The Highest Stakes of All

by Sara Craven

The House always wins… Once upon a time, and far away, Joanna Vernon found herself the ultimate prize in a dangerously high-stakes card game. When the last hand had been revealed, the knowing curl of Vassos Gordanis’ lip told her he had every intention of claiming his winnings… Though no setting could be more beautiful than Vassos’ private island, to Joanna the Aegean Sea was merely a turquoise-hued prison wall. In the Gordanis house a woman was expected to know her place, and this merciless Greek knew exactly where he planned to settle the score… MEN WITHOUT MERCY Arrogant and proud, unashamedly male!

Genres: Harlequin, Romance, Harlequin Presents, Contemporary Romance, Contemporary, Harlequin Romance, Hqn

195 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Anne Bushell was born on October 1938 in South Devon, England, just before World War II and grew up in a house crammed with books. She was always a voracious reader, some of her all-time favorites books are: "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen, "Middlemarch" by George Eliot, "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë, "Gone With the Wind" by Margaret Mitchell and "The Code of the Woosters" by P. G. Wodehouse.

She worked as journalist at the Paignton Observer, but after her marriage, she moved to the north of England, where she worked as teacher. After she returned to journalism, she joined the Middlesbrough Writers' Group, where she met other romance writer Mildred Grieveson (Anne Mather). She started to wrote romance, and she had her first novel "Garden of Dreams" accepted by Mills & Boon in 1975, she published her work under the pseudonym of Sara Craven. In 2010 she became chairman of the Southern Writers' Conference, and the next year was elected the twenty-six Chairman (2011–2013) of the Romantic Novelists' Association.

Divorced twice, Annie lives in Somerset, South West England, and shares her home with a West Highland white terrier called Bertie Wooster. In her house, she had several thousand books, and an amazing video collection. When she's not writing, she enjoys watching very old films, listening to music, going to the theatre, and eating in good restaurants. She also likes to travel in Europe, to inspire her romances, especially in France, Greece and Italy where many of her novels are set. Since the birth of her twin grandchildren, she is also a regular visitor to New York City, where the little tots live. In 1997, she was the overall winner of the BBC's Mastermind, winning the last final presented by Magnus Magnusson.

Reviews

[Julz · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars

What can I say about this one to give it credence for the awesome trainwreck that it is? This one has’em hissing and spitting in outrage and is, indeed, one of the most un-pc stories I’ve read in a few months, for a Harley anyway.

We start at a hotel in France where our sexy heroine, Joanna Vernon, is being coerced by her hot gambling daddy (she calls him Denys) to babe it up in order to distract the other players so he can clean house. After some mystery occurrence in Australia, she thought she would never have to lower herself in such a way again (boo hoo, how could he?), but daddy always wins…when he’s not on a losing streak, that is. However, she definitely wouldn’t until she got through babysitting, dammit! Gotta love a good Mary Sue and her determination to remain true to herself where it counts.

Enter the hero, Vassos Gordanis, who first rattled the babe’s cage when he flexed his Greek pecs over the side of his yacht, and now had her trembling with trepidation with his hotness and his hard stares. Daddy Denys was oblivious to the off vibe, but baby girl knew something wasn’t right when they sat her strategically across from The Gord while having burly bodyguards focus their stink eye on her throughout the game. Just when Sweet Thing thought they just might make it out unscathed and even ahead of the game, Daddy Denny’s gambling addiction grabbed him by the goozle, and he put the whole kitnkaboodle, including his baby girl, in the pot against our hero. Well, you know what happens. Daddy loses and gets escorted out like the wretch he is, leaving Sugar there in her go-go boots with the big bad Greek God with the “I will have you” look on his face. We get the warm little speech from our hero where he informs his winnings that he planned to use her goods until he was done and tired of her and then planned to sell her off for a tidy little profit. I have a scrape on the bottom of my chin from where my jaw hit the floor. Really? Human trafficking? In a Harley? Woah! I guess that will teach her to shake her pompoms in order to help her old man to swindle unsuspecting pigeons out of their life savings.

In an anticlimactic move from Godly Gordanis, he decided he was too tired to cash in his winnings that night and sent his little goodie bag to his private island somewhere in Greece. Of course everyone there was also hissing and spitting (literally) to ward off the evil from our innocent and misunderstood skank. Along the way, we learn that this whole scene was a setup, snared in a trap of their own making, in retribution for ruining the life of the nephew (or was it a second cousin?) of the hero’s. I thought we were going to find out the dude had jumped off a building or something, but actually he just got dumped by his fiancé…but it was life altering! and they had no right to do what they did to him! Poor little dude (who turns out to be a lying little dude). There had been some other shady character, Lucky Louie or something other, who was really the catalyst, but it wouldn’t have been any fun to get revenge on him.

Our hero finally returns all hot and horny and can’t even wait until bedtime to find out how sweet was the pie that influenced his little relative to throw away his whole future just for a taste. This is where we find out that the nephew had claimed that she seduced him and drugged him with her hawt sex, until he didn’t know which way was up. So the hero goes in with gun cocked and loaded only to jump off like a scalded cat when the heroine screeches bloody murder in his ear. Can’t remember if she ever said why she didn’t tell the hero about the hymen, but that’s beside the point now. Dubious consent maximus. The upside is that the whole household got to witness the evidence of her virginal (cough, ex-virginal) status and no longer spit in her path.

It’s at this point where I expected that the hero would be hit with pangs of conscience and free the little bird now that he knew that she was just as much a victim of her skeeze daddy as the men whose money they took. Nope. Made no difference at all. Our amorous stud started cashing on a nightly basis for days and week. Although our blossoming flower wanted to spread her petals, she forced herself to stay closed up (figuratively speaking) so he would never know how she was starting to feel for him. Stockholm Syndrome!!!!

There was some side plots about a hidden daughter and how heroine was pivotal in saving the father-daughter relationship. It was only then, when he got his first taste of fatherhood that he had an eureka moment and thought maybe coerced submission wasn’t the way to a woman’s heart, cause he was falling in love too, you know. All that raping had been in order for her to start to feel something for him and want live with him forever, never knowing that she was already there.

With pangs of guilt and remorse, Va Va Vassos goes and finds Big Daddy and ships him and his new rich wife over to collect our gently used heroine. We get some snide and denigrating remarks from the new stepmomma and groveling and regrets from pops. But our little chip off the old block did some gambling of her own and claimed that she had a bun in the oven and wasn’t going anywhere. We had some gasps of shock and pleasure and our unconventional couple made their declarations of love. Of course she was lying through her teeth, or making proclamations of the future as she put it, but she got to cash in her chips and end up with a Greek god with his own yacht.

I know this one broke every rule of decency, but I loved it. It was crazy and over the top and brave for all its outrageousness. Yes, the heroine got the short stick for a while, but she was a con artist, even if a misunderstood one. And she did end up with hot husband and an island after all. Daddy got his comeuppance and had to live under the thumb of that rich, evil harpy. And the hero got taught a lesson and will be doing his own belly crawl forever and ever. Everything worked out for everyone’s benefit, yes? So don’t be so mad.

[StMargarets · Rating 4 out of 5]

A glorious trainwreck of the old skool variety that really shook everyone up when it came out in 2011. SC set it in 1975, but as Boogenhagen points out her review, the hero grovel was not standard for the 1970's.

Anyway, this one has it all - a virgin heroine exploited by her gambler father. A revenge-filled hero who "buys" the heroine because she supposedly caused his nephew to lose a lot of money. By the end of chapter four he promises to use the heroine and then sell her to some other guy. The stakes *are* high as the title suggests.

Hero does forcibly seduce/rape the heroine. Instead of softening toward the heroine, he is angry he's been duped, and he doesn't let the heroine off the hook. He'll teach her to enjoy sex. Meanwhile heroine befriends the hero's neglected daughter and decides she loves the hero.

When the hero realizes his daughter is really his daughter (long story), he discovers his inner feminist and realizes he needs to give the heroine her life back. Heroine is heart-broken to leave this prince of a man.

Heroine's father finally shows up to blackmail the hero, but heroine pretends to be pregnant so she can stay with the hero. Declarations and grovels ensue.

For all the hero's bad behavior (and it was very bad), I think daddy dearest was the biggest villain in all of this. Plus his new wife is pure evil. It almost makes sense the heroine wants to stay with the H - almost. LOL

For trainwreck lovers only.

[Vintage · Rating 1 out of 5]

Two words. Stockholm. Syndrome.

This Harley had it all: gambling, virginity, revenge, rape, parental betrayal, lots of great sex followed by indifference. Hey, what's not to love.

I have a love/hate relationship with Harlequins, but in this case I may go to simply hate.

In Harley world, it's not that a heroine can't be so stupid as to fall in love with an abusive alpha male, but these two NEVER relate on any level but sex. Great sex, but still....Even after he hurts her while taking her virginity he does not re-evaluate the situation. What kind of a Greek alpha billionaire is he, that he is not overcome with remorse for taking the virgin's virginity? This is simply not done in a Harlequin. The hero always regrets taking the heroine's virginity. H needs to read the rule book.

The heroine is deadly. Never speaks up for herself, caves at the first opportunity, and wears a doormat quite nicely.

All I wanted her to do was go the poolhouse, get a floaty and paddle herself away from his private island. Yes, his own private island.

[boogenhagen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I gotta confess I like this book.

NO, I don't advocate rape, selling women or bitch slaps. But I still fondly remember the Sara Craven's and other HP's from the 70's that were my very first romances. These were seekrit modern bodice rippers that my mum felt were much more age apropos than The Flame and the Flower or Sweet Savage Love which is what she was reading at the time. (which I did read BTW, just under the covers at night )

Fortunately, she never really picked up one of those little forced seduction/sold as a sex slave/complete with bitch slap gems cause then I probably would have got foisted off with Nancy Drew Complete Series Set, #1-64. And that would have been a terrible waste of flash light batteries.

So that explains my fondness for the book. But what really makes this one stand out is how SC modernizes the H at the end.

See,in the 70's it was all rape/forced seduction, with the sneaky h outwitting the domineering H by doing something he
specifically forbade her to do and then the H having a HOLY COW Hissy Bitch slap fit and then the h's shattering realization that she really lurves this primitive manly man.

The H acknowledges that he lurves her too-- by a manly grunt and a loogy-hawk as he hauls her by her hair back to his (usually fabulous in Harvest Gold and Avocado Green) man cave-- there to live in her mindless lust-induced adoration with his acknowledging grunts forevah and evah-world-without-end-amen.

Sara Craven takes a bold step forward in this proud 70's tradition and actually has the H in this one explain himself --including appropriate begging and actual flowery declaration of true lurve and the H even (OMG--Gasp!) asks the h to marry him.

This ending with H manly explanations and an actual proposal would have caused a riot back in the day. The wails and complaints of having an H actually talk about his feelings would have rung around Romancelandia and probably would have ended the HP line.

Nowadays we are more evolved of course, and can enjoy the nostalgia of forced seduction/dragging by the hair with the added bonus of the last three pages of Sudden H Personality Transplant to A Sensitive New Age Kinda Guy Who Can Talk About His Feelings in Words Of TWO Syllables (instead of one grunt and mind control).

I appreciated the difference with this one and fondly recalled the many, many nights under the blankies with my trusty flashlight and a forced seduction.

[KC · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Sara Craven pens a romance that alternates between sheer fun for its '70s pop culture references and angst for its revenge-by-sexual-enslavement plotline. To make her narrative even more interesting, the author serves it in an amalgamation of the Persephone myth, Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, and the vintage romance (this one is set in 1975, which also happens to be the same year the author started writing for Harlequin Mills & Boon).

My favorite references to the latter had to be the heroine's skimpy crochet dresses and VHS cassette tapes, but in a disappointing twist the hero doesn't wear a gold-medallion necklace. All isn't lost, though, as he and the heroine do engage in a slinky dance which is the hallmark of any self-respecting '70s romance. (See Love At First Bite or Airplane! LOL)

While not campy, Vassos and Joanna's dance to Donna Summer's disco hit Love to Love You Baby is anticlimactic, clean fun because poor Jo doesn't even get a kiss, much less a full-blown lovemaking session that evening. But I'm rounding up to four stars because I can't stop thinking about the brief yet oh, so sensual scene told in flashback format. 😉

So on to the revenge plot. . . . Joanna is an unhappy accomplice to daddy dearest's gambling cons because he needs her and, well, she's a Sara Craven heroine. They're martyrs when it comes to family, and that's the way it is. She and Daddy of the Year are in for a surprise, though, when one of their past tricks comes back to bite them in the form of the wrathful Greek hero, Vassos. He's out to avenge his family by leveling the score the biblical way.

Joanna didn't have sex with Petros, hero's cousin's son, but she had led him on and could have had warned him about the trap her father and his cronies had set up for him.

I wonder, though, if Vassos would have been as dedicated to his scheme of turning the beautiful heroine into his sex slave if he'd found her unattractive. Would he have fantasized about his profit margins instead? Laid back and thought of Greece? Because the way Vassos put it, his revenge just HAD to mirror Joanna's apparent crime of pumping and dumping her victims. Joanna states she wouldn't have been in that exact situation if she'd been ugly, so I'm left pondering.

Anyway, I enjoyed the delicious angst and longing on Joanna's side. But the meaningful interactions between her and Vassos were too scarce, as was the lack of deeper insight into hero's feelings. Instant love is fine, but the theme still needs to be significantly developed to deliver a swoonworthy romance. Vassos does, however, deliver a nice grovel and this ultra-sweet line at the end, so all's well that ends well:

Our need for each other did not flower slowly and gently from trust and liking, as it should have done—I wish with all my soul it had happened that way—but it is no less real. And, no matter how it began, it is ending well. She is my woman, I am her man, and nothing can change that.

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

I realize this book will not be for everyone but I liked it. Maybe it's because it is an extremely old school Harlequin and I have a soft spot for those. Hero is very alpha, heroine is his victim but she is also a con artist so she's not entirely innocent. Her kidnapping didn't bother me and her "rape" didn't bother me either because I didn't see it as rape at all. She was clearly smitten with her captor and she definitely enjoyed their lovemaking.

In my opinion the real villain of the story was her father. Talk about a major bastard! I wanted to slap him silly for using his daughter nonstop and basically prostituting her. What made me even more furious was that the heroine forgave him for being such an asshole. She should kick him to the curb but alas she has a kind heart!!

[Raffaella · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don’t really know how to rate this one.
It left me with an unpleasant feeling that I can’t define.
All characters in this book are horrible.
The worst is the heroine’s father. He is a game addicted, but he’s a selfish sob that pimp his daughter to deceive other gamblers. He says she’s his niece (read: mistress) and forces her to dress like a slut and to entice om while he plays.
She’s barely 18.
No words.
The heroine is awful because she accepts the situation and doesn’t leave that sob coward of father.
And because when he sells her to the hero during a game of cards she doesn’t rebel.
She should have banged his head with a steel rod and spit his face and left as fast as she could. And afterwards she should have told the hero the truth about herself instead of letting him think she was really an old man’s mistress who deceived gamblers.
The hero is another coward. She buys the heroine and threatens to sell her to other men as soon as he has finished with her, rapes her and even when he understands she was an innocent (quite) and her father used her, he keeps on using her for sex without caring how she felt.
And he kept a little girl hidden in an island with a nasty woman because he thought she was not his daughter.
How can a man be so low?
I couldn’t understand how the heroine fell in love with him, but since she still loved her father after all he did to her I think that she was a dependent passive aggressive creature who was a coward herself because she was not able to live alone and accepted to be with a brute selfish bastard who abused her for fear of being alone.
Depressing.
Oh the sex was tacky and disgusting.
She was raped and it was only painful for her, and afterwards the zero had sex with her and she never enjoyed it. He’s not man enough to try to please her.
And when he tells her she doesn’t give him anything she feels guilty.
Really?
A man who kidnapped you, raped you and keeps raping you?
Stockholm syndrome if I ever saw one.
I can’t buy the happy ending.
I can’t connect with this writer.

[Steelwhisper · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oooff! I need to think.

Okay, there are several problems with this, hence the time I needed to think.

First and foremostly: this is not tongue-in-cheek satire or some nod at former bodice rippers by a young author. No, this is an actual bodice ripper, written in 2010 by a woman who wrote them already in the 1970s.

Sara Craven was 72 when she wrote this book, and the purplish prose as well as the unmitigated bodice ripping (aka rape-apology and male supremancy) obviously are a result of her own ideology.

Given this I have a very hard time being amused by this book, even though I actually was amused at times. Read from a modern vantage point I might agree with Loederkoningin's take of this being sort of a D/s-non-con slavery scenario sprung at unwary romance readers. Had it been written as such, with a certain tongue-in-cheek attitude and routing all the FSoG-derivates and Twilight-wannabes at the same time, this would have certainly commanded a high rating and my applause.

Unfortunately I am convinced it isn't this. Instead I think it is a genuine article written many years after its heyday. Therefore it gets 1* for being rape-apologist and 2* for being amusing. And I rounded up rather than down here on Goodreads for the plot bunnies it gave me ;)

[KatieV · Rating 4 out of 5]

If non-consent scenarios are a trigger for you, I would advise staying away from this one. If viewed in a more serious light, this would be highly disturbing. If, however, you're willing to read this sort of thing and able to put on your crack-colored-glasses, this was truly one crazy ride with more tropes than I can count. I can't believe it was written in 2010, it definitely has an old-school feel to it. There was even a Gothic element with the secretive islanders and the mysterious, sullen little girl who always wore a party dress. Anyway, no one could possibly do a better review of this glorious trainwreck than Julz did, so check her review out for all the particulars on the cray-cray. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Meredith is a hot mess · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is only my second harlequin romance to ever read, and my first modern harlequin to read. Written in 2011, but takes place in the 70s. The author did an amazing job of capturing the 70s time period.

So many mixed feelings.

Loved how cruel and assholish the H was at the beginning, he definitely groveled and redeemed himself at the end. Maybe even too much? This is the first Greek Tycoon H I've ever read, apparently they're a thing in HP land.

I wanted to shake the heroine at times. Especially with the white girl shtick of visiting a new country and assuming a child isn't being parented properly when she doesn't know the culture or family. *rolls eyes* Fortunately the author did a good job of having that backfire in the heroine's face.

I like gambling in romance books. This book had that 👍

The entire kidnapped/captive premise & threats to sell her off to another man turned to a nanny/billionaire love story was highly amusing.

3.65 stars. I may bump it up to 4 as I read more harlequins.

[JB · Rating 1 out of 5]

Too bad the rating list doesn't allow for negative stars. Rated it a 1 as that's as low as it goes. Horrible, horrible book. Offensive. How are kidnapping, rape, and child neglect romantic? Does HQ even READ what it publishes? Vasso, the male character, doesn't deserve "happily ever after", he belongs in prison. Does setting the book in 1975 somehow make the things okay? Oh, and even better - he tells her that once she starts to bore him, Vasso plans to sell her to a new owner, making a handsome profit. I'm a long time HQ Presents fan and naturally I've read HQ books that were less than stellar, boring, and not my cup of tea. But I never read one before that made me sick to my stomach.

[Romance_reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mostly undecided about this one. To put it simply, the plot was Greek mythology meets Indecent Proposal with a little bit of Jane Eyre thrown in ( the H hides his daughter away; although to play devil's advocate, he didn't quite know if she was his or not - but still, the neglect was unforgivable). There's also a healthy amount of reference to the Onassis saga; setting the mood for the 'Greek billionaire' plot-line. Together, these elements made for a dramatic story and I quite enjoyed most of it.

However, this is not your typical Harlequin romance, and the love story itself has many emotional elements (though not so much to do with the H and the h). You see the attraction between the protagonists but it's not something they give into straight away and it's more of a slow burn happening between the H (Vassos) and h (Joanna). While some parts of it felt a little dated (like it should have been written in the 70's/80's.), I liked the fact that Vassos didn't make a huge deal about Joanna being a virgin - except to exonerate her from whatever crimes he though she was guilty of. And then, instead of raving at her for not telling him before (as most harlequin heroes do - as if they're the wronged party), he chooses to show her how beautiful the act of making love can be.

Which brings me to the one big flaw in this tale - the physical was highlighted more than the growing emotional bond between the hero and the heroine; so when they do confess their love for each other - it seems a little rushed and abrupt. Like they could have probably taken a couple of weeks more to get to that point. Also, there are too many things diverting attention from their connection - like the mystery of the H's ex wife and child and the h's father's antics and the hero's disappearance most nights.

I also didn't like Vassos's housekeeper Hara who behaved more like a bawdy house madam than a faithful servant of old for the Gordanis family. Or 'Mrs Vernon'. On the other hand, I loved loved loved Eleni and my heart went out to that little girl, so neglected and abused for no fault of her own. I was really happy she found her HEA. possibly happier than when the H and h' found their HEA.

Nonetheless, I liked this one and of course, I absolutely love Sara Craven's writing style; although, this does not quite measure up to some of her other releases. - so three stars and a commitment to reading more of her stuff whenever possible!

[Naima · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is bad and not in the sense of so bad I relish it's horribleness. (Yes I am a fan of Craven's The Innocent's Surrender.) Somehow "the Highest Stakes of All" manages to be both really horrible and really boring.

The plot is a very predictable Sara Craven plot. The heroine's pathetic excuse for a father is an intrepid gambler and when he runs out of material goods to gamble he wagers and loses his daughter. Of course it was all a set up by the Greek hero (revenge naturally) and he whisks away the h to his Greek Island. There he rapes her and realizes that his revenge was not necessary so he abandons her on the island and exists the plot stage right.

On the island, the h discovers a sad little girl who dresses in pretty party dresses but has no party to attend. So the h befriends the little girl. Can you guess who the father is?

I got bored at this point and skimmed my way through to the end. Basically Joanna played with the partyless/fatherless/motherless little girl and wore crazy 1975 fashions. Because the book is set in 1975. I think, somehow, that is supposed to make the lack of decency and rational thought patterns more palatable to modern readers.

Basically this book is not good. If I had to say one nice thing about it, I would say that I will forever remember this book as the one where the heroine surprises the suddenly reappeared hero with her bare bosoms heaving because she improvised a sling for the little girl with her halter top.

[Dianna]

Warning: This book contains rape scenes between the hero and heroine.

The year is 1975, and 18 year old Joanna accompanies her gambler father as he works the casinos of the world. He plays poker; she wears skimpy outfits and flirts with the other players. It’s a fairly harmless con as cons go – she’s just there to flash a bit of leg and boob. Except for that one time in Australia when she used her flirting skills to persuade a guy to play, and her dad had to rescue her from him after he’d lost all his money in the game.

Her father has insisted that Joanna is his ‘niece’ and Joanna naively assumes that this is simply because her dad wants to pretend that he’s not old enough to have an 18 year old daughter. It doesn’t occur to her that ‘niece’ is a euphemism. It’s unlikely that it hasn’t occurred to her dad – which says a great deal about his character.

As the story opens, they’re over-staying their welcome in a luxury hotel on the south coast of France. Joanna is not enjoying this life at all, and would much prefer to go back to England and get a job as a nanny (in the tradition of all good hearted young girls, she loves little children). She’s trapped, however, because they have no money and she feels obliged to support her dad. Dad gets in on a high stakes poker game with a rich Greek guy and on the last hand, gambles Joanna. He loses.

Joanna is whisked away by the rich Greek guy, Vassos, and soon learns that this is all about revenge. The guy she flirted with in Australia is Vassos’ cousin, and it’s her fault that he lost all that money that wasn’t his, and lost his fiancée because he gambled with his future father in-law’s money. All of Vassos’ minions hold Joanna personally responsible for her heinous act, and fully support their boss in his scheme to keep her on his island and use her until he’s done.

Joanna’s understanding of her circumstances appear to be that she is obliged to pay the sexual debt that her father made, and that she is deserving of some punishment for the part she played in the Australian affair. She is still clearly reluctant. There are parallels drawn to the Persephone myth, with Joanna determining that she will not accept any clothes or jewellery from Vassos – as if these would cast the same spell as Persephone’s pomegranate seeds. Later, when Joanna has acknowledged that she is in love with Vassos, she wonders if Persephone’s choice to eat the seeds was a deliberate act to stay with her dark lover.

I understand that there is some deliberateness to these forced seduction stories, that what I’m reading here is intended as a fantasy of surrendered innocence, and not a discussion about rape. The woman in this type of story cannot acknowledge her desire for the hero, and her lack of control in their sexual encounter is meant as no more than a convincing illusion. The hero always knows her desire; his role is to bring her to the realisation and pleasure of it. I’m not going to judge it, but I have to address it, and I’m not going to pretend that I like it, either. In their first sexual encounter, Joanna lets her hymen do the talking. The fact of its existence clearly disproves some of the reported aspects of the Australian affair, although not enough to completely clear Joanna of wrong-doing. She is still to be punished. The loss of her virginity seems to imply that Joanna is to be seen as wronged in this encounter. The minions are certainly a little more sympathetic, although no more helpful.

Vassos shows up regularly to take Joanna to bed, and for each encounter she refuses to engage. She doesn’t want him to have the satisfaction of knowing that she finds anything pleasurable in the act. Again, I have to assume that this is part of the fantasy, but I can’t really deal with it.

Joanna’s turning point is the discovery of a little girl living in the house in the woods. The little girl is dressed up for a party and she has Vassos’ eyes. Joanna is convinced that she is his child. The minions all warn her to stay away, but Joanna has a moral obligation to care for small children which trumps her moral obligation to pay her father’s gambling debt and accept punishment for her misdeeds, so she ignores this advice, and goes to play with the child every day. Vassos denies the child is his. His ‘women are terrible’ origin story is that his wife told him that she was pregnant with someone else’s child on their wedding night. She died about 7 months later during the child’s birth (she either had a brain tumour or threw herself down some stairs or both), and Vassos has hidden away her child of shame with an irresponsible carer minion. When the carer minion takes off with a security minion, the child has a tricycle accident and Joanna rescues her and insists she be rushed off to hospital. It’s finally discovered that the child is indeed Vassos’ – so happy ending for a little girl who now has a very rich and very guilty daddy.

Joanna’s been told that she’ll be set free, and while she’s thinking about what exactly she should do next, her father finally shows up to take his daughter away from this whole sordid mess. In the time (months, maybe?) that’s passed since Joanna was brought to the island, her father has married a rich American widow. She’s suggested that Vassos owes him some money for taking off with his daughter like that, and she’s also prepared to take Joanna and some of Vassos’ money back to the States, where Joanna can be married off to some mid-level lawyer or executive. Rich American widow will support one moocher (the dad) but not two.

Vassos’s newly minted status as a loving father means that he is frankly disgusted that Joanna’s father didn’t move heaven and earth to rescue his daughter (hmmm), and Joanna is not at all keen on these plans for her future. She confesses that she is pregnant with Vassos’ baby, and Vassos immediately says that of course he will marry her.

Later, after her father and stepmother leave, Joanna tells him that she’s not pregnant, which is just fine with Vassos, he’s just happy that she’s in love with him and staying. If she had left, he’d have come and got her at some stage anyway, because he’s in love with her too.

Presumably, the 1975 setting is linked to the forced seduction plot – on the assumption that this kind of story was far more common in less enlightened times. There’s some fairly specific product placement to set the scene – Joanna’s crochet dress, best-selling novels, an early model VCR, and reference to the rise of the feminist movement and the recent end to the Greek Junta (which I looked up on Wikipedia). It’s kind of interesting in that I’m sure M&B of the period would possibly be influenced by but would not deal so specifically with any of this. The HP of now that I’ve read recently haven’t dealt very much in technology, or all in social media, and I’m assuming that it’s unlikely that any sheik book would actually deal with anything currently going on, culturally and politically, in the middle east in anything but the vaguest terms.

I get that there’s emotional satisfaction in a story that hangs on an unjustly tarnished innocence, and the nobility of the heroine in accepting responsibility for the consequences of actions over which she had limited control. I get that half the pleasure of this sort of story is in the outrage of ‘how dare he do that to her?’ – but it leaves me uncomfortable.

[Lexie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Before I begin this review let's start with something that REALLY set my hackles up:

"The Untamed arrogant and proud, unashamedly male! Harlequin Presents with a retro twist....Step back in time to when men were men--and women knew how to tame them!"

Let me break down what that means:
--the heroine will be at least 18, but under 22
--the hero will be somewhere above 30
--the hero will be rich and used to getting his way
--the heroine will not have a job, or if she does it will be some sort of 'female' job like secretary/nurse/assistant
--the heroine will protest a lot, the hero will laugh at her protestations
--the heroine will fall in love with the hero, for no real reason except the story calls for it

The book is set in 1975 (why?), the heroine is 18 (not quite 19), the hero is some age over 30 (though that's kind of a guess given some contextual clues) and the hero is so rich he owns his own ISLAND. The heroine has no job (but has aspirations to being a nanny, which in and of itself is not a bad profession, I was one once, but she honestly can not think of anything else she may want to go to school for and only settles on that because someone else tells her its a good idea) beyond what her father uses her for (he's a gambler and she is his scantily clad, sultry look giving good luck charm...that no one knows is his daughter and speculates is his mistress).

Yeah this sounds like a winner folks!

I have no good things to say about this book by the by so take from that what you will. Joanna has no backbone, also I find it hard to believe that no one at all thought it wrong that Vassos kidnapped her, openly threatened to rape her until he no longer wanted her and then promised to sell her off. Revenge is one thing, but seriously--how frelling loyal were his people that even the WOMEN thought it was okay for him to use Joanna like a piece of meat? How did no one object to this?

Beyond that what kind of father was Joanna's father that he didn't immediately jump up and say 'THIS IS MY DAUGHTER'? And why would Joanna expect a rescue from him when he wouldn't even acknowledge they were related? Why would she WANT a rescue from him?

Vassos was just...repulsive and disgusting. He either spends the book having sex with an unwilling Joanna, or a reluctantly willing Joanna (which besides the point but he's trying to get her to want to have sex with him for the pleasure of it...and goes about it by NOT driving her to climax. If I understood the writing rightly he would get her worked up, have his release and then send her back to her room without her own.) and promising to sell her off if she displeases him. He orders her around, keeps her cooped up, won't talk to her when she asks a question so she understands a situation he doesn't want her meddling in and even after learning the truth about her life he is still 'well. changes nothing I still want to have sex with you'. He goes so far to say that his revenge was only made sweeter because of who and what she was.

THEN to top it all off Joanna is suddenly 'in love' with Vassos? Because he chooses to get over himself enough to send her home? Really? But she doesn't tell him this, no instead she assumes he's done with her and wants to hold onto her pride (ha! lost that already). Their 11th hour confessions to each other were about as romantic as a hedgehog in bed.

[Daisy Daisy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I kind of wanted to add this to my vintage bookshelf as well but surprisingly it is a fairly recent one
Who doesn't have a soft spot for old skool romance full of cigarettes, sexism and general unPCism? But there's still plenty of them around so I couldn't quite understand why this modern romance was such a throwback.
I mean do we really need to relive the 70's ? I'm quite sure the story could have been set in the present just by adding some mentions of iPhones or emails but nope we are really going basic here and there is just no need.

Our H sees the h and falls in instalove/lust but when he realises who she is needs some daddy revenge first. Our h is a doormat patsy who lets daddy dearest walk all over her so I find myself all out of sympathy for her because despite the H being a bit of a forced seduction kind of guy she's actually better off with him than her old criminal pops.
Throw in a plot moppet who the H doesn't believe is his-duh he is supposed to be a smart man and after some misunderstanding we have love declarations and our HEA. Sure he's a sexist pig and some of the stereotypes about Greek men are borderline racist but he's not the worst sexist pig dog to have come out of the Agean

[Tia · Rating 2 out of 5]

God this novel was horrible and good in ways. I can't believe all the rape scenarios that went on in the book, it made me sick to my stomach at times. The end of the book was good but the heroine was used maliciously from everyone she loved, except her deceased mother. *shudders*

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Will you look at this and the reviews! This is going to be so yummily wrong!

Buddy read with my partner in wonderfully disastrous buddy reads.<3

Review definitely to come.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

The heroine Joanna spends her life following her gambling addict father around the world, acting as his sort-of mascot, whom he uses to act as his adoring female and flaunt herself in the hope to distract players. She has grown weary of the lifestyle and longs to go back to England. Her father is going through an unlucky streak and Joanna hopes to convince him to give it all up, until a very wealthy and infamous Greek tycoon, the hero Vassos, turns up and her father manages to secure an invitation to his private high stakes poker game that evening. Joanna is forced to play the role of his adoring arm candy again, but when she realises that this opponent is much more formidable than her father has anticipated she knows things are not going to end well. Her father is drawn into playing an betting with more and more risk, and eventually he stakes Joanna herself. She is furious with this, even more so when her father looses and abandons her to the mercies of the Greek.
Vassos relishes the thought of having control over Joanna, both for his own pleasure and for revenge on her for her role in a past event that almost ruined a member of his family. Vassos takes Joanna to his private island in order to seduce her and keep her under control, he is not expecting her innocence or the feelings of protectiveness she creates in him. Neither does he expect her to discover secrets he would rather keep hidden.

This books is part of a new mini-series of retro inspired romances, and is set in 1975. The writing is very typical of Sara Craven's style but I though she managed to incorporate aspects of the social differences between now and the 70s brilliantly. As a 21st century woman myself at first I found the heroine a bit weak and lacking, however the more I read and thought about it I realised that back then women were not as strong and equal as we are today. As a result Sara Craven has actually written a female character that was quite strong for the time. The hero was incredibly arrogant and unashamedly Alpha, but again this fit perfectly with both the era and the story.
I particularly likes all the aspects of 70s pop culture included, such as popular books of the time like 'The Day of the Jackal', mentions of Jackie O and a scene where they are dancing to a disco cassette (oh, cassettes! I had almost forgotten about you!). The descriptions of the fashions worn by the characters were also brilliant, dated but brilliant!

This book will not be for everyone, the writing style is very reminiscent of the old style of Mills and Boon's (Violet Winspear, anyone!) but again it fits perfectly with the era it was set in.

Originally posted at http://everyday-is-the-same.blogspot....

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

Absolutely repulsive heroine with no spine. Her long lost father
has her pose as a slutty niece to distract card players. At one point she was in some serious danger but he guilts her into continuing the whoring act because it's profitable and he is her father after all. She has caring family that offered her alternate employment Not As A Ho, but she stays because ... I have no idea . I couldn't root for her or give a crap about her because she was so incredibly dim.

[♡︎ · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had potential, but it all went downhill after a couple of pages.

[Tali · Rating 1 out of 5]

This Mills and Boon is set in 1975, although by the end of the book I still wasn't entirely sure why. Does it being in 1975 make it more acceptable for people to be won and lost in card games? Clearly Craven has no problem with the slave trade in any case. The main female character, Joanna, I won't call her a heroine, is gambled by her father as part of a card game and is won by Vassos, the male character, really not a hero either. Part of this means that Vassos basically kidnaps her, and everyone around them lets it happen, rapes her, and everyone around them lets it happen, and then, when he finally finds out that she's really semi-innocent (she is a virgin, but she did con his cousin out of money) he makes the incredible intelligent decision to rape her repeatedly again in order to make up for her terrible ordeal and how he misjudged her. Note the sarcasm. In between all the sexual and emotional abuse there's also a story about Vassos neglecting his daughter, and I'm not talking just not being very warm towards her, but literally neglecting her in a house far away from his with a unfit carer. What a charmer. With all that being said, you can probably understand why when Joanna suddenly declares that she loves Vassos at the end of the story I very much wanted to slap her...and him...and the entire book.
A disgusting book that dresses up rape and abuse as romance, regardless of whether it's set in 1975 or the present.
Do not read. It's not worth the anger it inspires. 1 star.

[Emily · Rating 1 out of 5]

I typically read romance novels when I want a break from thinking...they are light and fun, a relaxing way to spend a couple of hours. I began to read Ms. Craven's novel and was horrified to the point that I had to stop reading... The book details a young 17 year old child being kidnapped and later raped by the 'handsome hero' in the novel. I am typically not a dramatic person but I actually ripped the book up because I continued to be so horrified that something like this would be in print. Shame on you 'Ms. Craven'! I hope I don't have nightmares. It is too bad you can't rate below a one star.

[Kat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another reading adventure with the beautiful K <3

[Beth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Say what...they love each other??? Did I miss paragraph??? Choo choo...this one Is a train wreck. Read Julz review instead. It is so much better.

Heroine is 18 so I am comforted by the fact that she could possibly grow up and leave his ass at some point.

[Reader · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a very unusual story for a Harlequin romance, Joanna Vernon's Mother has died and her mostly absent Father has decided to keep her with him on his travels, despite objections from her Uncle. Denys Vernon is a professional gambler, and decides to use his 19year old daughter to aid him during poker games, so he dresses her provocatively to distract the others,
and using secret signals to her during said games to distract his opponents by using her physical attributes. She with hardly a word spoken to him goes along with it, even making advances to a man on at least one occasion. So she is not exactly an innocent bystander to her fathers activities. When involved in a high stakes game with Vasso Gordanis a Greek millionaire, Denys Vernon adds his daughter as part of the bet. joanna who is sitting by her father says NOTHING when her dear daddy adds her to the pot.
Of course her Father loses and leaves without a second thought to the fate of Joanna! She is removed to Vasso's private island where he basically forces himself upon her. This is not a romantic book, and not one that I could recommend. The victim here I fear is the reader.

[Sarah Stein · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh, man. This was such a great read. So much so that I wish I hadn’t read it just so I could read it again. I enjoyed how Johanna didn’t abide by the hero’s rules, and in the end, it never really mattered. Things worked out the way they should have.

[Toni-Lea Chin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Secluded Greek Island
Super rich Greek Hero
Steamy romantic scenes
Family secrets
HEA

...say no more.

[Jennifer Collins · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[JillyB · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a satisfying SC read……for me.
Set in the 70’s (written in the 2000’S) this story comes complete with barely there crochet dresses, knee high white vinyl boots, Donna Summer on the hi-fi and references to the whole Kennedy/Onassis union.(sorry no mention of macrame’ wall hangings😢)

This will either be a 3/4 star rating or 1 star rating dependent on how willing you are to go along with everything.(I guess I was very willing)

In no particular order and without the feels or angst, you have the following that has affected either the hero, heroine, or both.

*A dad willing to pimp his daughter out to cover gambling debts
*A hero bent on revenge as his cousin’s son was fleeced out of lots of money
*A virgin heroine who is mistakenly painted as a whore con artist at 18
*Heroine loses virginity in a painful forced seduction(rape) (It was not good!)
* A child who was hated by her now deceased mother before her birth and hidden from her father’s sight at his instruction(so, yeah basically abandoned)
* A MOC that that resulted into 2 people who hated each other enough to cause harm to each other and an innocent child suffers.
*A heroine, refusing to and denying herself to physically respond to the nightly overtures of the H even after she falls in love with him
*A hero, who once the heroine decides to derive pleasure from him, proceeds to accuse her of trickery
*A new step mom who is ready to marry the h off to a nice lawyer type back in the states…once the hero pays money for his kidnapping of her
* Love that blooms even after all of the 👆 crazy train stuff. Plus a pretty good grovel/love declaration from the H

You will have to decide if this is your cuppa or not.
4 star review from Stmargarets, Jenny, KatieV ,and Boogenhagen will give more of the scoop
However, it would also be wise to check out the 1 star review from Vintage. I believe one should be fully apprised of what they are getting themselves into.