uma leitura rápida e agradável. Gostei. Mas o desenvolvimento do plot foi fraco. Merecia uma melhor execução. A minha classificação não se baseia tanto na minha satisfação ao ler o livro, mas sim em alguns detalhes mais técnicos.

[Leslie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay, I am really just getting started with this book, but already it is bugging me. Erin enters a home and thinks she is meeting her long lost brother. The man she meets first confirms he is her brother, then for no apparent reason, he kisses her passionately. Then she discovers he is not her brother but is a treasury agent. Then he says, “How long have you known Limon?” Okay, are we really expected to believe a treasury agent would 1. Act this way, by kissing someone he suspects of duplicity, and 2. Is stupid enough to think she knows Limon when he has just carried on a conversation with her thinking HE was Limon. Argh.
Chick Lit-maybe it is just her earlier works, as I don’t remember thinking this in other Sandra Brown books I have read, but must we always begin with the hero being a total jerk? And the heroine is feisty, but polite. And tempted. Oh yes. The hero is rude and physically abusive, but of course the heroine feels tempted. Gag. And when he kisses her violently, she thinks, “hadn’t she discerned a moment of sweet tenderness?”
And she continues throughout to be annoying. She makes love with Lance, then gets a call from her fiance and tells him she loves him. Lance is angry with her and she cant understand why. Then they make love again the next time, and her fiance shows up and Lance is once again angry. Gosh, wonder why. Her fiance wants to know why she isnt wearing his ring, and when she hesitates, Lance says, "she took it off because of me." She thinks, is he going to tell Bart? Oh good, then it will be over quickly and I wont have to. What a piece of milk toast. (not even sure where that saying came from but it seems appropriate). Then she leaves because he is being so mean to her. Gosh, again, wonder why.

[Melissa]

I was thrilled to stumble across a book sale at a library recently. A bag of books for $5? Yes, please! In fact, in middle school, my best friend and I were obsessed with book sales of this nature and we read an enormous variety of books that way, many of which affected me profoundly. I'll never forget the book of dirty jokes I got from a church sale.

These days, I'm doing genre research so that I can write and sell books in these genres. I never got into romance, never read any of them. But they're the bestselling genre of book, so it's kind of essential that I read some.

This one is way better than most of the new ones I've read. It has better-quality prose. But here are some inexplicable (to me) things about romance novels:
1. The guy is a jerk.
2. The woman is a virgin.
3. Readers seem to like things to just hint at rapacity.

This book had the very first instance for me so far of thinking a part of it was kinda hot. It was the opening scene. Erin arrives at the San Francisco home (I pictured one particular house where I used to babysit in SF) of her long-lost brother who was adopted by a different family than she was when they were children. She explains who she is to the man she thinks is her brother, and he responds by kissing her in a not-brotherly way. Good hook! Of course, he's not her brother, he's an investigator trying to track her brother down because he's disappeared after embezzling a bunch of money.

Frankly, I'm so bored by romance novels, what I really wanted was more of the mystery/suspense. I kept expecting to find out who REALLY embezzled the money: the wife? Her parents? Someone else? Nope. It's not a mystery at all. Everything is as it appears. Too bad, but it's fine. It's certainly simpler to write books like that.

Lots of the books I got from the sale are mysteries and horror. I look forward to reading those.

[Bona Caballero · Rating 2 out of 5]

Otra novelita genérica que publicó Sandra Brown en los años ochenta. Esta era la Candlelight Ecstasy Romance n.º 59, salió en mayo de 1982 y con el seudónimo de Rachel Ryan.
Erin O’Shea aparece en San Francisco buscando a su hermano, de quien fue separada de pequeña. Solo que en vez de encontrarle a él, topa con Lance Barrett, agente del Tesoro y también quiere echarle el guante al hermano, pero por otros motivos. Aparte de a un agente de la ley que se comporta de manera poco profesional, tenemos aquí a esa figura mítica tan de novela romántica que es ¡la viuda virginal! Sí, Erin sigue siendo virgen bien entrada en la adultez, a pesar de ser guapa, haberse casado y enviudado y tener como prometido a un millonario tejano.
La primera vez que la leí, allá por los noventa, me gustó. Al releerla en 2012 le puse 6,5 sobre 10. En 2017 lo dejé en dos estrellas. No merece la pena.
Reseña algo más extensa, en mi blog.