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Book by Blake, Jennifer
491 pages, Hardcover
First published February 1, 1998
About the author
Jennifer Blake
160 books545 followersA pseudonym used by Patricia Maxwell.
Jennifer Blake has been called a “pioneer of the romance genre”, and an “icon of the romance industry.” A New York Times and international best selling author since 1977, she is a charter member of Romance Writers of America, member of the RWA Hall of Fame, and recipient of the RWA Lifetime Achievement Rita. She holds numerous other honors, including two “Maggies”, two Holt Medallions, multiple Reviewer’s Choice Awards, the Career Achievement Award from Romantic Times BookReviews Magazine, and the Frank Waters Award for literary excellence. She has written over 60 books with translations in 20 languages and more than 30 million copies in print worldwide.
Jennifer and her husband reside in a lakeside Caribbean-style retreat in North Louisiana where they often entertain family and friends. Always a gardener, she spends much of her time encouraging her garden to bloom with her favorite daylilies and antique roses. She also enjoys walking her two dogs, Buffy and Lucky, and indulging in needlework, painting, and travel.
Jennifer Blake has been called a “pioneer of the romance genre”, and an “icon of the romance industry.” A New York Times and international best selling author since 1977, she is a charter member of Romance Writers of America, member of the RWA Hall of Fame, and recipient of the RWA Lifetime Achievement Rita. She holds numerous other honors, including two “Maggies”, two Holt Medallions, multiple Reviewer’s Choice Awards, the Career Achievement Award from Romantic Times BookReviews Magazine, and the Frank Waters Award for literary excellence. She has written over 60 books with translations in 20 languages and more than 30 million copies in print worldwide.
Jennifer and her husband reside in a lakeside Caribbean-style retreat in North Louisiana where they often entertain family and friends. Always a gardener, she spends much of her time encouraging her garden to bloom with her favorite daylilies and antique roses. She also enjoys walking her two dogs, Buffy and Lucky, and indulging in needlework, painting, and travel.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
February 3, 2018
#RitaBlake
Lo cierto es que este libro tenía ingredientes, en mi opinión, para ser una historia mejor. Hombre sureño, protagonista con trauma, juicio, engaño, hijo.... pero a mi no me ha gustado demasiado. La traducción (no siendo de las peores que he visto), buena, no es.
No he encontrado química entre los protagonistas. Ella arrastra un "trauma", él desconfía de ella y de los asuntos que le han llevado a casa de su abuelo. Creo que la cosa podría haberse desarrollado de una manera algo más creíble.
Luego está lo del principio y el final Vale que la familia se dedique a eso pero, no sé.... me ha sobrado, o al menos con una vez era suficiente. Supongo que la autora quería que eso tuviera su gracia, igual es que yo no le he encontrado el punto.
Creo que se les podía sacar más partido a los dos protagonistas y a toda la historia.
Lo cierto es que este libro tenía ingredientes, en mi opinión, para ser una historia mejor. Hombre sureño, protagonista con trauma, juicio, engaño, hijo.... pero a mi no me ha gustado demasiado. La traducción (no siendo de las peores que he visto), buena, no es.
No he encontrado química entre los protagonistas. Ella arrastra un "trauma", él desconfía de ella y de los asuntos que le han llevado a casa de su abuelo. Creo que la cosa podría haberse desarrollado de una manera algo más creíble.
Luego está lo del principio y el final Vale que la familia se dedique a eso pero, no sé.... me ha sobrado, o al menos con una vez era suficiente. Supongo que la autora quería que eso tuviera su gracia, igual es que yo no le he encontrado el punto.
Creo que se les podía sacar más partido a los dos protagonistas y a toda la historia.
February 16, 2023
Lol, Louisiana "Gentleman." Gentleman totally take advantage of unconscious women to get into a coffin with them and interrogate them. TOTALLY NORMAL. Speaking of being unconscious, who tries so hard to avoid tripping over a cat that they knock themselves out cold?
Anyway, this "gentleman" isn't sexy, and the story is silly. I really hit a high with Blake's Midnight Waltz and have yet to find one of hers I've enjoyed as much. I still have a couple on my shelves, so the search continues.
Anyway, this "gentleman" isn't sexy, and the story is silly. I really hit a high with Blake's Midnight Waltz and have yet to find one of hers I've enjoyed as much. I still have a couple on my shelves, so the search continues.
June 11, 2018
O sea, me gustó. Pero siento que le faltó algo que no sé. El sexto sentido de Kane desde el inicio le dijo que ahí había algo extraño. No sé, mi problema fue que hicieron un cambio muy drástico para dejarlo como el villano y ella lo odiara. Roan me gustó más *-*
July 14, 2020
This was probably the most offensive book I've ever read, and I'm not a stranger to rape fantasy romance novel conventions.
I could detail the many ways the male love interest is not just a sexual assaulter, abuser, and bastard, but a literal rapist, and how the author and the other main characters defend his behavour, cast it as romantic, or simply justify it by pointing out that he's been betrayed by a woman before (including having both him and the female lead, a rape survivor, compare her rape to his fiancee stealing money from him by pretending to be pregnant), or how not even the cartoonishly evil villain can cast "Sugar Kane" as anything other than a truly reprehensible person.
I could talk about the hand-waving to concerns of racism and the existence of the "magical Negro" law partner to prove that the Southern Gentlemen of the story definitely aren't racists, or that the only other black character, in Louisiana, is the housekeeper, or that the Metis/mixed Indigenous race cousin is described in the next book as looking like "a portrait of the Noble Indian".
I could even talk about how the author seems wholly unaware that she's created a scenario that suggests that the trauma and PTSD associated with being raped can be cured by talking about your experiences and then getting banged by the dude who triggered you multiple times and threatened to rape you to try and get you to talk. Even if I said all of that, I would still have SO MANY MORE things to say about this book, NONE OF THEM GOOD, except possibly that the descriptions of the landscapes are fairly decent, if a little purple at times and reminiscent of someone who's read Gone With the Wind too many times.
None of that fully captures the horrifying experience of reading this book. I've read romance novels of the 70s and 80s, I've read Highlander stories and werewolves, and once both, and Elizabethan lords who take what they want, or cowboys who think a girl saying no is just foreplay. But in all those stories, the context was a world that didn't qualify what they were doing as morally wrong. I don't believe in the "historically accurate" bullshit defense, but at the very least, it's a defense. This doesn't even have that much. I've read Fifty Shades of mofoing Grey and somehow this made me angrier, because the author wrote a character who's traumatized by rape. She wrote a character who suffered and who shows signs of PTSD, which means she must have SOME idea of what that means. And she STILL made her main character a rapist. If I could, I would happily burn every single copy of this book in existence.
I could detail the many ways the male love interest is not just a sexual assaulter, abuser, and bastard, but a literal rapist, and how the author and the other main characters defend his behavour, cast it as romantic, or simply justify it by pointing out that he's been betrayed by a woman before (including having both him and the female lead, a rape survivor, compare her rape to his fiancee stealing money from him by pretending to be pregnant), or how not even the cartoonishly evil villain can cast "Sugar Kane" as anything other than a truly reprehensible person.
I could talk about the hand-waving to concerns of racism and the existence of the "magical Negro" law partner to prove that the Southern Gentlemen of the story definitely aren't racists, or that the only other black character, in Louisiana, is the housekeeper, or that the Metis/mixed Indigenous race cousin is described in the next book as looking like "a portrait of the Noble Indian".
I could even talk about how the author seems wholly unaware that she's created a scenario that suggests that the trauma and PTSD associated with being raped can be cured by talking about your experiences and then getting banged by the dude who triggered you multiple times and threatened to rape you to try and get you to talk. Even if I said all of that, I would still have SO MANY MORE things to say about this book, NONE OF THEM GOOD, except possibly that the descriptions of the landscapes are fairly decent, if a little purple at times and reminiscent of someone who's read Gone With the Wind too many times.
None of that fully captures the horrifying experience of reading this book. I've read romance novels of the 70s and 80s, I've read Highlander stories and werewolves, and once both, and Elizabethan lords who take what they want, or cowboys who think a girl saying no is just foreplay. But in all those stories, the context was a world that didn't qualify what they were doing as morally wrong. I don't believe in the "historically accurate" bullshit defense, but at the very least, it's a defense. This doesn't even have that much. I've read Fifty Shades of mofoing Grey and somehow this made me angrier, because the author wrote a character who's traumatized by rape. She wrote a character who suffered and who shows signs of PTSD, which means she must have SOME idea of what that means. And she STILL made her main character a rapist. If I could, I would happily burn every single copy of this book in existence.
December 20, 2023
Weak ending. He basically destroyed her in court, for no real reason (kill the gossip isn't) with no reprisal. But mostly I can't see the other lawyer keeping his mouth shut nor avoid killing her character/personality on the stand.
August 24, 2014
Liked the book itself, good storyline, nice intro to series. Enjoyed the general plot, for the most part, but not one I'll read a second time...
Didn't really like Kane, not my kind of hero (he uses fear and force against Regina on a regular basis) -- the first thing he does to Regina (who is both claustrophobic and a rape victim) is lock her in a coffin with him and sexually assault her, saying that she won't be released until he "gets what he wants" from her. She is only released because Kane's grandfather opens the casket. On several other occasions, Kane wants something (either actions or information) and uses his strength or family connections against her to force her into compliance. Kane's family basically lies to Regina multiple times to keep her in town and available for Kane.
Regina, although mostly likable, is not exactly a strong heroine. She knows her cousin is underhanded in business and openly assists him with paperwork, etc., when she is home, but is somehow surprised when said cousin turns out to be a real villain. Her cousin is blackmailing her into spying on Kane's family (business-related court case) by kidnapping and threatening her 9 year old son. Regina knows that her cousin keeps her son locked up and drugged (to make him easier to manage) but instead of doing anything about her son's safety, she runs off to obey her cousin. She does eventually tell Kane the situation (who promptly rescues the child) and the story has the typical happy ending.
Didn't really like Kane, not my kind of hero (he uses fear and force against Regina on a regular basis) -- the first thing he does to Regina (who is both claustrophobic and a rape victim) is lock her in a coffin with him and sexually assault her, saying that she won't be released until he "gets what he wants" from her. She is only released because Kane's grandfather opens the casket. On several other occasions, Kane wants something (either actions or information) and uses his strength or family connections against her to force her into compliance. Kane's family basically lies to Regina multiple times to keep her in town and available for Kane.
Regina, although mostly likable, is not exactly a strong heroine. She knows her cousin is underhanded in business and openly assists him with paperwork, etc., when she is home, but is somehow surprised when said cousin turns out to be a real villain. Her cousin is blackmailing her into spying on Kane's family (business-related court case) by kidnapping and threatening her 9 year old son. Regina knows that her cousin keeps her son locked up and drugged (to make him easier to manage) but instead of doing anything about her son's safety, she runs off to obey her cousin. She does eventually tell Kane the situation (who promptly rescues the child) and the story has the typical happy ending.
January 30, 2025
Though the preposterous beginning put me off I eventually enjoyed this book. I really wish Ms Blake hadn't revisited that part of the story, however. It was ridiculous and I'm not even certain physically possible. I don't want to spoil anything for future readers, like others too often do, but they will know of which I speak. Also, the main female character, Regina, wasn't the smartest cookie in the box. I wanted to sympathize with her, but too often found myself getting ticked at her thoughts and actions. All that said, I will continue to read Jennifer Blake's novels.
February 16, 2022
Regina Dalton has traveled to Louisiana to appraise Lewis Crompton's deceased wife's vintage jewelry. During their first meeting Lewis steps out of the room and Regina takes the opportunity to check out his business. After taking a stumble, she comes to find herself enclosed in a display coffin in the funeral home. She isn't alone, Lewis's grandson is also in the coffin and uses Regina's freedom as a bargaining chip to get answers to questions he has.
Kane Benedict is sure Regina is a plant to obtain information regarding a lawsuit Lewis has brought against a rival business that is new to the area and not on the up and up. Kane isn't wrong, but there are reasons why Regina has agreed to spy for the rival business owner. While Kane pressures Regina, they also find themselves attracted to each other.
Kane is not a gentleman. He senses Regina has been assaulted and yet he uses tactics that bring those issues back to her in order to get the information he wants.
The opening and ending of this book, plus the courtroom scene where Kane forces Regina to admit she loves him while on the stand had me rolling my eyes!
Kane Benedict is sure Regina is a plant to obtain information regarding a lawsuit Lewis has brought against a rival business that is new to the area and not on the up and up. Kane isn't wrong, but there are reasons why Regina has agreed to spy for the rival business owner. While Kane pressures Regina, they also find themselves attracted to each other.
Kane is not a gentleman. He senses Regina has been assaulted and yet he uses tactics that bring those issues back to her in order to get the information he wants.
The opening and ending of this book, plus the courtroom scene where Kane forces Regina to admit she loves him while on the stand had me rolling my eyes!
July 21, 2007
Blake writes a lot of historical fiction. This one is set in more modern times. I've read many of her books. Fairly typical romance novel stuff. Melodrama. Later on, I realized her prose contains the formulaic virgin rape fantasy which I'm not so sure is a good thing...
April 21, 2013
3.5 stars I had very mixed feelings about this book. Jennifer Blake is a very good writer and this story had an interesting premise, but the two main characters were very hard to like. But it moved quickly and the side characters were interesting. I will continue with this series.
January 16, 2013
I felt that this book was very slow starting, but I really liked the suspense and the characters.
It got better towards the end. I may try reading the second in the series to see if I like it better.
It got better towards the end. I may try reading the second in the series to see if I like it better.
July 23, 2011
This is probably a good book bit after 4 attempts to finish the first chapter I decided to call it quits
March 16, 2013
Nice story, I'll more of this author
April 29, 2013
very good worth the effort to read
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews