كان أندريس يملك كل ما يمكن أن يشتريه المال، ما عدا زوجة! حتى وقعت عيناه على صوفي، شقيقة زوجة أخيه... لكن صوفي كانت في غاية النقمة على هذا الرجل وقالت له رأيها به بصراحة: أنت رجل متعصف، سيد كاريديس. أنت أحد أولئك الرجال الذين يخافون من كل امرأة ذات عقل مستقل لا تخاف من استعماله. أنت ممن يفضلون أن تبقى النساء دوماً حوامل حافيات الأقدام. وإذا لم يكن كذلك فعليهن ان يتساقطن فوق أذرعكم القوية مظهرات ضعفهن. رد ساخراً: لا، صوفي. أنا أفضل أن تنتظر المرأة حتى يطلب الرجل منها ذلك".
وقررت صوفي أن أندريس لن يحصل عليها مهما حاول، ولن تكون يوماً اسماً على لائحة القلوب التي حطمها!
Rita Bradshaw was born on 1949 in Northampton, England, where she was educated as a good Christian. She met Clive, her husband, at the age of 16 andnow the magic is still there. They have three lovely children, Cara, Faye, and Benjamin, and have always had a menagerie of animals in the house, which at the present is confined to two endearing and very comical dogs who would make a great double act on TV! The children, friends, and pets all keep the house buzzing and the food cupboards empty but Helen wouldn't have it any other way. She still lives today in Northampton with her family. Although having enjoyed some wonderful holidays abroad she has never been tempted to live anywhere else, although she rather likes the idea of a holiday home close to the sea one day.
Being a committed Christian and fervent animal lover she finds spare time is always at a premium, but long walks in the countryside with her husband and dogs, meals out followed by the cinema or theatre, reading, swimming, and having friends over for dinner are all fitted in somehow. She also enjoys sitting in her wonderfully therapeutic, rambling old garden in the sun with a glass of red wine, (under the guise of resting while thinking of course!)
For years, she was a secretary. She began writing in 1990 as she approached that milestone of a birthday 40! She realized her two teenage ambitions (writing a novel and learning to drive) had been lost amid babies and hectic family life, so set about resurrecting them.
Her first novel was for Mills and Boon and was accepted after one rewrite in 1992 as Helen Brooks, and she passed her driving test (the former was a joy and the latter an unmitigated nightmare!) She has written 50 novels as well as several sagas as Rita Bradshaw.
Since becoming a full-time writer she has found her occupation one of pure joy and often surprised when her characters develop a mind of their own but she loves exploring what makes people tick and finds the old adage "truth is stranger than fiction" to be absolutely true. She would love to hear from any readers care of Mills & Boon.
This one didn't quite stand up to the test of time, but I will keep my rating because there were some enjoyable moments. Starting with the hero! He was absolutely scrumptious; if Greece has more of him, just sign me up for a long extended stay. I also liked the storyline where her sister reunites with her deceased husband's family. It was interesting and well written. Now for the negative. The heroine just got on my nerves. Not only did she have some serious daddy issues, she was rude and obnoxious to everyone in her path; including the hosting family, and the hero who didn't deserve all the trouble she dished out. I feel very very sorry for the hero.
HB has a certain mold that she adheres to; woman dealt a bad hand by a nasty man, therefore she hates all men forever and ever and ever. The first couple of times it works, but then after awhile it starts to wear on the reader. Especially this time where it was so overplayed. I was hoping the heroine would fly off into the sunset (alone) and the hero would find someone kinder, gentler and more worthy of him.
Below is my original review. _________________________________________
I really really enjoyed this book. The author was able to create such tension without relying on the typical "Hero/jerk" complex. Though Andreas, was one healthy, sexy, arrogant leading man...he was not cruel, abusive or vindictive. In fact, he was the exact opposite! He was a man on a mission....focused on wooing the heroine in his totally Greek macho way! I appreciate when an author can build tremendous tension, drama, sexual chemistry and passion without having to rely on the standard "formula". This was a wonderful change of pace.
The only negative that I could find with this novel, is that the author did not really understand the Greek culture and made some very bad mistakes in her writing. One example is at the end, the wedding she described was not a Greek wedding and it would have been very unlikely to find an Anglican Church on a Greek island. I feel if you are going to write about exotic locales with exotic characters, you should make an effort to better understand the culture and accurately represent it to your readers. However, I could look past that because the rest of the story was so wonderful!
El histerismo de la protagonista arruina por completo la novela. Él le cuenta un episodio muy triste de su vida y la besa, pero ella después de disfrutarlo irrumpe en acusaciones llegando a compararlo con el hermanastro y el padre violador. Toda la novela es así, hasta que el protagonista le dice que la ama y ella le dice que no, que no le cree y ahí tira el veinte por ciento bueno que le quedaba al libro. Tiene un final kind-of-feliz, pero que sabemos que en unos años estos dos están cada uno por su lado.
"The Greek Tycoon's Bride" is the story of Sophy and Andreas. When Sophie's twin Jill and nephew Matthew have to visit her deceased husband Theordore's family, she decides to accompany them. Expecting the family to be as shitty as her late brother in law, she is surprised to perfectly kind in laws and an enigmatic brother Andreas. This book actually had a good back story for the in laws, and I liked that they weren't stereotypical evil..However, the heroine was extremely frustrating in all her denial and pushing away, and while the hero relentlessly pursued her- for some stupid reason she kept running away. Egh. So continues my bad reading streak. Safe 1.5/5
I enjoyed this book! And it was a kind of refreshing read from the usual HP. The hero wasn't the vindictive type, yes he's arrogant, gorgeous, mega-rich, but he wasn't a jerk to the heroine. And the heroine wasn't a doormat. She's headstrong, stubborn, and gave as good as she got! This book was a perfect read for my day off!
Creo que Sophy había leído muchas novelas de griegos de Harlequin... solo eso para explicar sus perjuicios. Andreas es cautivante y conquista tu simpatía antes que te percates de sus sentimientos. Un hombre enamorado que lucha por su mujer.
I am wary of Harlequin novels about rich, dynamic Greek or Italian or Spanish men; they stereotype these men as overbearing jerks who find their comeuppance with some unlikely lady. Sometimes the story is good and sometimes there is almost no story, just sex scenes tied together with obnoxious dialogue.
This book has a good story with enjoyable, sympathetic main characters and a few decent minor characters. Unusually the love story is straightforward too and he courts her patiently with a true courtship, not simply an angle to get her into bed.
While this book was apparently published in 2000-something, it reads more like it was written in the 1980s. The hero is chauvinistic, the heroine has daddy issues, and everything is intensely overwrought. It brought me right back to reading my grandmother's Harlequin novels in the corner when I was supposed to be sleeping, which is just what I wanted. The descriptions of food and Greek scenery are delightful.
استمتعت بهذه الرواية جداً, كانت من ضمن اولى الروايات التي اقتنيها بنفسي من شارع المتنبي 2008, بعد عام من تفجيره, حين أخذني والدي اليه ولم يكن كما هو متنبي اليوم. اعتقد انها الرواية الوحيدة التي قرأتها ضمن روايات أحلام وعبير. حببتني باليونان, ولا ازال اتذكر مشهد المسبح :)
كان أندريس يملك كل ما يمكن أن يشتريه المال، ما عدا زوجة! حتى وقعت عيناه على صوفي، شقيقة زوجة أخيه... لكن صوفي كانت في غاية النقمة على هذا الرجل وقالت له رأيها به بصراحة: أنت رجل متعصف، سيد كاريديس. أنت أحد أولئك الرجال الذين يخافون من كل امرأة ذات عقل مستقل لا تخاف من استعماله. أنت ممن يفضلون أن تبقى النساء دوماً حوامل حافيات الأقدام. وإذا لم يكن كذلك فعليهن ان يتساقطن فوق أذرعكم القوية مظهرات ضعفهن. رد ساخراً: لا، صوفي. أنا أفضل أن تنتظر المرأة حتى يطلب الرجل منها ذلك". وقررت صوفي أن أندريس لن يحصل عليها مهما حاول، ولن تكون يوماً اسماً على لائحة القلوب التي حطمها!