Matilda, the Adventuress

Delaneys of Killaroo #2

by Iris Johansen

Matilda Delaney falls in love with Roman Gallagher, a film director, but has difficulty convincing him he is the only man in whom she's interested

Genres: Romance, Contemporary Romance, Modern, Historical Romance, Loveswept

176 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published August 1, 1987

About the author

Iris Johansen is a New York Times bestselling author. She began her writing after her children left home for college. She first achieved success in the early 1980s writing category romances. In 1991, Johansen began writing suspense historical romance novels, starting with the publication of The Wind Dancer. In 1996 Johansen switched genres, turning to crime fiction, with which she has had great success.

She lives in Georgia and is married. Her son, Roy Johansen, is an Edgar Award-winning screenwriter and novelist. Her daughter, Tamara, serves as her research assistant.

IRIS JOHANSEN is The New York Times bestselling author of Night and Day, Hide Away, Shadow Play, Your Next Breath, The Perfect Witness, Live to See Tomorrow, Silencing Eve, Hunting Eve, Taking Eve, Sleep No More, What Doesn't Kill You, Bonnie, Quinn, Eve, Chasing The Night, Eight Days to Live, Blood Game, Deadlock, Dark Summer, Pandora's Daughter, Quicksand, Killer Dreams, On The Run, and more. And with her son, Roy Johansen, she has coauthored Night Watch, The Naked Eye, Sight Unseen, Close Your Eyes, Shadow Zone, Storm Cycle, and Silent Thunder.

http://www.irisjohansen.com

Reviews

[*CJ* · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Matilda, the Adventuress" is the story of Matilda/Manda and Roman.
When a wild, gypsy hearted heroine meets a jaded, scarred hero- she falls head over heels.
But for him, it is a cynic filled journey to discovering love.
Sweet story with loads of passion and hot love making- having mild angst and filled with dreams and beliefs.
Enjoyed the interaction between characters, i.e. Jacto and Manda as well as the (obvious) mystery exposed at the end.
So glad to see Sierra and york amongst others from the Delaney brothers trilogy again.
Cant wait to read about Addie and Sydney.
Safe
3.5/5

[Maura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Continuing on with the three Delaney sisters who have schemes to earn 500,000 each to help their father buy back Killara land. Matilda, or Manda as she's known, is tasked with finding the long lost black opal that their ancestor Charlie hid somewhere. She and her aboriginal friend Jacto are looking for it in some opal mines when a crew of filmmakers and actors show up to start filming. Manda begs the producer/director, Roman, to let her stay. He's instantly intrigued by her and attempts to manipulate her into sleeping with him in order to be allowed to stay. But Manda is made of sterner stuff and, even though she's fallen in insta-love with him, she refuses. But she does offer him the opportunity to seduce her. He agrees and she stays. Roman expects to stay cynical, but he finds himself falling in love with Manda. Only problem is, she's not fully matured emotionally, so Roman doesn't trust her staying power, her idea of what love is and her reasons for being on set.

Interesting. Johansen is a good enough author that, despite relatively unlikeable characters, I still kinda enjoyed their stories. Roman I found the most interesting, maybe because he was a genuine asshole who was trying to become better for the sake of love. He wasn't an asshat or anything, in that he didn't really treat the heroine like complete shit and it was possible to see him changing because of Manda's influence on him. So he ended up being likeable for me, in the end, because I like me a gruff, grumbly and moody hero. Now Manda. Roman describes her as a Peter Pan figure. She's tackled life head on by constantly staying on the move. She's avoided responsibility and love all this time and he absolutely spots the fact that her idea of love is a childish one. He keeps waiting for Manda to more or less grow up, even as he shows her the really adult side of love...and the darker side of it. In one respect, this was a sort of uncomfortable aspect of their relationship...that Manda has all the emotional bravado of a child and in many respects holds onto childhood with her avoidance of responsibility and decision-making. So to some degree it feels like Roman is falling in love with a child, which I didn't love. But the maturing made the character so much more dynamic, which I did. Manda and Roman definitely have some great chemistry and some very passionate scenes together, so while I didn't like this as much as the previous story in the series, I did like it. I think I was mostly turned off by Manda's whole Peter Pan syndrome, even if she did grow out of it.

[Ning · Rating 3 out of 5]

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