Green Lightning

by Anne Mather

"It will never work," her friend warned

Helen winced at the frank assessment of her chances for romantic happiness. For she had loved Heath since childhood, and as she'd grown into a woman, her emotions had deepened and changed in ways she was only starting to understand.

Suddenly Helen wanted more than the warm affection Heath had always given her--she wanted the heat of his passion.

But Heath thought of her as a child--and when he finally saw her for the woman she was, he sent her away...

Genres: Harlequin, Romance, Contemporary Romance, Harlequin Presents, Hqn, Contemporary

188 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published July 8, 1983

About the author

Anne Mather is the pseudonym used by Mildred Grieveson, a popular British author of over 160 romance novels. She also signed novels as Caroline Fleming and Cardine Fleming.
Mildred Grieveson began to write down stories in her childhood years. The first novel that she actually finished, Caroline (1965), was also her first book to be published. Her novel, Leopard in the Snow (1974), was developed into a 1978 film.

Reviews

[TJ ☾ · Rating 1 out of 5]

where to start, where to start.... so heath (H) is helen's (h) guardian. her father and stepmother died in a car accident when she was three and he was her stepmothers brother. he took her in and raised her as his own ever since. touching story, right?

but then you remember that this is a romance book 🤡 welcome back to creeplandia my bbs, strap in and enjoy your stay. i know i did <3



the chokehold this book had me in. i know i'm dramatic and every bad book i read i declare it's the worst book i've ever read in my life but i swear when i'm in it..... it feels absolutely life ruining. i narrowly survived this book y'all. i was in the trenches, fighting for my goddamn life



my dislike (hatred) has nothing to do w the tabooness of the story, lets just get that out of the way. i consciously picked up a story about grooming bc im a troubled, trouble girl but i must've been getting too comfortable bc the way the lord humbled SMITED me w this one 😅

to summarize, the book takes place when helen is 17 and heath is 35, and let me tell you no one on planet earth has ever wanted a dick the way this girlie wants her guardians. sigmund freud is QUAKING at the thought of this fictional girl. the delusion, the obsession, the attachment issues.....



the story progresses and she keeps kissing him against his will and finally he's had enough so he bends her over and beats her ass black and blue with a hairbrush. and let's be honest: #goteam #*whispers*get her again

“You little bitch!' he swore violently. 'You self-willed little hellion! You deserve a damn good hiding, and one of these days I'm going to give it to you!”

me, instructing him how to maximize his swings:



the OW drama only added to the whatthefuckness. helen has been acting out to get daddy heath's attention so daddy hires her an... idk what to call her, a nanny? a disciplinarion? he basically brings a hot ass woman to live in their house to 'teach helen how to act like a lady' but the nanny is only there bc she's *also* thirsty for daddys dick so her and this 17 year old are basically competing for him. the OW was so petty; daddy essentially hired a woman to give his ward body dysmorphia and an eating disorder. great parenting, but what do i know, im just a girl reading a grooming book



ultimately, there wasn't one tolerable character: helen was too desperate/immature and i have severe doubts about all her synapses firing properly. the OW was too stereotypically catty. daddy was too absent and had no personality (unless you count being a buzzkill as a personality trait)

“For heaven's sake, Helen, he was probably hoping to get you high. Compared to the amount of alcohol you're used to drinking, marijuana could be lethal!”

heath:


this book was so freaking unenjoyable but just short enough that i couldn't justify the dnf: a curse

[StMargarets · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh, Anne Mather – have you ever met a taboo relationship you didn’t want to explore? Honestly when the heroine got on the motorcycle with the local rocker chick to escape a “drug” party – I thought there was going to a quick detour in the heroine’s awakening with maybe some Melissa Etheridge playing – but alas, no. This was the early ’80s so AM is stuck with the guardian/ward dynamic. The guardian being the h’s step-uncle and protector since she was 3. He’s 34 or 35 and she is 17.

Oh, and his last name is Heathcliff and everyone calls him Heath. The editors at Harlequin helpfully summarize the plot of Wuthering Heights at the end – just in case you didn’t get the connection with that tale of obsessive love.

Luckily there are no ghosts at their palatial manor estate – but there are beatings – the heroine gets a bare-bottom spanking with a hairbrush from the hero that leaves bruises. In some stories that would be foreplay – but in this one it’s a signal that the hero is not feeling in control and is desperately trying to put the very sexxxy heroine back in the childhood box.

Our hero has been avoiding spending time alone with the tomboyish heroine since she was about 15. No more horseback rides. No more vacations together. Very few meal times together. He’s also hired an OW-type to teach the heroine how to be a lady. The OW type wants her to cut her hair and diet away her curves and wear sophisticated clothes, but a friend of the family – who has a daughter of 15 – helps the heroine with clothes that suit her.

The hero goes away on business and the heroine is picked up by the local Lothario. They have a few dates, but the heroine is only going through the motions of growing up so the hero won’t send her away to finishing school.

The hero is wildly jealous of that guy and the hired hand who keeps trying the kiss the heroine. For her part, the heroine keeps pushing the hero to show how he feels – kissing him on the mouth, sleeping in the nude, swimming in the nude, seeking him out in the middle of the night wearing nothing but a thin robe. Poor guy – he held out as long as he could.

Eventually, the heroine seduced him/was seduced – but the next morning the hero sends her away to live with his mother in a flat in town. The heroine is miserable and decides to get a job rather than go away to finishing school. But before she could put these sensible plans in place, the hero is there to propose marriage when she turns 18 at Christmas (and take her to bed in his mother’s apartment).

Green lightning indeed. AM did a great job of creating a self-contained world where this obsessive love seemed normal – and getting married would be the best way to keep the lightning damage to a minimum. She goes out of her way to emphasize the taboo nature of this relationship. The heroine refers to the hero as her “uncle” throughout the book. Like Wuthering Heights, you don’t have warm fuzzies after you read it – but you do see the need for these two to pair off before they go mad, spontaneously combust, or marry someone else and live a life of misery only to find the sweet relief of death and their souls uniting. . .

[Leona · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well now that was a bit different. 17 year old ward in love with 35 year old guardian, who pulls down her pants and beats her with a hairbrush till she is black and blue. Instead of reporting him to the police, or at least whacking him over the head with something that would knock some sense into him, she keeps pleading with him not to send her away...because she loooooves him.

He eventually does send her away, but only after he seduces her and guiltily packs her off to his mama because he needs to put distance between them. Now would't you think he would have felt some moral responsibility to do this PRIOR to sleeping with her given this is still technically statutory rape?

But I must admit, It did have me turning those pages...almost like rubbernecking at the scene of a bad accident.

[*CJ* · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Green Lightning" is the story of Helen and Heath.

An ode to Wuthering Heights as evidenced by the end author's note, our hero Heath aka Heathcliffe is the 35 year old guardian to the willful 17 year old Helen.
Technically her "uncle" but with no blood relations, Helen has now become a thorn in his life, and thus he employs (catty) Angela as her companion.

Helen has always loved Heath, never considering him her uncle, irrespective of what society thinks of them and has always had hope that one day he might confess his feelings to her. That is, until he employs a "nanny" to govern and change her, and soon Helen realizes that she might have to fight for what she loves..

A TABOO romance with many, many fascinating elements
-May/ December trope
-Ward/ Guardian forbidden romance
-Brush spankings
-Walking in on nude sleeping heroines
-Seducing a drunk hero
-Loving the other even when they were underage
-Trying to be with other people but failing, to which the SO shows rabid jealousy

This had well written secondary characters, angst, descriptive sex, a childish heroine, a brooding hero, a scandalized housekeeper, conniving OW, understanding friends, and shitty OM. I loved the ending and how we were not shown other people's reaction to their marriage- like F everyone- we adore each other and that's what matters.

Overall, this might not be everyone's cup of tea but I LOVED IT.

SWE/Unsafe
4.5/5

[Noël Cades · Rating 5 out of 5]

Green Lighting by Anne Mather is OUTRAGEOUS. There is simply no other way to describe it.

* she's 17, he's 35
* he's been her guardian since she was a small child
* they're not blood related, but he is described as her "uncle" for 99% of the book
* at one point he spanks her bare behind with a hairbrush (to punish her for kissing him)
* he looks in on her while she's sleeping, even though she sleeps naked
* eventually he pretty much grabs her in a drunken, jealous rage, and forces himself upon her (fortunately she's more than willing)
* he admits he's been lusting after her for at least three years (ie since she was 14)

"Dear heaven, I've got to have you. You're tearing me apart!"
Helen's answer was to reach up for his mouth, her bare arms around his neck driving him on to that ultimate surrender. With a groan of anguish, he dealt ruthlessly with his own clothes, kicking his boots and socks aside as he lifted her into his arms.

He laid her on the long sofa below the windows, where she had sat the evening after he had delivered the spanking, listening to his and Angela's conversation. Now there was no conversation, only an irresistible need, and the overpowering need to assuage it.

"I'm going to hurt you," he muttered, cupping her face in his hands and parting her lips with his thumb. "Forgive me," he added, covering her mouth with his, and the involuntary cry she uttered was stifled by his passionate caress.

It was published in 1983, but seems a lot more vintage that than. Particularly with the scene at the party, with shock! horror! "grass" and "marijuana". (The heroine is so naive that she initially thinks they've put green lawn clippings grass in the sandwiches, not grass-grass).

It's an absolutely riotous read. No wonder Harper Collins re-released it for Kindle and paperback. It's on Amazon, even though it technically breaches their content guidelines.

[Lede · Rating 1 out of 5]

The "uncle" admits, at the end of the book, that the age difference would be a problem when he realised how he felt about her 3 years ago, when she was 13/14.
His mother thought their relationship was dodgy.
She sleeps naked and always has, he walks into her room without knocking...all the time.

Why he didn't tell her to call him daddy while he was spanking her, I don't know ;).

I thought I was reading a Kelsey Charisma or Silver Jordan book at one point:).

At least all the toddler paraphernalia will still be relatively new for their kids!

[Debby · Rating 2 out of 5]

The H is not her uncle by blood, but the brother of her stepmother. She is 18, he is 35. The H has taken care of the h since she was 3 years old when she lost her parents through an accident.

I have mixed feelings about this. He gives her a spanking on her naked butt. A spanking I find uhmm..okay, but do not at first take her pants down. She gets spanked because she kissed him. It is not as though she has murdered someone. So that scene was a bit over the top.

[SassyLeg · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars
A typical old-school romance: guardian/ward romance with all the elements - forbidden desire, guilt, jealousy, obsession, push and pull and hurting words.
Misunderstandings and obsessive thoughts create an angsty atmosphere: he is cruel like some of the best D. Palmer heroes; she is young/insecure/passionate - the mix is explosive.
This is not a read for feminists but I personally enjoyed it a lot - it is fiction!

[Shivani Singh · Rating 2 out of 5]

I stand by my earlier review.

Helen was three years old when her father and step mother died in an accident. So far so good.

The step mother’s twenty year old brother who was fatherless and running his family mills and other businesses arrived, picked up little Helen in his arms and against all public opinion and suggestions took her home with him.

Over the next fourteen years she grew up in his house. She was in boarding school for the year but at home for the holidays.

Uncle Heath was quite dishy as all the boarding school friends agreed.

So far so good.

The heroine turned 14 eleven years later and hero 33 and he began lusting for her. What??

Perhaps it’s a Freudian thing.

By this time his mother had moved out of his country house and gone to live in town.

When the book begins. Helen is back home. She’s gone to pick up a companion her guardian Rupert Heathcliff aka Heath has hired

We find by slow degrees that the heroine is a spoilt brat. Not much idea about anything except her immense obsession for her guardian.

She drives his Mercedes. He has given her a motor bike. She wanders around throwing tantrums and also throwing her clothes all over the room for the indulgent house keeper to pick up and launder.

Heath has recently found her skinny dipping. He catches her kissing the driver/mechanic at the estate.
She always sleeps naked or walks around naked with a wrap or dressing gown on.

Their relationship seems more a father daughter one. Which was disgusting then. Not?

We were given no glimpses to her growing up years. But he essentially brought her up from the age of three. He saw her grow new teeth, bought her clothes and shoes, took her to get icecream and signed her report cards.

Now he wants to get into her pants.

It’s not a novel. It’s pornography.

How can they even contemplate such a thing?? The neighbours and friends would not find it horribly disgusting??

But the heroine very eagerly keeps grabbing hero and kissing him and he’s ok with it. He kisses her back and then blames her and calls her names.

Did he have no restraint?? When you have a girl in the house you brought up and who has developed a crush on you, you’re extra careful. Or do you keep falling prey to her hormonal overtures????

He’s thirty five. She’s seventeen. How can he succumb to her like that?

How could he even see her like that. If he saw her like that. How could he go ahead and indulge this sentiment?

Another very objectionable thing was how he kept threatening to break her neck. He pulled off her pyjamas and spanked her with the back of a brush.

That was beyond horrible. Corporeal punishment. No feeling of remorse or guilt. He kissed her back. Called her a slut and then beat her up.

He got so badly drunk that he had sex with her towards end.

I felt no sympathy for the hero.

After that whole haze of lust is over and they’re married what would they talk about?

He’s done everything. She is only seventeen for God’s sake. She’s seen nothing. Is it fair to close her up in a marriage.

God knows.

Maybe we needed an epilogue fifteen years later. When he’s 50 and she’s 32.

Anyway. It was interesting to read. In spite of…

My discomfort level was high throughout and yes I cringed through it and felt surprised that there was no feeling of shame in either of them. At the inappropriateness of it.

Perhaps they were both psychopaths.

We never saw any character development of the hero. He seemed like your average man.

But he must not have been. He did rescue a child and gave her a good life.

Sadly it all went very awry.

Sorry for my judgement.

Remember Georgette Heyer’s These Old Shades?? Heroine is 19. Hero is 40.

God knows why it was beautiful while this is shameful.

Oh yes. She grew up in his care. It was his duty to protect her sexually.

But he behaved like a predator.

Only redeeming factor. The spoilt little Madame heroine forced him.

As other reviewers have said he tried very hard till he laid down arms. Perhaps AM should have shown that angle more. Better.

That’s my review.

*******************
The heroine was quite offensive to me. She was a teenage nymphette basically. Trying out stuff. Hormonal.
It smacked of breaking forbidden bonds.. if she had been a bit more mature and less like a school girl that might have made sense.
One felt that the hero should have known better than to lust after his teenage ward.. specially if he had raised her himself.
Pretty weird.
Maybe I’m being judgemental. The story wasn’t handled right at many places. That’s all.
My view.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book, albeit completely un-politically-correct, given the May/December romance.

Helen is a willful, spoiled orphan, living with her 'Uncle Heath' (actually no relation, which Mather goes to great pains to point out during the course of the novel). Heath employs 'Angela Patterson' to look after Helen and teach her how to wear clothes well, do her hair, act in society, be 'proper', etc. Of course, it turns out, Angela has her sights set on Heath, who is a good twenty-five years older than Helen.

As the book progresses, it becomes clear that Helen is hopelessly in love with Heath, and Heath is obviously attracted to her -- as much as it pains him.

I liked the writing, the sexual tension between Helen and Heath, and the interesting relationships between all the main characters. Of course the book isn't quite 'up to date' given how long ago it was written, and the fact that Helen is a mere 17 to Heath's 34 is troubling, but the book's time makes it acceptable. Great read and I re-read it often!

[RomLibrary · Rating 3 out of 5]

It will never work," her friend warned. Helen winced at the frank assessment of her chances for romantic happiness. For she had loved Heath since childhood, and as she'd grown into a woman, her emotions had deepened and changed in ways she was only starting to understand. Suddenly Helen wanted more than the warm affection Heath had always given her--she wanted the heat of his passion. But Heath thought of her as a child--and when he finally saw her for the woman she was, he sent her away.

[Tia · Rating 5 out of 5]

The hero was the heroines guardian and he was becoming more and more sexually attracted to his ward. What he didn't know was his ward was in love with him and she'd do anything to be with him but when he decides to send her away after he compromises her, she won't take it anymore.

Great read, love the angst. The hero was a big old mean bear half the time.

[Blaze King · Rating 3 out of 5]

I give it a 2.5 stars.
The age diff of 18 yrs didn't bother me, but the heroine's age of just 17 yrs old DID!! I mean it would have been more acceptable to me if she were a little more mature. Even her thinking was yet a teenager's. She was too naive for the hero's 35 yrs. And when he had raised her since she was 3 yrs old how can he start to have that kinda feelings for her? ewww...
But, the writing was i guess, Okay.

[أجمل زهرة · Rating 4 out of 5]

91- عطر النار ------ آن ميثر --------- Green Lightning
روايات احلام

منذ طفولتها كان حلمها الوحيد كانت تتخيل أن ماتيوس ثورب ينتظرها حتى تكبر ليقول لها إنه مجنون بحبها .وكبرت ليّا وأصبحت صبية فاتنة وكبر معها حبها حتى لم يبق في القلب متسع، ثم أتى ماتيوس ليخنق الحلم في مهده فلم تكن ليا بالنسبة له إلا طفلة وضعها تحت رعايته وقد حان الوقت ليزيح حملها عن كاهله ظنت ليّا أنها نهاية عالمها الوردي، ولكن الأسوأ كان قادماً مع وصول الفاتنة كاتي لورد ...

[April Brookshire · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wow. Even though these old harlequins tend to be pretty un-pc, this hero is still high up there on the pervert scale. The heroine is 17 and the hero is 18 years older than her. Some of these old harlequins, it doesn't seem like that big of a deal because the heroine seems mature for her age, but the heroine in this book was sorta immature and childlike in her thoughts.

[Ana · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really good, though very non-pc book. Helen is 17 the ward of her 'uncle' (non-blood), 35 year old Heath. There was lot of tension and angst in this book. Written in the late 70s so you get what you'd expect from that period in terms of may/december theme etc etc.

[Tulia Lash · Rating 5 out of 5]

it was a good read 4 1/2*, I just thought that the h will eventually go away to school and comeback in a couple of years more matured and then the H and h will settle things and then a HEA…. but it wasn’t
like that at all, but is was good never the less!!

[Booked · Rating 5 out of 5]

She is his young ward. It starts when she is still young and realizes that she loves him. He is inlove with her. The jealousy scenes are something to lookout for.

[sbf20112011 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Totally old-school, but still a decent read if you're ok with guardian/ward romances.

[Jo]

No Puedo Vivir Sin Ti (Spanish Version)

[Su · Rating 2 out of 5]

How a mature man of 35 can love an immature (even for her ripe age of 17) teenage girl is beyond my comprehension. Author could at least try to make the h a mature-for-her-age individual, but no...

[currently being delulu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Look honestly this really hit well with me


And of a lot of HQ the heroine was surprisingly pretty interesting

For the most part ..

[Raffaella · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another step uncle age gap romance. Here the heroine is really young, she’s barely17 and her step uncle is 35. She has a crush on him and he is actually seeing her as more than the lil girl with piggy tails and braces, since she grew a pair of boobs that all the men around her can’t fail to see.
So he hires a governess slash nanny who is also a prefect bitch of a ow, skinny, awful and nasty to the poor heroine.
She tries to sabotage the heroine in every way, buying her ugly dresses, trying to persuade her to cut her hair, telling her not to eat since she’s fat. She’s not fat, she is a great pin up figure.
Seems that every man in the book, married or not, lusts after the heroine so the hero has a great time trying to save her from her teenage brain who is really messed up, and trying to resist her great womanly body, since she throws herself at him every time she can.
Eventually he gives up and they have sex, and since she’s still a minor, he tries to salvage the appearances sending her to is emotionless mother. The heroine pines for him and decides to leave, and for the first time in the book she shows a remarkable amount of maturity, finding a nice job and a place that, fashionable it may not be, but it’s cheap. The hero catches her with her luggage in her hands, and he tells her he’s lusted for her for three years (yuck, really?) and now he wanted to wait until she was 18 and then proposes.
They marry at Christmas and all is well.
Hero here is quite contrary but we can forgive him since he feels things for his younger niece he should not… and the heroine is quite the brainless teenager who acts without thinking. She has two om who try to do her, and another married man, the same age as the hero, who is in awe of her great boobs. Ow is ecological. Impact zero on everyone, included the hero who has only eyes for heroine.

[Joanna · Rating 2 out of 5]

No sé que opinar acerca de este libro🤨.

Helen fue un personaje que a pesar de ser muy “intensa” me gustó. Heath, en cambio, no fue mucho de mi agrado, siento que fue alguien muy brusco con Helen y la trataba muy pésimo.

Me gustó mucho cuando Helen le dice a Heath “Te lo he dicho... te amo. No pude evitar que me hicieras el amor... como tampoco puedo cambiar los días de esta semana.”

La relación entre ellos yo no la vi del todo mal ya que se notaba que Helen de verdad quería a Heath a pesar de las edades, a mí no me pareció incorrecto y me alegro que al final ambos se dieran cuenta de que lo mejor era vivir una vida juntos para siempre como marido y mujer.

[Jade · Rating 1 out of 5]

It has been a few days and I don't feel like picking this book back up. I didn't like the heroine and kept waiting for the hero to decide she needs to go to school. Any school. She needed discipline and purpose in life so badly.

[Jasbell76 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Review to come...

[Last Chance Saloon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bizarrely gripping.
The heroine was a little too stupid, and the hero unstable, but the angst is compelling!

[Ann Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is so much that is wrong with this story!!

[Susan in Perthshire · Rating 1 out of 5]

Yuck..... just yuck!!

[Louise Mullins · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Politically Incorrect romance that kept me turning the pages.