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Gypsy
Gypsy by Carole Mortimer released on May 23, 1986 is available now for purchase.
Claiming his woman…
Shay is the raven-haired beauty the Falconer brothers called Gypsy. Irresistible to each brother, it was Lyon Falconer who claimed her - when he didn't have the right… Yet it was Ricky, the youngest Falconer, who picked up the fragments of Shay's shattered life and married her out of love.
But, with her husband's death, destiny has hurled Shay back within Lyon's reach. Now Lyon has a final chance to prove that Shay has always been - and would always be - his!
Claiming his woman…
Shay is the raven-haired beauty the Falconer brothers called Gypsy. Irresistible to each brother, it was Lyon Falconer who claimed her - when he didn't have the right… Yet it was Ricky, the youngest Falconer, who picked up the fragments of Shay's shattered life and married her out of love.
But, with her husband's death, destiny has hurled Shay back within Lyon's reach. Now Lyon has a final chance to prove that Shay has always been - and would always be - his!
383 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1985
43 people are currently reading
446 people want to read
About the author
Carole Mortimer
1,296 books907 followersI have written almost 250 romance novels in contemporary and Regency.
I am a USA Today Bestselling Author and recipient of the 2015 RWA Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2014 I received a Pioneer of Romance Award from Romantic Times in the US and in 2012 I was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II for my 'outstanding service to literature'.
I am very happily married to Peter with six sons, and live on the Isle of Man
I am a USA Today Bestselling Author and recipient of the 2015 RWA Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2014 I received a Pioneer of Romance Award from Romantic Times in the US and in 2012 I was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II for my 'outstanding service to literature'.
I am very happily married to Peter with six sons, and live on the Isle of Man
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 78 reviews
December 7, 2016
Low 3 Stars
This was going to be a 2 star, but it was catapulted to 3 starville by the skin of its teeth...AKA the desperate GROVELING of the H and his general sexiness.
If not for that, I'm not sure how I would have felt about this book.
It was messy.
And there were a lot of completely unnecessary exclamation points.
Like, every fucking where!
Serious I am!
All over the place they were!
First of all...
The heroine I loathed!
A mega C to the U-N-T she was!
Understand I do that the h he hurt!
But what the fucketh I say!
Treat him like shite she did!
But her he wanted, regardless!
And yet not down could this I put!
Anyway.
Anyway, enough of that shit.
Like I said, I didn't like the heroine.
The situation was pretty messy what with him being MARRIED and her MARRYING HIS BROTHER (whom she still claimed to love throughout).
I didn't understand why the estranged wife was still around all the time, with her new beau no less.
And the whole secret plot that popped up toward the end?
Recommend this I cannot...!!!!!!!!!
Find me at:
This was going to be a 2 star, but it was catapulted to 3 starville by the skin of its teeth...AKA the desperate GROVELING of the H and his general sexiness.
If not for that, I'm not sure how I would have felt about this book.
It was messy.
And there were a lot of completely unnecessary exclamation points.
Like, every fucking where!
Serious I am!
All over the place they were!
First of all...
The heroine I loathed!
A mega C to the U-N-T she was!
Understand I do that the h he hurt!
But what the fucketh I say!
Treat him like shite she did!
But her he wanted, regardless!
And yet not down could this I put!
Anyway.
Anyway, enough of that shit.
Like I said, I didn't like the heroine.
The situation was pretty messy what with him being MARRIED and her MARRYING HIS BROTHER (whom she still claimed to love throughout).
I didn't understand why the estranged wife was still around all the time, with her new beau no less.
And the whole secret plot that popped up toward the end?
Recommend this I cannot...!!!!!!!!!
Find me at:
November 30, 2016
???
Okay, okay. It's gone from bad to worse. Thesepeople characters are from England and should know better than that. That is not how a grieving widow is supposed to act after a funeral. Yuck.
Okay, I'm done. Tried drinking the koolaid, but it just won't go down and no matter what Mary Poppins says even a spoonful of sugar is not going to help.
Plot: A true Grace has Bob's dead wife's heart story. See Naksed's review for the best review. It really captures the tone of the story..https://www.goodreads.com/review/show....
Back to my review, via flashbacks we find out that the heroine, she of the purple eyes, is besotted with the H: the 15 years older H, married AND her boss so no triggers there. To go from bad to worse, the H set out to purposely seduce this 18 year old. He brings her home to ye olde estate. No problemo, his wife is there with her boy toy, and it's one big mess of a menage. The couple have an open and miserable marriage, but the H CAN NOT GET A DIVORCE! No mixing of couples, thank heavens, but the thought of being at a house with my lover not boyfriend and his wife and her lover makes my stomach churn. The H also has a plethora of brothers, some of which are integral to the plot, some just brother-window dressing.
Flash forward to today, and the h is now a widow and is watching her husband's coffin get loaded on a plane. Said dead husband is, or was, the youngest brother to the H. Yep, my least favorite trope: leaping from brother to brother. The younger brother wasn't just a filler; he wasn't gay; he wasn't pining for someone else; he didn't need to marry to receive his inheritance. He truly loved the h and made her happy as she did him. At this point, I wanted to know more about their relationship. At this point.
One incredibly icky moment on the plane as the H and h look daggers at each other is when the H snaps at the poor little attendant. At first he seems like an impolite jerk, then the author drops the additional bombshell that he's had the attendant on the very bed the h is taking a nap on in the cabin. Blegh, he's so gross. I don't know if this is to cement in our mind how uber alpha and attractive he is to all women or to show what he is willing to give up for the h, or... I don't know where the author was going with this.
The funeral's over and the H's wicked, fox trotting wife is there with her new fiancee. Looks like she can get a divorce even of the H can't. The h drops the bomb that she's brought a little souvenir home from the states, little brother junior. Uproar with evil woman doing her evil woman thing.
I can't go on. There is so much crap on top of more crap, I wouldn't even know where to go from here.
The h is a historical fiction writer, and her sexy, love-to-hate-him-villain is based on guess who?
Somebody is or was sterile.
The h plots revenge against the H.
The h's grandfather slaps the evil, other-woman wife.
People are attacked at random in a bizarre, convoluted plot for for money.
We find out that the sainted, married to the H, dead little brother may not have been as sweet of a guy as we thought.
I am using the word "plot" way too much.
One of the brothers is in a wheelchair 'cause why not. You can't have too much angst.
No dogs. A dog would ground these ass-hats.
The reason why the H can't divorce his wife is very, very, very underwhelming. One might say anti-climatic, hahaha. I was at least hoping for a death bed vow to his great-uncle the Archbishop of Canterbury or his mother at the least. Couldn't help wondering how mom and dad would have felt if they had. known the olde estate had been used as a den of inequity.
I was skimming at this point because I just could not take it any more so I may have missed some could sludge. Sorry.
This is either a 1 star or a 4 star depending on how you like your angst served up.
Okay, okay. It's gone from bad to worse. These
Okay, I'm done. Tried drinking the koolaid, but it just won't go down and no matter what Mary Poppins says even a spoonful of sugar is not going to help.
Plot: A true Grace has Bob's dead wife's heart story. See Naksed's review for the best review. It really captures the tone of the story..https://www.goodreads.com/review/show....
Back to my review, via flashbacks we find out that the heroine, she of the purple eyes, is besotted with the H: the 15 years older H, married AND her boss so no triggers there. To go from bad to worse, the H set out to purposely seduce this 18 year old. He brings her home to ye olde estate. No problemo, his wife is there with her boy toy, and it's one big mess of a menage. The couple have an open and miserable marriage, but the H CAN NOT GET A DIVORCE! No mixing of couples, thank heavens, but the thought of being at a house with my lover not boyfriend and his wife and her lover makes my stomach churn. The H also has a plethora of brothers, some of which are integral to the plot, some just brother-window dressing.
Flash forward to today, and the h is now a widow and is watching her husband's coffin get loaded on a plane. Said dead husband is, or was, the youngest brother to the H. Yep, my least favorite trope: leaping from brother to brother. The younger brother wasn't just a filler; he wasn't gay; he wasn't pining for someone else; he didn't need to marry to receive his inheritance. He truly loved the h and made her happy as she did him. At this point, I wanted to know more about their relationship. At this point.
One incredibly icky moment on the plane as the H and h look daggers at each other is when the H snaps at the poor little attendant. At first he seems like an impolite jerk, then the author drops the additional bombshell that he's had the attendant on the very bed the h is taking a nap on in the cabin. Blegh, he's so gross. I don't know if this is to cement in our mind how uber alpha and attractive he is to all women or to show what he is willing to give up for the h, or... I don't know where the author was going with this.
The funeral's over and the H's wicked, fox trotting wife is there with her new fiancee. Looks like she can get a divorce even of the H can't. The h drops the bomb that she's brought a little souvenir home from the states, little brother junior. Uproar with evil woman doing her evil woman thing.
I can't go on. There is so much crap on top of more crap, I wouldn't even know where to go from here.
The h is a historical fiction writer, and her sexy, love-to-hate-him-villain is based on guess who?
Somebody is or was sterile.
The h plots revenge against the H.
The h's grandfather slaps the evil, other-woman wife.
People are attacked at random in a bizarre, convoluted plot for for money.
We find out that the sainted, married to the H, dead little brother may not have been as sweet of a guy as we thought.
I am using the word "plot" way too much.
One of the brothers is in a wheelchair 'cause why not. You can't have too much angst.
No dogs. A dog would ground these ass-hats.
The reason why the H can't divorce his wife is very, very, very underwhelming. One might say anti-climatic, hahaha. I was at least hoping for a death bed vow to his great-uncle the Archbishop of Canterbury or his mother at the least. Couldn't help wondering how mom and dad would have felt if they had. known the olde estate had been used as a den of inequity.
I was skimming at this point because I just could not take it any more so I may have missed some could sludge. Sorry.
This is either a 1 star or a 4 star depending on how you like your angst served up.
November 28, 2016
Delightfully, gloriously, deliciously trashy. If you are feeling nostalgic for those spectacular 80s primetime soaps, you may want to take a stroll down Carole Mortimer's Gypsy, an unapologetically soapy piece of entertainment that never slows down its pace. And as a bonus, it contains one of the most epic grovels I have ever had the pleasure to encounter in the romance genre.
Gypsy comes complete with the bitchy, catty, ex-wife...
...a controlling, possessive, big fat jerk of a hero forced to eat lotslotslotslotslotsa humble pie....
...a beautiful, pixie-sized, country bumpkin ingenue who has moved up in the world and is now bent on revenge...
...ruthless sibling rivalry...
...AND a murder mystery:
I dare you to be bored!
Gypsy comes complete with the bitchy, catty, ex-wife...
...a controlling, possessive, big fat jerk of a hero forced to eat lotslotslotslotslotsa humble pie....
...a beautiful, pixie-sized, country bumpkin ingenue who has moved up in the world and is now bent on revenge...
...ruthless sibling rivalry...
...AND a murder mystery:
I dare you to be bored!
November 28, 2016
4 GREAT GROVEL STARS
Been wanting to read this book for a while and now that I have I was not disappointed!
WOW
I could not get over how bitter she was and it was great for once to see a man truly fight and grovel for the woman that he did very wrong to.
And Boy did he do wrong!
PLEASE PROCEED WITH CAUTION SPOILERS AHEAD!
She loves him and goes into an affair thinking he is divorcing his wife when in reality he just wants sex and tell her she was just good to sleep with and not to marry! They had on open relationship it was gross!!!!
The whole pregnant by another guy being it was his brother and her husband did not bother me like I thought it would.
I am such a cruel bitch, I actually loved that she made him suffer as she almost died because of him and the brother did save her life.
It was too bad we never got to experience how she behaved around her husband it would have made for a very interesting comparison.
However, for me it work and I enjoyed it.
I liked that we saw that they did finally have a child together and honestly it would have been tragic if they didn't.
The angsts in this book are off the charts. There was always something going on and I felt like I was in a soap opera.
CRAZY BUT ENTERTAINING!
Been wanting to read this book for a while and now that I have I was not disappointed!
WOW
I could not get over how bitter she was and it was great for once to see a man truly fight and grovel for the woman that he did very wrong to.
And Boy did he do wrong!
PLEASE PROCEED WITH CAUTION SPOILERS AHEAD!
She loves him and goes into an affair thinking he is divorcing his wife when in reality he just wants sex and tell her she was just good to sleep with and not to marry! They had on open relationship it was gross!!!!
The whole pregnant by another guy being it was his brother and her husband did not bother me like I thought it would.
I am such a cruel bitch, I actually loved that she made him suffer as she almost died because of him and the brother did save her life.
It was too bad we never got to experience how she behaved around her husband it would have made for a very interesting comparison.
However, for me it work and I enjoyed it.
I liked that we saw that they did finally have a child together and honestly it would have been tragic if they didn't.
The angsts in this book are off the charts. There was always something going on and I felt like I was in a soap opera.
CRAZY BUT ENTERTAINING!
November 29, 2016
Okay - this one has elements I don't like:
Cheating. The 18 year-old h had a sexual affair with the married H.
Sharing. The h married the H's brother and is
So how did Carole Mortimer make this work so it was a fun, dramatic ride instead of a wall-banger?
First - the affair is firmly in the past - six years.
Second - the brother is dead at the opening, so we don't have to worry about his feelings.
Third - the heroine is not suffering from angst - she is mad as hell and isn't afraid to show it. That righteous anger carries us all the way through the entire crazy plot.
Fourth - the crazy plot. It's not just the H/h relationship which is explored. One of the brothers has a side romance. The heroine's grandfather shows up now and again. Even the hired help is interesting. The h has a career writing historical romances. Oh, and there's someone who is trying to hurt the family so there is a bit of a mystery involved.
Fifth - the OW is wonderfully bitchy so no one is worried about her feelings, either.
Sixth - the H suffered beautifully.
Seventh - there's a nice epilogue for the H/h and with the OW's life taking a 180 turn so she Mrs. Joe Ordinary and enjoying it.
I don't know if this is really a love story for the ages, but it's a delightfully interesting soap opera story.
Cheating. The 18 year-old h had a sexual affair with the married H.
Sharing. The h married the H's brother and is
So how did Carole Mortimer make this work so it was a fun, dramatic ride instead of a wall-banger?
First - the affair is firmly in the past - six years.
Second - the brother is dead at the opening, so we don't have to worry about his feelings.
Third - the heroine is not suffering from angst - she is mad as hell and isn't afraid to show it. That righteous anger carries us all the way through the entire crazy plot.
Fourth - the crazy plot. It's not just the H/h relationship which is explored. One of the brothers has a side romance. The heroine's grandfather shows up now and again. Even the hired help is interesting. The h has a career writing historical romances. Oh, and there's someone who is trying to hurt the family so there is a bit of a mystery involved.
Fifth - the OW is wonderfully bitchy so no one is worried about her feelings, either.
Sixth - the H suffered beautifully.
Seventh - there's a nice epilogue for the H/h and with the OW's life taking a 180 turn so she Mrs. Joe Ordinary and enjoying it.
I don't know if this is really a love story for the ages, but it's a delightfully interesting soap opera story.
May 17, 2010
Getting through the first 100 pages of this book was a struggle...all I could think about was restructuring the sentences so that the story made more sense. Then I wanted to recreate the characters to make them more believable (starting with the eye colors - hers were purple & his were tawny). I skimmed the second 100 pages hoping things would get better. They didn't. Ho hum...I skipped to the end. Okay, I realize this book was written 25 years ago, but this "dramatic" climax killed me:
SPOILER ******
It would have been like a scene from a farcical film if it weren't so real!
But it was real, Derrick and Lyon out on the balcony of Derrick's eighth-floor apartment, Lyon bent back precariously as the other man tried to force him over the railing. It was worse than Shay had expected, more than she had hoped for; Lyon still alive even if his life was threatened. She knew she had no time to lose!
You can picture the scene, right? Like in a cartoon.
'Lyon, you can't die,' Shay groaned, tears in her eyes as she heard the life begin to choke out of him. 'Lyon, please don't leave me like your child did. Yes, Lyon, we had a child,' she encouraged desperately as she gave a strangulated cry. 'I can give you other children, half a dozen if you like. Lyon, please please don't let him take you from me.'
Nice time to tell the guy he knocked you up and you miscarried.
'Come any further and I'll snap his neck in half,' Derrick told them coldly. 'And don't think I can't do it, I've been training in martial arts.'
Puh-leese. Chitchatting away while still holding the guy over the railing?
By chance I've intrigued you with this snippet, I won't give away the ending. Just remember, however, what would happen when Popeye was in a similar situation and someone fed him a can of spinach! hehe
2** for the effort
SPOILER ******
It would have been like a scene from a farcical film if it weren't so real!
But it was real, Derrick and Lyon out on the balcony of Derrick's eighth-floor apartment, Lyon bent back precariously as the other man tried to force him over the railing. It was worse than Shay had expected, more than she had hoped for; Lyon still alive even if his life was threatened. She knew she had no time to lose!
You can picture the scene, right? Like in a cartoon.
'Lyon, you can't die,' Shay groaned, tears in her eyes as she heard the life begin to choke out of him. 'Lyon, please don't leave me like your child did. Yes, Lyon, we had a child,' she encouraged desperately as she gave a strangulated cry. 'I can give you other children, half a dozen if you like. Lyon, please please don't let him take you from me.'
Nice time to tell the guy he knocked you up and you miscarried.
'Come any further and I'll snap his neck in half,' Derrick told them coldly. 'And don't think I can't do it, I've been training in martial arts.'
Puh-leese. Chitchatting away while still holding the guy over the railing?
By chance I've intrigued you with this snippet, I won't give away the ending. Just remember, however, what would happen when Popeye was in a similar situation and someone fed him a can of spinach! hehe
2** for the effort
July 7, 2017
I read this one on ebook format republished in 2015.
So I have the chance to read it and it's 320 pages on kindle, yes that long and full of dramas.
In another word an Oldie HP in a Glorious Style.
Talking about an open married, cheating, revenge, sacrifice and loving again.
Wow I want to smashed the H sometimes but feel sorry for him later on after I found out his reasons.
The heroine revenge came with a bam, that poor guy just don't know what to do with himself anymore, yeah *cringe* I really really feel sorry for him at the end.
Don't worry, still HEA.
If you like to read a Hero who keep grovel, grovel and grovel even after the heroine keep smashing him down, you will love this one too methinks. Infact perhaps you want to smash the heroine head too sometime, lol.
Oh scratch that! I'm not sure if that grovel but he keep telling her or everyone, this time she will married him and his forever, even thought he feel that she didn't love him anymore and hate him but it doesn't matter because he still loves her and for him he knew there is no life without her..
Note:
I warn you, not everyone will like this one, the story very raw, no nonsense, certainly not sweet romance.
I don't understand why Harlequin not publish something like this anymore...
Oh, there are cheating too, but no one got hurt about that situation except the heroine really, but the first time they met she was only a naive 19 years old girl and the hero a 34 married man who had an open married and been cheating for years. He had his reasons why behaved like that and really fall in love with the heroine and fall apart when she left him and married his younger brother.
Ladies, this book first published in 1985! How about that?
Now in 2015 HP only publish mostly bubbles gum stories, oh well!
I will hunting other old books from this author for sure:)😜
So I have the chance to read it and it's 320 pages on kindle, yes that long and full of dramas.
In another word an Oldie HP in a Glorious Style.
Talking about an open married, cheating, revenge, sacrifice and loving again.
Wow I want to smashed the H sometimes but feel sorry for him later on after I found out his reasons.
The heroine revenge came with a bam, that poor guy just don't know what to do with himself anymore, yeah *cringe* I really really feel sorry for him at the end.
Don't worry, still HEA.
If you like to read a Hero who keep grovel, grovel and grovel even after the heroine keep smashing him down, you will love this one too methinks. Infact perhaps you want to smash the heroine head too sometime, lol.
Oh scratch that! I'm not sure if that grovel but he keep telling her or everyone, this time she will married him and his forever, even thought he feel that she didn't love him anymore and hate him but it doesn't matter because he still loves her and for him he knew there is no life without her..
Note:
I warn you, not everyone will like this one, the story very raw, no nonsense, certainly not sweet romance.
I don't understand why Harlequin not publish something like this anymore...
Oh, there are cheating too, but no one got hurt about that situation except the heroine really, but the first time they met she was only a naive 19 years old girl and the hero a 34 married man who had an open married and been cheating for years. He had his reasons why behaved like that and really fall in love with the heroine and fall apart when she left him and married his younger brother.
Ladies, this book first published in 1985! How about that?
Now in 2015 HP only publish mostly bubbles gum stories, oh well!
I will hunting other old books from this author for sure:)😜
March 24, 2019
"Gypsy" is the story of Gypsy and Lyon.
'The baby is going to need a father—’
‘It has a father!’
‘He’s dead!’
‘Then maybe later on I’ll find some nice, kind man who will care for my baby and me,’ she challenged.
Lyon’s eyes glowed like liquid gold. ‘You aren’t marrying anyone but me!’
Wow.
That was half a box of tissues. And so worth it.
Also like crazy telenovela I could not look away from.
How many times have I read such an usual plot, filled with so many of my personal triggers, and ended up loving the book? Almost never. But "Gypsy" is an exception.
Our H Lyon, and h Gypsy had a scorching love affair 7 years ago- where a masculine lion like seducer and an Irish innocent combusted together with voracious passion. He tutored her in lovemaking and seeped into her pores, both losing themselves in each other.
But our H is married with unconventional morals, and when the h demands her rights, the hero scoffs and ridicules at the thought of commitment. They have a zealous interlude, after the h injures him- and the h leaves him..Only to marry his brother a year later!
Now at this point in the story, we expect the brother to be either shitty or uncaring or the h to be unhappy. This is where the book takes a refreshing turn. The brother, and the h's husband was a GREAT guy. He accepted the h knowing her past, and adored her. They both love each other and have a great marriage, until in the present, he dies in a tragic accident.
And the trump card is, the h is pregnant with his baby. Enter the H.
‘You still haven’t answered my question about why you married my brother,’ he prompted.
‘I married Ricky because he was the kindest, gentlest man I ever knew. And because I loved him deeply,’ she added quietly.
The h GENUINELY hates the H, and fights him head on. Their banter is one of the BEST I've read for a long time, and it's rare in HQN romances to read such a strong, independent, vengeful and spirited h. She had cared for the H until he broke her heart, and then she really loved his brother too. They had a good marriage, and later when devastation ensues, feverishly cares for her unborn baby too. I absolutely loved her. Good for you Gypsy- one of the best h's I've ever read.
He drew in a harsh breath. ‘Ricky has been dead over six months!’ he rasped savagely.
She stood up. ‘I know he’s dead without your constant reminder of it,’ she bit out forcefully. ‘I think I knew it the moment his plane went down, but I wouldn’t admit it to myself! But you’ll never take his place. Never, do you hear?’ she glared at him heatedly.
The H is a giant dbag. Jealous, controlling, obstinate- there is no point in the story he is likable, except when the h is able to slice him with her words. He came off as uncaring and tomcattish in the past, just plain pig headed in the present.
He shuddered against her, his hand moving from the baby to her breast, his heart leaping with exhilaration as she eagerly turned towards him.
‘Ricky?’ she murmured lovingly, her face aglow.
Lyon froze, continuing to hold her until her movements settled, and then slowly easing away from her to stand up. Even in her sleep she called out for his brother!
His leg hurt unbearably as he swung up on to Wildfire’s back for the second time that night, urging him out of the cobbled yard, his expression set grimly as he knew he would probably ride until dawn.
But it is the burning intensity of unrequited love between our couple that makes this book what it is.
This had angst, romance, tragedy, heartbreak, yearning, extremely sexy lovemaking and so many moments that will tug at your heartstrings. Yes, evil OW/ex wife plays her role, but soon shades of grey are exposed, only overshadowed by the fierceness of our main couple.
Life seemed to be revived in her body as Peter Dunbar lay the screaming baby on her chest, looking down at her son with rapt wonder. Lyon knew he had never seen anything as beautiful as Shay with her small indignant son.
I think my favorite part of the book is in the second half, where the H wiggles his way to the delivery room while the h is in premature labor. Those moments were purely beautiful. It's where we see the H thawing, falling in love with the h and the baby, and driving himself crazy with insane jealousy. It is then the agonizing secrets about the past are revealed, we understand the reasons behind their behavior, and they finally find their repentance.
Lyon’s heart leapt as she unbuttoned the front of her nightgown to reveal one brown-tipped breast, Richard latching greedily on to the nipple as it was placed in his mouth, the other breast unwittingly bared as Shay became engrossed in feeding her son. Lyon hadn’t been able to look away from the beauty of mother and child so intimately together.
‘Jealous, Lyon?’ Shay had suddenly looked up to taunt.
‘Insanely,’ he answered instantly.
It does weirdly turn into a murder mystery abruptly, very soap opera-ish. It is there that the plot has some holes, with so MANY secrets being revealed- there are a lot of tears, heartbreak and weird rationality- and because of that slight dwindling of the great book so far, this loses half star.
But then again, the epilogue was satisfying to read.
If you have an open mind, and don't mind convention, please DO give this a try. I promise it will be worth it.
Unsafe
4.5/5
'The baby is going to need a father—’
‘It has a father!’
‘He’s dead!’
‘Then maybe later on I’ll find some nice, kind man who will care for my baby and me,’ she challenged.
Lyon’s eyes glowed like liquid gold. ‘You aren’t marrying anyone but me!’
Wow.
That was half a box of tissues. And so worth it.
Also like crazy telenovela I could not look away from.
How many times have I read such an usual plot, filled with so many of my personal triggers, and ended up loving the book? Almost never. But "Gypsy" is an exception.
Our H Lyon, and h Gypsy had a scorching love affair 7 years ago- where a masculine lion like seducer and an Irish innocent combusted together with voracious passion. He tutored her in lovemaking and seeped into her pores, both losing themselves in each other.
But our H is married with unconventional morals, and when the h demands her rights, the hero scoffs and ridicules at the thought of commitment. They have a zealous interlude, after the h injures him- and the h leaves him..Only to marry his brother a year later!
Now at this point in the story, we expect the brother to be either shitty or uncaring or the h to be unhappy. This is where the book takes a refreshing turn. The brother, and the h's husband was a GREAT guy. He accepted the h knowing her past, and adored her. They both love each other and have a great marriage, until in the present, he dies in a tragic accident.
And the trump card is, the h is pregnant with his baby. Enter the H.
‘You still haven’t answered my question about why you married my brother,’ he prompted.
‘I married Ricky because he was the kindest, gentlest man I ever knew. And because I loved him deeply,’ she added quietly.
The h GENUINELY hates the H, and fights him head on. Their banter is one of the BEST I've read for a long time, and it's rare in HQN romances to read such a strong, independent, vengeful and spirited h. She had cared for the H until he broke her heart, and then she really loved his brother too. They had a good marriage, and later when devastation ensues, feverishly cares for her unborn baby too. I absolutely loved her. Good for you Gypsy- one of the best h's I've ever read.
He drew in a harsh breath. ‘Ricky has been dead over six months!’ he rasped savagely.
She stood up. ‘I know he’s dead without your constant reminder of it,’ she bit out forcefully. ‘I think I knew it the moment his plane went down, but I wouldn’t admit it to myself! But you’ll never take his place. Never, do you hear?’ she glared at him heatedly.
The H is a giant dbag. Jealous, controlling, obstinate- there is no point in the story he is likable, except when the h is able to slice him with her words. He came off as uncaring and tomcattish in the past, just plain pig headed in the present.
He shuddered against her, his hand moving from the baby to her breast, his heart leaping with exhilaration as she eagerly turned towards him.
‘Ricky?’ she murmured lovingly, her face aglow.
Lyon froze, continuing to hold her until her movements settled, and then slowly easing away from her to stand up. Even in her sleep she called out for his brother!
His leg hurt unbearably as he swung up on to Wildfire’s back for the second time that night, urging him out of the cobbled yard, his expression set grimly as he knew he would probably ride until dawn.
But it is the burning intensity of unrequited love between our couple that makes this book what it is.
This had angst, romance, tragedy, heartbreak, yearning, extremely sexy lovemaking and so many moments that will tug at your heartstrings. Yes, evil OW/ex wife plays her role, but soon shades of grey are exposed, only overshadowed by the fierceness of our main couple.
Life seemed to be revived in her body as Peter Dunbar lay the screaming baby on her chest, looking down at her son with rapt wonder. Lyon knew he had never seen anything as beautiful as Shay with her small indignant son.
I think my favorite part of the book is in the second half, where the H wiggles his way to the delivery room while the h is in premature labor. Those moments were purely beautiful. It's where we see the H thawing, falling in love with the h and the baby, and driving himself crazy with insane jealousy. It is then the agonizing secrets about the past are revealed, we understand the reasons behind their behavior, and they finally find their repentance.
Lyon’s heart leapt as she unbuttoned the front of her nightgown to reveal one brown-tipped breast, Richard latching greedily on to the nipple as it was placed in his mouth, the other breast unwittingly bared as Shay became engrossed in feeding her son. Lyon hadn’t been able to look away from the beauty of mother and child so intimately together.
‘Jealous, Lyon?’ Shay had suddenly looked up to taunt.
‘Insanely,’ he answered instantly.
It does weirdly turn into a murder mystery abruptly, very soap opera-ish. It is there that the plot has some holes, with so MANY secrets being revealed- there are a lot of tears, heartbreak and weird rationality- and because of that slight dwindling of the great book so far, this loses half star.
But then again, the epilogue was satisfying to read.
If you have an open mind, and don't mind convention, please DO give this a try. I promise it will be worth it.
Unsafe
4.5/5
January 9, 2012
This is a book of evil heroine and a stupid ending. But the ending really didn't kill the book as shocking as that is.
So we join our heroine while she's watching the casket of her beloved husband getting loaded on a plane. She has to go back into the family fold for the funeral and while she'd like to wash her hands of the whole family *the only one she likes was her husband* she can't. Because she's pregnant.
Of course the heroine and the oldest brother, not her husband, who was the youngest, had a thing going on years before.
Actually she was originally with the oldest brother. He was married but it was well known that he was getting divorced from his wife. Both of them were with other people. The heroine was with him for 6 months when she finally asked him when the divorce was going to be finalized so the wife would not be hanging around all the time. The wife brought her boyfriends and the hero brought his girlfriends to whatever family gatherings they had.
That's when the hero drops the big bombshell that he was never divorcing his wife. And the only way he would be divorced FROM his wife is if she divorced him. He really lets the heroine have it who gets so pissed she throws a cup at his head and makes him bleed. Rough sex follows and the hero thinks the heroine is just going to go on like usual. But she ditches him and really walks away.
Almost a year later she marries his brother.
Turns out the heroine left him pregnant, and while she was away she had a miscarriage and almost bled to death. The brother always loved her and tracked her down and found her. He stayed with her and saved her life. They grew into friends and fell in love.
So now the oldest brother had to suffer for years seeing the girl he wanted with his brother, and now that his brother is gone, he wants her back.
And shockingly enough, he's getting a divorce. Because his wife wants to marry someone else so she's divorcing him.
So this story is about the heroine who did something stupid *sleeping with a married man instead of sticking to her guns and saying I'm not doing anything with you until the divorce is final.* And the hero who was a skanky type. The heroine is so evilly vidictive through the whole book. She really lets him have it and he suffers a LOT.
The book is one huge suffering angstfest where the heroine uses and abuses the guy who used and abused her.
I loved the book until the ending..that's when everything went south.
Suddenly the heroine's grandfather is mad at her for not telling the hero that he fathered a child by her, because the hero thinks he's sterile. Yes, he was scum and she almost died and the baby did die but she needed to tell him because it was HORRIBLE to let him go on thinking he was sterile.
And just so we're clear, he knew he had a million to one chance of impregnating a woman. So basically it wasn't anything new to him, just that he'd done it.
And suddenly she's all happy and confessing that she loves him and he loves her and they live happily ever after.
Yes, that ending that was posted, it IS that horrible. But it's also completely different from the rest of the book. I'd almost believe that someone else wrote that ending and tagged it onto the end.
And despite all of that, this book was so good. If you can read until the grandfather tells her she has to tell him, and then just think up your own reply and ending to the book.
Things about this book I loved.
Heroine uses abuses and generally makes the hero very aware that she can't stand him.
Heroine is pretty strong so she doesn't fall all over herself and cave to everything the hero wants.
Heroine was genuinely in love with her husband and that never changed.
Hero really wants the heroine back, does lots of suffering and begging also.
I love angstfest books and this one was really good..until the end.
So we join our heroine while she's watching the casket of her beloved husband getting loaded on a plane. She has to go back into the family fold for the funeral and while she'd like to wash her hands of the whole family *the only one she likes was her husband* she can't. Because she's pregnant.
Of course the heroine and the oldest brother, not her husband, who was the youngest, had a thing going on years before.
Actually she was originally with the oldest brother. He was married but it was well known that he was getting divorced from his wife. Both of them were with other people. The heroine was with him for 6 months when she finally asked him when the divorce was going to be finalized so the wife would not be hanging around all the time. The wife brought her boyfriends and the hero brought his girlfriends to whatever family gatherings they had.
That's when the hero drops the big bombshell that he was never divorcing his wife. And the only way he would be divorced FROM his wife is if she divorced him. He really lets the heroine have it who gets so pissed she throws a cup at his head and makes him bleed. Rough sex follows and the hero thinks the heroine is just going to go on like usual. But she ditches him and really walks away.
Almost a year later she marries his brother.
Turns out the heroine left him pregnant, and while she was away she had a miscarriage and almost bled to death. The brother always loved her and tracked her down and found her. He stayed with her and saved her life. They grew into friends and fell in love.
So now the oldest brother had to suffer for years seeing the girl he wanted with his brother, and now that his brother is gone, he wants her back.
And shockingly enough, he's getting a divorce. Because his wife wants to marry someone else so she's divorcing him.
So this story is about the heroine who did something stupid *sleeping with a married man instead of sticking to her guns and saying I'm not doing anything with you until the divorce is final.* And the hero who was a skanky type. The heroine is so evilly vidictive through the whole book. She really lets him have it and he suffers a LOT.
The book is one huge suffering angstfest where the heroine uses and abuses the guy who used and abused her.
I loved the book until the ending..that's when everything went south.
Suddenly the heroine's grandfather is mad at her for not telling the hero that he fathered a child by her, because the hero thinks he's sterile. Yes, he was scum and she almost died and the baby did die but she needed to tell him because it was HORRIBLE to let him go on thinking he was sterile.
And just so we're clear, he knew he had a million to one chance of impregnating a woman. So basically it wasn't anything new to him, just that he'd done it.
And suddenly she's all happy and confessing that she loves him and he loves her and they live happily ever after.
Yes, that ending that was posted, it IS that horrible. But it's also completely different from the rest of the book. I'd almost believe that someone else wrote that ending and tagged it onto the end.
And despite all of that, this book was so good. If you can read until the grandfather tells her she has to tell him, and then just think up your own reply and ending to the book.
Things about this book I loved.
Heroine uses abuses and generally makes the hero very aware that she can't stand him.
Heroine is pretty strong so she doesn't fall all over herself and cave to everything the hero wants.
Heroine was genuinely in love with her husband and that never changed.
Hero really wants the heroine back, does lots of suffering and begging also.
I love angstfest books and this one was really good..until the end.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 14, 2016
Spoiler warning enacted.
Juicy wtfest about a married swinger duping a purple-eyed virgin. If you're curious, his eyes were tawny. We're reminded...a lot.
The story starts out with the H meeting the h in the US to bring his brother home for burial. There's a slow peel of the onion layers while we get the history of how she ended up with his baby brother and he's left holding his little friend in the UK.
The hero is the oldest of four brothers. Their parents started out all Frank Zapa and called him Lyon but then went traditional with rest with names like Neil, Matthew, and Richard. Kinda glared out at me. Anyway, the 35 year old king of the jungle pops the cherry of the little 18 year old virgin pixie (who's 5'9") and has a 6 month affair complete with sleep overs in the family mansion with HIS WIFE in residence. But it's all good cause she has her own extra piece in her room. Very functional, right? Definitely made me want to switch places.
After the surprising split, baby brother comes to the heroine's rescue and they stay happily married for five years before she comes home to bury him after his untimely demise. One of my favorite scenes is when our H comes in and demands to see her boobs and feels her up the night of his brother's funeral. They were close, obviously. The brothers, not the H&h, though they were close, in proximity.
We continue to watch the H slobber and grovel wanting the h back while she snubs him and rubs her pregnant belly and how much she hates him in his face. All the while, the wife is still very much in the picture with sleepovers, at family dinners and get-togethers with her boyfriend in tow.
In addition to all flowing pheromones, we enjoy the mystery of who is trying to kill off the family. Never guess who it was. Nope, not that person.
There were many laugh-out-loud moments that were over the top ridiculous. I did appreciate that, after the H used and abused her, the h managed to tell the H to get lost and finds another man, even though it was his brother, and they lived with them for two years, while his wife was also living there, with her boyfriends. Ah, the escapism.
Maybe 3.5 for trainwreck value?
Juicy wtfest about a married swinger duping a purple-eyed virgin. If you're curious, his eyes were tawny. We're reminded...a lot.
The story starts out with the H meeting the h in the US to bring his brother home for burial. There's a slow peel of the onion layers while we get the history of how she ended up with his baby brother and he's left holding his little friend in the UK.
The hero is the oldest of four brothers. Their parents started out all Frank Zapa and called him Lyon but then went traditional with rest with names like Neil, Matthew, and Richard. Kinda glared out at me. Anyway, the 35 year old king of the jungle pops the cherry of the little 18 year old virgin pixie (who's 5'9") and has a 6 month affair complete with sleep overs in the family mansion with HIS WIFE in residence. But it's all good cause she has her own extra piece in her room. Very functional, right? Definitely made me want to switch places.
After the surprising split, baby brother comes to the heroine's rescue and they stay happily married for five years before she comes home to bury him after his untimely demise. One of my favorite scenes is when our H comes in and demands to see her boobs and feels her up the night of his brother's funeral. They were close, obviously. The brothers, not the H&h, though they were close, in proximity.
We continue to watch the H slobber and grovel wanting the h back while she snubs him and rubs her pregnant belly and how much she hates him in his face. All the while, the wife is still very much in the picture with sleepovers, at family dinners and get-togethers with her boyfriend in tow.
In addition to all flowing pheromones, we enjoy the mystery of who is trying to kill off the family. Never guess who it was. Nope, not that person.
There were many laugh-out-loud moments that were over the top ridiculous. I did appreciate that, after the H used and abused her, the h managed to tell the H to get lost and finds another man, even though it was his brother, and they lived with them for two years, while his wife was also living there, with her boyfriends. Ah, the escapism.
Maybe 3.5 for trainwreck value?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 14, 2021
Once upon a time, about the 1980 and something, there was a big beautiful mansion, a mansion where a powerful family lived, four brothers and a wife happily hating each other. The older brother and Master of All that Is Worthy is Lyon, a (conceited bastard sob) charming man who's been married to a (filthy slut) woman for several years. Their marriage is (a sham) unhappy, and they cheat on each other repeatedly, bringing their partner of the moment to their Big Mansion as if they were their fiance. How charming and edifying. They could divorce and be happy with someone else but no, this is a (dystopic) mythical world where All Incredible things happens and are normal. Lyon meets our heroine, Shay, a beautiful, very virgin, very (stupid) naive girl and decides he must have her. Shay has heard some rumors that Lyon and his wife are divorcing and, without asking him if it's true, falls in love with the (bastard) man and becomes his lover. After six months she timidly asks him when he and his wife are going to get divorced and he tells her that he will never divorce his wife. Shay is shattered because rumors were not true!!! And decides to leave him. Some drama happens and one year later she's married with his younger, much nicer and sane brother and they are happy for 5 years. And we could end the book here. But no! The good brother dies (why???why??) and she's back to the big mansion with a vengeance. Lyon still wants her, he never stopped wanting her and all the other women he shagged during their separation meant really nothing, nothing at all. Believe me, he only wanted Shay and was unhappy and jealous of his brother. And now he wants her back. His (b***h) wife wants to divorce him, and so he can be free. But Shay has grown up. She's been happy and in love with her husband and hates Lyon, and has news of her own. She's pregnant with her husband's child, who will also be the heir of the Family Fortune. Everybody is stunned! Lyon becomes very protective of her and when a dangerous tries to kill all the members of the family, he tries to win her back. But shay is not so easy a conquest. Will our hero be able to win her back in the end? (unfortunately) yes, of course. And we also will know why Lyon would not divorce his wife, because he hid a very Shameful Secrett: he was sterile and since his wife suffered for not having children, and become a very bitter and (bi**h) unhappy woman he decided he would never divorce her (UH?) and never marry another woman, because what fate is worse than being the (cheated) wife of a sterile man??? But what nobody knows is that he is not really sterile!!! Shay was pregnant when she left him, and she had a miscarriage! So, when everything is solved, eventually Shay and Lyon can be (UN)happy together and of course have their baby (and his brother's) This was really good! I was back in the 80s, in an episode of Dallas, Dinasty, Falcon Crest all in one. This is more a family saga and not a love story. It would make a perfect soap opera with all the right elements. You have madness, insanity, stupidity, twist and turn, absurdity, exaggerations and excess. I think that 276 episodes would do. Then you have a dysfunctional but rich family with all the posh and lush of an 80s saga: do you remember Dallas, when all brothers and their families live together in one very big and very fashionable mansion? All of them sitting in one big living room, all of them with their alcoholic drinks in their hands, spitting venom and hating each other without mercy? That's it. The story is pure madness and somehow creepy in some parts There are so many twists and turns and so well delivered that every 20 pages you are like... WTF????? Every little thing causes a scene that is excessive and lasts several pages, they keep on throwing insults to each other like there's no tomorrow, and you keep asking why but why???? In the end we understand his reasons that are really madness and stupidity all in one, but anyway... It should be angsty, but it is only amusing since all that is happening is so over the top that is difficult to imagine it as a real thing.
I appreciated:
-The heroine is not a doormat but has a backbone (and claws) and has her revenge in full since her marriage with the hero's brother was really a happy one and she really loved him, and the hero bites the dust until the end. It is hilarious when she is asleep, the hero coddles her and she calls his brother's name, and he's pissed, or when she is feeding her son (and the hero's brother's) and asks him if he's jelous and he answer: insanely!
- the heroine really gets over the hero and we know that if her husband didn't die they would be happy together.
-She was not the poor victim as hp heroines are, it was her choice to have an affair with a married man. Ok, she was younger and naive but girl, married men even if they are estranged are still married, so off limits. She made a mistake and it was her fault, she learnt her lesson and her next man was free and more worthy.
- In this book it was the hero who suffered most, because he saw the heroine with his brother and knew they were happy together while he was not. She taunted all the book with her happyness.
- It is never boring, never.
- Really, it should be a tragedy and it's a farce instead! If you want to read this- and I recommend it- you don't have to expect fidelity,romance, celibacy, honesty or coherence since this book doesn't have any. You have to enjoy the excess and the twist and turn, the kink, the trash, the suspence. And the original plot. Not swimming in the sea of banality here. You have to like Dallas, Dinasty, Falcon Crest, Flamingo Road and all that stuff. Otherwise, you'll be disappointed. Completely unsafe (can madness be ever safe?)
I appreciated:
-The heroine is not a doormat but has a backbone (and claws) and has her revenge in full since her marriage with the hero's brother was really a happy one and she really loved him, and the hero bites the dust until the end. It is hilarious when she is asleep, the hero coddles her and she calls his brother's name, and he's pissed, or when she is feeding her son (and the hero's brother's) and asks him if he's jelous and he answer: insanely!
- the heroine really gets over the hero and we know that if her husband didn't die they would be happy together.
-She was not the poor victim as hp heroines are, it was her choice to have an affair with a married man. Ok, she was younger and naive but girl, married men even if they are estranged are still married, so off limits. She made a mistake and it was her fault, she learnt her lesson and her next man was free and more worthy.
- In this book it was the hero who suffered most, because he saw the heroine with his brother and knew they were happy together while he was not. She taunted all the book with her happyness.
- It is never boring, never.
- Really, it should be a tragedy and it's a farce instead! If you want to read this- and I recommend it- you don't have to expect fidelity,romance, celibacy, honesty or coherence since this book doesn't have any. You have to enjoy the excess and the twist and turn, the kink, the trash, the suspence. And the original plot. Not swimming in the sea of banality here. You have to like Dallas, Dinasty, Falcon Crest, Flamingo Road and all that stuff. Otherwise, you'll be disappointed. Completely unsafe (can madness be ever safe?)
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 29, 2021
You can tell this book was written when prime time soap operas were in their heyday, got to love the 80s!
1. Our story starts with a very pissed off feisty heroine escorting her dead husband’s body home to England to be buried. He died in a plane crash that took 2 months to track down and find. With her is the hated oldest brother of her dead husband.
2. Why is he hated? He’s her ex-lover, seduced her at 18 and 6 months into their relationship she’s in love, him not so much... ‘No, you know I’m married, I never said I love you and I’m not leaving my wife. ‘ 🔪 moment, right there.
3. After the funeral, our feisty heroine drops a pregnancy bomb... she’s 4 months pregnant and she’s moving to London. The oldest brother/ex-lover/hero... oh no, you’re not... oh yes, I am... no, you can’t, you must live in the dynastic home...
4. Blah, blah, blah, she moves to London. But is she safe?? Nope, she takes a tumble down an escalator while shopping. The oldest brother/ex-lover/hero tracks her down in hospital and insists she move home to be safe and protected. If she doesn’t move home, he’s moving in with her... oh no, you're not... oh yes, I am...
5. Blah, blah, blah, he convinces her lovely housekeeper to let him move in before our feisty heroine leaves the hospital.
6. So the oldest brother/ex-lover/hero’s wife is in the process of divorcing him, she has a new fiancé and is ready to give up the dynasty and move on. Not before she drops some important information on our heroine...’hey, my almost ex-husband is sterile and wants your baby’.
7. Baby comes 5 weeks early, our feisty heroine moves back into dynastic home and the oldest brother/ex-lover/hero takes the suite next to the baby. He wants our feisty heroine to marry him.
8. Blah, blah, blah, not happening, ‘I still hate you,’ see 🔪 moment. ‘I hate you so much that you’re the villain in my most popular historical romance novel ‘ (this actually comes out around the time of the funeral).
9. Family Christmas party... someone tries to kill our feisty heroine, what?? The escalator accident might not have been an accident, dead hubby’s plane crash might not have been an accident. Oldest brother/ex-lover/hero has been trying to protect her since she came home to England.
10. Blah, blah, blah, oldest brother goes off to lick his ‘she won’t marry me’ wounds.
11. Middle brother: ‘he loves you, he only let you go because he can’t have children’. Our feisty heroine: ‘not true, I was pregnant 6 years ago when we split up!!!! What??? Actually the reader isn’t surprised, this comes out in an inner monologue much earlier in the book.
12. Wife/almost ex-wife/OW shows up... ‘where is the oldest brother/ex-lover/hero??’ Off licking his wounds... ‘you know he’s loved you for the last 6 years, we never had sex again’. Actually he didn’t have sex with his wife, but did have ONSs since he couldn’t have our feisty heroine because she hated him and married his brother, this comes out in a inner monologue.
13. Our feisty heroine: ‘help me find him. Someone is trying to kill him. This is a plot from one of my books’...
14. Who’s our villain?? The wife/almost ex-wife/OW’s new fiancé!! What? Why? He wants the oldest brother/ex-lover/hero dead before the divorce is final. He wants all the money, money, money!!!
15. Our feisty heroine and brothers save the day. I love you moment, HEA, a cute epilogue.
The end.
1. Our story starts with a very pissed off feisty heroine escorting her dead husband’s body home to England to be buried. He died in a plane crash that took 2 months to track down and find. With her is the hated oldest brother of her dead husband.
2. Why is he hated? He’s her ex-lover, seduced her at 18 and 6 months into their relationship she’s in love, him not so much... ‘No, you know I’m married, I never said I love you and I’m not leaving my wife. ‘ 🔪 moment, right there.
3. After the funeral, our feisty heroine drops a pregnancy bomb... she’s 4 months pregnant and she’s moving to London. The oldest brother/ex-lover/hero... oh no, you’re not... oh yes, I am... no, you can’t, you must live in the dynastic home...
4. Blah, blah, blah, she moves to London. But is she safe?? Nope, she takes a tumble down an escalator while shopping. The oldest brother/ex-lover/hero tracks her down in hospital and insists she move home to be safe and protected. If she doesn’t move home, he’s moving in with her... oh no, you're not... oh yes, I am...
5. Blah, blah, blah, he convinces her lovely housekeeper to let him move in before our feisty heroine leaves the hospital.
6. So the oldest brother/ex-lover/hero’s wife is in the process of divorcing him, she has a new fiancé and is ready to give up the dynasty and move on. Not before she drops some important information on our heroine...’hey, my almost ex-husband is sterile and wants your baby’.
7. Baby comes 5 weeks early, our feisty heroine moves back into dynastic home and the oldest brother/ex-lover/hero takes the suite next to the baby. He wants our feisty heroine to marry him.
8. Blah, blah, blah, not happening, ‘I still hate you,’ see 🔪 moment. ‘I hate you so much that you’re the villain in my most popular historical romance novel ‘ (this actually comes out around the time of the funeral).
9. Family Christmas party... someone tries to kill our feisty heroine, what?? The escalator accident might not have been an accident, dead hubby’s plane crash might not have been an accident. Oldest brother/ex-lover/hero has been trying to protect her since she came home to England.
10. Blah, blah, blah, oldest brother goes off to lick his ‘she won’t marry me’ wounds.
11. Middle brother: ‘he loves you, he only let you go because he can’t have children’. Our feisty heroine: ‘not true, I was pregnant 6 years ago when we split up!!!! What??? Actually the reader isn’t surprised, this comes out in an inner monologue much earlier in the book.
12. Wife/almost ex-wife/OW shows up... ‘where is the oldest brother/ex-lover/hero??’ Off licking his wounds... ‘you know he’s loved you for the last 6 years, we never had sex again’. Actually he didn’t have sex with his wife, but did have ONSs since he couldn’t have our feisty heroine because she hated him and married his brother, this comes out in a inner monologue.
13. Our feisty heroine: ‘help me find him. Someone is trying to kill him. This is a plot from one of my books’...
14. Who’s our villain?? The wife/almost ex-wife/OW’s new fiancé!! What? Why? He wants the oldest brother/ex-lover/hero dead before the divorce is final. He wants all the money, money, money!!!
15. Our feisty heroine and brothers save the day. I love you moment, HEA, a cute epilogue.
The end.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 28, 2018
I loved the hero Lyon despite his flaws he was truly deeply in love with Shay. It was great book full of drama, angst,secrets and a lovely ending!
April 23, 2021
I have a real love/hate situation with Gypsy. It’s got some concepts I adore and others that make me want to toss this book across the room.
Carole Mortimer is one of the few Harlequin authors who regularly features blond heroes (I prefer them to the “tall, dark” archetype), so I have tons of her books and, usually, enjoy reading them.
Here, the fair-haired “hero,” Lyon, is a real nasty piece of work. He’s an adulterous husband who refuses to divorce his wife because he feels he owes it to her to stick around. It made no sense to me. I had a hard time dealing with the adultery thing. For some reason, I can accept it in historicals, but in contemporaries, I don’t have much sympathy.
I couldn’t understand why Lyon’s wife didn’t divorce him. Worse still, is the supposed heroine, Shay. What kind of woman is cool with screwing a married man who lives with his wife, who also cheats, and they all hang out together at parties like it’s no big thing? Yes, she was very young, plus a virgin before Lyon came along and was naive. But naive and stupid shouldn’t mean the same thing.
And yes, Shay, left Lyon to marry his younger brother Ricky when she found out she was pregnant with Lyon’s child. It’s creepy, too, how now Ricky's dead and she's pregnant with his child. But all that didn’t bother me as much as Lyon being married and is supposedly madly in love with Shay, yet unwilling to divorce his wife while they both carried on affairs. I guess everyone has their peeves, and adultery in contemporaries is one of mine.
Still, Gypsy had this kind of “car-accident” vibe to it, where I couldn’t look away or put the book down. The serpentine semi-incestuous and adulterous relationships did make for a crazy time. It’s worth a read, even if I felt I needed to shower afterward.
3 stars/ C
Carole Mortimer is one of the few Harlequin authors who regularly features blond heroes (I prefer them to the “tall, dark” archetype), so I have tons of her books and, usually, enjoy reading them.
Here, the fair-haired “hero,” Lyon, is a real nasty piece of work. He’s an adulterous husband who refuses to divorce his wife because he feels he owes it to her to stick around. It made no sense to me. I had a hard time dealing with the adultery thing. For some reason, I can accept it in historicals, but in contemporaries, I don’t have much sympathy.
I couldn’t understand why Lyon’s wife didn’t divorce him. Worse still, is the supposed heroine, Shay. What kind of woman is cool with screwing a married man who lives with his wife, who also cheats, and they all hang out together at parties like it’s no big thing? Yes, she was very young, plus a virgin before Lyon came along and was naive. But naive and stupid shouldn’t mean the same thing.
And yes, Shay, left Lyon to marry his younger brother Ricky when she found out she was pregnant with Lyon’s child. It’s creepy, too, how now Ricky's dead and she's pregnant with his child. But all that didn’t bother me as much as Lyon being married and is supposedly madly in love with Shay, yet unwilling to divorce his wife while they both carried on affairs. I guess everyone has their peeves, and adultery in contemporaries is one of mine.
Still, Gypsy had this kind of “car-accident” vibe to it, where I couldn’t look away or put the book down. The serpentine semi-incestuous and adulterous relationships did make for a crazy time. It’s worth a read, even if I felt I needed to shower afterward.
3 stars/ C
January 18, 2016
Shay/Gypsy and Lyon (and Ricky). A pretty convoluted tale with LOTS of Angst. At a very young age, Shay has an affair with Lyon knowing that he will leave his wife, Marylin. Then Lyon confesses that he will never leave his wife, she dumps him. She leaves town and is followed by Lyon's little brother Ricky. They marry and have 6 loving years together until his untimely death. Now a widow she returns for his funeral. Ok, so this was written in this was written in the 80's and has that old school flavour in spades. Why won't Lyon leave Marilyn? What happened to bring Ricki and Shay together? Why is Lyon such a foolishly proud dick *eed? To top it all off mysterious accidents start to happen? So many misunderstandings but how could there not be in such a dysfunctional family? God forbid people should be upfront and honest with each other (snort!)! I did like the other two brothers. I don't normally like my reads quite this angsty but I actually enjoyed it quite a bit and found the ending surprisingly satisfactory. .
December 5, 2015
I really enjoyed this one. Lots of OTT angsty HP goodness. Hero's reasons for staying in his bad marriage were a little weak but hey, my willing suspension of disbelief is pretty liberal when it comes to HPs. The ending wasn't as strong mostly because the angst factor wasn't as high and the book took a bit of an ordinary turn.
December 11, 2019
This was sooo trainwrecky; definitely a guilty pleasure ... and CM delivers on ruthless h's ... she delivered many smackdowns to the H over the course of the book; all were deserved .. if ever a H paid for being stupid, it was this H ...
February 25, 2017
Lyon's mid-thirties & married and has a 6-month affair with teenaged Shay, who knows quite well he's married when they start dating. I don't wanna be all, hey guys what about the sanctity of marriage, but Hey, hello, what happened to the sanctity of marriage?? I don't care if his wife has lovers too, they are still married and I don't even believe they're actually separated since they still spend holidays together, and even if they were separated, since when does separated mean divorced? The fact that Shay is well aware that he's married and has no compunction about sleeping with him anyway makes her a skank in my book. Seriously. What kind of amoral cheating idiot cheater goes out with a married man? If he kept it hidden it's one thing but she knew before she ever even saw him that he's married, and to anyone with a basic minimum of scruples that means OFF-LIMITS you adulteress.
Doesn't mean I didn't enjoy the heck out of this book though. It's fun being outraged. There was also heaps and heaps of angst, mostly in the form of Lyon's perspectives eating his heart out for his purple-eyed pixie from page 1. Blatantly pining heroes are always delicious! The plot stretches very thin, like tissue-paper thin, no like permeable-cell-membrane thin, at a lot of points, not least of which the reason Lyon so adamantly refused to divorce his wife. I was really holding out for a redeeming, insurmountable, poignantly tragic-yet-irrevocable reason for his being such an ass, but nope, it was bosh. Literally bosh, as it turns out. Weak! You can bet if it'd been a HP heroine instead of an OW in that same situation she'd've been divorced and on her ass in the street penniless, pregnant, and publicly humiliated faster than you can say JacquelineBaird. Shattered Trust, anyone?
Around 40% in I was pissed at Lyon and still in the throes of indignant they-adulteried-on-purpose! (they slept together with his wife in the same house! But Shay felt a little uncomfortable about it, so she's a nice girl) but shortly after the 60% mark I started getting mad at Shay herself, because couldn't she see how much Lyon was suffering and did she have to push at him so nastily all the time. He really did eat his heart out every other paragraph, which I shamefacedly admit goes a long way in making me like even cheating scumbags. Although none of the characters ever acknowledged that what they were doing was cheating. I gotta say, the whole Falconer family dynamic was SUPER-weird.
Anyway! Interesting read, very overblown plot devices with extremely sketchy believability, but enough angsty pining to keep me happy. Fun stuff!
Doesn't mean I didn't enjoy the heck out of this book though. It's fun being outraged. There was also heaps and heaps of angst, mostly in the form of Lyon's perspectives eating his heart out for his purple-eyed pixie from page 1. Blatantly pining heroes are always delicious! The plot stretches very thin, like tissue-paper thin, no like permeable-cell-membrane thin, at a lot of points, not least of which the reason Lyon so adamantly refused to divorce his wife. I was really holding out for a redeeming, insurmountable, poignantly tragic-yet-irrevocable reason for his being such an ass, but nope, it was bosh. Literally bosh, as it turns out. Weak! You can bet if it'd been a HP heroine instead of an OW in that same situation she'd've been divorced and on her ass in the street penniless, pregnant, and publicly humiliated faster than you can say JacquelineBaird. Shattered Trust, anyone?
Around 40% in I was pissed at Lyon and still in the throes of indignant they-adulteried-on-purpose! (they slept together with his wife in the same house! But Shay felt a little uncomfortable about it, so she's a nice girl) but shortly after the 60% mark I started getting mad at Shay herself, because couldn't she see how much Lyon was suffering and did she have to push at him so nastily all the time. He really did eat his heart out every other paragraph, which I shamefacedly admit goes a long way in making me like even cheating scumbags. Although none of the characters ever acknowledged that what they were doing was cheating. I gotta say, the whole Falconer family dynamic was SUPER-weird.
Anyway! Interesting read, very overblown plot devices with extremely sketchy believability, but enough angsty pining to keep me happy. Fun stuff!
May 27, 2015
One of the best romances that I have ever read (and I have read many). The H is totally besotted with the h, and is set on winning her back from page 1. He did act like a pig in the past, but there are good reasons for this behavior (at least in his head) and his transformation from villain to prince charming is believable. The book is longer than the average harlequin (325 pages) but that is good because it doesn't leave any loose ends. Everyone finds their way at the end, even the evil OW (welcome to Harlequinland).
May 23, 2014
This is actually a 3.5 stars for me it was a good read with a strong female lead she did annoy me a few times tho!
May 8, 2020
Just like Romantic Times said:`"Mortimer has a special Magic.``
"I don`t love you,and i never could",she added coldly.
"The baby is going to need a father"-
"It has a father"!
"He`s dead!"
"Then maybe later on I`ll find some nice,kind man who will care for my baby and me",she challenged.
Lyon`s eyes glowed like liquid gold."You aren`t marrying anyone but me!"
Like everyone that has read this master-piece of a book,this is a beautiful soap opera..well a telenovela for me then...and it captured me and be-witched me..and changed me.
OMG HOW I LOVE THIS BOOK!
The hero and heroine were everything in this book,and the supporting characters were charming and added with an unknown villian...this book is a masterpiece of EVERYTHING i love in a romantic novel.
The hero Lyon Falconer is a Great hero-character,with intense character and powerful emotions that nearly destroyed me.He was BEAUTIFUL,inside and out and i rooted for him with all my heart.The heroine Shay had always been his,always his soulmate and everyone around them knew it..except for her..the gypsy!
The beautiful spit-fire Shay had Lyon under her claws,and we could se how much he worshiped the ground she walked on,and how utterly he craved her love.
Shay is a beautiful heroine,strong-minded and so brave.I totally adored her and admired her passionate heart.
Lyon`s and Shay`s passionate love-story is full of heartbreak,misunderstanding,jealousy,second-chances and a mighty-powered love that will consume the reader..
exactly as it consumed mine.
"I don`t love you,and i never could",she added coldly.
"The baby is going to need a father"-
"It has a father"!
"He`s dead!"
"Then maybe later on I`ll find some nice,kind man who will care for my baby and me",she challenged.
Lyon`s eyes glowed like liquid gold."You aren`t marrying anyone but me!"
Like everyone that has read this master-piece of a book,this is a beautiful soap opera..well a telenovela for me then...and it captured me and be-witched me..and changed me.
OMG HOW I LOVE THIS BOOK!
The hero and heroine were everything in this book,and the supporting characters were charming and added with an unknown villian...this book is a masterpiece of EVERYTHING i love in a romantic novel.
The hero Lyon Falconer is a Great hero-character,with intense character and powerful emotions that nearly destroyed me.He was BEAUTIFUL,inside and out and i rooted for him with all my heart.The heroine Shay had always been his,always his soulmate and everyone around them knew it..except for her..the gypsy!
The beautiful spit-fire Shay had Lyon under her claws,and we could se how much he worshiped the ground she walked on,and how utterly he craved her love.
Shay is a beautiful heroine,strong-minded and so brave.I totally adored her and admired her passionate heart.
Lyon`s and Shay`s passionate love-story is full of heartbreak,misunderstanding,jealousy,second-chances and a mighty-powered love that will consume the reader..
exactly as it consumed mine.
February 25, 2022
First read, 2015
Updated
February 25th/2022
Updated
February 25th/2022
Because I was absent from Goodreads the last few years, I have been updating my shelves and reviews lately. So, yesterday I was checking other readers' reviews about this book and it was a surprise that some of my friends liked it too. I haven't reread it since the first and last time I did it, but I will reread it soon so I would post a decent review.
I have to confess that I'm not a fan of this type plot, but the author storytelling was good and I remember I was so thrilled with the story I couldn't stop until I finish the whole book. Maybe I could be placed it in my Goodreads' shelve "favorites"
January 27, 2022
This chick. She’s like a siren in disguise. EVERYONE is in love with her. The H is obsessed. Like srsly. He does not care that she was with his little brother & married him only 1 year after HE (the love of her life) told her he would never marry her! He is ecstatic that she’s preggers with brothers baby because, naturally, he’s sterile. Gotta carry on that last name, you know. Blah blah, somebody’s trying to kill them. Blah, she has her son and H is there all the way. Blah, she has Traitorous Body Syndrome to the max. Blah, turns out the H isn’t sterile! Naturally!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 5, 2010
Wow, this was such an epic soapie! Unabashedly shameless in its melodrama and sweeping passions. I could not help but devour it in an equally devastating manner.
June 1, 2015
I was rolling my eyes throughout the book. The premise was interesting, story of a woman who had loved the brother of her husband and now is thrown into the company of her ex lover after her husband's death. That's all that was interesting. The guy Lyon was creepy. He saunters in all her private moments, bullies her to accept his help and constantly shoves himself into her life because HE wants her! He had a choice to marry the girl but did not because of a reason that is later revealed in the book, but that does not stop him from wanting her. He is surprised she ended things with him just because he couldn't marry her! Everyone tells the heroine that even though he couldn't have married her (because he was already married) he would have stayed with her for the rest of her life as if that is somehow redeeming or even logical. Instead of saying words, Lyon "rasps" them out throughout the book which never failed me to send into a fit of giggles.
The heroine is better she does fight him for a while. She comes across as rather dumb from their previous affair when she shouldn't have just assumed that there would be a divorce. Throughout the book she keeps putting him down, he keeps walking in on her when she is bathing, sleeping like some crazy stalker. She has a sudden change of heart and screams her love to him during an action sequence that was ridiculous where the villain actually says "I have been training in martial arts"!! That killed it. The author hastens to assure that the hero could have obviously defeated the villain but was faking his loss because he wanted to draw out a confession. God forbid the all awesome hero is bested by someone.
The book was no different from most romances where the all awesome hero meets the super beautiful girl but the hero this time was way too dominating for my taste and the last few pages of the book was weird to say the least.
The heroine is better she does fight him for a while. She comes across as rather dumb from their previous affair when she shouldn't have just assumed that there would be a divorce. Throughout the book she keeps putting him down, he keeps walking in on her when she is bathing, sleeping like some crazy stalker. She has a sudden change of heart and screams her love to him during an action sequence that was ridiculous where the villain actually says "I have been training in martial arts"!! That killed it. The author hastens to assure that the hero could have obviously defeated the villain but was faking his loss because he wanted to draw out a confession. God forbid the all awesome hero is bested by someone.
The book was no different from most romances where the all awesome hero meets the super beautiful girl but the hero this time was way too dominating for my taste and the last few pages of the book was weird to say the least.
April 14, 2016
An amazing read.
This story has a dark twisted plot that packs a nice jolt. Highly entertaining and deep characters led the way through death, heartache, passion, and suspense......there is so much more going on than what you see at the first glimpse.
Shay is one tough cookie and she gives as good if not better than Lyon dishes out. There are some highly charged emotional encounters between them, that leave you rooting for Shay. She has not forgiven him nor does she plan to ever...and she lets him know it! Poor Lyon is left reeling as women drop at his feet and in the past she did too! But now is a different story and he comes to realize how much he hurt her and how little she thinks of him. Quite a new experience for him.....
But strange things keep happening to the family leading them to believe someone is out to get them......but who? In the mits of all this drama Lyon can't help but feel jealous of her love for his dead brother and starts to realize what he lost all those years ago and what he would lose now if she gets killed. He works so hard at proving himself to Shay but it will take more for her to believe it.
Wow! I went in expecting a lost love kind of deal and this ended up being so much more. Well written and jammed pack with suspense and passion, I could not put down.
This story has a dark twisted plot that packs a nice jolt. Highly entertaining and deep characters led the way through death, heartache, passion, and suspense......there is so much more going on than what you see at the first glimpse.
Shay is one tough cookie and she gives as good if not better than Lyon dishes out. There are some highly charged emotional encounters between them, that leave you rooting for Shay. She has not forgiven him nor does she plan to ever...and she lets him know it! Poor Lyon is left reeling as women drop at his feet and in the past she did too! But now is a different story and he comes to realize how much he hurt her and how little she thinks of him. Quite a new experience for him.....
But strange things keep happening to the family leading them to believe someone is out to get them......but who? In the mits of all this drama Lyon can't help but feel jealous of her love for his dead brother and starts to realize what he lost all those years ago and what he would lose now if she gets killed. He works so hard at proving himself to Shay but it will take more for her to believe it.
Wow! I went in expecting a lost love kind of deal and this ended up being so much more. Well written and jammed pack with suspense and passion, I could not put down.
August 19, 2024
reread 8/19/2024
This was an unscheduled reread. The overdramatic dialogue and dialogue tags bothered me this time, but the groveling and karma were fantastic.
Now, that said, the harshness of the heroine also bothered me this time. Maybe I'm getting soft. LoL!
------
What a book hangover. I really enjoyed this and tried not to roll my eyes at the exaggerated dialogue because ...yes, this book was first published in 1985. There definitely were some daytime-soap-opera scenarios but you just have to roll with it.
Some may hate the heroine for being so hard, but yeah, I liked the hero groveling in this one.
This was an unscheduled reread. The overdramatic dialogue and dialogue tags bothered me this time, but the groveling and karma were fantastic.
Now, that said, the harshness of the heroine also bothered me this time. Maybe I'm getting soft. LoL!
------
What a book hangover. I really enjoyed this and tried not to roll my eyes at the exaggerated dialogue because ...yes, this book was first published in 1985. There definitely were some daytime-soap-opera scenarios but you just have to roll with it.
Some may hate the heroine for being so hard, but yeah, I liked the hero groveling in this one.
October 23, 2019
It went down hill fast and the ending was really bad. I am not even sure why she couldn't stop him from interfering with her life, a simple threat of leaving should have worked.
I don't think I liked one single character... 🤣
I don't think I liked one single character... 🤣
December 7, 2016
3.5 rounded stars
December 3, 2017
I really wanted to like this book but I just could not. I read it because of what I thought I was getting, the H and h were together in the past and they broke up and she actually moved on with OM. Usually they don’t and they don’t have any sexual urges for as long as the H takes to make his way back to her. And then it like BOOM, her body is alive again! Its not only unrealistic but its also vert very sad.
So anyway this book starts with the heroine going back to the UK to bury her husband, the Hs younger brother. She and the H broke up years ago after their affair when she realized he was not going to leave his wife for her. It takes them 350+ pages to come back together, in the mean time she has a baby by the dead hubby, he divorces the wife, find out he was sterile but not really(its Harlequin after all), and they uncover the mystery of who is trying, and failing, to kill them. It was a lot of drama but I was still sooo bored.
I hated the h, she was childish and bitter and just always angry. The actions of the H were questionable but I liked him best. He knew he was an asshole and didn’t pretend otherwise. I get that for some he was a bad guy but I don’t think so. He was a married guy in an open relationship, he and the wife openly had affairs with other people, sometimes under the same roof even. Nasty? Yes, but they did this openly. The H wanted to 18 year old h when they met, she knew the score, knew he was married but assumed that he was getting a divorce. He did not promise her anything, she assumed a lot of things, and when he said he was not leaving his wife for her she got pissed, bitter and resentful. Now I get it, she was 18 and he was much older and he should have known better, but I was 18 once upon a time as well and I knew better so I couldn’t get pissed at him. He was honest, se just assumed too much. And then she married his brother, classy.
Again, not a bad book, but I was expecting this angsts filled drama but I was bored 50 pages in, hoping for it to get better but disappointed it did not.
So anyway this book starts with the heroine going back to the UK to bury her husband, the Hs younger brother. She and the H broke up years ago after their affair when she realized he was not going to leave his wife for her. It takes them 350+ pages to come back together, in the mean time she has a baby by the dead hubby, he divorces the wife, find out he was sterile but not really(its Harlequin after all), and they uncover the mystery of who is trying, and failing, to kill them. It was a lot of drama but I was still sooo bored.
I hated the h, she was childish and bitter and just always angry. The actions of the H were questionable but I liked him best. He knew he was an asshole and didn’t pretend otherwise. I get that for some he was a bad guy but I don’t think so. He was a married guy in an open relationship, he and the wife openly had affairs with other people, sometimes under the same roof even. Nasty? Yes, but they did this openly. The H wanted to 18 year old h when they met, she knew the score, knew he was married but assumed that he was getting a divorce. He did not promise her anything, she assumed a lot of things, and when he said he was not leaving his wife for her she got pissed, bitter and resentful. Now I get it, she was 18 and he was much older and he should have known better, but I was 18 once upon a time as well and I knew better so I couldn’t get pissed at him. He was honest, se just assumed too much. And then she married his brother, classy.
Again, not a bad book, but I was expecting this angsts filled drama but I was bored 50 pages in, hoping for it to get better but disappointed it did not.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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