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Rhapsody of Love
"I don't care if you're the Queen of Sheba. And I don't know what you're doing - apart from haunting me, that is - but you can get the hell out of here. Now."
When painter Maggie Sanderson found herself trapped in the same Caribbean hideaway as world-famous composer Steve Donellan, she was at a loss what to do. However hard she tried to distance herself from him, he seemed determined to make his presence felt, crashing his wasy around the house at all hours of the day and night. Was there no way she could find peace from this man, or was he actually going to ruin her sanity too, as he had ruined everything else?
When painter Maggie Sanderson found herself trapped in the same Caribbean hideaway as world-famous composer Steve Donellan, she was at a loss what to do. However hard she tried to distance herself from him, he seemed determined to make his presence felt, crashing his wasy around the house at all hours of the day and night. Was there no way she could find peace from this man, or was he actually going to ruin her sanity too, as he had ruined everything else?
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1990
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 29, 2017
Rhapsody of Love - Rachel Ford gives us a matching Gemini H and h pair in this one. They are both very ARTISTIC. Which essentially means they have license to act like out of control megalomaniacs to each other and everybody else and temper tantrums abound along with physical abuse.
The book starts with the painter h running off to the family vacation home in the West Indies. She just had a big breakup of a six year relationship with a violinist and for once an HP h is doing the normal thing and drowning herself in chocolate - so much so that she has gone up a size or two. On the plane there, she is stuck with a very irritating big male seatmate, whom she assumes is a stockbroker. They have a bit of a spat over the h looking out the window of the plane and then there is more spats when the H inadvertently causes the h to spill her underwears all over the luggage carousel.
Things go from bad to worse when she gets to the family homestead and the gates are locked. Then the H, thinking she is some kind of trespasser, bodily hauls her off the property. The h manages to return, bearing bruises from the H's manhandling, and explains to the H that the house is split into two parts and he only has access to the leased out part of the home - the other part is her parent's and she is staying there.
The H isn't too happy about it at first. He is a composer and trying to do a film score for a movie for the H of A Shadowed Love and the h herself is trying to get over her painting block, but eventually the two of them develop an attraction that is interspersed with volatile arguments and physical grappling.
(RF justifies this because both the H and h are artistic Gemini's and must be CREATIVE, doncha know, but really this seems to be the only way she knows to introduce tension into the relationship.)
So the h and H have a back and forth, up and down, hot and cold existence for a while. They both try to help each other with their respective vices, his of smoking and hers of gorging on chocolate, and yet they can't seem to resist their physical attraction either. They also try to help each other with their creative blocks and the attempts vary from hilarious - the H hauls the h out of a bubble bath to sing Scarborough Fair, to extremely disturbing when the H manhandles the h into a room with bars on the windows and locks her in to paint and forgets about her for several hours. The whole book is like that really, going from one extreme to the other and it makes for a very uneven story.
Eventually the H and h become lovers for one brief night after the H forgets the h's dinner invitation, but the H has recently divorced and isn't into commitment. So once his musical score is done he heads back to his life and the h tries to pick up the threads of hers and both of them miss each other and have mopey moments.
Until the H manipulates one of his Bostonian friends into giving the h an American art gallery showing and when the h shows up, the H shanghais her to declare his love. Since the h has decided she loves him back, they decide to marry and try to keep the physical violence to minimum while being ARTISTIC, for the HEA.
This one was somewhat worrying with the level of physical violence between the two of them when they were in manic Artistic mode. RF was trying to exaggerate the perceived Gemini dual personas in the two of them for the story line, but it really read like every abusive relationship text book case. When your leaving bruises on each other and they aren't from wild lurve mojo, but from throwing around or hitting the other person, it doesn't really lend itself to a believable HEA. Parts of the book are funny, but the majority was dull or worrisome and thus I don't recommend hunting this one down for a great HPlandia adventure.
The book starts with the painter h running off to the family vacation home in the West Indies. She just had a big breakup of a six year relationship with a violinist and for once an HP h is doing the normal thing and drowning herself in chocolate - so much so that she has gone up a size or two. On the plane there, she is stuck with a very irritating big male seatmate, whom she assumes is a stockbroker. They have a bit of a spat over the h looking out the window of the plane and then there is more spats when the H inadvertently causes the h to spill her underwears all over the luggage carousel.
Things go from bad to worse when she gets to the family homestead and the gates are locked. Then the H, thinking she is some kind of trespasser, bodily hauls her off the property. The h manages to return, bearing bruises from the H's manhandling, and explains to the H that the house is split into two parts and he only has access to the leased out part of the home - the other part is her parent's and she is staying there.
The H isn't too happy about it at first. He is a composer and trying to do a film score for a movie for the H of A Shadowed Love and the h herself is trying to get over her painting block, but eventually the two of them develop an attraction that is interspersed with volatile arguments and physical grappling.
(RF justifies this because both the H and h are artistic Gemini's and must be CREATIVE, doncha know, but really this seems to be the only way she knows to introduce tension into the relationship.)
So the h and H have a back and forth, up and down, hot and cold existence for a while. They both try to help each other with their respective vices, his of smoking and hers of gorging on chocolate, and yet they can't seem to resist their physical attraction either. They also try to help each other with their creative blocks and the attempts vary from hilarious - the H hauls the h out of a bubble bath to sing Scarborough Fair, to extremely disturbing when the H manhandles the h into a room with bars on the windows and locks her in to paint and forgets about her for several hours. The whole book is like that really, going from one extreme to the other and it makes for a very uneven story.
Eventually the H and h become lovers for one brief night after the H forgets the h's dinner invitation, but the H has recently divorced and isn't into commitment. So once his musical score is done he heads back to his life and the h tries to pick up the threads of hers and both of them miss each other and have mopey moments.
Until the H manipulates one of his Bostonian friends into giving the h an American art gallery showing and when the h shows up, the H shanghais her to declare his love. Since the h has decided she loves him back, they decide to marry and try to keep the physical violence to minimum while being ARTISTIC, for the HEA.
This one was somewhat worrying with the level of physical violence between the two of them when they were in manic Artistic mode. RF was trying to exaggerate the perceived Gemini dual personas in the two of them for the story line, but it really read like every abusive relationship text book case. When your leaving bruises on each other and they aren't from wild lurve mojo, but from throwing around or hitting the other person, it doesn't really lend itself to a believable HEA. Parts of the book are funny, but the majority was dull or worrisome and thus I don't recommend hunting this one down for a great HPlandia adventure.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 2, 2012
I felt this was so short for some reason—I enjoyed it immensely; maybe because I was amused by the Artistic Temperament of both the hero and heroine. So cliched.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews