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悪夢の終わりに
Lesson in love
Blake Anderson was accustomed to giving orders and receiving instant obedience. It was amazingly kind of him to take the trouble to look after Nicola when a tragedy deprived her of her father and her home and she had no one to turn to. But that didn't give Blake the right to trample all over her, and it was about time he learned that--however attractive he was--not every woman danced to his bidding ....
Blake Anderson was accustomed to giving orders and receiving instant obedience. It was amazingly kind of him to take the trouble to look after Nicola when a tragedy deprived her of her father and her home and she had no one to turn to. But that didn't give Blake the right to trample all over her, and it was about time he learned that--however attractive he was--not every woman danced to his bidding ....
Paperback Shinsho
First published September 1, 1994
About the author
Patricia Wilson
80 books184 followersPatricia Wilson (1929 – 2010) was a best-selling writer of 53 romance novels for the Mills & Boon publisher from 1986 to 2004. She placed her novels primarily in England, Spain or France.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
July 26, 2017
Why was the hero so growly? I think every paragraph started with him either glaring, scowling, shouting, insulting, shaking, or squeezing the h. That's when he wasn't carrying her off, caveman style, without her consent.
Dude must have gotten the wrong memo. This isn't a revenge Harley where the hapless heroine has to pay for the sins committed by her murderous father/embezzler brother/slutty sister/the morally bankrupt neighbour down the corner. She was in a fire and just lost her father. Can we keep the yelling and pummeling to a minimum please?
Not that I can hundred percent blame him. When they were handing out brains, heroine was at the back of the line and they ran out. Her habit of walking blindly off a cliff despite not being blind would have put me in a bad mood too.
*sigh* another couple of hours wasted for me...
Dude must have gotten the wrong memo. This isn't a revenge Harley where the hapless heroine has to pay for the sins committed by her murderous father/embezzler brother/slutty sister/the morally bankrupt neighbour down the corner. She was in a fire and just lost her father. Can we keep the yelling and pummeling to a minimum please?
Not that I can hundred percent blame him. When they were handing out brains, heroine was at the back of the line and they ran out. Her habit of walking blindly off a cliff despite not being blind would have put me in a bad mood too.
*sigh* another couple of hours wasted for me...
January 21, 2013
Very well done. A young woman is left destitute, homeless and orphaned when her home goes up in smoke. The only family she has is an estranged Aunt in California. She is living with the torment that her father tried to burn the home down to claim insurance money to help his failing business. The daughter is devastated that her much loved, but now deceased, father could have caused such devastation. As well as her physical injuries, she is suffering emotionally.
Hero swoops in and whisks her off to LA to spend time healing. This is one ruthless, roughshod hero, who lives by the mantra of "take no prisoners"....But he is absolutely bonkers for our heroine and is truly a knight in shining armor. There were some wonderful tender moments, and there were some high voltage angst driven moments, that kept the intensity high and those pages turning.
Hero swoops in and whisks her off to LA to spend time healing. This is one ruthless, roughshod hero, who lives by the mantra of "take no prisoners"....But he is absolutely bonkers for our heroine and is truly a knight in shining armor. There were some wonderful tender moments, and there were some high voltage angst driven moments, that kept the intensity high and those pages turning.
October 14, 2018
This cover of the hero carrying the heroine is accurate. Our smitten hero took one look at the traumatized heroine and never let her out of his sight.
The story opens with the heroine in a hospital bed in London, reliving the moment her father died in a house fire trying to rescue her. To make matters worse, the police have hinted that the fire was deliberately set and that her father might have been the culprit since he was going bankrupt and needed the insurance money. Heroine can't believe her father would have set a fire knowing she was sleeping upstairs.
The director hero shows up to take the heroine to her aunt (his stepmother) in California. Heroine has never met her, but she has no choice since she has no home, money, or clothes. She does have a degree and work experience, but the shadow of scandal is over her until the mystery of the family business and fire can be solved.
The action then moves to California where the hero is directing a film. Heroine tags along as his assistant. There are some OW misunderstandings and the hero is jealous of every man who talks to the heroine. The heroine also keeps walking towards the edge of cliffs and other great heights where the hero has to rescue her. Very curious.
It all works out when the hero stops growling and the heroine stops bleating about her independence. And the fire? It was set by the father's business partner. So heroine can have her good memories back.
An enjoyable story if you like the smitten hero trope.
The story opens with the heroine in a hospital bed in London, reliving the moment her father died in a house fire trying to rescue her. To make matters worse, the police have hinted that the fire was deliberately set and that her father might have been the culprit since he was going bankrupt and needed the insurance money. Heroine can't believe her father would have set a fire knowing she was sleeping upstairs.
The director hero shows up to take the heroine to her aunt (his stepmother) in California. Heroine has never met her, but she has no choice since she has no home, money, or clothes. She does have a degree and work experience, but the shadow of scandal is over her until the mystery of the family business and fire can be solved.
The action then moves to California where the hero is directing a film. Heroine tags along as his assistant. There are some OW misunderstandings and the hero is jealous of every man who talks to the heroine. The heroine also keeps walking towards the edge of cliffs and other great heights where the hero has to rescue her. Very curious.
It all works out when the hero stops growling and the heroine stops bleating about her independence. And the fire? It was set by the father's business partner. So heroine can have her good memories back.
An enjoyable story if you like the smitten hero trope.
April 15, 2017
The hero always seems to be in a bad mood. Poor heroine.
June 4, 2019
"Relentless Flame" is the story of Nicole and Blake.
The book begins with our newly orphaned h who has just lost her father in a tragic accident, and is admitted in the hospital, suffering from PTSD and nightmares. Much to her chagrin, her lawyer contacts a distant relative- and in comes Blake Anderson- who is the stepson to her Aunt Mary- her father's estranged sister! He is also controlling, manipulative, and a world famous movie director who hates the word "NO".
Despite the h not wanting to, he swoops into her life and whisks her away to his home, providing her materialistic as well as emotional comforts, a reunion with her aunt, and sweet kisses. The h too starts falling for this brooding man, who cannot keep away from her, until doubts intervene, and h wants to leave. But will the H ever let her go?
Honestly, quite different from the usual PW trope but enjoyable never the less. Smitten hero, in love heroine, loads of sweet courting and some jealousy, leading to a nice ending.
Safe
3/5
The book begins with our newly orphaned h who has just lost her father in a tragic accident, and is admitted in the hospital, suffering from PTSD and nightmares. Much to her chagrin, her lawyer contacts a distant relative- and in comes Blake Anderson- who is the stepson to her Aunt Mary- her father's estranged sister! He is also controlling, manipulative, and a world famous movie director who hates the word "NO".
Despite the h not wanting to, he swoops into her life and whisks her away to his home, providing her materialistic as well as emotional comforts, a reunion with her aunt, and sweet kisses. The h too starts falling for this brooding man, who cannot keep away from her, until doubts intervene, and h wants to leave. But will the H ever let her go?
Honestly, quite different from the usual PW trope but enjoyable never the less. Smitten hero, in love heroine, loads of sweet courting and some jealousy, leading to a nice ending.
Safe
3/5
January 25, 2013
Rating 3.25 stars
The hero was so obnoxious, rude and demanding. He was an autocrat and I didn't see how the heroine could fall for him when he always bossed her around. She loses everything and he comes to get her on behalf of her unknown aunt. Of course he is rich and famous and falls for her instantly but I could never see that through his actions.
The hero was so obnoxious, rude and demanding. He was an autocrat and I didn't see how the heroine could fall for him when he always bossed her around. She loses everything and he comes to get her on behalf of her unknown aunt. Of course he is rich and famous and falls for her instantly but I could never see that through his actions.
January 20, 2013
I loved this novel, it was everything a novel should be. The hero was snappish sometimes but he truly adored the heroine, you could tell line for line. The heroine was a bit broken but the hero helped her live again and the ending was perfect.
February 20, 2018
Nicola is in hospital. Her father died rescuing her from their house when it went up in flames. The police have told her they suspect her father started the fire to collect insurance money to support their failing electronics business, so Nicola is dealing with that too.
She isn't burned, but she's suffering the effects of smoke inhalation, so she's not doing well ... and I don't know enough about what that would be like, but wouldn't she at least be having trouble breathing, and possibly speaking? I don't get Patricia Wilson's brand of medical conditions sometimes - Nicola is tired and weak, and that's it? And why isn't she getting some trauma counselling, because this whole thing of nearly dying and losing your father and living with the fact that you've lost everything and your father set your house on fire while you were inside is really traumatic and she's having screaming nightmares, but that's ok?
And to add to her troubles: famous American Director Blake shows up to start ordering her around. Nicola's family doctor contacted Nicola's estranged aunt while she was recovering, and now Blake, who is the aunt's stepson, is insisting that Nicola must come to California because her aunt is fragile and needs to see her, and isn't Nicola just being so selfish about the whole refusing to go to another country right now?
Another thing: if every single thing of Nicola's burnt down, where did Blake get a passport for her, and in maybe the space of three days? That's some deeply magical bureaucracy work, right there.
This book makes no sense, so you just have to go with it. You have to go along with the fact that Blake cures Nicola's nightmares by ... giving her a hug and telling her to think about him. That movies are basically made the way Patricia Wilson prefers them to be made for the purposes of her plot, and that you can just waltz in, and remove to another country, the only witness in an ongoing arson investigation.
Still ... I liked this one. Nicola is sweet and mostly stands up for herself, but I can't get over the fact that she needed more health care than she received. She's a 'whiz with a computers' - another rare acknowledgement from Wilson that technology exists. Sure, she never actually does anything on a computer, and her whiz skills are apparently transferable to a role as a director's assistant, but I'll take what I can get. She's a nice person, and she's into Blake. And Blake sort of makes sense. If you vaguely connect the role of a director with walking in, shouting a bunch of orders, and then going off somewhere, he totally works. And he has a retreat where no-one else is allowed to go, because he wants to go and decompress and that made total sense to me as what an introvert would do.
She isn't burned, but she's suffering the effects of smoke inhalation, so she's not doing well ... and I don't know enough about what that would be like, but wouldn't she at least be having trouble breathing, and possibly speaking? I don't get Patricia Wilson's brand of medical conditions sometimes - Nicola is tired and weak, and that's it? And why isn't she getting some trauma counselling, because this whole thing of nearly dying and losing your father and living with the fact that you've lost everything and your father set your house on fire while you were inside is really traumatic and she's having screaming nightmares, but that's ok?
And to add to her troubles: famous American Director Blake shows up to start ordering her around. Nicola's family doctor contacted Nicola's estranged aunt while she was recovering, and now Blake, who is the aunt's stepson, is insisting that Nicola must come to California because her aunt is fragile and needs to see her, and isn't Nicola just being so selfish about the whole refusing to go to another country right now?
Another thing: if every single thing of Nicola's burnt down, where did Blake get a passport for her, and in maybe the space of three days? That's some deeply magical bureaucracy work, right there.
This book makes no sense, so you just have to go with it. You have to go along with the fact that Blake cures Nicola's nightmares by ... giving her a hug and telling her to think about him. That movies are basically made the way Patricia Wilson prefers them to be made for the purposes of her plot, and that you can just waltz in, and remove to another country, the only witness in an ongoing arson investigation.
Still ... I liked this one. Nicola is sweet and mostly stands up for herself, but I can't get over the fact that she needed more health care than she received. She's a 'whiz with a computers' - another rare acknowledgement from Wilson that technology exists. Sure, she never actually does anything on a computer, and her whiz skills are apparently transferable to a role as a director's assistant, but I'll take what I can get. She's a nice person, and she's into Blake. And Blake sort of makes sense. If you vaguely connect the role of a director with walking in, shouting a bunch of orders, and then going off somewhere, he totally works. And he has a retreat where no-one else is allowed to go, because he wants to go and decompress and that made total sense to me as what an introvert would do.
April 4, 2014
this gave me a headache! they talked n argued too much, too much useless talking! blake was more like a father figure wid her n i felt they were thoroughly mismatched!no chemistry der!
February 12, 2021
Lesson sin love
Blake Anderson was accustomed to giving orders and receiving instant obedience. It was amazingly kind of him to take the trouble to look after Nicola when a tragedy deprived her of her father and her home and she had no one to turn to. But that didn't give Blake the right to trample all over her, and it was about time he learned that--however attractive he was--not every woman danced to his bidding
Blake Anderson was accustomed to giving orders and receiving instant obedience. It was amazingly kind of him to take the trouble to look after Nicola when a tragedy deprived her of her father and her home and she had no one to turn to. But that didn't give Blake the right to trample all over her, and it was about time he learned that--however attractive he was--not every woman danced to his bidding
December 28, 2021
3.5 stars
March 25, 2014
This started out good, then began slipping because I was wanting to see one chink in hero's armour. He was always so cross, angry, dominant that it bothered me, much less the poor heroine. Though, I would say when he did make reasonable demands, the heroine was unnecessarily sharp with the hero in response.
But after the first half of the book, Blake's vulnerability for Nicola finally started to show itself. By the end, I was completely taken by how much, how deeply, Blake loved Nicola! He literally would have become a broken man if she had left him. Well, considering he wouldn't have followed her, which he claimed, and I believed, he would have.
Loved it! :)
But after the first half of the book, Blake's vulnerability for Nicola finally started to show itself. By the end, I was completely taken by how much, how deeply, Blake loved Nicola! He literally would have become a broken man if she had left him. Well, considering he wouldn't have followed her, which he claimed, and I believed, he would have.
Loved it! :)
October 17, 2016
This could have been such a good romantic book if only author took time with creating a worthier heroine. Who would desperately fall in love with such a weak and whimpering idiot with a huge inferiority complex. She hardly ever speaks and when she does she does it in her own head and reaches all the wrong conclusions.
February 3, 2013
3.5 stars
Great read, I wish the way the back story about the business partner and the subsequent arrest was explained more in detail. I thought that was a big part of the story and deserved more than half page.
Great read, I wish the way the back story about the business partner and the subsequent arrest was explained more in detail. I thought that was a big part of the story and deserved more than half page.
May 14, 2026
Relentless Flame (1994) is the story of Nicola and Blake. Nicola is British, the daughter of an electronics firm owner. Blake is a high-powered American movie director. Nicola's home has burned down and her father, who may or may not have set the fire, has perished.
As the story opens, Nicola is in the hospital recovering from smoke inhalation and PTSD. All of her belongings are gone and she has nothing. Even her friends have disappeared out of caution owing to the suspicious nature of the fire. An old family friend of her father takes it on himself to contact Nicola's long-lost aunt who now lives in California. She sends her stepson Blake to collect Nicola and bring her to California to recuperate. Blake turns up, and is he ever pushy. He's described as a real force of nature who won't take no for an answer. He buys Nicola some expensive, pretty new clothes since her own clothes were lost in the fire. He bundles her onto a plane, and away they go to California. Once there, he makes himself responsible for Nicola's psychological recovery, gives her a short-term job on his movie set, rescues her from walking off a cliff and again from falling off the top of a hill, and finding out what really caused the fire. He's also falling in love with Nicola and she's reluctantly falling in love right back. But she convinces herself based on nothing much more than her own low self-esteem that he's having an affair with the lead actress (he isn't), and it takes some effort to show her she's the only one who means anything to him.
I initially found Blake to be too much of a boorish bully to be attractive as a male lead. But he grew on me. He's a rough diamond but it's clear that he's a good guy, albeit one that might get on a person's nerves beyond bearing after a while. Nicola is too much of a blank slate to be interesting. She just doesn't have enough personality to convince me a force like Blake could find her at all intriguing. However, it was well-written to show how deeply Blake is falling in love and that was the best part of the story.
There were some things that kept pulling me out of the story. I'm wondering how he managed to get her on an international flight without any sort of identification. Given that the author is at pains to tell us that Nicola has nothing- no clothes, no makeup, no purse, no money, one assumes her passport got burned up in the fire along with everything else she owned. She wants Blake to take her to her bank so she can get some money before the flight to California, and he keeps telling her there is no time for that and he'll supply whatever she needs. But no mention of a passport is ever made. There are also some lovely descriptions of the California coast that ring true but we never learn where in California they are. I spent too much time trying to map it because the distances described made no sense to me (driving along highway 1 or even the 101 towards San Francisco from one assumes the SoCal area is an all day thing. It's not the short-ish trip described in this book). Finally, Blake speaks in British-isms that an American would never use. Minor stuff and petty of me to take exception to but it did draw me out of the story.
For example:
Nicola has been very ill,’ he said tightly before she could answer. ‘I’ll not be making her work like a slave.’
An American would say:
"Nicola has been very sick," he said tightly before she could answer. "I won't be making her work like a slave."
Apart from being unnecessarily pedantic and critical over things like language, driving through California and passport requirements for international travel, I found this story to be enjoyable. 3 stars.
As the story opens, Nicola is in the hospital recovering from smoke inhalation and PTSD. All of her belongings are gone and she has nothing. Even her friends have disappeared out of caution owing to the suspicious nature of the fire. An old family friend of her father takes it on himself to contact Nicola's long-lost aunt who now lives in California. She sends her stepson Blake to collect Nicola and bring her to California to recuperate. Blake turns up, and is he ever pushy. He's described as a real force of nature who won't take no for an answer. He buys Nicola some expensive, pretty new clothes since her own clothes were lost in the fire. He bundles her onto a plane, and away they go to California. Once there, he makes himself responsible for Nicola's psychological recovery, gives her a short-term job on his movie set, rescues her from walking off a cliff and again from falling off the top of a hill, and finding out what really caused the fire. He's also falling in love with Nicola and she's reluctantly falling in love right back. But she convinces herself based on nothing much more than her own low self-esteem that he's having an affair with the lead actress (he isn't), and it takes some effort to show her she's the only one who means anything to him.
I initially found Blake to be too much of a boorish bully to be attractive as a male lead. But he grew on me. He's a rough diamond but it's clear that he's a good guy, albeit one that might get on a person's nerves beyond bearing after a while. Nicola is too much of a blank slate to be interesting. She just doesn't have enough personality to convince me a force like Blake could find her at all intriguing. However, it was well-written to show how deeply Blake is falling in love and that was the best part of the story.
There were some things that kept pulling me out of the story. I'm wondering how he managed to get her on an international flight without any sort of identification. Given that the author is at pains to tell us that Nicola has nothing- no clothes, no makeup, no purse, no money, one assumes her passport got burned up in the fire along with everything else she owned. She wants Blake to take her to her bank so she can get some money before the flight to California, and he keeps telling her there is no time for that and he'll supply whatever she needs. But no mention of a passport is ever made. There are also some lovely descriptions of the California coast that ring true but we never learn where in California they are. I spent too much time trying to map it because the distances described made no sense to me (driving along highway 1 or even the 101 towards San Francisco from one assumes the SoCal area is an all day thing. It's not the short-ish trip described in this book). Finally, Blake speaks in British-isms that an American would never use. Minor stuff and petty of me to take exception to but it did draw me out of the story.
For example:
Nicola has been very ill,’ he said tightly before she could answer. ‘I’ll not be making her work like a slave.’
An American would say:
"Nicola has been very sick," he said tightly before she could answer. "I won't be making her work like a slave."
Apart from being unnecessarily pedantic and critical over things like language, driving through California and passport requirements for international travel, I found this story to be enjoyable. 3 stars.
December 5, 2019
WOW, just WWWWWOOOOOWWWWW!!!!!!!! This author is unbelieveabl(e/y) GOOD!!!! Characters dense. Story organic and natural, rather than forced... You feel what they feel! He is complex, living in an artificial and shallow world. As a reader, you actually ‘get’ why and who he is - given that world. But also have the sense of what he is deep inside, where what she is calls to him. She is completely NOT artificial, natural. I completely ‘get’ her, and also ‘him’ as well.... The author connected these lives to me.... what good writing should be and so often isn’t. Your own personality will determine whether this author connects to/with you, and may not be for some; but for those for and with whom she resonates (on the same frequency), this is a profound story. In the top 5 of my all time favs, and I’ve read - literally (my bookshelf proves it) - over a thousand Hs in my life, as well as other romance literature (and other high brow and/or pop culture literature)... I felt like I was being healed (emotionally/psychologically) right along with the heroine.... pace and progression of her emotional life (trauma, trauma recovery, return to active and loving emotion, from numbness let free only during nightmare).... and awakening to love, relationship, and desire.... having been through all as well, completely authentic. First time reading Patricia Wilson, that I know of.... Rushing off to find more of her work.
February 10, 2021
It surprises me to read in other reviews that the H was always so angry. In my opinion he was extremely caring towards the h. Especially since he didn’t know her before.
It affected him to see the sadness of the h and to see her going through her nightmares. He supported her. She lost all her clothes through a fire, he bought new clothes. And he reminded her that she didn’t lose everything and everyone: she had a home with him and her aunt.
He told her to fight back and to not let life get her down. Maybe that was angry, but it’s a HP. Would you want him to cry his eyeballs out with her? The H’s and h’s don’t go to years of therapy in HPlandia.
Patricia Wilson’s books are one of the best and this one is no exception.
It affected him to see the sadness of the h and to see her going through her nightmares. He supported her. She lost all her clothes through a fire, he bought new clothes. And he reminded her that she didn’t lose everything and everyone: she had a home with him and her aunt.
He told her to fight back and to not let life get her down. Maybe that was angry, but it’s a HP. Would you want him to cry his eyeballs out with her? The H’s and h’s don’t go to years of therapy in HPlandia.
Patricia Wilson’s books are one of the best and this one is no exception.
April 11, 2021
The hero was the bossiest character I've ever read. Good lord, he could teach a class on how to be a bulldozer. Imagine recovering from a near death experience and thinking your father had a part in it and you're suffering from PTSD and there's an angry man-bear who's yelling at you all the time. That was the hero in a nutshell.
May 13, 2025
owned this book for like yeeeaaars and i haven't even touched it; until today, that is. always love me a broody hero but this one kinda pissed me off because it's almost as if he's grumpy for no reason. but overall a cute little romance, albeit a touch stressful, it's ok to me.
September 24, 2022
Good story if completely unbelievable plot. How is it these h and Hs can kiss first thing in the morning after a hangover or flu or sponging without brushing their teeth?
October 29, 2022
Nicola was recovering from a traumatic experience. Her father died while rescuing her from fire was painful enough to add to it the fact that he caused the fire on purpose to get rid of financial problems as the police and his partner claimed. Nicola couldn't handle things as they are and she certainly couldn't handle Blake Anderson, the famous film director and the only stepson to her ailing, unknown and only aunt! He was too much of a dominating character to her hurt self at the moment so she couldn't do anything but go along with his plans to take her to America with him. It was there she started developing feelings for Blake!
I honestly do not know how to rate this novel! Not much events happened to determine it's worth anyway. It's not bad, but it's not that good either. I guess it's okay to read once in a life time. Patricia Wilson certainly had better books than this one.
I honestly do not know how to rate this novel! Not much events happened to determine it's worth anyway. It's not bad, but it's not that good either. I guess it's okay to read once in a life time. Patricia Wilson certainly had better books than this one.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 22, 2015
3.5 stars
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August 23, 2013jjjj
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