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Pacific Waterfront #13
The Touch Of Love
The Touch Of Love by Vanessa Grant released on Nov 22, 1991 is available now for purchase.
- GenresHarlequin Presents
187 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1990
About the author
Vanessa Grant
95 books43 followers"I love writing fiction - it's the perfect occupation for someone who can't decide what they want to be when they grow up. With each new story, I get to explore a new world."
Vanessa Grant's love affair with writing fiction began during a protracted illness at the age of 12 when she decided to write a novel of her own, sitting up in bed using the typewriter she'd been given for her birthday. Not a computer, not an electric typewriter, but a then-state-of-the-art manual typewriter. The story ground to a halt on page 50 but Vanessa never forgot the excitement of bringing her own characters to life.
In 1985 Vanessa's novel Pacific Disturbance was published in hardcover by Mills and Boon. She now has over 10 million books sold and has been translated into 15 languages. She also has written what one critic described as, "by far the best writing book I've ever read." Writing Romance, published by Self Counsel Press, won the Under the Covers Best Writing Book Award, and is currently in its third edition.
Over the years her love of storytelling and curiosity about people led Vanessa to study psychology, volunteer on a crisis line, complete individual and relationship counselor training, volunteer as a peer counselor for a family life organization, and tell stories about life, love, and secrets. Vanessa is also a university professor, a publisher of educational materials and eBooks, and has given workshops to writers' groups in Australia, New Zealand, the USA and Canada.
Vanessa and her husband live on Vancouver Island in the Pacific Northwest with their two Australian Shepherd dogs.
Vanessa Grant's love affair with writing fiction began during a protracted illness at the age of 12 when she decided to write a novel of her own, sitting up in bed using the typewriter she'd been given for her birthday. Not a computer, not an electric typewriter, but a then-state-of-the-art manual typewriter. The story ground to a halt on page 50 but Vanessa never forgot the excitement of bringing her own characters to life.
In 1985 Vanessa's novel Pacific Disturbance was published in hardcover by Mills and Boon. She now has over 10 million books sold and has been translated into 15 languages. She also has written what one critic described as, "by far the best writing book I've ever read." Writing Romance, published by Self Counsel Press, won the Under the Covers Best Writing Book Award, and is currently in its third edition.
Over the years her love of storytelling and curiosity about people led Vanessa to study psychology, volunteer on a crisis line, complete individual and relationship counselor training, volunteer as a peer counselor for a family life organization, and tell stories about life, love, and secrets. Vanessa is also a university professor, a publisher of educational materials and eBooks, and has given workshops to writers' groups in Australia, New Zealand, the USA and Canada.
Vanessa and her husband live on Vancouver Island in the Pacific Northwest with their two Australian Shepherd dogs.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
August 30, 2017
Re The Touch of Love - Vanessa Grant continues the theme of sisters dying in childbirth and leaving their baby to be cared for by relatives. But where Helen Bianchin chose to go the usual MOC Alpha H blackmail route, VG takes a whole different approach. This one starts slow, but I was having a little crying moment by the end of it. Angst junkies need to get their hankies out, this one has some huge emotional depth.
The book opens with the 36 yr old H taking his sister's son to the boy's father. All he has is an address in Queen Charlotte in Haida Gwaii Islands, but he read the letters his sister's lover wrote to her and he knows the man will want his son. There is a bit of humor as the big burly ice breaker ship captain H tries to calm a cranky newborn who is getting sea sick on the ferry. He always thought getting over sea sickness was just a matter of imposing iron will on yourself, but since he has gone through three changes of clothes in a few hours cause the baby keeps getting sick on him, he is starting to rethink that opinion.
Eventually he makes it to the island and next we find him knocking on the h's door. The h is a song writer for her brother, who is becoming a big singing star. She herself hates crowds and performing and prefers the reclusive island life and even has her own little sound proofed music room and synthesizer system to compose best selling songs.
The h tried to live a more fast lane lifestyle in Los Angeles and was engaged to her agent, but she wasn't happy and her creativity dried up, so it is pretty safe to assume that our h is an introvert and likes the isolated island life. She still doesn't know what she was thinking to get engaged to her agent, but she has no regrets for breaking it off.
Which turns out to be a good thing, cause the H likes the isolated island life too. He lives on another, more northerly Canadian island and he likes the solitude of captaining his ice breaker for an arctic oil rig set up at sea as well.
The H is an orphan and his sister was his only living relative. The H has a lot of baggage from not really being wanted after his parents died when he was a child, but since he and his sister were a pair, his foster families would tolerate him as they liked his sister. The H did his best to be helpful and fit in, but for all intents and purposes, he is even more reclusive and introverted than the h and he has no relationship skills AT ALL.
The h is shocked to find a big handsome guy with a baby on her doorstep. The house actually belongs to her show business parents, they have traveled to various engagements all over the world for all of the h and her twin brother's life. So when the twins needed a formal education as children, their parents bought a house in the Haida Gwaii, moved the twins in under the auspices of a housekeeper and went right back to travelling the world and performing. The H explains what happened with his sister and the baby and the h invites the H to stay after she reassures him that she isn't her twin brother's wife. Unfortunately her brother is out in the middle of the ocean sailing to Hawaii and there is no way to contact him privately or get him back quickly.
As the H and h start coordinating schedules to care for their nephew and work around the h's songwriting time, they start to realize there is a big underlying attraction. They have one night of lurve and then the H feels overwhelmed by the intensity of his feelings and he leaves in the aftermath. The H also has a woman he has been casually dating and was supposed to be going to Mexico with, but after the night with the h, he breaks it off with the OW and tries to get his emotions in order about the h.
His ice breaker is stationed as support for a deep arctic sea oil rig and the H only gets one five minute personal phone call every week. He starts calling the h once a week and the h is trying to figure out her feelings for the H in the interim between phone calls. (VG does this part pretty well, she has the H and h living on their own isolated islands with the weekly satellite phone calls being the tenuous bridge between them that keeps the relationship going. ) The h eventually comes to terms with the fact that she loves the H and then she finds out she is pregnant.
She goes to tell the H while he is on his regularly scheduled two weeks off and the H doesn't take the news well. Her brother has long since collected his own son and he and the baby are establishing themselves in LA and seem to be doing okay. The h's parents want to sell the house in Queen Charlotte and the h is having problems composing new songs. She has to make some choices and she sorta gives the H an ultimatum about only marrying for love and not just cause she is preggers and the H can't respond to it because of his emotional baggage. So the h winds up leaving the H to sort out his own drama while she focuses on her own.
The h does some more thinking and realizes that she was a bit pushy in rejecting the H's pragmatic offer of marriage, so when he starts calling her every week again, she is happy to just let things between them slowly simmer. Then the H gets pinned by a seven ton sea anchor when they are moving the oil rig and he is seriously injured. The h is notified by the shipping company and she rushes off to Calgary to be at the H's hospital bedside. The H thought he was going to die and it clarified a lot of things for him. But he had to have multiple surgeries, so we and the h have to wait for him to recover a bit.
Eventually the H and h make it back to the H's house on his island and the H finds out that the h is temporarily without a place to live as her parents have sold the childhood home to finance their retirement. The H tells the h he wants her to stay with him and he will make her a new music studio in his house. There is a really, really great five page declaration of love from the H and the h has pledged her devotion several times during the H's recovery period. The H finally realized that he may not be very good a relationships, but he really loves the h and wants to try and they happily agree to marry for the big HEA.
This one is pretty low key but the latter third packed a huge emotional wallop. The angst junkies should jump on this one, cause the emotionalism was great and the payoff was huge and over all this little sleeper HP was a fabulous outing in HPlandia.
The book opens with the 36 yr old H taking his sister's son to the boy's father. All he has is an address in Queen Charlotte in Haida Gwaii Islands, but he read the letters his sister's lover wrote to her and he knows the man will want his son. There is a bit of humor as the big burly ice breaker ship captain H tries to calm a cranky newborn who is getting sea sick on the ferry. He always thought getting over sea sickness was just a matter of imposing iron will on yourself, but since he has gone through three changes of clothes in a few hours cause the baby keeps getting sick on him, he is starting to rethink that opinion.
Eventually he makes it to the island and next we find him knocking on the h's door. The h is a song writer for her brother, who is becoming a big singing star. She herself hates crowds and performing and prefers the reclusive island life and even has her own little sound proofed music room and synthesizer system to compose best selling songs.
The h tried to live a more fast lane lifestyle in Los Angeles and was engaged to her agent, but she wasn't happy and her creativity dried up, so it is pretty safe to assume that our h is an introvert and likes the isolated island life. She still doesn't know what she was thinking to get engaged to her agent, but she has no regrets for breaking it off.
Which turns out to be a good thing, cause the H likes the isolated island life too. He lives on another, more northerly Canadian island and he likes the solitude of captaining his ice breaker for an arctic oil rig set up at sea as well.
The H is an orphan and his sister was his only living relative. The H has a lot of baggage from not really being wanted after his parents died when he was a child, but since he and his sister were a pair, his foster families would tolerate him as they liked his sister. The H did his best to be helpful and fit in, but for all intents and purposes, he is even more reclusive and introverted than the h and he has no relationship skills AT ALL.
The h is shocked to find a big handsome guy with a baby on her doorstep. The house actually belongs to her show business parents, they have traveled to various engagements all over the world for all of the h and her twin brother's life. So when the twins needed a formal education as children, their parents bought a house in the Haida Gwaii, moved the twins in under the auspices of a housekeeper and went right back to travelling the world and performing. The H explains what happened with his sister and the baby and the h invites the H to stay after she reassures him that she isn't her twin brother's wife. Unfortunately her brother is out in the middle of the ocean sailing to Hawaii and there is no way to contact him privately or get him back quickly.
As the H and h start coordinating schedules to care for their nephew and work around the h's songwriting time, they start to realize there is a big underlying attraction. They have one night of lurve and then the H feels overwhelmed by the intensity of his feelings and he leaves in the aftermath. The H also has a woman he has been casually dating and was supposed to be going to Mexico with, but after the night with the h, he breaks it off with the OW and tries to get his emotions in order about the h.
His ice breaker is stationed as support for a deep arctic sea oil rig and the H only gets one five minute personal phone call every week. He starts calling the h once a week and the h is trying to figure out her feelings for the H in the interim between phone calls. (VG does this part pretty well, she has the H and h living on their own isolated islands with the weekly satellite phone calls being the tenuous bridge between them that keeps the relationship going. ) The h eventually comes to terms with the fact that she loves the H and then she finds out she is pregnant.
She goes to tell the H while he is on his regularly scheduled two weeks off and the H doesn't take the news well. Her brother has long since collected his own son and he and the baby are establishing themselves in LA and seem to be doing okay. The h's parents want to sell the house in Queen Charlotte and the h is having problems composing new songs. She has to make some choices and she sorta gives the H an ultimatum about only marrying for love and not just cause she is preggers and the H can't respond to it because of his emotional baggage. So the h winds up leaving the H to sort out his own drama while she focuses on her own.
The h does some more thinking and realizes that she was a bit pushy in rejecting the H's pragmatic offer of marriage, so when he starts calling her every week again, she is happy to just let things between them slowly simmer. Then the H gets pinned by a seven ton sea anchor when they are moving the oil rig and he is seriously injured. The h is notified by the shipping company and she rushes off to Calgary to be at the H's hospital bedside. The H thought he was going to die and it clarified a lot of things for him. But he had to have multiple surgeries, so we and the h have to wait for him to recover a bit.
Eventually the H and h make it back to the H's house on his island and the H finds out that the h is temporarily without a place to live as her parents have sold the childhood home to finance their retirement. The H tells the h he wants her to stay with him and he will make her a new music studio in his house. There is a really, really great five page declaration of love from the H and the h has pledged her devotion several times during the H's recovery period. The H finally realized that he may not be very good a relationships, but he really loves the h and wants to try and they happily agree to marry for the big HEA.
This one is pretty low key but the latter third packed a huge emotional wallop. The angst junkies should jump on this one, cause the emotionalism was great and the payoff was huge and over all this little sleeper HP was a fabulous outing in HPlandia.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 13, 2019
Set in Canada. *sigh* I should have known I wasn’t the right reader for this one when the opening is the hero is on board a ferry with his seasick infant nephew. Ferries just aren’t the stuff of (my) dreams. Neither is the heroine worrying about the expense of electric heating versus oil versus wood.
This is all authentic to the Canadian experience, but it’s not what I’m looking for in a romance.
The heroine is a song writer. The hero is the captain of an ice-breaker in the Arctic. The baby’s mother has just died and hero is tracking down the father, heroine’s brother who is a popular singer. Brother is sailing to Hawaii but is due back eventually.
Hero hangs around being attracted to the heroine and/or accusing her of being a tease. Heroine fusses over formula and diapers and the latest track she’s trying to record. The H/h have a one night stand. Hero then runs away.
And here I started skimming since the hero wasn’t worth her(my) time. I didn’t like his attitude with the baby at the book’s opening, and it was even worse when heroine told him she was pregnant. He was a complete jerk about it, accusing her of trapping him and refusing to help her plan. It’s only when he was injured and airlifted off of his ship that he realized how he felt about the heroine.
Whatever, dude. It’s been awhile since I’ve read such a self-pitying hero and I hope it will a while before I run across one again.
This is all authentic to the Canadian experience, but it’s not what I’m looking for in a romance.
The heroine is a song writer. The hero is the captain of an ice-breaker in the Arctic. The baby’s mother has just died and hero is tracking down the father, heroine’s brother who is a popular singer. Brother is sailing to Hawaii but is due back eventually.
Hero hangs around being attracted to the heroine and/or accusing her of being a tease. Heroine fusses over formula and diapers and the latest track she’s trying to record. The H/h have a one night stand. Hero then runs away.
And here I started skimming since the hero wasn’t worth her(my) time. I didn’t like his attitude with the baby at the book’s opening, and it was even worse when heroine told him she was pregnant. He was a complete jerk about it, accusing her of trapping him and refusing to help her plan. It’s only when he was injured and airlifted off of his ship that he realized how he felt about the heroine.
Whatever, dude. It’s been awhile since I’ve read such a self-pitying hero and I hope it will a while before I run across one again.
October 22, 2020
HAIKU BOOK REVIEW: The Touch of Love, by Vanessa Grant.
Seaman, Songwriter
conceive, then struggle through their
commitment-phobia .
August 22, 2020
Melody Connacher’s life as a song-writer hidden away on a beautiful island on the west coast of Canada seemed one of tranquil happiness until rugged ship’s captain Scott Alexander burst into her world. For the sake of the baby in his arms, she couldn’t turn him away, but his arrival shattered her existence with unforeseen consequences.
April 22, 2021
She’s 30 years old. When they are about to have sex, he asks if she’s prepared for it. She says ‘yes’, because that moment is what she has been waiting for her entire life. A 30-year old woman who is that stupid and doesn’t know what birth control is, that’s unbearable.
Read
December 19, 2021امير الاحلام رواية عبير
Read
November 24, 2012blurb:
Keep your imagination where it belongs
That's what Melody Connacher told herself. It was okay to go a little crazy when writing songs, hidden away on her beautiful island--but to reach out her arms and whisper his name, that was madness.
Scott Alexander, the rugged ship's master who had burst into her world, was a stranger even if he was attractive and pleasant. She really knew almost nothing about him--except that he wasn't a man for staying.
But if Melody turned and looked at him, whispered a word of consent--it would happen. An affair--hot and quick and over.
Keep your imagination where it belongs
That's what Melody Connacher told herself. It was okay to go a little crazy when writing songs, hidden away on her beautiful island--but to reach out her arms and whisper his name, that was madness.
Scott Alexander, the rugged ship's master who had burst into her world, was a stranger even if he was attractive and pleasant. She really knew almost nothing about him--except that he wasn't a man for staying.
But if Melody turned and looked at him, whispered a word of consent--it would happen. An affair--hot and quick and over.
avoid
September 1, 2017Ummmm....it take almost kiss of death to realise you love her?
You are loser! And a tosser!
You are loser! And a tosser!
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews