Natalie Fox

Seriously? 1 star for the insane story and 5 stars, maybe 6 for the old skool crazy.
Here's the story of a man and woman who meet each other's eyes across a crowded room. He grabs her hand and pulls her out into the night whereupon they go back to his place and spend the next week rolling around in bed together. After a week, his cousin arrives and she and the hero, Felipe, depart without a word for New York. A week later the hero leaves a message on the heroine's, Gemma's, answering machine saying simply call me. But she doesn't because it is TOO LATE! She has been left and betrayed by her great love that she has known during a solid week of sex. The story starts 6 months later. Here she is bitter and changed from her tragic love affair/hot fling with a stranger. He finagles a way to get her to Argentina for REVENGE! because she didn't return his one lonely call. He will MAKE HER PAY! because she was the love of his life and he couldn't be bothered to call again and put a little effort into it because he is a LATIN STUD and shouldn't oughta hafta. So he proceeds to kiss her as punishment! How dare he she thinks! Then he makes her come without coming himself! The bastard! Then he kisses her but doesn't make love to her and tells her she will be his until she learns her lesson! She is overcome with the horror of his full and brutal punishment! It's like being offended because someone offers you an ice cream cone. And they fall into bed together. That serves them both right. The whole thing was wildly ludicrous.

But here comes the good bit. She went to Argentina thinking she was going to paint a portrait of a man. A man who she found out just as she was planning to go, was actually her father, Augustin. She is a SECRET CHILD! When the father eventually turns up at the ranch, Gemma discovers that Felipe is Augustin's son!!! Horrors! She is in love with her half brother and has slept with him many times, as recently as last night! Plenty of OTT angst ensues. That part was pretty fun actually. :-) 5 stars for that bit. … (meer)

Okay wow - just wow. Before the ending of this book I was going to smack on a three star rating. The writing style is actually pretty good and the characters likeable enough. Until the end. Wow, that end. Let's just say that my anger would have been so extreme it would probably have burned down the building when I heard the news. The old cliche, Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, would have had only a weak similarity to my wrath in that situation. First, him, but my rage, yes - RAGE, pure RAGE - would have been directed even stronger at the father. Grrrr. And then the author has it okay again? How could the heroine possibly get over that? Seriously?? Didn't the business matter to her before? All the control slid away and she didn't have a choice. Sympathy my butt, I w.....ugh. Too mad. It brought the rating down a star.

Otherwise - trying to fan the anger here - it was okay. Not too melodramatic although sometimes I wished the heroine had a bit more backbone. Not high on sensuality but it wasn't lacking either. Just, grr, the ending hurt.… (meer)