The best that can be said for the hero is he isn't as bas as the one in Best Served Cold and he does try and make amends. As a romanMore torture porn.
The best that can be said for the hero is he isn't as bas as the one in Best Served Cold and he does try and make amends. As a romance reader at what point is the point of no return. I'm tired....you can read about his awfulness in other reviews or just read the book.
Two highlights for me are, one, after hearing some horrific things from the hero and his posse, the heroine lets loose and tells them how she feels, and, two, the H's father says they aren't right for each other because he doesn't deserve the heroine.
I can understand a young heroine, as in teen, falling for the cute who's mean, but it's more difficult to understand how these supposedly smart women are so in love with men who treat them like crap emotionally and verbally, but love is not blind, but stupid. Daily reflection is over.
Triggers: references to child abuse, slapping, and, sadly, realistic portrayals of social bias and racism. ...more
I should have known. Brenda Novak loves her toxic parents.
DNF due to absolutely horrible deadbeat weak dad and his even worse second wife that abandonI should have known. Brenda Novak loves her toxic parents.
DNF due to absolutely horrible deadbeat weak dad and his even worse second wife that abandoned a ten year old little girl. What a horrible, horrible character!!!!...more
Problematic book for me as it's listed as a romance.
A revenge plot gone very, very bad as the usual with a romance hero/villain, the true victim is cProblematic book for me as it's listed as a romance.
A revenge plot gone very, very bad as the usual with a romance hero/villain, the true victim is collateral damage aka the heroine. After a several month seduction, the hero films the heroine having sex. No, he doesn't film them having sex because he's very careful to make sure he isn't identifiable as the heroine points out later. He shows the tape to her father who immediately strikes out...at the heroine. The hero gets his deal, the father gets the tape while the heroine loses everything: her rotten family, her partnership, the house she renovated, the garden she created and nourished her soul, and her trust in people. She devolves.
If the hero hated the heroine or thought she was remotely involved it might have been more understandable, but the hero knows how horrible he's being, in fact vomits at the thought of it, but hands the video over anyway. The video itself isn't just sex, but a graphic scene with the heroine calling herself "his whore" and "his slut". It made any subsequent sex scenes stomach churning when she calls herself that again.
Again and again, the heroine is betrayed, humiliated and debased while more than one evil doer gets away with no retribution. (view spoiler)[ The evil OW gets her hands on it and publishes the video and gets off scot free although distributing porn as well as revenge porn is a felony. Heroine's half brother who tipped off the OW doesn't get a full acceptance on his apology for being mean and throwing her under the bus all their lives, the hero wallows in self-pity and gets frustrated the heroine can't see how bad he feels, boo hoo. (hide spoiler)]
The heroine devolves into a shadow of herself, but does finally get a backbone of sorts when she gets cranky but it's not enough when her life is destroyed and the man who destroyed her life puts her life back together the way he wants it, not what she wants. The portrayal of her slow decline was well done and gets the extra star. And the ending is incredibly abrupt, boom.
I signed up for the epilogue but haven't received it, but from what I've read on FB it just confirms that the evil OW and the equally awful father get off without any real consequences. In real life, revenge porn can result in prison. Also makes me question what kind of an idiot the hero is. He pats himself in the back about being a great big business man but can't protect the heroine? I know, I know, if the video wasn't released we would have no book, but let's call a spade a spade.
Once a tape is out there, it's out. Out there for colleagues, friends, family, acquaintances, her future children to see. No coming back from the damage the H caused.
There are plenty of readers who will love the angst of the debasement of a pathetic heroine who loses control of her life through no fault of her own, but by the love of her life, but I have a stomach ache because of it....more
I was going to file this under DNF and then I F'd it.
Technically is it DNF as this ends on a "cliffhanger" as there are two more books to slog througI was going to file this under DNF and then I F'd it.
Technically is it DNF as this ends on a "cliffhanger" as there are two more books to slog through before the heroine gets her [image] "HEA". Serious doubts about that considering....
(view spoiler)[The heroine is the mother of two girls, 9 and 8, and pregnant with another. Her beloved father died in a car explosion when she was 14, and she had to live with her uninterested mother. She then gets pregnant very quickly by the out-of-her-league man next door who dumps her after baby number two. It's now about seven years later and she's off to MC land to hear more about her father's death.
Except he's not dead, he's in some kind of MC witness protection program that apparently doesn't alloy you to bring along beloved daughters. Oh, and the guy that got her pregnant X 2 and dumped her is the President's son and has a pregnant wife of his own. The heroine ends up having sex with him because he's just soooo irresistible, but it's okay because his wife is a bitch and deserves it anyway. Why did the uber alpha male abandon the heroine and their two daughters? Daddy told him to come home. Again, it's all okay [image] He's kept a watch on them all these years by having someone tape recitals and stuff. I know that's going to mean a lot to the little girls growing up without a daddy...that he's been stalking them from a distance. [image]
Oh and the clincher. This third baby she's pregnant with is his too. He snuck in her house while she was sleeping with a boyfriend and they had sex. [image]
The heroine's voice is upbeat and interesting, but bad choices. So, question is, am I going to endure read two more books with a heroine who's happy to have sex with a married man because, what, he was cute, he was hers first, he's her baby daddy, or all of the above? Survey says!
I wanted to give the author a chance after the unending antics of the H in Fire, but it didn't work out too well. Giving it 2 stars as I know there wiI wanted to give the author a chance after the unending antics of the H in Fire, but it didn't work out too well. Giving it 2 stars as I know there will be plenty that will love the angsty rage read of it all.
This poor, poor hero. He's surrounded by pit vipers including his toxic brothers, wimpy mother and a worthless heroine. Honestly, Cane and Abel had a better relationship than he does with the three idiots he calls siblings, and his mum could give Medea a lesson in the loving ministering to sons. Even the Anger Management candidate from Fire won't let him explain anything and the whole family blames him for leaving and causing their father to die. He can't get a word out until...
“Christ,” Sawyer said on a groan. “Fuck off with this self-pity, Cayson. It’s getting old.”
The only one that's happy to see him is the old lady he used to play pranks on.
“I heard you were back, but I had yet to see for myself,” she said after releasing me. “Now I have, and it’s so good to see you.” Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
She waved me off. “Oh, pesh. You kept us young for so long with all your shenanigans. We were quite distressed when you left, and our animals were plumb bored with no one to give them some excitement and a change of scenery every now and then.”
Hunter snorted. “One way to phrase stealing.” I smacked him. Mrs. Lange just chuckled. “It was all in good fun, we knew that.”
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX “You do remember having me arrested, right? Multiple times.”
“Well, we had to.” She glanced around at the growing number of townspeople before leaning closer with a mischievous grin. “If we hadn’t, all the town hooligans would’ve been coming onto our property. And who knows if they would’ve brought our animals back.”
“Oh, but we loved Cayson.” She gave me another fond smile. “My Hank talked about you often, even after you’d left. He never gave up hope that you would come home to Amber. And here you are.” She reached out to grab my wrist with frail fingers. “You were a good kid. You made life fun again for a couple old folks.”
Anyhoo, there's a heroine, but frankly I was so sickened by the brothers viciousness I could care less. If this had been a silly Harlequin HP with Greek or Sicilian tycoons posturing, I might have felt different, but this had all the nasty toxicity of real life sibling drama.
The final nail in the coffin is the mother. What a drab dweeb.
“You can’t understand a mother’s love, but it’s unending. Having you away made me feel incomplete. Having my children not speaking to each other for any length of time, but especially years, chipped away at my soul. It makes me wonder where I went wrong.”
Well turning a blind eye to abuse, never calling and blaming a teenager is a start.
“You can’t say something so wildly different from what we’ve always known and get upset when we don’t believe you, or when one of us gets defensive,” she said sternly. “You can’t take away what we’ve known to always be true and replace it with something that seems outlandish, and expect us to accept it without question or reservations. You’re expecting blind faith from us, and we can’t give you that with the things you’re saying. These kinds of things take time to think on and digest.”
The idiot has had about ten years to digest why her son left and her sainted husband cut him from the will not to mention the heroine FINALLY steps up to confirm abuse. After ten years of course. Poor pathetic woman, nobody ever explained that telephones work two ways.
Total rage read, and the worst is that I am going to have to read the next one to find out if his stupid brothers and even worse mother get a clue and grovel their rear ends off.
Trigger warnings: child abuse, mental and emotional abuse, dyslexia, shaming, and attempted rape....more
Marginally better than the first, but still a major bummer. Bottom line, I just didn't care for the hero or heroine and couldn't engage emotionally wiMarginally better than the first, but still a major bummer. Bottom line, I just didn't care for the hero or heroine and couldn't engage emotionally with them or their love story.
It doesn't help when the heroine finds love in the first book and then we read her love story with her dead husband from his POV from the grave. Just too sad for me....more
Continuing on the Janet Louise Roberts torture tour, this was well done.
Sad, depressing, not remotely a romance, and ditching the concept of a HEA anContinuing on the Janet Louise Roberts torture tour, this was well done.
Sad, depressing, not remotely a romance, and ditching the concept of a HEA and you've got your next read. It's on Kindle Unlimited.
(view spoiler)[I only give this 3 stars because the heroine has a year long passionate affair with the yummy Chinese prince who saves her and cherishes her....for a year. Yep, this chick has it coming and going with the men in her life, but to be fair to Prince Yum she does reject him first.
More sadness when she has to leave her mixed race baby behind. I get the feeling once she's been back in cold England with her extremely beta husband who has stupidly lusted after his SIL (as all JLR's H's seem to do) she's going to wish she was back in her Chinese harem. The H does grow up in a "Let's make the best of things" which is what any heroine wants to hear... cough..., but I suspect he has finally figured out she's about a millions times smarter than he is and she's a better bet that the stupid OW, his brother's widow. (hide spoiler)]
Moral of the story. When life gives you lemons, made lemon water.
Ignoring the HUGE and glaring issue that the author tosses around divorce like it’s 2023 instead of 1809 when it’s virtually impossible to get a divorIgnoring the HUGE and glaring issue that the author tosses around divorce like it’s 2023 instead of 1809 when it’s virtually impossible to get a divorce, this sucked!
The hero treats the heroine like crap for 231 pages out of 240, but it’s all true love? This was a misogynistic MC “romance” set in the Regency era. The hero is a horrible combination of mean and stupid while the h is fairly an old school Mary Sue. He plays hot and mainly cold. He trots around the country and London with the girlish OW and sneers and jeers at the wife he made marry him. I’d like to put the blame on the evil OW that scams the whole family, but I can’t. And, frankly, I can’t believe she didn’t bankrupt them with her baby-talking greedy ways. It’s not until the OW lies and says the hero wants to marry her that they kick her out and stop funding her…two years after her fiancee, the older brother, died. TWO YEARS!
I felt like I should give the author another chance after Star Sapphire, but hell no. One of the worst romances I’ve read.
As Naksed said, the parents probably strong armed the stupid hero into getting the heroine back.
So far my choices for 2023 have been dismal....more
Heroine keeps child secret for 3 1/2 for no good reason. He's not an arm-twisting vengeful HP tycoon just a scared schDNF
These two deserve each other.
Heroine keeps child secret for 3 1/2 for no good reason. He's not an arm-twisting vengeful HP tycoon just a scared schmuck.
Hero dumps heroine for no good reason. Because of kidnapping stuff, brings her and their daughter home to his new, and apparently awesome, girlfriend. Cozies up next to the h and her daughter in bed to "comfort" them and is then shocked when his girlfriend packs up and leaves. Duh. GF deserves much, much better.
P.S. Just realized that this is my second DNF with the series/author. I think I'm done....more
This must be a huge case of "It's me not you" given the other positive reviews, but I just didn't buy it.
This was my second chance for N.D. Jackson, and I think it boils down to she writes bad heroes. Not bad as in looming, cruel but obsessed Heathcliff types, but bad in the more mundane I'm sorry I forgot your birthday...here's some shabby flowers from Safeway to make up for it.
I mean he gets his nose out of joint that she couldn't be bothered to come to his big art show until someone points out he never told her about it. A love this will never die. Huh....more
This may be it for Jennifer Foor, her unlikeable characters and me.
Hero: The hero gets drunk, lets two women paw him then watches them have sex. AppareThis may be it for Jennifer Foor, her unlikeable characters and me.
Hero: The hero gets drunk, lets two women paw him then watches them have sex. Apparently he is a follower of the Bill Clinton definition of sex in that he did not have sex with those women. His wife is upset anyway.
Heroine: Goes home to daddy and his young wife (who just happens to be her SIL as well) and whines that Daddy is butting into her problems. Then does it again. Marriage 101: Don't go home to daddy when you have a fight. Parents have memories like elephants when someone does their little darling wrong. You may forgive, but they don't forget.
SIL: Buttinski. Heroine asks her to wait and tell the H that she's pregnant with baby number two until e gets out of rehab. Guess who blurts it out imediately?...more
This may be the most legitimately stupid heroine ever. A skanky woman gives the h photos of skanky woman and the H together. Tiny h pitches a fit and This may be the most legitimately stupid heroine ever. A skanky woman gives the h photos of skanky woman and the H together. Tiny h pitches a fit and refuses to listen to the H. All courtesy of the evil OW mastermind leftover from the first book.
When he points out that photoshopped woman was the same height as the heroine and wearing the same dress as the heroine…THE SAME DRESS, she thinks how sneaky he was to buy the OW the same dress as her in order to cheat. Then wonders why he doesn't show up to mow her lawn.
I’m beginning to wonder of EL is another author I may have to add to an author to avoid. She sure has some mean hombres for her heroes if you can callI’m beginning to wonder of EL is another author I may have to add to an author to avoid. She sure has some mean hombres for her heroes if you can call them that. In the few that I’ve read she’s given Susan Fox and Diana Palmer a run for their money. I think I prefer (can’t say that I like) Fox’s mean ones the best as they usually have an actual reason they can point to to say, “This is why I hate you even though I lust for you,” whereas DP and EL just make it up as they go along. The sun set…you are a slut. The cows milk dried up because you are a conniving gold-digger. You looked at Cowpoke 1 and the fence fell down. Okay.
I am scraping this to a three star despite the hero once again being absolutely awful…refusing to believe she’s a virgin, painting her with the same brush as all the other evil women he’s ever known, not believing her protestations of love. You know the drill. The heroine actually says no the H which is a rarity, but ultimately she finally proves her worth as all romance heroines must do by sacrificing herself unselfishly to prove her worthiness. Whew, thank goodness he’s appreciative.
As if that weren't enough, I know have an earwig of Purple Rain wracking through me head.
Another hero in this series prostitutes sexes it up for England with an evil French femme fatale spy but onI don’t think Jo Beverley and I jell well.
Another hero in this series prostitutes sexes it up for England with an evil French femme fatale spy but only after he marries the woman his twin brother raped to hide his homosexuality. This book follows along with the same level of ick.
A lot of ethically challenged behavior going on.
Heroine: Born a temptress, she’s a Jessica Rabbit. No man can resist her red hair and curves. [image]
(view spoiler)[ Married off at 15, sexually abused and trained by her husband, her disgusting older brothers want to either sell her off to a Lord or to a brothel. Either works for them. She briefly contemplates being a teacher or a companion, but leaps to the easier option of being a man’s mistress wherein she hops on the virginal H in the middle of the night.
: Resistance is futile and eventually he ends up with a pregnant bride. Insta pregnancy as she’s three months along. He alternates between wanting to woo her and slut shaming her. In his defense, she gave him the ammunition.
Hero’s Dowager mother Smother mother and quite the cool and proper customer unless she’s dealing with the much younger man. [image]
The younger man that she tells her son, the H, is blackmailing her for $10,000 pounds (worth about $800,000 today) never thinking that tarnishing the new love of her life as a blackmailing scoundrel might have consequences. She makes up for it later when she tells her SON that as fond as she was of his father that relations were not as exciting as with him as her new, younger love. [image]
Heroine’s brothers: To say they are not nice is a gross understatement. They want to pimp their sister out; they steal her money and jewels; they try and blackmail her with fake pornographic pictures of her, and, last but not least, they lust after her. Turns out she’s not actually related to them, but still. YUCK. No real comeuppance other than they don’t get money. This vindictive reader wanted the heroine to at least kick them where it counts or perhaps take out a spare flintlock and put it to good use. [image] (hide spoiler)]
I don’t fault a Regency heroine who falls into wayward ways or has a hard time fending off the hands of Regency morons, but please put a little effort into it.
Better choices for a similar theme.
Bel, the heroine in The Duke, is forced into prostitution/mistress-hood after she has resorted to every other means of survival. She turns to it as not just a means of livelihood but also as a path to revenge against the animal that drove her to this new life. She also maintains a surprising sunny disposition.
Marks in Married By Morning disguises her gorgeous self with dyed hair and lots of face powder, and plants herself in the country to escape the evildoer after her. ...more
An enduring love? I don’t think so unless it’s talking about the love the hero has for the OW.
The heroine is back from the dead, and he greets her anAn enduring love? I don’t think so unless it’s talking about the love the hero has for the OW.
The heroine is back from the dead, and he greets her and their son with a dubious, “Yay….great,” (view spoiler)[because her existence will spoil his engagement to the love of his life Lady Susan. He calls out Lady Susan's name during sex then later declares his love for her to the heroine while drunk and once again during sex and, in general, pines for Lady Susan. So romantic...so enduring.
Suddenly he remembers he actually loves his wife. I’m sure the fact that she’s just met her long-lost and powerful grandfather has nothing to do with it. And another DNF.
(view spoiler)[He didn't just rape his wife, cheat on her, and pass his pregnant mistress off to aThe H should be castrated.
Line starts to the right.
(view spoiler)[He didn't just rape his wife, cheat on her, and pass his pregnant mistress off to a local yokel, but in a previous book he purposely raped a young virginal girl as coercion to get info. Hey, it's okay though. He felt a little bad about it as he took his armor off before he raped in front of his crush and his soldiers. How do I know this? The heroine meets his daughter, product of the rape in this book. I'm so charmed. Barf!
And no comeuppance for the evil wannabe witch who sets the h up at best for more distrust with Mr. Wonderful, at worst possible rape.
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