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Vendetta
Part of the Mills & Boon 100th Birthday Collection
After an accident for which millionaire Nicholas Thorne was blamed, he plans to keep Vivian a prisoner in revenge, luring her onto his private island. She’s engaged to be wed to another man… but she finds his seductive charm increasingly difficult to resist!
After an accident for which millionaire Nicholas Thorne was blamed, he plans to keep Vivian a prisoner in revenge, luring her onto his private island. She’s engaged to be wed to another man… but she finds his seductive charm increasingly difficult to resist!
74 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2008
9 people are currently reading
69 people want to read
About the author
Susan Napier
141 books153 followersPerhaps being born on Valentine’s Day was an omen that Susan Napier would become a romance writer. This New Zealand author has written over 30 Mills & Boon category romances since 1984. Napier and her husband Tony Potter met when they both worked at the Auckland Star newspaper. After they married, she left the newspaper to work for a film company where she learned the art of dialogue. After the birth of her sons, Simon and Ben, she was a freelance scriptwriter for documentaries. It was soon after that she decided to try her hand at writing the romance fiction she dearly loved.
She and her husband still live in the home they bought in Auckland shortly after their marriage.
She and her husband still live in the home they bought in Auckland shortly after their marriage.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
June 21, 2020
Trainwreck!
*clasps hands*
*heart eyes*
I just read a trainwreck! It’s been so long . . .
And this was a wtf, fun-house mirror story that didn’t run out of high-octane crazy until the very end. It helped that this was a novella, set on a craggy island called Nowhere. The heroine is lured there by a reclusive property developer who wanted to finally sign a large contract in person. Her blonde and beautiful sister was invited, but red-haired, bespectacled heroine goes in her place since she senses trouble.
Trouble?
Could it be the three-hour boat trip in choppy seas?
The large amount of cash she must carry with her?
The steep rickety staircase she must climb up a cliff?
The helicopter arrival of the mysterious recluse?
His eye patch and limp?
His surly manservant?
The decommissioned lighthouse he uses as his lair home base?
The champagne toast after the contract is signed?
The drugs he put in her food?
The simulated sex photos he took of her naked in bed while she was sedated?
The declaration that this was revenge for the fatal car accident the heroine caused/was part of when she was 15?
Trouble?
What trouble?
I won’t go into the rest of the crazy action but I will reassure you that hero is totally committed to this revenge plot once he saw the heroine.
The heroine also has her secrets So, she goes along with the hero’s plans until she realizes she’s in love and may succumb to his seduction.
If you don’t want to read the spoilers, just know that they both insist on taking the longest road to go the shortest distance.
Since they both enjoyed this kidnapper/hostage/revenge game very much, I expect them to LARP* all the cheesiest/non-pc romance scenarios to keep their marriage “fresh.” Sheikh/desert wanderer, captive soldier/Indian maiden, Lord of the Manor/Governess, etc. . What a pairing.
*Live Action Role-Playing
*clasps hands*
*heart eyes*
I just read a trainwreck! It’s been so long . . .
And this was a wtf, fun-house mirror story that didn’t run out of high-octane crazy until the very end. It helped that this was a novella, set on a craggy island called Nowhere. The heroine is lured there by a reclusive property developer who wanted to finally sign a large contract in person. Her blonde and beautiful sister was invited, but red-haired, bespectacled heroine goes in her place since she senses trouble.
Trouble?
Could it be the three-hour boat trip in choppy seas?
The large amount of cash she must carry with her?
The steep rickety staircase she must climb up a cliff?
The helicopter arrival of the mysterious recluse?
His eye patch and limp?
His surly manservant?
The decommissioned lighthouse he uses as his
The champagne toast after the contract is signed?
The drugs he put in her food?
The simulated sex photos he took of her naked in bed while she was sedated?
The declaration that this was revenge for the fatal car accident the heroine caused/was part of when she was 15?
Trouble?
What trouble?
I won’t go into the rest of the crazy action but I will reassure you that hero is totally committed to this revenge plot once he saw the heroine.
The heroine also has her secrets So, she goes along with the hero’s plans until she realizes she’s in love and may succumb to his seduction.
If you don’t want to read the spoilers, just know that they both insist on taking the longest road to go the shortest distance.
Since they both enjoyed this kidnapper/hostage/revenge game very much, I expect them to LARP* all the cheesiest/non-pc romance scenarios to keep their marriage “fresh.” Sheikh/desert wanderer, captive soldier/Indian maiden, Lord of the Manor/Governess, etc. . What a pairing.
*Live Action Role-Playing
November 18, 2017
So many things don’t add up in this book just like the cover. The H is blonde folks, but the cover has taken liberties and a color rinse?
Putting so many ott absurdities in a novella length book can only be admired or perhaps expected.
Okay its fiction but still how can the H fall in insta-love with a woman who purportedly ruined his life, his career and his health?
And as another reviewer has pointed out, she was fifteen and she was driving a carload of teenagers at night, got in a deadly accident and wasn’t even censured? Everyone treated her with kid gloves? Maybe she should have been transferred to a Robyn-Donald-plot if not to correctional places.
His rigid father, callous wife and the sister-fiancé duo from her side were as cardboard-y as can be.
The ending was wacky even as it explained a lot of things, but left me with an odd disconsolate feel.
On the plus side?
The h/H have an intense incendiary sorta chemistry in true SN fashion.
Putting so many ott absurdities in a novella length book can only be admired or perhaps expected.
Okay its fiction but still how can the H fall in insta-love with a woman who purportedly ruined his life, his career and his health?
And as another reviewer has pointed out, she was fifteen and she was driving a carload of teenagers at night, got in a deadly accident and wasn’t even censured? Everyone treated her with kid gloves? Maybe she should have been transferred to a Robyn-Donald-plot if not to correctional places.
His rigid father, callous wife and the sister-fiancé duo from her side were as cardboard-y as can be.
The ending was wacky even as it explained a lot of things, but left me with an odd disconsolate feel.
On the plus side?
The h/H have an intense incendiary sorta chemistry in true SN fashion.
October 18, 2022
I’m your future now. I’m the one who controls your destiny.’ She gave a little yip as his free hand slipped under the hem of his sweater to splay warmly across her quivering, tautly stretched belly. ‘And I’m the one who controls your fertility. The first child you’ll ever carry in your womb will be mine. The first baby to suckle at your breast will belong to me, as you will…’
Hehe.
"Vendetta" is the story of Vivian and Nicholas.
Honestly this was stupidly ridic. But I liked it.
Our h was kind of responsible for the accident that killed the H's wife and left him paralyzed years ago. He plots revenge for years, and manipulates the world around the h so she ends up with him a week before her wedding. He then drugs her and takes compromising pictures of them to "destroy" her life- not knowing that the wedding is no longer valid anyways!(the h had realized her fiance loves her sister and gave them her blessings)
Then there's lines like these:
‘Such a fiery little nest… Is it as hot and spicy as its colour suggests? I’ll bet it is…’ She gave a faint whimper that was stifled by the nip of his teeth against her tender lower lip and his purred praise vibrating over her tongue. ‘I bet you’re hot and spicy all over when you’re in sexual heat, peppered with those delicious freckles and salted with the sweat of your arousal. I look forward to dining on your splendour…’
H referring to h's pubes.
And scenes where the h drugs the H, and then he tries to sex her before collapsing. And escape attempts through the ocean. And a confession in the sea. And a sweet ending.
Enjoy this absolutely crazy insanity!
Safe???
3.5/5
Hehe.
"Vendetta" is the story of Vivian and Nicholas.
Honestly this was stupidly ridic. But I liked it.
Our h was kind of responsible for the accident that killed the H's wife and left him paralyzed years ago. He plots revenge for years, and manipulates the world around the h so she ends up with him a week before her wedding. He then drugs her and takes compromising pictures of them to "destroy" her life- not knowing that the wedding is no longer valid anyways!(the h had realized her fiance loves her sister and gave them her blessings)
Then there's lines like these:
‘Such a fiery little nest… Is it as hot and spicy as its colour suggests? I’ll bet it is…’ She gave a faint whimper that was stifled by the nip of his teeth against her tender lower lip and his purred praise vibrating over her tongue. ‘I bet you’re hot and spicy all over when you’re in sexual heat, peppered with those delicious freckles and salted with the sweat of your arousal. I look forward to dining on your splendour…’
H referring to h's pubes.
And scenes where the h drugs the H, and then he tries to sex her before collapsing. And escape attempts through the ocean. And a confession in the sea. And a sweet ending.
Enjoy this absolutely crazy insanity!
Safe???
3.5/5
December 21, 2018
Wth did I just read? I've read some really crazy HPs but this one is just above and beyond anything else I've come across since I started reading romances. My first book by this author and I have to wonder if she was on drugs or something while writing this. The plot featured a marine biologist/property developer/ex-athlete H who thinks nothing of drugging the h and forcing her to stay with him on a private island aptly named 'Nowhere'. The h is another supposedly not very attractive, visually challenged female who develops Stockholm syndrome faster than I develop allergies when in contact with the smallest speck of dust (and that's real fast). A lot of angst follows and for the first time I find myself wondering if there's something as too much angst in a romance novel. h finally makes her escape after H handcuffs her and tries to have his way with her after she's drugged him (yes, it all happens); only to be brought back by the H who confesses his love and comes up with one of the weirdest of explanations for his mad behaviour - that I've ever read. Scratch that. This is by far the strangest conclusion to a love story ever. Period. And then they find their HEA.
I'm still not sure how to rate this. 2.5 rounded to 3 was a reasonable rating I suppose -given that even with the bizarre plot-line, I was intrigued enough to keep on reading. In fact, I might even attempt getting some of this author's other books. Because, to be fair, whatever else it was, it certainly wasn't boring. And that's one of the biggest USPs of a book for me.
I'm still not sure how to rate this. 2.5 rounded to 3 was a reasonable rating I suppose -given that even with the bizarre plot-line, I was intrigued enough to keep on reading. In fact, I might even attempt getting some of this author's other books. Because, to be fair, whatever else it was, it certainly wasn't boring. And that's one of the biggest USPs of a book for me.
July 9, 2019
This short story is complete and utter bonkers.
From 15 year old h's driving cars, crashing and killing people to H's (and h's) drugging each other to plot all kinds of mischief to the H being a complete and utter bottom feeder taking naked pictures of the h (there are laws against that now) this was just a total drama fest.
H is injured and is missing sight in an eye because of the h, its actually his dad that plotted the revenge he just decided to stick to it because he fell for the h.
The cover is a travesty and in no way matches our H & h.
God knows what is going to happen to these 2 next.
From 15 year old h's driving cars, crashing and killing people to H's (and h's) drugging each other to plot all kinds of mischief to the H being a complete and utter bottom feeder taking naked pictures of the h (there are laws against that now) this was just a total drama fest.
H is injured and is missing sight in an eye because of the h, its actually his dad that plotted the revenge he just decided to stick to it because he fell for the h.
The cover is a travesty and in no way matches our H & h.
God knows what is going to happen to these 2 next.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 12, 2010
I love Susan Napier but by God this book is sooooo bad that I wanted to throw up.....
ugh!!
ugh!!
November 12, 2021
I actually left this review with the Breaking/Making Up: Something Borrowed / Vendetta
I decided to leave the SN version here as well, since some may not read the dual novella book.
OK this definitely needed to be longer. The train-wreck that was this story made the train-wreck in the movie Fugitive look like children playing with a train set. There were so many “revelations” that I feel like SN took every idea she ever had in her head for a story and just tossed it in this 90 page story. With that being said things were underdeveloped to a certain extent.
There is revenge, love gone wrong, love at first sight, eye patches, freckles, cleavage, limps, coke bottle glasses, burly body guards, desolate island complete with lighthouse, frightening fathers, daring escapes, handcuffs 😯, morning wood, bare breasts, one up man ships, drugs, explicit photos and the list goes on . If you don’t believe me check out the review by Stmargarets. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
During the story, I was like….didn’t see that coming……..3-4 ⭐️
I decided to leave the SN version here as well, since some may not read the dual novella book.
OK this definitely needed to be longer. The train-wreck that was this story made the train-wreck in the movie Fugitive look like children playing with a train set. There were so many “revelations” that I feel like SN took every idea she ever had in her head for a story and just tossed it in this 90 page story. With that being said things were underdeveloped to a certain extent.
There is revenge, love gone wrong, love at first sight, eye patches, freckles, cleavage, limps, coke bottle glasses, burly body guards, desolate island complete with lighthouse, frightening fathers, daring escapes, handcuffs 😯, morning wood, bare breasts, one up man ships, drugs, explicit photos and the list goes on . If you don’t believe me check out the review by Stmargarets. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
During the story, I was like….didn’t see that coming……..3-4 ⭐️
November 28, 2023
‘I’m your future now. I’m the one who controls your destiny.’ She gave a little yip as his free hand slipped under the hem of his sweater to splay warmly across her quivering, tautly stretched belly. ‘And I’m the one who controls your fertility. The first child you’ll ever carry in your womb will be mine. The first baby to suckle at your breast will belong to me, as you will…’
Vendetta by Susan Napier, first published in January of 1998 is a very short read, the length of a novella I must say, and even then, Ms. Napier managed to surprise me with just how meaty the story was when all was said and done.
The story begins with the hero Nicholas James Thorne waiting for the arrival of Vivian Mitchell to a remote island that he owns, to close a vital property deal on behalf of Marvel-Mitchell Realties. Nicholas is a man who has been biding his time for ten long years to get his revenge, and he believes that Vivian for all intents and purposes got away scot-free, without a scratch, when he had lost it all.
When Vivian arrives at the godforsaken island, which she had expected more from since it was owned by a millionaire, she finds out that nothing is as as she presumed it would be, starting from the man himself, who aggravates her, intrigues her, and arouses her in equal doses. Once Nicholas reveals his nefarious intentions, it is already too late for Vivian, who knows deep in her heart that Nicholas has managed to steal her heart without much ado.
As outlined earlier in the review, though it is a very short read of just 70+ odd pages, this was still a very compelling story in many ways. The shocking revelations regarding both Vivian and Nicholas made this quite enjoyable. And even though I missed the heady and sensual scenes of passion that Ms. Napier is very capable of delivering in her novels in Vendetta, the simmering sexual tension was definitely in place whenever Nicholas and Vivian were together.
This could have been such a swell read if it had been the length of a usual category romance novel, and I will forever mourn the fact that it was not. Recommended for fans of Susan Napier, stories featuring revenge arcs, and those who love a lightly themed beauty and the beast story.
Final Verdict: Vendetta offers a titillating read of the larger-than-life and scarred to boot Nicholas, whose best laid plans turn to ashes when Vivian makes him forget his best intentions.
Rating = 4/5
For more reviews and quotes, please visit A Maldivian's Passion for Romance
May 2, 2022
Looks like Susan Napier never reread her first draft.
She started off with one idea and then by the end of the book created what she thought was a surprising twist in the tale.
But the whole plot was convoluted and literally floundering incoherently.
I personally feel they should have “gone to bed” earlier than at the ending.
When they were interacting somewhere in the middle the author had no idea what they should speak about.
The author did not have a clear time frame of reference for the story.
Did it happen over a week? Five days? Fifteen days?
Ok. I remembered. I think it was five days. But there was a certain incoherence in the story.
There were the seeds of a great story in the idea. But what grew out and formed was a stunted sapling.
Very disappointed.
I read till the bitter end.
The way the heroine poured the date rape drug into his wine and then left him was scary.
They deserved each other.
The number of times the word sensual has been used in the story is beyond irritating.
Most hated word by the time the book ended.
The feels were anything but sensual.
I didn’t like it. In the sense you keep plodding through a cup of unsweetened tea expecting to find some sugar at the bottom. But no there’s none.
Nope. Not impressed.
She started off with one idea and then by the end of the book created what she thought was a surprising twist in the tale.
But the whole plot was convoluted and literally floundering incoherently.
I personally feel they should have “gone to bed” earlier than at the ending.
When they were interacting somewhere in the middle the author had no idea what they should speak about.
The author did not have a clear time frame of reference for the story.
Did it happen over a week? Five days? Fifteen days?
Ok. I remembered. I think it was five days. But there was a certain incoherence in the story.
There were the seeds of a great story in the idea. But what grew out and formed was a stunted sapling.
Very disappointed.
I read till the bitter end.
The way the heroine poured the date rape drug into his wine and then left him was scary.
They deserved each other.
The number of times the word sensual has been used in the story is beyond irritating.
Most hated word by the time the book ended.
The feels were anything but sensual.
I didn’t like it. In the sense you keep plodding through a cup of unsweetened tea expecting to find some sugar at the bottom. But no there’s none.
Nope. Not impressed.
October 16, 2021
Absurd, unbelievable and fantastical - and also utterly entertaining.
Yes, from this distance, there are some questionable attitudes and behaviours but the author is so clever that I didn’t mind at all. This was just a great, entertaining escape into fairy-tale land. Lovely reveal at the end. Great dialogue and full of sexual tension.
Yes, from this distance, there are some questionable attitudes and behaviours but the author is so clever that I didn’t mind at all. This was just a great, entertaining escape into fairy-tale land. Lovely reveal at the end. Great dialogue and full of sexual tension.
February 24, 2013
What was a 15 year old girl doing, driving a bus full of kids younger than her? Is this the legal driving age in New Zealand?
The hero is ok with the heroine accidentally killing his pregnant wife, just because it was an arranged marriage and he didn't love his wife?
Totally weird story.
The hero is ok with the heroine accidentally killing his pregnant wife, just because it was an arranged marriage and he didn't love his wife?
Totally weird story.
March 22, 2015
Loved it!!!! May be unusual .. But that is what makes it!
November 10, 2021
2.5 ⭐️⭐️ just an ok/meh story.
May 22, 2010
I actually really love this book. Love at first sight!
September 26, 2010
I loved this book. Too bad it was so short. The ending was a little abrupt and far-fetched.
September 30, 2018
Interesting short story. However, I reconsidered my rating because of some serious points.
1- She was 15, she was driving a vehicle full of girls and there was an accident but there weren't any serious consequences with the law. Weird؟!
2- He fell in love easily with someone ruined his life.
3- What is the problem with the cover? couldn't put blonde hero on it as it should be?
1- She was 15, she was driving a vehicle full of girls and there was an accident but there weren't any serious consequences with the law. Weird؟!
2- He fell in love easily with someone ruined his life.
3- What is the problem with the cover? couldn't put blonde hero on it as it should be?
January 1, 2026
Seemed to have a lot of plot twists just for the sake of it and no really sense of romance. H just taunts and sexually assaults the h and they fall in love without much groveling or dramatics or anything. The freak in me liked the weird primal breeding talk ngl.
hq-to-read
October 25, 2019Own as Breaking/Making Up: Something Borrowed / Vendetta
February 28, 2021
Dnf. Horribly written.
August 7, 2024
Insane, crazy plot with insane, crazy characters.
June 7, 2025
Amazingly freaky-deaky. The 90’s must have been a crazy decade for some.
July 4, 2011
like it but story is too short
November 25, 2014
Bizarre and far fetched......
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews