When Lovers Meet

by Flora Kidd

It was whilst working in the West Indies, and house-sitting for the film actress Michelle Martin, that Jilly had met Ed Forster, the actress's handsome brother. Jilly couldn't say that Ed hadn't warned her about his reputation with women. He wasn't interested in commitment and he'd made that clear from the start. He was too old to change. But where did that leave her? She couldn't help falling in love with him. It was an affair that could lead only to heartbreak.

Genres: Harlequin Presents, Contemporary Romance

192 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1988

About the author

Flora Mildred Cartwright was born on 1926 in Liverpool, England, UK. The youngest of four children, Flora and her family lived in the same house until she was a teen. In 1949, she graduated from Liverpool University, where she met Robert Kidd, her husband. They moved to her beloved Scotland, where she began teaching, writing, and raised their four children: Richard, Patricia, Peter and David.

Flora Kidd published her first novel, Visit To Rowanbank, in 1966 at Mills & Boon. In 1977, the family moved to Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, where she continued her romance career with Mills & Boon until 1989, when she retired. In 1994, she published the first of the The Marco Polo Project novels, to support a project to build a replica of the 19th century ship Marco Polo.

Flora Kidd passed away on March 19, 2008 at Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada.

Reviews

[boogenhagen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Re When Lovers Meet - FK brings us a fluffly little romance with an h who is a widow and gets a job as a sailmaker in the West Indies in a bid for a new start and a disreputable H who ran off with his uncle's wife and the uncle shot himself. The uncle did not die, but there was a tremendous scandal and the H has been the black sheep of the family ever since.

The H's sister and he have an inherited house on the island and since the H travels widely and the sister is an actress currently working in France, the h is invited to live there for several months and keep an eye on things. The h returns home from her job one day to find the entire house wide open and someone in the shower. Thinking there might have been some sort of break in, the h grabs a carving knife and goes to confront the intruder.

It turns out to be the H and a call from the local estate agent lets the h know that he is the actress's brother and part owner of the house. The h and H are highly attracted to each other, but the H explains about his bad reputation (the island is a hot bed of gossip and judgement,) so the h winds up moving out so she and the H can start a seekrit affair, ostensibly to protect her good name.

The h is wildly in love of course, but when the H disappears for long periods and only sneaks into the see the h under the cover of night once a week, the h realizes that the H is probably just using her for a good time. This becomes even more clear when the H announces he is sailing his trimaran ( a three hulled boat like a Polynesian outrigger canoe, but bigger) back to the US and doesn't invite the h to go with him. Then the h learns that the H is planning on getting married to a woman from California whose father is buying the H and his sister's house. The h is heart broken and takes herself back to England for her own sister's wedding. She also goes back to work for her father, who is also a sailmaker and spends a bit of time being mopey over losing the H.

Several months later the H shows up looking for her under the guise of getting his main jib sheet mended. The H runs off the irritating man who keeps asking the h to marry him when she doesn't want to, the same guy who started rumors that the H and h were having an affair on the island. (He was REALLY irritating, so I don't know what took so long.)

The H tells the h she left the West Indies before he could propose and now he wants to take her to his sister's wedding and elope. The H explains that the people from California were buying the H's business out there and the sister needed money, so she told everyone the H and she were selling the inherited house and the H was going to marry the California lady to keep the house in the family. That wasn't true. The H bought his sister out of her half of the house and is going to run the sail business the h was working for - he is a full partner in the enterprise. The h loves him back, so she agrees to go to the sister's wedding in France, but she wants her own proper wedding in a church. The lovestruck H totally agrees cause he wants to shout his love from the rooftops and the h is happy with that, so they sail off into the HP sunset for weddings, marriages and happy lurve clubbings.

This one was okay, it wasn't really exciting one way or the other and the H being so badly behaved was interesting until it turned out that the H was basically used by the uncle's wife as a dupe to run to her real lover. The H escorted the wife to the airport on the promise of an affair and she left him and he never saw her again. The H made of habit of seducing married ladies ever since. It did look like the H was just using the h for a lurve club holder for a long time, but that really wasn't all that exciting to worry about. The h was well over 21 and able to have a fling if she wanted and FK never really does deep angst. Read this one if there is nothing else, but know that there are much more interesting HP stories outside this one.