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A Relative Betrayal
When Rachel's marriage had broken up there had been no possibility ofreconciliation. Not only had her husband, Matthew Conroy, looked elsewherefor love, but the woman he had chosen was Rachel's own cousin, Barbara. Ten years had passed since then and Barbara was now dead. As a reluctant guest in her old home, Rachel felt the stirrings of her past love for Matthew. But wasn't it too late for them to pick up the pieces of the relationship they once shared? And did either of them want to try?
189 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1990
2 people are currently reading
208 people want to read
About the author
Anne Mather
798 books358 followersAnne 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews
September 2, 2021
HEA depends on forgiving a lot of people (including the cheater hero). He's not worth it, heroine. Angst is fun, though.
Boogenhagen has all the details in her review.
Boogenhagen has all the details in her review.
May 16, 2017
Re A Relative Betrayal - Anne Mather outdoes herself in an EPIC trainwreck dumped in an avalanche wrapped in typhoon whacktasticness with this one.
This one is either a no star or a five star and it all depends on where you fall in the spectrum of HPlandia utter outrageousness and then how willing you are to tolerate a completely and utterly martyred h with NO JUSTICE anywhere.
I really don't like this one, but I only remember that after I have breathlessly finished the last page and am still going WHO DOES THAT? More importantly, WHO WOULD TOLERATE THAT? Of course I have had several consultations with the Captain by this point, so that could explain the delayed response. Whatever, this is definitely a love it or hate addition to the annals of HPlandia.
This one starts with late twentish h going home for her cousin's funeral. Which would be kinda boring BUT, the cousin's husband was the h's husband first. They married young and the h was trying to combine marriage with a TV producer career and the H, the local lord of the manor, wanted her to jettison the job for the heir and the spare production. The h's cousin, the daughter of the h's vicar uncle, was found in bed with the H in their home and the h dumped his cheatin' hiney for pursuit of career satisfaction, since love proved to be so disappointing and hurtful - this is after the requisite miscarriage of course.
The H doesn't care, he is an alcoholic and literally states that he can pike anything he wants to, irregardless of what the h thinks about it. Yep, this H is a blatant cheater, like so many of AM's H's are wont to be, and the h still has a bit of a spine in her youth before age and lack of calcium supplements dissolve it, so she moves to London and a career - after her vicar's wife aunt explains that her daughter is preggers by the H and the H marries his little afternoon delight.
Ten years on, munchkins are singing "ding dong the witch is dead' (the H's second marriage was not a good one, but he was just too hungover to do anything about it,) and the h's uncle, in whatever passes for a brain cell in his noggin, invites the h to return for the funeral. AM makes the h attend, cause AM just cannot resist nailing her h's to the pillars of fiery torment. No one is really happy to see her.
Not the H, who is still inconveniently getting a tent rise from the woman who willfully refused to bear his children in favor of her career and then sneakily kept taking ingestions of birth control to boot, after he had tossed all the h's pills. Not the vicarage harpy wife aunt, who has been doing a whole lot of manipulative plot stirring behind the scenes for all these years and for some reason is deluding herself that everyone is deeply mourning her slime pustule of a daughter.
Not the H's mother, who is so frostily snobbish in her aristocratic superiority that she could bring on the next ice age just by exhaling too long and not the cigarette smoking, foul mouthed, physically assaultive, ostensibly ten year old daughter of the H by the dead cousin. (Tho the H has serious doubts that the daughter is biologically his.)
And just to increase those fiery flames of h torment, the h gets kicked by the dubious daughter, knocked aside by the H and gets a concussion which means she is now stuck at the H's house for a few weeks while she recovers. Her boss has no sympathy for the h's plight either and strangely enough, the only one who actually makes some concessions to the h is the H's dubious daughter who turns out to be the most interesting and well developed character of the book. There are several little flash backs of when the H and h were married and their love seemed pretty sweet in a young adult married kind a way. Up until the H decided his wick needed dipping elsewhere of course.
But AM has an explanation even for that. It turns out that the now dead cousin substituted her own birth control pills to show the H that the h wasn't taking the heir and spare making seriously and the H got drunk and the cousin jumped into bed with him in anticipation of the h's return home.
I leave the question of whether or not the H actually dipped his wick up to the reader - tho the H claims he did not, but then he also turns right around and claims he was really drunk - so essentially he has no clue what he did. And the cousin was certainly working toward a big H rising, so odds are stacked against this H's veracity, as we shall soon see when the h goes to confront her nefarious vicar's wife aunt.
The h decides that she needs to confront the aunt on her lies, because OF COURSE the h believes the H when he says he NEVER SLEPT WITH THAT WOMAN, this is AM's HPlandia after all. So it is off to the vicarage we go and the h is all ready for her Evil Lying Relative smackdown. The h seems to have the high cards when she points out that the H's daughter is nine not ten and wasn't born until a year after the H and cousin married, so of course the aunt deliberately lied and helped the cousin to scheme her way into local gentry respectability and doesn't she feel ashamed of herself now?
Then the aunt comes back with a double down full house hand of her own when she tells the h that the daughter was the cousin's second pregnancy, the cousin miscarried weeks before her and the H's first child was due - and if the h won't accept the word of a bitter and angry carbuncle pustule masquerading as the vicar's wife, well she can just go ask her Uncle the Vicar, cause a Man of the Church would never lie.
The h, who by now has just had enough of the whole mess, hightails it back to London. Then her Snow Queen ex Mother in Law shows up and begs the h to return to the H. It seems the H's daughter had an accident and supposedly the h was told, but the h of course knows nothing.
She rushes back to the drunken H and the H tells the h that is all her fault, (Rule #1 in triplicate here,) and the h agrees but she still loves the H and will tolerate whatever foreign wick dipping he might need to do and she has quit her job to go into mass production of tons of heirs and spares for the big messy, I can't believe I am still upright after all the Captain I drank HEA.
You just have to read it to believe it really. This one is absolutely a memorable experience and reaches either the very heights of HPlandia whacktasticness or scrapes the very bottom of HP tropyness. Which ever you decide, it is definitely one wild HP adventure.
This one is either a no star or a five star and it all depends on where you fall in the spectrum of HPlandia utter outrageousness and then how willing you are to tolerate a completely and utterly martyred h with NO JUSTICE anywhere.
I really don't like this one, but I only remember that after I have breathlessly finished the last page and am still going WHO DOES THAT? More importantly, WHO WOULD TOLERATE THAT? Of course I have had several consultations with the Captain by this point, so that could explain the delayed response. Whatever, this is definitely a love it or hate addition to the annals of HPlandia.
This one starts with late twentish h going home for her cousin's funeral. Which would be kinda boring BUT, the cousin's husband was the h's husband first. They married young and the h was trying to combine marriage with a TV producer career and the H, the local lord of the manor, wanted her to jettison the job for the heir and the spare production. The h's cousin, the daughter of the h's vicar uncle, was found in bed with the H in their home and the h dumped his cheatin' hiney for pursuit of career satisfaction, since love proved to be so disappointing and hurtful - this is after the requisite miscarriage of course.
The H doesn't care, he is an alcoholic and literally states that he can pike anything he wants to, irregardless of what the h thinks about it. Yep, this H is a blatant cheater, like so many of AM's H's are wont to be, and the h still has a bit of a spine in her youth before age and lack of calcium supplements dissolve it, so she moves to London and a career - after her vicar's wife aunt explains that her daughter is preggers by the H and the H marries his little afternoon delight.
Ten years on, munchkins are singing "ding dong the witch is dead' (the H's second marriage was not a good one, but he was just too hungover to do anything about it,) and the h's uncle, in whatever passes for a brain cell in his noggin, invites the h to return for the funeral. AM makes the h attend, cause AM just cannot resist nailing her h's to the pillars of fiery torment. No one is really happy to see her.
Not the H, who is still inconveniently getting a tent rise from the woman who willfully refused to bear his children in favor of her career and then sneakily kept taking ingestions of birth control to boot, after he had tossed all the h's pills. Not the vicarage harpy wife aunt, who has been doing a whole lot of manipulative plot stirring behind the scenes for all these years and for some reason is deluding herself that everyone is deeply mourning her slime pustule of a daughter.
Not the H's mother, who is so frostily snobbish in her aristocratic superiority that she could bring on the next ice age just by exhaling too long and not the cigarette smoking, foul mouthed, physically assaultive, ostensibly ten year old daughter of the H by the dead cousin. (Tho the H has serious doubts that the daughter is biologically his.)
And just to increase those fiery flames of h torment, the h gets kicked by the dubious daughter, knocked aside by the H and gets a concussion which means she is now stuck at the H's house for a few weeks while she recovers. Her boss has no sympathy for the h's plight either and strangely enough, the only one who actually makes some concessions to the h is the H's dubious daughter who turns out to be the most interesting and well developed character of the book. There are several little flash backs of when the H and h were married and their love seemed pretty sweet in a young adult married kind a way. Up until the H decided his wick needed dipping elsewhere of course.
But AM has an explanation even for that. It turns out that the now dead cousin substituted her own birth control pills to show the H that the h wasn't taking the heir and spare making seriously and the H got drunk and the cousin jumped into bed with him in anticipation of the h's return home.
I leave the question of whether or not the H actually dipped his wick up to the reader - tho the H claims he did not, but then he also turns right around and claims he was really drunk - so essentially he has no clue what he did. And the cousin was certainly working toward a big H rising, so odds are stacked against this H's veracity, as we shall soon see when the h goes to confront her nefarious vicar's wife aunt.
The h decides that she needs to confront the aunt on her lies, because OF COURSE the h believes the H when he says he NEVER SLEPT WITH THAT WOMAN, this is AM's HPlandia after all. So it is off to the vicarage we go and the h is all ready for her Evil Lying Relative smackdown. The h seems to have the high cards when she points out that the H's daughter is nine not ten and wasn't born until a year after the H and cousin married, so of course the aunt deliberately lied and helped the cousin to scheme her way into local gentry respectability and doesn't she feel ashamed of herself now?
Then the aunt comes back with a double down full house hand of her own when she tells the h that the daughter was the cousin's second pregnancy, the cousin miscarried weeks before her and the H's first child was due - and if the h won't accept the word of a bitter and angry carbuncle pustule masquerading as the vicar's wife, well she can just go ask her Uncle the Vicar, cause a Man of the Church would never lie.
The h, who by now has just had enough of the whole mess, hightails it back to London. Then her Snow Queen ex Mother in Law shows up and begs the h to return to the H. It seems the H's daughter had an accident and supposedly the h was told, but the h of course knows nothing.
She rushes back to the drunken H and the H tells the h that is all her fault, (Rule #1 in triplicate here,) and the h agrees but she still loves the H and will tolerate whatever foreign wick dipping he might need to do and she has quit her job to go into mass production of tons of heirs and spares for the big messy, I can't believe I am still upright after all the Captain I drank HEA.
You just have to read it to believe it really. This one is absolutely a memorable experience and reaches either the very heights of HPlandia whacktasticness or scrapes the very bottom of HP tropyness. Which ever you decide, it is definitely one wild HP adventure.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 18, 2012
This is one of those older intense HP reads with a wonderfully strong heroine. If you have an opportunity to read this, I don't think you will regret the time invested. But there were a couple of things that did bug me, so here goes...
I did have trouble getting past the hero's cheating.... H/h meet, fall in love and are happily married, till the family from hell who are jealous of her happiness rip them apart. Her cousin sets out to trap and seduce him, and he is caught literally with his pants down. Instead of trying to explain to his wife what happened, he goes off...with this beautiful line:
"Just because they were married there was no reason for her to think she was indispensable. If he wanted to have sex with someone else, he would do it, and to hell with her."
Of course, heroine disgusted with finding him in bed with her cousin along with his spewing jargon, splits and eventually goes to London to start a career. Once, they separate... (not divorce) hero does fall into bed with cousin, eventually marries her and they have a child together. Not surprising, it turns out to be the marriage from "Hell" because neither really loved each other.
Ten years later, the cousin dies and the story opens up with the heroine returning for the funeral.
I found this to be a very intense read, but I just couldn't get past the arrogance of the hero. I was frustrated that the heroine never called him out for his bedroom tango, and more importantly his ugly tirade to excuse his lying, cheating ways. To make matters worse, everyone in the family continued to blame her career as the failure for their marriage instead of his bedroom tango with the cousin. Go figure.
I did have trouble getting past the hero's cheating.... H/h meet, fall in love and are happily married, till the family from hell who are jealous of her happiness rip them apart. Her cousin sets out to trap and seduce him, and he is caught literally with his pants down. Instead of trying to explain to his wife what happened, he goes off...with this beautiful line:
"Just because they were married there was no reason for her to think she was indispensable. If he wanted to have sex with someone else, he would do it, and to hell with her."
Of course, heroine disgusted with finding him in bed with her cousin along with his spewing jargon, splits and eventually goes to London to start a career. Once, they separate... (not divorce) hero does fall into bed with cousin, eventually marries her and they have a child together. Not surprising, it turns out to be the marriage from "Hell" because neither really loved each other.
Ten years later, the cousin dies and the story opens up with the heroine returning for the funeral.
I found this to be a very intense read, but I just couldn't get past the arrogance of the hero. I was frustrated that the heroine never called him out for his bedroom tango, and more importantly his ugly tirade to excuse his lying, cheating ways. To make matters worse, everyone in the family continued to blame her career as the failure for their marriage instead of his bedroom tango with the cousin. Go figure.
February 7, 2017
Ay caramba!
I can not say I was not warned, and, yes, fellow reviewers, I should have listened but it sounded so deliciously awful. Awful, yes. Deliciously so, no.
I'm going for the anemic 2 star; some might go much higher due to all the angst but I don't have the energy. Another book chockfull of horrible, vile people.
PLOT
The h has been invited home for her cousin's funeral by her grieving uncle. The h would rather not go as her cousin married the h's husband after being found in flagrante delicto
Her evilbitch witch of an aunt who spawned the, yippee, now dead cousin is not happy to see the H. You know what, other than the uncle, NO ONE is happy the h is back home. Not the brooding asshole of an ex, his bratty, cig smoking 9 year old daughter who not only kicks the h in the calf, but kicks her car in (the daughter's kind of awesome), the h's ex, cold as ice and snotty, snobby MIL, and the incredibly unsympathetic, I-told-you-boss back in London. Wow, who wouldn't enjoy this book.
In an altercation regarding his daughter, the H pushes the h aside so she falls, hits her head on a rock and gets a concussion. Yeah, he's a charmer. The h is stuck in the H's house for a couple of weeks where the daughter gets cosy with her since no one, especially daddy dearest, will have anything to do with the little girl. The evilbitch witch of an aunt visits and is not pleased the h is there as it disturbs her social fantasy of her precious daughter being mourned by the H. MIL flies in on her broom as well.
Eventually the truth comes out...
The MIL iceberg melts and gets the two back together, but we are denied seeing the daughter again. Unfortunate, as despite being a nine year old hooligan, she ended up liking the h and actually had a personality. We are also denied thebitch witch of an aunt getting her comeuppance.
In re-writing history, or in this case the end of this book, methinks that the H's bastardly ways will finally come in handy and he will take care of that situation as he is Lord of the Manor. I think some shunning is in order.
I can not say I was not warned, and, yes, fellow reviewers, I should have listened but it sounded so deliciously awful. Awful, yes. Deliciously so, no.
I'm going for the anemic 2 star; some might go much higher due to all the angst but I don't have the energy. Another book chockfull of horrible, vile people.
PLOT
The h has been invited home for her cousin's funeral by her grieving uncle. The h would rather not go as her cousin married the h's husband after being found in flagrante delicto
Her evil
In an altercation regarding his daughter, the H pushes the h aside so she falls, hits her head on a rock and gets a concussion. Yeah, he's a charmer. The h is stuck in the H's house for a couple of weeks where the daughter gets cosy with her since no one, especially daddy dearest, will have anything to do with the little girl. The evil
Eventually the truth comes out...
The MIL iceberg melts and gets the two back together, but we are denied seeing the daughter again. Unfortunate, as despite being a nine year old hooligan, she ended up liking the h and actually had a personality. We are also denied the
In re-writing history, or in this case the end of this book, methinks that the H's bastardly ways will finally come in handy and he will take care of that situation as he is Lord of the Manor. I think some shunning is in order.
May 14, 2021
I’ll be honest, I wasn’t super pumped about reading this one. I usually prefer my soapy reads to be whacky train wrecks that don’t cause a lot of thinking, and I knew coming in this explored cheating. Which I’m down with, just not in HP type books…. but I made a personal goal to work through the “Best of the Worst-Evil OW” list (you can find it attached to Island Of The Dawn) and I’m already 20 books in, so here goes.
The blurb pretty much lays it all out. Rachel was married to Matthew when she caught him and her awful jealous hater cousin Barbara (BB- for Bitchy Barbara) in a compromising situation. She left and filed for divorce. The scenario spins into the gray, but I still do not recommend this for readers concerned with safety)
I prefer for my OW to be meddling, and not dead, so I was disappointed that the bitch wasn’t around anymore. We do get a little nasty OW action from the H’s mother and BB’s mom, but it’s just not the same. BB was awful, and blew up their lives for 10 years, so I guess you could say she’s one of the “worst evil ow” but it all happens before the book starts... TOTAL BUMMER
Bottom Line- I love to read, and do get invested, but I hardly ever take anything personally, so I have a large tolerance for all types of BS. The cheating/cheating-ish didn’t bother me, but I still didn’t really enjoy the book. I didn’t really care for either mc… Matt was flat, and under developed. Rachel was sort of strong, but seriously stupid. (Couldn’t believe that she basically repeated the same reaction after knowing better.) Neither BB or her damn mom get any comeuppance. TOTAL BUMMER The kid was the only character that really had any development… just a meh for me.
The blurb pretty much lays it all out. Rachel was married to Matthew when she caught him and her awful jealous hater cousin Barbara (BB- for Bitchy Barbara) in a compromising situation. She left and filed for divorce. The scenario spins into the gray, but I still do not recommend this for readers concerned with safety)
I prefer for my OW to be meddling, and not dead, so I was disappointed that the bitch wasn’t around anymore. We do get a little nasty OW action from the H’s mother and BB’s mom, but it’s just not the same. BB was awful, and blew up their lives for 10 years, so I guess you could say she’s one of the “worst evil ow” but it all happens before the book starts... TOTAL BUMMER
Bottom Line- I love to read, and do get invested, but I hardly ever take anything personally, so I have a large tolerance for all types of BS. The cheating/cheating-ish didn’t bother me, but I still didn’t really enjoy the book. I didn’t really care for either mc… Matt was flat, and under developed. Rachel was sort of strong, but seriously stupid. (Couldn’t believe that she basically repeated the same reaction after knowing better.) Neither BB or her damn mom get any comeuppance. TOTAL BUMMER The kid was the only character that really had any development… just a meh for me.
June 16, 2017
dramalhama
paperback
paperback
March 11, 2018
4 🌟second time
This was train wreck!
Once agin read it packed a punch but it all hinged greatly on the the big reveal. It was good and for all the mixed reviews this was good book and the hero Matt DID not cheat, I don't know why few reviewers say this. On reread it was eminently clear. Lost half star for lack of interactions, it was tragic they were separated for ten years.
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4.5🌟 first read
Sad that meddling family end up spanning for 10 years and the truth came out after death of culprit responsible for this. Touching story and I like Rosie interactions with Rachael however it was slightly different than usual hp books since the h&h didn't have a lot of interaction in the direction of any form of reconciliation until it was forced attempt from him since he had to leave. Imaging never finding out the lies. Gosh, that was one intense read.
This was train wreck!
Once agin read it packed a punch but it all hinged greatly on the the big reveal. It was good and for all the mixed reviews this was good book and the hero Matt DID not cheat, I don't know why few reviewers say this. On reread it was eminently clear. Lost half star for lack of interactions, it was tragic they were separated for ten years.
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4.5🌟 first read
Sad that meddling family end up spanning for 10 years and the truth came out after death of culprit responsible for this. Touching story and I like Rosie interactions with Rachael however it was slightly different than usual hp books since the h&h didn't have a lot of interaction in the direction of any form of reconciliation until it was forced attempt from him since he had to leave. Imaging never finding out the lies. Gosh, that was one intense read.
May 19, 2021
That was rather distasteful.
Not to self... do not reread.
Not to self... do not reread.
August 11, 2012
Gah! This one killed me, and surprisingly so. This is one snuck up on me. I thought I had already read it and was remarking it when I realized it had slipped past me. It's not very different plotwise from many I've read but it moved me more than most of the others.
You had nasty relatives and a conniving cousin, thus the name, A Relative Betrayal. The first half of the book I spent floating along reading about the H&h seeing each other again after ten years with little flashbacks about how they met and little things about their relationship such as their first time. They were a very sweet couple.
And then...OMG! I spent the second half sniveling and snotting through the whole thing. The big event murdered me and left me desolate until almost the end.
I'm not going to give any more spoilers as to know what's going to happen will kill the emotion. It's that emotional roller coaster that has me slapping a big 5 stars on this one. But maybe someone else might not be moved like I was.
This is definitely a very good read in my opinion. Make sure you have plenty of tissues, or maybe I just need some Midol.
You had nasty relatives and a conniving cousin, thus the name, A Relative Betrayal. The first half of the book I spent floating along reading about the H&h seeing each other again after ten years with little flashbacks about how they met and little things about their relationship such as their first time. They were a very sweet couple.
And then...OMG! I spent the second half sniveling and snotting through the whole thing. The big event murdered me and left me desolate until almost the end.
I'm not going to give any more spoilers as to know what's going to happen will kill the emotion. It's that emotional roller coaster that has me slapping a big 5 stars on this one. But maybe someone else might not be moved like I was.
This is definitely a very good read in my opinion. Make sure you have plenty of tissues, or maybe I just need some Midol.
May 1, 2015
the dead cousin was devious! horribly so! but what i condemned harshly was matt actually setting house wid her after his wife left!? rachel also shud have asked for an explanation instead of running away. they really did not care much about each other as they divorced so easily and have been separated for 10 years when the story starts. really sad!
August 31, 2015
Could not get passed his cheating before they even divorced!
August 14, 2012
A great novel about secrets and lies. The hero and heroine fell in love and got married, then they split up because she believed the hero was cheating on her with his cousin. After the divorce and the miscarriage of her baby due to the stress. Her cousin eventually married her ex husband and gave birth to a daughter. Now her cousin is dead and the real story of how it all happened is coming out. Now nothing can stand in their way... or can it?
May 21, 2025
What an asshole.
March 24, 2013
Couldn't really get into this book. I didn't finish it and wasn't paying enough attention to even understand the storyline.
not-interested-or-bad-reviews
October 9, 2016Note to self - do not read.
*spoilers*
Blatant unrepentant cheating hero.
*spoilers*
Blatant unrepentant cheating hero.
March 15, 2023
I’m starting to realize that being a woman in the 70 and 80 sucked.
Your only goal was to find a possibly rich husband.
You didn’t have to have career ambitions or else you wouldn’t have found said husband
Men had more rights than women, they could cheat if their wife had a job.
Men were never supposed to be celibate, women always were.
Even a drunken alcoholic abusive cheating husband was better than no husband.
And if your cow cousin stole your husband because you had the gall to work until 7 pm and he was forced to find comfort in her std ridden snatch well, you had to shut up and accept your due, leave the happy couple to get married and have a nasty daughter together then when the cow died you could come back and accept the very much used, very much useless, very much alcoholic ex husband now widow and his rude daughter back. And you also had to apologize because you weren’t so ready to take him back when he told you he only loved you, even after cheating on you and resenting you because you weren’t able to give him a child, while the cow was.
Difficult life that of women in the 70/80s.
I’m so appalled by this book and all the wrongs in it that I don’t even feel like making a more clear and detailed review. Be warned that if you chose to read this one you must be prepared to detach yourself completely from the story.
Your only goal was to find a possibly rich husband.
You didn’t have to have career ambitions or else you wouldn’t have found said husband
Men had more rights than women, they could cheat if their wife had a job.
Men were never supposed to be celibate, women always were.
Even a drunken alcoholic abusive cheating husband was better than no husband.
And if your cow cousin stole your husband because you had the gall to work until 7 pm and he was forced to find comfort in her std ridden snatch well, you had to shut up and accept your due, leave the happy couple to get married and have a nasty daughter together then when the cow died you could come back and accept the very much used, very much useless, very much alcoholic ex husband now widow and his rude daughter back. And you also had to apologize because you weren’t so ready to take him back when he told you he only loved you, even after cheating on you and resenting you because you weren’t able to give him a child, while the cow was.
Difficult life that of women in the 70/80s.
I’m so appalled by this book and all the wrongs in it that I don’t even feel like making a more clear and detailed review. Be warned that if you chose to read this one you must be prepared to detach yourself completely from the story.
October 2, 2025
A Relative Betrayal 1990 ( Vintage Love Story)
The reader is swept from start to finish with the twist and turmoil of the story skillfully written with that brand of an Anne Mather intriguing plot.
Heroine returns to attend a funeral and to face her ex husband as he buries his (second) wife who happens to be her cousin.
One can only imagine the agony of facing each other again resurrecting the feelings of betrayal of ten years ago. The plot skillfully unfolds the secrets, the lies, the hate of relatives resulting in the destruction ten years ago of the marriage of 2 very young people who are so very much in love but alas that young love couldn’t withstand the BETRAYAL of your own RELATIVEs.
But true love never can fade away. With time, one can only regret the foolishness of immature youth and true love triumphs in the end!
P.S. The reader either understands and forgives the Hero for marrying the Heroine’s cousin or hate him for that! I charge it to the bitterness and foolishness of youth. And for that, I forgive the Hero.
CYA’58
The reader is swept from start to finish with the twist and turmoil of the story skillfully written with that brand of an Anne Mather intriguing plot.
Heroine returns to attend a funeral and to face her ex husband as he buries his (second) wife who happens to be her cousin.
One can only imagine the agony of facing each other again resurrecting the feelings of betrayal of ten years ago. The plot skillfully unfolds the secrets, the lies, the hate of relatives resulting in the destruction ten years ago of the marriage of 2 very young people who are so very much in love but alas that young love couldn’t withstand the BETRAYAL of your own RELATIVEs.
But true love never can fade away. With time, one can only regret the foolishness of immature youth and true love triumphs in the end!
P.S. The reader either understands and forgives the Hero for marrying the Heroine’s cousin or hate him for that! I charge it to the bitterness and foolishness of youth. And for that, I forgive the Hero.
CYA’58
July 1, 2018
3.5 stars
Would have been better if we had more of his thoughts. Especially around both times when they broke up as well as the night of the incident. I don’t think he really believed what he was saying the day after being “caught”. I think he was lashing out because he was angry at her for her “betrayal”. I would also have liked there to have been some repucussions for the aunt. And to have heard more about how miserable both he and Barbara were in there marriage. Karma. To get revenge he married someone he quickly despised. I’d have Luke to have heard more about his regret. .
But overall a good book. Well written. Angsty. Both were likeable but both were stupid. Him much more than her. On both occasions he didn’t do enough to win her back before he turned nasty.
You could feel their love and attraction even when they hated each other.
Good book. I enjoyed.
Would have been better if we had more of his thoughts. Especially around both times when they broke up as well as the night of the incident. I don’t think he really believed what he was saying the day after being “caught”. I think he was lashing out because he was angry at her for her “betrayal”. I would also have liked there to have been some repucussions for the aunt. And to have heard more about how miserable both he and Barbara were in there marriage. Karma. To get revenge he married someone he quickly despised. I’d have Luke to have heard more about his regret. .
But overall a good book. Well written. Angsty. Both were likeable but both were stupid. Him much more than her. On both occasions he didn’t do enough to win her back before he turned nasty.
You could feel their love and attraction even when they hated each other.
Good book. I enjoyed.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 12, 2020
I was giving the book four stars until 80% but the last part made me take one star away. The story was well written and engaging. The ending was with the typical miscommunication / misunderstanding and in the end the reconciliation. The story shows how it often is two parts of the story to every divorce and how it’s difficult to compromise especially when there are other parts involved like resentful and jealous relatives who try to intervene.
The H’s actions can be debatable and he did some awful mistakes. But it was what made the book interesting to me. The heroine’s actions were stupid. I mean she was justified to be angry after the scene she witnessed for ten years ago. But in the end of the book she once again believed the lying aunt and jumped into conclusions. The auntie and lady Olivia were some piece of work.
The H’s actions can be debatable and he did some awful mistakes. But it was what made the book interesting to me. The heroine’s actions were stupid. I mean she was justified to be angry after the scene she witnessed for ten years ago. But in the end of the book she once again believed the lying aunt and jumped into conclusions. The auntie and lady Olivia were some piece of work.
December 6, 2023
This book is a typical representation of the time period it was written it. It is mostly fluff with two MCs with no brains that are easily manipulated by dumb schemes. The heroine is a total doormat that accepts the ill treatment of everyone and believes the lies of people that have repeated lied to her. Even though she is a journalist she doesn't question anything or try to solve anything. The ending feels unsatisfying and very HFN. There is no mention of the evil aunt getting any kind of comeuppance at all.
October 8, 2025
Give it a 5 to counter some of these other errant reviews. Was definitely angst filled. The machinations of the relatives brought the whole plot on. There wasn't comeuppance for any of them at the end other than the hero and heroine's reunion that spoke for itself. So that was satisfactory. The hero was quite temperamental and blustery and the heroine was quite flighty. So you wanted to pull your hair out at times, but it had all of the insatiable ingredients of a good old fashioned HQ story.
March 12, 2020
....not sure who is stupider the hero or the heroine? They are pretty much even. So did the heroine’s uncle hate her too?! That was never addressed. And him and her aunt never get their comeuppance! For being just awful and liars and helping their daughter land hero after he was MARRIED! And the uncle is a pastor! Like dude pick the good side. Anyway, our heroine seems okay but then at the end pow bye bye job, and she didn’t go check on her future stepdaughter after she was injured. Nope gotta care about this drunk idiot. I think this book had too many disapproving relatives messing with the couple’s marriage and lives. His mom hated her, her aunt and uncle and cousin, just too much interference on all sides. Alright let’s talk about this hero, well he’s an awful father, HORRENDOUS husband and before that fiancé, kinda a drunk(thinking that’s why the heroine was attracted to him, he reminded her of her dead dad), he was going to cheat because he thought the heroine was cheating(she wasn’t), got caught with not just another woman but the heroine’s cousin he blames the heroine! Entirely. Saying he is entitled to bang whomever because she won’t have a kid and cares more about her job....hey ass what do you do to make money? Seems like nothing!!! The thing that made him irredeemable was saying the heroine used him to get her first job in tv...which he did it without her knowledge or consent. Entitled jackass is useless. Heroine needs to fall and crack her head again so she can leave his crazy ass. Plus they are getting remarried 6 months after his last wife died? Classy. Yuck. I would have recommended it as a fun read if the heroine’s evil family got what was coming but it ends abruptly so skip it.
June 5, 2023
I liked this Book. I have read it countless times and it's still one of my favourite. I know, I know alot of misunderstandings could have been resolved if they had just communicated but then again let's be real People it's sometimes not different in real life, that said. I enjoyed the Book and will be reading it again and again and again.
May 28, 2022
3.5 stars for the good writing and angst.Could have been a lot better if the hero had acted a little maturely and shown some remorse of his role in their past.Setting up house with the h's cousin immediately after their divorce shows how little he felt for the heroine.
April 10, 2018
Good easy average read.
April 2, 2019
More like 2,5, but it was short and kept me entertained
February 15, 2020
Liked it. Evil Aunt and Cousin.
Incredible misunderstandings, etc.
Incredible misunderstandings, etc.
not-interested-in-reading
June 22, 2022Refuse to Read. Did Not Read. Not My Cuppa.
Read
August 4, 2023 I wasn't certain if i already read this or was mixing up with another book, but yeah i did. Dramallama festival
October 19, 2023
this is a fun read to get me out of my slump but I can't imagine myself re-reading.
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