India had been thirteen when Nathan Kittrick was banished from Pelican Island. Now, shrouded in scandal, he'd come home, heir to his father's multimillion-dollar holiday resort--a man determined to claim what was rightfully his.
Nathan's return brought back bitter memories, and India greeted him with angry accusations of the past. And this time he had to listen, because she was no longer a child, nor his faithful shadow. In fact, India had been managing the luxury hotel since his father's death.
India was also a woman determined not to let her former trust for this man be rekindled. But she hadn't expected Nathan's assault on her senses to be quite so tender. And she hadn't expected her desire for him to be quite so strong...
Anne Mather is the pseudonym used by Mildred Grieveson, a popular British author of over 160 romance novels. She also signed novels as Caroline Fleming and Cardine Fleming. Mildred Grieveson began to write down stories in her childhood years. The first novel that she actually finished, Caroline (1965), was also her first book to be published. Her novel, Leopard in the Snow (1974), was developed into a 1978 film.
Re Tender Assault - Hopefully Anne Mather did not pick the completely oxymoronic title, but I must say the HP Vintage Title Generator folks had an excellent sense of humor, my brain is still in recovery from the assaultive battery it took with this one.
This is one of AM's infamous keep it in the family books where the H, h and her mother are all supposedly in some grotesque love triangle instigated by the h's narcissist mother. Both Charlotte Lamb's Twist of Fate and Sara Craven's Unguarded Moment are relatively insightful, thoughtful examinations on the effect an overwhelming sociopathic narcissist mother can have on her soon-to-be-seen-as-a-rival daughter.
Anne Mather has a keener idear of what her readers are really going for on their HPlandia outings, she dumps the psychological studies and profiles in the nearest dumpster and goes all out for the outrageous whacktastic.
This one is scene after scene after scene of the h's utterly whacked, slime pustule bloated sub sewer gulper egotistic mother having tantrum after tantrum and spewing her venom ALL over this corner of AM's HPlandia province.
The story is actually pretty simple, the H's father remarried after his own mum died and the newcomers are the h, who is 8 years younger than the H, and her mother. Who is the classic Tarty Harlot Gold digger who was supposed to marry a elderly pet food billionaire, but got her claws into the H's Island hotel owning father instead.
She makes everyone's life miserable in between her various flits offshore to spend money and shag multiple men, and the big straw was when she accused the H at 21 of trying to force himself upon her and the H's father believed her and voted the H off the island.
Eight years on, the H now owns a huge conglomerate of boot camp/spa retreats and is wealthy in his own right. He has just gotten the news that his estranged father is dead and the island hotel, formerly a little fishing joint, is now an Island resort which the h is running - it is also all the H's now. The h gets nothing and the h's mother, the Slime Gulper Witch of the Sub Sewer System, has her own separate big life insurance policy pay out.
The book is mostly in the H's POV, thus we learn that the H is no womanizer. He likes the ladies sure, but he works hard with his old army drill sergeant junior partner to grow and expand his business. He has always been fond of the h and bitterly resents the SGW's bullying, deriding humiliations of the h as a 13 yr old and he REALLY resents that the SGW's lies cost him his relationship with his father.
The Slime Gulper Witch of the Sub Sewer System is in a panic tho, she knows the H hates her guts and she is desperately afraid that he will kick her off the island. The SGW has money, but she won't be able to maintain her gravy boat lifestyle if she has to use it to actually live on.
She is also afraid that the H will finally reveal the extent of her lies and maliciousness and the SGW will lose any influence over the h, who continues to be her first bullying target as well as her ego prop and the support for her overweening narcissistic personality.
The H gets to the island and the h, who has been thoroughly poisoned by her mother, has little battles with the H about running the resort and him usurping her authority. She is also the smuggest condescending little snot idiot in any universe - HPlandia or not. Her only redeeming feature is she is built like a brickhouse and totally gorgeous, tho she doesn't realize it.
She absolutely believes her mother is the Purveyor of Truth and Martyrhood Everywhere and thinks the H is horrible for trying to seduce her poor, abused mother and how dare the H actually come back and try to run his own hotel!
The usual tropes of the h's Treacherous Body Syndrome and the SGW having used up a lot of the hotel's financial capital in her extravagance, so the H has to fix things financially too, is washed and rinsed and repeated in between the Slime Gulper Witch of the Sub Sewer System's antics and two year old inspired temper tantrums.
The H and h dance around each other and play with the Lurve Force Passion Vibes between them. Until finally the H gets drunk, finds a letter from his father asking for forgiveness cause the H's dad finally realized the extent of the SGW's perfidy , and the h and H have a huge lurve club unicorn banishing moment.
The h is going to leave the island after that, she still thinks the H wants her mother instead. But the h overhears the SGW's attempt at blackmail and manipulation of the H to make the h stay on the island and maintain the SGW's lifestyle and we get an off page smackdown, (to my great dismay,) by the h of her mother which AM then proceeds to ruin by having nothing else happen to the evil coprophagic sub sewer reject.
The SGW gets off scot free and still tries to stir drama every once in a while, as she lives it up in Island Resort splendour. The H and h are in love and married and the H gets to practice frequent gropey hand moves on his now pregnant h, as we hurriedly slam this book closed and bail out with a mediocre I-will-believe-it-just-to-end-it AM HPlandia HEA.
Stock up on your Tim Tam's and your Captain if you visit here, the comforting pillows of treats and adult beverages are a must to recover from the full frontal assault that is this one.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
The H is her stepbrother. He left the house when she was 13 years old, so she did not really grow up with him in her life. The h is one of Anne Mather’s rare virgins.
3.5 stars Second chance? Not exactly, more a step sibling sublimated attraction (with obvious age gap trope) abruptly destroyed by a evil step mother schemes. Long separation and now …. Enemies? Friend again? Irresistibly attracted? All of it. Lots of drama and sizzling chemistry. Always with a disturbing “incest-like” undertone. Good
The story follows the typical plot of a stepbrother (Nathan) and stepsister (India) who separate after making a tender innocent bond because of India's greedy mother and Nathan's deceived father. When they finally meet again after 8 years, Nathan was not welling to forgive his stepmother for the dishonest person she was, yet kicking her out of his inherited island would result in losing India.
Anne Mather has a unique engrossing writing style, but even that didn't incite me to like the story as it is. It's written from both the main heroes point of view and this is one of its draw backs because it robbed the whole story of its intensity and deprived it of any anticipation. There was no climax to the whole story and the ending lacked all the important interests. Not one I would ever read again.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
This review is from: Tender Assault (Mass Market Paperback) MY THOUGHTS: I thought the book was OK, but nothing special. The beginning seemed exciting, but then in the middle all the way to the end, it started to drag. Also, India's mother was VERY evil! I have no idea why the author persisted in giving India's mother her "happy ending" of some sorts. Whaaa??? Anyway, India's mother just caused SO much trouble that they should have banished her! Anyhow, I'm glad I read it, but I don't think I'll be re-reading it again.
All together it was an okay novel. Certain parts I liked and others I didn't. I couldn't believe what a gold digger the heroines mom was, she made me kind of nauseous sometimes. I found her terribly annoying. The hero and heroine sparked off of each other which created an interesting but likable novel.
India had been thirteen when Nathan Kittrick was banished from Pelican Island. Now, shrouded in scandal, he'd come home, heir to his father's multimillion-dollar holiday resort -- a man determined to claim what was rightfully his.
Nathan's return brought back bitter memories, and India greeted him with angry accusations of the past. And this time he had to listen, because she was no longer a child, nor his faithful shadow. In fact, India had been managing the luxury hotel since his father's death,
India was also a woman determined not to let her former trust for this man be rekindled. But she hadn't expected Nathan's assault on her senses to be quite so tender. And she hadn't expected her desire for him to be quite so strong.
2.5 stars. I definitely would like to read more by this author. It was a quick, easy read—and the ‘misunderstandings’ are actually believable, unlike the standard of that trope which I hate (where there’s no reason for the two people not to be on the same page or have a simple conversation that would solve it). Hero and Heroine are step siblings so there are definitely certain… overtones. But it wasn’t slathered on too thick. I enjoyed it, but I wouldn’t read it again. And I was a bit disappointed that
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
DNF. I thought if I could just dig my feet into the sand, I’d get it done. But no. Even for step siblings, I draw the line at incest. (Also the step mom was creepy as fuck.)
India had been thirteen when Nathan Kittrick was banished from Pelican Island. Now, shrouded in scandal, he'd come home, heir to his father's multimillion-dollar holiday resort -- a man determined to claim what was rightfully his.
Nathan's return brought back bitter memories, and India greeted him with angry accusations of the past. And this time he had to listen, because she was no longer a child, nor his faithful shadow. In fact, India had been managing the luxury hotel since his father's death,
India was also a woman determined not to let her former trust for this man be rekindled. But she hadn't expected Nathan's assault on her senses to be quite so tender. And she hadn't expected her desire for him to be quite so strong...