To the Ends of the Earth

A rewrite of The Danvers Touch

Cat Cochran is a photographer struggling to make ends meet. She is hired to photograph Travis Danvers and his ship the Wind Warrior.

This was an amazing book. I absolutely loved it. There's lots of angst but Cat is a strong heroine and Travis finishes the story beautifully.

Cat was born into a rich family and married an even richer man, Billy Nelson, when she was 19, just after her father died. Billy turns out to be truly awful, to the point that Cat eventually ends ups diving naked off his ship and swimming into the ocean for over two miles in the middle of the night to escape being raped by him and his friends. She decides that rich men aren't capable of loving anything but themselves.

Travis is rich. He married Tina when he was 20. She deliberately got pregnant to catch him, then had an abortion two weeks after their wedding and told him she had a miscarriage. Travis decided that he would never trust a woman with less money than himself. Since then he has only had "relationships" with women that he can buy.

So we have this conundrum. Cat hates rich men, and Travis is rich. Travis only wants women he can buy, and Cat won't be bought. Their passion finally overcomes both their reserves, and they enter into an uneasy relationship. Cat works herself to the bone trying to earn enough money to support her family. Now this was the part I found somewhat questionable. Since her father died, her family hasn't had any money and she has been supporting them. Her mother is completely clueless as to finances, and still lives like she is rich. She is actually engaged to a marry a rich man in a couple months, and has just spent a small fortune on her trousseau (funded by Cat). Furthermore, Cat's twin siblings are in medical school and she needs to pay their fees too. On one hand, I understand Cat needing to support her family and not wanting to burden her mother, but it gets somewhat ridiculous towards the end. Why did she let her mother have the money for frivolous things like her trousseau when she is so desperate for money that she can't even afford to go to hospital when her doctor tells her to? As for Travis, I don't think his background story is severe enough to excuse his absolute distrust and hatred of women and the brutally cruel way he ends up treating Cat when he thinks she has lied to him. Still, for all these faults, this was a brilliant story with no cheese at all. Yes, Cat and Travis end up together but not without a lot of pain first. Their happily ever after is well earned and I shed a lot of tears along the way.

Nowhere to Hide

Suzanne Swenson discovers her fiancé having sex in her bed with her flatmate one day. Heartbroken, she flies off to Denver for a business meeting. As the flight is overbooked, she ends up being upgraded to first class and ends up in the seat of Alyssa Humphrey who hasn't shown up. The plane crashes killing nearly everyone on board, but Suzanne survives with severe facial injuries and total amnesia. She wakes to be told that she is Alyssa Humphrey, currently engaged to US senator Matthew Bradford.

Yes, this is yet another ammesia story, but the difference here is that the reader knows from the beginning that Suzanne is not Alyssa. I hate it when it's obvious the character is someone else but the reader is forced to pretend they are too stupid to realise (like in The Other Laura). The reader knows that Matthew Bradford is up to no good, and the engagement with Alyssa Humphrey is a political decision, not a love-match, but Suzanne doesn't know any of this. Jasmine Cresswell takes the reader through various twists as we learn with Suzanne what is really going on and who each of the players in the story are. I really enjoyed this book, and am keen to find more by the same author. Unfortunately I haven't been able to locate more of her books, as this one was published in 1992.

Blackmailed into Marriage

Lia has never had much of a relationship with her spanish grandfather, especially after eloping to the US with her high school boyfriend when she was 18. She finds out that her daughter Kaylee has a hole in the heart and requires life-saving surgery which she cannot afford. Lia's grandfather agrees to give her the money for the operation, but only if she agrees to marry his business associate Damien Marquez. Damien is illegitimate and wants to marry Lia for the sake of her grandfather's title. Unbeknownst to him, Lia has vaginismus which makes her unable to have penetrative sex.

Lia is very bitter towards both her grandfather and Damien for using her daughter's life to blackmail her into marriage. She doesn't realise that Damien didn't know about this. An even bigger obstacle in their marriage is her feelings regarding her inability to have sex which caused a lot of problems in her first marriage. Damien deals with both these things as only a romance hero can. He is incredibly gentle, loving and understanding with Lia, eventually gaining her trust and her love. Lia's grandfather eventually realises the error of his ways and makes up with her, apologising for using Kaylee's health to manipulate her.

I loved this book. It was heart-wrenchingly beautiful. I was going to say the characters are realistic, but as I write this review I realise that Damien is really too good to be true. Plus, they sort out their sexual problems much to quickly and easily to be believed. Nevertheless, it was a great story and I'll definitely be reading more of Lucy Monroe's books.

The Greek's Christmas Baby

Eden and Aristide Kouros survive a head-on collision, but Aristide awakes from a 3 day coma with no memory of Eden or her pregnancy. She has been unhappy in their marriage due largely to his neglect as well as the manipulations of his personal assistant Kassandra, who is determined to break the marriage up.

Aristide is your typically obtuse alpha hero. He thinks Eden's absence from his side whilst he was in a coma is a sign of her lack of love, even when she tells him that she herself has been bedridden in the hospital (in a different room). He feels that she should at the very least have arranged to be moved into a bed in the same room as his. Personally I found this whole thing quite strange. First of all, why didn't it occur to her, or at least his family, to move her into his room? Plus, it would have been a very simple thing to verify with the hospital doctor that it was under his instructions that she was unable to be by Aristide's side. Even though Kassandra boldly lied to Aristide about Eden, why didn't his own family tell him that she was in another room and unable to be with him? Even if they didn't know exactly what was wrong with her, they must have been informed that she was unable to leave her bed. Then when his mother admits to Aristide that his marriage was not what it should have been, he immediately assumes it's because Eden is a lousy wife. Conceited much? Anyway, his family eventually sets him right on that, to his great shock. I didn't like Aristide much at all, but he redeems himself admirably towards the end by firing Kassandra and loving his wife.

I really liked Eden. She occasionally does stupid things, but realises immediately afterwards when she has handled things badly (usually due to over-stretched emotions, rather than blatant idiocy). Overall she deals with Aristide and Kassandra with dignity, never whining or begging, but just taking a solid stance. She doesn't like the way Aristide behaves and let's him know, but also doesn't try to change or manipulate him. Eventually Aristide realises the kind of loving woman she is, by observing not only her, but also her relationship with his family. Once he realises that Kassandra has been lying, and he acknowledges his own love for Eden, he acts decisively to fix their relationship.

Overall this was a fantastic book. Kassandra, as the Evil Other Woman, is somewhat over-the-top, and I can't help wondering if Aristide would still have figured her out if she hadn't over-played her hand. Plus, what is with these heroes who have no problem keeping their ex-lovers around? Am I just not modern and sophisticated enough to think it's bad form to make your wife associate regularly with your ex-lovers?

Price of Passion

Kate Crawford and Drake Daniels have been lovers for two years, but have never had an official or exclusive relationship. She discovers that she is pregnant, but is unsure how to break the news to Drake.

Susan Napier often produces very enjoyable romances, and this is no exception. The characters are cute, and the dialogue amusing. I loved the way Kate dealt with Drake's supposed mistress, and I loved the fact that though they have an "open" relationship, Kate and Drake have both been faithful to each other. And let's not forget accidentally packing the cat... This was just a great, fun book to read.

Duarte's Child

While pregnant, Emily leaves her husband Duarte. Six months later he finally tracks her down and brings her home again.

This is one of my favourite Lynne Graham books. Sure, it's got the requisite manipulating personal assistant with a plan of her own, but the problems between Emily and Duarte are exacerbated, not caused by, Bliss' machinations. Emily develops a backbone, and confronts Duarte, who makes an honest attempt to reform. My only real complaint is Bliss' name. What kind of a name is that? Who names their daughter Bliss?