What do you think?
Rate this book
Some Distant Shore
SHE KNEW THE LOVE OF CAPTAINS AND COUNTS BUT HER HEART BELONGED TO A GOLD COAST ROGUE!
Mass Market Paperback
First published April 1, 1981
12 people want to read
About the author
Margaret Pemberton
62 books36 followersMargaret A. Hudson was born on 10 April 1943 in Bradford, Yorkshire, England, UK, of German extraction. She was daughter of Kathleen (Ramsden), an artist, and George Arthur Hudson, an architect. Married with Londoner Mike Pemberton, they have five grown children, today she lives with her husband and four small dogs in Whitstable, Kent. Apart from writing, her passions are tango, travel, English history and the English countryside.
Published since 1975, she is a bestselling romance writer as Margaret Pemberton, and under the pseudonyms Carris Carlisle; Maggie Hudson and Rebecca Dean. Having travelled extensively, her novels are set in different parts of the world. She was the fifteenth elected Chairman of the Romantic Novelists' Association (1989-1991), she has also served on the Crime Writers' Association Committee.
Published since 1975, she is a bestselling romance writer as Margaret Pemberton, and under the pseudonyms Carris Carlisle; Maggie Hudson and Rebecca Dean. Having travelled extensively, her novels are set in different parts of the world. She was the fifteenth elected Chairman of the Romantic Novelists' Association (1989-1991), she has also served on the Crime Writers' Association Committee.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 27, 2015
This was okay. Not terrible, but not great -- the epitome of a mediocre romance novel.
Our heroine Christina is an extreme Mary Sue -- pampered in early life, then unexpectedly thrown into the muck of the world & forced to survive. She was raised in stubborn-hearted glory by an indulgent sea-faring father, but his death forces her to retreat to an extremely distant blood relation. Her disgusting uncle & cousin both rape her, so she decides to become a hooker & make money from her hoo-ha instead of suffering their abuse. Fortunately she's approached by the madam of the highest-class, ultra-progressive cathouse in Liverpool -- a place where all the men are required to wash before intercourse & all the girls have 'specialties' so nobody is forced to anything they aren't comfortable with. Life is okay...until Christina falls for the favorite client of the brothel's Queen Bitch. Angry!hero Devlin is a typical douchebag alpha who suddenly realizes he's in love with Christina -- she gives him Feelz and a raging boner, y'know? But Queen Bitch makes up a bullshit story about everything, feeding them both exaggerated half-truths...and presto, the Big Misunderstanding is born.
*insert barfing-face sticker here*
Through a ridiculous rippery setup, Christina lands a cushy gig on an ocean liner (because she's just SO SMART & BEAUTIFUL & EDUCATED that she goes from sea-brat to hooker to impersonating a rich woman who simply must be some kind of royalty from Portugal) & becomes mistress to an American shipping magnate before marrying an English duke (or was he a baron?). She & her husband end up on the Titanic...dun-dun-dun...after which there's a mistaken survivor ID & Christina ends up swimming in more money than God himself. Devlin thinks she's dead, natch -- and he feels just awful about raping her & calling her a whore & assuming she slept with every man she's ever known. Everything culminates in a dumbfuck confrontation wherein Christina & Devlin fall into each others arms, narrowly avoiding a bed of singing bluebirds & bunny rabbits as they tumble into a HEA -- complete with unicorns pooping rainbows & the abandonment of said misbegotten fortune, because who needs a mansion & oodles of cash?
As a whole, the plot was neither OTT enough to be fabulous nor bland enough for squeamish readers...but Christina & Devlin were laughable in most ways, whether it was his slap-worthy bitchitude or her facepalming Mary Sue disease. And boy-howdy, the facepalming was strong in this one. In addition to her remarkable survival & sexual prowess, Christina was educated like a princess, spoke Spanish fluently, & flounced sexy dances better than her gypsy mother. She also knew all kinds of Really Important Stuff about herbal remedies, midwifery, transatlantic shipping, & luxury interior decorating -- seriously, she manages to outfit the entire layout of a Titanic-sized knockoff that's the envy of White Star. I lol'd.
...That said, I did enjoy the unusual era of this particular bodice ripper. The writing itself wasn't horrible (aside from whiplash switches between POV & extraneous adverb flogging) & the secondary characters upstaged the primary couple. The section in the brothel was particularly interesting; I'd have preferred to hang around with that bunch of gals rather than follow Christina's globe-trotting Sue'ery.
3 stars -- a vintage 'weekend romance' suitable for quickie challenge fodder or a boring Saturday.
Squick List:
-rape by grotty uncle & cousin
-rape by hero
-primary couple unfaithful to each other
-brothel stuff
(Not hardcore ripper material by my count, but those things might bother some readers.)
Our heroine Christina is an extreme Mary Sue -- pampered in early life, then unexpectedly thrown into the muck of the world & forced to survive. She was raised in stubborn-hearted glory by an indulgent sea-faring father, but his death forces her to retreat to an extremely distant blood relation. Her disgusting uncle & cousin both rape her, so she decides to become a hooker & make money from her hoo-ha instead of suffering their abuse. Fortunately she's approached by the madam of the highest-class, ultra-progressive cathouse in Liverpool -- a place where all the men are required to wash before intercourse & all the girls have 'specialties' so nobody is forced to anything they aren't comfortable with. Life is okay...until Christina falls for the favorite client of the brothel's Queen Bitch. Angry!hero Devlin is a typical douchebag alpha who suddenly realizes he's in love with Christina -- she gives him Feelz and a raging boner, y'know? But Queen Bitch makes up a bullshit story about everything, feeding them both exaggerated half-truths...and presto, the Big Misunderstanding is born.
*insert barfing-face sticker here*
Through a ridiculous rippery setup, Christina lands a cushy gig on an ocean liner (because she's just SO SMART & BEAUTIFUL & EDUCATED that she goes from sea-brat to hooker to impersonating a rich woman who simply must be some kind of royalty from Portugal) & becomes mistress to an American shipping magnate before marrying an English duke (or was he a baron?). She & her husband end up on the Titanic...dun-dun-dun...after which there's a mistaken survivor ID & Christina ends up swimming in more money than God himself. Devlin thinks she's dead, natch -- and he feels just awful about raping her & calling her a whore & assuming she slept with every man she's ever known. Everything culminates in a dumbfuck confrontation wherein Christina & Devlin fall into each others arms, narrowly avoiding a bed of singing bluebirds & bunny rabbits as they tumble into a HEA -- complete with unicorns pooping rainbows & the abandonment of said misbegotten fortune, because who needs a mansion & oodles of cash?
As a whole, the plot was neither OTT enough to be fabulous nor bland enough for squeamish readers...but Christina & Devlin were laughable in most ways, whether it was his slap-worthy bitchitude or her facepalming Mary Sue disease. And boy-howdy, the facepalming was strong in this one. In addition to her remarkable survival & sexual prowess, Christina was educated like a princess, spoke Spanish fluently, & flounced sexy dances better than her gypsy mother. She also knew all kinds of Really Important Stuff about herbal remedies, midwifery, transatlantic shipping, & luxury interior decorating -- seriously, she manages to outfit the entire layout of a Titanic-sized knockoff that's the envy of White Star. I lol'd.
...That said, I did enjoy the unusual era of this particular bodice ripper. The writing itself wasn't horrible (aside from whiplash switches between POV & extraneous adverb flogging) & the secondary characters upstaged the primary couple. The section in the brothel was particularly interesting; I'd have preferred to hang around with that bunch of gals rather than follow Christina's globe-trotting Sue'ery.
3 stars -- a vintage 'weekend romance' suitable for quickie challenge fodder or a boring Saturday.
Squick List:
-rape by grotty uncle & cousin
-rape by hero
-primary couple unfaithful to each other
-brothel stuff
(Not hardcore ripper material by my count, but those things might bother some readers.)
August 25, 2024
I hated this one! Typical of late 70's/early 80's "bodice rippers", the h gets raped more than once, sleeps with more men than she can count (part of her profession) and she and the H spend more time in bed with others than with each other.
Not worth it!
Not worth it!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews