Shameless

by Suzanne Forster

Newly widowed and set for life with a vast inheritance, Jessie Flood, once the girl from the wrong side of the tracks, finds herself free to pursue her true love, Luc Warnecke

Genres: Romance, Contemporary, Contemporary Romance

336 pages, Mass Market Paperback

Published February 1, 1994

About the author

New York Times and USA Today best-selling author Suzanne Forster is living proof of William Shakespeare’s maxim that the uses of adversity are sweet. Suzanne’s writing career began by accident. Literally. A car accident ended her dreams for a career in clinical psychology. During her recovery, she began writing to fill the hours, and before she was well enough to return to graduate school, she’d sold her first book and launched a new career.
Since then Suzanne has written more than thirty novels and been the recipient of countless awards, including The National Readers’ Choice Award for Shameless, her mainstream debut. She’s received recognition for outstanding sales from Waldenbooks and Bookrak, and her recent novel, Unfinished Business, was made into a movie for the Oxygen Network.
Suzanne has a Master’s Degree in Writing Popular Fiction, and she teaches and lectures frequently. Her seminars on Women's Contemporary Fiction at UCLA and UC Riverside were rated outstanding, and her most requested workshop, "The High-Concept Synopsis," is based on personal experience. Her breakout novel, Shameless, sold on a synopsis that triggered a bidding war and garnered her a six-figure contract.
Suzanne has received considerable media attention, including a feature segment on Extra, NBC's news and entertainment magazine, and an Emmy Award–winning "Special Report" on CBS Channel 23 News. Her many print appearances include the L.A. Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer, Redbook and Orange Coast Magazine

Reviews

[Lucimar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eu amei como a escritora SForster desenvolveu esta história de crime, paixão, ciumes, ódios e vinganças.Uma mulher forte capaz de tudo para manter feliz os que amam; um homem com cicatrizes
na alma... Uma irmã fútil, que como um furacão arrasta tudo que está a sua volta. Uma menina super cativante e serelepe. Todos escondem segredos, todos estão envolvidos em falcatruas e nos erros de um passado que se faz presente. Uma romance criativo que te mostra o lado triste da vida, a luta para sobreviver num mundo duro e difícil. A autora consegue nos envolver e nos tornar críticos das ações de seus personagens. Nos aponta para uma direção, fazendo desejar saber o que, como tudo aconteceu.

[Jul · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one was my fault, really. I saw the less than enthusiastic reviews, but the back cover seemed interesting and I liked another book by Forster, so I got it anyway. I should have been prepared. Interesting characters but the story was weak. Jessie Flood was a skinny teenager the last time she saw Luc, before he was banished though he was proven innocent of killing her stepfather, before she returned with an infant without a father for the baby girl, before she married Luc's cruel father. Now she's a widow and Luc is back to try to wrest control of his family's business. He wasn't expecting Jessie to be so beautiful...or to shoot him after saying hello. Forster does atmosphere better than most authors and that's one of the saving graces of this book; every page is weighted by mystery, menace, and attraction. Unfortunately, the extended time spent on the past and on minor characters like the nanny, detract from the story. Jessie and Luc spar too often, and it takes much too long for Jessie to answer some important questions. Grade: D

[Bronwyn Rykiert]

Luc Warnecke has come back to Half Moon Bay to the reading of his father’s will even though he had been disinherited 10 years earlier. He comes back home to “Echoes”, his childhood home that has a lot of bad memories.

Jessie Flood was bought up poor by a drunkard step father who had died 10 years earlier. She married Simon Warnecke after saving his life.

Luc and Jessie had been childhood friends but Jessie felt that Luc had betrayed her at 16 so now she hates him but he has something on her and with this he forces her to marry him. There is also her daughter and Mel and her sister Shelby to add to the story.

I enjoyed this story though there were some parts I wasn’t sure how we got there and at times I did not like Jessie. It was tied together pretty well though.