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Rules of the Game
"I'm glad we both know the score."
Jay Courtland was used to playing the game of love with sophisticated women who followed the rules - no attachments, no commitments, no cheating. He was not used to the Vanessas of the world.
Yet when he mistook Vanessa for her more glamorous cousin, she reluctantly continued the deception. She was twenty-two years old, had never had a lover and knew she'd never again meet a man who made her feel the way Jay could.
So she prayed for a little beginner's luck and took the chance that Jay would eventually see her - and want her - for what she really was...and not as a poor substitute for Nadia.
Jay Courtland was used to playing the game of love with sophisticated women who followed the rules - no attachments, no commitments, no cheating. He was not used to the Vanessas of the world.
Yet when he mistook Vanessa for her more glamorous cousin, she reluctantly continued the deception. She was twenty-two years old, had never had a lover and knew she'd never again meet a man who made her feel the way Jay could.
So she prayed for a little beginner's luck and took the chance that Jay would eventually see her - and want her - for what she really was...and not as a poor substitute for Nadia.
Paperback
Published December 1, 1984
About the author
Penny Jordan
1,144 books676 followersPenelope Jones Halsall
aka Caroline Courtney, Annie Groves, Lydia Hitchcock, Melinda Wright
Penelope "Penny" Jones was born on November 24, 1946 at about seven pounds in a nursing home in Preston, Lancashire, England. She was the first child of Anthony Winn Jones, an engineer, who died at 85, and his wife Margaret Louise Groves Jones. She has a brother, Anthony, and a sister, Prudence "Pru".
She had been a keen reader from the childhood - her mother used to leave her in the children's section of their local library whilst she changed her father's library books. She was a storyteller long before she began to write romantic fiction. At the age of eight, she was creating serialized bedtime stories, featuring make-believe adventures, for her younger sister Prue, who was always the heroine. At eleven, she fell in love with Mills & Boon, and with their heroes. In those days the books could only be obtained via private lending libraries, and she quickly became a devoted fan; she was thrilled to bits when the books went on full sale in shops and she could have them for keeps.
Penny left grammar school in Rochdale with O-Levels in English Language, English Literature and Geography. She first discovered Mills & Boon books, via a girl she worked with. She married Steve Halsall, an accountant and a "lovely man", who smoked and drank too heavily, and suffered oral cancer with bravery and dignity. Her husband bought her the small electric typewriter on which she typed her first novels, at a time when he could ill afford it. He died at the beginning of 21st century.
She earned a living as a writer since the 1970s when, as a shorthand typist, she entered a competition run by the Romantic Novelists' Association. Although she didn't win, Penny found an agent who was looking for a new Georgette Heyer. She published four regency novels as Caroline Courtney, before changing her nom de plume to Melinda Wright for three air-hostess romps and then she wrote two thrillers as Lydia Hitchcock. Soon after that, Mills and Boon accepted her first novel for them, Falcon's Prey as Penny Jordan. However, for her more historical romance novels, she adopted her mother's maiden-name to become Annie Groves. Almost 70 of her 167 Mills and Boon novels have been sold worldwide.
Penny Halsall lived in a neo-Georgian house in Nantwich, Cheshire, with her Alsatian Sheba and cat Posh. She worked from home, in her kitchen, surrounded by her pets, and welcomed interruptions from her friends and family.
aka Caroline Courtney, Annie Groves, Lydia Hitchcock, Melinda Wright
Penelope "Penny" Jones was born on November 24, 1946 at about seven pounds in a nursing home in Preston, Lancashire, England. She was the first child of Anthony Winn Jones, an engineer, who died at 85, and his wife Margaret Louise Groves Jones. She has a brother, Anthony, and a sister, Prudence "Pru".
She had been a keen reader from the childhood - her mother used to leave her in the children's section of their local library whilst she changed her father's library books. She was a storyteller long before she began to write romantic fiction. At the age of eight, she was creating serialized bedtime stories, featuring make-believe adventures, for her younger sister Prue, who was always the heroine. At eleven, she fell in love with Mills & Boon, and with their heroes. In those days the books could only be obtained via private lending libraries, and she quickly became a devoted fan; she was thrilled to bits when the books went on full sale in shops and she could have them for keeps.
Penny left grammar school in Rochdale with O-Levels in English Language, English Literature and Geography. She first discovered Mills & Boon books, via a girl she worked with. She married Steve Halsall, an accountant and a "lovely man", who smoked and drank too heavily, and suffered oral cancer with bravery and dignity. Her husband bought her the small electric typewriter on which she typed her first novels, at a time when he could ill afford it. He died at the beginning of 21st century.
She earned a living as a writer since the 1970s when, as a shorthand typist, she entered a competition run by the Romantic Novelists' Association. Although she didn't win, Penny found an agent who was looking for a new Georgette Heyer. She published four regency novels as Caroline Courtney, before changing her nom de plume to Melinda Wright for three air-hostess romps and then she wrote two thrillers as Lydia Hitchcock. Soon after that, Mills and Boon accepted her first novel for them, Falcon's Prey as Penny Jordan. However, for her more historical romance novels, she adopted her mother's maiden-name to become Annie Groves. Almost 70 of her 167 Mills and Boon novels have been sold worldwide.
Penny Halsall lived in a neo-Georgian house in Nantwich, Cheshire, with her Alsatian Sheba and cat Posh. She worked from home, in her kitchen, surrounded by her pets, and welcomed interruptions from her friends and family.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
November 4, 2015
Re Rules of the Game - this is truly a trainwreck with an avalanche mixed up in a cyclone. There is angst, there is drama and I am not sure whether the H or the h is the one to be most despaired of in this one.
I remember the first time I read this, I was really shocked that PJ (Island of the Dawn not withstanding), could write a book that pretty much turned my stomach. Unfortunately, I hadn't discovered the rosy glow of adult beverages yet and so only had Keebler cookies to console me- and they had no triple fudge giant turtle cookies at the time. It was tough roughing it through HPLandia back in the day.
The h meets the H at a local party where he mistakes her for her famous model cousin. The two ladies are very similar in appearance but different as night and day in personality. The h is a very nice, sweet innocent girl who has always been overshadowed by the cousin Nadia who is a total bimbo skank with a personality to match. The cousin is also really mean to the h and this causes the h to have a huge inferiority complex.
The H has just bought the local football team with an eye to making them a first division club, the h's brother wants the H's photography contract, (the h is a photographer too and works with him,) so he convinces the h to continue the pretense that she is her cousin. *It is always interesting how relatives are willing to pimp the h out in HPLandia.*
Anyhow, the H is very attracted and the h is attracted back and they are moving towards the big affair stage when Nadia shows up. Naturally the reprisal is huge, the H rips into the h, tells her she is dross to her cousin's gold and off the pair goes for fun and frolic and to rub the h's face in their very physical affair. The h goes catatonic - then she goes to Spain where she gets a new attitude and a new look. She is also romanced by the HP version of Ricardo Montalban, (back when he was hot,) but of course she is so in lurve with the H she can't respond.
Eventually she goes home and starts photographing the team, making a name and the start of a career for herself. She also dates one of the players who is on his last season and wouldn't mind having a WAG on his arm, especially when it is the new improved h. The H is massively jealous, thinking she might be sharing first times when she would not with him, so a few drunken assaults later and a lot of flashing the cousin around in the press and in front of the h, things finally come to a head when the H hosts a big ball to celebrate his newly restored country estate.
The h winds up alone with him and then she winds up in bed with him. The cousin comes in the next morning and humiliates her all over again. (The ick factor here was high, she and the h have it out in the same bedroom the cousin had vacated to the h the morning before - I was just hoping someone changed the sheets.) Then the H comes in, takes the cousin out of the room and then the big final scene commences.
The H confesses that he loves her, was using the cousin to sub for the h and he gets angry that she might hold that against him. (Hopefully he took a shower first, but I don't wanna know really). He wants to get married and she says yes and HEA.
None of the above can really describe the stomach churning horror of this one when you realize that, A) the h is in the same bed the cousin was in earlier that day -PJ makes a point of that-- and B) the cousin has slept with the h's brother too - and that was just too disgusting for words really. So technically if the statement that you are sleeping with everyone your partner has slept with, (a big 80's slogan to promote social disease awareness and protection,) is true, this whole story is one big cluster. Maybe they should have just had a big commune in the H's bed - apparently it was big enough.
The most horrendous thing of all is that the h WANTS to marry this guy, she can't get enough of him-- and that is why I don't know who to despair for more here - the H who is just a louse and will never be faithful and likes having cake and eating it, or the poor pathetic h who eagerly embraces her cousin's sloppy seconds.
Fortunately, there is only a marriage proposal at the end and not an actual wedding, so one could sorta hope that the h hits her head on the lintel while exiting the much-used bedroom, comes to her senses and RUNS - picking the footballer - which would be like picking Richie McCaw vs Richard Branson - and has a happy life with little footballers, photography and a man who HASN'T spent most of a summer on the floor, against the wall and in bed with her look-alike cousin.
I remember the first time I read this, I was really shocked that PJ (Island of the Dawn not withstanding), could write a book that pretty much turned my stomach. Unfortunately, I hadn't discovered the rosy glow of adult beverages yet and so only had Keebler cookies to console me- and they had no triple fudge giant turtle cookies at the time. It was tough roughing it through HPLandia back in the day.
The h meets the H at a local party where he mistakes her for her famous model cousin. The two ladies are very similar in appearance but different as night and day in personality. The h is a very nice, sweet innocent girl who has always been overshadowed by the cousin Nadia who is a total bimbo skank with a personality to match. The cousin is also really mean to the h and this causes the h to have a huge inferiority complex.
The H has just bought the local football team with an eye to making them a first division club, the h's brother wants the H's photography contract, (the h is a photographer too and works with him,) so he convinces the h to continue the pretense that she is her cousin. *It is always interesting how relatives are willing to pimp the h out in HPLandia.*
Anyhow, the H is very attracted and the h is attracted back and they are moving towards the big affair stage when Nadia shows up. Naturally the reprisal is huge, the H rips into the h, tells her she is dross to her cousin's gold and off the pair goes for fun and frolic and to rub the h's face in their very physical affair. The h goes catatonic - then she goes to Spain where she gets a new attitude and a new look. She is also romanced by the HP version of Ricardo Montalban, (back when he was hot,) but of course she is so in lurve with the H she can't respond.
Eventually she goes home and starts photographing the team, making a name and the start of a career for herself. She also dates one of the players who is on his last season and wouldn't mind having a WAG on his arm, especially when it is the new improved h. The H is massively jealous, thinking she might be sharing first times when she would not with him, so a few drunken assaults later and a lot of flashing the cousin around in the press and in front of the h, things finally come to a head when the H hosts a big ball to celebrate his newly restored country estate.
The h winds up alone with him and then she winds up in bed with him. The cousin comes in the next morning and humiliates her all over again. (The ick factor here was high, she and the h have it out in the same bedroom the cousin had vacated to the h the morning before - I was just hoping someone changed the sheets.) Then the H comes in, takes the cousin out of the room and then the big final scene commences.
The H confesses that he loves her, was using the cousin to sub for the h and he gets angry that she might hold that against him. (Hopefully he took a shower first, but I don't wanna know really). He wants to get married and she says yes and HEA.
None of the above can really describe the stomach churning horror of this one when you realize that, A) the h is in the same bed the cousin was in earlier that day -PJ makes a point of that-- and B) the cousin has slept with the h's brother too - and that was just too disgusting for words really. So technically if the statement that you are sleeping with everyone your partner has slept with, (a big 80's slogan to promote social disease awareness and protection,) is true, this whole story is one big cluster. Maybe they should have just had a big commune in the H's bed - apparently it was big enough.
The most horrendous thing of all is that the h WANTS to marry this guy, she can't get enough of him-- and that is why I don't know who to despair for more here - the H who is just a louse and will never be faithful and likes having cake and eating it, or the poor pathetic h who eagerly embraces her cousin's sloppy seconds.
Fortunately, there is only a marriage proposal at the end and not an actual wedding, so one could sorta hope that the h hits her head on the lintel while exiting the much-used bedroom, comes to her senses and RUNS - picking the footballer - which would be like picking Richie McCaw vs Richard Branson - and has a happy life with little footballers, photography and a man who HASN'T spent most of a summer on the floor, against the wall and in bed with her look-alike cousin.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 8, 2017
Reviewer math - 5 star trainwreck + 1 star characters for an average of 3 stars.
This isn't one I'll soon forget because the hero is so very, very awful. He is a bully from start to finish. He treats the heroine like crap. He treats her lookalike cousin like crap. He doesn't grovel or even see what he's done wrong. He the worst.
The heroine is doormat with emphasis on mat. She lies that she is her model cousin because she is too tongue-tied with lust to tell the hero who she really is. She then keeps lying at the request of her weak-willed brother. She falls in love with the "hero" who pulls her bathing suit down because he wants a nudie shot. (Causing the heroine to faint form the trauma) She puts up the with hero's public belittling, his whoring around with her cousin, and she offers her virginity on a platter. She needs her head examined.
The heroine's brother is a weak-willed perv who is in love with his cousin who looks just like his sister. He is willing to take nudie shots of his sister. Anne Mather, Penny Jordan called and took one of your characters.
The heroine's cousin is mean for no reason and is a perfect match for the bully hero. Hopefully, she'll be back and break up the wedding so she can be with her kindred spirit.
This story is awful - and I read every word and had a great time with my mouth dropping open every few pages.
Keep this one on the back burner for when you need a trainwreck to get the blood moving.
This isn't one I'll soon forget because the hero is so very, very awful. He is a bully from start to finish. He treats the heroine like crap. He treats her lookalike cousin like crap. He doesn't grovel or even see what he's done wrong. He the worst.
The heroine is doormat with emphasis on mat. She lies that she is her model cousin because she is too tongue-tied with lust to tell the hero who she really is. She then keeps lying at the request of her weak-willed brother. She falls in love with the "hero" who pulls her bathing suit down because he wants a nudie shot. (Causing the heroine to faint form the trauma) She puts up the with hero's public belittling, his whoring around with her cousin, and she offers her virginity on a platter. She needs her head examined.
The heroine's brother is a weak-willed perv who is in love with his cousin who looks just like his sister. He is willing to take nudie shots of his sister. Anne Mather, Penny Jordan called and took one of your characters.
The heroine's cousin is mean for no reason and is a perfect match for the bully hero. Hopefully, she'll be back and break up the wedding so she can be with her kindred spirit.
This story is awful - and I read every word and had a great time with my mouth dropping open every few pages.
Keep this one on the back burner for when you need a trainwreck to get the blood moving.
June 11, 2021
I really liked this mainly because I believed in Jay's love for Vanessa and because it's so angsty. Suffering is the name of the game.
Former footballer-turned-entrepreneur Jay fought hard to resist the charms of sweet and virginal photographer Vanessa—even to the point of using her lookalike cousin as a stand in! What the hell? It's a dirty trick, but desperate times call for desperate measures. The move backfired on Jay because, of course, it was really Vanessa he'd wanted all along, causing them both to suffer. And you know what? I bought it. I believed an emotionally-stunted adult male could be so afraid of loving that he'd strike out in the way he did. It's a bit irrational, but made sense in light of Jay's upbringing.
I can see why the plot of this book would piss off some readers but, for me, the story worked because Jay and Vanessa weren't a couple yet (they weren't lovers or in a relationship) before he hooked up with the other woman. They went out on one date. If they had been lovers already, the sh*t would have hit the fan and I would have been the first one in line to castrate Jay for Vanessa. I think whether one considers Jay's behavior as cheating will make or break this book for you, and whether one sympathizes with the protagonists.
Jay pretended Vanessa didn't affect him, but the man was crazy about her (which the author demonstrated through his behavior and without his point of view). And while Vanessa did deceive Jay she didn't set out to do so initially. Her reasons to continue the charade were both selfish and benevolent. Either way, I felt Vanessa suffered for her deception big time: she had to watch the man she loved date her cousin. Ouch! In fact, they both suffered because of poor decisions which made the HEA, when it finally arrived, so satisfying.
A classic rake-and-virgin romance you will either love or hate!
Former footballer-turned-entrepreneur Jay fought hard to resist the charms of sweet and virginal photographer Vanessa—even to the point of using her lookalike cousin as a stand in! What the hell? It's a dirty trick, but desperate times call for desperate measures. The move backfired on Jay because, of course, it was really Vanessa he'd wanted all along, causing them both to suffer. And you know what? I bought it. I believed an emotionally-stunted adult male could be so afraid of loving that he'd strike out in the way he did. It's a bit irrational, but made sense in light of Jay's upbringing.
I can see why the plot of this book would piss off some readers but, for me, the story worked because Jay and Vanessa weren't a couple yet (they weren't lovers or in a relationship) before he hooked up with the other woman. They went out on one date. If they had been lovers already, the sh*t would have hit the fan and I would have been the first one in line to castrate Jay for Vanessa. I think whether one considers Jay's behavior as cheating will make or break this book for you, and whether one sympathizes with the protagonists.
Jay pretended Vanessa didn't affect him, but the man was crazy about her (which the author demonstrated through his behavior and without his point of view). And while Vanessa did deceive Jay she didn't set out to do so initially. Her reasons to continue the charade were both selfish and benevolent. Either way, I felt Vanessa suffered for her deception big time: she had to watch the man she loved date her cousin. Ouch! In fact, they both suffered because of poor decisions which made the HEA, when it finally arrived, so satisfying.
A classic rake-and-virgin romance you will either love or hate!
October 1, 2021
(After throwing up)
This sad excuse of a man though the heroine was her more experienced and slutty model cousin, when he found out she was not he went in bed for months with her bitch slut cousin then had the gall to tell the heroine that he used her cousin as a substitute for her because she was more experienced and didn’t want commitment while the heroine was in love and wanted commitment.
Sorry, where is the romance here?
That the hero had sex with ow as long as he was tired and then went back to the heroine and she was so happy because she was not a substitute for the cousin but the opposite???
Are we completely crazy?
At the end I hoped that the hero didn’t have sex with ow and only pretended to but no he admitted ow without compunction.
I fainted then I vomited aaaaaand now I’m going to drink.
Badly.
Strongly not recommended.
Please avoid it and save your time.
How I wish I never read it.
This sad excuse of a man though the heroine was her more experienced and slutty model cousin, when he found out she was not he went in bed for months with her bitch slut cousin then had the gall to tell the heroine that he used her cousin as a substitute for her because she was more experienced and didn’t want commitment while the heroine was in love and wanted commitment.
Sorry, where is the romance here?
That the hero had sex with ow as long as he was tired and then went back to the heroine and she was so happy because she was not a substitute for the cousin but the opposite???
Are we completely crazy?
At the end I hoped that the hero didn’t have sex with ow and only pretended to but no he admitted ow without compunction.
I fainted then I vomited aaaaaand now I’m going to drink.
Badly.
Strongly not recommended.
Please avoid it and save your time.
How I wish I never read it.
avoid
July 17, 2017Ummm....nope!
(Heroine needs an intervention. The fact that he chose the cousin over her and rubbed it on her face was more than enough to fall OUT of love. Honey let's get that fashionable brain transplant for you like now. And the hero, really? You use the cousin for a sub even though the heroine was WILLING to go to bed with you? that does NOT make ANY sense WHATSOEVER! I'll give you my version. He really meant it when he said she's a cheaper version of the cousin. Kept screwing the cousin because that's what he wanted, but then he got bored and realised a) heroine is a virgin, b) she is ACTUALLY sweet not a skank like the cousin and c) she is the cousin's lookalike. So in truth, he was using HER as a better substitute of the cousin and since she's a doormat it'll give him future opportunities to cheat on her and get forgiven REALLY EASILY!)
(Heroine needs an intervention. The fact that he chose the cousin over her and rubbed it on her face was more than enough to fall OUT of love. Honey let's get that fashionable brain transplant for you like now. And the hero, really? You use the cousin for a sub even though the heroine was WILLING to go to bed with you? that does NOT make ANY sense WHATSOEVER! I'll give you my version. He really meant it when he said she's a cheaper version of the cousin. Kept screwing the cousin because that's what he wanted, but then he got bored and realised a) heroine is a virgin, b) she is ACTUALLY sweet not a skank like the cousin and c) she is the cousin's lookalike. So in truth, he was using HER as a better substitute of the cousin and since she's a doormat it'll give him future opportunities to cheat on her and get forgiven REALLY EASILY!)
May 16, 2014
One of the worst books I have ever read! Vanessa was a complete and utter doormat and even tho I hated Jay I despised Vanessa more for being so pathetic I mean how could she love a man who treated her like dirt and was having it off with her cousin?? This book just pissed me off and I seriously wished both the main leads would jump off a cliff. Truly awful book.
October 31, 2021
"Rules of the Game" is the story of Vanessa and Jay.
EWWW NO.
Heroine is a photographer, living under the shadow of her lookalike model cousin. She mistakes the hero, a famous sportsman for a nude model- and he assumes she is her cousin. Circumstances lead to a charade, where she pretends to be her slutty cousin- only for a horrifying scene where the hero strips her in a photoshoot without her consent and she faints. Next, the catty cousin shows up, and the hero confesses she's been a substitute all along. Anyways, loads of drama later, the heroine seemingly gains confidence only for the hero to verbally abuse her and try to have sex with her multiple times- and she gives in every one of those times because she loves him? This chaotic mess ended thankfully and now my brain needs to be bleached. The cousin needed to be slapped, the hero pushed into a ditch and the heroine shaken. Gross and NO- I HATE THAT THE HERO SLEPT WITH THE COUSIN AND COMPARED THEM BOTH. Have some self respect heroine!
Unsafe
1/5
EWWW NO.
Heroine is a photographer, living under the shadow of her lookalike model cousin. She mistakes the hero, a famous sportsman for a nude model- and he assumes she is her cousin. Circumstances lead to a charade, where she pretends to be her slutty cousin- only for a horrifying scene where the hero strips her in a photoshoot without her consent and she faints. Next, the catty cousin shows up, and the hero confesses she's been a substitute all along. Anyways, loads of drama later, the heroine seemingly gains confidence only for the hero to verbally abuse her and try to have sex with her multiple times- and she gives in every one of those times because she loves him? This chaotic mess ended thankfully and now my brain needs to be bleached. The cousin needed to be slapped, the hero pushed into a ditch and the heroine shaken. Gross and NO- I HATE THAT THE HERO SLEPT WITH THE COUSIN AND COMPARED THEM BOTH. Have some self respect heroine!
Unsafe
1/5
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 2, 2012
There is no way I can believe in this HEA. It felt too much like FORSS!! And it really is a rubber necker!!
So she pretended to be her glamorous, model free-to-anyone cousin – albeit reluctantly and he paid her back for that tenfold!! When he discovered that she really was as sweet and innocent as she truly looked he tore her down to size. She runs off to Spain for a holiday and meets Roberto whom she should have taken up w/ - come on REBOUND!! I didn’t think there was any chemistry b/w her and the other interested guy, but I liked Roberto. He would have been more sizzling and deserving of her, besides he helped to remake it, right? I understood why she returned and even finished her job, but there was no way in heck that she needed to cow toe to this Jack-a-Napes.
It would seem Mr. Jack-a-Napes had wanted Nadi the cousin more and of course he gets her and rubs it in Vanessa’s face….repeatedly. Oh, but then he gets jealous if he thinks Vanessa is divesting herself of certain things w/ another guy. He practically forces himself on Vanessa and then tells her that she KNEW he was drunk and that is to excuse it all!
Jay really didn’t like Vanessa’s dishonesty. I suppose it was like offering some candy to a baby and then taking it away from him. Jay threw a temper tantrum!! But come on Jay can be accused of dishonesty as well. Hello pot! If what Jay says is true later, why were his eyes always cold when looking at Vanessa? Also if Jay knows that Vanessa is a forever kind of gal then why in the world would he think she would be giving it up to others and then since she didn’t it means she only wants him – he who won’t give her the HEA?
Jay wanted to make love to Nadia, the cousin, and he didn’t use the other word either. All these other Hs always act like there is a difference. Then of course he wants to make love to Vanessa – so where is the difference? Sue from Spain sets up a defense for Jack-a-Napes Jay and it’s reasonable to boot, but….I wished very much that Roberto was on the scene and gave jay a run for his money. He so deserved it. This deserves a rewrite!
Jay wants to know what kind of man Vanessa thinks he is and of course she is honest - the kind that makes love to one woman because she is a substitute for another. So he got to have Nadia whom he wanted all along and then marry the untried Vanessa! I wonder if he would have if he discovered she would have had someone to compare him with? Then clever Jack-a-Napes sugar coats it all w/ some ILYs and it’s all done! Jay got his cake and he got to eat it too, Nadia gets to claim first rights to the hubby to be and Vanessa got stuck w/ sloppy seconds…..again!!! And the quote that sums up Vanessa’s entire stand is “When was a woman in love ever wise?”
So she pretended to be her glamorous, model free-to-anyone cousin – albeit reluctantly and he paid her back for that tenfold!! When he discovered that she really was as sweet and innocent as she truly looked he tore her down to size. She runs off to Spain for a holiday and meets Roberto whom she should have taken up w/ - come on REBOUND!! I didn’t think there was any chemistry b/w her and the other interested guy, but I liked Roberto. He would have been more sizzling and deserving of her, besides he helped to remake it, right? I understood why she returned and even finished her job, but there was no way in heck that she needed to cow toe to this Jack-a-Napes.
It would seem Mr. Jack-a-Napes had wanted Nadi the cousin more and of course he gets her and rubs it in Vanessa’s face….repeatedly. Oh, but then he gets jealous if he thinks Vanessa is divesting herself of certain things w/ another guy. He practically forces himself on Vanessa and then tells her that she KNEW he was drunk and that is to excuse it all!
Jay really didn’t like Vanessa’s dishonesty. I suppose it was like offering some candy to a baby and then taking it away from him. Jay threw a temper tantrum!! But come on Jay can be accused of dishonesty as well. Hello pot! If what Jay says is true later, why were his eyes always cold when looking at Vanessa? Also if Jay knows that Vanessa is a forever kind of gal then why in the world would he think she would be giving it up to others and then since she didn’t it means she only wants him – he who won’t give her the HEA?
Jay wanted to make love to Nadia, the cousin, and he didn’t use the other word either. All these other Hs always act like there is a difference. Then of course he wants to make love to Vanessa – so where is the difference? Sue from Spain sets up a defense for Jack-a-Napes Jay and it’s reasonable to boot, but….I wished very much that Roberto was on the scene and gave jay a run for his money. He so deserved it. This deserves a rewrite!
Jay wants to know what kind of man Vanessa thinks he is and of course she is honest - the kind that makes love to one woman because she is a substitute for another. So he got to have Nadia whom he wanted all along and then marry the untried Vanessa! I wonder if he would have if he discovered she would have had someone to compare him with? Then clever Jack-a-Napes sugar coats it all w/ some ILYs and it’s all done! Jay got his cake and he got to eat it too, Nadia gets to claim first rights to the hubby to be and Vanessa got stuck w/ sloppy seconds…..again!!! And the quote that sums up Vanessa’s entire stand is “When was a woman in love ever wise?”
July 13, 2016
Horrible heroine, deceiving the hero. If there's one thing I hate more than anything, it's deception (from the heroine's side - as y'all know, I'm okay with the H doing pretty much anything - EXCEPT THIS HERO, I'LL TALK ABOUT IT IN THE NEXT PARAGRAPH.) And yes, I admit to having openly shameless double standards.
Equally horrid hero, because
The book would have gotten a 1 star just because of the heroine. But with the hero too, I want to give it a 0 star. Unfortunately GR DOESN'T HAVE A 0 STAR OPTION.
Equally horrid hero, because
The book would have gotten a 1 star just because of the heroine. But with the hero too, I want to give it a 0 star. Unfortunately GR DOESN'T HAVE A 0 STAR OPTION.
September 23, 2018
“He turned to Vanessa one last time his eyes hard, yellow as a tiger’s, flat and unforgiving. ‘If there’s one thing I detest it’s dishonesty, and I think you’re the most cravenly dishonest person I’ve ever met. Now that I’ve seen you together, I think I must have been blind. You’re very much the dross aren’t you Vanessa?’ he said with deliberate cruelty as he stepped through the door. ‘Very much a pale imitation of the real thing.”
He is OTT * OTT cruel. You won’t believe me when I’d say this time I didn’t fall in love with H. 🙈
“Jay I’m not Nadia,’ she reminded him, trying to evade the lean fingers gripping her soft flesh.
(...)
‘No, you’re not,’ he agreed, ‘but you look like her.”
Arrgghhhhhhh. He was awful.
“Take it off,’ Jay repeated with quiet savagery, ‘and then kiss me the way you did him.’
It was as though she possessed no will of her own.”
Come on Vanessa! 🙄
“Meaning that Marsden hasn’t made love to you?’ he queried softly. ‘Meaning that you’re still hoping I’m going to be the one to ...’ He moved away from her so abruptly that her body shivered in shocked recognition of his rejection.”
Even if I had been dying because of his love, I wouldn’t forgiven him after this words. Aşkımdan ince hastalığa tutulsam yüzüne bakmam piç kurusunun. (Sorry, I have to express myself in my language)
“But I thought you wanted me,’ Vanessa told him fiercely. ‘I knew who you thought I was, but I thought you wanted me.’
‘You knew how I felt about permanent commitments. Surely you knew I’d fight against anything like that. Is it so hard to understand?”
So, it is perfectly fair to date and have sex with Nadia? It doesn’t matter if it was brief and unsuccessful, whatever that means. 🙄
“it’s the old story of the reformed rake. Now that I’ve seen the light, I’m determined to make you see it as well. I know I’ve hurt you Vanessa, I can’t even pretend that it wasn’t deliberate, but I had to hold you at an arm’s length”
I hated it. I HATED HIM. But I cannot stop reading. It was sooo angsty. A real train wreck! That’s why 5 stars.
Edit : Thanks to boogenhagen, I've realised H' s relationship with OW was quite steamy. I hated H more. So now 3 stars and just due to the respect for an angsty trainwrecky story.
He is OTT * OTT cruel. You won’t believe me when I’d say this time I didn’t fall in love with H. 🙈
“Jay I’m not Nadia,’ she reminded him, trying to evade the lean fingers gripping her soft flesh.
(...)
‘No, you’re not,’ he agreed, ‘but you look like her.”
Arrgghhhhhhh. He was awful.
“Take it off,’ Jay repeated with quiet savagery, ‘and then kiss me the way you did him.’
It was as though she possessed no will of her own.”
Come on Vanessa! 🙄
“Meaning that Marsden hasn’t made love to you?’ he queried softly. ‘Meaning that you’re still hoping I’m going to be the one to ...’ He moved away from her so abruptly that her body shivered in shocked recognition of his rejection.”
Even if I had been dying because of his love, I wouldn’t forgiven him after this words. Aşkımdan ince hastalığa tutulsam yüzüne bakmam piç kurusunun. (Sorry, I have to express myself in my language)
“But I thought you wanted me,’ Vanessa told him fiercely. ‘I knew who you thought I was, but I thought you wanted me.’
‘You knew how I felt about permanent commitments. Surely you knew I’d fight against anything like that. Is it so hard to understand?”
So, it is perfectly fair to date and have sex with Nadia? It doesn’t matter if it was brief and unsuccessful, whatever that means. 🙄
“it’s the old story of the reformed rake. Now that I’ve seen the light, I’m determined to make you see it as well. I know I’ve hurt you Vanessa, I can’t even pretend that it wasn’t deliberate, but I had to hold you at an arm’s length”
I hated it. I HATED HIM. But I cannot stop reading. It was sooo angsty. A real train wreck! That’s why 5 stars.
Edit : Thanks to boogenhagen, I've realised H' s relationship with OW was quite steamy. I hated H more. So now 3 stars and just due to the respect for an angsty trainwrecky story.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 18, 2012
Alright, since there's no summary I'll give a brief description.
The heroine is a photographer working with her brother. The hero is an ex-football star guy now working as a couch or team owner or whatever he is.
He meets the heroine and thinks she's her cousin, who is a model.
He gets pissed off when he finds out the truth. The heroine is a virgin and LOVED him so much. Of course he immediately goes off with the cousin. Yes, they were together going at it like little rabbits for months. Actually for basically the whole book while the heroine just loved him from afar.
There was a moment where the cousin was missing and the hero decides to hunt her down and force sex on her because he knows she wants it. Despite the fact that she struggles a LOT when she finally gives in, he gets pissed because she's still a virgin, so she just wants him to take her virginity.
The guy was off his rocker and the heroine was a little martyr.
Of course eventually the cousin and the hero get in a fight and she leaves so the hero sexes up the heroine and in the morning the cousin comes back and is pissed because he only slept with the heroine as a replacement for the cousin.
The hero gets mad at the heroine for being mad at replacement sex. But when she finds out that NO, he was actually having replacement sex with the cousin the whole time...the whole time, it was okay and HEA.
The heroine is a photographer working with her brother. The hero is an ex-football star guy now working as a couch or team owner or whatever he is.
He meets the heroine and thinks she's her cousin, who is a model.
He gets pissed off when he finds out the truth. The heroine is a virgin and LOVED him so much. Of course he immediately goes off with the cousin. Yes, they were together going at it like little rabbits for months. Actually for basically the whole book while the heroine just loved him from afar.
There was a moment where the cousin was missing and the hero decides to hunt her down and force sex on her because he knows she wants it. Despite the fact that she struggles a LOT when she finally gives in, he gets pissed because she's still a virgin, so she just wants him to take her virginity.
The guy was off his rocker and the heroine was a little martyr.
Of course eventually the cousin and the hero get in a fight and she leaves so the hero sexes up the heroine and in the morning the cousin comes back and is pissed because he only slept with the heroine as a replacement for the cousin.
The hero gets mad at the heroine for being mad at replacement sex. But when she finds out that NO, he was actually having replacement sex with the cousin the whole time...the whole time, it was okay and HEA.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 26, 2021
Πιο κόπανος πεθαίνεις!
Ίσως η πιο ηλίθια ή απο τις ηλίθιες ever!
Πλοκή τραγική!Ξαδέρφη που ήταν ολόιδια με την ηρωίδα.. Η ξαδέρφη πήγε με τον αδερφό της ηρωίδας!!! Μετα με τη λεγεωνα των ξένων και στο τέλος σύναψε δεσμό και με τον κόπανο! Και το άλλο το ζώο το κατάπιε!Απορώ με τις βαθμολογίες !Σεβασμός αξιοπρεπεια και περηφανια μηδέν !
Ίσως η πιο ηλίθια ή απο τις ηλίθιες ever!
Πλοκή τραγική!Ξαδέρφη που ήταν ολόιδια με την ηρωίδα.. Η ξαδέρφη πήγε με τον αδερφό της ηρωίδας!!! Μετα με τη λεγεωνα των ξένων και στο τέλος σύναψε δεσμό και με τον κόπανο! Και το άλλο το ζώο το κατάπιε!Απορώ με τις βαθμολογίες !Σεβασμός αξιοπρεπεια και περηφανια μηδέν !
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 10, 2017
I liked this one, even though most hate it. It was angstyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy. However, her brother was NAS.TAY. Don't be lusting over your first cousin because she looks just. like. your. sister. I don't mind the cousin love, that doesn't bother me, it is the attraction to your sister that makes me cringe.
April 16, 2026
I should’ve trusted boogenhagen.
She’s never steered us wrong.
She’s never steered us wrong.
December 5, 2017
Finished this book in a day. It was really angsty and kinda nasty at times but I still liked it, I could not put it down.
The h is a small town girl and the H an ex pro footballer turned tycoon. The h has a cousin that looks exactly like her that is a somewhat famous promiscuous model that when they meet the H mistakes her for. The H treats her like trash when he thinks shes the OW, for him, once a slut always a slut, to the point I felt like he did not see her as a person even but just something you use just so you don’t have to use your hands. This was explained by the H upbringing, he was an orphan turned famous athlete and the women he met were shallow and superficial, and the H was oke with this because those type of women could not hurt him. I think the rules of his game was sex without feelings or respect, so not really a ONS because he did date the women but he dated women he basically disliked and judged.
When the OW comes back the H finds out about the deception and is understandably pissed and says some very mean words. The h is sad so she goes on a vacation to get her grove back, she does this and casually dates a guy while away and another athlete when she gets home. The H and OW are dating all over the place, especially in front of the h. The h is sad but holding it together and even gets some rough kisses and almost reluctant sex on an away game. She is mainly pissed though cause she doesn’t want to be a substitute for her sexy cousin.
Like 15 pages before the end of the book there is the big ball at the H house where the cousin OW acts like the lady of the manor. At the end of the party, purely coincidental the H and h talk and end up in bed together where he at last gets that virginity. The part I’m confused about is how intense the relationship was between the H and the OW, when ask about them making love he says: Briefly, and somewhat unsuccessfully because he kept thinking about the h. and he just kept dating the cousin because he did not believe he wanted commitment. So in his mind, physically he got the woman he wanted but in the end he realized that empty sex is just that, empty and not enough.
I liked this story very much and I didn’t even have to pretend that she wouldn’t be a alcoholic in 5 years because shes unhappy. Cause the H was an ass but he loved her and he messed up but asked for forgiveness and I think considering the change of lifestyle and house he bought he was settling down, even if he did not realize so at the time.
And hated the heroin’s family, the parents that allowed her to have an inferiority complex when it came to her cousin, the brother that pimped her out to the H and the OW, just eww. She was first cousins with the h´s brother and they had sex, and she looks identical to his sister, that’s just twisted.
The h is a small town girl and the H an ex pro footballer turned tycoon. The h has a cousin that looks exactly like her that is a somewhat famous promiscuous model that when they meet the H mistakes her for. The H treats her like trash when he thinks shes the OW, for him, once a slut always a slut, to the point I felt like he did not see her as a person even but just something you use just so you don’t have to use your hands. This was explained by the H upbringing, he was an orphan turned famous athlete and the women he met were shallow and superficial, and the H was oke with this because those type of women could not hurt him. I think the rules of his game was sex without feelings or respect, so not really a ONS because he did date the women but he dated women he basically disliked and judged.
When the OW comes back the H finds out about the deception and is understandably pissed and says some very mean words. The h is sad so she goes on a vacation to get her grove back, she does this and casually dates a guy while away and another athlete when she gets home. The H and OW are dating all over the place, especially in front of the h. The h is sad but holding it together and even gets some rough kisses and almost reluctant sex on an away game. She is mainly pissed though cause she doesn’t want to be a substitute for her sexy cousin.
Like 15 pages before the end of the book there is the big ball at the H house where the cousin OW acts like the lady of the manor. At the end of the party, purely coincidental the H and h talk and end up in bed together where he at last gets that virginity. The part I’m confused about is how intense the relationship was between the H and the OW, when ask about them making love he says: Briefly, and somewhat unsuccessfully because he kept thinking about the h. and he just kept dating the cousin because he did not believe he wanted commitment. So in his mind, physically he got the woman he wanted but in the end he realized that empty sex is just that, empty and not enough.
I liked this story very much and I didn’t even have to pretend that she wouldn’t be a alcoholic in 5 years because shes unhappy. Cause the H was an ass but he loved her and he messed up but asked for forgiveness and I think considering the change of lifestyle and house he bought he was settling down, even if he did not realize so at the time.
And hated the heroin’s family, the parents that allowed her to have an inferiority complex when it came to her cousin, the brother that pimped her out to the H and the OW, just eww. She was first cousins with the h´s brother and they had sex, and she looks identical to his sister, that’s just twisted.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 13, 2020
PJ is one one of my favorite author but this one did not convince ma at all.....
We have the heroine living in the shadow of a bombshell model cousin, totally unaware that she looks like her so low self esteem, angst and repressed anger.
As for the hero, a self made businessman with a painful past, jaded-cynical to the extreme but oh so strong and virile!
A mistaken identity trope that did not convey enough emotion except the usual insta-lust.
Not to mention that he actually was not faithful to the heroine and showed no concern or regret at all!
I really regret reading it....
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 28, 2023
Jeez, do yourself a favour and just don't. Batshit and queasy. And as for her brother photographing her, touching her shoulder, spanning her waist and verbally admiring how sexy she looks 🤮
2 stars because I finished it, albeit at skim. But in story terms no more than 1 and in romance terms zero.
2 stars because I finished it, albeit at skim. But in story terms no more than 1 and in romance terms zero.
Read
September 28, 2023Didn’t like. The whole story was off.
July 19, 2026
★½. I had high hopes for Rules of the Game because it contains several tropes that usually work for me. I love angst, & I enjoy other-woman drama when it is used to deepen the heroine’s pining & eventually force the hero to confront the pain he has caused. Unfortunately, I am shocked by how badly this story played out, particularly considering that it was written by Penny Jordan.
Worse, the rushed ending left a bad taste in my mouth. Jay does nothing meaningful to redeem himself, demonstrate that he has changed or suffer any real anguish over his behaviour. Vanessa simply gives in & forgives him despite all the disgusting things he has put her through.
And his behaviour truly is disgusting.
I do not object to OW drama in principle. I often enjoy it. Here, it goes far too far. Jay deliberately uses Vanessa’s cousin Nadia as a weapon to bludgeon Vanessa with. He does not care about Nadia either. He uses her for sex and says she is the sort of woman who deserves to be used.
He is an awful man. In real life, he'd be the kind of scumbag you'd never trust & might want to kill. By the end, I had also lost all respect for Vanessa because she made him face no consequences & forgave him at the drop of a hat, even though we are left to presume he had been sleeping with her cousin until the previous night.
The only reason I am not giving this the lowest possible rating is that Penny Jordan writes well enough to tell an engaging story. The book is fast paced & remains interesting for most of its length. Then I reached the ending & wondered what the hell I had just read. It was a disgrace.
I would not necessarily have minded Jay using Nadia if the situation had eventually been revealed as a performance—if, for example, he could not bear to touch her & had merely pretended to be involved with her to provoke Vanessa. Instead, he genuinely uses Nadia for her body, sleeps with her & does not care about her at all. I found that repugnant.
The heroine, Vanessa, is 22 & works as a photographer alongside her brother, Gavin. They are in a difficult financial position & desperately need a photography contract with Jay’s football organisation to keep paying the mortgage & avoid losing their family home.
Vanessa has always suffered from a severe inferiority complex. Although she is beautiful, she has grown up beside her cousin Nadia, a glamorous model who is even more striking & has spent Vanessa’s entire life putting her down. Nadia is sexually experienced, hard & openly promiscuous. To avoid appearing to compete with her, Vanessa wears oversized clothes, hides her appearance & generally keeps both her beauty & personality subdued.
Gavin is thrilled when Jay returns to their hometown. Jay is a successful footballer who has become a millionaire & now intends to rebuild the local football team, inject money & energy into the area & revive their quiet little community. Gavin sees the potential contract with Jay as the opportunity their business desperately needs.
Vanessa knows very little about football. At the beginning, she is waiting in the photography studio for a male model who is supposed to pose for a suntan-lotion advertisement. Apparently, she is expected to photograph him nude.
This was 1 of several elements that did not ring remotely true. On what planet would a completely nude photograph of a man have been used to advertise suntan lotion in the 1970s? Who was the intended audience—a pornography market? Even Page 3 spreads were supposed to be titillating through partial nudity, so where exactly would a fully nude male suntan advertisement have appeared?
The same problem applies to a later photography session involving the naked heroine modelling in a swimming pool with an entire football team. What respectable promotional campaign for a man rebuilding a football club & its public reputation would require that? These nude scenes exist purely to manufacture sexual drama. They feel unnecessary, contrived, disturbing & rather pathetic.
So anyway, Jay arrives while Vanessa is waiting for the male sunscreen model. She is immediately attracted to him. He is not what she expected: he is larger than life, forcefully masculine & physically overwhelming. Vanessa is already anxious about conducting a nude session, so she tries to remain stiff & businesslike & orders him to remove his clothes.
Jay realises she has mistaken him for a model but does not correct her because he finds her attractive & is amused by the situation. He notices photographs of Nadia around the studio. Because Vanessa strongly resembles her cousin, he assumes that Vanessa is Nadia & asks why she is standing behind the camera rather than in front of it. He also comments on how surprisingly normal she seems in person compared with the sensual woman depicted in the photographs.
Vanessa is too distracted to correct him. She simply orders him to strip & begins the session. Jay removes everything except his underpants & uses the entire situation to flirt with her. He insists that she physically pose him, touches her & even unbuttons her clothes.
That also made me roll my eyes. The scene is blatantly contrived rather than remotely believable. Vanessa is supposed to be shy & virginal, yet she barely protests when a strange man starts unbuttoning her during a professional photography session.
She also reaches the remarkably quick conclusion that she is going to sleep with this man because she is apparently already in love with him, despite Jay making it clear that he wants no commitments & simply sleeps around. The attraction, her emotional surrender & the entire scenario feel rushed, far-fetched & inauthentic.
Jay continues believing that Vanessa is Nadia: a woman known for nude centrefolds, sexual freedom & an infamous interview in which she laughed about exchanging nude photographs for diamond jewellery. He assumes she is highly experienced & is determined to bed her.
Vanessa asks Gavin to correct the misunderstanding when he next meets Jay and explain that she is not Nadia. Instead, when Jay offers Gavin the badly needed contract & includes a football-team photo shoot involving “Nadia” in the team’s spa, Gavin agrees & pressures Vanessa to continue pretending to be Nadia for money to save their home.
Gavin comes across as a nasty sleaze at several points. He forces his sister to continue a deeply uncomfortable deception, leaving Vanessa feeling thoroughly dishonest. He doesn't step in when Jay rips off Vanessa's bikini in public either.
SPOILERS AHEAD
As part of the contract, Vanessa is required to pose nude in photographs with Jay’s football team in the pool. How gross is that? Jay wants to see her exposed in front of a group of other men & actually formalises it as part of a business agreement.
Vanessa protests, but he bullies her into it. She arrives wearing a bikini so he rips the bikini from her body in front of everyone & prepares to throw her into the pool with the other men. The only reason he does not succeed is that Vanessa becomes so panicked that she faints.
That is sexual assault.
He publicly exposes her body against her will in front of a group of men. It is disgusting & deeply disturbing, & I was extremely uncomfortable with the book portraying it as something vaguely acceptable. It reflects the attitude of a certain kind of man who believes he may do whatever he wants to a woman & that when she says no, she is merely playing a game designed to frustrate him & push him to use force.
The fact that Jay believes Vanessa is sexually experienced does not make it remotely acceptable to strip her in public without her consent.
Shortly afterwards, Vanessa & Jay go on their date. Yep, even though he sexually exposed & assaulted her. they almost end up having sex even though she still has not told him her real identity. That is duplicitous on her part, & individual readers will have to decide whether they find it forgivable. I do think allowing the situation to progress that far without telling him was wrong. Compared with Jay’s cruelty & bullying, however, her deception becomes almost insignificant.
They end up in bed. Even while seducing Vanessa, Jay says how fortunate it is that she is a sophisticated woman of the world rather than some naïve, virginal country girl who might expect marriage or emotional commitment. Vanessa is inwardly panicking because she is exactly that: a virgin who is already emotionally invested in him & cannot tell him the truth.
Just as they are about to have sex, the telephone rings with news that Jay’s house is on fire. They are in his city apartment at the time, & he has to return home.
After the fire, Jay has to spend the night at Vanessa & Gavin’s house while his own property is cleaned. He sleeps in a separate guest room & is gone the following morning. Later that day he returns, & to Vanessa’s horror, the real Nadia is with him. Nadia, who is supposed to be abroad.
Nadia is draped possessively over Jay & immediately attacks Vanessa. She accuses her of impersonating her in order to attract him & asks what game she was playing. Nadia claims Vanessa has always been jealous of her & mocks her for apparently needing to pretend to be Nadia before a man would want her.
She even asks whether Vanessa intended to cry rape & force Jay to marry her.
Jay does not defend Vanessa. He looks at her with disgust, calls her a filthy liar & asks why she ever imagined he wanted her. He says Nadia is the woman he truly wanted: Nadia is gold, while Vanessa is dross.
He makes Vanessa feel utterly contemptible, confirming her deepest insecurity and fear that people will compare her with Nadia & find her worthless in the cruellest possible way. He leaves with Nadia draped all over him, making it clear Nadia is the one he wants.
Presumably he takes Nadia home to bed of he never already bedded her that very morning. The novel is told entirely from Vanessa’s perspective, so we are not explicitly shown when Jay & Nadia begin sleeping together, but given how promiscuous they both are...
Vanessa completely falls apart because she has realised she loves Jay & cannot cope with his rejection. Gavin sends her to Spain for 2 weeks to recover.
Apparently, miracles are possible within a fortnight. Vanessa processes everything that has happened, gives herself a glamorous makeover & decides she will no longer hide her light under a bushel or fear being compared unfavourably with Nadia. She also dates & flirts a little with a handsome Spanish man to rebuild her confidence. Yep, all in 2 weeks.
She returns home as a confident, glamorous version of herself, wearing beautiful bright clothes rather than hiding in oversized garments. By then, Jay & Nadia are publicly perceived as a couple. They are constantly together, & Vanessa does her best to ignore them despite how badly it hurts.
Jeff, one of Jay’s footballers asks Vanessa out. He is a pleasant man, & she accepts. I was glad this happened because Jay deserved to see her with someone else. In fact, I wish Vanessa had consummated that relationship.
She cannot because she remains in love with Jay, & she tells Jeff that she can offer only friendship. Even so, they enjoy each other’s company, go on dates, flirt & behave sweetly together. Jay sees this & becomes consumed with jealousy.
During an away match, Vanessa spends an evening in jeffs hotel room after he misses a penalty and is upset. They eat dinner & talk, & she leaves his room late.
Jay, meanwhile, has become drunk aftwr watching Vanessa enjoy herself with jeff all day. When he sees her leaving jeffs room, he forces his way into hers, seduces her, taunts her about still wanting him & demands to know if she slept with Jeff. Vanessa again lets him get her into bed and half naked.
Jay is determined to bed her to prove that he is better at sex. Then she admits she is still a virgin & he walks away. He wont sleep with a virgin who might expect something emotional from him. He mocks her that he only came to her because Nadia is unavailable & he is drunk.
The explanation for Jay’s behaviour is that he suffered severe childhood trauma. He grew up without parents, was repeatedly rejected by the various homes that took him in, lived in poverty & had to fight for everything he achieved. He has never learned how to be close to anyone, so he rejects people before they can reject him.
Now he is powerfully drawn to Vanessa, & that attraction terrifies him because intimacy creates the possibility of abandonment.
The book would have been substantially better had it explored this aspect of Jay more deeply & shown his pain & fear on the page rather than mentioning it almost as a sideline. Seeing his wounds more clearly might have helped readers understand why he behaved as he did, even if it could never excuse everything.
The ending should also have used that wound properly. Vanessa should have told Jay that he had completely failed her & pushed her away because he was afraid of being abandoned.
An ending where she left him, forcing his worst nightmare to come true, would have shown that Jay was capable of overcoming his demons, coming after her & fighting for her.
That would have created a meaningful emotional arc, making him confront the consequences of rejecting & degrading a woman who loved him & perhaps demonstrate that he had changed.
Nothing like that happens.
Until the very end, Jay remains openly involved with Nadia. He holds a grand ball to celebrate the completion of the renovations to his house, & Nadia acts as his hostess. For weeks, he has paraded their relationship in front of Vanessa, who cannot escape because she works for him.
Vanessa attends the ball in a pink taffeta dress. Beforehand, there is another strange & disturbing moment in which Gavin places his hands around his sister’s waist to measure how slim she is.
Really?
A brother may notice that his sister looks beautiful, but would he genuinely stand there measuring her waist with his hands? It is unpleasant because Vanessa is almost the twin of Nadia, whom Gavin previously desired & slept with. Gavin & Nadia are 1st cousins too. Ick.
If Gavin were a real person, I would be seriously concerned about his creepiness. Being ok with his client contractually demanding that his naïve, virginal sister pose naked with a group of footballers. The book presents him as a caring brother because he occasionally says the correct things, but his actions make him seem like a skeezy slimeball.
At the ball, Vanessa has to watch Jay & Nadia dancing together & playing the glamorous couple among high society. Jay ignores Vanessa all night, as usual.
Exhausted, Vanessa leaves early. However, she has been developing a project she wants Jay to know about. Rather than maintaining any dignity or distance from a man who has treated her atrociously, she decides to return to his house & leave a note, files & photographs containing her ideas in his office.
I found this pathetic. Vanessa cannot draw a boundary with Jay no matter how badly he treats her. She continues making herself available, returning to his home & hoping in some part of herself that he will notice her. She wants his attention so desperately that she has no backbone or self-respect left.
Jay finds her in his office & tells her that Nadia has gone after an argument. He then taunts Vanessa that she still wants him to take her virginity & effectively says that, if that is what she wants, he will do it.
& he does.
Vanessa goes to bed with him & thoroughly enjoys the sex, even while he taunts her for it. The following morning, Jay says they need to talk. Vanessa immediately assures him that they do not need to discuss anything because she knows the night meant nothing to him.
Pathetic again.
Jay tells her not to pretend she casually gives herself to men because they both know she does not. He also tells her not to act as though losing her virginity meant nothing. However, he says all of this in the same cold, nasty manner he has used throughout the book, with an edge of contempt behind his words. There is no tenderness, remorse or sense that he understands how vulnerable she is.
Jay leaves for Vanessa’s house to collect clothes for her. While he is gone, Nadia arrives & discovers Vanessa naked in Jay’s bed.
1 has to presume this is the same bed in which Jay has been sleeping with Nadia & has now bedded Vanessa. How utterly disgusting.
Nadia unleashes a stream of vile accusations. She says Jay has already experienced the real thing & only slept with Vanessa for amusement because she is a convenient standby & Nadia’s lookalike. She orders Vanessa to disappear because she remains determined to have Jay for herself.
Jay returns, & Nadia immediately throws herself into his arms. Even then, he does not push her away or tell her firmly that their relationship is over. He simply removes her from the room.
He then returns to Vanessa & explains that he & Nadia ended their relationship the previous day. Nadia had demanded marriage, & Jay had finally realised that Vanessa was the only woman he wanted to marry. Apparently he told Nadia this.
Jay then attempts to excuse everything he has done. He asks whether Vanessa can really blame him, since she knew from the beginning that he wanted a woman who treated sex casually & demanded no commitments. Vanessa pretended to be Nadia, so according to him, she brought the consequences upon herself.
He effectively says she asked for it.
He also shows no remorse over sleeping with Nadia. His attitude is that Nadia used him & he used her. She is the type of woman who uses people, so why should anyone care what happens to her?
He says that Vanessa was not the replacement for Nadia. It was always the opposite way around. He was thinking of Vanessa while he had sex with Nadia. Utterly gross, but apparently these are the magic words of validation Vanessa has been dreaming of her whole life. Pass us the vomit bucket.
He asks Vanessa to forgive him, & she agrees immediately. Where is the 2nd vomit bucket?
There is no meaningful confrontation. Vanessa does not force him to understand the damage he caused, make him apologise properly or demand proof that he has changed. Jay experiences no consequences & suffers no anguish over possibly losing her.
He says they will get married & have children, Vanessa leaps into his arms, & 1 presumes they begin having sex again.
That is the ending.
If someone wants a piece of trash story about trash characters, this is the book for them. There is no real emotional depth. The entire story is repugnant, yet it is written in a way that disguises how repugnant it is because the characters seem superficially likable.
Vanessa does not always sound like a doormat, but her actions repeatedly prove that she is 1. Gavin appears to be a caring brother because he pays lip service to saying the correct things, yet his behaviour makes him a nasty, sleazy slimeball.
The only genuinely decent men are the Spanish man Vanessa meets on holiday, who is gracious enough to remain friendly when she says she does not want a relationship, & the footballer she dates after returning home. He is kind & treats her well, but the story dismisses him as a sap who merely wants a shoulder to cry on.
Instead, Vanessa chooses Jay, the vile, trashy hero, & the book expects us to believe they will live happily ever after.
I am utterly unconvinced.
When I 1st considered my rating, I thought I would give the book 2 stars because Penny Jordan’s writing is competent, the pacing is quick & the story remains interesting until its appalling conclusion. After reviewing everything that happened & thinking more deeply about it, however, I wanted to give it 1 star.
There are genuinely 1-star books that are even worse, & the prose here is at least readable. I have therefore landed on 1.5 stars, rounded up to 2.
I am seriously unimpressed.
Worse, the rushed ending left a bad taste in my mouth. Jay does nothing meaningful to redeem himself, demonstrate that he has changed or suffer any real anguish over his behaviour. Vanessa simply gives in & forgives him despite all the disgusting things he has put her through.
And his behaviour truly is disgusting.
I do not object to OW drama in principle. I often enjoy it. Here, it goes far too far. Jay deliberately uses Vanessa’s cousin Nadia as a weapon to bludgeon Vanessa with. He does not care about Nadia either. He uses her for sex and says she is the sort of woman who deserves to be used.
He is an awful man. In real life, he'd be the kind of scumbag you'd never trust & might want to kill. By the end, I had also lost all respect for Vanessa because she made him face no consequences & forgave him at the drop of a hat, even though we are left to presume he had been sleeping with her cousin until the previous night.
The only reason I am not giving this the lowest possible rating is that Penny Jordan writes well enough to tell an engaging story. The book is fast paced & remains interesting for most of its length. Then I reached the ending & wondered what the hell I had just read. It was a disgrace.
I would not necessarily have minded Jay using Nadia if the situation had eventually been revealed as a performance—if, for example, he could not bear to touch her & had merely pretended to be involved with her to provoke Vanessa. Instead, he genuinely uses Nadia for her body, sleeps with her & does not care about her at all. I found that repugnant.
The heroine, Vanessa, is 22 & works as a photographer alongside her brother, Gavin. They are in a difficult financial position & desperately need a photography contract with Jay’s football organisation to keep paying the mortgage & avoid losing their family home.
Vanessa has always suffered from a severe inferiority complex. Although she is beautiful, she has grown up beside her cousin Nadia, a glamorous model who is even more striking & has spent Vanessa’s entire life putting her down. Nadia is sexually experienced, hard & openly promiscuous. To avoid appearing to compete with her, Vanessa wears oversized clothes, hides her appearance & generally keeps both her beauty & personality subdued.
Gavin is thrilled when Jay returns to their hometown. Jay is a successful footballer who has become a millionaire & now intends to rebuild the local football team, inject money & energy into the area & revive their quiet little community. Gavin sees the potential contract with Jay as the opportunity their business desperately needs.
Vanessa knows very little about football. At the beginning, she is waiting in the photography studio for a male model who is supposed to pose for a suntan-lotion advertisement. Apparently, she is expected to photograph him nude.
This was 1 of several elements that did not ring remotely true. On what planet would a completely nude photograph of a man have been used to advertise suntan lotion in the 1970s? Who was the intended audience—a pornography market? Even Page 3 spreads were supposed to be titillating through partial nudity, so where exactly would a fully nude male suntan advertisement have appeared?
The same problem applies to a later photography session involving the naked heroine modelling in a swimming pool with an entire football team. What respectable promotional campaign for a man rebuilding a football club & its public reputation would require that? These nude scenes exist purely to manufacture sexual drama. They feel unnecessary, contrived, disturbing & rather pathetic.
So anyway, Jay arrives while Vanessa is waiting for the male sunscreen model. She is immediately attracted to him. He is not what she expected: he is larger than life, forcefully masculine & physically overwhelming. Vanessa is already anxious about conducting a nude session, so she tries to remain stiff & businesslike & orders him to remove his clothes.
Jay realises she has mistaken him for a model but does not correct her because he finds her attractive & is amused by the situation. He notices photographs of Nadia around the studio. Because Vanessa strongly resembles her cousin, he assumes that Vanessa is Nadia & asks why she is standing behind the camera rather than in front of it. He also comments on how surprisingly normal she seems in person compared with the sensual woman depicted in the photographs.
Vanessa is too distracted to correct him. She simply orders him to strip & begins the session. Jay removes everything except his underpants & uses the entire situation to flirt with her. He insists that she physically pose him, touches her & even unbuttons her clothes.
That also made me roll my eyes. The scene is blatantly contrived rather than remotely believable. Vanessa is supposed to be shy & virginal, yet she barely protests when a strange man starts unbuttoning her during a professional photography session.
She also reaches the remarkably quick conclusion that she is going to sleep with this man because she is apparently already in love with him, despite Jay making it clear that he wants no commitments & simply sleeps around. The attraction, her emotional surrender & the entire scenario feel rushed, far-fetched & inauthentic.
Jay continues believing that Vanessa is Nadia: a woman known for nude centrefolds, sexual freedom & an infamous interview in which she laughed about exchanging nude photographs for diamond jewellery. He assumes she is highly experienced & is determined to bed her.
Vanessa asks Gavin to correct the misunderstanding when he next meets Jay and explain that she is not Nadia. Instead, when Jay offers Gavin the badly needed contract & includes a football-team photo shoot involving “Nadia” in the team’s spa, Gavin agrees & pressures Vanessa to continue pretending to be Nadia for money to save their home.
Gavin comes across as a nasty sleaze at several points. He forces his sister to continue a deeply uncomfortable deception, leaving Vanessa feeling thoroughly dishonest. He doesn't step in when Jay rips off Vanessa's bikini in public either.
SPOILERS AHEAD
As part of the contract, Vanessa is required to pose nude in photographs with Jay’s football team in the pool. How gross is that? Jay wants to see her exposed in front of a group of other men & actually formalises it as part of a business agreement.
Vanessa protests, but he bullies her into it. She arrives wearing a bikini so he rips the bikini from her body in front of everyone & prepares to throw her into the pool with the other men. The only reason he does not succeed is that Vanessa becomes so panicked that she faints.
That is sexual assault.
He publicly exposes her body against her will in front of a group of men. It is disgusting & deeply disturbing, & I was extremely uncomfortable with the book portraying it as something vaguely acceptable. It reflects the attitude of a certain kind of man who believes he may do whatever he wants to a woman & that when she says no, she is merely playing a game designed to frustrate him & push him to use force.
The fact that Jay believes Vanessa is sexually experienced does not make it remotely acceptable to strip her in public without her consent.
Shortly afterwards, Vanessa & Jay go on their date. Yep, even though he sexually exposed & assaulted her. they almost end up having sex even though she still has not told him her real identity. That is duplicitous on her part, & individual readers will have to decide whether they find it forgivable. I do think allowing the situation to progress that far without telling him was wrong. Compared with Jay’s cruelty & bullying, however, her deception becomes almost insignificant.
They end up in bed. Even while seducing Vanessa, Jay says how fortunate it is that she is a sophisticated woman of the world rather than some naïve, virginal country girl who might expect marriage or emotional commitment. Vanessa is inwardly panicking because she is exactly that: a virgin who is already emotionally invested in him & cannot tell him the truth.
Just as they are about to have sex, the telephone rings with news that Jay’s house is on fire. They are in his city apartment at the time, & he has to return home.
After the fire, Jay has to spend the night at Vanessa & Gavin’s house while his own property is cleaned. He sleeps in a separate guest room & is gone the following morning. Later that day he returns, & to Vanessa’s horror, the real Nadia is with him. Nadia, who is supposed to be abroad.
Nadia is draped possessively over Jay & immediately attacks Vanessa. She accuses her of impersonating her in order to attract him & asks what game she was playing. Nadia claims Vanessa has always been jealous of her & mocks her for apparently needing to pretend to be Nadia before a man would want her.
She even asks whether Vanessa intended to cry rape & force Jay to marry her.
Jay does not defend Vanessa. He looks at her with disgust, calls her a filthy liar & asks why she ever imagined he wanted her. He says Nadia is the woman he truly wanted: Nadia is gold, while Vanessa is dross.
He makes Vanessa feel utterly contemptible, confirming her deepest insecurity and fear that people will compare her with Nadia & find her worthless in the cruellest possible way. He leaves with Nadia draped all over him, making it clear Nadia is the one he wants.
Presumably he takes Nadia home to bed of he never already bedded her that very morning. The novel is told entirely from Vanessa’s perspective, so we are not explicitly shown when Jay & Nadia begin sleeping together, but given how promiscuous they both are...
Vanessa completely falls apart because she has realised she loves Jay & cannot cope with his rejection. Gavin sends her to Spain for 2 weeks to recover.
Apparently, miracles are possible within a fortnight. Vanessa processes everything that has happened, gives herself a glamorous makeover & decides she will no longer hide her light under a bushel or fear being compared unfavourably with Nadia. She also dates & flirts a little with a handsome Spanish man to rebuild her confidence. Yep, all in 2 weeks.
She returns home as a confident, glamorous version of herself, wearing beautiful bright clothes rather than hiding in oversized garments. By then, Jay & Nadia are publicly perceived as a couple. They are constantly together, & Vanessa does her best to ignore them despite how badly it hurts.
Jeff, one of Jay’s footballers asks Vanessa out. He is a pleasant man, & she accepts. I was glad this happened because Jay deserved to see her with someone else. In fact, I wish Vanessa had consummated that relationship.
She cannot because she remains in love with Jay, & she tells Jeff that she can offer only friendship. Even so, they enjoy each other’s company, go on dates, flirt & behave sweetly together. Jay sees this & becomes consumed with jealousy.
During an away match, Vanessa spends an evening in jeffs hotel room after he misses a penalty and is upset. They eat dinner & talk, & she leaves his room late.
Jay, meanwhile, has become drunk aftwr watching Vanessa enjoy herself with jeff all day. When he sees her leaving jeffs room, he forces his way into hers, seduces her, taunts her about still wanting him & demands to know if she slept with Jeff. Vanessa again lets him get her into bed and half naked.
Jay is determined to bed her to prove that he is better at sex. Then she admits she is still a virgin & he walks away. He wont sleep with a virgin who might expect something emotional from him. He mocks her that he only came to her because Nadia is unavailable & he is drunk.
The explanation for Jay’s behaviour is that he suffered severe childhood trauma. He grew up without parents, was repeatedly rejected by the various homes that took him in, lived in poverty & had to fight for everything he achieved. He has never learned how to be close to anyone, so he rejects people before they can reject him.
Now he is powerfully drawn to Vanessa, & that attraction terrifies him because intimacy creates the possibility of abandonment.
The book would have been substantially better had it explored this aspect of Jay more deeply & shown his pain & fear on the page rather than mentioning it almost as a sideline. Seeing his wounds more clearly might have helped readers understand why he behaved as he did, even if it could never excuse everything.
The ending should also have used that wound properly. Vanessa should have told Jay that he had completely failed her & pushed her away because he was afraid of being abandoned.
An ending where she left him, forcing his worst nightmare to come true, would have shown that Jay was capable of overcoming his demons, coming after her & fighting for her.
That would have created a meaningful emotional arc, making him confront the consequences of rejecting & degrading a woman who loved him & perhaps demonstrate that he had changed.
Nothing like that happens.
Until the very end, Jay remains openly involved with Nadia. He holds a grand ball to celebrate the completion of the renovations to his house, & Nadia acts as his hostess. For weeks, he has paraded their relationship in front of Vanessa, who cannot escape because she works for him.
Vanessa attends the ball in a pink taffeta dress. Beforehand, there is another strange & disturbing moment in which Gavin places his hands around his sister’s waist to measure how slim she is.
Really?
A brother may notice that his sister looks beautiful, but would he genuinely stand there measuring her waist with his hands? It is unpleasant because Vanessa is almost the twin of Nadia, whom Gavin previously desired & slept with. Gavin & Nadia are 1st cousins too. Ick.
If Gavin were a real person, I would be seriously concerned about his creepiness. Being ok with his client contractually demanding that his naïve, virginal sister pose naked with a group of footballers. The book presents him as a caring brother because he occasionally says the correct things, but his actions make him seem like a skeezy slimeball.
At the ball, Vanessa has to watch Jay & Nadia dancing together & playing the glamorous couple among high society. Jay ignores Vanessa all night, as usual.
Exhausted, Vanessa leaves early. However, she has been developing a project she wants Jay to know about. Rather than maintaining any dignity or distance from a man who has treated her atrociously, she decides to return to his house & leave a note, files & photographs containing her ideas in his office.
I found this pathetic. Vanessa cannot draw a boundary with Jay no matter how badly he treats her. She continues making herself available, returning to his home & hoping in some part of herself that he will notice her. She wants his attention so desperately that she has no backbone or self-respect left.
Jay finds her in his office & tells her that Nadia has gone after an argument. He then taunts Vanessa that she still wants him to take her virginity & effectively says that, if that is what she wants, he will do it.
& he does.
Vanessa goes to bed with him & thoroughly enjoys the sex, even while he taunts her for it. The following morning, Jay says they need to talk. Vanessa immediately assures him that they do not need to discuss anything because she knows the night meant nothing to him.
Pathetic again.
Jay tells her not to pretend she casually gives herself to men because they both know she does not. He also tells her not to act as though losing her virginity meant nothing. However, he says all of this in the same cold, nasty manner he has used throughout the book, with an edge of contempt behind his words. There is no tenderness, remorse or sense that he understands how vulnerable she is.
Jay leaves for Vanessa’s house to collect clothes for her. While he is gone, Nadia arrives & discovers Vanessa naked in Jay’s bed.
1 has to presume this is the same bed in which Jay has been sleeping with Nadia & has now bedded Vanessa. How utterly disgusting.
Nadia unleashes a stream of vile accusations. She says Jay has already experienced the real thing & only slept with Vanessa for amusement because she is a convenient standby & Nadia’s lookalike. She orders Vanessa to disappear because she remains determined to have Jay for herself.
Jay returns, & Nadia immediately throws herself into his arms. Even then, he does not push her away or tell her firmly that their relationship is over. He simply removes her from the room.
He then returns to Vanessa & explains that he & Nadia ended their relationship the previous day. Nadia had demanded marriage, & Jay had finally realised that Vanessa was the only woman he wanted to marry. Apparently he told Nadia this.
Jay then attempts to excuse everything he has done. He asks whether Vanessa can really blame him, since she knew from the beginning that he wanted a woman who treated sex casually & demanded no commitments. Vanessa pretended to be Nadia, so according to him, she brought the consequences upon herself.
He effectively says she asked for it.
He also shows no remorse over sleeping with Nadia. His attitude is that Nadia used him & he used her. She is the type of woman who uses people, so why should anyone care what happens to her?
He says that Vanessa was not the replacement for Nadia. It was always the opposite way around. He was thinking of Vanessa while he had sex with Nadia. Utterly gross, but apparently these are the magic words of validation Vanessa has been dreaming of her whole life. Pass us the vomit bucket.
He asks Vanessa to forgive him, & she agrees immediately. Where is the 2nd vomit bucket?
There is no meaningful confrontation. Vanessa does not force him to understand the damage he caused, make him apologise properly or demand proof that he has changed. Jay experiences no consequences & suffers no anguish over possibly losing her.
He says they will get married & have children, Vanessa leaps into his arms, & 1 presumes they begin having sex again.
That is the ending.
If someone wants a piece of trash story about trash characters, this is the book for them. There is no real emotional depth. The entire story is repugnant, yet it is written in a way that disguises how repugnant it is because the characters seem superficially likable.
Vanessa does not always sound like a doormat, but her actions repeatedly prove that she is 1. Gavin appears to be a caring brother because he pays lip service to saying the correct things, yet his behaviour makes him a nasty, sleazy slimeball.
The only genuinely decent men are the Spanish man Vanessa meets on holiday, who is gracious enough to remain friendly when she says she does not want a relationship, & the footballer she dates after returning home. He is kind & treats her well, but the story dismisses him as a sap who merely wants a shoulder to cry on.
Instead, Vanessa chooses Jay, the vile, trashy hero, & the book expects us to believe they will live happily ever after.
I am utterly unconvinced.
When I 1st considered my rating, I thought I would give the book 2 stars because Penny Jordan’s writing is competent, the pacing is quick & the story remains interesting until its appalling conclusion. After reviewing everything that happened & thinking more deeply about it, however, I wanted to give it 1 star.
There are genuinely 1-star books that are even worse, & the prose here is at least readable. I have therefore landed on 1.5 stars, rounded up to 2.
I am seriously unimpressed.
January 30, 2015
So, I saw all the negative reviews for this book and thought, I need to read that!
I actually didn't struggle with the body of the plot as much as others
What really had me in a "wtf, creepy!" grip was Gavin! Vanessa and Nadia are 1st cousins, whose fathers were twins. They look so identical that they could be mistaken as twins. Gavin was in love with Nadia and apparently even had a brief fling with her. .... let me repeat that. Gavin had sex with his first cousin who looks identical to his sister!!
Ewww!
So every time Gavin told Vanessa how pretty she looked or complimented her, I cringed!
Yikes!
What's with old HQ's and cousin love?
I actually didn't struggle with the body of the plot as much as others
What really had me in a "wtf, creepy!" grip was Gavin! Vanessa and Nadia are 1st cousins, whose fathers were twins. They look so identical that they could be mistaken as twins. Gavin was in love with Nadia and apparently even had a brief fling with her. .... let me repeat that. Gavin had sex with his first cousin who looks identical to his sister!!
Ewww!
So every time Gavin told Vanessa how pretty she looked or complimented her, I cringed!
Yikes!
What's with old HQ's and cousin love?
September 26, 2014
Vanessa was really despicable...she was lying for half the book, the part that Jay fell in love with her, thinking she was Nadia.
January 11, 2021
Horrendously bad! Long ranting... This book deserves negative star. What in the world was Penny Jordan thinking when writing this?! Hero thought he was cute shit, I have never wanted to slap a hero so much as I did here. He was absolute garbage, no redeeming qualities at all. So we have a heroine looking like her model cousin. Guess who was in love with the cousin? The brother of the heroine, aka cousins. Ok, I can tolerate cousin romance as I know Penny Jordan written that trope before but what really gross me out was that the heroine looks so much like Nadia. I just can’t help but question does that mean the brother is also attracted to the heroine? Ewwww! & it doesn’t help when the author writes the brother saying awkward things about Vanessa like how she looks sexy in a bikini, how she’s a virgin, etc. No, just no! Then we have the hero half stripping her in front of the brother & the “team” for a photoshoot. Whaaat?! Double eww. That scene was so stupid. Why does she have to pose naked to promote the team?!!! Sounded like some casting couch stuff... Of course guess who was the photographer, it’s brother dear. The brother suggest she wears the bikini in the pool so that he will only shoot her breast up to imply that she’s nude but she‘s really not. At the scene, when she was posing the brother was fixing her hair to make it fall on her shoulder or whatever to get the perfect take...idk if that’s supposed to be professional or icky. I felt the latter. Keep your sanity, stay away from this one.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 13, 2020
Guess that was a story of sorts. Hey hero, instead of being a psychopath how about you get some therapy for your not so twisted past? How he treats the heroine is INSANE. Sweetie, you gotta move away from this clown, he crazy. Says very forward things about NOT the heroine but thinks it is the heroine, almost drowns her, almost sleeps with her like twice, says horrible things ABOUT the heroine when he discovers she isn't who he assumed she was, criticizes her for trying to move on/do her work/exist, slept with the other chick but think the heroine should just let it go. She needs to move, yup go take pictures of another team cause this guy is gonna switch on a dime. Don't believe his 'I always wanted YOU but I did sleep with someone knowing it would hurt you if you found out'. Ugh, read for the fun, not for the romance.
December 28, 2017
80-لعبة من يخسر يربح
روايات عبير الجديدة
ان شبهها الكبير بابنة عمها الجميلة , الذائعة الشهرة , العديمة الاخلاق , لم يكن سهلاً عليها ابداً . كانت فانيسا تتعذب كثيرا بسبب ذلك الشبه الكبير من ناديا منذ سن المراهقة .
ولكن الاسوء حصل عندما طلب منها اخوها ان تكون فتاة الغلاف الفاتنة, فيكون بامكانه ان يعقد اتفاق عمل مع رجل الاعمال جاي كورتلان .
قبلت فانيسا غصباً عنها ... لكنها سرعان ما ندمت , لقد تعلقت بجاي الى حد الجنون , لكنه لم يكن يبحث الا عن خفة طيش ناديا
روايات عبير الجديدة
ان شبهها الكبير بابنة عمها الجميلة , الذائعة الشهرة , العديمة الاخلاق , لم يكن سهلاً عليها ابداً . كانت فانيسا تتعذب كثيرا بسبب ذلك الشبه الكبير من ناديا منذ سن المراهقة .
ولكن الاسوء حصل عندما طلب منها اخوها ان تكون فتاة الغلاف الفاتنة, فيكون بامكانه ان يعقد اتفاق عمل مع رجل الاعمال جاي كورتلان .
قبلت فانيسا غصباً عنها ... لكنها سرعان ما ندمت , لقد تعلقت بجاي الى حد الجنون , لكنه لم يكن يبحث الا عن خفة طيش ناديا
February 15, 2023
Another PJ H who calls h bad names, flaunts OW at her, mocks, disparages all because he’s afraid of love and commitment.
Skimmed after first chapter.
Skimmed after first chapter.
April 25, 2023
Nah I don't buy everything that the H said... Nothing believable, my mind went like "this is bshit"
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March 3, 2024Old books
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September 24, 2024The one you will never read dear self because I wouldn’t let you.
January 26, 2021
Therese stars for the entertainment factor. The H’ s actions were questionable. If the brother really was involved with the cousin in the past it would seemed somewhat incestous to me. It happened in the past , mainly in royal families. We learn that their fathers were twins (the cousin and the heroine looked almost alike). I hade a few minor struggles trough some of the descriptions. The book certainly was not boring though . The ending was a little underwhelming as usual.
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