Marianne Harvey

I could have given this another star, if the author had made up her mind if she was writing a historical novel, romance, or crime drama, as the book had elements of them all (as well as a sort of gothic novel atmosphere), but not enough to classify it as any one of them, which made it lose too much to be considered a good novel, just passable.

The whole story of Nicholas and Donna, how he comes to her rescue as she tries to keep her family's mine in Cornwall going; and she repays the debt by working for him, could have been an intriguing story, as well as romantic/entertaining, if it had been done better. (It's one of those "good idea, but poorly executed" situations.)

There's an age difference going against them, as well as their far-from-attractive personalities. Nicholas is arrogant, domineering, used to getting his way and expecting it all the time, and also smug about Donna's unadmitted attraction to him. Donna, meanwhile, is self-involved, has a "my-way-or-the-highway" attitude, enjoys having men lust after her, though she pretends that's not the case, and continually shows her temper around Nicholas, which is pretty dumb when the man's her employer and can fire her at any time (though with his desire to get in her bloomers, this isn't likely to happen.) Diana daydreams about him, yet refuses to admit her true feelings.
All this goes on way too long, with kisses and feels here and there, then each backing away once more, he confidently arrogant, she proudly defiant. Then, they get married!

There's the OM and OW in the picture (several, actually), but the one that causes real trouble is Nicholas's younger half-brother Lucien, a dysfunctional (in more ways than one) artist, who talks Donna into posing for him outdoors, then tries to talk her into posing nude. When she refuses, he decides to make the decision for her by taking off her clothes (against her will), covering her with kisses and caresses she didn't ask for, then attempting to get his penis inside her, which she definitely did not want. Lucky for her, the only thing he could raise was a smile, which he didn't feel like doing when his man part failed. Instead, he took his frustration out on Donna and declared it was all her fault (blaming the victim, naturally), then told her to take her clothes and go, which she did! What happened to her spirited temper, that she used on Nicholas so often? How come she lets her would-be rapist get away with it?

That was the dumbest part of the book (which means there were other dumb parts); she let the whole thing go, then decided, when she and Nicholas got engaged, to forget all about it, and accept Lucien as family.

That decision comes back to bite her in the ass, when a blackmailer (who saw it all and thought he witnessed a hot sex scene), unwittingly spilled the beans around Nicholas, who went into a fury! Not giving Donna a chance to explain, he assumed the worst, that she and Lucien had passionate, hedonistic sex outdoors, where anyone could see. Enraged, he hit Donna twice, spanked her, stripped her (must run in the family), then made her paint her face like a strumpet and brutally raped her!

Needless to say, that was the end of things between them for a time, as Donna told him she hated him, then left him, then discovered she was pregnant.

I won't continue on, except to say that this book had other characters as well, none worth mentioning, and a subplot involving bigamy, murder, a loss of an arm, a bastard child, and other stuff, but a lot more boring than it sounds.

If you want to know the fate of Nicholas and Donna, then you'll have to read the book, but I advise you don't. At the risk of sounding conceited, I give you good advice.… (meer)

Synopsis

Nessa Dahl always had the good sense to steer clear of trouble. Then Jeremiah MacNaught showed up in New Orleans, determined to get to the bottom of a string of bank robberies by two women wearing Mardi Gras masks. Little does Nessa realize that the handsome investigator is convinced she's involved with the crimes-or that he's willing to do anything to get the truth. Even if it means taking the beautiful woman he's convinced is a liar and a thief straight to bed...


Very entertaining! Sometimes I wanted to shout at the characters, but it all ended well!… (meer)