What do you think?
Rate this book
Wife In Exchange
Wife In Exchange by Robyn Donald released on Jun 22, 1979 is available now for purchase.
Mass Market Paperback
First published April 1, 1979
3 people are currently reading
173 people want to read
About the author
Robyn Donald
448 books146 followersRobyn Elaine Donald was born on 14 August 1940 in Northland, New Zealand. She was the oldest child in her family, and as a child, she thrilled her four sisters and one brother with bloodcurdling adventure tales, usually very like the latest book she'd borrowed from the library.
Robyn owes her writing career to two illnesses. The first was a younger sister's flu. She was living with her husband and Robyn and spent most of that winter acquiring, suffering, and recovering from various infections. One day she croaked that she had read everything on Robyn's bookshelves, so would Robyn please buy her something cheerful and sustaining. Robyn found three paperbacks- one Mills and Boon Modern Romance novel and a couple of other romances. Robyn read them, too, of course, and so enjoyed them she spent the next couple of years hunting down more Mills and Boon books. This was much more difficult then than it is today, so she decided to write her own, and for the following busy 10 years she wrote and hoped that one day she would finish a manuscript good enough that was good enough to send to a publisher.
The second illness was her husband's, and it was bad a heart attack. He was so young it terrified them all. While he was recovering, he suggested that Robyn finish the manuscript she was writing and send it off. It wasn't a perfect manuscript, but the doctor had said to humour her husband, so she finished the manuscript, edited it as best she could, and sent it off. Three months later, she was astounded to read a letter from the editor saying that if She made a few revisions they would buy her novel Bride at Whangatapu.
Published since 1977, Robyn sees her readers as intelligent women who insist on accurate backgrounds, so she spends time researching as well as writing.Robyn Donald sometimes thinks that writing is much like gardening. It's a similar process creating landscapes for the mind and emotions from the seeds of ideas and dreams and images. Both activities can also lead to moments of extreme delight, moments of total despair, and backache.Now Robyn lives in the Bay Islands. She continues writing, and also finds time for a very supportive husband, two adult children and their partners, a granddaughter and her mother, not to mention the member of the family that keeps her fit - a loud, cheerful, and ruthlessly determined "almost" Labradordog.
Robyn owes her writing career to two illnesses. The first was a younger sister's flu. She was living with her husband and Robyn and spent most of that winter acquiring, suffering, and recovering from various infections. One day she croaked that she had read everything on Robyn's bookshelves, so would Robyn please buy her something cheerful and sustaining. Robyn found three paperbacks- one Mills and Boon Modern Romance novel and a couple of other romances. Robyn read them, too, of course, and so enjoyed them she spent the next couple of years hunting down more Mills and Boon books. This was much more difficult then than it is today, so she decided to write her own, and for the following busy 10 years she wrote and hoped that one day she would finish a manuscript good enough that was good enough to send to a publisher.
The second illness was her husband's, and it was bad a heart attack. He was so young it terrified them all. While he was recovering, he suggested that Robyn finish the manuscript she was writing and send it off. It wasn't a perfect manuscript, but the doctor had said to humour her husband, so she finished the manuscript, edited it as best she could, and sent it off. Three months later, she was astounded to read a letter from the editor saying that if She made a few revisions they would buy her novel Bride at Whangatapu.
Published since 1977, Robyn sees her readers as intelligent women who insist on accurate backgrounds, so she spends time researching as well as writing.Robyn Donald sometimes thinks that writing is much like gardening. It's a similar process creating landscapes for the mind and emotions from the seeds of ideas and dreams and images. Both activities can also lead to moments of extreme delight, moments of total despair, and backache.Now Robyn lives in the Bay Islands. She continues writing, and also finds time for a very supportive husband, two adult children and their partners, a granddaughter and her mother, not to mention the member of the family that keeps her fit - a loud, cheerful, and ruthlessly determined "almost" Labradordog.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
May 28, 2018
HE LOVED HER ALL ALONG, Y'ALL!
And *hangs head* I believe him. Hero's actions can't be explained any other way. He saw her photo, her brother took his betrothed, pride/honor demanded revenge. He sent a cable to lure the heroine to his island lair and gave her the choice: rape/release or marriage? Heroine chooses marriage and away we go to a gothic tale of marriage with benefits.
NZ heroine chalks up his "eccentricities" to his Spanish heritage and shows a lot of thought and forbearance as she takes on her role as wife and chatelaine of the castle. Hero tries every trick in vintage alpha handbook - gentle sex, punishing sex, arbitrary rules and power trips, jewels, horseback rides, insults, sarcasm, sweet talk, jealousy. Finally, he gives up and offers her her freedom, along with the get out-of-grovel-free card shown above.
This was published on April 1, 1979. LOL It's a fun vintage story, but be prepared for forced everything and some mental gymnastics to get to the HEA.
And *hangs head* I believe him. Hero's actions can't be explained any other way. He saw her photo, her brother took his betrothed, pride/honor demanded revenge. He sent a cable to lure the heroine to his island lair and gave her the choice: rape/release or marriage? Heroine chooses marriage and away we go to a gothic tale of marriage with benefits.
NZ heroine chalks up his "eccentricities" to his Spanish heritage and shows a lot of thought and forbearance as she takes on her role as wife and chatelaine of the castle. Hero tries every trick in vintage alpha handbook - gentle sex, punishing sex, arbitrary rules and power trips, jewels, horseback rides, insults, sarcasm, sweet talk, jealousy. Finally, he gives up and offers her her freedom, along with the get out-of-grovel-free card shown above.
This was published on April 1, 1979. LOL It's a fun vintage story, but be prepared for forced everything and some mental gymnastics to get to the HEA.
December 19, 2024
'You cannot stop me,' he said inflexibly. His voice was more gentle now, the fierce anger gone from it, his features once more holding only that aloof, withdrawn expression- 'You cannot prevent me from doing what I will with you. The servants in this house will not help you, if you are thinking of appealing to them. They dare not, for here I am master and my will is the law.'
Well, here we are folks. Another day, another harlequin romance with a crazy misogynistic hero.
'I shall enjoy taming you,' he said, quite gently. 'Soon you will come, as my dog to my heels when I whistle, Kaara. You are beautiful, but you need discipline like any nervous, high-spirited creature. I shall not break your spirit entirely— unless you force me to it.'
To think women in the 70's were reading these while having their breakfast and and smoking their cigarettes (as I do now) is baffling and very interesting to me. We've been loving the OTT even before OTT existed, drama is a balm to our soul it seems.
Kaara's brother gets married to our hero's Juan's girlfriend and Juan takes that personally. This man sits down and comes up with this master plan which includes taking Kaara as his mistress. To put it in todays vocab, he plans to ruin her.
'You— you are utterly despicable! You speak like that of the woman you love and you intend to rape me in cold. blood just to satisfy your lust for revenge. You're a swine!'
After taking pity on her, he gives her two options. Either become a "mistress" of his (we know what that ACTUALLY means) or marry him.
She marries him.
Juan was sarcastic and had a dry sense of humor, every word he uttered was meant to mock and humiliate which was both equally maddening and so fucking funny.
'Ah, sh!' he said softly, 'Do not cry, Kaara. You have been so brave until now.'
UHHHHHHH💀 So belittling and hot at the same time💀 My brain was working overtime trying to decide on whether to hate or to admire his unhinged personality.
I did both.
The sex and the marriage is not enough for Juan, he wants Kaara's love too. I read that and diagnosed Juan with some kind of delusion disorder.
So, you take this woman to ruin her, instead you marry AND ravish her, treat her like shit, belittle and mock her any chance you get, you expect love?
What is happening?
'No. Why do you want me to love you, Juan ?' 'To make my revenge more sweet,' he said cynically, releasing her. 'It must be so; must it not? I am the ogre who forced you into his marriage bed with threats and blackmail. There can be no other reason for me to desire your love except that it would further humiliate you and your brother if you loved the man who raped your innocence. Especially if he did not love you!'
Oh💀
I AM DISGUSTEDDD??!!
But as another character in this book said, he is a man, of course he wants everything.
Near his shit personality, he had murder fantasies too. Creative ones at that.
Her teeth clamped on to her bottom lip as he reached out a hand and touched a long strand of her hair, smoothing the sweet- smelling tress sensuously between his fingers. 'It is beautiful,' he said, tauntingly. 'You are fortunate that it is not long enough to strangle you with.'
Juan is a whole villian side character of a Lifetime movie. How did Robyn Donald manage to make everything he says seem like a snippet from a true crime documentary, I don't know. What I do know is everything he says is outrageous and quote worthy.
So, where is the brother while this revenge plan is going the way it should? Frankly, I do not know. He's not present till the very end where he proves himself as a USELESS man.
Juan tells the brother to return the ex lover of his in exchange of Kaara.
The brother says no, y'all💀 This is the brother that Kaara loves so much.
Juan tells Kaara that she can leave, and suddenly she decides that Juan is not so bad after all! She is in love with him.
Oh, him allowing her to leave was a false sense of security by the way. He admits that he would wait as long as he could bear to be without her before starting to pursue her.
Like, yes they get their HEA. But I would like to add an another quote so you can see for yourself if this was a HEA or not.
'You are very beautiful,' he murmured, 'and you are mine. Do not ever forget that, mi tizdn, my firebrand, for the day you do will be the day you discover how cruel I really am.' One hand came to touch the spot above her heart. 'One of my ancestors plunged a dagger into his wife in that spot,. Kaara. She smiled at another man and he loved her.'
Police would be called.
Over the top, dramatic and so fun to read. Had an easy to read structure, not too many characters or too many places. Just pure psychological but weirdly erotic torture of a woman trapped in a marriage, which was soul-stirring to me.
March 19, 2017
Oddly, the second book this week that presented me with a revenge plot against an innocent bystander heroine to redress a perceived grievance for something her brother has done.
The previous book I read with this plot was Response by Penny Jordan. In that story, the arrogant, autocratic Greek tycoon hero seduces the virginal English Rose heroine, even forcing her to admit she has fallen in love with him, then cruelly dumps her the morning after he takes her virginity, telling her the whole hoax was a revenge scheme against her brother, whom the hero believed was his sister's rapist.
Here, Robyn Donald gives us an arrogant, autocratic Spanish tycoon who tricks the modern and liberated but still innocent and virginal New Zealander heroine to his lair on the fictitious Pacific island of Melindi, which looks suspiciously similar to Hawaii if it was ruled by a throwback to Spanish Conquistadors.
The heroine's brother's crime in this story is that he eloped with the hero's betrothed. So hero planned to rape the heroine as revenge. However, ten minutes after he meets and experiences this red-headed firebrand, who rightly slaps his face and douses him with his own champagne, he decides she is wife material. His revenge will now be complete because his brother and his new bride will forever have to live with the guilt that their happiness comes at the cost of heroine's lifetime of misery, being at the beck and call of a man who does not love her nor does she love. Plus, he gets to have hot firebrand sex and beget a couple of heirs for his dynasty.
*sigh* As usual, the logic and common sense in HPlandia abound.
Though Robyn Donald's version of the revenge-on-sister-of-man-who-defied-you is a lot better written than Penny Jordan's, it is by no means less trainwrecky. It is almost more of a hot mess because there are so many tangent threads left unconcluded or at least not satisfactorily concluded (a flirtation with an OM, a catty distant cousin OW, a former mistress with her own demands on hero, a depressed neighbour, a haughty aunt, a mistress love nest right on the property, etc.).
But worst of all was the lack of clear motivation for hero's constant blowing hot and cold. Though he tries to explain it all away at the conclusion of the book, I could not for the life of me figure out his bouts of anger followed by charming episodes followed by more rage followed by more suaveness.
Did he enjoy or loathe her smart mouth? Did he want her to be afraid of him or not? Did he want her to fall in love with him or not? Did he or did he not pine for his ex-fiancee? His explanation that he did not call out the ex's name in an agonized way during his sleep, rather it must have been just another word that sounded like the ex's name, was not convincing at all, given the fact that he called out that name not once but almost every night according to the heroine.
And of course, he gives the heroine's brother the ultimatum of giving him back the ex-fiancee he stole from the hero in exchange for the heroine's freedom. He explained that one away by saying he was jealous of the bond between the heroine and her brother, whom she obviously admired and loved, and by proving that her brother would choose his own wife over his sister, he hoped to sever that bond so heroine would then have no choice but to fall back on the hero and become totally dependent on him, with no more risk of heroine trying to run away. Ooooookay. That's not weird at all. Right. Moving on...
I accuse HPs of having too many cardboard cut-out stock characters and I constantly admire authors' effort to at least try to create more complex, layered characters but here, it wasn't that the "hero" character was ambiguous, he was frankly opaque.
Overall, despite its plot and character holes, I did enjoy Wife in Exchange more than Response, based on the strength of the writing alone but I must say that this trope is just too illogical to suspend my disbelief, even in a plausibility-free zone like HPlandia.
The previous book I read with this plot was Response by Penny Jordan. In that story, the arrogant, autocratic Greek tycoon hero seduces the virginal English Rose heroine, even forcing her to admit she has fallen in love with him, then cruelly dumps her the morning after he takes her virginity, telling her the whole hoax was a revenge scheme against her brother, whom the hero believed was his sister's rapist.
Here, Robyn Donald gives us an arrogant, autocratic Spanish tycoon who tricks the modern and liberated but still innocent and virginal New Zealander heroine to his lair on the fictitious Pacific island of Melindi, which looks suspiciously similar to Hawaii if it was ruled by a throwback to Spanish Conquistadors.
The heroine's brother's crime in this story is that he eloped with the hero's betrothed. So hero planned to rape the heroine as revenge. However, ten minutes after he meets and experiences this red-headed firebrand, who rightly slaps his face and douses him with his own champagne, he decides she is wife material. His revenge will now be complete because his brother and his new bride will forever have to live with the guilt that their happiness comes at the cost of heroine's lifetime of misery, being at the beck and call of a man who does not love her nor does she love. Plus, he gets to have hot firebrand sex and beget a couple of heirs for his dynasty.
*sigh* As usual, the logic and common sense in HPlandia abound.
Though Robyn Donald's version of the revenge-on-sister-of-man-who-defied-you is a lot better written than Penny Jordan's, it is by no means less trainwrecky. It is almost more of a hot mess because there are so many tangent threads left unconcluded or at least not satisfactorily concluded (a flirtation with an OM, a catty distant cousin OW, a former mistress with her own demands on hero, a depressed neighbour, a haughty aunt, a mistress love nest right on the property, etc.).
But worst of all was the lack of clear motivation for hero's constant blowing hot and cold. Though he tries to explain it all away at the conclusion of the book, I could not for the life of me figure out his bouts of anger followed by charming episodes followed by more rage followed by more suaveness.
Did he enjoy or loathe her smart mouth? Did he want her to be afraid of him or not? Did he want her to fall in love with him or not? Did he or did he not pine for his ex-fiancee? His explanation that he did not call out the ex's name in an agonized way during his sleep, rather it must have been just another word that sounded like the ex's name, was not convincing at all, given the fact that he called out that name not once but almost every night according to the heroine.
And of course, he gives the heroine's brother the ultimatum of giving him back the ex-fiancee he stole from the hero in exchange for the heroine's freedom. He explained that one away by saying he was jealous of the bond between the heroine and her brother, whom she obviously admired and loved, and by proving that her brother would choose his own wife over his sister, he hoped to sever that bond so heroine would then have no choice but to fall back on the hero and become totally dependent on him, with no more risk of heroine trying to run away. Ooooookay. That's not weird at all. Right. Moving on...
I accuse HPs of having too many cardboard cut-out stock characters and I constantly admire authors' effort to at least try to create more complex, layered characters but here, it wasn't that the "hero" character was ambiguous, he was frankly opaque.
Overall, despite its plot and character holes, I did enjoy Wife in Exchange more than Response, based on the strength of the writing alone but I must say that this trope is just too illogical to suspend my disbelief, even in a plausibility-free zone like HPlandia.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 11, 2012
Pretty crazy old school. Maybe I should give it more stars just for that. He kidnaps her and threatens to rape her in revenge for her brother making off with his fiance. Instead he marries her so that the revenge will just go on and on. Then he proceeds to treat her like crap. He was totally domineering sneering and lord of the manor. He kept telling her that she was such a complaining child and couldn't she find something to do? A good spanish wife would be happy. And I'm thinking: she's on an island. She's not allowed to go to the village/town even to buy some craft supplies. Her sister in law runs the house. She can't read spanish. What the hell exactly does he expect her to do with her time? That always bothers me in HPs that the women are expected to be happy just sitting around but it was pretty extreme here. He said right out that he controlled her every thought and action. I think that even though I know it's fiction and what's more it's an old Harley, it still got too much on my feminist bone and I don't even have a very well developed one. ;-) She doesn't stand up to him very well just eventually decides to take whatever crumbs he offers.
He blows hot and cold and he does force her once or twice but it's all explained in the end as him just loving her so much. So all is forgiven.
He blows hot and cold and he does force her once or twice but it's all explained in the end as him just loving her so much. So all is forgiven.
November 14, 2021
It could be acceptable if it was written in the 1920s.
The heroine is kidnapped by the hero because his fiancée run away with her brother, so first the hero threatens the heroine to rape her and to make her his mistress for revenge then he manhandles her, throttling her, then he proposes.
Just like that, in a matter of minutes.
Is he a psychopath?
Likely.
They get married and they also have good sex, the hero live in some tropical island where he rules as a medieval sovereign, while the heroine is a young liberated woman, and they often clash.
He behaves strangely in my opinion, sometimes cold other hot, but the heroine falls in love with him anyway.
Then her brother arrives to the island and the heroine decides she will stay with her abusive husband. Because he so loved her all along.
Of course.
Not very convincing and very anachronistic.
The heroine is kidnapped by the hero because his fiancée run away with her brother, so first the hero threatens the heroine to rape her and to make her his mistress for revenge then he manhandles her, throttling her, then he proposes.
Just like that, in a matter of minutes.
Is he a psychopath?
Likely.
They get married and they also have good sex, the hero live in some tropical island where he rules as a medieval sovereign, while the heroine is a young liberated woman, and they often clash.
He behaves strangely in my opinion, sometimes cold other hot, but the heroine falls in love with him anyway.
Then her brother arrives to the island and the heroine decides she will stay with her abusive husband. Because he so loved her all along.
Of course.
Not very convincing and very anachronistic.
May 10, 2014
Ahh... no school like old school. I will just let Sam Winchester sum it up
Because why not girl. It is old timey alphahole. And good old fashioned old timey nympho. Hispanic douche abducts, threatens, rapes and then marries "firebrand" liberated New Zealand miss. And missy falls in love because of his "principles"- which include raping and taking the virginity of a woman because her brother ran away with his fiance.
And the fiance is called- wait for it- Pilar!
So aggressive gender role enforcement- check. Sweet stereotypes without character development- check. Rape but it was so good that she loves it- check. Blaming the liberated woman for her husband's unhappiness- check. Killing of said liberated woman conveniently and blaming her for complaining about patriarchy- check.
Holy angsty monotone with bad editing. What is not to louv?
Because why not girl. It is old timey alphahole. And good old fashioned old timey nympho. Hispanic douche abducts, threatens, rapes and then marries "firebrand" liberated New Zealand miss. And missy falls in love because of his "principles"- which include raping and taking the virginity of a woman because her brother ran away with his fiance.
And the fiance is called- wait for it- Pilar!
So aggressive gender role enforcement- check. Sweet stereotypes without character development- check. Rape but it was so good that she loves it- check. Blaming the liberated woman for her husband's unhappiness- check. Killing of said liberated woman conveniently and blaming her for complaining about patriarchy- check.
Holy angsty monotone with bad editing. What is not to louv?
January 1, 2012
A real bodice-ripper with a jerk as a hero and a spineless doll as an heroine
September 26, 2015
A real bodice-ripper old school Harlequin. Read it if you enjoy a cruel alpha hero and a sweet heroine.
September 3, 2018
I know this is Harveyland and sky is the limit to find a reason to fall in love with a cruel abusive hero(my favorite type 😉) however this book was so boring, heroine’s attitude to people/events was soooo silly. The only things that make me give two stars were Hero’s dialogues with h.
This lovely plot went to waste, Yvonne Whittal or Margaret Pargeter could have written better i think.
This lovely plot went to waste, Yvonne Whittal or Margaret Pargeter could have written better i think.
November 21, 2021
Extreme vintage fare. If you’re in the mood it might not be too offensive to you. The H was pms’ing all thru the book in my opinion.
The only leverage I’d say is when he acts like a maniac (encircling the h’s neck with his hands like he’s about to strangle) and thinks of it as an act of endearment to test waters. I know someone in real life just like that so maybe this wasn’t totally made up. Did you hear that ladies? Choking and threatening someone with tales of a knife thru their neck is endearing and is meant to profess love at first sight.
So the h receives a missive telling her to take a plane to attend her brother’s wedding. She gets there and realizes that she’s been duped. Her brother took off with the H’s fiancé and now she herself is this man’s vengeance. The H threatens to use her as a mistress or else to agree to his proposal of marriage with which she’s a prisoner on his island.
The book is long and quite deep. The H’s family is like any other meddling Mediterranean family. The servants are all privy to when their master sleeps with his wife or abandons her and smile about it privately to themselves.
The h isn’t sure of where this relationship leads. The H is rather maniacal and says beyond cruel stuff to the h. He doesn’t give an inch without cutting her through in a battle that didn’t make sense to me. How is competing for a woman’s love against her love for her brother even a situation??
The H is raving mad because despite his threats and strangulations, the h would still not think a minute before running away to her brother. He instead hopes for her to lay her heart out at his crushing feet.
The HEA is sudden and unbelievable. In all honestly the H deserved more than the 2 slaps the h ranks his face with. I’d make it 20.
The only leverage I’d say is when he acts like a maniac (encircling the h’s neck with his hands like he’s about to strangle) and thinks of it as an act of endearment to test waters. I know someone in real life just like that so maybe this wasn’t totally made up. Did you hear that ladies? Choking and threatening someone with tales of a knife thru their neck is endearing and is meant to profess love at first sight.
So the h receives a missive telling her to take a plane to attend her brother’s wedding. She gets there and realizes that she’s been duped. Her brother took off with the H’s fiancé and now she herself is this man’s vengeance. The H threatens to use her as a mistress or else to agree to his proposal of marriage with which she’s a prisoner on his island.
The book is long and quite deep. The H’s family is like any other meddling Mediterranean family. The servants are all privy to when their master sleeps with his wife or abandons her and smile about it privately to themselves.
The h isn’t sure of where this relationship leads. The H is rather maniacal and says beyond cruel stuff to the h. He doesn’t give an inch without cutting her through in a battle that didn’t make sense to me. How is competing for a woman’s love against her love for her brother even a situation??
The H is raving mad because despite his threats and strangulations, the h would still not think a minute before running away to her brother. He instead hopes for her to lay her heart out at his crushing feet.
The HEA is sudden and unbelievable. In all honestly the H deserved more than the 2 slaps the h ranks his face with. I’d make it 20.
November 6, 2023
I would have liked this had the hero not been too cruel. I normally like a cruel and macho hero but this one was too much. I wanted to slap him at times and did not buy it when he said that he had fallen in love with h before he met her (from a pic) and thats why he married her. U gotta show ur work. Too bad, because I m a fan of stories set in Spanish/ south american farms where the hero is a Don something. This one had all the elements but the H ruined it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 24, 2018
Its such a boring book that i wanted to stop reading it in the first chapter but i kept going, it did not get better. Soo bored. Her brother runs of with the H girl so he sends for the h and when she gets there the H tells her that hes gonna rape her but she gets to choose whether she gonnw be his mistress or his wife. She chooses wife and so she becomes a titled rich wife of the H and they have lots of great sex and the h falls in love so now her angst start because the H is not in love with her but he's been calling amorcita which means love in Spanish since chapter 2 or 3 so yeah even the angst felt kinsa fake. I dont know. And telling me the h is independent and defiant but making her a martyr for her brother is stupid. And this book only works because the H is a rich attractive man because if he was not rich or attractive he would be a creepy rapist.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Read
November 1, 2016Can't finish this book, so I will not rate it. As far as I could manage to read the characterizations and conversations are stupendously unrealistic! h goes something like that "Go on rape me. Don't leave it until tomorrow. "!!! She wants the man who is threatening her with rape to go on with it immediately because she wants to get over with it !!! She won't scream, neither beg to be spared because she will keep her dignity!!! It is mind boggling to see that author as a woman cannot conceive indignity and HORROR of a rape... A normal woman would do ANY thing including fight, beg, scream, vomit etc. to prevent it, or delay it with the hope of escape or get help.
Most of RD`s books are quite good but this one is awful (at least as far as I could read).
Most of RD`s books are quite good but this one is awful (at least as far as I could read).
May 28, 2020
Apparently still hungover from her own vintage Harley immersion-read, RD writes a bad version of a Violet Winspear/Ann Mather-esque old-skool trope featuring the cruel older aristo type dominating and manhandling the innocent waif in a forced vengeful marriage. It's almost comically bad, but thankfully for all of us, RD soon found her footing and her unique voice and went on to craft far less cartoony (but way scarier, IMO) alpha Hs and and admirable heroines with some backbone.
November 6, 2018
I liked this romance but it disturbed me that they slept in separate bedrooms. Even in the end when she was in his bedroom he didn´t allow her for once to sleep in his bed. I always thought that married couples should share same bed and bedroom or is it just me that needs physical nearness to feel an emotional connection?
February 5, 2013
AMAZING!!! I loved all of the history involved!
July 5, 2016
an old school.....but i loved it and felt its beautifully described spain...
May 6, 2024
She was so submissive. She had no pride and no brains and no backbone, it was annoying. Many HP h’s are like that, but she takes the cake.
Near the end he tells her to go and he tells her “I’m sick to death of all of you”, but she still wanted to stay with him. She explains to her brother she would rather be unhappy with the H than happy without the H. It would have been a more interesting read if she had called the H’s bluff and would have left him.
Near the end he tells her to go and he tells her “I’m sick to death of all of you”, but she still wanted to stay with him. She explains to her brother she would rather be unhappy with the H than happy without the H. It would have been a more interesting read if she had called the H’s bluff and would have left him.
Read
November 8, 2019uhhhh k. This is just nuts. All the fade to black for the sex makes the reader not know if sex is bringing the hero and heroine closer, it could be hella rape for all we know! Skip. Just too dumb to function.
November 20, 2020
I don't like revenge and I especially don't like it when someone uses a completely innocent third party to effect revenge. That's the backstory here and the book goes downhill from that. This is the kind of novel that gives Harlequins a lurid cheap reputation.
Did not finish.
Did not finish.
August 11, 2021
2.5 stars ⭐️⭐️The H was crazy mean! Needlessly mean and violent. It could have been much better if H showed some feelings toward h. He was so hot and cold. Almost to the last page I wanted h to leave him.
December 20, 2023
Crazy vintage, very non pc but enjoyable in the classic H is an unbelievable bastard Robyn Donald fashion. I have lovely fantasy rewrites of this one where she kills, maims, or divorces him and gets all his $.
May 26, 2017
very entertaining
May 28, 2018
Oh unbelievable....... that was really horrible.
October 28, 2019
Had I been Spaniard, I would have been mighty offended. But it's the least of this book's offenses.
December 1, 2019
Well this was from the stone age....
October 8, 2022
Older Spanish aristocrat, young innocent virgin, forced/revenge marriage, loved you from the first …
This book probably deserves better rating but ultimately, I didn’t feel the love.
This book probably deserves better rating but ultimately, I didn’t feel the love.
July 9, 2025
2.5
H was a moody ass, blowing hot and cold.
h was high strung but still better than him.
H was a moody ass, blowing hot and cold.
h was high strung but still better than him.
April 21, 2021
It is books like these where I tend to question my own thought processes....I definitely need to wash my brain out with 🧼. Should I be offended by this book as a female? Hell yes!!!! I should be offended as a member of the human race, yet not only do I harbor a little bit of a dark side in the recesses of my soul, but I really have a soft spot for these vintage reads. The hero’s ruthless, caveman tactics will not be appreciated by anyone with an ounce of feminism or anyone part of the PC police. Most of the romance in this book will have to be developed in the reader’s’ imagination, because quite frankly there aren’t many romantic moments in this book. .....
SPOILERS AHEAD.........
Our heroine falls madly, deeply in love with our hero despite the fact that ....
*She is brought to the island under false pretenses...she thought she was there to attend her brothers wedding, but come to find out the brother absconded with the Hero’s fiancé and is now out for revenge...The H wrote the letter to lure her there(charming, yes?) or maybe she is in love with him because....
*Once there, the H tells the h she will either submit to him as his mistress where he will use her and leave her to scorn OR she can marry him and he will use her but on the upside she will have respect and can bear him children(oh and he will be faithful too...so happy that RD gave us that little bit of security)...Now our h is a little bit of a spitfire, which is probably to her detriment as I am pretty sure this is a turn on for the H....yet he only lets her be a spitfire to a point...then he employs brute force to keep her in line....he basically tells her that she will learn to heal like a dog and she will be grateful for it(unfortunately this really is foreshadowing how far our h does fall)
* Maybe our h fell in love with him on her wedding night where we are lead to believe that he lovingly coaxed her into sexual servitude(being an older book we do not see them between the sheets) However, she’s pretty sure he called out his ex fiancé’s name which means he will never love the h because he must still love his Pilar.
* I’m sure our h fell in love with the H during the scenes we are not privy to...horse rides, hanging out, times where he treats her like an equal...of course she tells us about the good times, we never actually see the H being good...for most of the book he is grabbing, choking, or sneering at the h
* Absence makes the heart grow fonder? H goes to Bangkok and our h misses him dearly even though she has been told by a wannabe ow that he is in Bangkok at the same time his ex lover is there...basically weaving more doubt into our h’s head...upon his arrival home she is pleased but then flinches from him and this makes him obsessively angry...he rapes her, she feels guilty because she responded to him....she lays crying in bed next to him and this is him...
He let her cry, lying on his back in the rumpled bed beside her....her tears start to abate...he says, “let that be a lesson to you” Then he blathers on about him owning her and that he doesn’t need her love just her respect....So at this point I really should have stopped reading this book and let my review die here...but nope not me...there are still 70 some pages in the book to go and my darkness wins out so I
continue reading....
Of course she can’t help but love him after that and he bought her some pretty earrings from Bangkok...we find out that he has a picture of her that was left behind by the brother(so the romantic in me is going to assume he fell in love with her picture)
The story continues, he sneers, she submits. On one of their outings they scuba dive and have a great time together where he later makes love to her and she professes her love for him....so he becomes distant...they do some entertaining...he almost raped her again but settled for bruising her instead...he brings her brother to the island then says she may leave if she wants to...she doesn’t and waits for him to come home and then enters his bedchamber...it is at this point the H lets her know that he has loved her since she first arrived...he explains away his cruelty and they will now live happily ever after...
I did learn a new word...so um, that makes up for all the other things I allowed my brain to absorb with this book making it all worthwhile...here was the word
per·spi·ca·cious
having a ready insight into and understanding of things.
Before this book I read a very tame Betty Neels book, I have a batch of her books recently acquired at a sale, so I may need to use them as a cleanser to use after books such as this! Enjoy!!!
SPOILERS AHEAD.........
Our heroine falls madly, deeply in love with our hero despite the fact that ....
*She is brought to the island under false pretenses...she thought she was there to attend her brothers wedding, but come to find out the brother absconded with the Hero’s fiancé and is now out for revenge...The H wrote the letter to lure her there(charming, yes?) or maybe she is in love with him because....
*Once there, the H tells the h she will either submit to him as his mistress where he will use her and leave her to scorn OR she can marry him and he will use her but on the upside she will have respect and can bear him children(oh and he will be faithful too...so happy that RD gave us that little bit of security)...Now our h is a little bit of a spitfire, which is probably to her detriment as I am pretty sure this is a turn on for the H....yet he only lets her be a spitfire to a point...then he employs brute force to keep her in line....he basically tells her that she will learn to heal like a dog and she will be grateful for it(unfortunately this really is foreshadowing how far our h does fall)
* Maybe our h fell in love with him on her wedding night where we are lead to believe that he lovingly coaxed her into sexual servitude(being an older book we do not see them between the sheets) However, she’s pretty sure he called out his ex fiancé’s name which means he will never love the h because he must still love his Pilar.
* I’m sure our h fell in love with the H during the scenes we are not privy to...horse rides, hanging out, times where he treats her like an equal...of course she tells us about the good times, we never actually see the H being good...for most of the book he is grabbing, choking, or sneering at the h
* Absence makes the heart grow fonder? H goes to Bangkok and our h misses him dearly even though she has been told by a wannabe ow that he is in Bangkok at the same time his ex lover is there...basically weaving more doubt into our h’s head...upon his arrival home she is pleased but then flinches from him and this makes him obsessively angry...he rapes her, she feels guilty because she responded to him....she lays crying in bed next to him and this is him...
He let her cry, lying on his back in the rumpled bed beside her....her tears start to abate...he says, “let that be a lesson to you” Then he blathers on about him owning her and that he doesn’t need her love just her respect....So at this point I really should have stopped reading this book and let my review die here...but nope not me...there are still 70 some pages in the book to go and my darkness wins out so I
continue reading....
Of course she can’t help but love him after that and he bought her some pretty earrings from Bangkok...we find out that he has a picture of her that was left behind by the brother(so the romantic in me is going to assume he fell in love with her picture)
The story continues, he sneers, she submits. On one of their outings they scuba dive and have a great time together where he later makes love to her and she professes her love for him....so he becomes distant...they do some entertaining...he almost raped her again but settled for bruising her instead...he brings her brother to the island then says she may leave if she wants to...she doesn’t and waits for him to come home and then enters his bedchamber...it is at this point the H lets her know that he has loved her since she first arrived...he explains away his cruelty and they will now live happily ever after...
I did learn a new word...so um, that makes up for all the other things I allowed my brain to absorb with this book making it all worthwhile...here was the word
per·spi·ca·cious
having a ready insight into and understanding of things.
Before this book I read a very tame Betty Neels book, I have a batch of her books recently acquired at a sale, so I may need to use them as a cleanser to use after books such as this! Enjoy!!!
December 20, 2020
Soooooo boring.
The H n h were both extremely foolish people.
The H n h were both extremely foolish people.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews