What do you think?
Rate this book
And Blow Your House Down
Blow Your House Down by Emma Goldrick released on Mar 23, 1984 is available now for purchase.
189 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1983
1 person is currently reading
65 people want to read
About the author
Emma Goldrick
149 books33 followersEmma Goldrick is the penname used by the marriage formed by Emma Elizabeth Jean Sutcliffe, borned 7 February 1923 in Puerto Rico, and Robert N. Goldrick, borned on 22 March 1919 in Massachusetts, USA. They met in Puerto Rico, where married. She was a licensed practical nurse, volunteered with American Red Cross and she taught American Sign Language and he was a career USA military man. Thirty years and 4 children later they retired, and in 1980 they started to write in collaboration, and their first novel was accepted and published in 1983 by Mills & Boon. They continued publishing 40 novels until Robert passed away at 76, in 22 January 1996. After her husband death, she published her last novel and retired. Emma Goldrick passed away at 85, in 20 November 2008.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
September 7, 2021
"And Blow Your House Down" is the story of Sarah and John.
Eccentric heroine lives with her massive guard dog, recovering from a family death and a career sabbatical. Hero enters her life, requesting her help in fulfilling a mutual acquaintance's will. She is too kind hearted, and agrees. She is then pulled into his life, where her heart is stolen by his sweet and shy son. There's a lot of funny banter and tender moments- but my biggest issues with this book are the persistent rape attempts by OM and how easily they are brushed off, the hero consistently misunderstanding the heroine and slut shaming her, and her whole doormat/ submissive attitude towards the hero. This had so much potential, but alas..
Most of the rating is for Mary, the kickass dog!
Safe
2.5/5
Eccentric heroine lives with her massive guard dog, recovering from a family death and a career sabbatical. Hero enters her life, requesting her help in fulfilling a mutual acquaintance's will. She is too kind hearted, and agrees. She is then pulled into his life, where her heart is stolen by his sweet and shy son. There's a lot of funny banter and tender moments- but my biggest issues with this book are the persistent rape attempts by OM and how easily they are brushed off, the hero consistently misunderstanding the heroine and slut shaming her, and her whole doormat/ submissive attitude towards the hero. This had so much potential, but alas..
Most of the rating is for Mary, the kickass dog!
Safe
2.5/5
July 8, 2016
July 7
Starting out with four stars. Hysterical heroine. One minute the H thinks she's a 15 year old then due a series of unfortunate events mistakes her for a prostitute.
July 8
Okay, it dropped to 3 stars, but it's well worth reading for its utter bizarreness.
Sara, the youngest and only girl, comes from a large family as in her brothers are big while she is small, short. We meet the H, John, as he looks for Sara to inform her that his aunt left her 15% of the family electronic company and she has to live with him for six months or all the stock reverts to her. Yes, TO HER. Don't you hate when that happens? We never hear anything else about the aunt or her motives for this deal.
John also has a young and traumatized son; the trauma stems from the mysterious death of John's nympho wife and said cranky moppet's mother. The mother had fallen down the stairs and the son was found crying by her side.
Sara moves in and much is made of her tiny but busty young looking self. Awkward explanations regarding her brothers' occupations as well as random meetings and sightings with men young and old just solidify John's initial perception of Sara: that she's a prostitute with ties to nefarious organizations. This little side plot is the best part of the book for me. The H is a professor, and let's just hope he's the kind that has his head in the clouds as otherwise he's dumber than dirt.
Toss in a evil OM that you can see coming a mile away, the cranky moppet's need for a mother (he hires Sara for a nickel a week to pretend to be his mother in order to get school bullies off his back which was so darned CUTE), an ongoing corporate/Mafia/Russian cold war mess that Sara the nurse discovers, a horrific attempted rape scene by the evil OM, and an awesome guard dog called Mary.
The writing is all over the place, and the love affair/romance is downright bizarre. John is an absent-minded professor beta hero that morphs into an alpha Ricky Ricardo at the very end. The attempted rape scene and Sara's subsequent injuries traumatize her which I hope explains why she goes all submissive at the end, and not the fun kind of submissive if you know what I mean. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink. There is a point when she even asks herself why isn't she cutting John down to size for being so bossy.
I believe this may be the first Emma Goldbrick I have read, and she is intriguing. I love quirky heroines if they are done well. This one misses being awesome. A re-write and some loose strings pulled together would have improved it, but I recommend it for some of the humor and a fun heroine.
Hardly even fade to black romance.
Starting out with four stars. Hysterical heroine. One minute the H thinks she's a 15 year old then due a series of unfortunate events mistakes her for a prostitute.
July 8
Okay, it dropped to 3 stars, but it's well worth reading for its utter bizarreness.
Sara, the youngest and only girl, comes from a large family as in her brothers are big while she is small, short. We meet the H, John, as he looks for Sara to inform her that his aunt left her 15% of the family electronic company and she has to live with him for six months or all the stock reverts to her. Yes, TO HER. Don't you hate when that happens? We never hear anything else about the aunt or her motives for this deal.
John also has a young and traumatized son; the trauma stems from the mysterious death of John's nympho wife and said cranky moppet's mother. The mother had fallen down the stairs and the son was found crying by her side.
Sara moves in and much is made of her tiny but busty young looking self. Awkward explanations regarding her brothers' occupations as well as random meetings and sightings with men young and old just solidify John's initial perception of Sara: that she's a prostitute with ties to nefarious organizations. This little side plot is the best part of the book for me. The H is a professor, and let's just hope he's the kind that has his head in the clouds as otherwise he's dumber than dirt.
Toss in a evil OM that you can see coming a mile away, the cranky moppet's need for a mother (he hires Sara for a nickel a week to pretend to be his mother in order to get school bullies off his back which was so darned CUTE), an ongoing corporate/Mafia/Russian cold war mess that Sara the nurse discovers, a horrific attempted rape scene by the evil OM, and an awesome guard dog called Mary.
The writing is all over the place, and the love affair/romance is downright bizarre. John is an absent-minded professor beta hero that morphs into an alpha Ricky Ricardo at the very end. The attempted rape scene and Sara's subsequent injuries traumatize her which I hope explains why she goes all submissive at the end, and not the fun kind of submissive if you know what I mean. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink. There is a point when she even asks herself why isn't she cutting John down to size for being so bossy.
I believe this may be the first Emma Goldbrick I have read, and she is intriguing. I love quirky heroines if they are done well. This one misses being awesome. A re-write and some loose strings pulled together would have improved it, but I recommend it for some of the humor and a fun heroine.
Hardly even fade to black romance.
Read
January 11, 2021Umm. Total “fuckery”is all I can say. Couldn’t appreciate the writing or the crazy heroine. The first meeting of the h and H itself was rather try-hard. I couldn’t feel any chemistry between the couple. Strange messy story. Not something I can give time to at this strange messy time of the year/century/my life.
July 14, 2019
4 1/2 Stars ~ Susan Antonia Rebecca Anderson, Sara for short, is a woman of contradictions. From the moment John met her, he jumped to all sorts of wrong conclusions and Sara couldn't seem to set the record straight, so she let him believe what he wanted. Which at first was that she was a child, as Sara truly is short, a mere five foot, and then that she's a single mother of a 14 month old, and then that she works nights as a call-girl. So when John relays the conditions of his Aunt Lucinda's will, he thinks Lucinda wanted him to help Sara change her life.
Sara is a fixer, whenever she sees someone needing help she just jumps right in. Her generous and courageous heart have touched many people, including Aunt Cindy, her elderly neighbour. Knowing that Sara doesn't need the money, Aunt Cindy left Sara her 15 percent shares in the family electronic company with odd conditions. The will states that if Sara does nothing the shares become hers permanently after three years; however, if she doesn't want the inheritance she's to move from her New Bedford cottage to John's farm outside of Boston for six months, and then the shares will go to John. Sara knew that she had no choice but to go with John, as apparently Aunt Cindy in her will had hired her to fix John's troubles.
With John thinking he's helping Sara, and Sara knowing that she's needed to help John, they set out for South Deerfield. And along the way she learns that John has a seven year old son who still suffers the trauma of witnessing his mother's death two years ago, that his electronics company is experiencing mysterious losses and that the apple blossoms on the farm are being devoured by a moth. Sara begins to work her magic both on young Jackie's demons and getting to the bottom of the company's troubles which all seems to stem from John's brother. Robert.
Emma Goldrick is a pen name for the husband, Robert, and wife, Emma, writing team; and this is their debut. From the first pages, I became thoroughly engaged in this enchanting and often hilarious story. The tone is set as light hearted but this is used to balance out some darker issues, such as Jackie's trauma over his mother's death; the ruthless and criminal activity of John's brother; and the violence of Sara's near rape. Had the originating humour not been there, the book would have been a difficult read. John is such a likeable hero and for much of the book he seems rather distracted and not really cluing in to his brother's betrayal. I was happy that at the end, he's proven not to be so clueless. Sara is a gem who has a knack of lightening the lives of everyone she meets. She comes across as innocent and naive but she's very intelligent and tremendously aware of nuances from others. This was a book that I couldn't put down. I'm eagerly looking forward to reading more books written by the Goldrick duo
Sara is a fixer, whenever she sees someone needing help she just jumps right in. Her generous and courageous heart have touched many people, including Aunt Cindy, her elderly neighbour. Knowing that Sara doesn't need the money, Aunt Cindy left Sara her 15 percent shares in the family electronic company with odd conditions. The will states that if Sara does nothing the shares become hers permanently after three years; however, if she doesn't want the inheritance she's to move from her New Bedford cottage to John's farm outside of Boston for six months, and then the shares will go to John. Sara knew that she had no choice but to go with John, as apparently Aunt Cindy in her will had hired her to fix John's troubles.
With John thinking he's helping Sara, and Sara knowing that she's needed to help John, they set out for South Deerfield. And along the way she learns that John has a seven year old son who still suffers the trauma of witnessing his mother's death two years ago, that his electronics company is experiencing mysterious losses and that the apple blossoms on the farm are being devoured by a moth. Sara begins to work her magic both on young Jackie's demons and getting to the bottom of the company's troubles which all seems to stem from John's brother. Robert.
Emma Goldrick is a pen name for the husband, Robert, and wife, Emma, writing team; and this is their debut. From the first pages, I became thoroughly engaged in this enchanting and often hilarious story. The tone is set as light hearted but this is used to balance out some darker issues, such as Jackie's trauma over his mother's death; the ruthless and criminal activity of John's brother; and the violence of Sara's near rape. Had the originating humour not been there, the book would have been a difficult read. John is such a likeable hero and for much of the book he seems rather distracted and not really cluing in to his brother's betrayal. I was happy that at the end, he's proven not to be so clueless. Sara is a gem who has a knack of lightening the lives of everyone she meets. She comes across as innocent and naive but she's very intelligent and tremendously aware of nuances from others. This was a book that I couldn't put down. I'm eagerly looking forward to reading more books written by the Goldrick duo
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 22, 2012
This book was filled with assumptions and pure deviousness! I simply adored it. I couldn't stop laughing throughout the novel, it was a pure delight to read. The ending was pleasant and beautiful. The whole story was well thought out, you instantly connect to the emotions in the book and the underlining tension between the hero and heroine. It was absolutely amazing and probably one of my new favorites! I suggest everyone should read it, if they are able to get a copy!
September 6, 2016
Near perfect story character well developed and l really enjoyed it the white lie misunderstanding and I really wanted them to make love after those attempted rape by his asshat brother. Other then that it was awesome.
April 23, 2012
Cute and a little goofy. More focus on plot and secondary characters than I'd like, but the characters were all very likable so I didn't mind. I found it odd that attempted rapes (not by the hero) were described in more detail and went further than the physical action between the hero and heroine -- I know it was written a while ago, but it still would have been better with a little more hero/heroine interaction. Still though, a fun, engaging, and lighthearted read.
February 7, 2021
Because of the peculiar terms of an eccentric old lady's will, Sara was being virtually forced to live for six months in John Englewood's house. 'I'm not your judge,' he told her, 'but I do have a terrible problem, and I need your help.' Yet Sara could hardly believe he would invite her into his household--especially when he thought her a wild and wanton child. Somehow, she had to show him she was a woman--and a woman who knew exactly what she wanted
January 23, 2022
The cover is hilarious, H coping such an obvious feel. Lol
April 8, 2016
I wanted to like this better than I did. I love funny and goofy heroines. I love to see a straight laced hero fall for them. This one had a great little boy in it. He was the hero's son and was totally charming. The thing that marred this for me was the bits of wonky, unbelievable, vague plotting. The hero was pretty gullible. Plus nobody sleeps upstairs and leaves a baby alone to sleep in a downstairs room.
Oh and I nearly forgot, the heroine was weirdly 1950ish submissive. She was all about obeying the hero 'cuz he obviously knows best.
Oh and I nearly forgot, the heroine was weirdly 1950ish submissive. She was all about obeying the hero 'cuz he obviously knows best.
March 29, 2013
Just say no to Amazon.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews