Gallant Antagonist

by Jessica Steele

Deceit was never part of her nature

Jancis Langfield knew that love meant nothing without loyalty and trust. Her parents' bitter divorce had taught her that, never mind that Thorp Kingman thought!

Jancis could appreciate what a headache her irrepressible friend, Thorp's niece Sophie, was being, but why did Thorp have to assume Jancis herself was tarred with the same brush?

Thorp had no right at all to pass judgment on her - until Jancis decided to tell him one tiny lie that mushroomed. Now she faced a lifetime of regret...and heartache.

Genres: Enemies To Lovers, Romance

190 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1981

About the author

Jessica Steele was born on May 9, 1933 in the elegant Warwickshire town of Royal Leamington Spa. She has two super brothers, Colin and George, and a lovely sister, Elizabeth. She was a delicate child and missed a lot of school. In fact, she left school at aged 14, when she was diagnosed as having tuberculosis. At 16, she started work as a junior clerk. In 1967, Jessica married with her husband, Peter and within a very short space of time they had moved from her hometown to the lovely area where they now live. Their house is built into the side of a hill, and has beautiful views over more hills and valleys. Her brothers and her sister are very close and she has plenty of nephews and nieces to make up for the fact that she and her husband have no children of their own. Both she and her husband are more than a little dog-oriented, and their current dog is a Staffordshire bull terrier named Florence. Florence is gorgeous. She loves everybody but, since she is 40 pounds of dynamite and would hurl her boisterous self at everyone she meets - given half a chance - she has to be restrained (as much as possible). She is fun.

Her husband spurred Jessica on to her writing career, giving her every support while she did what she considers her five-year apprenticeship (the rejection years) while learning how to write. She published her first books in 1979. Jessica has tried using a typewriter, but it just doesn't work for her. She is much happier writing in longhand, and in actual fact has a dozen or so fountain pens filled and ready to go at the start of any one session. A friend has a secretarial agency and, after deciphering Jessica's writing, returns an immaculately typed manuscript. To gain authentic background for her books, she has travelled and researched in Greece, Russia, Egypt, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Hong Kong, China and Japan.

Reviews

[boogenhagen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Re Gallant Antagonist - this one is a dubious one for me, and surprisingly not because the of the H or the h (although they have something lacking) but mainly because of the secondary character Sophie - the h's friend and the H's niece- I canna help but think what person in their right minds would WANT to be in a family that contained that. She was a manipulative idiot and the h was pretty much reduced to juvenilism any time she was around her, which was unfortunately most of the book.

The h and H first meet when she is 12 and he is in his twenties (he is a scientist solving world hunger); she lets the hand brake off the H's new sports car in response to Sophie and her brother and her brother's friend's teasing and the car wrecks into a wall and is destroyed. The others run off but she stays and gets spanked by the H. She hates him after this, and I did sympathize a bit, but she did put a car through a wall.

They meet up again when Sophie (hereafter known as BFI- Best Friend the Idiot) lies to her parents about where she will be while they are on vacation. BFI is 21 and apparently has huge house parties with major destruction every time mum and dad leave town. She is supposed to stay with H but sneaks off to stay with the h and goes to a party instead.

Due to a series of unfortunate instances, the H thinks the h is rather promiscuous and BFI is a sweet innocent. The BFI fakes illness and drags the h with her to stay at the H's house. The h and H have several spats with the result that the H comes into the h's room smelling of whiskey, makes a grab for her and passes out. The h, thinking to get revenge, accuses the H of molesting her, wants to be married in recompense for her virginity and generally lies her head off. The H proposes, then while in town the h sees H with another woman. A trip the H made especially to see her.

The h flips as her parents divorced because her dad was a serial adulterer and the mum finally had an affair with the man she eventually married after the h was 18. The h also had a prior relationship where her boyfriend cheated pretty regularly. She tells the H she can't marry him but he swears fidelity and now supposedly she is in love. There are more spats, the H claims he is marrying cause he needs an heir to inherit someone or other's estate, the wedding arrangements are made and then the h realizes she has to confess she lied to the H about sleeping with him.

She tearfully explains and H explains back that he knew all along she was lying, but he really lurves her so HEA. Apparently he only had one drink that night, came into her room, she ran out and he fell asleep. He did not say anything earlier cause he thought she was stringing him along for revenge but they both love each other (I don't know how, they never built any relationship outside cheap insults and sniping at each other,) so all is right in HPlandia again.

Gee - I need a nice Rose' after that, maybe mixed with some Veuve Cliquot - where are my Cookies? We need a drinking Game!

IMO the deficiencies here are multifold - the BFI is a true negative in my estimation - her continual antics overshadow the romance and I just don't care about the brat - take 1 drink for every time she barges in and five for every stupid thing she does - you will be feelin' fine by chapter 3. Take another drink for every time the H is described as "cold" and two drinks every time the h vows revenge for the treatment the H is giving out to her. You will be a bit blurry by chapter 6.

The next big problem, and one that is worth three drinks every time it is mentioned, is how important fidelity is to the h. Then think about an H who is "seeing" (yes,that kind of seeing) a woman, yet is more than willing to crawl into bed with the h and moreover insists on an engagement when the h calls him out for sleeping with her cause she might be preggers and THEN has to go explain to the woman he was "seeing" that he won't be seeing her anymore and yet manages to avow eternal fidelity to the h. Do you see the problem there? Better get another bottle, you will probably need it.

Finally, (aspirin and water hydration is imperative for the next five chapters) take one drink for every time the h agonizes over her hopeless love for the H and how she really can't marry him -- even at one drink per incident, you will be totally plastered by the HEA so really you won't have to worry about it anymore.

So Beware and read this book at your own risk, not responsible for any hangover's any rubberneckers may have. :)

[Ivy H · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review of book read years ago.

This novel contained a hero who was slightly nerdy, but still hot !
The heroine was entertaining but the major problem in this novel was her best friend Sophie. She was the H's niece and was a complete airhead bimbo who was totally man crazy. It was stupid that the hero couldn't see his slutty niece for what she was but kept thinking that it was the heroine who was influencing his 'innocent' young relative to live a life of debauchery.
There was mild comic angst in this because the heroine decides to play a prank on the H. It backfires of course because, like most of Jessica Steele's heroines, she doesn't think things through carefully.

Jessica is one of my fav authors because I enjoy reading about her sweet old fashioned heroines and sexy but stuffy heroes. However, this wasn't one of her best stories.

[Poonam · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book started off well by showing the h's broken family and her issues with infidelity. But it went downhill from there. I did not like the h's nature, her being very revengeful and the lengths she went for it. The way she kept on lying or telling half truths really irritated me. Overall an ok read.

[Last Chance Saloon · Rating 2 out of 5]

One of my least favourite Jessica Steele stories because the heroine (23) was such a muppet. The book starts well, introducing the heroine as capable of having her own mind and being slightly anti-men. She creates misunderstandings in front of the hero (37) with regards to her behaviour with men, but as soon as she starts to get the hots for the hero, she becomes mopey, spiteful and just plain crazy. Her scene when she sees him with his girlfriend made me cringe, but when she confronts him about it later that evening, she comes across as unbalanced.
I didn't much like that he had a lover for half the book and only finished with her once he had told his niece about the engagement with the heroine. But I really disliked how many times she screamed that the engagement was off, because she was frustrated.
I don't fancy their chances as the heroine has trust issues and is now clingy, and the hero gets jealous, but will soon be fed up with her juvenile behaviour.

[Beebs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gave 5 stars bc I think this one's underrated.

This one wasn't perfect by any means, but considering the genre, it was actually lighthearted and fun. It was more a battle of the sexes with each MC trying to one-up each other, which began with the MMC misunderstanding and giving the worst interpretation to a couple of things that happened in the beginning.

It's a long story, but MMC is a super smart nerd type with a laboratory who is FMC's best friend from childhood's... brother? Cousin? Something. They have a bit of antagonism toward each other, but FMC is convinced to go stay at MMC's house where Sophie is staying till her parents come back from a vacation, and hijinks ensue.

Now, while FMC was very wrong to have lied like she did, she wasn't without provocation, and the big huge bad secret really isn't as bad as it would be in other books in this genre.

It's actually a fairly fun read if you're in the mood for vintage harlequin presents romances.

[Live2Read · Rating 4 out of 5]

For me this would have easily been a five stars BUT…
the ending was a bit redundant. It feels like the author was just writing then to fill in the gap to make the end so it lost a star. I wish we got to see them married. I wish to see more romance, perhaps him jealous & more passionate when engaging her, while she less say she can’t marry him. It carried out one too many times for her but it was a good one for what it was worth: a vintage HQ.

[Roseanne Wilkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jancis and Thorp were long-time acquaintances. In fact, Thorp was her best friend's uncle, and he spanked Jancis when she wrecked his car at the age of 12. It felt strange to have him treat Sophie like a spoiled teenager while going after Jancis. It fractured my brain. Aside from that, they had good chemistry. Some spice. I was pretty sure Thorp wasn't drunk when she thought he was. I was right.

[E Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why on earth is she friends with Sophie? Honestly! Other than that I really enjoyed this. The MCs playing their silly games with each other was a bit obvious but still fun. I'd have given it a five if it wasn't for Sophie.

[RomLibrary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jancis Langfield knew that love meant nothing without loyalty and trust. Her parents' bitter divorce had taught her that, never mind that Thorp Kingman thought!

Jancis could appreciate what a headache her irrepressible friend, Thorp's niece Sophie, was being, but why did Thorp have to assume Jancis herself was tarred with the same brush?

Thorp had no right at all to pass judgment on her - until Jancis decided to tell him one tiny lie that mushroomed. Now she faced a lifetime of regret...and heartache

[Nina Phunsta]

Prefer not to rate unless we are talking funny-meter?