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Bride's Bay Resort #2
Indiscretions
Compelled, charmed... and compromised!
Mariel Browning loved Bride's Bay Resort, its Sea Island location, its friendly staff. She'd jumped at the offer to translate there again--but soon wished she hadn't. For one thing, working for a security-conscious delegation was no job for a woman with a past. For another, there was Nicholas Leigh, the most commanding, charismatic man Mariel had ever met and--for her--the most dangerous!
From the start a feral and magnetic attraction crackled between them. An affair with a delegate would be indiscreet enough. If Nicholas discovered her carefully covered past, too, it would destroy both their lives. For his sake--for hers, too--Mariel had to get out of this man's life.... But first she had to break the spell that bound them!
Mariel Browning loved Bride's Bay Resort, its Sea Island location, its friendly staff. She'd jumped at the offer to translate there again--but soon wished she hadn't. For one thing, working for a security-conscious delegation was no job for a woman with a past. For another, there was Nicholas Leigh, the most commanding, charismatic man Mariel had ever met and--for her--the most dangerous!
From the start a feral and magnetic attraction crackled between them. An affair with a delegate would be indiscreet enough. If Nicholas discovered her carefully covered past, too, it would destroy both their lives. For his sake--for hers, too--Mariel had to get out of this man's life.... But first she had to break the spell that bound them!
185 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 1996
4 people are currently reading
38 people want to read
About the author
Robyn Donald
445 books144 followersRobyn Elaine Donald was born on 14 August 1940 in Northland, New Zealand. She was the oldest child in her family, and as a child, she thrilled her four sisters and one brother with bloodcurdling adventure tales, usually very like the latest book she'd borrowed from the library.
Robyn owes her writing career to two illnesses. The first was a younger sister's flu. She was living with her husband and Robyn and spent most of that winter acquiring, suffering, and recovering from various infections. One day she croaked that she had read everything on Robyn's bookshelves, so would Robyn please buy her something cheerful and sustaining. Robyn found three paperbacks- one Mills and Boon Modern Romance novel and a couple of other romances. Robyn read them, too, of course, and so enjoyed them she spent the next couple of years hunting down more Mills and Boon books. This was much more difficult then than it is today, so she decided to write her own, and for the following busy 10 years she wrote and hoped that one day she would finish a manuscript good enough that was good enough to send to a publisher.
The second illness was her husband's, and it was bad a heart attack. He was so young it terrified them all. While he was recovering, he suggested that Robyn finish the manuscript she was writing and send it off. It wasn't a perfect manuscript, but the doctor had said to humour her husband, so she finished the manuscript, edited it as best she could, and sent it off. Three months later, she was astounded to read a letter from the editor saying that if She made a few revisions they would buy her novel Bride at Whangatapu.
Published since 1977, Robyn sees her readers as intelligent women who insist on accurate backgrounds, so she spends time researching as well as writing.Robyn Donald sometimes thinks that writing is much like gardening. It's a similar process creating landscapes for the mind and emotions from the seeds of ideas and dreams and images. Both activities can also lead to moments of extreme delight, moments of total despair, and backache.Now Robyn lives in the Bay Islands. She continues writing, and also finds time for a very supportive husband, two adult children and their partners, a granddaughter and her mother, not to mention the member of the family that keeps her fit - a loud, cheerful, and ruthlessly determined "almost" Labradordog.
Robyn owes her writing career to two illnesses. The first was a younger sister's flu. She was living with her husband and Robyn and spent most of that winter acquiring, suffering, and recovering from various infections. One day she croaked that she had read everything on Robyn's bookshelves, so would Robyn please buy her something cheerful and sustaining. Robyn found three paperbacks- one Mills and Boon Modern Romance novel and a couple of other romances. Robyn read them, too, of course, and so enjoyed them she spent the next couple of years hunting down more Mills and Boon books. This was much more difficult then than it is today, so she decided to write her own, and for the following busy 10 years she wrote and hoped that one day she would finish a manuscript good enough that was good enough to send to a publisher.
The second illness was her husband's, and it was bad a heart attack. He was so young it terrified them all. While he was recovering, he suggested that Robyn finish the manuscript she was writing and send it off. It wasn't a perfect manuscript, but the doctor had said to humour her husband, so she finished the manuscript, edited it as best she could, and sent it off. Three months later, she was astounded to read a letter from the editor saying that if She made a few revisions they would buy her novel Bride at Whangatapu.
Published since 1977, Robyn sees her readers as intelligent women who insist on accurate backgrounds, so she spends time researching as well as writing.Robyn Donald sometimes thinks that writing is much like gardening. It's a similar process creating landscapes for the mind and emotions from the seeds of ideas and dreams and images. Both activities can also lead to moments of extreme delight, moments of total despair, and backache.Now Robyn lives in the Bay Islands. She continues writing, and also finds time for a very supportive husband, two adult children and their partners, a granddaughter and her mother, not to mention the member of the family that keeps her fit - a loud, cheerful, and ruthlessly determined "almost" Labradordog.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
February 10, 2017
This was such a strange story and I have to chalk it up to the info in the author's note a the beginning. Seems RD was asked to participate in this Bride's Bay Resort series, even though she's never set a story outside of New Zealand. She got around some of the parameters by making her h/H New Zealanders attending a diplomatic conference with the Japanese at this South Carolina resort. The h is a free-lance interpreter and the H is a diplomat for NZ.
There is a head-scratching subplot of one of the resort's employees in the middle of an acrimonious divorce and child-custody suit. The father tries to kidnap the child but is stopped by the H. I don't know if these people show up in later stories, but their thread died around page 100. There is very little about South Carolina or the resort and it's the only one in the series that came out as an HP. (The rest were Silhouettes). Very strange.
Okay - back to the RD romance portion of the story. It was a slow burn with lots of diplomatic talk and the cynical need to hide all emotions. That was a bit tedious until the H/h actually got together. Finally we find out the h's backstory (her parents were diplomats and supposedly gave secrets to the Soviets. They committed suicide after being found out.) Since then, the heroine has believed herself tainted by their dishonor and wasn't surprised when her English diplomat boyfriend rejects her after finding out.
The hero is made of sterner stuff and wants to marry her, but she doesn't want to hurt his career. They are apart for several months with the heroine losing weight and being miserable. In a very nice move, the hero actually tracks down someone from the Soviet Union who explains it was the Chinese who murdered her parents and then framed them as Soviet spies because they were on to their illegal porcelain trading. Now that the heroine's parents have been vindicated, the heroine can have her self-esteem back and marry him. And he's quit the diplomatic corps - his very wealthy father left him a fortune, even though he was the illegitimate son.
The last twenty pages are really quite lovely - with the hero doing some big league psychoanalysis on the heroine. It does fit his character because he had to be a student of human nature as diplomat - and his extravagant gesture of finding the truth behind the iron curtain is also well within his abilities. I ended up liking him a lot - even though the beginning was slow, slow, slow.
There is a head-scratching subplot of one of the resort's employees in the middle of an acrimonious divorce and child-custody suit. The father tries to kidnap the child but is stopped by the H. I don't know if these people show up in later stories, but their thread died around page 100. There is very little about South Carolina or the resort and it's the only one in the series that came out as an HP. (The rest were Silhouettes). Very strange.
Okay - back to the RD romance portion of the story. It was a slow burn with lots of diplomatic talk and the cynical need to hide all emotions. That was a bit tedious until the H/h actually got together. Finally we find out the h's backstory (her parents were diplomats and supposedly gave secrets to the Soviets. They committed suicide after being found out.) Since then, the heroine has believed herself tainted by their dishonor and wasn't surprised when her English diplomat boyfriend rejects her after finding out.
The hero is made of sterner stuff and wants to marry her, but she doesn't want to hurt his career. They are apart for several months with the heroine losing weight and being miserable. In a very nice move, the hero actually tracks down someone from the Soviet Union who explains it was the Chinese who murdered her parents and then framed them as Soviet spies because they were on to their illegal porcelain trading. Now that the heroine's parents have been vindicated, the heroine can have her self-esteem back and marry him. And he's quit the diplomatic corps - his very wealthy father left him a fortune, even though he was the illegitimate son.
The last twenty pages are really quite lovely - with the hero doing some big league psychoanalysis on the heroine. It does fit his character because he had to be a student of human nature as diplomat - and his extravagant gesture of finding the truth behind the iron curtain is also well within his abilities. I ended up liking him a lot - even though the beginning was slow, slow, slow.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 7, 2018
Re Indiscretions - Robyn Donald does one of her few books NOT set in New Zealand or her fabled Fala'isi happy isle. This one is part of the multi-line Bride's Bay Resort which is a series of location linked books from every one of the HQN lines available in 1996 - including a very rare historical addition that gave the beginnings of the family that owns the island and the resort.
I don't think RD has ever made a trip to either the Outer Banks or to the Carolina's, she is distressingly vague about the locale and chooses to concentrate on the tediously slow burn of two international diplomatic groups negotiating a trade agreement and a secondary resort employee custody battle that the H and h get embroiled in.
The first five chapters of this book are a long build up to slow burning menace - RD must have still been in suspense mode after Prince of Lies, because I wasn't too sure if I was reading a spy thriller or a romance.
The H is part of the New Zealand diplomatic team trying to negotiate trade measures with Japan, the resort is sort of 'neutral' territory. The h is freelance interpreter fluent in Japanese - mainly because she attended school in Japan as a child.
From the initial smokey eyed look of dismissal the h gives the H in the resort bar when he is suggestively eyeballing her, to the gradual increase of tension as the h is pushed into the negotiations because of her excellent translation skills, it is very clear that this h has something to hide.
The H shows his obsessive and dictatorial, controlling nature in the way he ruthlessly interrogates the h over her past. Even tho he has had a full background check done on her and her career record is impeccable.
So we don't really know if we are reading about two spies trying to outdo each other while in the force of the Lurve Force Mojo Passion or if this really just two cautious people trying to figure out if they want to make that Purple Passion connection or not.
It isn't until almost half way through the book when the h and H confront a non-custodial father waving around a gun to kidnap his child from the resort employee mother that we can see that RD means for these two to become a romantic unit.
The h calmly keeps the child safe as she edges away from the crazy dad and the H calmly keeps his body between the h and little girl until they reach relative shelter and then he knocks out the crazy dad with a karate chop to the neck.
After shared trauma and with the thunderbolt of the Love Force Mojo at full boom, we learn that the h was the daughter of diplomatic parents that were supposedly spying for the Russians and then carried out a mutual suicide pact when it looked like their traitorism was going to be exposed.
The traumatized h was sent to live with her bitter and vindictive aunt, who felt the h's parents ruined her blossoming diplomatic career and her life. So the woman moved the h to a small, insular NZ town where everybody despised them and then proceeded to isolate both herself and the h even further.
To continue on with that trauma, the younger, but now on her own h fell in love with an upper-class man from a family of English diplomats and he also wanted to be in the diplomatic corp.
When the h told him about her parents after he proposed, the young man flipped out and his conservative family told him to dump her or he would lose his career.
He maneuvered it so that it appeared the heartless h dumped him and the h slunk off in her misery and shame to continue on with her worldwide translation career. But now incredibly wary of sharing any type of intimacy with another person and determined to avoid romance like it is toxic waste.
The H has his own damage from childhood. His artist mother was also a very wealthy man's mistress and she deliberately calculated to give the man a son, the H. The wealthy guy's wife was infertile and refused to divorce.
The H's very devious and calculating mother kept the wealthy guy on a leash for decades, all the while letting the H know exactly what she was doing to keep him in the good life.
The H became highly skilled at manipulation and maneuvering himself, but he decided to use his powers for good, (while avoiding his father's Captain of Industry ouvrage,) and he joined the diplomatic contingent.
The H is illegitimate and it bothers him a little, especially because he is in the diplomatic corp with landed gentry and very envious diplomatic rivals, who resent the H's magic touch when it comes to diplomatic nuances.
One younger rival is determined to make the H look bad. Not only did the H get a post he coveted, he also almost got engaged to the woman the young rival is in love with. So another threat is introduced into the mix, when the young rival decides that he is going to pry into the h's background - to her very great discomfort.
After many, many long pages of the H trying to interrogate the h and the h trying to evade his questions and get some information of her own, the big passion moment strikes and the H and h return to the resort to embark on a week long affair.
(RD doesn't let the beauty of the Carolina's blind her either. She is still touting New Zealand as the land of choice for Tolkien settings and proclaiming NZ beaches as the best in the world. I bet Fran Walsh read a lot of RD before she met Peter Jackson and she and RD probably hang out together.)
Towards the end of their holiday of love in the sun, but not on the beach, the H proposes. The h is astounded, cause she truly believes that with her parent's past, the H's diplomatic career will be ruined and he told her he wanted to be a diplomat since he was twelve.
The h sorta dumps the H and then goes to have a mopey moment and lose weight for six months. The h's ex lover shows up, whining about he gave up the h to take an Earl's daughter for a wife and how he is totally miserable now in his life.
The h doesn't even care, cause she is mopeying about the H still. Even when the H's younger rival shows up to threaten her into a confrontation with the H and his ex almost fiancee over a very uncomfortable dinner, the h can't escape the tragic weight of her unrequited love for the H.
Nor can she restrain her jealously when the H's diplomatic rival tells her that the almost ex fiancee is probably going to be the H's wife.
The h has a spine of steel tho, as she makes a few threats of her own to the diplomatic rival guy. She tells him he backs off or she will be filing complaints with his superiors. The rival guy quickly runs off into the HP mists after that.
The H, who not only has inquisition skills Torquemada would envy, is relentless in getting his way. He wants the h, mainly cause he is head over heels for her, (tho reader's would be excused if they doubted that for a long while,) and he is GOING to marry her - no matter what.
So the H maneuvers the h into going back to Bride's Bay resort again and finally, the H strikes pay dirt. The H knows enough people and has enough money that he can actually get a member of the Russian spy agencies to confirm that the h's parents weren't traitors and weren't working for the Russians.
It turns out that the h's parents collected Ming dynasty porcelain and that the h's father discovered that a Chinese Tong was smuggling the real stuff out from archaeological digs and museums. Since a high Chinese official was involved in the smuggling and knew he would lose his life if he was discovered, the Tong and the official decided to have the h's parent's killed.
They then staged the scene to look like either a suicide pact or a murder/suicide, cause everyone in the diplomatic corps knew the h's mother was no traitor and the Russian's were invoked to deflect the Chinese government from investigating.
So the h's parents were entirely innocent of the very harsh accusations leveled against them and the h finally has answers and a lifting of the burden that has weighed her down for so long. The H uses his manipulation talents for good again, as he totally dissects the h's aunt's character and convinces the h that the aunt was a weevil coward slime swiller.
It seems the aunt wasn't forced to give up her own diplomatic career at all and if she had not been so warped and had actually pushed for an investigation, the h's parent's could have been cleared long ago.
The h finally has a huge crying meltdown and the H is right there to sort her out. Then he does his very well done 'I am mad about you and have been since I first saw you' speech and the H also explains that he is leaving the diplomatic corps.
It isn't his thing anymore, plus his really rich dead father left him lots of money that he uses for venture capitalism and the H is going to expand on that in a big way.
Since the h's translation focus is mainly for business and because RD did a great job of building a relationship for the two of them during their week of love, (with a lot shared interests in between their bouts of Love Force Mojo,) it is extremely believable that these two are two of kind and should be working on a full house.
The h and H declare their true love forever avowals and we leave the two happy in love and planning the wedding for the very nice RD pink sparkly, together forever HEA.
This one is very intense, I wasn't joking about the thriller aspect. (RD should write some political suspense books, she would put Tom Clancy to shame.) Which is kinda a problem when you want a whacktastic epic trainwrecky avalanche day in HPlandia.
However, if you need inner h angst for a good reason and if you like relentlessly intent H's who are getting their girl NO MATTER WHAT, but aren't physical bullies about it, you need to look this one up, grab a bottle of vino and some Tim Tam's and settle in for a pretty nice day at the HP office.
I don't think RD has ever made a trip to either the Outer Banks or to the Carolina's, she is distressingly vague about the locale and chooses to concentrate on the tediously slow burn of two international diplomatic groups negotiating a trade agreement and a secondary resort employee custody battle that the H and h get embroiled in.
The first five chapters of this book are a long build up to slow burning menace - RD must have still been in suspense mode after Prince of Lies, because I wasn't too sure if I was reading a spy thriller or a romance.
The H is part of the New Zealand diplomatic team trying to negotiate trade measures with Japan, the resort is sort of 'neutral' territory. The h is freelance interpreter fluent in Japanese - mainly because she attended school in Japan as a child.
From the initial smokey eyed look of dismissal the h gives the H in the resort bar when he is suggestively eyeballing her, to the gradual increase of tension as the h is pushed into the negotiations because of her excellent translation skills, it is very clear that this h has something to hide.
The H shows his obsessive and dictatorial, controlling nature in the way he ruthlessly interrogates the h over her past. Even tho he has had a full background check done on her and her career record is impeccable.
So we don't really know if we are reading about two spies trying to outdo each other while in the force of the Lurve Force Mojo Passion or if this really just two cautious people trying to figure out if they want to make that Purple Passion connection or not.
It isn't until almost half way through the book when the h and H confront a non-custodial father waving around a gun to kidnap his child from the resort employee mother that we can see that RD means for these two to become a romantic unit.
The h calmly keeps the child safe as she edges away from the crazy dad and the H calmly keeps his body between the h and little girl until they reach relative shelter and then he knocks out the crazy dad with a karate chop to the neck.
After shared trauma and with the thunderbolt of the Love Force Mojo at full boom, we learn that the h was the daughter of diplomatic parents that were supposedly spying for the Russians and then carried out a mutual suicide pact when it looked like their traitorism was going to be exposed.
The traumatized h was sent to live with her bitter and vindictive aunt, who felt the h's parents ruined her blossoming diplomatic career and her life. So the woman moved the h to a small, insular NZ town where everybody despised them and then proceeded to isolate both herself and the h even further.
To continue on with that trauma, the younger, but now on her own h fell in love with an upper-class man from a family of English diplomats and he also wanted to be in the diplomatic corp.
When the h told him about her parents after he proposed, the young man flipped out and his conservative family told him to dump her or he would lose his career.
He maneuvered it so that it appeared the heartless h dumped him and the h slunk off in her misery and shame to continue on with her worldwide translation career. But now incredibly wary of sharing any type of intimacy with another person and determined to avoid romance like it is toxic waste.
The H has his own damage from childhood. His artist mother was also a very wealthy man's mistress and she deliberately calculated to give the man a son, the H. The wealthy guy's wife was infertile and refused to divorce.
The H's very devious and calculating mother kept the wealthy guy on a leash for decades, all the while letting the H know exactly what she was doing to keep him in the good life.
The H became highly skilled at manipulation and maneuvering himself, but he decided to use his powers for good, (while avoiding his father's Captain of Industry ouvrage,) and he joined the diplomatic contingent.
The H is illegitimate and it bothers him a little, especially because he is in the diplomatic corp with landed gentry and very envious diplomatic rivals, who resent the H's magic touch when it comes to diplomatic nuances.
One younger rival is determined to make the H look bad. Not only did the H get a post he coveted, he also almost got engaged to the woman the young rival is in love with. So another threat is introduced into the mix, when the young rival decides that he is going to pry into the h's background - to her very great discomfort.
After many, many long pages of the H trying to interrogate the h and the h trying to evade his questions and get some information of her own, the big passion moment strikes and the H and h return to the resort to embark on a week long affair.
(RD doesn't let the beauty of the Carolina's blind her either. She is still touting New Zealand as the land of choice for Tolkien settings and proclaiming NZ beaches as the best in the world. I bet Fran Walsh read a lot of RD before she met Peter Jackson and she and RD probably hang out together.)
Towards the end of their holiday of love in the sun, but not on the beach, the H proposes. The h is astounded, cause she truly believes that with her parent's past, the H's diplomatic career will be ruined and he told her he wanted to be a diplomat since he was twelve.
The h sorta dumps the H and then goes to have a mopey moment and lose weight for six months. The h's ex lover shows up, whining about he gave up the h to take an Earl's daughter for a wife and how he is totally miserable now in his life.
The h doesn't even care, cause she is mopeying about the H still. Even when the H's younger rival shows up to threaten her into a confrontation with the H and his ex almost fiancee over a very uncomfortable dinner, the h can't escape the tragic weight of her unrequited love for the H.
Nor can she restrain her jealously when the H's diplomatic rival tells her that the almost ex fiancee is probably going to be the H's wife.
The h has a spine of steel tho, as she makes a few threats of her own to the diplomatic rival guy. She tells him he backs off or she will be filing complaints with his superiors. The rival guy quickly runs off into the HP mists after that.
The H, who not only has inquisition skills Torquemada would envy, is relentless in getting his way. He wants the h, mainly cause he is head over heels for her, (tho reader's would be excused if they doubted that for a long while,) and he is GOING to marry her - no matter what.
So the H maneuvers the h into going back to Bride's Bay resort again and finally, the H strikes pay dirt. The H knows enough people and has enough money that he can actually get a member of the Russian spy agencies to confirm that the h's parents weren't traitors and weren't working for the Russians.
It turns out that the h's parents collected Ming dynasty porcelain and that the h's father discovered that a Chinese Tong was smuggling the real stuff out from archaeological digs and museums. Since a high Chinese official was involved in the smuggling and knew he would lose his life if he was discovered, the Tong and the official decided to have the h's parent's killed.
They then staged the scene to look like either a suicide pact or a murder/suicide, cause everyone in the diplomatic corps knew the h's mother was no traitor and the Russian's were invoked to deflect the Chinese government from investigating.
So the h's parents were entirely innocent of the very harsh accusations leveled against them and the h finally has answers and a lifting of the burden that has weighed her down for so long. The H uses his manipulation talents for good again, as he totally dissects the h's aunt's character and convinces the h that the aunt was a weevil coward slime swiller.
It seems the aunt wasn't forced to give up her own diplomatic career at all and if she had not been so warped and had actually pushed for an investigation, the h's parent's could have been cleared long ago.
The h finally has a huge crying meltdown and the H is right there to sort her out. Then he does his very well done 'I am mad about you and have been since I first saw you' speech and the H also explains that he is leaving the diplomatic corps.
It isn't his thing anymore, plus his really rich dead father left him lots of money that he uses for venture capitalism and the H is going to expand on that in a big way.
Since the h's translation focus is mainly for business and because RD did a great job of building a relationship for the two of them during their week of love, (with a lot shared interests in between their bouts of Love Force Mojo,) it is extremely believable that these two are two of kind and should be working on a full house.
The h and H declare their true love forever avowals and we leave the two happy in love and planning the wedding for the very nice RD pink sparkly, together forever HEA.
This one is very intense, I wasn't joking about the thriller aspect. (RD should write some political suspense books, she would put Tom Clancy to shame.) Which is kinda a problem when you want a whacktastic epic trainwrecky avalanche day in HPlandia.
However, if you need inner h angst for a good reason and if you like relentlessly intent H's who are getting their girl NO MATTER WHAT, but aren't physical bullies about it, you need to look this one up, grab a bottle of vino and some Tim Tam's and settle in for a pretty nice day at the HP office.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
dnf
March 17, 2017Sloooooooooow!
March 16, 2018
So the heroine is an interpreter with a past that includes a shady tragedy, and she’s nervous around diplomats and New Zealanders.
She lives in New York. But she has an arrangement with this hotel in South Carolina which likes to engage interpreters. She’s come to this seaside resort place to work for New Zealand diplomats and the trade minister who are having golfing meetings with Japanese counterparts. The hero is a sexy NZ diplomat, and because they are both cautious about getting sexy at work, and because for some reason they are COMPELLED to do all their romance at this resort they have to come back two more times to get it right.
Which makes zero sense. But what really gets me is that I started wanting the New Zealand diplomats to be like Murray in ‘Flight of the Conchords’ and they weren’t. And then I started giggling about ‘werewolves not swear wolves’ from ‘What We Do in the Shadows’ and look: New Zealanders are awesome and when I get around to her 21st century stuff I hope RD is dropping updated culture references. It’s possible - she referenced LoTR and Xena in some of her 90s stuff.
She lives in New York. But she has an arrangement with this hotel in South Carolina which likes to engage interpreters. She’s come to this seaside resort place to work for New Zealand diplomats and the trade minister who are having golfing meetings with Japanese counterparts. The hero is a sexy NZ diplomat, and because they are both cautious about getting sexy at work, and because for some reason they are COMPELLED to do all their romance at this resort they have to come back two more times to get it right.
Which makes zero sense. But what really gets me is that I started wanting the New Zealand diplomats to be like Murray in ‘Flight of the Conchords’ and they weren’t. And then I started giggling about ‘werewolves not swear wolves’ from ‘What We Do in the Shadows’ and look: New Zealanders are awesome and when I get around to her 21st century stuff I hope RD is dropping updated culture references. It’s possible - she referenced LoTR and Xena in some of her 90s stuff.
August 31, 2021
Πραγματικα ασυνηθιστη ιστορία ,μεχρι τη μεση ήταν σιγουρα υποτονική,αλλά είχε αυτο το κάτι που μπορεσε να με κρατησει.Η ηρωίδα
κρύβεται πίσω απο ενα ψεύτικο όνομα και αλλάζοντας τοπο κανει ενα νεο ξεκίνημα στη ζωή της.Εργαζεται σαν μεταφραστρια και μεσω της δουλειας της θα γνωρίσει τον διπλωματη Νικολα.
Ο ήρωας ειναι τόσο ψυχρός που δεν ξερεις αν στις φλέβες του κυλλαει αιμα ή νερό.
Μέγα λαθος!Ο Τίτλος του βιβλιου θα μπορουσε να είναι τα φαινομενα απατουν!Εφερε τα πανω κατω για να μπορει να είναι μαζί με την ηρωίδα,όταν αυτή του έκοψε κάθε ελπίδα !Παράτησε τα πάντα για χάρη της , ετρεξε μέχρι την άλλη άκρη της γης για να μπορέσει να αποκαταστήσει ολο το μυστηριο γύρω από το βεβαρημενο παρελθόν της.
Προκειται για ενα ανάγνωσμα που χαράζεται στη μνήμη για την μοναδικότητα του!
Ο χορταστικος και τόσο συγκινητικός του επιλογος (καθως η μάσκα της αδιαφορίας σπάει απο την πλευρά του ήρωα)ξεπερνάει κάθε προσδοκία!
4,5/5
κρύβεται πίσω απο ενα ψεύτικο όνομα και αλλάζοντας τοπο κανει ενα νεο ξεκίνημα στη ζωή της.Εργαζεται σαν μεταφραστρια και μεσω της δουλειας της θα γνωρίσει τον διπλωματη Νικολα.
Ο ήρωας ειναι τόσο ψυχρός που δεν ξερεις αν στις φλέβες του κυλλαει αιμα ή νερό.
Μέγα λαθος!Ο Τίτλος του βιβλιου θα μπορουσε να είναι τα φαινομενα απατουν!Εφερε τα πανω κατω για να μπορει να είναι μαζί με την ηρωίδα,όταν αυτή του έκοψε κάθε ελπίδα !Παράτησε τα πάντα για χάρη της , ετρεξε μέχρι την άλλη άκρη της γης για να μπορέσει να αποκαταστήσει ολο το μυστηριο γύρω από το βεβαρημενο παρελθόν της.
Προκειται για ενα ανάγνωσμα που χαράζεται στη μνήμη για την μοναδικότητα του!
Ο χορταστικος και τόσο συγκινητικός του επιλογος (καθως η μάσκα της αδιαφορίας σπάει απο την πλευρά του ήρωα)ξεπερνάει κάθε προσδοκία!
4,5/5
January 14, 2012
3 1/2 Stars ~ Mariel's had a talent for languages since she was the child of diplomats who travelled the world. Now she's putting her talents to work as an interpreter, and this calls her to Bride's Bay to translate Japanese. Nicholas is a delegate for New Zealand in the their trade talks with Japan. He's intrigued by the intense and immediate attraction he feels to Mariel. Though she feels the attraction as intensely as Nicholas, Mariel tries to keep her distance for she knows that the secrets in her past could destroy both their careers.
Ms. Donald has written wonderful characters here. When faced with Mariel's past and all that it may mean to his future, Nicholas fights for her, even when she is ready to walk away to protect him.
BRIDES BAY RESORT Mini-Series Book 2
These are the stories surrounding the Bride's Bay Resort on Jermain Island off the Carolinas coast. The resort properties have been in the Jermain family since the civil war.
Ms. Donald has written wonderful characters here. When faced with Mariel's past and all that it may mean to his future, Nicholas fights for her, even when she is ready to walk away to protect him.
BRIDES BAY RESORT Mini-Series Book 2
These are the stories surrounding the Bride's Bay Resort on Jermain Island off the Carolinas coast. The resort properties have been in the Jermain family since the civil war.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 11, 2025
I am slowly going through my TBR list and trying to read some more books, I am starting from the earliest ones added and working my way towards the more current adds. So this next read on my list is an old school romance. Fingers crossed for a decent read. Being a Mills & Boon a happy ending is a guarantee which suits the mood of the day!
1½⭐. Definitely old school Mills & Boon. Maybe I would have enjoyed it more when I was younger.
1½⭐. Definitely old school Mills & Boon. Maybe I would have enjoyed it more when I was younger.
August 14, 2024
Eh, I think this could have been interesting buuuuut it wasn’t. The heroine’s past could have been such a good thing to read about but it’s brushed over and hardly used other than “this is why we can’t be together!!!” Rather than good character development. Hero is pretty cookie cutter. I say skip it since it’s so forgettable.
November 21, 2019
Boring with a woe is me heroine. Plus damn you interpeting and translating are 2 damn different jobs. 😒
own-but-wont-read-or-wallbanger
January 28, 2019Mariel loved Bride's Bay Resort, its Sea Island location, its friendly staff. She'd jumped at the offer to translate there again—but soon wished she hadn't. For one thing, working for a security-conscious delegation was no job for a woman with a past. For another, there was Nicholas Leigh, the most commanding, charismatic man Mariel had ever met and—for her—the most dangerous!
From the start a feral and magnetic attraction crackled between them. An affair with a delegate would be indiscreet enough. If Nicholas discovered her carefully covered past, too, it would destroy both their lives. For his sake—for hers, too—Mariel had to get out of this man's life…. But first she had to break the spell that bound them!
From the start a feral and magnetic attraction crackled between them. An affair with a delegate would be indiscreet enough. If Nicholas discovered her carefully covered past, too, it would destroy both their lives. For his sake—for hers, too—Mariel had to get out of this man's life…. But first she had to break the spell that bound them!
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