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Castles in the Air
"My husband alive? Impossible!"
But it was true. Diana Hamilton was not only shocked but uneasy when she heard the news. After all, she'd built a new life for herself since the presumed death of Tony, her American Navy pilot husband, seven years before.
Could they recapture the past?
Diana's fears, however, were put to rest--for alone in a beach house on the remote Hawaiian Island of Kauai, they found love all over again. She'd never felt so happy.
Until Tony told her about his plans for the future--plans that didn't mesh with hers.
But it was true. Diana Hamilton was not only shocked but uneasy when she heard the news. After all, she'd built a new life for herself since the presumed death of Tony, her American Navy pilot husband, seven years before.
Could they recapture the past?
Diana's fears, however, were put to rest--for alone in a beach house on the remote Hawaiian Island of Kauai, they found love all over again. She'd never felt so happy.
Until Tony told her about his plans for the future--plans that didn't mesh with hers.
- GenresHarlequin Presents
192 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 1987
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 23, 2016
Re Castles in the Air- RH has a story of young love torn apart when the H is held hostage for seven years and the h thinks he is dead. I couldn't quite appreciate this one in retrospect on the reread 30 years later. Too much has changed in the world and the h was remarkably shallow and I spent pretty much every page wanting to whack her with the skillet multiple times.
The story goes that the H and h were married, he was a daring do Navy pilot and got shot down over Russia. He was thought to have perished, but seven years on the h turns on the news and finds out that he was held as a prisoner. Now the h has a pretty nice lifestyle, her dad is the Naval base commander and she got a big insurance payout and widow's pension, plus well off parents that allow her to live an endless round of parties and socializing. To her credit, she has no intentions of marrying anyone else, her widowhood hit her hard as she was only 20 and married for 6 months when the H died, but she is pretty much a vapid party girl without the sleeping around.
The h's parents force her to go to Hawaii to see her husband, and she finds him very much changed from the party guy he used to be. She doesn't want to change her life tho, and the H obviously has been through a life changing experience, so while she wants him to continue where they left off and for the H to resume his Naval career, the H wants to live on a small island in the San Juans and settle down.
There is some back and forth between them with the usual reunion love scenes but the H's experiences and the h's complete lack of real understanding just drive them apart, they decide to divorce. The h's own mother advises her that there is more to life than marrying for love and urges the h to marry another guy who had been pursuing her prior to finding the H alive so she can maintain her current lifestyle.
The h decides to go to the H's new home to have him sign the divorce papers and the H does his best to show her a bit of life on the island. The h gets his signature, finds out life isn't so restricted as she thought on the island and then prepares to leave. Except the H took the papers out of her bag to make the h come back. She returns to get them and he tells her he will give up his preferred life to be with her and go back to his Navy career because he loves her so much.
The h realizes that she loves him enough to give up her useless lifestyle and decides that she will stay with him on his island and become an interior decorator - (so no big leaps to humanitarian saving the planet or helping suffering children - but then again interior decoration is probably about all the altruism the h can handle) and they tear up the divorce papers for the HEA.
I hated this book, tho it isn't badly done. Mainly cause the h is sooo shallow in her perception that three drops of water would have trouble clinging to her. The H was great and well done, the h wasn't precisely unsympathetic but she was 27 yrs old and completely useless. The H's experiences aren't explored in depth, but what there was is pretty horrific and the h was literally tstl to understand the depth of his trauma.
This book is just way too dated to really be a marginally passable story now, we all have way too much information about captivity and the damage it does to be appropriately empathetic to the h's dilemma with a husband who returns from the dead and has to give up the party life for his sake. Because the h comes across as so unlikable, it damages the story too much to really enjoy it.
Mileage varies as always, and other readers might be able to tolerate the h for longer than I could, but I would advise stocking up with the vino, Captain Morgan and cookies if embarking on this one. None of us have the innocence we did when this book was originally written and that loss really affects the perceptions of this book.
The story goes that the H and h were married, he was a daring do Navy pilot and got shot down over Russia. He was thought to have perished, but seven years on the h turns on the news and finds out that he was held as a prisoner. Now the h has a pretty nice lifestyle, her dad is the Naval base commander and she got a big insurance payout and widow's pension, plus well off parents that allow her to live an endless round of parties and socializing. To her credit, she has no intentions of marrying anyone else, her widowhood hit her hard as she was only 20 and married for 6 months when the H died, but she is pretty much a vapid party girl without the sleeping around.
The h's parents force her to go to Hawaii to see her husband, and she finds him very much changed from the party guy he used to be. She doesn't want to change her life tho, and the H obviously has been through a life changing experience, so while she wants him to continue where they left off and for the H to resume his Naval career, the H wants to live on a small island in the San Juans and settle down.
There is some back and forth between them with the usual reunion love scenes but the H's experiences and the h's complete lack of real understanding just drive them apart, they decide to divorce. The h's own mother advises her that there is more to life than marrying for love and urges the h to marry another guy who had been pursuing her prior to finding the H alive so she can maintain her current lifestyle.
The h decides to go to the H's new home to have him sign the divorce papers and the H does his best to show her a bit of life on the island. The h gets his signature, finds out life isn't so restricted as she thought on the island and then prepares to leave. Except the H took the papers out of her bag to make the h come back. She returns to get them and he tells her he will give up his preferred life to be with her and go back to his Navy career because he loves her so much.
The h realizes that she loves him enough to give up her useless lifestyle and decides that she will stay with him on his island and become an interior decorator - (so no big leaps to humanitarian saving the planet or helping suffering children - but then again interior decoration is probably about all the altruism the h can handle) and they tear up the divorce papers for the HEA.
I hated this book, tho it isn't badly done. Mainly cause the h is sooo shallow in her perception that three drops of water would have trouble clinging to her. The H was great and well done, the h wasn't precisely unsympathetic but she was 27 yrs old and completely useless. The H's experiences aren't explored in depth, but what there was is pretty horrific and the h was literally tstl to understand the depth of his trauma.
This book is just way too dated to really be a marginally passable story now, we all have way too much information about captivity and the damage it does to be appropriately empathetic to the h's dilemma with a husband who returns from the dead and has to give up the party life for his sake. Because the h comes across as so unlikable, it damages the story too much to really enjoy it.
Mileage varies as always, and other readers might be able to tolerate the h for longer than I could, but I would advise stocking up with the vino, Captain Morgan and cookies if embarking on this one. None of us have the innocence we did when this book was originally written and that loss really affects the perceptions of this book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 9, 2024
When Diana's husband was declared dead by the Navy, they had only been married six months and she was a very young 20. And for the next seven years she's lived her life in a sort of limbo as a shallow social butterfly steering clear of all commitments. When Tony is released from his Russian prison, he's no longer the young outgoing Navy pilot. Their time in Hawaii while Tony recuperates rekindles the love they once shared. But Tony has grown in maturity and his experiences have shown him life is too short to throw it away on frivolous games and parties. He realizes that Diana hasn't grown away from that lifestyle, and maybe love isn't going to be enough to keep them together.
There are times I really wanted to yell out loud at Diana for being so selfish, and then I wanted to scream at Tony for shutting her out. Thankfully Diana realized she needed to bend a little because she couldn't face a life without Tony. Lovely HEA.
There are times I really wanted to yell out loud at Diana for being so selfish, and then I wanted to scream at Tony for shutting her out. Thankfully Diana realized she needed to bend a little because she couldn't face a life without Tony. Lovely HEA.
March 9, 2024
I think this is an awesome book! A book of love, loss and second chances. It’s a story about growth and change. About finding if the path you chose years ago is still the right one or if it needs to change.
There is much angst but also romance. There are pseudo OW and OM (meaning only through the jealousy of the characters).
As much as it was a love story it was also about self learning.
It ended with a sweet HEA.
There is much angst but also romance. There are pseudo OW and OM (meaning only through the jealousy of the characters).
As much as it was a love story it was also about self learning.
It ended with a sweet HEA.
pback-to-read
November 23, 2021"My husband alive? Impossible!"
But it was true. Diana Hamilton was not only shocked but uneasy when she heard the news. After all, she'd built a new life for herself since the presumed death of Tony, her American Navy pilot husband, seven years before.
Could they recapture the past?
Diana's fears, however, were put to rest--for alone in a beach house on the remote Hawaiian Island of Kauai, they found love all over again. She'd never felt so happy.
Until Tony told her about his plans for the future--plans that didn't mesh with hers.
But it was true. Diana Hamilton was not only shocked but uneasy when she heard the news. After all, she'd built a new life for herself since the presumed death of Tony, her American Navy pilot husband, seven years before.
Could they recapture the past?
Diana's fears, however, were put to rest--for alone in a beach house on the remote Hawaiian Island of Kauai, they found love all over again. She'd never felt so happy.
Until Tony told her about his plans for the future--plans that didn't mesh with hers.
November 8, 2019
The h is definitely not a typical harlequin protagonist who is a virgin, too good to be true doormat who loves children and marriage. This h is the complete opposite, who is happy to be a widow though the marriage was all about fun times. She is happy to collect her insurance and the pension from the death of her naval officer husband but is reluctant to even go meet him in person when he is found alive after 7 years in a prison hospital. She just flat out says he is a stranger and I would rather party my life away! She says no to a marriage proposal the previous day saying she doesn't want marriage or kids and thinks of marriage as a loss of freedom. While all that maybe right, she doesn't have the courtesy to go and meet up with someone whose death benefits she had been happy to collect. Even her response to the H's mental and physical torture as a Prisoner of War is apathy and 'what have I got myself into' instead of even some bare sympathy that even anyone would have for a stranger let alone someone she once loved! She meets him once and then goes shopping and enjoying the island life for the next two weeks and then comes back and as soon as he looks close to recovery she wants him. She claims to love him but doesn't get to know what happened in the prison for 7 years! I really wish the H and h had never come together for a HEA for his sake and he had moved on with someone else.
November 26, 2015
I must admit that Im always intrigued by these kinds of stories where one spouse is missing or presumed dead, and the couple then has to adjust to each other all over again.
In this story the husband has been presumed dead for 7 years. He is a navy pilot. They had married young and were barely into their married life when this happened and the heroine was left a young widow. She gets on with her life, she s quite comfortably off so she doesn't need to work and just goes on a continuous round of parties and socializing. Suddenly they get a report that the husband has been released from a soviet prison camp. She sees it on the news and she can't relate to the broken sick man she sees on TV. Her parents have to practically force her to go to him. She is in shock but does her duty. When she arrives he doesn't want to see her so she feels relieved. However eventually she changes her mind and she goes w him to a house in Hawaii to help him recuperate. While there they fall in love again. But she still is the same flighty social butterfly she has always been while he has been changed by his ordeal and wants a different life. This causes a lot of tension between them and they almost lose each other again until they get their HEA in the end.
Long ago I read a Janet Dailey book (strange bedfellows) where the husband was lost and presumed dead also only to come back. I liked this book (Castles in the Air) much better than the Janet Dailey one.
In this story the husband has been presumed dead for 7 years. He is a navy pilot. They had married young and were barely into their married life when this happened and the heroine was left a young widow. She gets on with her life, she s quite comfortably off so she doesn't need to work and just goes on a continuous round of parties and socializing. Suddenly they get a report that the husband has been released from a soviet prison camp. She sees it on the news and she can't relate to the broken sick man she sees on TV. Her parents have to practically force her to go to him. She is in shock but does her duty. When she arrives he doesn't want to see her so she feels relieved. However eventually she changes her mind and she goes w him to a house in Hawaii to help him recuperate. While there they fall in love again. But she still is the same flighty social butterfly she has always been while he has been changed by his ordeal and wants a different life. This causes a lot of tension between them and they almost lose each other again until they get their HEA in the end.
Long ago I read a Janet Dailey book (strange bedfellows) where the husband was lost and presumed dead also only to come back. I liked this book (Castles in the Air) much better than the Janet Dailey one.
September 6, 2011
Heroine annoyed me with her vapid and frivolous pursuits, but I'm relieved to say that she redeemed herself by the end. And am also not quite convinced that the hero got over his seven year ordeal of imprisonment under the Soviet Union so easily in a few months ...
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