Caroline FlemingCritiques

The fact that the lady was SIXTEEN at the time she was seduced by the TWENTY-FIVE (or twenty-six) year-old "hero" was just too much to gloss over. The fact that her at least FORTY year-old GUARDIAN married her with such swinish motivation on his part (despite being impotent for *reasons*) was incredibly creepy (especially since his motivation for even becoming her guardian was the same). Later on it is revealed just how much of a turd the guardian was, but because the "hero" loved the heroine, it seemed as if his behavior was excused. I do think that part of the reason for the lady to have been so young was to leave her with virtually no options once she discovered the pregnancy, but still, the whole sitch was gu-ross.

Given today's climate re: sexual assault, I could not just leave a plain rating on this. A GROWN ASS PERSON macking on a TEENAGER is screwed up, even if they end up getting married or whatever.

Also, did people in the 70's just leave their little kids to wander around (near the ocean!) with no supervision at all? Like, the lady in this just left her 11yo alone for most of the day while she cared for someone else's kids. She had absolutely no concern that her 4yo charge had just wandered out of the house after feeding and dressing himself. I mean, I grew up in the 80's in NY and my parents def didn't keep us on leading strings, but this seems kind of callous, because, you know, THE OCEAN.

How wonderful to find this old favorite again. I originally read this back when it first came out and never really forgot it. I just couldn't remember which one it was. Well written, well plotted. It definitely keeps your interest. A good motivation for the secret baby. The motivation is one of the main parts I had never forgotten. Both the hero and the heroine remained in love even though separated for 12 years and not knowing that the other still loved them. Some of the oldies don't hold up well but I think this one really does.

I will say however that I don't think she was as well written as a mother as books are nowadays. She didn't handle her son with the maturity that she should have shown.

Just finished what was evidently a reread of this. Did not realize I had read it before. I remembered nothing of it. It was a pleasant enough read. The hero and heroine did not spend much time together.

What is it with authors dropping the ball on the ending of books?

This is another in my quest to read the first 100 HPs. This one is numbered 54. It was published in 1972 and is the 42nd one I have read so far. It takes place in the Camargue region of France. It mostly dealt with miscommunication. I'm going to blame the hero just a little bit more here. Seriously she asked him 4 or 5 times when he was going to marry the other woman and he never told her he wasn't. And even though she (the OW) was crippled and lived with his family, he clearly had broken up with her years ago. He kinda deserved all the angst he went through. I liked the descriptions of the local area. I liked the heroine generally. I felt that she had a fairly decent reason for the secret baby although not a whole lot of reason to continue the secret. She had come to France to ask for money to take her child to a warmer climate for his health and she managed to bring an oddly extensive wardrobe with her.

So I liked it but the author totally failed on the ending. The OW brought them together. Going out of her way to go to another country and tell the heroine that the hero had been injured nearly unto death by a bull. Sort of I don't want him and now you can't have him because he's dying, ha ha. So the heroine goes running to his side. The second in a row I've read where the heroine makes the final running. There were a couple of things left hanging that I would have liked some clarity on.

Still on the whole worth the read.

Another one in my quest to read the first 100 HPs. This one is numbered 23 and was published in 1969. Decent enough book. The hero and the heroine didn't spend a lot of time together but it was enough to be believable. What was unbelievable was how little the hero seemed to be affected by the death of his only son. There were like two sentences. The heroine's sister was a bit of a little shit but I've read worse. The dynamic between the hero and heroine was nice. He was super rich and arrogant and she didn't treat him like he was all that. That shocked him into seeing her and then falling in love with her. The ending was believable but rather quick. We could have had a bit more in the I love you phase at the end.

Finally read this book that everyone else seems to have already read. Do you all feel that storylines were wider ranging back in the "old days?" This story was written back in 1976. First it seems that it was possible to be alpha without being a billionaire then. Which IRL is totally true. And also stories about adultery? Just seems like romance readers have no tolerance for even a hint of that is stories nowadays. I'm not saying I'm a fan of adultery IRL but I don't mind reading a well crafted story where these issues are explored. I will say that I'm enough of a romantic that I prefer that the person being cheated on is not my heroine but if it's a well crafted thoughtfully presented story with a HEA of course, I am willing to read it.

This one was pretty well crafted I think. after all they didn't actually do the deed although the intent was definitely there and the hero was in such a hopeless marriage that it was no wonder he needed something else. I loved that he was so in love with her the whole time.

So anyway I really enjoy Anne Mather which is just as well since she has such a huge backlist. Plenty to read and enjoy!

Maybe a high 3 stars. The hero could have been more dominant and sure of himself. The author tried to make him so but missed the mark for me at least. The heroine was marrying for money and position. That was realistic I think for the daughter of the help to take the chance to move up. She was only 18. When the book started. Later after she comes out to Brazil the hero blows pretty hot and cold. There was sufficient explanation at the end so that was a plus.

Another one down on the first 100 quest. This one is numbered 17 and was published in 1972. This one was about step siblings falling in love. There was a pretty big age gap so they never lived together as siblings. She wants to get away from home so her step mom sends her to live with Adam in London and take a secretarial course. He is totally in love with an actress who wants him to move his doctor practice to a more swanky location and stop treating poor people before she will marry him. But he falls in love with the step sister and dumps her. This story was somewhat uneven in that he sort of blew hot and cold. And weirdly when the step mom finds out about their relationship she has a cow. Not because of the age factor or even the squick factor but because she is jealous of the heroine for having a more important part in her sons life than she does.

Still not the worst of the first 100 I've read.

And just because I've got to say this...Goodreads will no longer let me choose what day I read this. The only option which works is "set to today". Grrrr

Middle of the road story about a woman who cheats on her boyfriend with his brother and then marries the original guy. She was not an admiral heroine at all. She blames the hero for basically the whole debacle when really if she had had the backbone to talk to him after the cheating they probably would have worked the whole thing out six years ago. Still it was readable.

Another one down on my quest to read the first 100 HPs. This one is numbered 3 and was written in 1970. It took place in Portugal so it had that going for it. But there really wasn't much flavor of Portugal. It wasn't one of those that almost qualify as travel guides.

This thing was all messed up and not in a good way. The plotting made virtually no sense at all. The heroine was a ninny. The hero told her he was going to keep her on his estate to make her pay! And then went off and left her for days. Why didn't she just walk off to the town and catch a ride to the nearest train station? Conversations didn't quite make sense. And the hero and heroine spent almost no time together.


The thing I liked best was the description of the clothing. It was all so hip for the late 60s/early 70s. I felt like I had seen all the clothing on Laugh-in back in the day.

Fun little romance. There was a large age difference which I wish had been addressed in a meaningful way but that was the style back then (1970). She was quite the insightful young woman and just went into the hero's household and fixed everyone right up. I wish they had spent a bit more time together but that was the way romances were written back in the day. There was a nice feel for the Caribbean islands and I kept flashing on the devastation going on there now which made me sad.

Another for the first 100 HP quest. This one is numbered 86.
Here again I remember reading this back in the day. The heroine is in a terribly unhappy marriage which she was blackmailed into. They go to Portugal to visit the husband's childhood friend. The story is quite gothic in feel and unlike modern HPs the heroine actually had pretty depressing sex with the horrible husband, no virgin widows here. Off page and before the story starts though if you're wondering.

The hero falls for her unwillingly of course.

I really recommend this one to lovers of vintage HPs.

This was pretty good. I felt that we didn't get enough of an idea of what the hero really felt about the heroine. There weren't a lot of scenes of them together and communicating in any meaningful way. The ending was rather quick and I felt that more explaining could have been done. Still there were some nice angsty bits and it kept me entertained.

I'm trying to find and read the first 100 Harlequin Presents. This is book #41. It was originally published in 1969 and the HP edition is from 1974. So this was a fairly old fashioned story. There was very much an element of good girls don't sleep with any man before marriage. The hero was a world renowned musician, think Tom Jones maybe. He had side burns and leisure suits with skinny legged slacks. So basically he falls for this good girl who he eventually learns to love. How much is because she won't put out I don't know. It was well written and moved along pretty quickly. Some of these old HPs are as slow as molasses but this one wasn't.

You know I wonder if Anne Mather ever had children. Between this and another book of hers that I read recently I've got to believe the answer is no. Here the heroine is so afraid that the hero will find out that she is pregnant that she doesn't want to take care of her son who is in the hospital with a bunch of broken bones and is going to need a bunch of after care. And I know, he's her stepson but she has been his mother since he was 3 years old. She married and stayed married for his sake. Don't tell me that she is not his mother. In the other book it was the hero who felt only a "lingering responsibility" for his 23 year old son. WTF?

Well anyway, I didn't care much for the heroine of this book. She was basically an idiot for keeping her pregnancy secret. And then when he did find out, she refused to let him be any part of the process even though he told her he loved her. Meh.

I'm giving this 5 holy crap on a cracker stars. It probably was really a one or two star read in the real world. There was a whole heaping helping of WTF in this one. I can see where this story line could work and be pretty angsty but it was dealt with very oddly here. He knew from the time he was 20 and she was 5 that they weren't siblings but she didn't and fell in love with him anyway. It was explained off as her soul must have known. Or she could just be very mixed up and need some serious help. You decide. He should have told her years ago or even at anytime before the last 20 pages of this book. Oh well. Worth the read for vintage HP fans if you like the crazy.

That was different. He seduced her when she was 27 and he was 18. The story starts 10 years later when as part of his job he finds her after she has been in seclusion for 11 years or so. She was a famous film actress at the time they met years ago. So anyway, now he's all grown up and the passion between them is still there. A different premise that was well written although there was potential for more angst had their affair been found out back then but it wasn't. Still plenty of emotion. The ending was a bit deus ex machina and abrupt but it wasn't horrible.

All in all a fun read and extra points for being different.

Now about that odd cover....

This was only so so. Something about it felt light, like it was written on the surface or too quickly or something. The heroine was older than the hero which is usually a favorite trope of mine but here it really seemed like the hero was too young or something. There was a lot of POV from the hero which I usually love but somehow it didn't work for me here. Another problem I have is that I don't think the author ever had kids. The reactions of the heroine after her child was injured overseas and had to have a serious operation were just totally off.

So meh.

Bucket loads of cheating in this one. This book would have made more sense back in the 70s when DNA tests weren't available. It was just stupid now that for 10 years neither of these 2 idiots insisted on a paternity test. I could have bought it if it had only been a year or two since maybe you could be an idiot for that long. But the rest of the book was silly too. The hero didn't divorce his supposedly cheating wife for 10 years but just put her up in an apartment and proceeded to cheat on her for that amount of time. Plus the infamous calling a 10 year old girl a bitch. I must have been bored to stick with it. Or maybe I was just watching a train wreck.

I'm giving this three stars for a couple of reasons. First it was well written after all it is Anne Mather so no complaints there. Second the story line is different. Kudos to the author for choosing to tell a story that is not so PC. The hero and the heroine are committing adultery. The hero is sort of a douche for not getting out of his marriage earlier, especially once he fell for the heroine. The story line about the heroine looking for her birth father was unnecessary and felt like filler. Still a decent read if you can get past the cheating.

3-1/2 stars. The heroine was a bit of a wuss but this was a meaty older HP. Two brothers and one girl. One brother is older than the heroine and one is younger and because they grew up together and the heroine was 5 years older than the hero the age difference really was a big factor. There were some unexpected twists and turns and all in all I enjoyed it. I didn't like how the heroine treated her son for most of the book though. Even though she was suffering through a bunch of stress she shouldn't have taken it out on her 7 year old. The hero was a nice guy caught in a bad situation and he did the best he could.

Good read.

So I know I marked it adultery but it was really an almost situation. They meet at his sister's wedding and can't seem to stay apart. It was a pretty instant thing. Real readable and you didn't hate him too bad. It all ended in a pretty predictable but happy way in the end.

Pretty good, pretty angsty. It fits the bill if you are looking for a book where he really done her wrong in the past and continues to treat her like crap when they meet again 12 years later. But of course he can't stay away from her and you know that if she had come near him at any time in the last 12 years the exact same thing would have happened. He was a moth to her flame and always had been.

Well written. Vintage Anne Mather really can't be beat.

This was just okay. It was one of those where I got disgusted because of the lack of honesty on the part of the hero and the lack of trust on the part of the heroine. It did have a deliciously evil mother-in-law though so that's a point in its favor. :-)

Decent. I would have enjoyed it a bit better if the situation where he despises her because he thinks she is his father's mistress was more drawn out. But instead he fell for her pretty quickly. She had some interesting back story. I do get tire of all these Harley heroines who turn down bequests though. Come on be sensible, especially considering it wasn't really taking that much away from the family members. It was just small beans to them and she had been friends with the old man for years. He wanted her to have it. It's sort of ungrateful and unnecessarily prideful to turn it down.