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A Stranger's Touch
She tried to avoid the stranger's touch
Cindy Masters had been content to withdraw to her grandfather's farm in England and care for her cousins--anything to escape getting caught up in her mother's promiscuous bet-setting world.
But her peace of mind was short-lived once a foreign correspondent moved into the village Saul Gonzago seemed brash and insensitive. Yet he aroused feelings that Cindy found distinctly threatening.
Torn by her reaction to him and her fear of becoming like her mother, Cindy beat a hasty retreat to Venice, never thinking that Saul would follow her--as if to prove there were no escaping the stranger's touch.
Cindy Masters had been content to withdraw to her grandfather's farm in England and care for her cousins--anything to escape getting caught up in her mother's promiscuous bet-setting world.
But her peace of mind was short-lived once a foreign correspondent moved into the village Saul Gonzago seemed brash and insensitive. Yet he aroused feelings that Cindy found distinctly threatening.
Torn by her reaction to him and her fear of becoming like her mother, Cindy beat a hasty retreat to Venice, never thinking that Saul would follow her--as if to prove there were no escaping the stranger's touch.
189 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 1985
1 person is currently reading
33 people want to read
About the author
Sophie Weston
182 books43 followersJenny Haddon was born in London, England, where she always returns after the travels that she loves. When she was small, her mother couldn't bear reading aloud, so her mother taught her to read at an appallingly precocious age. She wrote her first book with her own illustrations at the age of four but was in her 20s before she produced her first romance as Sophie Weston.
She studied English Language and Literature at university. Choosing a career was a major problem. It was not so much that she didn't know what she wanted to do, as that she wanted to do everything. So she filed and photocopied and experimented. She worked as consultant at the Bank of England and all the time she drew on her experiences to create her Mills & Boon books. She edited press releases for a Latin American embassy in London (The Latin Afffair); lectured in the Arabian Gulf (The Sheikh's Bride); waitressed in Paris (Midnight Wedding); and made herself hated by getting under people's feet asking stupid questions under the grand title of consultant all over the world (The Millionaire's Daughter). She also is an active member of the UK's Romantic Novelists' Association's Committee, and was its twenty-three Chairman (2005-2007).
Jenny has one house, three cats, and about a million books. She writes compulsively, Scottish dances poorly, grows more plants than she has room for, and makes a mean meringue.
She studied English Language and Literature at university. Choosing a career was a major problem. It was not so much that she didn't know what she wanted to do, as that she wanted to do everything. So she filed and photocopied and experimented. She worked as consultant at the Bank of England and all the time she drew on her experiences to create her Mills & Boon books. She edited press releases for a Latin American embassy in London (The Latin Afffair); lectured in the Arabian Gulf (The Sheikh's Bride); waitressed in Paris (Midnight Wedding); and made herself hated by getting under people's feet asking stupid questions under the grand title of consultant all over the world (The Millionaire's Daughter). She also is an active member of the UK's Romantic Novelists' Association's Committee, and was its twenty-three Chairman (2005-2007).
Jenny has one house, three cats, and about a million books. She writes compulsively, Scottish dances poorly, grows more plants than she has room for, and makes a mean meringue.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 28, 2016
RE A Stranger's Touch - this one has a great h and a dubious H. SW H's are generally dubious, but she really likes to put her h's through the wringer. Martyrdom is a way of life for these ladies and even when they have alternatives, the hardest road to take with guaranteed immolation at the end is the one they always choose.
This book has not one, not two, but THREE OW, two of whom are related to the h and by the time you get to the end, you will srsly wish the h had told the lot of them off. That doesn't happen, of course.
The H doesn't grovel for more than two paragraphs either, and this book and the one following are really books (for me anyways,) where you kinda have to be happy the h got what she wanted, cause otherwise things don't look really hopeful for long term and you just wonder what these poor h's did in another life to get stuck with these H's.
Anyhow, the story stars with the 24 year old h trying desperately to keep her younger cousins fed, clothed and in school while her grandfather's farm is eeking along and the grandfather himself is dying. There is another cousin, a year older, who is supposed to be the bright one in the family and happily swanning about London as a newly minted barrister - leaving the h to figure out how to support two adolescent boys and a failing farm.
The female cousin - who hereafter should be named spoilt princess brat - is oblivious to the distress the rest of the family is in when she swans home to visit and in her few scenes where she interacts with the h, is show to be incredibly patronizing with her London 'elan', when the h is essential a household drudge and in fact working as a cleaner for the H in order to bring some money into the household.
The fact that the SPB acts this way is rather ironic, cause the h's background is that she grew up with a mum who made a career out of wealthy men and she has spent all her life trailing around Europe in her mum's wake, as mum hooked up with one wealthy man after another. The h also had a stint of teenage modeling and was doing very well at it. The h has seen more of the sophisticated side of life than the SPB would ever dream of, yet she never says a word.
When the h's mum got married to a younger man and the h was 18, she told her mum she wanted to take off on her own, and her mum - worried about the competition from her very attractive and younger daughter- sent her off with her blessing.
Her grandfather, nearing his final illness, offered her a drudge position, er a family home, firmly reminding her how much more important her cousins were compared to her, and that she should be grateful he took her in. The h agrees and at least she loves the cousins and enjoys mothering the two younger males.
She manages to wangle the housecleaning stint and immediately strikes sparks off the new owner, the H. They meet for the first time when she thinks he is trespassing in the house, he assures her he isnt' but he manages to disturb her a lot.
He is frequently taunting and when they meet in a near collision as she is rushing to pick her younger cousin at the train station and the H is driving on the wrong side of the road, the H assumes the h is rushing to meet a boyfriend and taunts her about her many lovers in the village. He drops her off at the local Dr. - which the h has been dating off and on and the Dr. is indicating he would like to consider marriage with her.
The H begins taking the SPB out, and in between times (as the SPB only comes at weekends to have the h do her laundry,) he follows the h around as she cleans his house and then he goes to her house, accuses her of haunting him and forcibly kisses her. The h is in lust but has been warned not to mess with SBP's man by her grandfather, so of course the guilt is horrendous. The Dr. is getting really concerned about her and wants to tell the SPB off, but the h explains her brattiness as not wanting to accept the reality of her grandfather's imminent demise.
The H wants to have a big party and wants the h to organize it, the h needs the money. She got one cousin off to America to train for Olympic swimming and the other is doing well in school and will soon be graduating. She is desperately trying to keep it all together with running the farm, nursing her grandfather etc and is considering marrying the Dr. even though she doesn't feel a big spark between them. The H rather belatedly realizes that his party has seriously overextended the h in terms of time and work, he offers to cancel it, but he needs this party to happen as an award ceremony is the focus of the party.
The H is a war journalist and the woman getting the award was with him when he traded himself for her when they were doing a war story. The H is pretty famous, but the h never watches the news or keeps up with the latest famous people, so she had no clue who he was. The party finally happens and the SPB winds up with the h's Dr. She meets the H in the conservatory and when the H sees the SPB with the cousin, he drags the h off to bed. They wind up exercising the droit de seigneur (squire with the village girl) and then the H has to go off to give the award.
He promises the h he will return and they will talk, but the woman getting the award walks in instead - while the h is still in bed. She very sympathetically explains that the H was just having fun, he and the woman are a couple - so it would be better if the h just got out before she embarrassed anybody any more.
The h had already pegged the H as being like the men she met around her mum - a wealthy playboy and the H's words and behavior had always implied as much. So the h leaves, she sorta hopes the H will call, but he never contacts her.
All of the above is done in flashback. The h is in Venice working for her stepfather as a clothing designer and becoming a famous model when the book opens. After the H pumped and dumped, the SPB married the Dr., the grandfather died, the farm was sold and the younger cousins were established in their chosen lifestyles. Since the h's mum had remarried for the fifth time, the mum extended an invitation for the h to come visit.
The new hubby is a world famous clothing designer and he helps the h launch her design career. The rumors are that she is sleeping with him, but the h never hears this. She meets the H again at her launch party for her new clothing line and then has to watch as her mum tries to pick up on him.
The H is really nasty to her when they meet, he forces her out to dinner with him where he acts like a jerk because she has a really different life than what he left her in. He makes snide comments about sleeping with her stepfather to further her career, but he doesn't realize that the woman picking up on him was her mum or that the designer is her stepdad. He figured her for the local village goodtime girl who is now using her body to advance herself.
The h doesn't really understand just how horrible the H really is, the reader does, but the h is too worried about her overwhelming physical response to clue in to just how insulting he is. He wants more sex from her, she can't handle an affair, she is too in love with him and it would be too emotionally damaging.
She tells him no, and then avoids him - she is suffering, her work is suffering and the staff she works with guilt her into doing more modeling to help the clothing designs. The h feels bad and agrees to do another shoot. Then the mum shows up with the H - they have been going out quite intensely and the stepfather is very unhappy about his wife's affair.
The h decides to offer herself if the H will leave her mum alone and the H jumps right on that, they wind up getting a groove on in the H's friend's boathouse and the h decides she doesn't care, she doesn't want to see him again. The H forces her to go out with him again, he wants everyone to know who his mistress is.
He introduces her to his friends (the one's with the boat house,) the wife is also a fashion writer. She lays into the h for messing the H about, she thinks the h is making him chase after her when the H is recovering from a bad overseas assignment. The h thinks the H is pining over the woman from the party and puts her straight - but then the wife tells her the H carries her picture torn from a magazine around in his wallet. The h has no idear of what to think about that.
Over dinner the H starts in about her leaving him in England and then he finds out that she was a virgin when they went to bed the first time. He is supposedly horrified at himself because he hurt her. She agrees and he assumes that her new lifestyle is because he hurt her so badly.
They then go swimming and the h finds out he had been shot when she sees the gunshot scar. She starts crying and the H explains that he spent the 18 months being held captive and then in the hospital. The h knows she is more in love than ever and decides to leave. She leaves the H in the pool and goes home, very unhappy about the H's near death experience and even more unhappy that he only wants a fling while she is lost in love.
The H breaks into her flat later that night and they finally talk. The H wants to know why she left and she tells him because the woman he was with is her mum and she doesn't want to be like her mother, she thinks she is immoral because she can't resist the H.
He is very shocked, he had no clue that the woman he was seducing when the h wouldn't see him was actually her mother, but he does concede that she probably isn't sleeping with her stepfather. He also had no clue she was a virgin or that the OW came in and ran her off.
He had to go back to the country with the war right after the party and then he got shot and when he got out the SPB just said the h did not want to see him. (The h never mentioned the H to the SPB, so that pretty much proved the SPB was a jealous skanky witch.)
He swears nothing happened with the OW - he never mentions what exactly he did with the SPB cousin or the mum- but he wants to marry her and love her and for her to never leave him and HEA.
There is just too many OW who are too close to the h and the H is either deliberately playing the women off against each other or just really callous - which ever it was, it was just too icky to really like this H in my estimation.
I don't really know that he loved her either, I think she was the only one who did not fall over herself to latch on to him and they had good sex, so he wanted her. The mum thing did throw him, but only because the mum did not look old enough to have the h as a daughter, I think.
Since he never explains exactly what he was doing with them, I can't really believe that much bothers him in the way of conscience and I have to wonder just how long his interest in the h will really last, probably as long as the lust does, I'm guessing.
The h is happy at the end and I was glad she got what she wanted, so perhaps I should just leave it at that and call it a day for a slightly disappointing foray into HPLandia.
This book has not one, not two, but THREE OW, two of whom are related to the h and by the time you get to the end, you will srsly wish the h had told the lot of them off. That doesn't happen, of course.
The H doesn't grovel for more than two paragraphs either, and this book and the one following are really books (for me anyways,) where you kinda have to be happy the h got what she wanted, cause otherwise things don't look really hopeful for long term and you just wonder what these poor h's did in another life to get stuck with these H's.
Anyhow, the story stars with the 24 year old h trying desperately to keep her younger cousins fed, clothed and in school while her grandfather's farm is eeking along and the grandfather himself is dying. There is another cousin, a year older, who is supposed to be the bright one in the family and happily swanning about London as a newly minted barrister - leaving the h to figure out how to support two adolescent boys and a failing farm.
The female cousin - who hereafter should be named spoilt princess brat - is oblivious to the distress the rest of the family is in when she swans home to visit and in her few scenes where she interacts with the h, is show to be incredibly patronizing with her London 'elan', when the h is essential a household drudge and in fact working as a cleaner for the H in order to bring some money into the household.
The fact that the SPB acts this way is rather ironic, cause the h's background is that she grew up with a mum who made a career out of wealthy men and she has spent all her life trailing around Europe in her mum's wake, as mum hooked up with one wealthy man after another. The h also had a stint of teenage modeling and was doing very well at it. The h has seen more of the sophisticated side of life than the SPB would ever dream of, yet she never says a word.
When the h's mum got married to a younger man and the h was 18, she told her mum she wanted to take off on her own, and her mum - worried about the competition from her very attractive and younger daughter- sent her off with her blessing.
Her grandfather, nearing his final illness, offered her a drudge position, er a family home, firmly reminding her how much more important her cousins were compared to her, and that she should be grateful he took her in. The h agrees and at least she loves the cousins and enjoys mothering the two younger males.
She manages to wangle the housecleaning stint and immediately strikes sparks off the new owner, the H. They meet for the first time when she thinks he is trespassing in the house, he assures her he isnt' but he manages to disturb her a lot.
He is frequently taunting and when they meet in a near collision as she is rushing to pick her younger cousin at the train station and the H is driving on the wrong side of the road, the H assumes the h is rushing to meet a boyfriend and taunts her about her many lovers in the village. He drops her off at the local Dr. - which the h has been dating off and on and the Dr. is indicating he would like to consider marriage with her.
The H begins taking the SPB out, and in between times (as the SPB only comes at weekends to have the h do her laundry,) he follows the h around as she cleans his house and then he goes to her house, accuses her of haunting him and forcibly kisses her. The h is in lust but has been warned not to mess with SBP's man by her grandfather, so of course the guilt is horrendous. The Dr. is getting really concerned about her and wants to tell the SPB off, but the h explains her brattiness as not wanting to accept the reality of her grandfather's imminent demise.
The H wants to have a big party and wants the h to organize it, the h needs the money. She got one cousin off to America to train for Olympic swimming and the other is doing well in school and will soon be graduating. She is desperately trying to keep it all together with running the farm, nursing her grandfather etc and is considering marrying the Dr. even though she doesn't feel a big spark between them. The H rather belatedly realizes that his party has seriously overextended the h in terms of time and work, he offers to cancel it, but he needs this party to happen as an award ceremony is the focus of the party.
The H is a war journalist and the woman getting the award was with him when he traded himself for her when they were doing a war story. The H is pretty famous, but the h never watches the news or keeps up with the latest famous people, so she had no clue who he was. The party finally happens and the SPB winds up with the h's Dr. She meets the H in the conservatory and when the H sees the SPB with the cousin, he drags the h off to bed. They wind up exercising the droit de seigneur (squire with the village girl) and then the H has to go off to give the award.
He promises the h he will return and they will talk, but the woman getting the award walks in instead - while the h is still in bed. She very sympathetically explains that the H was just having fun, he and the woman are a couple - so it would be better if the h just got out before she embarrassed anybody any more.
The h had already pegged the H as being like the men she met around her mum - a wealthy playboy and the H's words and behavior had always implied as much. So the h leaves, she sorta hopes the H will call, but he never contacts her.
All of the above is done in flashback. The h is in Venice working for her stepfather as a clothing designer and becoming a famous model when the book opens. After the H pumped and dumped, the SPB married the Dr., the grandfather died, the farm was sold and the younger cousins were established in their chosen lifestyles. Since the h's mum had remarried for the fifth time, the mum extended an invitation for the h to come visit.
The new hubby is a world famous clothing designer and he helps the h launch her design career. The rumors are that she is sleeping with him, but the h never hears this. She meets the H again at her launch party for her new clothing line and then has to watch as her mum tries to pick up on him.
The H is really nasty to her when they meet, he forces her out to dinner with him where he acts like a jerk because she has a really different life than what he left her in. He makes snide comments about sleeping with her stepfather to further her career, but he doesn't realize that the woman picking up on him was her mum or that the designer is her stepdad. He figured her for the local village goodtime girl who is now using her body to advance herself.
The h doesn't really understand just how horrible the H really is, the reader does, but the h is too worried about her overwhelming physical response to clue in to just how insulting he is. He wants more sex from her, she can't handle an affair, she is too in love with him and it would be too emotionally damaging.
She tells him no, and then avoids him - she is suffering, her work is suffering and the staff she works with guilt her into doing more modeling to help the clothing designs. The h feels bad and agrees to do another shoot. Then the mum shows up with the H - they have been going out quite intensely and the stepfather is very unhappy about his wife's affair.
The h decides to offer herself if the H will leave her mum alone and the H jumps right on that, they wind up getting a groove on in the H's friend's boathouse and the h decides she doesn't care, she doesn't want to see him again. The H forces her to go out with him again, he wants everyone to know who his mistress is.
He introduces her to his friends (the one's with the boat house,) the wife is also a fashion writer. She lays into the h for messing the H about, she thinks the h is making him chase after her when the H is recovering from a bad overseas assignment. The h thinks the H is pining over the woman from the party and puts her straight - but then the wife tells her the H carries her picture torn from a magazine around in his wallet. The h has no idear of what to think about that.
Over dinner the H starts in about her leaving him in England and then he finds out that she was a virgin when they went to bed the first time. He is supposedly horrified at himself because he hurt her. She agrees and he assumes that her new lifestyle is because he hurt her so badly.
They then go swimming and the h finds out he had been shot when she sees the gunshot scar. She starts crying and the H explains that he spent the 18 months being held captive and then in the hospital. The h knows she is more in love than ever and decides to leave. She leaves the H in the pool and goes home, very unhappy about the H's near death experience and even more unhappy that he only wants a fling while she is lost in love.
The H breaks into her flat later that night and they finally talk. The H wants to know why she left and she tells him because the woman he was with is her mum and she doesn't want to be like her mother, she thinks she is immoral because she can't resist the H.
He is very shocked, he had no clue that the woman he was seducing when the h wouldn't see him was actually her mother, but he does concede that she probably isn't sleeping with her stepfather. He also had no clue she was a virgin or that the OW came in and ran her off.
He had to go back to the country with the war right after the party and then he got shot and when he got out the SPB just said the h did not want to see him. (The h never mentioned the H to the SPB, so that pretty much proved the SPB was a jealous skanky witch.)
He swears nothing happened with the OW - he never mentions what exactly he did with the SPB cousin or the mum- but he wants to marry her and love her and for her to never leave him and HEA.
There is just too many OW who are too close to the h and the H is either deliberately playing the women off against each other or just really callous - which ever it was, it was just too icky to really like this H in my estimation.
I don't really know that he loved her either, I think she was the only one who did not fall over herself to latch on to him and they had good sex, so he wanted her. The mum thing did throw him, but only because the mum did not look old enough to have the h as a daughter, I think.
Since he never explains exactly what he was doing with them, I can't really believe that much bothers him in the way of conscience and I have to wonder just how long his interest in the h will really last, probably as long as the lust does, I'm guessing.
The h is happy at the end and I was glad she got what she wanted, so perhaps I should just leave it at that and call it a day for a slightly disappointing foray into HPLandia.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 24, 2025
Same book as Haunted by a Touch
Reread as SW usually improves 2nd time. The Cinderella beginning seems less important, more a detail. The focus strongly is on h and H and I like much better this time. She is unable to even consider that H is talking about her, nor mother nor the wannabe OW. And the scene where OW gets her lipstick out of the drawer can be because OW used the bedroom to get ready for party.
Our h does not comprehend H loves and wants her as she believes he is part of her mother’s people carousel world.
Upping to 4 stars. Archive and ThriftBooks.
Original: This is hard to rate. It begins as a Cinderella story with h shrugging off lazy selfish spoilt cousin who treats h as a gauche, rather stupid country bumpkin on the weekends when cousin dearest brings home her laundry and mending while h works, runs a farm, takes care of dying grandpa and doing ALL the cooking and cleaning for herself and two teenage boy cousins. I think author started that way then tossed in that plot and went with unrequited love instead.
She is willfully blind about the H, assumes he belongs to her spoiled rotten cousin or anyone else he trots along with, and she believes what he told her, not a marrying guy. He is even dumber about her and it’s hard to believe he wasn’t having affair with second OW when lady waltzes in and gets her lipstick out of his drawer in his bedroom. Fishy.
HEA is unsatisfying. Probably 2 stars is more accurate but rounding way up to 3.
Reread as SW usually improves 2nd time. The Cinderella beginning seems less important, more a detail. The focus strongly is on h and H and I like much better this time. She is unable to even consider that H is talking about her, nor mother nor the wannabe OW. And the scene where OW gets her lipstick out of the drawer can be because OW used the bedroom to get ready for party.
Our h does not comprehend H loves and wants her as she believes he is part of her mother’s people carousel world.
Upping to 4 stars. Archive and ThriftBooks.
Original: This is hard to rate. It begins as a Cinderella story with h shrugging off lazy selfish spoilt cousin who treats h as a gauche, rather stupid country bumpkin on the weekends when cousin dearest brings home her laundry and mending while h works, runs a farm, takes care of dying grandpa and doing ALL the cooking and cleaning for herself and two teenage boy cousins. I think author started that way then tossed in that plot and went with unrequited love instead.
She is willfully blind about the H, assumes he belongs to her spoiled rotten cousin or anyone else he trots along with, and she believes what he told her, not a marrying guy. He is even dumber about her and it’s hard to believe he wasn’t having affair with second OW when lady waltzes in and gets her lipstick out of his drawer in his bedroom. Fishy.
HEA is unsatisfying. Probably 2 stars is more accurate but rounding way up to 3.
abrierto-to-read-hr-other
June 9, 2020She tried to avoid the stranger's touch
Cindy Masters had been content to withdraw to her grandfather's farm in England and care for her cousins--anything to escape getting caught up in her mother's promiscuous bet-setting world.
But her peace of mind was short-lived once a foreign correspondent moved into the village Saul Gonzago seemed brash and insensitive. Yet he aroused feelings that Cindy found distinctly threatening.
Torn by her reaction to him and her fear of becoming like her mother, Cindy beat a hasty retreat to Venice, never thinking that Saul would follow her--as if to prove there were no escaping the stranger's touch
Cindy Masters had been content to withdraw to her grandfather's farm in England and care for her cousins--anything to escape getting caught up in her mother's promiscuous bet-setting world.
But her peace of mind was short-lived once a foreign correspondent moved into the village Saul Gonzago seemed brash and insensitive. Yet he aroused feelings that Cindy found distinctly threatening.
Torn by her reaction to him and her fear of becoming like her mother, Cindy beat a hasty retreat to Venice, never thinking that Saul would follow her--as if to prove there were no escaping the stranger's touch
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