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Tomorrow - Come Soon
Devon's ordeal was only just beginning
When her father suddenly announced he had enough money to pay for the expensive operation that would end her years as a cripple, Devon was overjoyed.
The joy turned to horror when he confessed he had embezzled the money from Grant Harrington, his boss.
Grant demanded the debt be repaid. And Devon's horror deepened when she realized payment in cash wasn't what he had in mind.
When her father suddenly announced he had enough money to pay for the expensive operation that would end her years as a cripple, Devon was overjoyed.
The joy turned to horror when he confessed he had embezzled the money from Grant Harrington, his boss.
Grant demanded the debt be repaid. And Devon's horror deepened when she realized payment in cash wasn't what he had in mind.
182 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 1983
About the author
Jessica Steele
352 books114 followersJessica Steele was born on May 9, 1933 in the elegant Warwickshire town of Royal Leamington Spa. She has two super brothers, Colin and George, and a lovely sister, Elizabeth. She was a delicate child and missed a lot of school. In fact, she left school at aged 14, when she was diagnosed as having tuberculosis. At 16, she started work as a junior clerk. In 1967, Jessica married with her husband, Peter and within a very short space of time they had moved from her hometown to the lovely area where they now live. Their house is built into the side of a hill, and has beautiful views over more hills and valleys. Her brothers and her sister are very close and she has plenty of nephews and nieces to make up for the fact that she and her husband have no children of their own. Both she and her husband are more than a little dog-oriented, and their current dog is a Staffordshire bull terrier named Florence. Florence is gorgeous. She loves everybody but, since she is 40 pounds of dynamite and would hurl her boisterous self at everyone she meets - given half a chance - she has to be restrained (as much as possible). She is fun.
Her husband spurred Jessica on to her writing career, giving her every support while she did what she considers her five-year apprenticeship (the rejection years) while learning how to write. She published her first books in 1979. Jessica has tried using a typewriter, but it just doesn't work for her. She is much happier writing in longhand, and in actual fact has a dozen or so fountain pens filled and ready to go at the start of any one session. A friend has a secretarial agency and, after deciphering Jessica's writing, returns an immaculately typed manuscript. To gain authentic background for her books, she has travelled and researched in Greece, Russia, Egypt, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Hong Kong, China and Japan.
Her husband spurred Jessica on to her writing career, giving her every support while she did what she considers her five-year apprenticeship (the rejection years) while learning how to write. She published her first books in 1979. Jessica has tried using a typewriter, but it just doesn't work for her. She is much happier writing in longhand, and in actual fact has a dozen or so fountain pens filled and ready to go at the start of any one session. A friend has a secretarial agency and, after deciphering Jessica's writing, returns an immaculately typed manuscript. To gain authentic background for her books, she has travelled and researched in Greece, Russia, Egypt, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Hong Kong, China and Japan.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews
January 12, 2012
So you want a naive-heroine-sacrifices-her-virtue-to-blackmailing-alpha-hero-to-save-embezzling-daddy tale without the spineless heroine, alphole hero, and selfish daddy? Well look no further! Devon's father is a decent man who only wants to help his injured daughter. The hero flings around the "b----" word in the beginning but changes his tune once he realizes what's really going on. His original take on the situation was not unreasonable too, given what he saw, so he doesn't come across as willfully stupid like way too many clever tycoon heroes actually do. Sure he refuses to believe Devon's explanations, but hey he's a Harlequin hero! He tries to take good care of her later too, and can't bring himself to go through with his earlier demands. Devon is very likable and more realistic in her innocence than many Harlequin heroines, given her injury and closed off existence. She's determined to save her father and won't let the hero escape their bargain. When he retreats (after learning the truth) she pursues. Very cute.
So a very sweet story and satisfying but alas, big 1* drop for bad, bad writing. Way too many run-on sentences and dangling WTF phrases.
"But, when it looked as though he would pick her up with all his male strength and toss her back the way she had come, whether from the indignant look of her, or whether because he didn't want another interruption to his day if she tried barging in again, he stopped when Wanda, who Devon was just realising had chased after her, said, "I'm sorry, Mr. Harrington. She just took off - I couldn't ..."
Say, what?? What??
Still, a sweet read!
So a very sweet story and satisfying but alas, big 1* drop for bad, bad writing. Way too many run-on sentences and dangling WTF phrases.
"But, when it looked as though he would pick her up with all his male strength and toss her back the way she had come, whether from the indignant look of her, or whether because he didn't want another interruption to his day if she tried barging in again, he stopped when Wanda, who Devon was just realising had chased after her, said, "I'm sorry, Mr. Harrington. She just took off - I couldn't ..."
Say, what?? What??
Still, a sweet read!
May 17, 2022
What i loved the most about this story is the hopeful note in the term behind " Tomorrow, come soon" which is used by the young heroine Devon Johnston more than once. A loner since she lost her mother and fractured her hip in a car accident. Her hope for a new and better life comes alive when her father gets money for a operation in Sweden. She meets the enigmatic and dark boss of her fathers, the hero Grant Harrington who for some mistakenly reasons despises her on sight. What Devon never expect however, is when on her return from Sweden she gets to know that her father swindled money from the company he worked on to pay for her operation. Grant is furious beyond belief but can`t stop thinking of Devon`s beautiful blue eyes...to her utter despair he does what any besotted, crazy, mad hero would do. He gives her an offer to be his live-in-mistress. Ah, i just love Harlequin romance!
I have lived in Sweden almost all my life which i found fun when i was reading about Devon`s experience in this country. Overall, Jessica Steele made another hit out of this one, this story took me absolutely by storm and i could not stop reading it. I think it had to with the way how both Devon & Grant totally won me over as individuals and as a couple. Grant so badly wanted to keep on hating her but stood helpless in how his heart was starting to get possessed by Devon. Devon is a lovely lady and it took some time for her to get around in trusting Grant with her body and her heart. I am happily leaving these two lovebirds to their HEA as Grant gives one final vow to his heroine in the end of this book: "All your tomorrows are going to be happy, my dearest love, i promise you. "
I have lived in Sweden almost all my life which i found fun when i was reading about Devon`s experience in this country. Overall, Jessica Steele made another hit out of this one, this story took me absolutely by storm and i could not stop reading it. I think it had to with the way how both Devon & Grant totally won me over as individuals and as a couple. Grant so badly wanted to keep on hating her but stood helpless in how his heart was starting to get possessed by Devon. Devon is a lovely lady and it took some time for her to get around in trusting Grant with her body and her heart. I am happily leaving these two lovebirds to their HEA as Grant gives one final vow to his heroine in the end of this book: "All your tomorrows are going to be happy, my dearest love, i promise you. "
November 8, 2017
Review of a book read years ago.
This heroine had too much pride. All she had to do, from the beginning was to tell the truth about her expensive surgeries. I doubt the hero would have forced her into the mistress agreement had he known the truth. This is one failing of many of Jessica's heroines: they have far too much pride and love to martyr themselves for their families, friends, the dog etc. LOL. Ok, maybe I was kidding about the dog part, but I hope you get my drift. Haha. Omg, I really need to read this again and see if I rated it too highly. Gasp ! LOL
This heroine had too much pride. All she had to do, from the beginning was to tell the truth about her expensive surgeries. I doubt the hero would have forced her into the mistress agreement had he known the truth. This is one failing of many of Jessica's heroines: they have far too much pride and love to martyr themselves for their families, friends, the dog etc. LOL. Ok, maybe I was kidding about the dog part, but I hope you get my drift. Haha. Omg, I really need to read this again and see if I rated it too highly. Gasp ! LOL
October 15, 2012
I liken my Harlequin fetish, to my golf game. After up teem bad shots (reads), I get that one great shot (book) that keeps me coming back! This was that shot. It just sucked me in from the very first page.
This is a story about a young girl who is crippled at the age of 15 from a tragic accident that also kills her mother. It's about how she is finally given the chance to become whole again, if she can only afford the costly surgery by a renowned Swedish Doctor. It's about a father whose unconditional love for his daughter means setting aside his values and reputation to give her the chance to live a full life. It's also about a hero who has the gumption to realize that his preconceived notions are wrong and sets out to do something about them, and not just in the last few pages of the book.
IF you missed this one, I highly recommend that you give it a shot (read).... ; 0 )
This is a story about a young girl who is crippled at the age of 15 from a tragic accident that also kills her mother. It's about how she is finally given the chance to become whole again, if she can only afford the costly surgery by a renowned Swedish Doctor. It's about a father whose unconditional love for his daughter means setting aside his values and reputation to give her the chance to live a full life. It's also about a hero who has the gumption to realize that his preconceived notions are wrong and sets out to do something about them, and not just in the last few pages of the book.
IF you missed this one, I highly recommend that you give it a shot (read).... ; 0 )
December 7, 2016
The plot in this is simple. The character list small. Whether the heroine's love turns out to be Stockholm Syndrome doesn't take away from the intensity of the story.
The plot - "crippled" 22 year-old heroine is finally going to have a hip operation in Sweden. She has been a virtual shut-in since the car accident that killed her mother and crippled her at age 15. Her doting father has embezzled the money for her surgery - but the heroine doesn't know that. She just knows that his handsome boss (hero) is rude when he stops by the house the night before she was to leave for her operation.
She still thinks him rude when she returns two months later, wearing high heels for the first time. He thinks she's been off on a holiday while her father has been stealing money to keep her happy. Now her father is out of a job and might be prosecuted. Heroine goes to the hero's office to beg for her father's freedom and to explain that he stole the money for her surgery. Hero thinks she's lying because she has a hard time talking about it. (She has "hang ups" about her limp) He throws her out of his office, but eventually comes around to a plan: She sleeps with him for a week or month or whenever he tires of her - and he will keep her father out of jail.
This was really well thought out. The heroine's pain, unease, and sense of sacrifice came through loud and clear. And I enjoyed a story where the heroine's fear isn't suddenly eased by the sight of a manly chest - the buildup and the fear kept me reading.
Hero was harder to like than the heroine. He was sharp and sarcastic and combative, which is fine - the poor guy had a lot of sexual tension. But the heroine didn't have any smart banter to fling back at him, so it felt unequal. However, the hero's actions were exemplary. He backed off once he knew the h was a virgin (although he didn't set her mind at ease). He worried about her when she was gone. He made sure she rested and healed. And he covered for her father at his job.
Like I said, simple plot, few characters. But an absorbing story.
The plot - "crippled" 22 year-old heroine is finally going to have a hip operation in Sweden. She has been a virtual shut-in since the car accident that killed her mother and crippled her at age 15. Her doting father has embezzled the money for her surgery - but the heroine doesn't know that. She just knows that his handsome boss (hero) is rude when he stops by the house the night before she was to leave for her operation.
She still thinks him rude when she returns two months later, wearing high heels for the first time. He thinks she's been off on a holiday while her father has been stealing money to keep her happy. Now her father is out of a job and might be prosecuted. Heroine goes to the hero's office to beg for her father's freedom and to explain that he stole the money for her surgery. Hero thinks she's lying because she has a hard time talking about it. (She has "hang ups" about her limp) He throws her out of his office, but eventually comes around to a plan: She sleeps with him for a week or month or whenever he tires of her - and he will keep her father out of jail.
This was really well thought out. The heroine's pain, unease, and sense of sacrifice came through loud and clear. And I enjoyed a story where the heroine's fear isn't suddenly eased by the sight of a manly chest - the buildup and the fear kept me reading.
Hero was harder to like than the heroine. He was sharp and sarcastic and combative, which is fine - the poor guy had a lot of sexual tension. But the heroine didn't have any smart banter to fling back at him, so it felt unequal. However, the hero's actions were exemplary. He backed off once he knew the h was a virgin (although he didn't set her mind at ease). He worried about her when she was gone. He made sure she rested and healed. And he covered for her father at his job.
Like I said, simple plot, few characters. But an absorbing story.
April 17, 2011
If you like the stories where the heroine is hopelessly misunderstood by the hero, then you’d like this one. The hero is drawn to her, but he knows she’s a ‘bad girl’ in some way. In this case, Grant thinks that Devon’s demanding, spendthrift ways lead to her father embezzling money from his company to keep her in the style to which she had become accustomed. He showed up on their doorstep the night before Devon leaves for Sweden, not for an extravagant vacation like he thinks, but for a surgery that promises to give her full use of her hip, which was injured in the car accident that killed her mother.
Devon comes back from Sweden to find that her father has been terminated from his job at Grant’s business, and will likely be prosecuted. She approaches Grant and asks him not to prosecute her father, and she’ll do anything he wants in return. His proposition is that she live with him as his mistress. Devon is willing to do this so that she can save her father from prison.
I liked that Grant wanted to be the ruthless seducer, but he didn’t really have it in him. He was clearly in love with Devon early on. He was kind of grumpy about it, but he had every opportunity to seduce her, but he didn’t take them, after he finds out that she had a bad hip and the money was spent to get her well. From that point, he does everything he can to get her to rest as she’s supposed to so she can get the all clear at her follow up.
I thought it was cute how Devon kept throwing herself at Grant so he would go ahead and fulfill his part of the bargain before her father comes back from the business trip in Scotland that Grant sent him on. Grant seems to come up with excuses for them not to be ‘together.’ Although Devon was clueless about Grant’s feelings for her, I as the reader, was not.
I really liked this book. It was a fun read. Devon was a nice girl, and Grant finally looked past his cynicism to see that, because Cupid’s bow had struck him dead center in the heart.
Devon comes back from Sweden to find that her father has been terminated from his job at Grant’s business, and will likely be prosecuted. She approaches Grant and asks him not to prosecute her father, and she’ll do anything he wants in return. His proposition is that she live with him as his mistress. Devon is willing to do this so that she can save her father from prison.
I liked that Grant wanted to be the ruthless seducer, but he didn’t really have it in him. He was clearly in love with Devon early on. He was kind of grumpy about it, but he had every opportunity to seduce her, but he didn’t take them, after he finds out that she had a bad hip and the money was spent to get her well. From that point, he does everything he can to get her to rest as she’s supposed to so she can get the all clear at her follow up.
I thought it was cute how Devon kept throwing herself at Grant so he would go ahead and fulfill his part of the bargain before her father comes back from the business trip in Scotland that Grant sent him on. Grant seems to come up with excuses for them not to be ‘together.’ Although Devon was clueless about Grant’s feelings for her, I as the reader, was not.
I really liked this book. It was a fun read. Devon was a nice girl, and Grant finally looked past his cynicism to see that, because Cupid’s bow had struck him dead center in the heart.
March 31, 2022
How I liked this one!
Very well done, until the end you don't know what will happen and there's a lot of angst for most of the book.
The heroine was crippled in a car accident when she was 15 and has a bad limp who prevented her to have a normal social life in her teens.
Her mother died too and she's been living alone with her dad, who was driving.
She is a beautiful girl but she lives alone and isolated because she is very self conscious about her limp.
When she's 21 her father tells her he's found a great surgeon who is able to heal her hip, and since she had an insurance she also has the money for her surgery.
She leaves for Sweden where the surgeron is and where she will stay for two months.
The night before her departure, the hero, who's her father's boss, comes to visit him at home.
He doesn't see that the heroine has a limp, since she's sitting on a sofa and she doesn't stand up, due to her limp.
Two months later she's back, completely healed, even if the surgeon advised her to rest for other two months, until she will have a final check up with her doctor in England.
The hero is at her home again, and he looks at her with hatred and scorn.
The heroine's father confesses that he stole the money for her surgery from the hero's company and now he lost his job and will probably be prosecuted.
The heroine is appalled and the day after she goes to the hero's office and tries to persuade him not to prosecute her father.
The hero's father and her father were bff, and the hero tells the heroine it's all her fault if a man who is honest and clean stole the money, since he thinks she's a greedy socialite who spends lots of money and goes for men.
He tells her that she can repay him by being his mistress for some time.
The heroine tries to tell him she needed the money for her surgery, but since she still has hung ups about her limp, she's not very convincing and the hero doesn't believe her.
So he sends her father to Scotland for some time with a new job and the heroine goes to live with the hero.
The first day the hero is nasty and abusive with her and the heroine still suffers from her surgery, but the man doesn't believe her until, when they are in bed together and he's going to have sex with her, he realizes she has a fresh scar and other two on her hip, and of course realizes she was telling the truth. The hero leaves her to sleep alone.
After the heroine tells him everything about her accident, he changes completely his behaviour and the heroine is staying with him as his guest who is recovering from a major surgery.
She's pampered and cossetted and she doesn't have to lift a thing, and the hero is polite with her and never tries to make love to her.
The heroine still thinks they have an agreement and tries several times to seduce him so she can leave his house, but he always refuses.
Eventually he sends her home and she is afraid he will send her father to jail because he couldn't settle the debt as he wanted with her.
The heroine goes to her last check up with her doctor and since she's completely healed, she thinsk she will go at the hero's apartment and thank him for not prosecuting her father and taking care of her.
The hero, who was waiting for her at her house, is very worried and angry.
He was going to wait for her to ask her to marry him, and reveals he is in love with her and never wanted to prosecute her father. In the beginning he wanted her but believed her to be a gold digger, but when he understood he made a mistake he fell in love with her and wanted her as his wife.
The book was very good, the hero seems evil in the beginning, because he thinks she really is a shallow socialite whose father is forced to steal money to give what she needs.
Of course we know she's not pretending and when she's forced to go to bed with him and is scared and shivering because she's also a virgin, I coulnd't help but being very simpathetic with her and hated the hero.
his behaviour was appalling because he forced her to do things she still had some difficult to do, as going out with him and dancing, lifting weights, and of course going to bed with him to have sex.
Another thing I liked was that the heroine is not affected by TBS, either severe or mild.
Her reactions to the hero's forced kisses are always the right ones, she's afraid and repulsed, and the hero has to work very hard to get a positive reaction from her.
She really doesn't like him and she is not attracted to him and to his rude ways. She only wants out as soon as possible.
Thank god for small mercies.
Not a victim this heroine.
She's ready to sacrifice herself for her father and this is also undestandable since the man stole the money for her surgery.
But she doesn't "love" the hero immediately and it takes many weeks for her to feel something for him.
Which I appreciated. The man was grumpy all the time but thank god he didn't try to have sex with her until she was completely recovered and her doctor had said so.
Her father. Ok, I understand that he wanted his daughter to have a normal life but coulnd't he ask for a loan to the hero, who was his bff's son?
I think that the hero would have given him all the money he needed for his daughter but of course we wouldn't have a book to read.
I also liked that the hero was the one to be more in love than the heroine was.
Until the end.
Karmic justice.
Very well done, until the end you don't know what will happen and there's a lot of angst for most of the book.
The heroine was crippled in a car accident when she was 15 and has a bad limp who prevented her to have a normal social life in her teens.
Her mother died too and she's been living alone with her dad, who was driving.
She is a beautiful girl but she lives alone and isolated because she is very self conscious about her limp.
When she's 21 her father tells her he's found a great surgeon who is able to heal her hip, and since she had an insurance she also has the money for her surgery.
She leaves for Sweden where the surgeron is and where she will stay for two months.
The night before her departure, the hero, who's her father's boss, comes to visit him at home.
He doesn't see that the heroine has a limp, since she's sitting on a sofa and she doesn't stand up, due to her limp.
Two months later she's back, completely healed, even if the surgeon advised her to rest for other two months, until she will have a final check up with her doctor in England.
The hero is at her home again, and he looks at her with hatred and scorn.
The heroine's father confesses that he stole the money for her surgery from the hero's company and now he lost his job and will probably be prosecuted.
The heroine is appalled and the day after she goes to the hero's office and tries to persuade him not to prosecute her father.
The hero's father and her father were bff, and the hero tells the heroine it's all her fault if a man who is honest and clean stole the money, since he thinks she's a greedy socialite who spends lots of money and goes for men.
He tells her that she can repay him by being his mistress for some time.
The heroine tries to tell him she needed the money for her surgery, but since she still has hung ups about her limp, she's not very convincing and the hero doesn't believe her.
So he sends her father to Scotland for some time with a new job and the heroine goes to live with the hero.
The first day the hero is nasty and abusive with her and the heroine still suffers from her surgery, but the man doesn't believe her until, when they are in bed together and he's going to have sex with her, he realizes she has a fresh scar and other two on her hip, and of course realizes she was telling the truth. The hero leaves her to sleep alone.
After the heroine tells him everything about her accident, he changes completely his behaviour and the heroine is staying with him as his guest who is recovering from a major surgery.
She's pampered and cossetted and she doesn't have to lift a thing, and the hero is polite with her and never tries to make love to her.
The heroine still thinks they have an agreement and tries several times to seduce him so she can leave his house, but he always refuses.
Eventually he sends her home and she is afraid he will send her father to jail because he couldn't settle the debt as he wanted with her.
The heroine goes to her last check up with her doctor and since she's completely healed, she thinsk she will go at the hero's apartment and thank him for not prosecuting her father and taking care of her.
The hero, who was waiting for her at her house, is very worried and angry.
He was going to wait for her to ask her to marry him, and reveals he is in love with her and never wanted to prosecute her father. In the beginning he wanted her but believed her to be a gold digger, but when he understood he made a mistake he fell in love with her and wanted her as his wife.
The book was very good, the hero seems evil in the beginning, because he thinks she really is a shallow socialite whose father is forced to steal money to give what she needs.
Of course we know she's not pretending and when she's forced to go to bed with him and is scared and shivering because she's also a virgin, I coulnd't help but being very simpathetic with her and hated the hero.
his behaviour was appalling because he forced her to do things she still had some difficult to do, as going out with him and dancing, lifting weights, and of course going to bed with him to have sex.
Another thing I liked was that the heroine is not affected by TBS, either severe or mild.
Her reactions to the hero's forced kisses are always the right ones, she's afraid and repulsed, and the hero has to work very hard to get a positive reaction from her.
She really doesn't like him and she is not attracted to him and to his rude ways. She only wants out as soon as possible.
Thank god for small mercies.
Not a victim this heroine.
She's ready to sacrifice herself for her father and this is also undestandable since the man stole the money for her surgery.
But she doesn't "love" the hero immediately and it takes many weeks for her to feel something for him.
Which I appreciated. The man was grumpy all the time but thank god he didn't try to have sex with her until she was completely recovered and her doctor had said so.
Her father. Ok, I understand that he wanted his daughter to have a normal life but coulnd't he ask for a loan to the hero, who was his bff's son?
I think that the hero would have given him all the money he needed for his daughter but of course we wouldn't have a book to read.
I also liked that the hero was the one to be more in love than the heroine was.
Until the end.
Karmic justice.
October 14, 2012
3.5 stars
Definitely worth the time reading this one. Daddy embezzles money from his employer (the hero, Grant) in order for his daughter (the heroine, Devon) to get life altering operation. Of course, her condition came about by tragic means painful to both the father and h, so you don't feel judgmental towards him for going to such extremes (plus the father told the h the money came from an endowment so we don't judge her either).
When the cat gets let out of the bag, the h tries to save her dad from prison by begging the H to let her make amends. The H mistakenly thinks she's a little lying, spoiled, skank who is sucking her poor dad dry, and wants to make her pay, but not in the traditional sense (unless you're a frequent Harley reader, then his way might be considered "traditional." ;D)
We then get to enjoy the H powering on the h while she grits her teeth and takes it, because she thinks she has to save her father. This dynamic continues pretty much until almost the end when everything is quickly (like, nuclear fast quickly) resolved and everyone gets their HEA.
I you like alpha-male heroes but no real hard limits like dubious consent or physical aggression, then you should enjoy this one.
Definitely worth the time reading this one. Daddy embezzles money from his employer (the hero, Grant) in order for his daughter (the heroine, Devon) to get life altering operation. Of course, her condition came about by tragic means painful to both the father and h, so you don't feel judgmental towards him for going to such extremes (plus the father told the h the money came from an endowment so we don't judge her either).
When the cat gets let out of the bag, the h tries to save her dad from prison by begging the H to let her make amends. The H mistakenly thinks she's a little lying, spoiled, skank who is sucking her poor dad dry, and wants to make her pay, but not in the traditional sense (unless you're a frequent Harley reader, then his way might be considered "traditional." ;D)
We then get to enjoy the H powering on the h while she grits her teeth and takes it, because she thinks she has to save her father. This dynamic continues pretty much until almost the end when everything is quickly (like, nuclear fast quickly) resolved and everyone gets their HEA.
I you like alpha-male heroes but no real hard limits like dubious consent or physical aggression, then you should enjoy this one.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 12, 2016
Hero was so confused as to what to make of the situation. He takes her home to live with him as payment for the money that her father took to save her hip.
Yeah, it was an old crazy school story with lots of drama.
I really enjoyed it. Maybe more than I should have!?
Lol!
I must admit to being very pleased with the fact that he did not sleep with her as repayment. It would have made things difficult for their future relationship. Also, it feels wrong when this happens. It's feels like prostitution.
That's how I saw it.
Yeah, it was an old crazy school story with lots of drama.
I really enjoyed it. Maybe more than I should have!?
Lol!
I must admit to being very pleased with the fact that he did not sleep with her as repayment. It would have made things difficult for their future relationship. Also, it feels wrong when this happens. It's feels like prostitution.
That's how I saw it.
May 25, 2020
"Tomorrow - Come Soon" is the story of Devon and Grant.
The book begins the heroine getting some good news- she might finally get the operation that repairs her hip, thanks to her father's generosity. Having been disabled since the accident that killed her mother, she shares a loving bond with her father, and eagerly accepts his help. She soon realizes that the money he got was embezzled from his boss, who has now arrived to take revenge.
Soon the hero comes, she tries to bargain- and he ends up blackmailing her to be with him or her father would be prosecuted. The heroine reluctantly agrees. As they engage in a battle of wills, truth is revealed and everything changes.
Sweet and caring heroine, brooding hero, loads of family drama and HEA. I really liked the transformation the hero's character goes through after realizing the truth.
Safe
3/5
The book begins the heroine getting some good news- she might finally get the operation that repairs her hip, thanks to her father's generosity. Having been disabled since the accident that killed her mother, she shares a loving bond with her father, and eagerly accepts his help. She soon realizes that the money he got was embezzled from his boss, who has now arrived to take revenge.
Soon the hero comes, she tries to bargain- and he ends up blackmailing her to be with him or her father would be prosecuted. The heroine reluctantly agrees. As they engage in a battle of wills, truth is revealed and everything changes.
Sweet and caring heroine, brooding hero, loads of family drama and HEA. I really liked the transformation the hero's character goes through after realizing the truth.
Safe
3/5
April 29, 2011
A fun sweet romance. This heroine was super naive. She had been a bit of a recluse because of her bad limp and inability to do much that was active. The hero of course gets the wrong idea of her and misunderstandings ensue. Fun to watch the hero find out how mistaken he was about her and try to do right by her while she is still trying to fulfill the terms of his blackmail bargain. There were some writing issues with some pretty convoluted sentences. Still I would recommend this book and I might look for others by this author.
October 10, 2012
3 1/2 Stars ~ At the vulnerable age of 15, Devon lost her mother in a car accident that also left her with a severely damaged hip. After surgeries and little success, Devon spent her teens hiding from life because of her disability. Her father was devoted to her and when Devon turned 21 they found a doctor in Sweden that could make her normal again and with the funds from her endowment policy that has just matured, she'll soon be dancing. When Devon arrives home two months after her surgery, she's surprised to find her father in a meeting with his employer. Seems there hadn't really been a maturing endowment policy, that Devon's father had embezzled the money for her surgery. Of course, Grant sees the beautiful well dressed woman just arriving from an extended holiday in Sweden, and he knows just exactly what the money his employee has spent the missing money on. Devon appeals to Grant, begging him not to prosecute her father. He doesn't believe her story about a needed surgery, and makes it clear he thinks she's a promiscuous user. He gives an ultimatum; move in with him until he's tired of her, or he'll prosecute.
This early book by Jessica Steele's is the second book I've read of hers. I really liked both Grant and Devon. While we aren't given Grant's point of view, it's easy to understand how he came to his conclusions. With the loss of her mother, her own injuries to deal with, plus a grieving father, it's perfectly believable that Devon could become the recluse. I enjoyed reading Devon come out of her shell and turn Grant's world upside down. I'm looking forward to reading more from Ms. Steele.
This early book by Jessica Steele's is the second book I've read of hers. I really liked both Grant and Devon. While we aren't given Grant's point of view, it's easy to understand how he came to his conclusions. With the loss of her mother, her own injuries to deal with, plus a grieving father, it's perfectly believable that Devon could become the recluse. I enjoyed reading Devon come out of her shell and turn Grant's world upside down. I'm looking forward to reading more from Ms. Steele.
October 17, 2012
It's more a 4.5 for me. This sweet little tale was so dramatic without suffering from OTTiness. I thought it was well thought out in terms of the plot because,for instance, every move the h made fueled the H's bad opinion of her in a very plausible way. Though we know how to interpret the little things she did that ticked him off, we can appreciate both sides. It's a misunderstanding, a miscommunication even, but it's not an exasperating case of both H and h eating sympathetic stupid stew. It's a trick I've observed more than once (what's a little euphemism between HP friends?), but never to such plausible effect.
What cost it half a star was... the writing!!! Jessica Steele is the official king, queen and court-jester of pleonasm. Add to that, her sentence structures are so overly-ambitious in their complexity, I wonder (quite seriously) if she didn't scare her editor into forgetting
what comma splices look like! How did these great feats of paragraph-fudging make it to press? Seriously, no one talks how her characters (the H especially) talks in some of the dialogue. I honestly began to wonder if I had a quirky copy of the book or something! Having said this, however, I think she is an AWESOME storyteller! I would curl up in bed with her plots if they all turned out like this one.
There's built in angst with the story-line already. Added to that, when the h realizes she loves him, it picks up where her earlier, early redemption could have seen it peter out in the hands of a lesser storyteller. While the stakes changed for the H, behind the scenes of
course, they never did for our h. She kept believing he lusted for her while hating her guts. This, of course, slays her, even while she has glorious moments where her pride allows for a snappy comeback (though they were generally short-lived as he would soon verbally or 'lookically' bitch-slap the HP heroine back into her).
Some thoughts:
* I thought her father might have been motivated by guilt for the accident, though the book makes it a fact it wasn't his fault and doesn't even allude to this theory, if I can recall. I think this is why he embezzled to get her the surgery. Then there was her obvious unhappiness.
* What does it say about us that we gravitate towards these older HP's in which it seems the underlying theme is 'Woman, love the man you fear the most!"? Perhaps, in the day it was written, this kind of thing would be more acceptable. But we are modern girls, right? We'd never see this in a modern HP without ridiculing it on GoodReads until its pages fell out, right? So why do I... (we) love these old, un-pc HP's so?
What cost it half a star was... the writing!!! Jessica Steele is the official king, queen and court-jester of pleonasm. Add to that, her sentence structures are so overly-ambitious in their complexity, I wonder (quite seriously) if she didn't scare her editor into forgetting
what comma splices look like! How did these great feats of paragraph-fudging make it to press? Seriously, no one talks how her characters (the H especially) talks in some of the dialogue. I honestly began to wonder if I had a quirky copy of the book or something! Having said this, however, I think she is an AWESOME storyteller! I would curl up in bed with her plots if they all turned out like this one.
There's built in angst with the story-line already. Added to that, when the h realizes she loves him, it picks up where her earlier, early redemption could have seen it peter out in the hands of a lesser storyteller. While the stakes changed for the H, behind the scenes of
course, they never did for our h. She kept believing he lusted for her while hating her guts. This, of course, slays her, even while she has glorious moments where her pride allows for a snappy comeback (though they were generally short-lived as he would soon verbally or 'lookically' bitch-slap the HP heroine back into her).
Some thoughts:
* I thought her father might have been motivated by guilt for the accident, though the book makes it a fact it wasn't his fault and doesn't even allude to this theory, if I can recall. I think this is why he embezzled to get her the surgery. Then there was her obvious unhappiness.
* What does it say about us that we gravitate towards these older HP's in which it seems the underlying theme is 'Woman, love the man you fear the most!"? Perhaps, in the day it was written, this kind of thing would be more acceptable. But we are modern girls, right? We'd never see this in a modern HP without ridiculing it on GoodReads until its pages fell out, right? So why do I... (we) love these old, un-pc HP's so?
October 14, 2018
Jessica Steele has a weird way of writing, it detracts from the overall enjoyment of the story. I found this one boring and silly.
August 22, 2021
There are really some excellent reviews on this book. I highly recommend checking out Stmargarets https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... who has an excellent account of this story.
Agent Scully: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Danielle the book huntress: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I absolutely loved this story! The hero was not going to back down on his threat of forced seduction and our little h was so frightened. His misconceptions of her made him think she was a good time gal. However, our h was crippled at the age of 15 and hid herself away. There were no parties, or dates. She hung out with her sad dad(the mom died in crash that crippled h). So her experience with sex and boys was nil. Her dad went against his principles so his daughter’s life would not be so painful and unlivable. (No job, no marriage, no kids….) She ended up getting a special surgery which fixed her physical limitations. Unfortunately our hero doesn’t realize this and just sees a pampered, spoiled daddy’s girl….and he is going to make her pay for the downfall of her once respected dad with her body. During the forced seduction he is presented with the h’s scars and backs down….for now. The rest of the story is the H and h falling in love, yet the h never knowing when the H is going to have her pay up. It is obvious our H is besotted by the things we can read between the lines. JS gives him his 20 pages to explain his actions at the end.
Agent Scully: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Danielle the book huntress: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I absolutely loved this story! The hero was not going to back down on his threat of forced seduction and our little h was so frightened. His misconceptions of her made him think she was a good time gal. However, our h was crippled at the age of 15 and hid herself away. There were no parties, or dates. She hung out with her sad dad(the mom died in crash that crippled h). So her experience with sex and boys was nil. Her dad went against his principles so his daughter’s life would not be so painful and unlivable. (No job, no marriage, no kids….) She ended up getting a special surgery which fixed her physical limitations. Unfortunately our hero doesn’t realize this and just sees a pampered, spoiled daddy’s girl….and he is going to make her pay for the downfall of her once respected dad with her body. During the forced seduction he is presented with the h’s scars and backs down….for now. The rest of the story is the H and h falling in love, yet the h never knowing when the H is going to have her pay up. It is obvious our H is besotted by the things we can read between the lines. JS gives him his 20 pages to explain his actions at the end.
October 10, 2012
This was cute and fun. Very fun to watch the hero get angry with the heroine for over-straining herself. Wish the physical side had gone a little further, but this is from 1983 so it's not surprising that it didn't. The writing in this one was HORRIBLE -- so bad that at times I wondered if it was one of those weird situations where someone used an automatic translator to translate from another language to English. The writing was some of the worst I've seen in an HP, and that's saying a lot! But it was odd -- the story was well crafted and well-paced, it was just that the sentence structure was awful -- run-ons, confusing passive voice, missing pronouns, etc. Overall though, it was still a very satisfying read.
April 4, 2018
Devon's ordeal was only just beginning
When her father suddenly announced he had enough money to pay for the expensive operation that would end her years as a cripple, Devon was overjoyed.
The joy turned to horror when he confessed he had embezzled the money from Grant Harrington, his boss.
Grant demanded the debt be repaid. And Devon's horror deepened when she realized payment in cash wasn't what he had in mind.
When her father suddenly announced he had enough money to pay for the expensive operation that would end her years as a cripple, Devon was overjoyed.
The joy turned to horror when he confessed he had embezzled the money from Grant Harrington, his boss.
Grant demanded the debt be repaid. And Devon's horror deepened when she realized payment in cash wasn't what he had in mind.
March 26, 2022
3.5 stars Shy, innocent heroine, pay-this-debt-with-your-body scenario, and a lot of misunderstandings. It’s a very old-fashioned, old school Harlequin scenario, but overall no one’s really nasty (obviously hero is problematic, but in the grand scale of HP men he’s not that bad—and the way he cares for her later and explains himself—is pretty good) and the writing keeps your interest.
April 29, 2021
I think this is Jessica Steele’s best HP.
June 24, 2024
I loved this book!
I loved the H, the heroine, her father, the plot, the writing and execution, everythi.g. Did not skip any parts, even the ones with no interaction between the MC.
The angst was on point too. It was driven by:
- The H mistaking the h for a spoiled brat and the circumstancial evidence condemning her.
- Her disability at the beginning of the story and the vulnerablity it caused her, both emotionally and physically. (Vulnerable heroines are **chef's kiss** when well executed).
- The fact that she was honest with the H abt her operation. When he chose not believe her, she showed pride (and admittedly a little martyrdom).
- His protectiveness of her behind the hard facade and the domesticity the h thought could only be temporary.
- The heroine's love for her father. What a beautiful relationship they had, protecting each other at all costs.
- Her constant worrying abt the operation being a failure. I teared up everytime she felt any pain or expressed happiness at doing the simplest things after her surgery.
Some scenes imagined by JS made me go Aaww then Arggh then Aww. Like when the H phoned his house to talk the h and she did not pick up because she did not want people knowing she was living with him. Or everytime he came home and freaked out because she wasnt there.
I wont say more, just that I enjoyed the authors writing as much as I did the story. Off to go through the rest of her books, hoping to find one as just as gripping as this one.
I loved the H, the heroine, her father, the plot, the writing and execution, everythi.g. Did not skip any parts, even the ones with no interaction between the MC.
The angst was on point too. It was driven by:
- The H mistaking the h for a spoiled brat and the circumstancial evidence condemning her.
- Her disability at the beginning of the story and the vulnerablity it caused her, both emotionally and physically. (Vulnerable heroines are **chef's kiss** when well executed).
- The fact that she was honest with the H abt her operation. When he chose not believe her, she showed pride (and admittedly a little martyrdom).
- His protectiveness of her behind the hard facade and the domesticity the h thought could only be temporary.
- The heroine's love for her father. What a beautiful relationship they had, protecting each other at all costs.
- Her constant worrying abt the operation being a failure. I teared up everytime she felt any pain or expressed happiness at doing the simplest things after her surgery.
Some scenes imagined by JS made me go Aaww then Arggh then Aww. Like when the H phoned his house to talk the h and she did not pick up because she did not want people knowing she was living with him. Or everytime he came home and freaked out because she wasnt there.
I wont say more, just that I enjoyed the authors writing as much as I did the story. Off to go through the rest of her books, hoping to find one as just as gripping as this one.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 5, 2012
I didn't even mean to start reading but I couldn't help myself. I picked it up to put in a box and just got sucked right in. Nice, quick read.
March 24, 2025
This is the first time I have read this one, not sure why, but there were likeable parts, but I think it will need a re-read to feel more positive about it.
I didn’t like the hero much. I thought the way he talked to the heroine, when she’s obviously very young for her age, was rude. He seems to be driven by frustration and says unnecessarily hurtful things.
The heroine is very sweet, and I appreciated how she kept trying to force herself to like the hero for her dad’s sake.
The best relationship is between father and daughter.
3 stars (it needed some like hearted banter or witty dialogue to contrast the heavy emotional scenes).
I didn’t like the hero much. I thought the way he talked to the heroine, when she’s obviously very young for her age, was rude. He seems to be driven by frustration and says unnecessarily hurtful things.
The heroine is very sweet, and I appreciated how she kept trying to force herself to like the hero for her dad’s sake.
The best relationship is between father and daughter.
3 stars (it needed some like hearted banter or witty dialogue to contrast the heavy emotional scenes).
June 4, 2024
Very sweet. The hero did a lot of ‘splainin of his motivations and feelings at the end of the story. I kind of liked that (often the happily ever after part of the story is too short and abrupt) but this guy was really thorough. Like *really*. Not complaining but just saying. Also sometimes Jessica Steele’s writing is a bit funky. A read a digital version and kept wondering if the OCR software that (I presume) was used to scan the book made errors. Which I think it probably did. But I also suspect some of these “errors” might have just been Steele’s funky writing style.
Still, a fun read.
Still, a fun read.
June 1, 2024
This is the first time that the Hero actually hates the protagonist. All the theft and the stolen put her father and her in a bad situation. Obviously Grant would not know what Charles Johnson was plotting.
Devon was a very innocent woman and very believable. Only Grant could not see that.
There is not much going on after she goes live with and decide to tell him the truth.
Grant feels guilty and sends her back to her home. And she does not need to "pay" him back.
He was totally in love with her and forgives her father.
Devon was a very innocent woman and very believable. Only Grant could not see that.
There is not much going on after she goes live with and decide to tell him the truth.
Grant feels guilty and sends her back to her home. And she does not need to "pay" him back.
He was totally in love with her and forgives her father.
August 9, 2026
3.6 stars, rounded up to 4
I liked Tomorrow Come Soon overall, but it didn't fulfil the potential of its excellent setup. The premise promised a great deal of angst and romantic conflict, yet the execution became muddled in the second half and never developed the emotional journey strongly enough. I also struggled with the writing in this one. Jessica Steele is known for run-on sentences, and here they noticeably bogged down my reading experience, at least in the copy I had.
Devon is 22 and has lived with a severe hip injury since she was in a car crash at 15 that also killed her mother. Her father has always blamed himself, although another driver caused the accident. Watching his once lively daughter become a painfully shy introvert, ashamed of her limp and reluctant even to leave the house, has left him consumed by guilt.
Several operations have already drained his finances without fixing Devon's hip. Then he tells her that an investment has matured and there is finally enough money for a new operation in Sweden which might completely cure her.
Devon is ecstatic. She has never had a boyfriend, made many friends or lived the normal life other young women take for granted because she is so self-conscious about her disability. The operation feels like a chance to become herself again, and she is equally happy that her recovery might finally ease her father's grief.
The night before she leaves, Devon briefly meets her father's employer, Grant. Her father seems strangely nervous around him, while Grant reacts coldly to Devon.
She assumes he thinks her rude because she doesn't stand to greet him. In reality, Devon is desperately ashamed of her limp and tries to hide her disability whenever possible. Her father respects this and has never told Grant about it.
Grant therefore sees only a pretty, apparently pampered young woman lounging on the sofa without even bothering to get up and shake his hand.
When Devon returns from Sweden with her hip largely healed, she discovers the truth.
Her father stole the money for her operation from Grant.
Grant feels personally betrayed because he trusted him, and Devon's father now faces prison. Horrified, Devon goes to Grant and begs for the chance to repay the money. Her father spent it entirely on her, she argues, and isn't fundamentally dishonest.
Grant instead taunts her.
Devon returned from Sweden wearing a new suit and high heels because she wanted to show her father that his daughter was finally recovering and ready to reclaim a normal life. Grant interprets this, combined with his original impression of her, as evidence that she is a spoiled princess whose father embezzled money to finance her pleasures.
He assumes Sweden meant parties, rich men and extravagance rather than surgery.
Devon tells him the truth, but he doesn't believe her because her father never mentioned her disability or treatment either. Grant calls her greedy and pampered and says that she is the one who deserves prison for driving her father to theft.
A few days later, Grant telephones and asks whether Devon meant it when she said she would do anything to keep her father out of jail.
She says yes.
Grant tells her to move into his house and sleep with him for as long as he wants her. In return, he won't prosecute her father.
This was an excellent old-school Harlequin setup for me. It is obviously vile by real-world standards: no woman "deserves" sexual coercion, and a man genuinely believing that would be repellent. Within this kind of vintage romance, however, it creates enormous angst potential precisely because the hero must ultimately prove himself better than his ugliest impulses.
Importantly, Grant means the threat when he makes it.
He believes Devon is a selfish, spoiled woman who deserves punishment. He hates her, desires her and intends to use that attraction as revenge.
Devon sees her beloved father deteriorating under the strain of expecting arrest at any moment. Unable to bear his suffering, she accepts Grant's deal.
SPOILERS
Grant conveniently sends her father to Scotland on a work project, and Devon moves into his house.
He remains cold and demanding. Although Devon still limps and is exhausted from surgery, Grant doesn't yet believe her explanation. He takes her out for dinner and dancing until late even though she has been medically warned to rest her hip until her final post-operative check-up.
That night he orders her into his bed.
Devon is terrified. Grant assumes that this supposedly worldly woman is playing games when she lies rigid beside him and becomes angry at her lack of response. He tells her that if she makes no effort, their deal is off and her father can face prison.
Devon forces herself to try.
Grant becomes gentler and she responds, but as things progress she panics and pulls away. He jerks her towards him, hurting her injured hip.
Grant hears her cry of pain but initially thinks she is again playing games and blowing hot and cold. Then he feels the surgical scar.
He turns on the light, sees it and is shocked. He demands an explanation.
He finally listens as Devon explains everything: the accident, her mother's death, her father's guilt, the failed operations and the surgery in Sweden for which her father stole the money.
Grant stalks out.
The following morning Devon is frightened that learning the truth has ended their arrangement and that he may now prosecute her father anyway. She therefore tells him that she is still willing to honour their deal. Her hip only hurt because she was exhausted, she insists, and she can go through with it.
Grant seems sceptical and irritated rather than pleased.
Up to this point, I thought the book was extremely promising. The blackmail comes rather quickly, but that actually makes Grant's behaviour feel even more cold and brutal. I also liked that he genuinely started from a place of anger rather than making an empty threat he never intended to fulfil.
Unfortunately, the romance became much less effective afterwards.
Grant accepts enough of Devon's explanation to understand that she really did have surgery. She tells him she is a virgin, and although he remains sceptical, even he can see that a girl who spent years hiding at home because of her disability may genuinely have had little romantic life.
Yet he continues holding the original bargain over her.
At the same time, his behaviour changes. He becomes extremely protective of Devon's health, insists that she rest, dislikes her going out and worries whenever he doesn't know where she is.
The problem was that his protectiveness still feels like bullying.
I think this section would have worked far better if Devon sometimes genuinely felt cared for. Grant could then periodically turn cold again, leaving her uncertain and making the emotional ground constantly shift beneath her feet.
Instead, she largely feels ordered around and undermined even when he is supposedly caring for her.
Devon also becomes increasingly determined to complete the sexual bargain. Her father will return from Scotland for her final medical check-up in a few weeks, so she wants everything finished before then. Grant, strangely, becomes the reluctant one.
He repeatedly creates situations where it seems he will finally take her to bed, then withdraws when she makes clear that she is doing it solely for her father.
His behaviour becomes difficult to interpret.
There is some jealousy when Devon goes out without explaining where she has been, and his worry suggests that his feelings are changing.
There is no other-man drama and only token other-woman material, involving a woman who clearly wants Grant.
Grant occasionally also implies that a virgin is too much trouble and that he would rather have an experienced woman. Whenever intimacy gets too close, he tends to storm away instead.
Eventually, one night he insists that Devon sleep in his bed but makes no move towards her.
In the morning she wakes curled against him. By now she has realised that she loves him. In a moment of tenderness, she kisses his shoulder and looks at him with all those newly recognised feelings.
They begin kissing, and things become passionate.
Then Grant abruptly pushes her away.
He tells her to pack. She is going back to her father.
Devon is devastated and terrified. She believes she has failed to fulfil their bargain and that Grant may now have her father arrested.
She returns home and later attends her final check-up, where she receives the wonderful news that her operation has succeeded.
Her mind is still preoccupied with Grant. She loiters in a park, considering throwing state of things between them.
Instead of going home afterwards, Devon inexplicably finds herself heading to his house, but finds it empty. Knowing her dad might worry, she telephones him from there and discovers that both he and Grant have been waiting anxiously for news of her medical results.
Grant races home furious that Devon disappeared for hours without contacting them.
He finally confesses that his feelings became serious long ago. At first he told himself he merely desired her, but he gradually realised that he wanted far more and had been waiting for her medical all-clear before proposing marriage, since she'd repeatedly told him she wouldn't consider marriage without it.
And this is where the ending failed for me.
Grant never experiences any real fear of losing Devon.
He behaves almost as though the outcome has been settled for some time: he loves her, intends to marry her and simply needs to wait until her doctor confirms that she is well. But meanwhile, he'll continue to mentally torment her.
After everything he put Devon through, I needed considerably more emotional reckoning.
Even after Grant knew she had told the truth about Sweden, realised she wasn't the spoiled man-eater he imagined and had substantial reason to believe she was genuinely inexperienced, he continued letting her live in fear that he would send her father to prison.
Why?
The book never satisfactorily explains it.
If Grant had admitted that he realised he wanted Devon and shamefully kept the bargain alive because it was the only hold he had over her and he couldn't bear to let her leave, I could at least have understood the emotional logic. It would still have been manipulative, but it would have exposed his vulnerability and acknowledged that what he did was wrong.
Instead, he appears to manipulate her because he can.
That makes his autocratic nature much less attractive. At the beginning, I enjoyed the powerful, domineering man shaken by his desire for a woman he believed beneath contempt. By the latter half, he sometimes seemed more like a bully unwilling to relinquish control even after his reasons for despising her had disappeared.
The supposed caring side needed far more substance to balance that.
Grant tells Devon to rest and worries about her health, but I wanted small acts that genuinely felt nurturing: noticing when she was exhausted and carrying her upstairs, making her something to eat, quietly arranging something she needed or otherwise showing that he was watching her closely enough to care for her without turning everything into an order.
Those details were missing.
Without them, the progression from coercive enemy to protective lover felt hollow.
I also think the romance would have been stronger if Devon had recognised her love much earlier.
Had she known for a substantial portion of the book that she loved the man who was continuing to torment and blackmail her, the setup could have produced far greater angst. Her willingness to endure Grant's treatment would then have carried two painful motivations: protecting her father and loving a man who appeared to despise her.
Instead, for much of the book she is primarily trying to complete a bargain for her father's sake.
That makes her repeated attempts to please Grant slightly uncomfortable rather than emotionally moving. She isn't mercenary, but without established love behind those actions, she sometimes comes across as excessively compliant with a man who is treating her badly.
Her earlier awareness of love could also have made her more sympathetic rather than more passive. She could have understood exactly how much Grant was hurting her while still choosing to endure it because of both her father and her own feelings.
The novel therefore had all the ingredients for a far stronger romance than it ultimately delivered. The opening gives us a vulnerable heroine, a major misunderstanding, sexual blackmail, a hero who genuinely hates the woman he desires and enormous scope for him slowly discovering how wrong he was.
The second half never develops those ingredients deeply enough. Grant's protectiveness is undercut by continued bullying, his manipulation after learning the truth isn't properly explained, Devon's emotional journey begins too late, and the ending gives him neither sufficient fear of loss nor a cathartic reckoning with how badly he treated her.
I'm giving Tomorrow Come Soon 3.6 stars, rounded up to 4. I liked the central conflict and there was enough tension to keep me interested, but the execution felt uneven and much less emotionally effective than the premise promised.
I liked Tomorrow Come Soon overall, but it didn't fulfil the potential of its excellent setup. The premise promised a great deal of angst and romantic conflict, yet the execution became muddled in the second half and never developed the emotional journey strongly enough. I also struggled with the writing in this one. Jessica Steele is known for run-on sentences, and here they noticeably bogged down my reading experience, at least in the copy I had.
Devon is 22 and has lived with a severe hip injury since she was in a car crash at 15 that also killed her mother. Her father has always blamed himself, although another driver caused the accident. Watching his once lively daughter become a painfully shy introvert, ashamed of her limp and reluctant even to leave the house, has left him consumed by guilt.
Several operations have already drained his finances without fixing Devon's hip. Then he tells her that an investment has matured and there is finally enough money for a new operation in Sweden which might completely cure her.
Devon is ecstatic. She has never had a boyfriend, made many friends or lived the normal life other young women take for granted because she is so self-conscious about her disability. The operation feels like a chance to become herself again, and she is equally happy that her recovery might finally ease her father's grief.
The night before she leaves, Devon briefly meets her father's employer, Grant. Her father seems strangely nervous around him, while Grant reacts coldly to Devon.
She assumes he thinks her rude because she doesn't stand to greet him. In reality, Devon is desperately ashamed of her limp and tries to hide her disability whenever possible. Her father respects this and has never told Grant about it.
Grant therefore sees only a pretty, apparently pampered young woman lounging on the sofa without even bothering to get up and shake his hand.
When Devon returns from Sweden with her hip largely healed, she discovers the truth.
Her father stole the money for her operation from Grant.
Grant feels personally betrayed because he trusted him, and Devon's father now faces prison. Horrified, Devon goes to Grant and begs for the chance to repay the money. Her father spent it entirely on her, she argues, and isn't fundamentally dishonest.
Grant instead taunts her.
Devon returned from Sweden wearing a new suit and high heels because she wanted to show her father that his daughter was finally recovering and ready to reclaim a normal life. Grant interprets this, combined with his original impression of her, as evidence that she is a spoiled princess whose father embezzled money to finance her pleasures.
He assumes Sweden meant parties, rich men and extravagance rather than surgery.
Devon tells him the truth, but he doesn't believe her because her father never mentioned her disability or treatment either. Grant calls her greedy and pampered and says that she is the one who deserves prison for driving her father to theft.
A few days later, Grant telephones and asks whether Devon meant it when she said she would do anything to keep her father out of jail.
She says yes.
Grant tells her to move into his house and sleep with him for as long as he wants her. In return, he won't prosecute her father.
This was an excellent old-school Harlequin setup for me. It is obviously vile by real-world standards: no woman "deserves" sexual coercion, and a man genuinely believing that would be repellent. Within this kind of vintage romance, however, it creates enormous angst potential precisely because the hero must ultimately prove himself better than his ugliest impulses.
Importantly, Grant means the threat when he makes it.
He believes Devon is a selfish, spoiled woman who deserves punishment. He hates her, desires her and intends to use that attraction as revenge.
Devon sees her beloved father deteriorating under the strain of expecting arrest at any moment. Unable to bear his suffering, she accepts Grant's deal.
SPOILERS
Grant conveniently sends her father to Scotland on a work project, and Devon moves into his house.
He remains cold and demanding. Although Devon still limps and is exhausted from surgery, Grant doesn't yet believe her explanation. He takes her out for dinner and dancing until late even though she has been medically warned to rest her hip until her final post-operative check-up.
That night he orders her into his bed.
Devon is terrified. Grant assumes that this supposedly worldly woman is playing games when she lies rigid beside him and becomes angry at her lack of response. He tells her that if she makes no effort, their deal is off and her father can face prison.
Devon forces herself to try.
Grant becomes gentler and she responds, but as things progress she panics and pulls away. He jerks her towards him, hurting her injured hip.
Grant hears her cry of pain but initially thinks she is again playing games and blowing hot and cold. Then he feels the surgical scar.
He turns on the light, sees it and is shocked. He demands an explanation.
He finally listens as Devon explains everything: the accident, her mother's death, her father's guilt, the failed operations and the surgery in Sweden for which her father stole the money.
Grant stalks out.
The following morning Devon is frightened that learning the truth has ended their arrangement and that he may now prosecute her father anyway. She therefore tells him that she is still willing to honour their deal. Her hip only hurt because she was exhausted, she insists, and she can go through with it.
Grant seems sceptical and irritated rather than pleased.
Up to this point, I thought the book was extremely promising. The blackmail comes rather quickly, but that actually makes Grant's behaviour feel even more cold and brutal. I also liked that he genuinely started from a place of anger rather than making an empty threat he never intended to fulfil.
Unfortunately, the romance became much less effective afterwards.
Grant accepts enough of Devon's explanation to understand that she really did have surgery. She tells him she is a virgin, and although he remains sceptical, even he can see that a girl who spent years hiding at home because of her disability may genuinely have had little romantic life.
Yet he continues holding the original bargain over her.
At the same time, his behaviour changes. He becomes extremely protective of Devon's health, insists that she rest, dislikes her going out and worries whenever he doesn't know where she is.
The problem was that his protectiveness still feels like bullying.
I think this section would have worked far better if Devon sometimes genuinely felt cared for. Grant could then periodically turn cold again, leaving her uncertain and making the emotional ground constantly shift beneath her feet.
Instead, she largely feels ordered around and undermined even when he is supposedly caring for her.
Devon also becomes increasingly determined to complete the sexual bargain. Her father will return from Scotland for her final medical check-up in a few weeks, so she wants everything finished before then. Grant, strangely, becomes the reluctant one.
He repeatedly creates situations where it seems he will finally take her to bed, then withdraws when she makes clear that she is doing it solely for her father.
His behaviour becomes difficult to interpret.
There is some jealousy when Devon goes out without explaining where she has been, and his worry suggests that his feelings are changing.
There is no other-man drama and only token other-woman material, involving a woman who clearly wants Grant.
Grant occasionally also implies that a virgin is too much trouble and that he would rather have an experienced woman. Whenever intimacy gets too close, he tends to storm away instead.
Eventually, one night he insists that Devon sleep in his bed but makes no move towards her.
In the morning she wakes curled against him. By now she has realised that she loves him. In a moment of tenderness, she kisses his shoulder and looks at him with all those newly recognised feelings.
They begin kissing, and things become passionate.
Then Grant abruptly pushes her away.
He tells her to pack. She is going back to her father.
Devon is devastated and terrified. She believes she has failed to fulfil their bargain and that Grant may now have her father arrested.
She returns home and later attends her final check-up, where she receives the wonderful news that her operation has succeeded.
Her mind is still preoccupied with Grant. She loiters in a park, considering throwing state of things between them.
Instead of going home afterwards, Devon inexplicably finds herself heading to his house, but finds it empty. Knowing her dad might worry, she telephones him from there and discovers that both he and Grant have been waiting anxiously for news of her medical results.
Grant races home furious that Devon disappeared for hours without contacting them.
He finally confesses that his feelings became serious long ago. At first he told himself he merely desired her, but he gradually realised that he wanted far more and had been waiting for her medical all-clear before proposing marriage, since she'd repeatedly told him she wouldn't consider marriage without it.
And this is where the ending failed for me.
Grant never experiences any real fear of losing Devon.
He behaves almost as though the outcome has been settled for some time: he loves her, intends to marry her and simply needs to wait until her doctor confirms that she is well. But meanwhile, he'll continue to mentally torment her.
After everything he put Devon through, I needed considerably more emotional reckoning.
Even after Grant knew she had told the truth about Sweden, realised she wasn't the spoiled man-eater he imagined and had substantial reason to believe she was genuinely inexperienced, he continued letting her live in fear that he would send her father to prison.
Why?
The book never satisfactorily explains it.
If Grant had admitted that he realised he wanted Devon and shamefully kept the bargain alive because it was the only hold he had over her and he couldn't bear to let her leave, I could at least have understood the emotional logic. It would still have been manipulative, but it would have exposed his vulnerability and acknowledged that what he did was wrong.
Instead, he appears to manipulate her because he can.
That makes his autocratic nature much less attractive. At the beginning, I enjoyed the powerful, domineering man shaken by his desire for a woman he believed beneath contempt. By the latter half, he sometimes seemed more like a bully unwilling to relinquish control even after his reasons for despising her had disappeared.
The supposed caring side needed far more substance to balance that.
Grant tells Devon to rest and worries about her health, but I wanted small acts that genuinely felt nurturing: noticing when she was exhausted and carrying her upstairs, making her something to eat, quietly arranging something she needed or otherwise showing that he was watching her closely enough to care for her without turning everything into an order.
Those details were missing.
Without them, the progression from coercive enemy to protective lover felt hollow.
I also think the romance would have been stronger if Devon had recognised her love much earlier.
Had she known for a substantial portion of the book that she loved the man who was continuing to torment and blackmail her, the setup could have produced far greater angst. Her willingness to endure Grant's treatment would then have carried two painful motivations: protecting her father and loving a man who appeared to despise her.
Instead, for much of the book she is primarily trying to complete a bargain for her father's sake.
That makes her repeated attempts to please Grant slightly uncomfortable rather than emotionally moving. She isn't mercenary, but without established love behind those actions, she sometimes comes across as excessively compliant with a man who is treating her badly.
Her earlier awareness of love could also have made her more sympathetic rather than more passive. She could have understood exactly how much Grant was hurting her while still choosing to endure it because of both her father and her own feelings.
The novel therefore had all the ingredients for a far stronger romance than it ultimately delivered. The opening gives us a vulnerable heroine, a major misunderstanding, sexual blackmail, a hero who genuinely hates the woman he desires and enormous scope for him slowly discovering how wrong he was.
The second half never develops those ingredients deeply enough. Grant's protectiveness is undercut by continued bullying, his manipulation after learning the truth isn't properly explained, Devon's emotional journey begins too late, and the ending gives him neither sufficient fear of loss nor a cathartic reckoning with how badly he treated her.
I'm giving Tomorrow Come Soon 3.6 stars, rounded up to 4. I liked the central conflict and there was enough tension to keep me interested, but the execution felt uneven and much less emotionally effective than the premise promised.
May 27, 2021
This one is ridiculous, JS playing to her favorites and strengths, and a pleasure. A Greater Steele.
It also has some prose/structure that, even for JS, is convoluted--which is saying something. She crams a lot of backstory, emotion, and reaction wherever she can, sometimes passing them off as dialogue tags, and always including several-page-asides between the heroine's musings to begin the book to give backstory. (I figure at some point editors checked for typos and then let JS have her way--and why not given her proficiency in emotion that so many other Harlequin authors lack, but also her prolific writing and sales.)
It pays to take your time parsing JS, and the more you read of her, the more you learn her language. Text and subtext. And this one has a lot of delicious and heartswoop subtext as the hero runs the gauntlet of his feelings for the heroine.
The beginning of this one had me going hmmm, I'm not going to like the heroine much. But it also had me waiting for the twist that JS would introduce to goose her from her morose existence. Happened, and then things got moving in grand fashion.
JS heroes often act as they do to teach the heroine a lesson. They think she's spoiled or tarred-by-the-same-brush as someone bad; but they're also seething with attraction, so they crack and do something even they think is grotty. But they stick to it with frayed nerves, temper, and sarcasm as, by god, she'll learn. In the end of course, they learn their own necessary lesson.
Emotions run high in this book, as does the chemistry and sexual tension. Which is good as that's really the whole plot as well. Aside the couple there's a doting dad and that's it on main characters.
Put me in mind of Tethered Liberty (where I've noted before was the first Steele I read and my longstanding top-JS) with the plot construction and dynamic between the leads. This type of story is a slanted Beauty & the Beast retelling -- he's beastly, they misjudge each other, and in close confines they fall in inexplicable, complete, HEA love.
It's pretty preposterous too and that's glorious.
Despite her low state at the start, the heroine has grit. I think she fell into a rut that her father enabled, along with understandable mental & physical issues, but when pushed (to recover from the surgery and then by Grant), she pushes back and begins to flourish. She's determined in many ways, including doing what is seemingly required to meet her end of the bargain that will save her father from ruin and worse. When she starts to want the consummation of the bargain is when things get complicated and interesting for her (and the hero), and her world, though still kept rather small, finds itself opening up.
Grant is an excellent version of JS' hero-type who journeys through a spectrum of hate: first of the heroine based on his quick appraisal and her seeming treatment of others, and then of himself in stages, until he realizes the hate is love *and* she's worthy of it.
I think that's somewhat why the ending Grovel isn't as long or detailed as in other JS titles. If you pay attention (and know the JS ways) you get a lot of what he's going through, including when the hate turns to self-loathing for still desiring her even though he despises her, to hating himself for misjudging and mistreating her after he's put all the pieces together. Here he caretakes and pines and it's lovely.
His final means of putting her off -- to make her recoil to bolster his own attempts at resisting her -- is almost too mean. It's unnecessary at that stage for him to lie that he's not attracted. He could have come up with something else, something more fitting. But, then we wouldn't have the continued tension, misunderstandings, and roller-coaster for the heroine that get resolved together during the Grovel, so. That he's ready to get married in a thrice, the following day, makes up for a lot, there.
Something else JS gave page to is Grant's complicated feelings about Devon's father, and she made it make sense that Grant wouldn't fully punish, prosecute the father--and then would hire him back to the business, reinstated in every sense. This is important for the couple as well, given how rightly important the father is to Devon. Their future with a doting grandpa, restored to his integrity and watching his daughter blossom, is assured.
Their compatibility beyond the bedroom is salted in. They're hard workers; they have interests in common beyond his business and her being a recluse. He's handy around the house, can cook, is patient with and happy to show her what she doesn't know how to do yet (I'm talking about dancing but, yanno). She's handy around the house, can sew and cook, and is eager to try new things.
Devon has to have a wishlist of new things to do that's miles long. She's sheltered but has spirit, and Grant will be the perfect companion for conquering them. Hooray their HEA.
It also has some prose/structure that, even for JS, is convoluted--which is saying something. She crams a lot of backstory, emotion, and reaction wherever she can, sometimes passing them off as dialogue tags, and always including several-page-asides between the heroine's musings to begin the book to give backstory. (I figure at some point editors checked for typos and then let JS have her way--and why not given her proficiency in emotion that so many other Harlequin authors lack, but also her prolific writing and sales.)
It pays to take your time parsing JS, and the more you read of her, the more you learn her language. Text and subtext. And this one has a lot of delicious and heartswoop subtext as the hero runs the gauntlet of his feelings for the heroine.
The beginning of this one had me going hmmm, I'm not going to like the heroine much. But it also had me waiting for the twist that JS would introduce to goose her from her morose existence. Happened, and then things got moving in grand fashion.
JS heroes often act as they do to teach the heroine a lesson. They think she's spoiled or tarred-by-the-same-brush as someone bad; but they're also seething with attraction, so they crack and do something even they think is grotty. But they stick to it with frayed nerves, temper, and sarcasm as, by god, she'll learn. In the end of course, they learn their own necessary lesson.
Emotions run high in this book, as does the chemistry and sexual tension. Which is good as that's really the whole plot as well. Aside the couple there's a doting dad and that's it on main characters.
Put me in mind of Tethered Liberty (where I've noted before was the first Steele I read and my longstanding top-JS) with the plot construction and dynamic between the leads. This type of story is a slanted Beauty & the Beast retelling -- he's beastly, they misjudge each other, and in close confines they fall in inexplicable, complete, HEA love.
It's pretty preposterous too and that's glorious.
Despite her low state at the start, the heroine has grit. I think she fell into a rut that her father enabled, along with understandable mental & physical issues, but when pushed (to recover from the surgery and then by Grant), she pushes back and begins to flourish. She's determined in many ways, including doing what is seemingly required to meet her end of the bargain that will save her father from ruin and worse. When she starts to want the consummation of the bargain is when things get complicated and interesting for her (and the hero), and her world, though still kept rather small, finds itself opening up.
Grant is an excellent version of JS' hero-type who journeys through a spectrum of hate: first of the heroine based on his quick appraisal and her seeming treatment of others, and then of himself in stages, until he realizes the hate is love *and* she's worthy of it.
I think that's somewhat why the ending Grovel isn't as long or detailed as in other JS titles. If you pay attention (and know the JS ways) you get a lot of what he's going through, including when the hate turns to self-loathing for still desiring her even though he despises her, to hating himself for misjudging and mistreating her after he's put all the pieces together. Here he caretakes and pines and it's lovely.
His final means of putting her off -- to make her recoil to bolster his own attempts at resisting her -- is almost too mean. It's unnecessary at that stage for him to lie that he's not attracted. He could have come up with something else, something more fitting. But, then we wouldn't have the continued tension, misunderstandings, and roller-coaster for the heroine that get resolved together during the Grovel, so. That he's ready to get married in a thrice, the following day, makes up for a lot, there.
Something else JS gave page to is Grant's complicated feelings about Devon's father, and she made it make sense that Grant wouldn't fully punish, prosecute the father--and then would hire him back to the business, reinstated in every sense. This is important for the couple as well, given how rightly important the father is to Devon. Their future with a doting grandpa, restored to his integrity and watching his daughter blossom, is assured.
Their compatibility beyond the bedroom is salted in. They're hard workers; they have interests in common beyond his business and her being a recluse. He's handy around the house, can cook, is patient with and happy to show her what she doesn't know how to do yet (I'm talking about dancing but, yanno). She's handy around the house, can sew and cook, and is eager to try new things.
Devon has to have a wishlist of new things to do that's miles long. She's sheltered but has spirit, and Grant will be the perfect companion for conquering them. Hooray their HEA.
May 21, 2022
Tomorrow - Come Soon was about Devon Johnston and Grant Harrington.
When Devon was 15 1/2 years old, her family was involved in a car crash that took her mother's life and left Devon with a "tricky" hip that all but crippled her. When she walked, her hip would jerk in the most painful manner, and it would take several minutes for her to go from a sitting position to standing without falling before she could walk. This bad hip caused Devon to withdraw from society, for everyone would watch her ungainly gait...and some would even ridicule her, so she would stay home instead. Having endured two very painful surgeries with no positive effect on her hip, she had all but resigned herself to being trapped at home with a "gimpy" limp for the rest of her life. However, when Devon turned 22, her father told her he had not only found a doctor in Sweden who could do corrective surgery on her hip, but that, apparently, when she had turned 21, some sort of annuity in her name had matured and it was enough to cover the operation.
The night before she was to leave for Sweden, Grant, her father's boss paid her dad a visit. Her father introduced them and Grant, taking one look at Devon, was very rude to her for the entire time he was at their home.
Two months later, Devon returned from Sweden and wanted to show her father how well she was doing and that the surgery had, indeed, been successful. Not having notified him that she was arriving, she went into the sitting room to surprise him, doing a pirouette in her first pair of heels to show off her ability to move without the limp. However, not being used to twirling, she stumbled and fell into Grant, not having known he was there. Grant, still believing she had been away on vacation spending the money her father had embezzled in order to keep up with her high fashioned, money-grubbing ways, was once again very rude to her. After he left, her father broke down and told her the truth about where the money had come from and that he was concerned about her should Grant send him to prison.
The next day, hoping to spare her father from a prison sentence, Devon went to appeal to Grant's better nature. Though she tried to tell him about her surgery, she struggled with the hang-up and the low self-esteem that came with all the years of hiding her injury, Grant didn't believe a word she said. She told him she would do anything to save her father. But Grant ordered her out of his office, saying there was nothing she had that he wanted anything to do with. However, before the day was out, Grant had a new plan. He told Devon that he would send her father to Scotland to work for a month and, while he was gone, she would move into his house and become his bedmate, for a week, a month, or however long he decided it would take to pay him back. At first, Devon thought he was asking her to marry him, but then it sank in as to just what he wanted her to do. Though she was a virgin still, she was willing to do whatever she had to in order to keep her father out of jail, for he had already sacrificed so much of his life for her in the six years since the accident.
After her father left for Scotland, she moved into Grant's house. However, that night, though Devon tried to calm her nerves, her body did not yield to Grant's overtures. At one point, Devon cried out, not with pleasure but rather in pain. Caught off guard, Grant turned on the light and saw the scars from her three surgeries. Forcing her to explain, he finally began to believe her concerning the accident and her injuries...and he left the room and did not return. After that night, Devon did not return to Grant's bed and, after a week of having lived with him, he still did not take her back to his bed. Instead, he made certain she did nothing to acerbate her scars and instructed his housekeeper to not let her help around his home, at least not until her doctor gave her the "all clear".
Three weeks into their forced cohabitation, and frustrated that Grant had seemed to back out of their deal, Devon was worried he would take out his frustrations on her father and send him to jail after all. She was upset that Grant seemed to be delaying allowing her to fulfill her part of the bargain as she wanted it done before her father returned from Scotland. So she made a clumsy attempt at seducing him because, for her father's peace of mind, she wanted Grant's act of retribution to be done with before he returned and found her living at Grant's place. The grand seduction Devon had planned seemed to fall short in the eyes of her would-be seducee. All he did in return was talk to her in monosyllabic sentences, and glower at her, though he didn't seem capable of keeping his eyes off her. Angered by his attitude, she asked him outright if he was planning on waiting till after her doctor's appointment before continuing with his retribution. When she got angry then asked what he was waiting for, and told him that her father would remember her doctor's appointment and might just show up for it, Grant told her he still wanted her, but that the allotted time just might not be enough for the desire he felt for her to be quenched. When she told him she was healed enough to fulfill her end of the deal, Grant got ugly and said that "tonight my fancy is, for a more experienced woman.", and he left the house, and he repeated the maneuver a second time as well.
The closer it got to her doctor's appointment, the more hateful Grant got with Devon, even to the point of nearly consummating their deal. But though Devon kept telling him she was prepared to fulfill her end of the deal, he hatefully said to her, "Had you more experience...then you would know that there's nothing more guaranteed to turn a man off than to have a woman throw herself at him.". Arrogant b*st*rd. But then, two days before her doctor's appointment, Grant told her to pack her things for he would be taking her back home and that her father would be returning as well.
Finally, the day came for her doctor's visit. The night before, Grant had told her he would take her, but she told him her father had been looking forward to attending her final visit, so he would be the one to take her. Grant wasn't happy but he chose not to argue with her. However, that morning, she told her dad she would be going alone. Devon was thrilled at the end of the visit when the doctor gave her the news she was done with visiting him over her hip...she was well enough to move on without another visit.
Devon, thinking it was time to bring things to a conclusion and get all of her ducks in a row where other people needed to be "thanked" for her recovery, knew that she had to find closure with the bargain between her and Grant. After leaving the doctor's office, rather than going home, she went to Grant's place instead. Not finding him there, and after waiting for some time for him to return from work, she called her father and gave him the news from the doctor. When he asked her where she was calling from, she was inadvertently honest and told him she was at Grant's place. She heard him say something that didn't make sense, "there's been a foul-up", but he hung up before she could ask what he meant. Deciding her "thank you" to Grant would be relegated in the form of a letter, she was ready to leave his house behind but, before she could exit, Grant returned. Apparently, he had been waiting at her father's home for her return, had been told by her father where she was, had raced home, and was obviously furious with Devon. With the arrival of Grant, things began to fall into place...finally.
To say this story was full of angst and drama would be putting it mildly. The other emotions that filled the pages ran the gamut and kept me on my toes to the point I wanted to throw the book at times. The twists and turns were a rollercoaster ride through hell for most of the book. However, one of the bad things about it was that there was absolutely no humor to ease the tension. It desperately needed a relief valve at several points of the book to make it a touch easier to read. Another bad point of the book was all the horrible words that Grant continuously threw at Devon, hurtful things that were unnecessary to have ever uttered. There was also the point that Grant just didn't apologize for his attitude towards Devon, or his treatment of her. Sure, he explained it to her, but he didn't ask her for forgiveness which, to me said he wasn't at all sorry for his harsh words and attitude. It also made me question the veracity of his feelings for her.
While the characters seemed to be mature, Devon and her father were the only ones to truly show any amount of integrity, even though her father sacrificed his for his daughter. Grant didn't really show any integrity unless you consider the fact that he didn't follow through on his demand to bed Devon.
While it was a well-written novel, it didn't earn a five-star rating, mainly because of Grant's character and attitude towards Devon. I can only award it a three-star rating, though Devon's character deserved five stars alone.
When Devon was 15 1/2 years old, her family was involved in a car crash that took her mother's life and left Devon with a "tricky" hip that all but crippled her. When she walked, her hip would jerk in the most painful manner, and it would take several minutes for her to go from a sitting position to standing without falling before she could walk. This bad hip caused Devon to withdraw from society, for everyone would watch her ungainly gait...and some would even ridicule her, so she would stay home instead. Having endured two very painful surgeries with no positive effect on her hip, she had all but resigned herself to being trapped at home with a "gimpy" limp for the rest of her life. However, when Devon turned 22, her father told her he had not only found a doctor in Sweden who could do corrective surgery on her hip, but that, apparently, when she had turned 21, some sort of annuity in her name had matured and it was enough to cover the operation.
The night before she was to leave for Sweden, Grant, her father's boss paid her dad a visit. Her father introduced them and Grant, taking one look at Devon, was very rude to her for the entire time he was at their home.
Two months later, Devon returned from Sweden and wanted to show her father how well she was doing and that the surgery had, indeed, been successful. Not having notified him that she was arriving, she went into the sitting room to surprise him, doing a pirouette in her first pair of heels to show off her ability to move without the limp. However, not being used to twirling, she stumbled and fell into Grant, not having known he was there. Grant, still believing she had been away on vacation spending the money her father had embezzled in order to keep up with her high fashioned, money-grubbing ways, was once again very rude to her. After he left, her father broke down and told her the truth about where the money had come from and that he was concerned about her should Grant send him to prison.
The next day, hoping to spare her father from a prison sentence, Devon went to appeal to Grant's better nature. Though she tried to tell him about her surgery, she struggled with the hang-up and the low self-esteem that came with all the years of hiding her injury, Grant didn't believe a word she said. She told him she would do anything to save her father. But Grant ordered her out of his office, saying there was nothing she had that he wanted anything to do with. However, before the day was out, Grant had a new plan. He told Devon that he would send her father to Scotland to work for a month and, while he was gone, she would move into his house and become his bedmate, for a week, a month, or however long he decided it would take to pay him back. At first, Devon thought he was asking her to marry him, but then it sank in as to just what he wanted her to do. Though she was a virgin still, she was willing to do whatever she had to in order to keep her father out of jail, for he had already sacrificed so much of his life for her in the six years since the accident.
After her father left for Scotland, she moved into Grant's house. However, that night, though Devon tried to calm her nerves, her body did not yield to Grant's overtures. At one point, Devon cried out, not with pleasure but rather in pain. Caught off guard, Grant turned on the light and saw the scars from her three surgeries. Forcing her to explain, he finally began to believe her concerning the accident and her injuries...and he left the room and did not return. After that night, Devon did not return to Grant's bed and, after a week of having lived with him, he still did not take her back to his bed. Instead, he made certain she did nothing to acerbate her scars and instructed his housekeeper to not let her help around his home, at least not until her doctor gave her the "all clear".
Three weeks into their forced cohabitation, and frustrated that Grant had seemed to back out of their deal, Devon was worried he would take out his frustrations on her father and send him to jail after all. She was upset that Grant seemed to be delaying allowing her to fulfill her part of the bargain as she wanted it done before her father returned from Scotland. So she made a clumsy attempt at seducing him because, for her father's peace of mind, she wanted Grant's act of retribution to be done with before he returned and found her living at Grant's place. The grand seduction Devon had planned seemed to fall short in the eyes of her would-be seducee. All he did in return was talk to her in monosyllabic sentences, and glower at her, though he didn't seem capable of keeping his eyes off her. Angered by his attitude, she asked him outright if he was planning on waiting till after her doctor's appointment before continuing with his retribution. When she got angry then asked what he was waiting for, and told him that her father would remember her doctor's appointment and might just show up for it, Grant told her he still wanted her, but that the allotted time just might not be enough for the desire he felt for her to be quenched. When she told him she was healed enough to fulfill her end of the deal, Grant got ugly and said that "tonight my fancy is, for a more experienced woman.", and he left the house, and he repeated the maneuver a second time as well.
The closer it got to her doctor's appointment, the more hateful Grant got with Devon, even to the point of nearly consummating their deal. But though Devon kept telling him she was prepared to fulfill her end of the deal, he hatefully said to her, "Had you more experience...then you would know that there's nothing more guaranteed to turn a man off than to have a woman throw herself at him.". Arrogant b*st*rd. But then, two days before her doctor's appointment, Grant told her to pack her things for he would be taking her back home and that her father would be returning as well.
Finally, the day came for her doctor's visit. The night before, Grant had told her he would take her, but she told him her father had been looking forward to attending her final visit, so he would be the one to take her. Grant wasn't happy but he chose not to argue with her. However, that morning, she told her dad she would be going alone. Devon was thrilled at the end of the visit when the doctor gave her the news she was done with visiting him over her hip...she was well enough to move on without another visit.
Devon, thinking it was time to bring things to a conclusion and get all of her ducks in a row where other people needed to be "thanked" for her recovery, knew that she had to find closure with the bargain between her and Grant. After leaving the doctor's office, rather than going home, she went to Grant's place instead. Not finding him there, and after waiting for some time for him to return from work, she called her father and gave him the news from the doctor. When he asked her where she was calling from, she was inadvertently honest and told him she was at Grant's place. She heard him say something that didn't make sense, "there's been a foul-up", but he hung up before she could ask what he meant. Deciding her "thank you" to Grant would be relegated in the form of a letter, she was ready to leave his house behind but, before she could exit, Grant returned. Apparently, he had been waiting at her father's home for her return, had been told by her father where she was, had raced home, and was obviously furious with Devon. With the arrival of Grant, things began to fall into place...finally.
To say this story was full of angst and drama would be putting it mildly. The other emotions that filled the pages ran the gamut and kept me on my toes to the point I wanted to throw the book at times. The twists and turns were a rollercoaster ride through hell for most of the book. However, one of the bad things about it was that there was absolutely no humor to ease the tension. It desperately needed a relief valve at several points of the book to make it a touch easier to read. Another bad point of the book was all the horrible words that Grant continuously threw at Devon, hurtful things that were unnecessary to have ever uttered. There was also the point that Grant just didn't apologize for his attitude towards Devon, or his treatment of her. Sure, he explained it to her, but he didn't ask her for forgiveness which, to me said he wasn't at all sorry for his harsh words and attitude. It also made me question the veracity of his feelings for her.
While the characters seemed to be mature, Devon and her father were the only ones to truly show any amount of integrity, even though her father sacrificed his for his daughter. Grant didn't really show any integrity unless you consider the fact that he didn't follow through on his demand to bed Devon.
While it was a well-written novel, it didn't earn a five-star rating, mainly because of Grant's character and attitude towards Devon. I can only award it a three-star rating, though Devon's character deserved five stars alone.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 7, 2017
I'm trying to write this keeping in mind that this was a vintage romance and not contemporary but why why why are vintages so prude-ish? I mean the dialogue was so stilted and there was just lack of closeness between the H and h. I really liked the story line but the H just acted more like a father than a lover iykwim. I mean there should be glances and touches and sighs... How would you fall in love without them? I mean they did of course but love isn't as cut and dried as vintages put it. I guess I just wasn't in the mood for a vintage and I shouldn't have started it.
August 24, 2024
Heroine's father embezzled his employer in order to pay for his daughter's operation after she was gravely injured in a car accident. The employer thinks the heroine's father stole from him to provide a lavish lifestyle for his spoiled, beautiful daughter. After all, she is a blue-eyed blonde who is wearing the latest "Swedish suit" and has probably been partaking in "free love" with all and sundry. When she tries to explain that the money her father stole was for an operation, the hero asks if the operation was an abortion?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! When she says no, he then asks if it was for a boob job. LMAO. He blackmails her into becoming his mistress with the threat of prosecuting her father if she does not obey. She reluctantly agrees to “sacrifice” herself like all good girls do.
Only when hero takes her to bed does he discover the scars from her operation and starts to mellow out a bit. Since he has dishonored an innocent virgin, he chivalrously asks for her hand. The heroine, who has long since fallen in love (lol), ecstatically acquiesces. Good old embezzling dad is hired back at his post and all ends well in another unintentionally comical and cringey episode of 1980s Harlequinlandia.
Only when hero takes her to bed does he discover the scars from her operation and starts to mellow out a bit. Since he has dishonored an innocent virgin, he chivalrously asks for her hand. The heroine, who has long since fallen in love (lol), ecstatically acquiesces. Good old embezzling dad is hired back at his post and all ends well in another unintentionally comical and cringey episode of 1980s Harlequinlandia.
October 11, 2012
The fact that I haven't had a real book on my hands was what really delighted me to read this book. Unearthing this treasure certainly made me feel like I won the jackpot prize in the lottery!
Summarizing the whole book, the heroine, Devon Johnston, suffers from a hip trauma caused by a car accident when she was 15 years old. She lost her mother and since then, she isn't able to walk properly not until her father decided to let her undergo a very expensive, life-changing surgery. Little did she know her father embezzled his employer's money to fund her operation abroad. When reality hit her, her father's boss, Grant Harrington, takes matters into his own hands.
So my review.. I love the story! Published two years ahead of my birth year, I got curious about the setting and the plot and it's still connects to the present times, which made me like it all the more. Heroine being helpless and all at the same time looking for the welfare of his father, which is admirable, the hero being mercurial and at the same time caring and sweet, well, who wouldn't fall for this kind of story? So it's a four-star for me.;)
Summarizing the whole book, the heroine, Devon Johnston, suffers from a hip trauma caused by a car accident when she was 15 years old. She lost her mother and since then, she isn't able to walk properly not until her father decided to let her undergo a very expensive, life-changing surgery. Little did she know her father embezzled his employer's money to fund her operation abroad. When reality hit her, her father's boss, Grant Harrington, takes matters into his own hands.
So my review.. I love the story! Published two years ahead of my birth year, I got curious about the setting and the plot and it's still connects to the present times, which made me like it all the more. Heroine being helpless and all at the same time looking for the welfare of his father, which is admirable, the hero being mercurial and at the same time caring and sweet, well, who wouldn't fall for this kind of story? So it's a four-star for me.;)
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