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Love and No Marriage

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Her holiday peace was shattered!

Quiet and solitude, the doctor had advised Samantha. But it vanished completely when novelist Bart Jackson arrived unannounced at Gable Cottage and took up residence there.

Samantha had been crazy to fall for him. He had swept into her life like a typhoon and would as quickly sweep out of it when summer was over. It seemed he couldn't overcome his long-standing fear of commitment. If she were sensible she would pack her bags and run far away.

Unfortunately, falling in love had nothing to do with common sense...

187 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 1980

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44 people want to read

About the author

Rachel Lindsay

66 books64 followers
Rachel Lindsay is the pen name of an author who also published as Roberta Leigh, Janey Scott, and Rozella Lake. See the "Roberta Leigh" entry for full biographical information.

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5 stars
6 (14%)
4 stars
7 (16%)
3 stars
15 (35%)
2 stars
10 (23%)
1 star
4 (9%)
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
548 reviews16 followers
May 30, 2017
Good one. For a change the guy and the girl are both career obsessed and that's the basis of the story !

The girl is a top notch fashion designer, twice engaged to men who were wimps who couldn't handle her success. She is coveted by holly wood producers and what not. Now, in spite of all these qualifications, she is a god damn virgin !?!?!?!? For god sake, women who have DONE IT before can still make desirable female leads !

Now, coming to the hero. He is best selling author, eccentric and haughty. Get lodged in the same house as the girl by a series of misunderstandings. They bicker, kiss, bicker again and finally the girl walks out when its get too messy.

He comes looking for her, and only then discovers her super successful career graph. Now, its his turn to walk 0ut and her turn to follow him. Finally, HEA.

Good read, especially because the girl has a spine, some good wit, and a charming dressing sense. Kudos.

3 stars.
Profile Image for willaful.
1,155 reviews362 followers
dnf
March 26, 2011
Very dated career woman/commitment-phobic man story, but kind of interesting in a period piece way. My allergy to banter prevented me from really getting into it.
Profile Image for Debbie DiFiore.
2,768 reviews320 followers
May 28, 2017
I thought it was boring and I really had to force myself to finish it. Bart the H was a jerk and I can't believe the h Samantha fell for him. There was an old lover of his that wouldn't let go and I just thought the whole book was so-so. Definitely not a keeper.
Profile Image for Emily.
19 reviews
July 21, 2019
I thought this was going to be a good enemies to lovers sort of deal (which it is) but it is so misogynistic and disgusting that if I could give it a zero I would. I didn't have any expectations going in and I was still let down. at least the Samantha had some redeeming qualities. must be because of the time period when this was published that it had such sexist ideals of women.
Profile Image for Laura Calderone.
343 reviews6 followers
November 22, 2017
Pubblicato in italiano con lo pseudonimo di Roberta Leigh rispetto alla versione originale pubblicata col nome di Rachel Lindsay
Profile Image for Lena Papanikolaou.
765 reviews98 followers
December 23, 2021
Υποτονικό, χωρίς καμία ένταση. Η χημεία ανύπαρκτη...
Από το οπισθόφυλλο είχα άλλες προσδοκίες ....
2.5/5
Profile Image for RomLibrary.
5,789 reviews
pback-to-read
November 19, 2021
Her holiday peace was shattered!

Quiet and solitude, the doctor had advised Samantha. But it vanished completely when novelist Bart Jackson arrived unannounced at Gable Cottage and took up residence there.

Samantha had been crazy to fall for him. He had swept into her life like a typhoon and would as quickly sweep out of it when summer was over. It seemed he couldn't overcome his long-standing fear of commitment. If she were sensible she would pack her bags and run far away.

Unfortunately, falling in love had nothing to do with common sense...
Profile Image for Beebs.
240 reviews3 followers
December 5, 2025
Enjoyed the banter, hands-down. Banter was great, h didn't take much off H and called him on his sexism, misogyny, man-child-ness and hatred of women.

Gonna get my other more fun stuff out of the way first:

* The title keeps making me think of that Homer Simpson quote thing "Why have one love and one marriage when I could have TWO love and NO marriage?!" which summarizes the H's take on romance and marriage pretty well actually.

* My ebook has some typos. The H's name is Bart. At one point in the book, this phrase happens: "Samantha re-lived the scene in Barf's room"

* This phrase when they're having a love scene: "...the hardness of his thighs telling her the effect she was having on him" whaaaat? If phrases that imply that a man's THIGHS harden upon arousal were nickels, I would have two nickels, because I have now come upon that type of phrase twice. IDEK. Vintage romance.

* The hilarious nature of the h's "illness" that caused her have to take a 3-month (!!!!) rest in order not to die. Nothing is named, just "exhaustion" but the exhaustion really wasn't doing anything but causing her to faint every once in a while. She wasn't even kind of slowing down on the job; no mention of a heart condition or really any condition, just "exhaustion" that could only be cured by THREE MONTHS of rest, but with no medical supervision whatsoever... Weird illness, is all I'm saying. Either you're so bad that you need to be in some type of a nursing home, or you could just take a week or two off and actually sleep. Anyway, one of those fictional plot illnesses. Even in 1980 though I'm pretty sure they were wearing thin.

Anyway, to the not as great:

Problems were, to the point that it lowered my star rating, that I'm not even kinda convinced that the H changed at the end at all. She's gonna marry(?) a bitter, angry manchild who thinks all women (at the end, with the possibly temporary, flimsy exception of the h) are greedy, selfish nymphomaniacs who use and discard men. Because his mother was one and he keeps falling for women like that (with the exception of the h).

She rightfully tells him that the reason he keeps encountering women like this is because he shuts out anyone who's actually decent and sincere because he thinks they're lying/putting on a mask (great psychoanalysis there, no cap) but he still just keeps on being an ass and rejecting her, until when he finally does decide to kind of sort of have some type of relationship with her, SHE rejects HIM lol.

And frankly that's where it should have been left. But dingus h unfortunately abandons all her principles of love and romance and relationships, sells her very successful fashion business (to be fair, it was well on the way to actually killing her in the book's universe, so probably a good idea), and goes to throw herself at his feet. Is he grateful and changed? NO. Does she retain even an ounce of dignity or pride or anything? NO she just agrees to be his mistress forever, to only do what he wants when he wants, blah blah blah I can't remember it all because I was so pissed off.

And then he's like, okay so you'll marry me then? (Sort of reluctantly imo) and she's all soppy and I'm like girlllllllllllll.

The end.
228 reviews2 followers
Read
December 13, 2015
Not as interesting as it seemed. And not convincing at all.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews

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