Strangers No More

Runaway Brides #6

by Naomi Horton, L.T. Horton

Genres: Harlequin, Silhouette, Romance, Espionage

Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

Reviews

[Danielle The Book Huntress · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my favorite old school Silhouette Intimate Moments. Megan meets and marries an attractive and dashing man on a romantic cruise, and they marry on the spur of the moment. They spent a few nights in connubial bliss, and when Megan waits for him to meet her on the dock at their return destination, he never shows up.

Megan is devastated, her ability to trust anyone lost forever. She withdraws back into her shell, and lives a half-life. Years later, the man she marries shows up again, but he looks completely different. His name is Taggart Welles, he's a spy, and he's being hunted. And the people after him will not hesitate to kill her as well, since she's his ex-wife. They go on the run to escape Taggart's foes.

This is romantic suspense done well, as the older SIMs were. You feel Megan's pain as she deals with the fact that she fell in love with a lie. She already had trust issues due to her mentally ill/alcoholic, and verbally abusive mother. Taking the cruise was a way for her to start a new life and to live it fully, only to realize that giving one's heart and being betrayed is a special kind of pain. Yet Taggart's feelings were real, but he couldn't stay with her, and thought she was better off without him. Taggart is a good guy, even though he left Megan in the lurch. You can't quite hate him because his motivations were sound, and he regrets the way he hurt Megan. This couple reconnect, but Megan doesn't expect anything lasting from seeing her ex-husband again. Not when she's not willing to give her heart away again.

I love the couple on the run theme, and this book is a stellar book in this genre. I'm really glad I got to read this one, and I was able to find a copy for my keeper shelf.

[MelissaB · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very nicely written Silhouette Intimate Moment book! Good characters and story.

[Saly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really think Naomi Horton is a very under-rated author. I have truly enjoyed most of what I have read by her. Strangers No More is another nice read which starts with the kidnapping of our heroine. When she comes to she thinks she has fallen down a rabbit-hole because she is asked about a man she doesn't know Tag, then they make it clear it is the man she knows and married in a whirlwind romance almost a year back. The heroine met the hero on a cruise which she took after the death of her mother, a mother who made the heroine live under the shadow of her prettier but dead sister. Within three weeks they were married and then he disappeared the next day. The heroine has spent the past year feeling like a fool and hating him, but these scary people tell her husband is a government agent and has been seen hanging around her house several times the past year. She doesn't think the hero is gonna come rescue her but he does. Now, I absolutely loved the heroine, she was spunky and courageous and fast on her feet. She saves the hero's life and engineers their escape. We actually see the love the hero has for the heroine; something that didn't allow him to stop seeing her even when she didn't know he was around. The hero used to be a businessman when 18 months ago a former friend from Vietnam called and got him embroiled in a major heroin operation that goes up top. The hero was framed and has been on the run ever since. He didn't plan on meeting the heroine or falling for her when his life was in limbo and left her for her safety. While these two are on the run they actually talk and the heroine starts seeing him as Tag and not Michael. I actually loved the fact that the heroine knew how to take care of herself and that she had the hero tied in knots about her. These two really complimented each other.