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Angel of Darkness
I will never marry you... but I will make love to you as no man ever has before...'
Kelda had always clashed with her stepbrother Angelo and now he was interfering in her life again, ostensibly on their parents behalf But they both knew there was more to it than that - there was unfinished business from that night five years ago, when Kelda's world had been turned upside-down. Now Angelo was threatening to make her his mistress. Would Kelda be able to resist him, or would his lethal attraction break her heart?"
Kelda had always clashed with her stepbrother Angelo and now he was interfering in her life again, ostensibly on their parents behalf But they both knew there was more to it than that - there was unfinished business from that night five years ago, when Kelda's world had been turned upside-down. Now Angelo was threatening to make her his mistress. Would Kelda be able to resist him, or would his lethal attraction break her heart?"
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First published March 1, 1993
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March 28, 2018
It was like watching a train wreck in slow motion…
Things seemed promising at first. The book started out very well, so much so that I was hooked right off the bat. But then at some point, I got a feeling that the story was going to go south. Even so, I just couldn’t help but continue reading more in the hope that things would get better rather than worse. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. The book ended up being more disappointing than entertaining eventually.
The hero was the heroine’s step-brother. He secretly loved and wanted her for a long time, but because of some misunderstanding, they parted ways and never looked back. Anyway, their paths crossed again when their parents decided to get back together. And this is where the drama began…
I don’t get why they just couldn’t be honest and upfront about their feelings for each other, instead of trying to confuse one another or create more doubts by pretending not to care. It was such a shame that all their years wasted by absurd miscommunication and a lack of clarity. Duh!
Drama, drama, drama!
The plot lacked in originality and was predictable in more ways than one. The story was full of misunderstandings and lies. Two main characters bugged me quite a lot throughout the entire story. The heroine is a kind of woman I dislike—indecisive, weak, hard-headed, and irrational. The hero was a jerk. He had always assumed the worst of her. When she told him the truth, he thought she lied to him. When she told him she was almost raped, he laughed in her face and told her that she was such a bad liar. Perhaps a whack, or maybe two, in the head would help this man see things straight and get some compassion and kindness into him!
Nevertheless, I have to say that it wasn’t a totally bad read per se. It’s just that I wasn’t convinced at all. I somehow liked the couple’s parents a lot. Their characters were pretty true to life, and to be honest, they were the reason I added one more star to my rating.
This book certainly didn’t live up to my expectations. Subpar overall.
Things seemed promising at first. The book started out very well, so much so that I was hooked right off the bat. But then at some point, I got a feeling that the story was going to go south. Even so, I just couldn’t help but continue reading more in the hope that things would get better rather than worse. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. The book ended up being more disappointing than entertaining eventually.
The hero was the heroine’s step-brother. He secretly loved and wanted her for a long time, but because of some misunderstanding, they parted ways and never looked back. Anyway, their paths crossed again when their parents decided to get back together. And this is where the drama began…
I don’t get why they just couldn’t be honest and upfront about their feelings for each other, instead of trying to confuse one another or create more doubts by pretending not to care. It was such a shame that all their years wasted by absurd miscommunication and a lack of clarity. Duh!
Drama, drama, drama!
The plot lacked in originality and was predictable in more ways than one. The story was full of misunderstandings and lies. Two main characters bugged me quite a lot throughout the entire story. The heroine is a kind of woman I dislike—indecisive, weak, hard-headed, and irrational. The hero was a jerk. He had always assumed the worst of her. When she told him the truth, he thought she lied to him. When she told him she was almost raped, he laughed in her face and told her that she was such a bad liar. Perhaps a whack, or maybe two, in the head would help this man see things straight and get some compassion and kindness into him!
Nevertheless, I have to say that it wasn’t a totally bad read per se. It’s just that I wasn’t convinced at all. I somehow liked the couple’s parents a lot. Their characters were pretty true to life, and to be honest, they were the reason I added one more star to my rating.
This book certainly didn’t live up to my expectations. Subpar overall.
June 8, 2018
Re Angel of Darkness - Lynne Graham's January 1995 HP Plus is full on old skool misogynistic, nematode slime slurper H pitted against a martyr, doormat h with the ultimate sewer sucking relatives, including a tarty tramp, gold digger mother all too eager to pimp her daughter out.
LG proves she can hang with the best of the old skool angstfest HP writers on her seventh HP outing, but be warned this is an OTT Trainwreck with an Avalanche wrapped up in a Typhoon of Angsty Drama and serious Captain Consults may be needed to get through it.
The book opens with the h's mother telling her that she is remarrying the h's stepfather. The h's own father died while supposedly working overseas and the mother remarried with what seemed like indecent haste to an Italian businessman four months later.
Since the h's mother had dumped the h and her brother on an older aunt for the duration, the h was unprepared for the lifestyle change and fiercely resented being abandoned again to the ministrations of her 21 yr old stepbrother at 13.
The h's skank of a mother, who also cries at the drop of a hat and is a completely ineffectual twit except when she is moralizing, then takes off on an extended honeymoon with the new stepfather for a year.
The H, who is the stepbrother, wastes no time in berating the h's mother as a gold digging tart. As time goes on, the H and h are always brangling and the h soon suspects that the new stepfather is also cheating on her mother. (Like all LG h's, the h is devoted to her mother, even tho the woman is a completely useless parent unless there is pimping out to do.)
When the h turns 18, she has a party with her friends. The H has been exhibiting some very possessive and alarming behavior towards her since she blossomed into a beauty at 16. When the H comes upon the h literally being attacked and almost raped at her own party, he instantly accuses her of being a tart like her mother and refuses to accept any other explanation.
Later that night, the h goes to try and explain to the H what happened, she goes into his room and he starts kissing her. The h's Treacherous Body Syndrome explodes and then the H's father walks in on them. He kicks the H out and the h's mother assumes the h was throwing herself at the H and got rejected and makes the h feel bad for destroying the H's and his father's relationship.
The h gets a modeling career going and four months later, the h's mother divorces the stepfather. The h supports her mother financially and five years go by. The h gets set up by a married guy who uses her to create a scandal and hide his real adulterous relationships. There is a huge to-do over things and the h gets dropped from a big ad campaign and will have to sell her flat.
The mother announces that she is remarrying the stepfather and the h isn't too thrilled by the news, but she pretty much tells the mother she can do what she wants. This brings her into proximity of the H again and while the h tries to ignore the nematode slime swiller, he is determined to get her into his bed.
He threatens her and coerces her into a trip to Italy under the guise of a modelling job. The h doesn't realize the H is behind the trip until she ends up at the H's villa. There is tons of tart shaming, interspersed with the H trying to pay her off like a tarty tramp with emeralds and telling her she is too low class to marry, but she will make a great whore.
The H also laughs like it is the best joke ever when the H's tart shaming brings up the h's attack at 18 and she sincerely tries to tell the H what happened. The h is trying to figure out how to leave, as the H has taken the h's passport, so the h tries to escape in the H's car.
He has her arrested for auto theft. The H has her thrown in jail and after he finally drops the charges and gets her released, the big lurve club experience occurs. Since the H refuses to acknowledge that the h was a virgin and continues to treat her like a high priced call girl, the h decides to quit beating her head against a brick wall.
She uses the H's tramp tart opinion of her to make quite sure that the H knows he was an average lurve club experience and she was chalking him up as a pump and dump, she isn't interested in another big event.
The H is livid and to reinforce the picture, the h gets one of her male friends to pretend to be her live in boyfriend when the H forces the h to attend a dinner with their parents after they get back to London. (It was utterly disgusting that the H was quite willing to force the h to play happy families with their parents, while he continued to try and get her to be his personal call girl.) The H bought the h's apartment as a tart incentive to get back into her bed and the h makes sure he knows she is moving out and tells the H to stuff it.
The h goes to New York for modeling jobs and then finds out she is preggers. The parent's wedding is next, with the h's disgusting hypocrite of a useless sewer slurper mother going on about how the H will have to marry her after it becomes known that the H is the father. (The only decent thing the mother does in this book is give the h the cottage that the h paid for to begin with, so I am not counting it.)
The stepfather is all ready to play shotgun marriage with the H and h, but then the H is making out with a more socially suitable woman in the conservatory and the stepfather backs off. (There was a picture of the h and H together in Italy and the H's father knew the H was lusting after the h, so it wasn't hard to make the baby connection, tho the h insists the H isn't the father.)
The h then completes the conversion to utter TSTL martyr and realizes that she is in love with the H as she goes back to her cottage to have a huge mopey moment. Later that night, the H shows up in a towering rage. He calls her more nasty names and tells her he would rather she was dead than be pregnant with another man's child.
He goes on and on about he is obsessed with her and she is another tramp tart like his mother, conveniently forgetting the lady buffet sampling he likes to parade around. Since he swore in Italy that he would never marry the h, he decides to elaborate on that by telling the h that he will marry a socially correct and appropriate woman and then take a mistress on the side.
The H is so angry he manhandles the h around and she ends up passing out from illness and exhaustion. When the H calls a doctor and he confirms the h really is pregnant, the H demands once again to know who the father is and the h refuses to tell him. The H storms off and the h can finally get some peace and have private mopey moments.
The h manages to get a job with her BFF's who open up a modeling agency and are getting married. The male half of the duo is the guy the h used to get the H to leave her alone, five months later they run into the H while they are all out having a pre-wedding night out and it looks like the woman the H is with is his new fiance. We find out that someone has been sending the h hamper of food from Harrod's every week and the h believes it is her stepfather.
The next day the h collapses from appendicitis right after her BFF's get married. She goes to hospital and the h's mother has hysterics about this all being the H's fault. The h is fine and the baby is okay too, but the H now knows he is the baby's father.
There is a TON of hypocritical family pressure for the h to marry the H, he whines about the h lying to him, but the h calls him on his own behavior and the H has to whine some more. The sewer swiller skank mother is all too eager to pimp the h out and berate her when she walks in on the H fondling and kissing the h.
The H figures out that the h was using her BFF as a shield and he tells the h they will marry for six months and then get a divorce. The H gets all hurt when the h freely admits she lied to him and really did not care what he thought, since he never had anything nice to think about her anyways and she isn't stupid, so he can take his wedding proposal and lump it.
The H then lays all the blame on her for his behavior and finally admits that he figured out she was a unicorn groomer. (He claims he is trying to apologize, but really it was another sorry attempt to excuse his own behavior. The H says he has changed, but really who cares at this point? He is so sick and obsessed with a 16 year old that he deliberately set out to put her on ice for two years until he got around to seducing her. Then when she really needs help, he tells her she is a tart.)
After an insane amount of pressure on the h to marry the H, with the rest of the family convinced that it is all the h's fault for not wanting a cheating, disgusting, obsessed slime swiller, the h and H marry. The h taunts him about having to settle for a wife from the low income area, instead of the pedigree he was shopping for and the H tells her she is insecure and wanders off.
The H leaves on business and the h goes into labour, she has the baby in record time and the H gets all hurt and bent out of shape again because the h did not call him. The h feels rejected when the H isn't even interested in her, only the baby and has another mopey moment.
Seven weeks go by and the h and H are distant and then the h wants an annulment cause the marriage hasn't been consummated. In another forced seduction that leads to more Treacherous Body Syndrome on the h's part, the H makes all kinds of nasty threats about using her for sex if she tries for a divorce.
The h is stuck, the H is even more of an coprophagic slime swiller and LG needs to wrap this up. So she has the big scandal of the h's past published in the front page of the paper. The big scandal is that the h's father wasn't working overseas when he died, he was a thief and kept getting sent back to prison.
The h's mother was actively involved in an affair with the stepfather for years, because she was too weak, stupid, or plain disgusting to get a divorce from the h's father. The h's mother also continually lied to the h for even more years because she was ashamed or something and got the father to write fake foreign travel letters to the h.
The h is feeling even more humiliated as the mother only wonders how this is all going to affect her, then the H shows up as the h is burning her father's letters. The H claims he is there to support the h. He figured out the whole father in prison thing long ago, he also sent the food hampers, and supposedly he never slept with anyone else since sleeping with the h. Thankfully, mutual love is finally declared for the so called HEA and I can quit trying to choke down the kool-aid.
This book is intense and dramatic and a total trainwreck. Unfortunately LG hadn't quite got the current formula of badly behaving H for the first half of the book and then H redemption in the second half quite perfected here.
She simply spends too much time on the H's bad behavior and the h's reactions to it to really make a believable HEA declaration by the end. There is some explanations for the H's behavior, but he is so obviously using that as a way to make the h responsible for all the drama that it doesn't wash.
LG knows HPlandia Rule #1 very well, (the h is always responsible for the bad behavior of the H, even if she is only breathing,) but this H is so hideous in his attitude and his accusations that I only felt empathy for the h when she said she couldn't believe the H because she was waiting for him to turn on her again.
That was a valid observation in my POV, every time the h tried to explain or get the H to see her side of things, he went off on another rampage. He freely admits he is obsessed, but it is a serial killer, objectification kind of possessiveness and not a man desperately in love and fighting it.
This H is going to kill this h and then he is going to kill himself because every reaction and action he takes is a major abuser/domestic violence red flag and he cannot control himself and only regrets it well after the fact.
This one was just not my cuppa and the H's behavior and probable future behavior was not what I wanted to see at this point in the HPlandia universe evolution. I give big kudos to LG for doing the old skool very well, but this is not an HP outing that I want to revisit and I really did not believe that this was ever going to end in a good place.
LG proves she can hang with the best of the old skool angstfest HP writers on her seventh HP outing, but be warned this is an OTT Trainwreck with an Avalanche wrapped up in a Typhoon of Angsty Drama and serious Captain Consults may be needed to get through it.
The book opens with the h's mother telling her that she is remarrying the h's stepfather. The h's own father died while supposedly working overseas and the mother remarried with what seemed like indecent haste to an Italian businessman four months later.
Since the h's mother had dumped the h and her brother on an older aunt for the duration, the h was unprepared for the lifestyle change and fiercely resented being abandoned again to the ministrations of her 21 yr old stepbrother at 13.
The h's skank of a mother, who also cries at the drop of a hat and is a completely ineffectual twit except when she is moralizing, then takes off on an extended honeymoon with the new stepfather for a year.
The H, who is the stepbrother, wastes no time in berating the h's mother as a gold digging tart. As time goes on, the H and h are always brangling and the h soon suspects that the new stepfather is also cheating on her mother. (Like all LG h's, the h is devoted to her mother, even tho the woman is a completely useless parent unless there is pimping out to do.)
When the h turns 18, she has a party with her friends. The H has been exhibiting some very possessive and alarming behavior towards her since she blossomed into a beauty at 16. When the H comes upon the h literally being attacked and almost raped at her own party, he instantly accuses her of being a tart like her mother and refuses to accept any other explanation.
Later that night, the h goes to try and explain to the H what happened, she goes into his room and he starts kissing her. The h's Treacherous Body Syndrome explodes and then the H's father walks in on them. He kicks the H out and the h's mother assumes the h was throwing herself at the H and got rejected and makes the h feel bad for destroying the H's and his father's relationship.
The h gets a modeling career going and four months later, the h's mother divorces the stepfather. The h supports her mother financially and five years go by. The h gets set up by a married guy who uses her to create a scandal and hide his real adulterous relationships. There is a huge to-do over things and the h gets dropped from a big ad campaign and will have to sell her flat.
The mother announces that she is remarrying the stepfather and the h isn't too thrilled by the news, but she pretty much tells the mother she can do what she wants. This brings her into proximity of the H again and while the h tries to ignore the nematode slime swiller, he is determined to get her into his bed.
He threatens her and coerces her into a trip to Italy under the guise of a modelling job. The h doesn't realize the H is behind the trip until she ends up at the H's villa. There is tons of tart shaming, interspersed with the H trying to pay her off like a tarty tramp with emeralds and telling her she is too low class to marry, but she will make a great whore.
The H also laughs like it is the best joke ever when the H's tart shaming brings up the h's attack at 18 and she sincerely tries to tell the H what happened. The h is trying to figure out how to leave, as the H has taken the h's passport, so the h tries to escape in the H's car.
He has her arrested for auto theft. The H has her thrown in jail and after he finally drops the charges and gets her released, the big lurve club experience occurs. Since the H refuses to acknowledge that the h was a virgin and continues to treat her like a high priced call girl, the h decides to quit beating her head against a brick wall.
She uses the H's tramp tart opinion of her to make quite sure that the H knows he was an average lurve club experience and she was chalking him up as a pump and dump, she isn't interested in another big event.
The H is livid and to reinforce the picture, the h gets one of her male friends to pretend to be her live in boyfriend when the H forces the h to attend a dinner with their parents after they get back to London. (It was utterly disgusting that the H was quite willing to force the h to play happy families with their parents, while he continued to try and get her to be his personal call girl.) The H bought the h's apartment as a tart incentive to get back into her bed and the h makes sure he knows she is moving out and tells the H to stuff it.
The h goes to New York for modeling jobs and then finds out she is preggers. The parent's wedding is next, with the h's disgusting hypocrite of a useless sewer slurper mother going on about how the H will have to marry her after it becomes known that the H is the father. (The only decent thing the mother does in this book is give the h the cottage that the h paid for to begin with, so I am not counting it.)
The stepfather is all ready to play shotgun marriage with the H and h, but then the H is making out with a more socially suitable woman in the conservatory and the stepfather backs off. (There was a picture of the h and H together in Italy and the H's father knew the H was lusting after the h, so it wasn't hard to make the baby connection, tho the h insists the H isn't the father.)
The h then completes the conversion to utter TSTL martyr and realizes that she is in love with the H as she goes back to her cottage to have a huge mopey moment. Later that night, the H shows up in a towering rage. He calls her more nasty names and tells her he would rather she was dead than be pregnant with another man's child.
He goes on and on about he is obsessed with her and she is another tramp tart like his mother, conveniently forgetting the lady buffet sampling he likes to parade around. Since he swore in Italy that he would never marry the h, he decides to elaborate on that by telling the h that he will marry a socially correct and appropriate woman and then take a mistress on the side.
The H is so angry he manhandles the h around and she ends up passing out from illness and exhaustion. When the H calls a doctor and he confirms the h really is pregnant, the H demands once again to know who the father is and the h refuses to tell him. The H storms off and the h can finally get some peace and have private mopey moments.
The h manages to get a job with her BFF's who open up a modeling agency and are getting married. The male half of the duo is the guy the h used to get the H to leave her alone, five months later they run into the H while they are all out having a pre-wedding night out and it looks like the woman the H is with is his new fiance. We find out that someone has been sending the h hamper of food from Harrod's every week and the h believes it is her stepfather.
The next day the h collapses from appendicitis right after her BFF's get married. She goes to hospital and the h's mother has hysterics about this all being the H's fault. The h is fine and the baby is okay too, but the H now knows he is the baby's father.
There is a TON of hypocritical family pressure for the h to marry the H, he whines about the h lying to him, but the h calls him on his own behavior and the H has to whine some more. The sewer swiller skank mother is all too eager to pimp the h out and berate her when she walks in on the H fondling and kissing the h.
The H figures out that the h was using her BFF as a shield and he tells the h they will marry for six months and then get a divorce. The H gets all hurt when the h freely admits she lied to him and really did not care what he thought, since he never had anything nice to think about her anyways and she isn't stupid, so he can take his wedding proposal and lump it.
The H then lays all the blame on her for his behavior and finally admits that he figured out she was a unicorn groomer. (He claims he is trying to apologize, but really it was another sorry attempt to excuse his own behavior. The H says he has changed, but really who cares at this point? He is so sick and obsessed with a 16 year old that he deliberately set out to put her on ice for two years until he got around to seducing her. Then when she really needs help, he tells her she is a tart.)
After an insane amount of pressure on the h to marry the H, with the rest of the family convinced that it is all the h's fault for not wanting a cheating, disgusting, obsessed slime swiller, the h and H marry. The h taunts him about having to settle for a wife from the low income area, instead of the pedigree he was shopping for and the H tells her she is insecure and wanders off.
The H leaves on business and the h goes into labour, she has the baby in record time and the H gets all hurt and bent out of shape again because the h did not call him. The h feels rejected when the H isn't even interested in her, only the baby and has another mopey moment.
Seven weeks go by and the h and H are distant and then the h wants an annulment cause the marriage hasn't been consummated. In another forced seduction that leads to more Treacherous Body Syndrome on the h's part, the H makes all kinds of nasty threats about using her for sex if she tries for a divorce.
The h is stuck, the H is even more of an coprophagic slime swiller and LG needs to wrap this up. So she has the big scandal of the h's past published in the front page of the paper. The big scandal is that the h's father wasn't working overseas when he died, he was a thief and kept getting sent back to prison.
The h's mother was actively involved in an affair with the stepfather for years, because she was too weak, stupid, or plain disgusting to get a divorce from the h's father. The h's mother also continually lied to the h for even more years because she was ashamed or something and got the father to write fake foreign travel letters to the h.
The h is feeling even more humiliated as the mother only wonders how this is all going to affect her, then the H shows up as the h is burning her father's letters. The H claims he is there to support the h. He figured out the whole father in prison thing long ago, he also sent the food hampers, and supposedly he never slept with anyone else since sleeping with the h. Thankfully, mutual love is finally declared for the so called HEA and I can quit trying to choke down the kool-aid.
This book is intense and dramatic and a total trainwreck. Unfortunately LG hadn't quite got the current formula of badly behaving H for the first half of the book and then H redemption in the second half quite perfected here.
She simply spends too much time on the H's bad behavior and the h's reactions to it to really make a believable HEA declaration by the end. There is some explanations for the H's behavior, but he is so obviously using that as a way to make the h responsible for all the drama that it doesn't wash.
LG knows HPlandia Rule #1 very well, (the h is always responsible for the bad behavior of the H, even if she is only breathing,) but this H is so hideous in his attitude and his accusations that I only felt empathy for the h when she said she couldn't believe the H because she was waiting for him to turn on her again.
That was a valid observation in my POV, every time the h tried to explain or get the H to see her side of things, he went off on another rampage. He freely admits he is obsessed, but it is a serial killer, objectification kind of possessiveness and not a man desperately in love and fighting it.
This H is going to kill this h and then he is going to kill himself because every reaction and action he takes is a major abuser/domestic violence red flag and he cannot control himself and only regrets it well after the fact.
This one was just not my cuppa and the H's behavior and probable future behavior was not what I wanted to see at this point in the HPlandia universe evolution. I give big kudos to LG for doing the old skool very well, but this is not an HP outing that I want to revisit and I really did not believe that this was ever going to end in a good place.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 25, 2012
Wow! This was a fantastic book! Intense, passionate, well-written. I found both characters complex and compelling. Their bond was so emotionally powerful, I couldn't stop reading about it. And the payoff makes it all worthwhile.
Kelda holds her own against Angelo. She is not a pushover by any means. She was tough. Yes, she allowed Angelo to think the worst of her, but in a way, I liked it, because it was brave and ballsy of her. I really dislike when the heroine in these books is so willing to be walked on just because they are sexually attracted/in love with the hero. Even though Kelda is very susceptible to him, she still has a toughness about it, despite that. She was unwilling to be used or manipulated by this man, merely because she had loved him for so many years. I could feel the turmoil and pain that Kelda suffers, and understand her uncertainty and fears.
Angelo starts out a guy I wanted to hit with a frying pan, hard! But even then, I was like, "There's something to this guy." I loved how LG took me on this journey of discovery with Angelo. I think out of many HP heroes I've read, Angelo suffered a lot for his love of Kelda, and I felt for him and I was glad he won Kelda's heart. He earned it. When he opens up to her, I definitely fell in love with him, so I can see why Kelda did before that.
This was a book that I dived into head first, and I never came out until I was done reading. This is going to be a favorite by Lynne Graham, because she delivered so much in this short read. In that 1.5 hours, I was utterly engaged emotionally, feeling the pangs in my heart as I suffered along with Angelo and Kelda. I also cheered and felt their joy in realizing how deeply they loved and were loved by one another.
Thumbs way up!
Kelda holds her own against Angelo. She is not a pushover by any means. She was tough. Yes, she allowed Angelo to think the worst of her, but in a way, I liked it, because it was brave and ballsy of her. I really dislike when the heroine in these books is so willing to be walked on just because they are sexually attracted/in love with the hero. Even though Kelda is very susceptible to him, she still has a toughness about it, despite that. She was unwilling to be used or manipulated by this man, merely because she had loved him for so many years. I could feel the turmoil and pain that Kelda suffers, and understand her uncertainty and fears.
Angelo starts out a guy I wanted to hit with a frying pan, hard! But even then, I was like, "There's something to this guy." I loved how LG took me on this journey of discovery with Angelo. I think out of many HP heroes I've read, Angelo suffered a lot for his love of Kelda, and I felt for him and I was glad he won Kelda's heart. He earned it. When he opens up to her, I definitely fell in love with him, so I can see why Kelda did before that.
This was a book that I dived into head first, and I never came out until I was done reading. This is going to be a favorite by Lynne Graham, because she delivered so much in this short read. In that 1.5 hours, I was utterly engaged emotionally, feeling the pangs in my heart as I suffered along with Angelo and Kelda. I also cheered and felt their joy in realizing how deeply they loved and were loved by one another.
Thumbs way up!
June 16, 2020
Darkness is the operative word in this title. LG provides no comedy or cute pets or adorable children to lighten the mood of this obsessed stepbrother/ stepsister outing.
The story opens with the H’s father and the h’s mother contemplating remarriage. The h is totally against it since she thought the H’s father cheated on her mother during their marriage – plus she wants nothing to do with the stepbrother whom her mother left her with when she went on a year-long honeymoon. Supermodel heroine is also reeling from being falsely accused as the other woman in a marriage dispute that led to the man’s suicide.
And here’s the barebones plot:
The H kidnaps the heroine to make sure she doesn’t interfere with their parents marriage and to make her his mistress. Once he had wanted to marry her, but now that she is soiled, he’ll just keep her on the side. He doesn’t notice that she was a virgin and she doesn’t tell him.
The heroine lies and lies and then lies some more about:
If she has a boyfriend and her past sex life
The identity of the father of her baby
How she feels about the H
The hero is insane with jealousy and actually says he’d rather see her dead than pregnant with another man’s child. He almost gets his wish when the h has appendicitis during her pregnancy and must have emergency surgery. It’s only then that he wakes up to how defensive the heroine is and how much she lies to protect herself.
He forces a marriage and doesn’t touch her, so heroine feels rejected. Heroine has the baby in two hours so hero wasn’t there for the birth and he feels rejected.
Only a newspaper headline about the heroine’s father brings them back together and talking a few months after the birth of their child.
I’m not even including the backstory of a near rape for the heroine, the H’s estrangement with his father because of the h, the fact that the h’s mother was married while “dating” the H’s father, and the lies the h’s mother told her over many, many years.
I guess dysfunctional people need love, too.
Lots of drama, lots of angst, lots of lies that need to be straightened out. Hero was too jealous and cruel for me. Heroine was too craven and dishonest for me to like her. I guess they’re a matched set. Not a typical Lynne Graham – but it is interesting and it kept me reading.
The story opens with the H’s father and the h’s mother contemplating remarriage. The h is totally against it since she thought the H’s father cheated on her mother during their marriage – plus she wants nothing to do with the stepbrother whom her mother left her with when she went on a year-long honeymoon. Supermodel heroine is also reeling from being falsely accused as the other woman in a marriage dispute that led to the man’s suicide.
And here’s the barebones plot:
The H kidnaps the heroine to make sure she doesn’t interfere with their parents marriage and to make her his mistress. Once he had wanted to marry her, but now that she is soiled, he’ll just keep her on the side. He doesn’t notice that she was a virgin and she doesn’t tell him.
The heroine lies and lies and then lies some more about:
If she has a boyfriend and her past sex life
The identity of the father of her baby
How she feels about the H
The hero is insane with jealousy and actually says he’d rather see her dead than pregnant with another man’s child. He almost gets his wish when the h has appendicitis during her pregnancy and must have emergency surgery. It’s only then that he wakes up to how defensive the heroine is and how much she lies to protect herself.
He forces a marriage and doesn’t touch her, so heroine feels rejected. Heroine has the baby in two hours so hero wasn’t there for the birth and he feels rejected.
Only a newspaper headline about the heroine’s father brings them back together and talking a few months after the birth of their child.
I’m not even including the backstory of a near rape for the heroine, the H’s estrangement with his father because of the h, the fact that the h’s mother was married while “dating” the H’s father, and the lies the h’s mother told her over many, many years.
I guess dysfunctional people need love, too.
Lots of drama, lots of angst, lots of lies that need to be straightened out. Hero was too jealous and cruel for me. Heroine was too craven and dishonest for me to like her. I guess they’re a matched set. Not a typical Lynne Graham – but it is interesting and it kept me reading.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 16, 2015
The H was truly cruel. Yeah, yeah he had been in love with her for a long time; she was younger, but come on... He was out and out cruel. He finally grovels in the end, but it is a mere drop in the bucket compared to what he should have done.
Eh. I don't mind a little drama and some male angst, but when the H calls you a whore and a slut makes him much less of a hero.
Eh. I don't mind a little drama and some male angst, but when the H calls you a whore and a slut makes him much less of a hero.
January 21, 2015
Too much screaming and bickering for me. There were elements that drew me in. I love the captive heroine trope and the step-brother thing had a sort of forbidden kinky appeal. But the heroine was a screaming harpy. Some may see her as strong, but I saw her as childish, impulsive, self-centered, and dishonest. YMMV, I'm sure.
Yes the Hero was at times atrocious, appallingly so. The sexist nasty remarks were just despicable and abusive. Still, I prefer a heroine who maintains a certain amount of dignity. I think cutting someone dead in a ladylike dignified matter is so much classier and makes the other person look SO much worse. Instead, this heroine was childish and screamed, lied and played into the hero's worst beliefs. Lots of exclamation points in her speech!!!!
I so don't get how you save your pride by pretending to be promiscuous and callous/shallow. I've read several books like that lately and I just don't get it. I can understand not begging some close minded ass to believe you, but why would you lower yourself to pretending to be someone you aren't?
I think it comes down to me not being able to relate to the h at all. I'm a very reserved person and hate to lose my temper and get out of control. I feel so much better about myself if I can calmly and concisely tell you why you are the scum of the earth without raising my voice or cursing. Trust me, it's MUCH more effective and makes the other person feel about 2 inches tall (evil grin).
Yes the Hero was at times atrocious, appallingly so. The sexist nasty remarks were just despicable and abusive. Still, I prefer a heroine who maintains a certain amount of dignity. I think cutting someone dead in a ladylike dignified matter is so much classier and makes the other person look SO much worse. Instead, this heroine was childish and screamed, lied and played into the hero's worst beliefs. Lots of exclamation points in her speech!!!!
I so don't get how you save your pride by pretending to be promiscuous and callous/shallow. I've read several books like that lately and I just don't get it. I can understand not begging some close minded ass to believe you, but why would you lower yourself to pretending to be someone you aren't?
I think it comes down to me not being able to relate to the h at all. I'm a very reserved person and hate to lose my temper and get out of control. I feel so much better about myself if I can calmly and concisely tell you why you are the scum of the earth without raising my voice or cursing. Trust me, it's MUCH more effective and makes the other person feel about 2 inches tall (evil grin).
April 18, 2018
3.5 stars
Looks like I'm in the minority on this one - but I enjoyed this one because of the drama, angst and the push/pull. The misunderstandings and the protective shells of both the H/h worked for me. I was able to see through it all to the characters. I knew the H was just posturing and the h trying to protect herself and project. While it took a while for them, it was sweet when it finally came together. I might re-read this one.
Looks like I'm in the minority on this one - but I enjoyed this one because of the drama, angst and the push/pull. The misunderstandings and the protective shells of both the H/h worked for me. I was able to see through it all to the characters. I knew the H was just posturing and the h trying to protect herself and project. While it took a while for them, it was sweet when it finally came together. I might re-read this one.
June 8, 2018
Re Angel of Darkness - Lynne Graham's January 1995 HP Plus is full on old skool misogynistic, nematode slime slurper H pitted against a martyr, doormat h with the ultimate sewer sucking relatives, including a tarty tramp, gold digger mother all too eager to pimp her daughter out.
LG proves she can hang with the best of the old skool angstfest HP writers on her seventh HP outing, but be warned this is an OTT Trainwreck with an Avalanche wrapped up in a Typhoon of Angsty Drama and serious Captain Consults may be needed to get through it.
The book opens with the h's mother telling her that she is remarrying the h's stepfather. The h's own father died while supposedly working overseas and the mother remarried with what seemed like indecent haste to an Italian businessman four months later.
Since the h's mother had dumped the h and her brother on an older aunt for the duration, the h was unprepared for the lifestyle change and fiercely resented being abandoned again to the ministrations of her 21 yr old stepbrother at 13.
The h's skank of a mother, who also cries at the drop of a hat and is a completely ineffectual twit except when she is moralizing, then takes off on an extended honeymoon with the new stepfather for a year.
The H, who is the stepbrother, wastes no time in berating the h's mother as a gold digging tart. As time goes on, the H and h are always brangling and the h soon suspects that the new stepfather is also cheating on her mother. (Like all LG h's, the h is devoted to her mother, even tho the woman is a completely useless parent unless there is pimping out to do.)
When the h turns 18, she has a party with her friends. The H has been exhibiting some very possessive and alarming behavior towards her since she blossomed into a beauty at 16. When the H comes upon the h literally being attacked and almost raped at her own party, he instantly accuses her of being a tart like her mother and refuses to accept any other explanation.
Later that night, the h goes to try and explain to the H what happened, she goes into his room and he starts kissing her. The h's Treacherous Body Syndrome explodes and then the H's father walks in on them. He kicks the H out and the h's mother assumes the h was throwing herself at the H and got rejected and makes the h feel bad for destroying the H's and his father's relationship.
The h gets a modeling career going and four months later, the h's mother divorces the stepfather. The h supports her mother financially and five years go by. The h gets set up by a married guy who uses her to create a scandal and hide his real adulterous relationships. There is a huge to-do over things and the h gets dropped from a big ad campaign and will have to sell her flat.
The mother announces that she is remarrying the stepfather and the h isn't too thrilled by the news, but she pretty much tells the mother she can do what she wants. This brings her into proximity of the H again and while the h tries to ignore the nematode slime swiller, he is determined to get her into his bed.
He threatens her and coerces her into a trip to Italy under the guise of a modelling job. The h doesn't realize the H is behind the trip until she ends up at the H's villa. There is tons of tart shaming, interspersed with the H trying to pay her off like a tarty tramp with emeralds and telling her she is too low class to marry, but she will make a great whore.
The H also laughs like it is the best joke ever when the H's tart shaming brings up the h's attack at 18 and she sincerely tries to tell the H what happened. The h is trying to figure out how to leave, as the H has taken the h's passport, so the h tries to escape in the H's car.
He has her arrested for auto theft. The H has her thrown in jail and after he finally drops the charges and gets her released, the big lurve club experience occurs. Since the H refuses to acknowledge that the h was a virgin and continues to treat her like a high priced call girl, the h decides to quit beating her head against a brick wall.
She uses the H's tramp tart opinion of her to make quite sure that the H knows he was an average lurve club experience and she was chalking him up as a pump and dump, she isn't interested in another big event.
The H is livid and to reinforce the picture, the h gets one of her male friends to pretend to be her live in boyfriend when the H forces the h to attend a dinner with their parents after they get back to London. (It was utterly disgusting that the H was quite willing to force the h to play happy families with their parents, while he continued to try and get her to be his personal call girl.) The H bought the h's apartment as a tart incentive to get back into her bed and the h makes sure he knows she is moving out and tells the H to stuff it.
The h goes to New York for modeling jobs and then finds out she is preggers. The parent's wedding is next, with the h's disgusting hypocrite of a useless sewer slurper mother going on about how the H will have to marry her after it becomes known that the H is the father. (The only decent thing the mother does in this book is give the h the cottage that the h paid for to begin with, so I am not counting it.)
The stepfather is all ready to play shotgun marriage with the H and h, but then the H is making out with a more socially suitable woman in the conservatory and the stepfather backs off. (There was a picture of the h and H together in Italy and the H's father knew the H was lusting after the h, so it wasn't hard to make the baby connection, tho the h insists the H isn't the father.)
The h then completes the conversion to utter TSTL martyr and realizes that she is in love with the H as she goes back to her cottage to have a huge mopey moment. Later that night, the H shows up in a towering rage. He calls her more nasty names and tells her he would rather she was dead than be pregnant with another man's child.
He goes on and on about he is obsessed with her and she is another tramp tart like his mother, conveniently forgetting the lady buffet sampling he likes to parade around. Since he swore in Italy that he would never marry the h, he decides to elaborate on that by telling the h that he will marry a socially correct and appropriate woman and then take a mistress on the side.
The H is so angry he manhandles the h around and she ends up passing out from illness and exhaustion. When the H calls a doctor and he confirms the h really is pregnant, the H demands once again to know who the father is and the h refuses to tell him. The H storms off and the h can finally get some peace and have private mopey moments.
The h manages to get a job with her BFF's who open up a modeling agency and are getting married. The male half of the duo is the guy the h used to get the H to leave her alone, five months later they run into the H while they are all out having a pre-wedding night out and it looks like the woman the H is with is his new fiance. We find out that someone has been sending the h hamper of food from Harrod's every week and the h believes it is her stepfather.
The next day the h collapses from appendicitis right after her BFF's get married. She goes to hospital and the h's mother has hysterics about this all being the H's fault. The h is fine and the baby is okay too, but the H now knows he is the baby's father.
There is a TON of hypocritical family pressure for the h to marry the H, he whines about the h lying to him, but the h calls him on his own behavior and the H has to whine some more. The sewer swiller skank mother is all too eager to pimp the h out and berate her when she walks in on the H fondling and kissing the h.
The H figures out that the h was using her BFF as a shield and he tells the h they will marry for six months and then get a divorce. The H gets all hurt when the h freely admits she lied to him and really did not care what he thought, since he never had anything nice to think about her anyways and she isn't stupid, so he can take his wedding proposal and lump it.
The H then lays all the blame on her for his behavior and finally admits that he figured out she was a unicorn groomer. (He claims he is trying to apologize, but really it was another sorry attempt to excuse his own behavior. The H says he has changed, but really who cares at this point? He is so sick and obsessed with a 16 year old that he deliberately set out to put her on ice for two years until he got around to seducing her. Then when she really needs help, he tells her she is a tart.)
After an insane amount of pressure on the h to marry the H, with the rest of the family convinced that it is all the h's fault for not wanting a cheating, disgusting, obsessed slime swiller, the h and H marry. The h taunts him about having to settle for a wife from the low income area, instead of the pedigree he was shopping for and the H tells her she is insecure and wanders off.
The H leaves on business and the h goes into labour, she has the baby in record time and the H gets all hurt and bent out of shape again because the h did not call him. The h feels rejected when the H isn't even interested in her, only the baby and has another mopey moment.
Seven weeks go by and the h and H are distant and then the h wants an annulment cause the marriage hasn't been consummated. In another forced seduction that leads to more Treacherous Body Syndrome on the h's part, the H makes all kinds of nasty threats about using her for sex if she tries for a divorce.
The h is stuck, the H is even more of an coprophagic slime swiller and LG needs to wrap this up. So she has the big scandal of the h's past published in the front page of the paper. The big scandal is that the h's father wasn't working overseas when he died, he was a thief and kept getting sent back to prison.
The h's mother was actively involved in an affair with the stepfather for years, because she was too weak, stupid, or plain disgusting to get a divorce from the h's father. The h's mother also continually lied to the h for even more years because she was ashamed or something and got the father to write fake foreign travel letters to the h.
The h is feeling even more humiliated as the mother only wonders how this is all going to affect her, then the H shows up as the h is burning her father's letters. The H claims he is there to support the h. He figured out the whole father in prison thing long ago, he also sent the food hampers, and supposedly he never slept with anyone else since sleeping with the h. Thankfully, mutual love is finally declared for the so called HEA and I can quit trying to choke down the kool-aid.
This book is intense and dramatic and a total trainwreck. Unfortunately LG hadn't quite got the current formula of badly behaving H for the first half of the book and then H redemption in the second half quite perfected here.
She simply spends too much time on the H's bad behavior and the h's reactions to it to really make a believable HEA declaration by the end. There is some explanations for the H's behavior, but he is so obviously using that as a way to make the h responsible for all the drama that it doesn't wash.
LG knows HPlandia Rule #1 very well, (the h is always responsible for the bad behavior of the H, even if she is only breathing,) but this H is so hideous in his attitude and his accusations that I only felt empathy for the h when she said she couldn't believe the H because she was waiting for him to turn on her again.
That was a valid observation in my POV, every time the h tried to explain or get the H to see her side of things, he went off on another rampage. He freely admits he is obsessed, but it is a serial killer, objectification kind of possessiveness and not a man desperately in love and fighting it.
This H is going to kill this h and then he is going to kill himself because every reaction and action he takes is a major abuser/domestic violence red flag and he cannot control himself and only regrets it well after the fact.
This one was just not my cuppa and the H's behavior and probable future behavior was not what I wanted to see at this point in the HPlandia universe evolution. I give big kudos to LG for doing the old skool very well, but this is not an HP outing that I want to revisit and I really did not believe that this was ever going to end in a good place.
LG proves she can hang with the best of the old skool angstfest HP writers on her seventh HP outing, but be warned this is an OTT Trainwreck with an Avalanche wrapped up in a Typhoon of Angsty Drama and serious Captain Consults may be needed to get through it.
The book opens with the h's mother telling her that she is remarrying the h's stepfather. The h's own father died while supposedly working overseas and the mother remarried with what seemed like indecent haste to an Italian businessman four months later.
Since the h's mother had dumped the h and her brother on an older aunt for the duration, the h was unprepared for the lifestyle change and fiercely resented being abandoned again to the ministrations of her 21 yr old stepbrother at 13.
The h's skank of a mother, who also cries at the drop of a hat and is a completely ineffectual twit except when she is moralizing, then takes off on an extended honeymoon with the new stepfather for a year.
The H, who is the stepbrother, wastes no time in berating the h's mother as a gold digging tart. As time goes on, the H and h are always brangling and the h soon suspects that the new stepfather is also cheating on her mother. (Like all LG h's, the h is devoted to her mother, even tho the woman is a completely useless parent unless there is pimping out to do.)
When the h turns 18, she has a party with her friends. The H has been exhibiting some very possessive and alarming behavior towards her since she blossomed into a beauty at 16. When the H comes upon the h literally being attacked and almost raped at her own party, he instantly accuses her of being a tart like her mother and refuses to accept any other explanation.
Later that night, the h goes to try and explain to the H what happened, she goes into his room and he starts kissing her. The h's Treacherous Body Syndrome explodes and then the H's father walks in on them. He kicks the H out and the h's mother assumes the h was throwing herself at the H and got rejected and makes the h feel bad for destroying the H's and his father's relationship.
The h gets a modeling career going and four months later, the h's mother divorces the stepfather. The h supports her mother financially and five years go by. The h gets set up by a married guy who uses her to create a scandal and hide his real adulterous relationships. There is a huge to-do over things and the h gets dropped from a big ad campaign and will have to sell her flat.
The mother announces that she is remarrying the stepfather and the h isn't too thrilled by the news, but she pretty much tells the mother she can do what she wants. This brings her into proximity of the H again and while the h tries to ignore the nematode slime swiller, he is determined to get her into his bed.
He threatens her and coerces her into a trip to Italy under the guise of a modelling job. The h doesn't realize the H is behind the trip until she ends up at the H's villa. There is tons of tart shaming, interspersed with the H trying to pay her off like a tarty tramp with emeralds and telling her she is too low class to marry, but she will make a great whore.
The H also laughs like it is the best joke ever when the H's tart shaming brings up the h's attack at 18 and she sincerely tries to tell the H what happened. The h is trying to figure out how to leave, as the H has taken the h's passport, so the h tries to escape in the H's car.
He has her arrested for auto theft. The H has her thrown in jail and after he finally drops the charges and gets her released, the big lurve club experience occurs. Since the H refuses to acknowledge that the h was a virgin and continues to treat her like a high priced call girl, the h decides to quit beating her head against a brick wall.
She uses the H's tramp tart opinion of her to make quite sure that the H knows he was an average lurve club experience and she was chalking him up as a pump and dump, she isn't interested in another big event.
The H is livid and to reinforce the picture, the h gets one of her male friends to pretend to be her live in boyfriend when the H forces the h to attend a dinner with their parents after they get back to London. (It was utterly disgusting that the H was quite willing to force the h to play happy families with their parents, while he continued to try and get her to be his personal call girl.) The H bought the h's apartment as a tart incentive to get back into her bed and the h makes sure he knows she is moving out and tells the H to stuff it.
The h goes to New York for modeling jobs and then finds out she is preggers. The parent's wedding is next, with the h's disgusting hypocrite of a useless sewer slurper mother going on about how the H will have to marry her after it becomes known that the H is the father. (The only decent thing the mother does in this book is give the h the cottage that the h paid for to begin with, so I am not counting it.)
The stepfather is all ready to play shotgun marriage with the H and h, but then the H is making out with a more socially suitable woman in the conservatory and the stepfather backs off. (There was a picture of the h and H together in Italy and the H's father knew the H was lusting after the h, so it wasn't hard to make the baby connection, tho the h insists the H isn't the father.)
The h then completes the conversion to utter TSTL martyr and realizes that she is in love with the H as she goes back to her cottage to have a huge mopey moment. Later that night, the H shows up in a towering rage. He calls her more nasty names and tells her he would rather she was dead than be pregnant with another man's child.
He goes on and on about he is obsessed with her and she is another tramp tart like his mother, conveniently forgetting the lady buffet sampling he likes to parade around. Since he swore in Italy that he would never marry the h, he decides to elaborate on that by telling the h that he will marry a socially correct and appropriate woman and then take a mistress on the side.
The H is so angry he manhandles the h around and she ends up passing out from illness and exhaustion. When the H calls a doctor and he confirms the h really is pregnant, the H demands once again to know who the father is and the h refuses to tell him. The H storms off and the h can finally get some peace and have private mopey moments.
The h manages to get a job with her BFF's who open up a modeling agency and are getting married. The male half of the duo is the guy the h used to get the H to leave her alone, five months later they run into the H while they are all out having a pre-wedding night out and it looks like the woman the H is with is his new fiance. We find out that someone has been sending the h hamper of food from Harrod's every week and the h believes it is her stepfather.
The next day the h collapses from appendicitis right after her BFF's get married. She goes to hospital and the h's mother has hysterics about this all being the H's fault. The h is fine and the baby is okay too, but the H now knows he is the baby's father.
There is a TON of hypocritical family pressure for the h to marry the H, he whines about the h lying to him, but the h calls him on his own behavior and the H has to whine some more. The sewer swiller skank mother is all too eager to pimp the h out and berate her when she walks in on the H fondling and kissing the h.
The H figures out that the h was using her BFF as a shield and he tells the h they will marry for six months and then get a divorce. The H gets all hurt when the h freely admits she lied to him and really did not care what he thought, since he never had anything nice to think about her anyways and she isn't stupid, so he can take his wedding proposal and lump it.
The H then lays all the blame on her for his behavior and finally admits that he figured out she was a unicorn groomer. (He claims he is trying to apologize, but really it was another sorry attempt to excuse his own behavior. The H says he has changed, but really who cares at this point? He is so sick and obsessed with a 16 year old that he deliberately set out to put her on ice for two years until he got around to seducing her. Then when she really needs help, he tells her she is a tart.)
After an insane amount of pressure on the h to marry the H, with the rest of the family convinced that it is all the h's fault for not wanting a cheating, disgusting, obsessed slime swiller, the h and H marry. The h taunts him about having to settle for a wife from the low income area, instead of the pedigree he was shopping for and the H tells her she is insecure and wanders off.
The H leaves on business and the h goes into labour, she has the baby in record time and the H gets all hurt and bent out of shape again because the h did not call him. The h feels rejected when the H isn't even interested in her, only the baby and has another mopey moment.
Seven weeks go by and the h and H are distant and then the h wants an annulment cause the marriage hasn't been consummated. In another forced seduction that leads to more Treacherous Body Syndrome on the h's part, the H makes all kinds of nasty threats about using her for sex if she tries for a divorce.
The h is stuck, the H is even more of an coprophagic slime swiller and LG needs to wrap this up. So she has the big scandal of the h's past published in the front page of the paper. The big scandal is that the h's father wasn't working overseas when he died, he was a thief and kept getting sent back to prison.
The h's mother was actively involved in an affair with the stepfather for years, because she was too weak, stupid, or plain disgusting to get a divorce from the h's father. The h's mother also continually lied to the h for even more years because she was ashamed or something and got the father to write fake foreign travel letters to the h.
The h is feeling even more humiliated as the mother only wonders how this is all going to affect her, then the H shows up as the h is burning her father's letters. The H claims he is there to support the h. He figured out the whole father in prison thing long ago, he also sent the food hampers, and supposedly he never slept with anyone else since sleeping with the h. Thankfully, mutual love is finally declared for the so called HEA and I can quit trying to choke down the kool-aid.
This book is intense and dramatic and a total trainwreck. Unfortunately LG hadn't quite got the current formula of badly behaving H for the first half of the book and then H redemption in the second half quite perfected here.
She simply spends too much time on the H's bad behavior and the h's reactions to it to really make a believable HEA declaration by the end. There is some explanations for the H's behavior, but he is so obviously using that as a way to make the h responsible for all the drama that it doesn't wash.
LG knows HPlandia Rule #1 very well, (the h is always responsible for the bad behavior of the H, even if she is only breathing,) but this H is so hideous in his attitude and his accusations that I only felt empathy for the h when she said she couldn't believe the H because she was waiting for him to turn on her again.
That was a valid observation in my POV, every time the h tried to explain or get the H to see her side of things, he went off on another rampage. He freely admits he is obsessed, but it is a serial killer, objectification kind of possessiveness and not a man desperately in love and fighting it.
This H is going to kill this h and then he is going to kill himself because every reaction and action he takes is a major abuser/domestic violence red flag and he cannot control himself and only regrets it well after the fact.
This one was just not my cuppa and the H's behavior and probable future behavior was not what I wanted to see at this point in the HPlandia universe evolution. I give big kudos to LG for doing the old skool very well, but this is not an HP outing that I want to revisit and I really did not believe that this was ever going to end in a good place.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 2, 2016
this was fantastic, a re-read from sept 2013/october 2015 but, which still sets my heart beating faster. amazing chemistry, high level of angst and a good reason for conflicts. Angelo was totally smitten wid Kelda since like forever, which made it ridiculous dat she hid his paternity from him. the heroine was bitchy and spoiled by her mother and her aunt, as observed by hero himself. i liked dat she did not suffer from puppy love for him. infact she hated him as a kid bcoz he interfered too much in her life. he was over protective and possessive ! my favourite part was the first time they met (she was only thirteen & he was a young adult) and she exclaimed: "my but you're pretty!" haha xd Angelo was absolutely embarrassed while Tomaso laughed !
April 25, 2013
Oh my god this book was a mess! I had a very hard time connecting with the characters in this one. Both characters were too one dimensional. All the annoying bitchy heroine was saying was "Shut up" and "I hate you" and the hero for some reason was just creepy to me. One of the worst books I ever read!
June 23, 2010
I love the old Lynne Graham's. They always seem to keep me turning the pages. This one was no exception.
In the first few pages Kelda, the heroine, seemed pretty selfish but she did get better and also realized how selfish she was being so I was glad about that. She got better as the story unfolded. However, she did lie to Angelo about him not being the father of her baby. It did bother me quite a bit mostly because I could see just from the way the story was written that Angelo was devestated the child was not his. Edited to add: He is the father of her baby. Read that over again and realized it didn't look right.
Lynne Graham did a great job of showing Angelo's feelings for Kelda. This wasn't one of those stories where the hero was cruel to the heroine thru the whole book and then said it was because he was in love with her. At times he was kind, charming, and sarcastically funny (though not truly in a mean way), though a bit cruel. As a reader I could tell he loved Kelda thru his reactions to things she did and how he treated her.
This is an older HP so of course, we didn't really get a POV from Angelo. Although, it really didn't bother me in this book because as I said, Graham did a good job showing his feelings to the reader.
A couple of things bothered me. I didn't really like the name Kelda. Plus her brother's name was just "Tim." Really? An unusual name for the daughter but the brother gets "Tim"? A small thing but still. Plus, as I said Kelda was a bit selfish in this book but not so bad you hated her as a heroine.
Overall this was a good read from Lynne Graham. There were many "I hate you's!" in this story but it really didn't bother me.
In the first few pages Kelda, the heroine, seemed pretty selfish but she did get better and also realized how selfish she was being so I was glad about that. She got better as the story unfolded. However, she did lie to Angelo about him not being the father of her baby. It did bother me quite a bit mostly because I could see just from the way the story was written that Angelo was devestated the child was not his. Edited to add: He is the father of her baby. Read that over again and realized it didn't look right.
Lynne Graham did a great job of showing Angelo's feelings for Kelda. This wasn't one of those stories where the hero was cruel to the heroine thru the whole book and then said it was because he was in love with her. At times he was kind, charming, and sarcastically funny (though not truly in a mean way), though a bit cruel. As a reader I could tell he loved Kelda thru his reactions to things she did and how he treated her.
This is an older HP so of course, we didn't really get a POV from Angelo. Although, it really didn't bother me in this book because as I said, Graham did a good job showing his feelings to the reader.
A couple of things bothered me. I didn't really like the name Kelda. Plus her brother's name was just "Tim." Really? An unusual name for the daughter but the brother gets "Tim"? A small thing but still. Plus, as I said Kelda was a bit selfish in this book but not so bad you hated her as a heroine.
Overall this was a good read from Lynne Graham. There were many "I hate you's!" in this story but it really didn't bother me.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 14, 2011
The hero of this book is a mean, abusive jerk and the heroine a door-mat. I would recommend staying far far away from this book.
September 29, 2025
Fast-paced, emotionally intense, HP romance from 1993
Kelda first met Angelo at the tender age of 13, when her mother, Daisy, who was a working-class hairdresser, married Angelo's father, Tomaso, a wealthy, upper-class businessman. Daisy had raised Kelda alone since she was a small child. As a sensitive, tender-hearted woman, she had not done an effective job setting much needed boundaries for strong-willed, hot-tempered Kelda. Tomaso did not want to be the bad guy, upsetting his beloved bride by applying a very firm hand of parental control on Daisy's precious only child. So he and Daisy basically deserted Kelda, placing her in an elite boarding school and leaving it up to 21-year-old Angelo to keep her in line whenever she was home for school breaks. Over the next five years, Daisy increasingly resented and despised Angelo because of his constant, irritating insistence that she stay out of trouble, study hard, and prepare herself to pass the qualifying exams for entering college.
Then, on the night of her 18th birthday party, a life-altering encounter occurred between her and Angelo (exactly what happened is not revealed until very late in the novel), which caused Kelda to hate Angelo so much, she never wanted to see him again. Not long after that, Daisy divorced Tomaso, which Kelda believed was well deserved, because she was absolutely convinced that he had cheated on her mother and had told her mother as much.
At the start of this story, six years have passed since the divorce. Kelda is a 24-year-old, high-fashion model, and 32-year-old Angelo is a rich and powerful banker. When Tomaso lands in the hospital with a mild heart attack, Daisy goes to see him, and their relationship rekindles, to the point that they are discussing getting married again. When Daisy timorously asks Kelda's opinion about this unexpected development, Kelda makes it clear that, if Daisy remarries Tomaso, she won't be seeing much of Kelda, who has no intention of going to any family gathering where Angelo might appear. Soon after, Angelo shows up at Kelda's apartment and harshly confronts her. He demands that she stop interfering between Daisy and Tomaso or he will make sure she regrets it. He loves his father very much, and he is convinced that Tomaso's emotional and physical health will be drastically improved with Daisy in his life.
This is a classic, HP romance from 1993 with a type of intense, domineering, Alpha MMC that LG no longer writes. Kelda is an extremely unusual LG FMC in that she is 6-feet tall (the vast majority of LG's FMC's are around 5'2"), and she has an extremely forceful, choleric disposition (most of LG's FMC's are vastly more sanguinely sweet and forgiving than Kelda). There are also no vicious, female antagonists in this story, whether an EOW or a narcissistically self-absorbed, casually cruel mother or sister, which are a frequent source of romantic conflict in LG romances. Instead, Daisy is one of the kindest, gentlest mothers of an FMC that LG has ever written.
This romance offers an "enemies to lover" plot, and it is almost as combative in its execution as one of my all-time favorite LG novels, Bond of Hatred from 1995. Though Angelo has frequent, sexist, macho moments throughout this novel, Kelda constantly goes toe to toe with him and never lets him intimidate her.
I have often noticed in LG's classic HP, tycoon romances, including this one, LG's employing a psychologically convoluted, misunderstanding-based, romantic conflict, in which the FMC pretends to be evil (PTBE). This act of self-created reputation assassination serves to keep an "enemies to lovers" plot, which the vast majority of 80s and 90s, HP, billionaire romances are, briskly rolling along. It works like this:
The FMC is affronted and enraged at the MMC for wrongly believing that she, a virginal, honest, and compassionate woman, is a promiscuous and/or gold-digging harpy, who has unrepentantly harmed a family member he cares deeply about. In an irrational moment of impotent rage, in order to increase the MMC's distress as a woefully inadequate payback for vilely insulting her, the FMC impetuously claims a temporary, pyrrhic victory over the MMC, who is vastly more socioeconomically powerful than she, by pretending to be the unprincipled, promiscuous termagant he has declared her to be. She, thereby, cements his conviction that his negative assessment of her is absolutely correct, and his worry that his beloved family member is at risk from her exponentially increases.
The most brilliant example of this plotting ploy that I have ever read, which works fantastically because it is played for laughs, is Faro's Daughter by Georgette Heyer. It is much more difficult to pull off this type of romantic conflict successfully when the PTBE device is done in a melodramatic way, which is how LG always does it in her novels.
With all its innate flaws, however, as an extreme case of the despised romantic conflict, miscommunication, LG actually pulls off PTBE in this novel. Once I picked up this book, the pacing and the intensity of the belligerent encounters between Kelda and Angelo, who are onstage together 95% of this novel, is such that I couldn't put this book down until I finished it. Also, the payoff of the ultimate HEA resolution is quite satisfying. All loose ends are tied up, and there is a well motivated growth arc for Angelo that makes his movement from enemy to devoted lover believable.
Kelda first met Angelo at the tender age of 13, when her mother, Daisy, who was a working-class hairdresser, married Angelo's father, Tomaso, a wealthy, upper-class businessman. Daisy had raised Kelda alone since she was a small child. As a sensitive, tender-hearted woman, she had not done an effective job setting much needed boundaries for strong-willed, hot-tempered Kelda. Tomaso did not want to be the bad guy, upsetting his beloved bride by applying a very firm hand of parental control on Daisy's precious only child. So he and Daisy basically deserted Kelda, placing her in an elite boarding school and leaving it up to 21-year-old Angelo to keep her in line whenever she was home for school breaks. Over the next five years, Daisy increasingly resented and despised Angelo because of his constant, irritating insistence that she stay out of trouble, study hard, and prepare herself to pass the qualifying exams for entering college.
Then, on the night of her 18th birthday party, a life-altering encounter occurred between her and Angelo (exactly what happened is not revealed until very late in the novel), which caused Kelda to hate Angelo so much, she never wanted to see him again. Not long after that, Daisy divorced Tomaso, which Kelda believed was well deserved, because she was absolutely convinced that he had cheated on her mother and had told her mother as much.
At the start of this story, six years have passed since the divorce. Kelda is a 24-year-old, high-fashion model, and 32-year-old Angelo is a rich and powerful banker. When Tomaso lands in the hospital with a mild heart attack, Daisy goes to see him, and their relationship rekindles, to the point that they are discussing getting married again. When Daisy timorously asks Kelda's opinion about this unexpected development, Kelda makes it clear that, if Daisy remarries Tomaso, she won't be seeing much of Kelda, who has no intention of going to any family gathering where Angelo might appear. Soon after, Angelo shows up at Kelda's apartment and harshly confronts her. He demands that she stop interfering between Daisy and Tomaso or he will make sure she regrets it. He loves his father very much, and he is convinced that Tomaso's emotional and physical health will be drastically improved with Daisy in his life.
This is a classic, HP romance from 1993 with a type of intense, domineering, Alpha MMC that LG no longer writes. Kelda is an extremely unusual LG FMC in that she is 6-feet tall (the vast majority of LG's FMC's are around 5'2"), and she has an extremely forceful, choleric disposition (most of LG's FMC's are vastly more sanguinely sweet and forgiving than Kelda). There are also no vicious, female antagonists in this story, whether an EOW or a narcissistically self-absorbed, casually cruel mother or sister, which are a frequent source of romantic conflict in LG romances. Instead, Daisy is one of the kindest, gentlest mothers of an FMC that LG has ever written.
This romance offers an "enemies to lover" plot, and it is almost as combative in its execution as one of my all-time favorite LG novels, Bond of Hatred from 1995. Though Angelo has frequent, sexist, macho moments throughout this novel, Kelda constantly goes toe to toe with him and never lets him intimidate her.
I have often noticed in LG's classic HP, tycoon romances, including this one, LG's employing a psychologically convoluted, misunderstanding-based, romantic conflict, in which the FMC pretends to be evil (PTBE). This act of self-created reputation assassination serves to keep an "enemies to lovers" plot, which the vast majority of 80s and 90s, HP, billionaire romances are, briskly rolling along. It works like this:
The FMC is affronted and enraged at the MMC for wrongly believing that she, a virginal, honest, and compassionate woman, is a promiscuous and/or gold-digging harpy, who has unrepentantly harmed a family member he cares deeply about. In an irrational moment of impotent rage, in order to increase the MMC's distress as a woefully inadequate payback for vilely insulting her, the FMC impetuously claims a temporary, pyrrhic victory over the MMC, who is vastly more socioeconomically powerful than she, by pretending to be the unprincipled, promiscuous termagant he has declared her to be. She, thereby, cements his conviction that his negative assessment of her is absolutely correct, and his worry that his beloved family member is at risk from her exponentially increases.
The most brilliant example of this plotting ploy that I have ever read, which works fantastically because it is played for laughs, is Faro's Daughter by Georgette Heyer. It is much more difficult to pull off this type of romantic conflict successfully when the PTBE device is done in a melodramatic way, which is how LG always does it in her novels.
With all its innate flaws, however, as an extreme case of the despised romantic conflict, miscommunication, LG actually pulls off PTBE in this novel. Once I picked up this book, the pacing and the intensity of the belligerent encounters between Kelda and Angelo, who are onstage together 95% of this novel, is such that I couldn't put this book down until I finished it. Also, the payoff of the ultimate HEA resolution is quite satisfying. All loose ends are tied up, and there is a well motivated growth arc for Angelo that makes his movement from enemy to devoted lover believable.
July 18, 2019
A Trainwreck Horrordrama...
October 24, 2017
"Angel of Darkness" is the story of Angelo and Kerda, and is another book in LG's stepsiblings trope.
Many years ago, Angelo's father Tomaso and Kerda's mother Daisy were married, something which ended with Tomaso's alleged cheating. Now they have reconciled, and to Kerda's horror, her stepbrother Angelo is back in her life- at the time where her supermodel career is at an all time low.
Loads of drama, angst, hidden pregnancies, and evil stepbrother in this book.
Lets talk about gem of our hero Angelo
-Does'nt believe the heroine when shes actually molested and laughs at her
-Kisses her and then blames her when caught
-Always manhandles her and bruises her
-Calls her all sorts of lovely names like "whore" and "bitch"
-Mentally abuses her
-Pretends to cheat on her while she's pregnant (does'nt know that the baby is his but who cares)
The heroine is a doormat and easily seduced by her passions- to this egomaniac, chauvinistic PIG of a hero. The mystery about her dad was stupid and none of the characters were likable. And everything which was allegedly justified in the end made me want to pull my hair out.
Overall, YES I am pissed of from this abominable story.
Safe
1/5
Many years ago, Angelo's father Tomaso and Kerda's mother Daisy were married, something which ended with Tomaso's alleged cheating. Now they have reconciled, and to Kerda's horror, her stepbrother Angelo is back in her life- at the time where her supermodel career is at an all time low.
Loads of drama, angst, hidden pregnancies, and evil stepbrother in this book.
Lets talk about gem of our hero Angelo
-Does'nt believe the heroine when shes actually molested and laughs at her
-Kisses her and then blames her when caught
-Always manhandles her and bruises her
-Calls her all sorts of lovely names like "whore" and "bitch"
-Mentally abuses her
-Pretends to cheat on her while she's pregnant (does'nt know that the baby is his but who cares)
The heroine is a doormat and easily seduced by her passions- to this egomaniac, chauvinistic PIG of a hero. The mystery about her dad was stupid and none of the characters were likable. And everything which was allegedly justified in the end made me want to pull my hair out.
Overall, YES I am pissed of from this abominable story.
Safe
1/5
April 16, 2020
Angel of Darkness is Lynne Graham at her best. It has everything going for it; lust of the kind that sets the pages sizzling and your senses humming, a hero who is equal shades ruthless and possessive that you cannot help but want him, a heroine who is tempestuous and headstrong just enough to drive the hero a tad crazy, and a love so worthwhile that it reaffirms the belief that long-term romance readers like myself hold true to our hearts – that there is no other genre worth reading except romance when it comes right down to it.
Top model Kelda Wyatt is shell-shocked to hear that her mother Daisy is getting back with Tomaso, her step father; whose marriage to Daisy had been short-lived. What sort of terrifies Kelda out of the icy coldness that is her signature mark is the thought of coming face to face with her step brother Angelo Cesare Rossetti, in whose arms she had faced every single vulnerability an eighteen year old girl could have at the cusp of womanhood.
Years later, with Daisy’s marriage looming overhead, Kelda is looking forward to a photo shoot in Tuscany only to find out that it had been Angelo who had engineered the whole setup, just so that she wouldn’t be around to interfere with their parents’ relationship a second time around. Angelo also has a secondary goal; seduce Kelda and walk away from it as he does countless of other women.
What starts out with Kelda in a rage over being forced into Angelo’s company ends with her going up in smoke in his arms. Their attraction to one another demands nothing less but total submission where Angelo and Kelda are both concerned, and their scorching passion heats up, takes things to a level that neither was expecting of their coming together.
A series of misunderstandings lending that healthy dose of angst to the story, prolongs the eventual coming together of Angelo and Kelda, which was the best part of the story. Angelo’s qualms about being tied to a woman who is so possessive, someone who rouses the same desire in him is something he needs to take a step back from – his childhood had made him wary of women whom he thinks to be an unfaithful breed.
Kelda is not equipped to handle nor understand a man like Angelo at his fiercest. But try she does, and her helpless surrender in his arms brings the two closer than either of them would give credit for.
In the end, it was this heady sense of passion that explodes into everlasting love. I somehow have a feeling that their happily ever after would be just as scandalous, just as consuming as the story was in its entirety.
Recommended for everyone who loves a wholly passionate love story, for those who may want to start on a Lynne Graham novel, and fans of Harlequin category romances!
PS: I also love the original cover of the book than the current cover. The former shows a scene from the book, and you can practically smell the sunshine warming the leaves upon which the couple lies, while lost in their unrelenting desire for each other.
Final Verdict: Full of tempestuous passion and blazing desire; Angel of Darkness is a delight in the way it overtakes your senses.
Rating = 5/5
For more reviews and quotes, please visit A Maldivian's Passion for Romance
Top model Kelda Wyatt is shell-shocked to hear that her mother Daisy is getting back with Tomaso, her step father; whose marriage to Daisy had been short-lived. What sort of terrifies Kelda out of the icy coldness that is her signature mark is the thought of coming face to face with her step brother Angelo Cesare Rossetti, in whose arms she had faced every single vulnerability an eighteen year old girl could have at the cusp of womanhood.
Years later, with Daisy’s marriage looming overhead, Kelda is looking forward to a photo shoot in Tuscany only to find out that it had been Angelo who had engineered the whole setup, just so that she wouldn’t be around to interfere with their parents’ relationship a second time around. Angelo also has a secondary goal; seduce Kelda and walk away from it as he does countless of other women.
What starts out with Kelda in a rage over being forced into Angelo’s company ends with her going up in smoke in his arms. Their attraction to one another demands nothing less but total submission where Angelo and Kelda are both concerned, and their scorching passion heats up, takes things to a level that neither was expecting of their coming together.
A series of misunderstandings lending that healthy dose of angst to the story, prolongs the eventual coming together of Angelo and Kelda, which was the best part of the story. Angelo’s qualms about being tied to a woman who is so possessive, someone who rouses the same desire in him is something he needs to take a step back from – his childhood had made him wary of women whom he thinks to be an unfaithful breed.
Kelda is not equipped to handle nor understand a man like Angelo at his fiercest. But try she does, and her helpless surrender in his arms brings the two closer than either of them would give credit for.
In the end, it was this heady sense of passion that explodes into everlasting love. I somehow have a feeling that their happily ever after would be just as scandalous, just as consuming as the story was in its entirety.
Recommended for everyone who loves a wholly passionate love story, for those who may want to start on a Lynne Graham novel, and fans of Harlequin category romances!
PS: I also love the original cover of the book than the current cover. The former shows a scene from the book, and you can practically smell the sunshine warming the leaves upon which the couple lies, while lost in their unrelenting desire for each other.
Final Verdict: Full of tempestuous passion and blazing desire; Angel of Darkness is a delight in the way it overtakes your senses.
Rating = 5/5
For more reviews and quotes, please visit A Maldivian's Passion for Romance
September 30, 2025
Fast-paced, emotionally intense, HP romance from 1993
Kelda first met Angelo at the tender age of 13, when her mother, Daisy, who was a working-class hairdresser, married Angelo's father, Tomaso, a wealthy, upper-class businessman. Daisy had raised Kelda alone since she was a small child. As a sensitive, tender-hearted woman, she had not done an effective job setting much needed boundaries for strong-willed, hot-tempered Kelda. Tomaso did not want to be the bad guy, upsetting his beloved bride by applying a very firm hand of parental control on Daisy's precious only child. So he and Daisy basically deserted Kelda, placing her in an elite boarding school and leaving it up to 21-year-old Angelo to keep her in line whenever she was home for school breaks. Over the next five years, Daisy increasingly resented and despised Angelo because of his constant, irritating insistence that she stay out of trouble, study hard, and prepare herself to pass the qualifying exams for entering college.
Then, on the night of her 18th birthday party, a life-altering encounter occurred between her and Angelo (exactly what happened is not revealed until very late in the novel), which caused Kelda to hate Angelo so much, she never wanted to see him again. Not long after that, Daisy divorced Tomaso, which Kelda believed was well deserved, because she was absolutely convinced that he had cheated on her mother and had told her mother as much.
At the start of this story, six years have passed since the divorce. Kelda is a 24-year-old, high-fashion model, and 32-year-old Angelo is a rich and powerful banker. When Tomaso lands in the hospital with a mild heart attack, Daisy goes to see him, and their relationship rekindles, to the point that they are discussing getting married again. When Daisy timorously asks Kelda's opinion about this unexpected development, Kelda makes it clear that, if Daisy remarries Tomaso, she won't be seeing much of Kelda, who has no intention of going to any family gathering where Angelo might appear. Soon after, Angelo shows up at Kelda's apartment and harshly confronts her. He demands that she stop interfering between Daisy and Tomaso or he will make sure she regrets it. He loves his father very much, and he is convinced that Tomaso's emotional and physical health will be drastically improved with Daisy in his life.
This is a classic, HP romance from 1993 with a type of intense, domineering, Alpha MMC that LG no longer writes. Kelda is an extremely unusual LG FMC in that she is 6-feet tall (the vast majority of LG's FMC's are around 5'2"), and she has an extremely forceful, choleric disposition (most of LG's FMC's are vastly more sanguinely sweet and forgiving than Kelda). There are also no vicious, female antagonists in this story, whether an EOW or a narcissistically self-absorbed, casually cruel mother or sister, which are a frequent source of romantic conflict in LG romances. Instead, Daisy is one of the kindest, gentlest mothers of an FMC that LG has ever written.
This romance offers an "enemies to lover" plot, and it is almost as combative in its execution as one of my all-time favorite LG novels, Bond of Hatred from 1995. Though Angelo has frequent, sexist, macho moments throughout this novel, Kelda constantly goes toe to toe with him and never lets him intimidate her.
I have noticed in LG's classic HP, tycoon romances, including this one, that she frequently employs a psychologically convoluted, misunderstanding-based, romantic conflict, in which the FMC pretends to be evil (PTBE). This act of self-created reputation assassination serves to keep an "enemies to lovers" plot, which the vast majority of 80s and 90s, HP, billionaire romances are, briskly rolling along. It works like this:
The FMC is affronted and enraged at the MMC for wrongly believing that she, a virginal, honest, and compassionate woman, is a promiscuous and/or gold-digging harpy, who has unrepentantly harmed a family member he cares deeply about. In an irrational moment of impotent rage, in order to increase the MMC's distress as a woefully inadequate payback for vilely insulting her, the FMC impetuously claims a temporary, pyrrhic victory over the MMC, who is vastly more socioeconomically powerful than she, by pretending to be the unprincipled, promiscuous termagant he has declared her to be. She, thereby, cements his conviction that his negative assessment of her is absolutely correct, and his worry that his beloved family member is at risk from her exponentially increases.
The most brilliant example of this plotting ploy that I have ever read, which works fantastically because it is played for laughs, is in Faro's Daughter by Georgette Heyer. It is much more difficult to pull off this type of romantic conflict successfully when the PTBE device is done in a melodramatic way, which is how LG always does it in her novels.
With all its innate flaws, however, as an extreme case of the despised romantic conflict, miscommunication, LG actually pulls off PTBE in this novel. Once I picked up this book, the pacing and the intensity of the belligerent encounters between Kelda and Angelo, who are onstage together 95% of this novel, is such that I couldn't put this book down until I finished it. Also, the payoff of the ultimate HEA resolution is quite satisfying. All loose ends are tied up, and there is a well motivated growth arc for Angelo that makes his movement from enemy to devoted lover believable.
Kelda first met Angelo at the tender age of 13, when her mother, Daisy, who was a working-class hairdresser, married Angelo's father, Tomaso, a wealthy, upper-class businessman. Daisy had raised Kelda alone since she was a small child. As a sensitive, tender-hearted woman, she had not done an effective job setting much needed boundaries for strong-willed, hot-tempered Kelda. Tomaso did not want to be the bad guy, upsetting his beloved bride by applying a very firm hand of parental control on Daisy's precious only child. So he and Daisy basically deserted Kelda, placing her in an elite boarding school and leaving it up to 21-year-old Angelo to keep her in line whenever she was home for school breaks. Over the next five years, Daisy increasingly resented and despised Angelo because of his constant, irritating insistence that she stay out of trouble, study hard, and prepare herself to pass the qualifying exams for entering college.
Then, on the night of her 18th birthday party, a life-altering encounter occurred between her and Angelo (exactly what happened is not revealed until very late in the novel), which caused Kelda to hate Angelo so much, she never wanted to see him again. Not long after that, Daisy divorced Tomaso, which Kelda believed was well deserved, because she was absolutely convinced that he had cheated on her mother and had told her mother as much.
At the start of this story, six years have passed since the divorce. Kelda is a 24-year-old, high-fashion model, and 32-year-old Angelo is a rich and powerful banker. When Tomaso lands in the hospital with a mild heart attack, Daisy goes to see him, and their relationship rekindles, to the point that they are discussing getting married again. When Daisy timorously asks Kelda's opinion about this unexpected development, Kelda makes it clear that, if Daisy remarries Tomaso, she won't be seeing much of Kelda, who has no intention of going to any family gathering where Angelo might appear. Soon after, Angelo shows up at Kelda's apartment and harshly confronts her. He demands that she stop interfering between Daisy and Tomaso or he will make sure she regrets it. He loves his father very much, and he is convinced that Tomaso's emotional and physical health will be drastically improved with Daisy in his life.
This is a classic, HP romance from 1993 with a type of intense, domineering, Alpha MMC that LG no longer writes. Kelda is an extremely unusual LG FMC in that she is 6-feet tall (the vast majority of LG's FMC's are around 5'2"), and she has an extremely forceful, choleric disposition (most of LG's FMC's are vastly more sanguinely sweet and forgiving than Kelda). There are also no vicious, female antagonists in this story, whether an EOW or a narcissistically self-absorbed, casually cruel mother or sister, which are a frequent source of romantic conflict in LG romances. Instead, Daisy is one of the kindest, gentlest mothers of an FMC that LG has ever written.
This romance offers an "enemies to lover" plot, and it is almost as combative in its execution as one of my all-time favorite LG novels, Bond of Hatred from 1995. Though Angelo has frequent, sexist, macho moments throughout this novel, Kelda constantly goes toe to toe with him and never lets him intimidate her.
I have noticed in LG's classic HP, tycoon romances, including this one, that she frequently employs a psychologically convoluted, misunderstanding-based, romantic conflict, in which the FMC pretends to be evil (PTBE). This act of self-created reputation assassination serves to keep an "enemies to lovers" plot, which the vast majority of 80s and 90s, HP, billionaire romances are, briskly rolling along. It works like this:
The FMC is affronted and enraged at the MMC for wrongly believing that she, a virginal, honest, and compassionate woman, is a promiscuous and/or gold-digging harpy, who has unrepentantly harmed a family member he cares deeply about. In an irrational moment of impotent rage, in order to increase the MMC's distress as a woefully inadequate payback for vilely insulting her, the FMC impetuously claims a temporary, pyrrhic victory over the MMC, who is vastly more socioeconomically powerful than she, by pretending to be the unprincipled, promiscuous termagant he has declared her to be. She, thereby, cements his conviction that his negative assessment of her is absolutely correct, and his worry that his beloved family member is at risk from her exponentially increases.
The most brilliant example of this plotting ploy that I have ever read, which works fantastically because it is played for laughs, is in Faro's Daughter by Georgette Heyer. It is much more difficult to pull off this type of romantic conflict successfully when the PTBE device is done in a melodramatic way, which is how LG always does it in her novels.
With all its innate flaws, however, as an extreme case of the despised romantic conflict, miscommunication, LG actually pulls off PTBE in this novel. Once I picked up this book, the pacing and the intensity of the belligerent encounters between Kelda and Angelo, who are onstage together 95% of this novel, is such that I couldn't put this book down until I finished it. Also, the payoff of the ultimate HEA resolution is quite satisfying. All loose ends are tied up, and there is a well motivated growth arc for Angelo that makes his movement from enemy to devoted lover believable.
December 8, 2018
First time Reread 8/11/18
Lovvvveeed this even more second time round bumped it up from 4 to 5🌟
Chemistry was hot!
One of my favourites by LG just as good as bond of Hatred but more intense.
Lovvvveeed this even more second time round bumped it up from 4 to 5🌟
Chemistry was hot!
One of my favourites by LG just as good as bond of Hatred but more intense.
April 7, 2016
2.5 stars.
You should suspense your desblief or ignore some weird situations, decisions etc. As a matter of fact, it's a harlequin book.
You should suspense your desblief or ignore some weird situations, decisions etc. As a matter of fact, it's a harlequin book.
June 3, 2017
2.75 Stars
April 7, 2013
Wow... this is an example of Lynne Graham at her finest. IMO her older M&Bs just can't be beaten for sure inventiveness and stories that are packed with the most blistering passion and intensity. Her older books also have the feeling that they are treading the fine line between taboo and PC, and this book has that in spades.
The whole stepbrother idea had me immediately on edge, to me it felt like it might be a bit, well, ick! But somehow Lynne Graham made it work, in fact this element of the story far from being a put-off only added to the overall angsty mood of the whole book.
I hated and loved this book in equal measures, and that is what makes it so damn good! Angelo as a hero is someone I wanted to throttle for the way he treated the heroine, but oh-man he is alpha to the core and by the time I was near the end I was almost desperate for him to fess up to his actual feelings. His initial treatment of the heroine suddenly made sense... love it when and author turns your opinion on a character totally on it's head. My only complaint... I wanted his POV included so bad!
The heroine is far from perfect herself; on occasions she acts like a bit of a harpy and really needs to open her eyes to what's going on in front of her eyes. But she is also fun and independent so I couldn't help but like her.
The story is weaved perfectly and is very powerful, it is certainly not an easy read but very worth it. The feelings between the hero and heroine are amazingly written; angsty, emotional, a little bit naughty even and they fight every single one of those feelings from page one so by the time they get to their HEA it felt like a fraught journey. And I loved every minute of it!
If you like the older style M&B's then this is definitely one not to be missed.
Originally posted at http://everyday-is-the-same.blogspot....
The whole stepbrother idea had me immediately on edge, to me it felt like it might be a bit, well, ick! But somehow Lynne Graham made it work, in fact this element of the story far from being a put-off only added to the overall angsty mood of the whole book.
I hated and loved this book in equal measures, and that is what makes it so damn good! Angelo as a hero is someone I wanted to throttle for the way he treated the heroine, but oh-man he is alpha to the core and by the time I was near the end I was almost desperate for him to fess up to his actual feelings. His initial treatment of the heroine suddenly made sense... love it when and author turns your opinion on a character totally on it's head. My only complaint... I wanted his POV included so bad!
The heroine is far from perfect herself; on occasions she acts like a bit of a harpy and really needs to open her eyes to what's going on in front of her eyes. But she is also fun and independent so I couldn't help but like her.
The story is weaved perfectly and is very powerful, it is certainly not an easy read but very worth it. The feelings between the hero and heroine are amazingly written; angsty, emotional, a little bit naughty even and they fight every single one of those feelings from page one so by the time they get to their HEA it felt like a fraught journey. And I loved every minute of it!
If you like the older style M&B's then this is definitely one not to be missed.
Originally posted at http://everyday-is-the-same.blogspot....
March 25, 2021
Wow so many of my favorite reviewers did not like this. And here I am debating between a 4 and 5 rating.🤔I really really like LG! When someone mentions an LG book I’m like...”on it”(sorry if I’m the one getting to it on open library before you😬)
Is this an over the top train wreck with angst liberally sprinkled in?(yes)(🚂🎉
Is our hero cruel? Obsessed? (OhYeah!!!)👿❤️💋
Hero: “I want you to understand your present position....if you think your future is on the skids now, you’re wrong. Life could become so much more painful ....with a little help from me.” (Be still my beating heart!!🤢)
Is our heroine sweet, perfect, and non shrilly? (No, she may be a drawback for some)
Are the ow’s and om’s in the story actually real or just an illusion to add angst? (🧙♂️🪄🧙♀️)
So if you want a thorough but low star review go to Boogenhagen’s...if you want a higher star review go to Danielle the Book Huntress....for a middle grade seek out StMargarets...Their reviews were good and will allow me to spend the next hour looking for a new book instead of writing a review.
Is this an over the top train wreck with angst liberally sprinkled in?(yes)(🚂🎉
Is our hero cruel? Obsessed? (OhYeah!!!)👿❤️💋
Hero: “I want you to understand your present position....if you think your future is on the skids now, you’re wrong. Life could become so much more painful ....with a little help from me.” (Be still my beating heart!!🤢)
Is our heroine sweet, perfect, and non shrilly? (No, she may be a drawback for some)
Are the ow’s and om’s in the story actually real or just an illusion to add angst? (🧙♂️🪄🧙♀️)
So if you want a thorough but low star review go to Boogenhagen’s...if you want a higher star review go to Danielle the Book Huntress....for a middle grade seek out StMargarets...Their reviews were good and will allow me to spend the next hour looking for a new book instead of writing a review.
January 16, 2015
Very good Lynne Graham and it kind of hit the spot for me tonight. I had a very intense weekend of doing lots of arts and crafts and I needed a total break for my brain. This was a very obsessed hero. You could tell he was after her any way he could get her even though there was some bitterness between them. He said some pretty cruel things to her but most of them were knee jerk reactions. I was pleased that at least he was as weakly hot for her as she was for him. Many of his actions were because he didn't believe she felt anything for him but hatred but all of the misunderstanding made sense and added to the story.
February 25, 2017
The fact that he wishes her dead and she almost dies and he still doesn't fucking get it pretty much killed the book for me. I would have rather died than marry him but as Alex has so lovingly pointed out the other day, that's the precise reason why I'm not the romance novel heroine!
December 18, 2017
This is the only one Harlequin I found where the hero and heroine fights equally. I love the way the author has highlighted the hero and gave an equal chance to the heroine to fight back.
June 28, 2012
When I read this book first, I wasn’t knowledgeable about our dear little goodreads, and therefore, wasn’t in the habit of writing down what I thought about my books, I’d only make a note of how many stars (coincidentally also on a 1 to 5 scale) I thought to give it.
I just reread Angel of Darkness and stand firmly by my 4 star rating (I generally reserve 5 stars for books that, along with all the elements this one brought, also manage to squeeze a tear or two out of me). This book didn’t make me cry. It wasn’t so much about angst, though there was that, as it was about intensity (with a capital tens(e)).
Angelo and Kelda can only operate on the two ends of the love/hate spectrum where the other is concerned. They could never have been friends, just liking each other; nor could they ever have been just step-siblings. They can ultimately either be lovers or bitter enemies, and in this tale, Ms. Graham bent those two disparate points together, creating a sort of HP wormhole that saw them being lovers and bitter enemies… cue the inTENSity.
Angelo is saved from true douchbaggery because, even at his most atrocious (“I could quite happily have knocked you on the head and dragged you out of your apartment by the hair 48 hours ago.”) you can tell—and not just because it’s an HP and that’s how they roll—that his anger at her, as blown out of proportion as it is, is a sort of madness, an uncontrollable, jealous reaction to her hatred of him.
And boy does she hate him! This isn’t one of those stories where she grows up infatuated with him and then convinces herself she resents him after he rejects her. She hates the role he takes with her as a disciplinarian and resents his butting into her social life, her studies etc. Even their brief sexual encounter when she was 18—the proverbial back-breaking straw—didn’t convince her she was feeling anything but lust… he’s a good-looking guy!
The fact that she spends the next six years being repulsed by the amorous intentions of other men also tells her nothing. She just chalks it down to his harsh words at her (after he’d caught her in what he thought was a willing tryst with a stranger, but was actually attempted rape) having created a natural revulsion to the sex act. Why then must she capitulate so willingly to his desire? This undoubtedly makes her very angry.
What the hell sort of spell had he cast that she had lain there and simply listened without rearranging his features for him?
This girl has a mouth on her! She is not, in my opinion a doormat! And despite her eventually quickly succumbing to seduction, she doesn’t go lightly.
She was not for sale, she was not tempted, and if she lusted after being badly treated and abused she would find a street corner to haunt faster than she would sink to the depravity of allowing Angelo Rossetti to lay one arrogant finger on her!
There is so much fire between them. He’s arrogant and unforgiving in his frustration and she makes a series of unfortunate decisions in trying to thwart him that just make it harder for them to lay everything out between them. But if one looks beyond the surface of the things they say out of arrogance to each other, you quickly realize, especially in the initial stages with Angelo, that they are two people out of their depth and hating the influence of the other. It’s like when two people have an argument, they’ll never stop arguing until one of them says ‘I’m sorry’ first. With these two, neither dares say how they feel and explain their actions for fear of being pitied or ridiculed by the other who couldn't possibly know how they feel… heaven forbid!
December 30, 2016
Such a delicious read!
I have been holding on to this book for a while, hoping it would be as good as I thought...it was even better than expected.
Kelda hated her stepbrother, Angelo. He made her life horrible and constantly misjudged her. After a misunderstanding at her 18th birthday party, they stayed away from each other for 6 years. Now their parents are getting back together after divorcing years earlier, and Angelo is back in Kelda's life.
There are ALL the drama and misunderstandings in this book. Angelo is a judgmental ass! He blamed Kelda for her attempted rape. Then goes on to treat her like a white through most of the book.
I liked Kelda's character. She had backbone and stood up to Angelo's bullying. Even so, she was so damned insecure. There were moments when I found myself vying between cheering for Kelda and wanting to shake her like a British nanny!
No matter how annoying this book gets, it keeps you turning pages. It was a really good read with all the angst and overblown macho alpha attitude one can expect from a classic Lynne Graham HP. It is a keeper that I will be reading again!
I have been holding on to this book for a while, hoping it would be as good as I thought...it was even better than expected.
Kelda hated her stepbrother, Angelo. He made her life horrible and constantly misjudged her. After a misunderstanding at her 18th birthday party, they stayed away from each other for 6 years. Now their parents are getting back together after divorcing years earlier, and Angelo is back in Kelda's life.
There are ALL the drama and misunderstandings in this book. Angelo is a judgmental ass! He blamed Kelda for her attempted rape. Then goes on to treat her like a white through most of the book.
I liked Kelda's character. She had backbone and stood up to Angelo's bullying. Even so, she was so damned insecure. There were moments when I found myself vying between cheering for Kelda and wanting to shake her like a British nanny!
No matter how annoying this book gets, it keeps you turning pages. It was a really good read with all the angst and overblown macho alpha attitude one can expect from a classic Lynne Graham HP. It is a keeper that I will be reading again!
March 7, 2013
There's just something about this book. I could not put it down. It was a bicker-fest, but a hot one. Both were stubborn characters. I still enjoyed this book even though the plot was thin as paper. The step- brother kidnaps the step-sister to keep her from ruining their parents relationship, which is not really the reason. The real reason he kidnaps his step-sister is he just has the hots for her and wants to seduce her. Other than that there was very little plot...yet the steam level made this an enjoyable read for me. I can't give this a 5 even though I want to because I would hang my head in shame. Chemistry and sexual tension alone will not allow me to give any book a 5. Still the hero/asshole and the heroine have some really fun dialogue. For the most part the heroine wouldn't take his shit. I liked her for that. She tried to get rid of him and her feelings for him many times, but the asshole kept coming back like fungus. I admire a heroine who has spunk.
November 23, 2018
Eleven years ago, Kelda's mother, Daisy Wyatt, had married Tomaso Rossetti, Angelo's father. Daisy, a hairdresser by profession, marrying Tomaso, a wealthy director of Rossetti Industrial Bank, had not gone down well with Angelo. Kelda, her brother Tim and Angelo had to become one big family, to their horror, and their respective step parents', delight! The strain of that relationship ended in a divorce after six years. Three months ago, Tomaso suffered a minor heart attack, and Daisy, now in her forties, couldn't help but visit him in the hospital. To everyone's surprise, or shock, they decide to get married again. Daisy's attitude as a mother is very odd, without telling her children anything, she suddenly marries, and springs it upon them as some kind of a surprise!
All this is so twisted, hee hee!
Kelda believes that Tomaso was having an affair behind her mother's back when they were married, but she couldn't bring up the same in front of her mother. Kelda lost her father when she was twelve and immediately after her mother had remarried. On the other hand, Angelo thought of her mother as a gold digger.
Kelda's career as a top model is at a lowest point due to some bad publicity. At eighteen years of age, Angelo had instilled in her an aversion to her sexuality by calling her vile things, by always being rude to her. A few days after her mother's declaration of her marrying Tomaso again, a now twenty-four year old Kelda runs into Angelo while in a club with her friend, Jeff Maitland, who wants to marry her. It brings back the bad memories, of which she still has nightmares, when at her eighteenth birthday, she was almost raped. Angelo is eight years older than her.
And then he does the unthinkable and kidnaps her, and deceitfully takes her to Italy; to keep her out of causing trouble in their parents' wedding. While he put her off of sex, she put him off of having children. How crazy is that! Right nickname he has got, Angel of Darkness! And still, they are very naughty when in Tuscany, which then results in pregnancy, but Angelo harbours the wrong attitude and Kelda doesn't do anything to correct it.
'I hope I do not live to regret the omission.'
These are Angelo's words after a night of unprotected sex. He didn't even know that he was her first. After that, he begins the process of making her his mistress. Ugh... disgusting! But, she has something up her sleeve too, a boyfriend. I almost enjoyed, in a sadist way maybe, the way Kelda thwarted Angelo's every move.
"Dear heaven, the mother with X-ray vision!" Daisy Wyatt is quite a character! Also, I loved the unnamed doctor more than Angelo. Huff!
Ooof...this book is too angtsy. I loved it! The hotness and sex is off the charts. Explosive...
Five months pass before a seven months pregnant Kelda comes face to face with Angelo, and under what circumstances! She kept quite all these months, ohh, not her of course, but her pride made her keep quite. They fight like cats and dogs, worse than that! And what's an M&B without scandal, just before the happy ending... But it had more of Daisy and Tomaso in the starring role.
Love at sweet sixteen, and it's him who fell in love first. Sigh!
P.S. Lynne Graham is an all-time favourite!
All this is so twisted, hee hee!
Kelda believes that Tomaso was having an affair behind her mother's back when they were married, but she couldn't bring up the same in front of her mother. Kelda lost her father when she was twelve and immediately after her mother had remarried. On the other hand, Angelo thought of her mother as a gold digger.
Kelda's career as a top model is at a lowest point due to some bad publicity. At eighteen years of age, Angelo had instilled in her an aversion to her sexuality by calling her vile things, by always being rude to her. A few days after her mother's declaration of her marrying Tomaso again, a now twenty-four year old Kelda runs into Angelo while in a club with her friend, Jeff Maitland, who wants to marry her. It brings back the bad memories, of which she still has nightmares, when at her eighteenth birthday, she was almost raped. Angelo is eight years older than her.
And then he does the unthinkable and kidnaps her, and deceitfully takes her to Italy; to keep her out of causing trouble in their parents' wedding. While he put her off of sex, she put him off of having children. How crazy is that! Right nickname he has got, Angel of Darkness! And still, they are very naughty when in Tuscany, which then results in pregnancy, but Angelo harbours the wrong attitude and Kelda doesn't do anything to correct it.
'I hope I do not live to regret the omission.'
These are Angelo's words after a night of unprotected sex. He didn't even know that he was her first. After that, he begins the process of making her his mistress. Ugh... disgusting! But, she has something up her sleeve too, a boyfriend. I almost enjoyed, in a sadist way maybe, the way Kelda thwarted Angelo's every move.
"Dear heaven, the mother with X-ray vision!" Daisy Wyatt is quite a character! Also, I loved the unnamed doctor more than Angelo. Huff!
Ooof...this book is too angtsy. I loved it! The hotness and sex is off the charts. Explosive...
Five months pass before a seven months pregnant Kelda comes face to face with Angelo, and under what circumstances! She kept quite all these months, ohh, not her of course, but her pride made her keep quite. They fight like cats and dogs, worse than that! And what's an M&B without scandal, just before the happy ending... But it had more of Daisy and Tomaso in the starring role.
Love at sweet sixteen, and it's him who fell in love first. Sigh!
P.S. Lynne Graham is an all-time favourite!
November 11, 2013
The book starts when the heroine, Kelda, finds out from her mother, Daisy, that the mother will be remarrying Tomaso, her second husband, whom she had divorced some years before. The heroine is very unhappy about this; this is largely because of Angelo, Tomaso's son. It turns out that in Kelda's adolescence she had a huge crush on Angelo, and Angelo was not very nice to her. In fact, he was quite mean. When Kelda tells her mother that if Daisy remarries Tomaso, Kelda will not be hanging around anywhere that welcomes Angelo, Daisy is shaken in her plans to remarry Tomaso. Angelo, who had previously thought that Daisy was a hardhearted golddigger, is angry that Kelda threatens his father's future happiness. So he tricks her into going to Italy, where he steals her passport and her money. Of course it's not only filial loyalty that has led him on this course of action; he also seriously wants to get into her pants. Hijinks ensue.
This is one of those super fun romances where the hero and the heroine basically flay each other alive. There are plenty of hints as to the hero's feelings about the heroine, but of course there's never any honest communication between them. Just platinum-grade misunderstandings. There are plenty of tropes in this book that normally I cannot stand. We have a virgin heroine, hero thinking she's a whore, blackmail, dubious consent, big misunderstandings, and to top it off, a secret baby. However, in this case, it worked, probably because the heroine gave as good as she got. It was the kind of angst that made me want to put on a turban, load my hands up with dinner rings, and settle in with a box of bonbons.
This is one of those super fun romances where the hero and the heroine basically flay each other alive. There are plenty of hints as to the hero's feelings about the heroine, but of course there's never any honest communication between them. Just platinum-grade misunderstandings. There are plenty of tropes in this book that normally I cannot stand. We have a virgin heroine, hero thinking she's a whore, blackmail, dubious consent, big misunderstandings, and to top it off, a secret baby. However, in this case, it worked, probably because the heroine gave as good as she got. It was the kind of angst that made me want to put on a turban, load my hands up with dinner rings, and settle in with a box of bonbons.
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