Desperate Measures

Philippa Roscoe needs money for expensive medical treatment for her father. Alain de Courcy wants a wife to counter rumours of his involvement with a married woman. He offers to give Philippa the money she requires in exchange for marrying him.

Yes, yes, the plot is silly and clichéd but I'm not one to hold that against a category romance. The problem was, Philippa was an idiot. She agrees to the marriage with the understanding that it will eventually be consummated and is not merely a marriage in name alone. When Alain comes to her bed on their wedding night, Philippa objects strenuously and he rapes her. In the ensuing weeks, Philippa realises that she is attracted to her husband but decides that she must never give in to that attraction. Meanwhile, rumours are still rife regarding Alain and the married woman he has been involved with. Philippa is mugged one day and rescued by the charming Fabrice. She happily hops in his car and lets him drive her home (never mind that he's a complete stranger). The relationship with Fabrice progresses until the fateful day that Philippa decides to run away from Alain. Fabrice offers to go with her and Philippa accepts, reasoning that  she can now tell Alain she is leaving him for another man. She has no intention of sleeping with Fabrice but assumes she can handle his amorous advances. Right, because she's so smart and experienced I suppose. Ugh, ugh, ugh. I spent this whole book being irritated with Philippa. This was written in 1992 but reads more like something written in the 70s. Philippa enjoys painting and was studying at art college at the start of the book. After her marriage, she decides to continue studying painting. Alain can't understand why she would want any hobby but learning to please him in bed. Philippa's art teacher can't understand why she wants to keep painting when she has a husband rich enough to support her. Huh? Really odd views to have in something written in the 90s. Anyway, my final verdict is simply give this book a miss. There are certainly worse ones but reading this would be a waste of time.

Love in a Stranger's Arms

Arabel wakes in a Spanish hospital with total amnesia. She is told that she is married to Cortez Ildefonso de la Dura. After being arrested in Venezuela for sheltering two arsonists, Cortez married her in order to take her away from prison and safely to Spain.

Yes, this is yet another amnesia/forced marriage story. I found it very difficult to relate to Arabel. She spends much of her time being alternating between being hysterical, childishly cruel, and terrified. She doesn't remember anything but she has a gut feeling that she hates Cortez and would never have willingly married him, so ends up being very nasty to him. For some reason, she doesn't ask him the obvious questions that I would ask, such as , "How long have we known each other?" His family hate Arabel for being a foreigner, and for not loving and revering him as they feel she ought. They end up being very nasty to her, telling lies about her and try to persuade Cortez to get rid her of. When he is sick in bed and asking for her, they confine her to her room and tell him that she doesn't want to see him although she is actually begging to be by his side. At the end, she regains her memory and everybody gets to live happily ever after. I found it quite unbelievable that Cortez's family never seem to get their comeuppance and magically accept her once she realises that she loves him. Furthermore, the return of her memory was just too convenient. It happens all in a rush and then everything is all right. It would have been more realistic if small pieces had gradually come back to her, giving tantalising hints as the story progressed. Instead, she suddenly remembers how she knew Cortez and everything is resolved. I did enjoy reading this book, but I was left feeling a little unsatisfied.

The Honey is Bitter

Domini Dane agrees to marry Paul Stephanos in return for not having her cousin Douglas jailed for stealing from him. Domini was mentioned in By Love Bewitched and I was intrigued by her story. This book opens just after Paul and Domini's wedding (and before they have consummated their marriage). Domini is bitter at being blackmailed into marriage whilst Paul is quite frank in admitting that he intended to have her since they met no matter what the cost; the opportunity to blackmail her presented itself, so he took it. I really liked this book. Paul was generally very gentle and treated Domini with respect. He really didn't act like he just wanted her for her body though she seems convinced of that. I guess I just didn't really understand Domini. It was her own choice to marry Paul yet she can't seem to accept that and keeps wanting him to let her go. Her uncle discovered what his son had done and suspected she was being blackmailed. Paul prevents Domini from speaking to her uncle until after they have consummated their marriage, and she hates him for it. Why? How could her uncle's suspicions change anything anyway? It still wouldn't change what Douglas had done or keep him from prison. Anyway, they stay together and their relationship gradually progresses in spite of Domini's objections. At the end we have two climactic events which cause Paul and Domini to reveal their love for each other and live happily ever after. I'm never fond of these sort of "forced" endings. I'd much rather something more natural, where they act like adults and just love each other. Nevertheless, this was a very enjoyable book and I recommend it for your reading list.

Compulsion

Lissa is a sweet 20 year old happily living a comfortable life until she meets Luc Ferrier, also known as Lucifer. He stirs up a passion in her that she has never felt before and reveals shocking facts about her long-term fiancé and childhood friend, Chris. Lissa finally realises the truth about Chris and realises she needs help to get away from him. Luc rescues her, but at what cost?

This was great, although it took me a moment to get past the stupid nickname of "Lucifer". The relationship between Luc and Lissa progresses at a nice pace. Lissa knows that Chris is dangerous and that she can't stay with him, but she also doesn't want to swap from one user to another. Unfortunately she does need to accept Luc's offer of help or she won't be able to leave Chris and start a new life for herself, but she has more self respect than to just go ahead and jump into bed with him. The final declarations of undying never-ending love are somewhat sudden, but I suppose that's not uncommon in category romances with limited pages. Overall I recommend this if you want a nice read.

By Love Bewitched

Dinah has been Jason Devrel's ward since she became an orphan at nine years old. Once she finished college they ended up getting engaged but one night she overhears two women speculating on Jason's reasons for marrying her; the women believe that the only reason a rich, attractive man like Jason would marry the quiet and plain Dinah is to avoid gossip about their guardian/ward relationship. At this point I started to actively dislike Dinah. She is incredibly immature. She just goes ahead and believes what she has heard and decides to run away with a broken heart without even confronting Jason. The whole thing doesn't even make sense. If he's worried about his reputation, he could always marry someone else, or encourage Dinah to get a job and move out. Anyway, Jason finds Dinah madly packing her bags to leave and they get into an argument concluding with Jason raping her. Yes, he rapes her. This is no "forced seduction" but straight out violent rape. It was at this point that I started to actively dislike Jason. Not surprisingly, in the morning Dinah runs away. Two months later, Jason manages to track her down only to discover that she is pregnant. He persuades her to marry him and give the baby to him, after which he will give her a divorce with a healthy settlement.

This book was incredibly disturbing. Jason himself says that he has tried to be a father to Dinah, and he is constantly calling her "child" or "my girl". In fact he addresses her using those terms right before he rapes her. Dinah is naturally quite traumatised by this; bad enough to be raped, but to have it done by the man who raised her whom she loved and trusted is obviously much worse. Also, keeping in mind that this book was written in a time when girls who had illegitimate children were ostracised and you can see Dinah's turmoil and the reason why she agrees to marry Jason. Both of them are quite frank that he raped her, though Jason tries to imply at one point that he suspects she enjoyed some of it. This just made me sick. It's common for child abusers to claim the complicity of their victims. Dinah is not a child, but she is about 17 years younger than Jason and obviously sees him as an authority figure. Jason concedes that Dinah has every reason to hate him now and claims to accept it, yet he then goes on to reprimand her for her bitterness and lack of joie de vie. Gee, you think being raped and impregnated by your father figure then forced to marry and live with him might just spoil your mood? As for Dinah, she gets all caught up in "dealing" with now having to see Jason as her husband instead of her father. I found this quite odd considering they were actually planning on getting married before he raped her anyway. Surely she would already have worked through those conflicts? Apparently not. Generally speaking, I found Dinah's responses reasonable, even her conflicted emotions regarding Jason. She is simultaneously attracted to and revolted by him. She feels used and dirty and wants to feel attractive, but he's the only man around. I actually found her quite realistic, but then before you know it she's happily jumping into bed with him and declaring her love. That's about when I wanted to throw up. This relationship was sick. Don't bother reading this unless you want an interesting psychological study.

Mistress to Her Husband

Five years ago Sean suddenly told Kate he wanted a divorce. She found out later that she was pregnant but decided not to let him know. Now Kate has a new boss who turns out to be her ex-husband.

First of all, let me say that this is not the sleazy story the title implies. In fact, the title has absolutely nothing to do with the plot. At no point does Sean ask Kate to be his mistress. What actually happens, is that five years ago Sean discovered that he has a low sperm count and would be highly unlikely to father any children. He does the macho thing and decides all on his own that he has to set his wife free to have children with someone else. Instead of telling her the truth, he tells her that he has been sleeping with someone else and has no interest in having children with Kate; in fact, he only acted like he wanted to have a family with her to get in her pants. Obviously this is so much better than telling her the truth (rolls eyes). As for Kate, she keeps trying to tell herself how much she hates Sean for what he did to her, but keeps trying to jump his bones. Every time they get together they get it on. I couldn't help but wonder if they talked as much as they made out, they may have been able to sort out their marital problems long ago. I got so sick of all the make out sessions that I started skimming through them. The author seems to have gotten a little carried away with being able to use the word "erection" (instead of all those other euphemisms we have seen so much of through the years). I counted it 9 times; in other words there are at least 9 separate sex scenes (though very few of them end up with actual intercourse), which is a lot for a wee little book.

Am I giving the impression that I didn't like this book? Actually I found it all right, but the premise of the plot really annoyed me. Sean's whole self-sacrificing rubbish was so annoying. He loves Kate so much that he can't allow her to stay with him and never have children, even though he knows that he will never want anyone else. It doesn't occur to him that she might feel the same way about him? Then when he finds out that she has a son, he gets mad at her for "betraying" him by sleeping with another man after they were divorced. This, after he told her that he was cheating on her. To add insult to injury, he also tells her that the other woman was just a meaningless fling... so he divorced her and broke her heart over a meaningless fling? He gets brownie points from me for not having another woman over the past five years, but it doesn't make up for his high-handed decision to divorce he due to his low sperm count. Kate's lack of self-control around Sean was really annoying, too. We see this kind of thing a lot in category romances; the heroine is so overcome with passion that she forgets all common sense. It's supposedly a sign of love. I personally see it as a sign of lack of character development. Kate was especially annoying in this aspect because she has a five year old son to protect. I would expect her to be more careful of not letting her son form attachments or get his hopes up, but Kate is too busy jumping Sean's bones. All in all this was not one of Penny Jordan's better works.

The Twelve-Month Mistress

Joaquin Alcolar has never been in a relationship with a woman that lasted more than 12 months. With their 1st anniversary rapidly approaching, Cassandra is fearfully awaiting her marching orders.

This is the first book of the Alcolar family series and it certainly hasn't encouraged me to read the others. I could barely force myself to finish reading it. Cassandra has got to be one of the dumbest heroines I have ever seen. Joaquin has made no indication that he wants to break up with her, yet she is in such a mess of nerves that she seems determined to end their relationship in a self-fuliflling prophecy. She's moody and snappish, continuously rejecting him. She complains over him working instead of staying with her all day long. We're not talking about workaholic long hours here; Joaquin gets up in the morning to go to the office and she throws a tantrum. She decides to leave him and doesn't even bother talking to him first or giving him the courtesy of saying goodbye. To top it all off, Cassandra moves in with Joaquin's illegitimate half-brother. When Joaquin finds out where she has gone, he naturally jumps to the obvious conclusion, aided by her telling him that his brother gives her something Joaquin never could. Then she has the gall to be mad at him for his assumptions. Finally, Joaquin falls down the stairs and conveniently gets amnesia. He forgets about Cassandra leaving him and the doctors advise against telling him, so she moves back in with him. Then we get to have the first half of the book all over again, with Cassandra acting like an idiot and Joaquin being totally clueless. Yuck, yuck, yuck. This was simply terrible. My advice is to pass this book by.