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Pacific Waterfront #10
Taking Chances
Taking Chances by Vanessa Grant released on Jun 22, 1990 is available now for purchase.
- GenresRomance
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1989
21 people want to read
About the author
Vanessa Grant
93 books43 followers"I love writing fiction - it's the perfect occupation for someone who can't decide what they want to be when they grow up. With each new story, I get to explore a new world."
Vanessa Grant's love affair with writing fiction began during a protracted illness at the age of 12 when she decided to write a novel of her own, sitting up in bed using the typewriter she'd been given for her birthday. Not a computer, not an electric typewriter, but a then-state-of-the-art manual typewriter. The story ground to a halt on page 50 but Vanessa never forgot the excitement of bringing her own characters to life.
In 1985 Vanessa's novel Pacific Disturbance was published in hardcover by Mills and Boon. She now has over 10 million books sold and has been translated into 15 languages. She also has written what one critic described as, "by far the best writing book I've ever read." Writing Romance, published by Self Counsel Press, won the Under the Covers Best Writing Book Award, and is currently in its third edition.
Over the years her love of storytelling and curiosity about people led Vanessa to study psychology, volunteer on a crisis line, complete individual and relationship counselor training, volunteer as a peer counselor for a family life organization, and tell stories about life, love, and secrets. Vanessa is also a university professor, a publisher of educational materials and eBooks, and has given workshops to writers' groups in Australia, New Zealand, the USA and Canada.
Vanessa and her husband live on Vancouver Island in the Pacific Northwest with their two Australian Shepherd dogs.
Vanessa Grant's love affair with writing fiction began during a protracted illness at the age of 12 when she decided to write a novel of her own, sitting up in bed using the typewriter she'd been given for her birthday. Not a computer, not an electric typewriter, but a then-state-of-the-art manual typewriter. The story ground to a halt on page 50 but Vanessa never forgot the excitement of bringing her own characters to life.
In 1985 Vanessa's novel Pacific Disturbance was published in hardcover by Mills and Boon. She now has over 10 million books sold and has been translated into 15 languages. She also has written what one critic described as, "by far the best writing book I've ever read." Writing Romance, published by Self Counsel Press, won the Under the Covers Best Writing Book Award, and is currently in its third edition.
Over the years her love of storytelling and curiosity about people led Vanessa to study psychology, volunteer on a crisis line, complete individual and relationship counselor training, volunteer as a peer counselor for a family life organization, and tell stories about life, love, and secrets. Vanessa is also a university professor, a publisher of educational materials and eBooks, and has given workshops to writers' groups in Australia, New Zealand, the USA and Canada.
Vanessa and her husband live on Vancouver Island in the Pacific Northwest with their two Australian Shepherd dogs.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 19, 2017
Re Taking Chances - Vanessa Grant continues her Pacific Waterfront series with a move to San Diego and a side trip to Baja, Mexico. This one is the story of the brother of the H from Wild Passage and his highly dependent, but weird family and a lady detective h who is very good at her job.
The book starts with a man wanting to hire the h. She is a private detective in San Diego and works with her highly unreliable and alcoholic Uncle. Her uncle is off on walkabout somewhere, but the h is pretty competent. People never suspect her of detecting because she looks like a tiny fluffy blonde. That turns out to be useful when a guy who claims to be an aspiring writer wants to hire her to kidnap him.
The h is getting a bad feeling about this and secretly records the entire conversation on a hidden camera. Then she starts investigating, because the guy who wants to hire her is lying. He may be a boat building businessman but he isn't an aspiring anything, well maybe a wanna be actor.
The h has an interesting backstory. She is alone in the world except for her Doberman Pinscher Max, whom she rescued from a shady suspect she nailed for fraud, and her alcoholic, kinda crazy uncle. She doesn't remember her parents, they have been dead since she was five and she is in her twenties, but she doesn't know how or what happened. All she knows is her crazy uncle showed up one day and took her off to boarding school. Since the one time she asked about her mom and dad, he took off for a week on a bender and left her all alone at eight years old with no food for several days, she has been too frightened of losing the only family she has to question him. We get a very clear picture that the h has some serious abandonment issues.
She only has Max, (but he is fantastic and worth a gazillion families,) her unreliable uncle and a failed college relationship that ended because the guy was too controlling and domineering, as personal relationships in her life.
So the h does her investigating and follows the H to his nightly swim and hot tub routine in the private health club he built next door to his home on the old family estate. The h gets into the hot tub with the H and tells him that his kidnapping ploy isn't going to be carried out, cause she knows a set up when she see's it.
She then proceeds to tell the H all the stuff she has found out while checking him out. He has a mistress, a disgruntled employee causing labor problems and his brother's son (not the one from Wild Passage, the H has two brothers) is getting into some serious drugs and the H's ex-sister in law is clueless.
The H is interested to hear all of this, he is the family ship business CEO and the caretaker for everyone but the H from Wild Passage, but he has no clue what the h was supposedly hired for and has really no clue who on earth she is. He is very attracted tho and when she leaves him flabbergasted, he wonders how he can track her down, cause he is really interested.
The h goes home and hangs with Max, and worries about where her uncle is at. She knows he is somewhere in Mexico, cause some guy called about the paper work being wrong on the car the uncle sold him. The h is worried, cause if her uncle sold his car it means he went on a bender and lost his money and she is worried he may be in serious trouble. There is nothing she can do about it tho, until the uncle calls her for help.
In the meantime, she is detecting things and her impressions of the H the two times she has met him are confusing her. Suddenly it hits her that the man she met in her office and the man she followed are not the same person. She calls the H up and asks him if he has an identical twin. The H tells her he does and the h sends him the videotape of the twin in her office asking her to kidnap the H. (I liked that h got a clue so fast, she was really observant and that was nice twist to the identical twin trope.)
The H manages to get a police friend to help track the h down and shows up at her house. The h drives a white corvette, so the H described the h to his police friend. Since she is the only PI in San Diego that looks like she does, it was easy to get a general location of where her house was, (she lives on the beach,) and then look for her car. The h is impressed with the H's sleuthing skills and she is impressed that he isn't afraid of Max, so she invites him in.
They figure out that the H's twin, who is always short of money and the H is always helping his ex-wife out with finances and parenting cause his brother is a dilettante, must be planning to impersonate the H in annual Company meeting to get the dividends raised and get his hands on more money.
The H wants the h to pretend she has kidnapped him, (he will hide out until the big meeting,) and then show up at the meeting as the H's personal assistant with the H. He wants to put his brother on notice, but he doesn't want to create a big drama cause his twin tends to act out. The h agrees to help him and then gets really uncomfortable when the H tries for a roofie kiss or two. The h knows he has a girlfriend, but since we get H pov we know they are just long term friends with benes and it isn't a serious relationship.
So the h goes to the big meeting with the H, the twin gets spooked when the h lets him know she is onto his maneuverings and has it on tape. The H's mother is complaining and the H from Wild Passage gets the money he needs to keep running his Mexico side of the business. The ex-wife is there too and she seems to be happy with the little extra dividends the H granted everyone and the h tells everybody how to deal with the disgruntled employee. The H gets angry with the h cause she did not follow his plans for his twin and the h storms out after the H tries to manipulate her one time too many.
The h has to go do an insurance fraud case and she doesn't run into the H again until late that night. The H had left his car at her house when he decided to hide out for a few days and she is so tired she winds up spending the night chastely at the H's house - which she hates and the H asks to move in with her. The H and h start having lunch every day and the h realizes she has fallen in love with the H, but she doesn't know his current relationship status and she is too scared to ask, so there is no roofie kissing moments. The H wants to caretake the h like he does everyone else, but the h discourages that and the H is just impressed that she always knows the difference between his twin and him.
The H's ex-sister in law shows up at the h's office and wants the h to ask the H to get her more money cause she doesn't like asking her ex-husband and she figures the h is the H's lover and will have a easier time of getting the H to ante up. The h winds up yelling at the ex-wife to look at what her son is up to and do something about his potential drug habit and then she tells he ex-wife to quit being parasite and get a job. We don't get the ex-wife scene, it happens off page, but when the h tells the H about it, he and she get in a big fight. The H storms out just as the h is getting a scary call from Mexico.
The h's uncle is in trouble and the h has to go to Mexico and smuggle him out. The H hears the Spanish on his way out the door and comes back to help the h. They drive for the border and when they stop for the night in the h's little Mexico holiday cottage, the inevitable lurve mojo takes over. The h figures out that she can trust the H, tho she is still very wary and the H learns about the h's past and he promises to always be there for her. It was a pretty sweet moment, despite their worries over their insane families.
They get to Mexico and the H from Wild Passage shows up too, cause he runs the Mexcian side of the ship building business and he has contacts. They find the h's uncle in a tent bus on the beach in Baja. He went on a bender and ran out of money. So he sold his car for more drinking money but then got into an accident and damaged his leg pretty badly. The police want to put him in jail for illegally selling his car and wrecking, so he needs the h to smuggle him out of Mexico. The h is afraid the H won't help her, cause he is a very by the book responsible person, but the H promises if he can't fix it with the federales, they will all become border runners.
While the h and her uncle are waiting for the H and his brother, the h gets the story of what happened to her parents. Her uncle used to be a police officer, then he started drinking and left the force. He was a frequent visitor to the h and her parent's house and he wanted them to give him their opinion on him buying a ranch. After looking at the ranch and the h's father told the uncle it was a bad deal, the uncle got mad and got drunk and then tried to drive them all back to San Diego. There was an accident and the h's parent's died. The uncle thought he would go to prison, so he put the h in boarding school. He got a suspended sentence, but he really wasn't equipped to raise the h full time, so she only saw him on holidays until she joined his detective agency.
The h decides not to explain how much his vagueness, anger and non-answers have damaged her, cause she can see that he is stuck in a lot of guilt still for what he did. Then the H comes back and has gotten everything sorted. The H's brother is taking the uncle back on the company plane and the H and h are going to camp out at the beach and be in love for a few days.
They decide that they will live at the h's house and add on when the kids come, cause they love each other madly and the H dumped his friend's with benefits lady two days after he met the h. The H also tells the h she was right to tell off his twin's ex-wife cause her son is away from drugs and she is getting a job to help support herself. The h is just happy that the H is all hers and Max likes the H, and they are loving it up for the beachy HEA.
This one was pretty good. Both the H and h's families were kinda crazy, but fortunately for everyone the craziness didn't drive either one of them away. A big part of their compatibility is that they can both deal effectively with each other's families, plus they were cute with their mad lurve mojo vibes, so overall this one is a win on the HPlandia voyaging and the HEA is pretty sweet.
The book starts with a man wanting to hire the h. She is a private detective in San Diego and works with her highly unreliable and alcoholic Uncle. Her uncle is off on walkabout somewhere, but the h is pretty competent. People never suspect her of detecting because she looks like a tiny fluffy blonde. That turns out to be useful when a guy who claims to be an aspiring writer wants to hire her to kidnap him.
The h is getting a bad feeling about this and secretly records the entire conversation on a hidden camera. Then she starts investigating, because the guy who wants to hire her is lying. He may be a boat building businessman but he isn't an aspiring anything, well maybe a wanna be actor.
The h has an interesting backstory. She is alone in the world except for her Doberman Pinscher Max, whom she rescued from a shady suspect she nailed for fraud, and her alcoholic, kinda crazy uncle. She doesn't remember her parents, they have been dead since she was five and she is in her twenties, but she doesn't know how or what happened. All she knows is her crazy uncle showed up one day and took her off to boarding school. Since the one time she asked about her mom and dad, he took off for a week on a bender and left her all alone at eight years old with no food for several days, she has been too frightened of losing the only family she has to question him. We get a very clear picture that the h has some serious abandonment issues.
She only has Max, (but he is fantastic and worth a gazillion families,) her unreliable uncle and a failed college relationship that ended because the guy was too controlling and domineering, as personal relationships in her life.
So the h does her investigating and follows the H to his nightly swim and hot tub routine in the private health club he built next door to his home on the old family estate. The h gets into the hot tub with the H and tells him that his kidnapping ploy isn't going to be carried out, cause she knows a set up when she see's it.
She then proceeds to tell the H all the stuff she has found out while checking him out. He has a mistress, a disgruntled employee causing labor problems and his brother's son (not the one from Wild Passage, the H has two brothers) is getting into some serious drugs and the H's ex-sister in law is clueless.
The H is interested to hear all of this, he is the family ship business CEO and the caretaker for everyone but the H from Wild Passage, but he has no clue what the h was supposedly hired for and has really no clue who on earth she is. He is very attracted tho and when she leaves him flabbergasted, he wonders how he can track her down, cause he is really interested.
The h goes home and hangs with Max, and worries about where her uncle is at. She knows he is somewhere in Mexico, cause some guy called about the paper work being wrong on the car the uncle sold him. The h is worried, cause if her uncle sold his car it means he went on a bender and lost his money and she is worried he may be in serious trouble. There is nothing she can do about it tho, until the uncle calls her for help.
In the meantime, she is detecting things and her impressions of the H the two times she has met him are confusing her. Suddenly it hits her that the man she met in her office and the man she followed are not the same person. She calls the H up and asks him if he has an identical twin. The H tells her he does and the h sends him the videotape of the twin in her office asking her to kidnap the H. (I liked that h got a clue so fast, she was really observant and that was nice twist to the identical twin trope.)
The H manages to get a police friend to help track the h down and shows up at her house. The h drives a white corvette, so the H described the h to his police friend. Since she is the only PI in San Diego that looks like she does, it was easy to get a general location of where her house was, (she lives on the beach,) and then look for her car. The h is impressed with the H's sleuthing skills and she is impressed that he isn't afraid of Max, so she invites him in.
They figure out that the H's twin, who is always short of money and the H is always helping his ex-wife out with finances and parenting cause his brother is a dilettante, must be planning to impersonate the H in annual Company meeting to get the dividends raised and get his hands on more money.
The H wants the h to pretend she has kidnapped him, (he will hide out until the big meeting,) and then show up at the meeting as the H's personal assistant with the H. He wants to put his brother on notice, but he doesn't want to create a big drama cause his twin tends to act out. The h agrees to help him and then gets really uncomfortable when the H tries for a roofie kiss or two. The h knows he has a girlfriend, but since we get H pov we know they are just long term friends with benes and it isn't a serious relationship.
So the h goes to the big meeting with the H, the twin gets spooked when the h lets him know she is onto his maneuverings and has it on tape. The H's mother is complaining and the H from Wild Passage gets the money he needs to keep running his Mexico side of the business. The ex-wife is there too and she seems to be happy with the little extra dividends the H granted everyone and the h tells everybody how to deal with the disgruntled employee. The H gets angry with the h cause she did not follow his plans for his twin and the h storms out after the H tries to manipulate her one time too many.
The h has to go do an insurance fraud case and she doesn't run into the H again until late that night. The H had left his car at her house when he decided to hide out for a few days and she is so tired she winds up spending the night chastely at the H's house - which she hates and the H asks to move in with her. The H and h start having lunch every day and the h realizes she has fallen in love with the H, but she doesn't know his current relationship status and she is too scared to ask, so there is no roofie kissing moments. The H wants to caretake the h like he does everyone else, but the h discourages that and the H is just impressed that she always knows the difference between his twin and him.
The H's ex-sister in law shows up at the h's office and wants the h to ask the H to get her more money cause she doesn't like asking her ex-husband and she figures the h is the H's lover and will have a easier time of getting the H to ante up. The h winds up yelling at the ex-wife to look at what her son is up to and do something about his potential drug habit and then she tells he ex-wife to quit being parasite and get a job. We don't get the ex-wife scene, it happens off page, but when the h tells the H about it, he and she get in a big fight. The H storms out just as the h is getting a scary call from Mexico.
The h's uncle is in trouble and the h has to go to Mexico and smuggle him out. The H hears the Spanish on his way out the door and comes back to help the h. They drive for the border and when they stop for the night in the h's little Mexico holiday cottage, the inevitable lurve mojo takes over. The h figures out that she can trust the H, tho she is still very wary and the H learns about the h's past and he promises to always be there for her. It was a pretty sweet moment, despite their worries over their insane families.
They get to Mexico and the H from Wild Passage shows up too, cause he runs the Mexcian side of the ship building business and he has contacts. They find the h's uncle in a tent bus on the beach in Baja. He went on a bender and ran out of money. So he sold his car for more drinking money but then got into an accident and damaged his leg pretty badly. The police want to put him in jail for illegally selling his car and wrecking, so he needs the h to smuggle him out of Mexico. The h is afraid the H won't help her, cause he is a very by the book responsible person, but the H promises if he can't fix it with the federales, they will all become border runners.
While the h and her uncle are waiting for the H and his brother, the h gets the story of what happened to her parents. Her uncle used to be a police officer, then he started drinking and left the force. He was a frequent visitor to the h and her parent's house and he wanted them to give him their opinion on him buying a ranch. After looking at the ranch and the h's father told the uncle it was a bad deal, the uncle got mad and got drunk and then tried to drive them all back to San Diego. There was an accident and the h's parent's died. The uncle thought he would go to prison, so he put the h in boarding school. He got a suspended sentence, but he really wasn't equipped to raise the h full time, so she only saw him on holidays until she joined his detective agency.
The h decides not to explain how much his vagueness, anger and non-answers have damaged her, cause she can see that he is stuck in a lot of guilt still for what he did. Then the H comes back and has gotten everything sorted. The H's brother is taking the uncle back on the company plane and the H and h are going to camp out at the beach and be in love for a few days.
They decide that they will live at the h's house and add on when the kids come, cause they love each other madly and the H dumped his friend's with benefits lady two days after he met the h. The H also tells the h she was right to tell off his twin's ex-wife cause her son is away from drugs and she is getting a job to help support herself. The h is just happy that the H is all hers and Max likes the H, and they are loving it up for the beachy HEA.
This one was pretty good. Both the H and h's families were kinda crazy, but fortunately for everyone the craziness didn't drive either one of them away. A big part of their compatibility is that they can both deal effectively with each other's families, plus they were cute with their mad lurve mojo vibes, so overall this one is a win on the HPlandia voyaging and the HEA is pretty sweet.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 24, 2020
Achei que houve várias partes da história que podiam ter sido mais explicados e outras que podiam ter sido menos apressados, porém gostei. Tinha podencial para o 4 mas não chegou lá infelizmente.
Era giro saber como progredia a relação entre Zeb e Misty!!
E não sei porquê fez me lembrar do livro «Pede-me o que quiseres» ( Pede-Me O Que Quiseres ).
Era giro saber como progredia a relação entre Zeb e Misty!!
E não sei porquê fez me lembrar do livro «Pede-me o que quiseres» ( Pede-Me O Que Quiseres ).
August 18, 2019
Misty is a feisty PI who takes care of her alcoholic Uncle Kenny and her dog Max. Zeb is a tycoon who takes care of his entire family. When his twin brother hires Misty to kidnap Zeb, Zeb is impressed that Misty can tell the two apart. And soon Zeb is determined to look after Misty.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews