Dark Pursuer

by Jane Donnelly

Nothing was allowed to stand in Connor Lammas's way- and when his young brother Andrew fell in love with Kate Howard, Connor was determined to break up the affair. Kate hadn't wanted to marry Andrew in any case, but now, in the face of this interference, she decided to dig in her heels.

Genres: Harlequin Romance, Harlequin

Paperback

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

Jane Donnelly began earning her living as a writer as a teenage reporter. When she married the editor of the newspaper she freelanced for women's mags for a while. After she was widowed she and her 5 year old daughter moved to Lancashire. She turned to writing fiction to make a living while still caring for her daughter, she sold her first Mills & Boon romance novel as a hard-up singleparent in 1965. She wrote over 60 romance novels for Mills & Boon until 2000. Now she lives in a roses-round-the door cottage near Stratford-upon-Avon, with four dogs and assorted rescued animals. Besides writing she enjoys travelling, swimming, walking and the company of friends.

Reviews

[Naksed · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a shame to have such a marvelous heroine, strong, smart, artistic, lovely, a true free spirit, find herself smothered in a lame plot, playing nursemaid to a petulant, silver-spoon-fed brat and his helicopter mom, when it is the luscious, stormy, hawk of an older brother that she is right for. To make matters worse, just when I thought this was finally getting somewhere, with only a couple of chapters from the finish line, the author pulls a mustache-twirling villain from a file folder filled with Hollywood stock characters, and throws in a lame blackmail plot that does not make sense EVEN by HPlandia standards. Very disappointed in this one :-(

[Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of her best. Old style romance (as in no sex) but emotional connection between two protagonists well written. Alpha but sensitive hero is clearly in love with the h but she's prickly. He gets over his wrong impressions about her quickly and shows her that he can be trusted. She finds out early on that she loves him too but her childhood memories made her wary of relationships. Loved the ending when he begs her to stay.

[DamsonDreamer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unashamedly vintage and really rather lovely. How beautiful is the cover, h? Anyway, free spirited orphaned child of a bitter marriage, Kate, is working in the publicity department of Lammas and Lammas. She's a talented but untried artist, living the happily single life in a flat share when the younger (weaker, obvs) Lammas brother takes a shine and hotly pursues. She's warned off by stern older brother, Connor, which gets her back up. She's no pushover this h. She has no interest in Andrew but pushes him to at least stand up to big brother and get out from his shadow. This involves riding big bro's unrideable stallion. He comes off and is paralysed from the waist down. Although this is heavily believed temporary, Kate needs to move in to the family mansion to encourage him to try. From there the relationship with Connor begins to change. There's no sex, only a bit of kissing but the development of the emotional connection is pleasurable with some lovely banter. There's an annoying blast from her past towards the end but otherwise I got a strong sense of a hea for these two. Nice.

[km-af · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my favorite book in this genre. The dialogue between Kate and Connor is minimalist but oh so rich. But it is the richness of the other characters that enhances the book. All the other characters, Jennifer Lammas, Moira, Andrew, the roommates (Susan and Janice) all add to the flavor but none more than Gail Gowerie whose interactions with Kate are really special and give depth to the character which then is fully displayed the h/H interactions. But every great book has a memorable line was when Connor finds Kate on the moor in the middle of a rain storm and 'she whispered "you found me" and he said "Yes" "I have found you".

[Roub · Rating 1 out of 5]

i've read so many books wid this trope dat i did not like this one! it cud have been better done. i thought both hero and heroine too cold to capture any real feelings/emotions. i was also bored wid them trying to build a relationship when they did not even have any chemistry!

[Megzy · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was well written but there were parts that were quite boring. I was able to put it down and read another book and come back to it later. I think the flaw was with the main characters, Conner was like a stone wall and Kate was bland.

[Feeling-bookish · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved these two and their chemistry. The author made their antagonism and subsequent attraction very believable. I felt the ending was rushed, as if the author was running out of her word limit, and a needless plot twist was added to zoom to the ending. Otherwise, this would have been a five-star read.

[RomLibrary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Connor Lammas allowed nothing to stand in his way -- and when his young brother Andrew fell in love with Kate Howard, Connor was determined to break up the affair.

Kate hadn't wanted to marry Andrew in any case, but in the face of this interference, she decided to dig in her heels.

[Lena Papanikolaou · Rating 5 out of 5]

JUST PERFECT!!!I LOVE IT.

[Reading with Cats · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh good lord...that was the stupidest Big Mis ever.
2.5 stars

[StMargarets · Rating 4 out of 5]

The heroine really makes this story. A painter, she works as window dresser at large department store owned by the hero. She is fun and independent and sensible.

Unfortunately, the hero’s younger brother takes a shine to her and stalks her for dates, claiming true love. The hero offers the heroine money to go away. Heroine is angry he assumes she’s a gold digger. The usual HP drill.

Heroine tries to tell the younger brother off, but she ends up shaming him into riding the hero’s horse. Younger brother promptly falls off, injuring his spinal cord.

Now heroine is compelled to live at the hero’s Yorkshire manor house and try to cajole the younger brother into walking again.

The H/h get to know one another and fall in love. The sexual tension is very well done and their shift from enemies to lovers is credible. They truly seemed made for each other.

The side characters – hero’s mother, a chatty maid, even the heroine’s flat mates - are all well-drawn.

A family friend eventually captures the younger brother’s attention, so the heroine is off the hook. A blackmailer from the heroine’s past finally prods the hero to make his move for an HEA all around.

Just a solid story with likeable characters.

[More Books Than Time · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a little slow and quite a bit of action happened inside her head, but there was enough there to make this enjoyable.

[Debby]

Not once did she have the guts to tell the H’s brother she didn’t want a relationship with him. She still went to meet his parents anyway. She was a fool. DNF, no rating.

[RubyLee · Rating 3 out of 5]

She looks like a young Jaclyn Smith

[Lynda · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favs. Two guys, one confused girl and, of course, happily ever after.