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Had he returned for her...or their son?
Life wasn't easy as a single mom, but somehow Win had managed to raise a son that any mother could be proud of. Now Charlie's father was back on the scene - and demanding a share in his child. But was a share all James wanted? Could it be that her seductive ex-husband meant to take Charlie away from her?
All Win knew was that in the space of a few days James had managed to turn her calm, self-assured world upside down. But was her concern more about Charlie's future - or her own?
Life wasn't easy as a single mom, but somehow Win had managed to raise a son that any mother could be proud of. Now Charlie's father was back on the scene - and demanding a share in his child. But was a share all James wanted? Could it be that her seductive ex-husband meant to take Charlie away from her?
All Win knew was that in the space of a few days James had managed to turn her calm, self-assured world upside down. But was her concern more about Charlie's future - or her own?
160 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1993
12 people are currently reading
97 people want to read
About the author
Penny Jordan
1,125 books668 followersPenelope Jones Halsall
aka Caroline Courtney, Annie Groves, Lydia Hitchcock, Melinda Wright
Penelope "Penny" Jones was born on November 24, 1946 at about seven pounds in a nursing home in Preston, Lancashire, England. She was the first child of Anthony Winn Jones, an engineer, who died at 85, and his wife Margaret Louise Groves Jones. She has a brother, Anthony, and a sister, Prudence "Pru".
She had been a keen reader from the childhood - her mother used to leave her in the children's section of their local library whilst she changed her father's library books. She was a storyteller long before she began to write romantic fiction. At the age of eight, she was creating serialized bedtime stories, featuring make-believe adventures, for her younger sister Prue, who was always the heroine. At eleven, she fell in love with Mills & Boon, and with their heroes. In those days the books could only be obtained via private lending libraries, and she quickly became a devoted fan; she was thrilled to bits when the books went on full sale in shops and she could have them for keeps.
Penny left grammar school in Rochdale with O-Levels in English Language, English Literature and Geography. She first discovered Mills & Boon books, via a girl she worked with. She married Steve Halsall, an accountant and a "lovely man", who smoked and drank too heavily, and suffered oral cancer with bravery and dignity. Her husband bought her the small electric typewriter on which she typed her first novels, at a time when he could ill afford it. He died at the beginning of 21st century.
She earned a living as a writer since the 1970s when, as a shorthand typist, she entered a competition run by the Romantic Novelists' Association. Although she didn't win, Penny found an agent who was looking for a new Georgette Heyer. She published four regency novels as Caroline Courtney, before changing her nom de plume to Melinda Wright for three air-hostess romps and then she wrote two thrillers as Lydia Hitchcock. Soon after that, Mills and Boon accepted her first novel for them, Falcon's Prey as Penny Jordan. However, for her more historical romance novels, she adopted her mother's maiden-name to become Annie Groves. Almost 70 of her 167 Mills and Boon novels have been sold worldwide.
Penny Halsall lived in a neo-Georgian house in Nantwich, Cheshire, with her Alsatian Sheba and cat Posh. She worked from home, in her kitchen, surrounded by her pets, and welcomed interruptions from her friends and family.
aka Caroline Courtney, Annie Groves, Lydia Hitchcock, Melinda Wright
Penelope "Penny" Jones was born on November 24, 1946 at about seven pounds in a nursing home in Preston, Lancashire, England. She was the first child of Anthony Winn Jones, an engineer, who died at 85, and his wife Margaret Louise Groves Jones. She has a brother, Anthony, and a sister, Prudence "Pru".
She had been a keen reader from the childhood - her mother used to leave her in the children's section of their local library whilst she changed her father's library books. She was a storyteller long before she began to write romantic fiction. At the age of eight, she was creating serialized bedtime stories, featuring make-believe adventures, for her younger sister Prue, who was always the heroine. At eleven, she fell in love with Mills & Boon, and with their heroes. In those days the books could only be obtained via private lending libraries, and she quickly became a devoted fan; she was thrilled to bits when the books went on full sale in shops and she could have them for keeps.
Penny left grammar school in Rochdale with O-Levels in English Language, English Literature and Geography. She first discovered Mills & Boon books, via a girl she worked with. She married Steve Halsall, an accountant and a "lovely man", who smoked and drank too heavily, and suffered oral cancer with bravery and dignity. Her husband bought her the small electric typewriter on which she typed her first novels, at a time when he could ill afford it. He died at the beginning of 21st century.
She earned a living as a writer since the 1970s when, as a shorthand typist, she entered a competition run by the Romantic Novelists' Association. Although she didn't win, Penny found an agent who was looking for a new Georgette Heyer. She published four regency novels as Caroline Courtney, before changing her nom de plume to Melinda Wright for three air-hostess romps and then she wrote two thrillers as Lydia Hitchcock. Soon after that, Mills and Boon accepted her first novel for them, Falcon's Prey as Penny Jordan. However, for her more historical romance novels, she adopted her mother's maiden-name to become Annie Groves. Almost 70 of her 167 Mills and Boon novels have been sold worldwide.
Penny Halsall lived in a neo-Georgian house in Nantwich, Cheshire, with her Alsatian Sheba and cat Posh. She worked from home, in her kitchen, surrounded by her pets, and welcomed interruptions from her friends and family.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
July 9, 2018
Re Tug of Love - Penny Jordan gets the prize for having the WORST cases of parenting in all of HPlandia.
Unfortunately, this is one those PJ's were the kiddie drama is all over the place and basically every single person needed to be slapped with a skillet.
The h is in her 30's and has a 13 year old son, whom she just simply can't parent because he is a snotty little snit and she won't discipline him. The backstory on this is that the h married the H at nineteen. He was in his early twenties and mainly got married cause that was the only way they could be together.
She messed up on the birth control and got preggers. The H was gone a lot working and the h was alone most of time, sick and had no real support. Then she believed the H cheated on her with a coworker when he was too drunk to drive home.
So the h asked for a divorce and got one, however this left her all alone with a very sick baby and no one to help her. The Idiot H took off for Australia and pretty much ignored his son for the first six years of his life and then stepped back in as the 'fun' parent.
The h also caters to her son and currently is involved with a relationship with the local hotel owner. They have been dating for a while and they are considering marriage, even tho their one time lurve club event wasn't all that the h expected it to be. *
*Groundbreaking HP moment here, one of the very few times the h has a lurve club moment with another man not the H, AFTER she has already met the H.
(In another very interesting HP milestone moment, the h ruminates on how her self lurve mojo moments are actually better than the one with the OM in the room, apparently over the years she has comforted herself and fantasizes about her ex H alot.)
Then the h comes home one day to find that her belligerent son has invited his father and her ex husband to move in with them. The h is angry, but she doesn't lay out any ground rules or discipline the kid for going out of bounds and we get lots of back and forth between the H and h, with the son doing his best to manipulate the situation.
Essentially what the son is trying to do is break up the h's relationship with the hotel owner, then he decides that he doesn't want his father around either and tries to drive his father away. Most of the book is the h either fretting about the H estranging her from her son, fretting about her rediscovered passion for her ex or fretting about and pandering to the kid's very bad behavior.
Eventually the H and h have their big reunification Purple Passion moment, after the H and the son witness a very bad accident on the motorway where people got hurt and died. The h, who is also recognizing her own bad behavior that contributed to the end of her marriage, still can't help herself when she accuses the H of trying to seduce her to steal her son.
Ultimately, the H decides to cut his loses and the h finally gets her head out of her hiney. She had ended things with the hotel owner a while before and she goes to the H to ask him to stay, her son needs a dad, even if he is being bolshie about it.
The H confesses that he never cheated on the h when they were married, he felt incredibly guilty for landing the h into marriage and motherhood when she was too immature to handle either, add to that that she was sick most of the time, the baby was sick too and he wasn't too developed on the maturity front himself.
So one night he got roaring drunk and his female coworker tried to seduce him, she failed cause he was too drunk to even know where he was or do anything, but it tipped the h into asking for a divorce. The H thought that was the only thing he could do for her, so he divorced her and went to make a fortune in Australia.
Now tho, he loves the h madly and always has, even to the extent that he is willing to fight with his son over possession of the h - tho he figures he will lose that war, cause the h is all things devoted doting mother.
The h tells the H that she loves him back and that he needs to step up and be a father, cause she certainly can't fulfill that role. The two are now back together, but the son decides to cause a bit more drama. He runs away, sulks through the H and h's remarriage and through the h's second pregnancy.
Eventually it comes out that the son was really worried his mom might die, but when he holds her hand during the birth of his sister, everything comes right for him and all is okay. There is a little epilogue where the son is now the babysitting older brother, the h and H are lurved up and happy and having a third child and they both seem to be much better parents the second time around for a pretty decent PJ HEA.
This one is tedious on the kiddie drama front, and the war of attrition between two divorced feuding parents was definitely a little too close to real life. I did believe the H about his non-affair tho and I did buy that he really loved her for all those years.
The h was definitely not the sharpest tool in the shed, but she finally learned in the end. So while the HP journey was rocky, the HEA at the end was believably well done and it turned into a mostly okay HPlandia outing.
Unfortunately, this is one those PJ's were the kiddie drama is all over the place and basically every single person needed to be slapped with a skillet.
The h is in her 30's and has a 13 year old son, whom she just simply can't parent because he is a snotty little snit and she won't discipline him. The backstory on this is that the h married the H at nineteen. He was in his early twenties and mainly got married cause that was the only way they could be together.
She messed up on the birth control and got preggers. The H was gone a lot working and the h was alone most of time, sick and had no real support. Then she believed the H cheated on her with a coworker when he was too drunk to drive home.
So the h asked for a divorce and got one, however this left her all alone with a very sick baby and no one to help her. The Idiot H took off for Australia and pretty much ignored his son for the first six years of his life and then stepped back in as the 'fun' parent.
The h also caters to her son and currently is involved with a relationship with the local hotel owner. They have been dating for a while and they are considering marriage, even tho their one time lurve club event wasn't all that the h expected it to be. *
*Groundbreaking HP moment here, one of the very few times the h has a lurve club moment with another man not the H, AFTER she has already met the H.
(In another very interesting HP milestone moment, the h ruminates on how her self lurve mojo moments are actually better than the one with the OM in the room, apparently over the years she has comforted herself and fantasizes about her ex H alot.)
Then the h comes home one day to find that her belligerent son has invited his father and her ex husband to move in with them. The h is angry, but she doesn't lay out any ground rules or discipline the kid for going out of bounds and we get lots of back and forth between the H and h, with the son doing his best to manipulate the situation.
Essentially what the son is trying to do is break up the h's relationship with the hotel owner, then he decides that he doesn't want his father around either and tries to drive his father away. Most of the book is the h either fretting about the H estranging her from her son, fretting about her rediscovered passion for her ex or fretting about and pandering to the kid's very bad behavior.
Eventually the H and h have their big reunification Purple Passion moment, after the H and the son witness a very bad accident on the motorway where people got hurt and died. The h, who is also recognizing her own bad behavior that contributed to the end of her marriage, still can't help herself when she accuses the H of trying to seduce her to steal her son.
Ultimately, the H decides to cut his loses and the h finally gets her head out of her hiney. She had ended things with the hotel owner a while before and she goes to the H to ask him to stay, her son needs a dad, even if he is being bolshie about it.
The H confesses that he never cheated on the h when they were married, he felt incredibly guilty for landing the h into marriage and motherhood when she was too immature to handle either, add to that that she was sick most of the time, the baby was sick too and he wasn't too developed on the maturity front himself.
So one night he got roaring drunk and his female coworker tried to seduce him, she failed cause he was too drunk to even know where he was or do anything, but it tipped the h into asking for a divorce. The H thought that was the only thing he could do for her, so he divorced her and went to make a fortune in Australia.
Now tho, he loves the h madly and always has, even to the extent that he is willing to fight with his son over possession of the h - tho he figures he will lose that war, cause the h is all things devoted doting mother.
The h tells the H that she loves him back and that he needs to step up and be a father, cause she certainly can't fulfill that role. The two are now back together, but the son decides to cause a bit more drama. He runs away, sulks through the H and h's remarriage and through the h's second pregnancy.
Eventually it comes out that the son was really worried his mom might die, but when he holds her hand during the birth of his sister, everything comes right for him and all is okay. There is a little epilogue where the son is now the babysitting older brother, the h and H are lurved up and happy and having a third child and they both seem to be much better parents the second time around for a pretty decent PJ HEA.
This one is tedious on the kiddie drama front, and the war of attrition between two divorced feuding parents was definitely a little too close to real life. I did believe the H about his non-affair tho and I did buy that he really loved her for all those years.
The h was definitely not the sharpest tool in the shed, but she finally learned in the end. So while the HP journey was rocky, the HEA at the end was believably well done and it turned into a mostly okay HPlandia outing.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 7, 2014
Awful; just awful. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I’m a huge fan of Penny Jordan and she’s got me through many a night-shift when the hours have been hanging heavy and the clock has started going backwards. However, this one was a real disappointment.
The premise for the story is as follows: Winter (“Win”) meets and falls in love with James at the grand old age of 19. Still a child herself, they get married and she gets pregnant and (predictably) discovers that having a first baby at such a young age is no picnic. Perhaps even more predictably James skips off to Australia after having an affair with Tara, his PA, leaving Winter holding the baby. Thirteen years later and the baby (who seems to have bypassed his adorable child stage completely) has gone from whingeing infant to grumpy teenager who is trying to effect a reconciliation between his parents as he doesn’t want his mum to marry Tom, a hotel owner in the area. He even invites his Dad to move in with his Mum (without Winter knowing this – she just comes home from work one day and finds him there). Thus the scene is set for him to catch her in her nightie and take advantage of her.
As you can see from the above plot summary, there’s quite a lot wrong with this book. (1) Nobody wants to read about somebody else’s whining teenager/children. I don’t know about anyone else but I’ve got 2 of my own at home and if I want to think about whining kids I can go and look at them. I love my children but I’ve got enough on my plate without worrying about anybody else’s. The main reason women read romances is for escapism. Reading about somebody else’s stroppy kid is not my definition of this. (2) Why, WHY, doesn’t Win just chuck James out when she finds him installed in her living room? It doesn’t make any sense. (3) Tom is a terrible person – described as selfish and aggressive in the opening paragraphs - why would anyone want to marry him? (4) That said, Win is a wet flannel and James isn’t much better either. He didn’t like his own son when he was a baby after all – what more can be said? Quite frankly, at the end of it, I was left with the sense that they all deserve each other. I finished this one with relief and actually struggled to do so. V. poor.
The premise for the story is as follows: Winter (“Win”) meets and falls in love with James at the grand old age of 19. Still a child herself, they get married and she gets pregnant and (predictably) discovers that having a first baby at such a young age is no picnic. Perhaps even more predictably James skips off to Australia after having an affair with Tara, his PA, leaving Winter holding the baby. Thirteen years later and the baby (who seems to have bypassed his adorable child stage completely) has gone from whingeing infant to grumpy teenager who is trying to effect a reconciliation between his parents as he doesn’t want his mum to marry Tom, a hotel owner in the area. He even invites his Dad to move in with his Mum (without Winter knowing this – she just comes home from work one day and finds him there). Thus the scene is set for him to catch her in her nightie and take advantage of her.
As you can see from the above plot summary, there’s quite a lot wrong with this book. (1) Nobody wants to read about somebody else’s whining teenager/children. I don’t know about anyone else but I’ve got 2 of my own at home and if I want to think about whining kids I can go and look at them. I love my children but I’ve got enough on my plate without worrying about anybody else’s. The main reason women read romances is for escapism. Reading about somebody else’s stroppy kid is not my definition of this. (2) Why, WHY, doesn’t Win just chuck James out when she finds him installed in her living room? It doesn’t make any sense. (3) Tom is a terrible person – described as selfish and aggressive in the opening paragraphs - why would anyone want to marry him? (4) That said, Win is a wet flannel and James isn’t much better either. He didn’t like his own son when he was a baby after all – what more can be said? Quite frankly, at the end of it, I was left with the sense that they all deserve each other. I finished this one with relief and actually struggled to do so. V. poor.
June 12, 2017
Too much emphasis was placed on the heroine and hero's child, Charlie, and the parenting of him, than on the romance. I've read much better by Penny Jordan.
April 11, 2017
This was a DNF. A rare thing for a Penny Jordan. Minor spoiler for information revealed early in the book. I did not like that the heroine began a sexual relationship not long previous to the beginning of the book with a man who I did not like and she did not love. I could not like or respect the heroine to that point.
If that doesn't bother you go ahead and read it. It's well written but this was not my thing.
I rarely give low scores but I doubt if Penny is going to roll over in her grave for this one.
If that doesn't bother you go ahead and read it. It's well written but this was not my thing.
I rarely give low scores but I doubt if Penny is going to roll over in her grave for this one.
January 21, 2014
If this was my child, i would've had a cow for inviting my ex to live with us.
dnf
April 18, 2011An Independent Wife, Penny Jordan style. Too kid-heavy for me -- and an extremely obnoxious kid, to boot.
January 21, 2016
hero and heroine not celibate during separation.
November 23, 2018
Wow what a jerk James is at the start of the book not to make sure his ex wife know he was moving in. All his judgemental comments to ex really show charlie a great example of how to disrespect women
Also why is she with such an insensitive man like Tom, if the guy don't like your child dump him!
There was huge jump in time be in last chapter where mother was going to tell child she pregnant with next child then its 3 years later threw me at first
Plus was weird the exes next never talked about what went wrong until 2nd last chapter
Also why is she with such an insensitive man like Tom, if the guy don't like your child dump him!
There was huge jump in time be in last chapter where mother was going to tell child she pregnant with next child then its 3 years later threw me at first
Plus was weird the exes next never talked about what went wrong until 2nd last chapter
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 15, 2019
Penny Jordan is one of my ‘go to’ authors. This is a second chance romance. With 13 years gone past, yet their love for one another remained. It was enlightening to learn what makes male jealousy work.
September 28, 2017
Awful tripe
March 22, 2022
I like 2nd chance, but this one left it too long. And the dad should have made an effort earlier to see his son.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 26, 2023
Little lack luster but a quick read. Single mom and second chance romance. Winter’s ex husband comes back into the spot light and they become a family again. Three stars!
December 30, 2025
شلون نتقبل الفقد؟
الرواية تعيشك داخل هذا السؤال
بعد ان تركها زوجها
يصير غيابه جزء من وجودها
نتفهم ان فقدان شخص مو النهاية
هي بداية لعلاقة جديدة مع نفسنا
ومعرفة قيمتنا الحقيقية
...
سبب اعطائي ثلاث نجوم انها جدا مملة وايضا احداثها غريبة وغير موفقة
الرواية تعيشك داخل هذا السؤال
بعد ان تركها زوجها
يصير غيابه جزء من وجودها
نتفهم ان فقدان شخص مو النهاية
هي بداية لعلاقة جديدة مع نفسنا
ومعرفة قيمتنا الحقيقية
...
سبب اعطائي ثلاث نجوم انها جدا مملة وايضا احداثها غريبة وغير موفقة
June 27, 2015
قرأت الكتاب وانا صغيرة ,, ولم استطع أن أغير مقعدي قبل أن أنهيه .. مليئ بالأحاسيس والمشاعر .. أعجبني حقا ..
November 1, 2016
So bad. Horrid kid, wimpy mum, controlling uncommunicative ex. Disastrous story.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews