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Deep Harbour
A man to be avoided at all cost!
That was what Lucy told herself about Laurent. She was spending the summer working for her uncle on the Spanish island of Minorca. She wanted to heal a broken heart and enjoy the sun. A holiday romance could destroy her completely. Laurent was all the more dangerous because of the mystery surrounding him. Lucy knew only that he was some sort of a banker. She didn't know why he was so edgy about his privacy and so paranoid about his security. Or why his stocks seem to mock her hard-won resolve...
That was what Lucy told herself about Laurent. She was spending the summer working for her uncle on the Spanish island of Minorca. She wanted to heal a broken heart and enjoy the sun. A holiday romance could destroy her completely. Laurent was all the more dangerous because of the mystery surrounding him. Lucy knew only that he was some sort of a banker. She didn't know why he was so edgy about his privacy and so paranoid about his security. Or why his stocks seem to mock her hard-won resolve...
- GenresRomance
192 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1988
13 people want to read
About the author
Sally Cook
82 books4 followersaka Susan Curran
Susan Griffin was born on 14 May 1952 in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England, daugther of Maureen McGinnity and Norman Griffin. She obtained a Bachelor in English at University Sussex on 1973. On 1976, she married Tim Curran, and they divorced on 1980. On 1980, she remarried Ray Curnow, and they divorced on 1988. On 1997, she remarried Paul Frederick Simmonds, and they live between in central Norwich, England and in the Loire valley, France. She has two children: Rufus and Evan.
She is a professional writer since 1979, and has since written or co-written more than 30 published books, including a wide range of non-fiction books and novels for Collins and Constable, she also wrote under the pseudonym of Sally Cook for Mills & Boon. She researches the life of real people to her novels, and now also to write biographies. During the course of her researches she visited many of the places in both England and France.
In the 1990s Susan set up with a group of writer friends and ran a small fiction publisher, Rampant Horse. Since 1997 she has run Curran Publishing Services Ltd, www.curranpublishing.com, which specializes in preparing mostly non-fiction books for press under subcontract from major publishers. In this capacity she has copy edited, typeset and indexed hundreds of books. For eight years until 2009, CPS had its offices in a redundant medieval church in Norwich, St Mary Coslany. Susan has been also a trustee of the Norwich Historic Churches Trust, which oversees many of Norwich’s redundant churches, since the early 1990s.
Susan Griffin was born on 14 May 1952 in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England, daugther of Maureen McGinnity and Norman Griffin. She obtained a Bachelor in English at University Sussex on 1973. On 1976, she married Tim Curran, and they divorced on 1980. On 1980, she remarried Ray Curnow, and they divorced on 1988. On 1997, she remarried Paul Frederick Simmonds, and they live between in central Norwich, England and in the Loire valley, France. She has two children: Rufus and Evan.
She is a professional writer since 1979, and has since written or co-written more than 30 published books, including a wide range of non-fiction books and novels for Collins and Constable, she also wrote under the pseudonym of Sally Cook for Mills & Boon. She researches the life of real people to her novels, and now also to write biographies. During the course of her researches she visited many of the places in both England and France.
In the 1990s Susan set up with a group of writer friends and ran a small fiction publisher, Rampant Horse. Since 1997 she has run Curran Publishing Services Ltd, www.curranpublishing.com, which specializes in preparing mostly non-fiction books for press under subcontract from major publishers. In this capacity she has copy edited, typeset and indexed hundreds of books. For eight years until 2009, CPS had its offices in a redundant medieval church in Norwich, St Mary Coslany. Susan has been also a trustee of the Norwich Historic Churches Trust, which oversees many of Norwich’s redundant churches, since the early 1990s.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 13, 2017
Re Deep Harbour - Sally Cook's HP entry is a bit lackluster and decidedly a non HP HP. This one involves an h who is on summer vacation from international business school and a vacationing H who is a divorced French merchant banker.
The h is helping her aunt's husband run a Minorcan tour guide boat and when the story starts, the boat, with it's full load of passengers, is cruising past some villas perched close to the water when a speed boat appears and tries several times to drive the guide boat off course. The h is worried about this, several passengers are upset and the h takes it upon herself to do some investigation with the other tour operators. She finds out that only one of the villas is currently occupied and it is owned by a French banker.
Later the h is out at a local bar with one of her friends and the banker appears, looking for drink. The h is attracted and has some vague heartbreak in her past over some guy at her uni that is never described but ostensibly a reason for the h being there. The h doesn't realize the man she is conversing with is the banker who is driving the tour boats away from his villa until she gets a visit from a scary looking guy the next day. The guy tells her to keep the tour boat away from that section of the harbour and the h decides this really needs to be seen to. So she takes her uncle's skiff and starts fishing next to the banker's house. The scary guy appears in the speed boat he used against the tour boats, and this time he manages to dump the h into the harbour. The H jumps in to rescue her and he takes her to his house to dry off. Then he asks her out to dinner.
The h goes, but gets a stern lecture from her aunt and a curfew. Which made me wonder just how old this h is - presumably she was in her early twenties because she is in her last year of a four year school course, yet there are several instances when she gets treated like a child both in her thoughts of her mother and the way her aunt speaks to her. The H is either very late twenties or early thirties and as we find out later, divorced with a six year old son he sees occasionally. His ex-wife (who isn't an OW) left him after he became a workaholic and was never home or took vacations.
So the h and H go out, have dinner and have a roofie kiss. Then the h assumes she won't see him again. But he does try to contact her later to ask her out and she was off doing something else and ran out of gas for her moped, so she missed him. She goes to his house the next day and the scary guy pulls a gun on her. She faints, the H catches her and when she comes to, she freaks out and runs off and falls over the villa's railing and gives herself a concussion. She goes home with her aunt and starts evading the H's calls.
He shows up on the tour boat as a passenger and the H explains that he was receiving death threats from a political group who did not like one of his recent business deals. The scary guy is a type of security person/body guard and took his job a little too seriously. The H tells the h that the threat is over and they start dating in earnest, which soon leads to big lurve club events.
The h is totally in love and has been since she got knocked into the harbour, but the H doesn't do long term commitment anymore after his divorce. There is a ton of Minorcan travelogue filler - like the island has the deepest island harbour outside of Pearl Harbour in Hawaii- and the h has some inner naval gazing over how she should dress around the H, but eventually the H goes back to Paris and the h goes to finish school, their summer fling is over and life goes on.
The end is a very brief, almost epilogue that takes place over a year later. The h gets a job at the H's investment bank and is working there for several months before she runs into him. They start seeing each other again (it was like three lines where they agree to give it a go,) and then the next scene is a year later where the married h and H and the H's son are on holiday at Minorca and presumably are having an HEA.
This one was sorta meh - I think SC did not really have a ton of experience with HPlandia because this reads like someone skimmed a few prior HP's, wrote an outline and then added some adjectives and called it a romance. All the prerequisite tropes were there, but it was pretty plain and not really worth a repeat voyage in HPlandia or even really a first time run. The HEA was of the tacked on variety cause it had to have one and I just wasn't feeling the lurve on this one.
The h is helping her aunt's husband run a Minorcan tour guide boat and when the story starts, the boat, with it's full load of passengers, is cruising past some villas perched close to the water when a speed boat appears and tries several times to drive the guide boat off course. The h is worried about this, several passengers are upset and the h takes it upon herself to do some investigation with the other tour operators. She finds out that only one of the villas is currently occupied and it is owned by a French banker.
Later the h is out at a local bar with one of her friends and the banker appears, looking for drink. The h is attracted and has some vague heartbreak in her past over some guy at her uni that is never described but ostensibly a reason for the h being there. The h doesn't realize the man she is conversing with is the banker who is driving the tour boats away from his villa until she gets a visit from a scary looking guy the next day. The guy tells her to keep the tour boat away from that section of the harbour and the h decides this really needs to be seen to. So she takes her uncle's skiff and starts fishing next to the banker's house. The scary guy appears in the speed boat he used against the tour boats, and this time he manages to dump the h into the harbour. The H jumps in to rescue her and he takes her to his house to dry off. Then he asks her out to dinner.
The h goes, but gets a stern lecture from her aunt and a curfew. Which made me wonder just how old this h is - presumably she was in her early twenties because she is in her last year of a four year school course, yet there are several instances when she gets treated like a child both in her thoughts of her mother and the way her aunt speaks to her. The H is either very late twenties or early thirties and as we find out later, divorced with a six year old son he sees occasionally. His ex-wife (who isn't an OW) left him after he became a workaholic and was never home or took vacations.
So the h and H go out, have dinner and have a roofie kiss. Then the h assumes she won't see him again. But he does try to contact her later to ask her out and she was off doing something else and ran out of gas for her moped, so she missed him. She goes to his house the next day and the scary guy pulls a gun on her. She faints, the H catches her and when she comes to, she freaks out and runs off and falls over the villa's railing and gives herself a concussion. She goes home with her aunt and starts evading the H's calls.
He shows up on the tour boat as a passenger and the H explains that he was receiving death threats from a political group who did not like one of his recent business deals. The scary guy is a type of security person/body guard and took his job a little too seriously. The H tells the h that the threat is over and they start dating in earnest, which soon leads to big lurve club events.
The h is totally in love and has been since she got knocked into the harbour, but the H doesn't do long term commitment anymore after his divorce. There is a ton of Minorcan travelogue filler - like the island has the deepest island harbour outside of Pearl Harbour in Hawaii- and the h has some inner naval gazing over how she should dress around the H, but eventually the H goes back to Paris and the h goes to finish school, their summer fling is over and life goes on.
The end is a very brief, almost epilogue that takes place over a year later. The h gets a job at the H's investment bank and is working there for several months before she runs into him. They start seeing each other again (it was like three lines where they agree to give it a go,) and then the next scene is a year later where the married h and H and the H's son are on holiday at Minorca and presumably are having an HEA.
This one was sorta meh - I think SC did not really have a ton of experience with HPlandia because this reads like someone skimmed a few prior HP's, wrote an outline and then added some adjectives and called it a romance. All the prerequisite tropes were there, but it was pretty plain and not really worth a repeat voyage in HPlandia or even really a first time run. The HEA was of the tacked on variety cause it had to have one and I just wasn't feeling the lurve on this one.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 9, 2017
This one was a lot better then the others. I believe mostly because it is set in a different place then it went to New York then back to the other place. I loved the scene and the plot to this one. They fell in love right away but was unsure about their future. Then when they found each other again they knew they had to be together. It had the kind of ending I like telling us if they got together and got married or not. No arguing in this one which made it better.
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