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Tidewater Seduction
Joanna had loved Cole MacAllister with a passion which had taken hercompletely by storm. And she'd thought he felt the same. Theirs was amarriage made in heaven. But that didn't stop it all falling apart amid atangle of accusation and suspicion. Was Joanna completely crazy to let Coletalk her into returning with him to Tidewater, His South Carolina home? Whatlay between them in the past was surely smashed beyond repair. He hadanother woman in his life now. But it seemed that Cole's desire for Joannawasn't dead at all.
Mass Market Paperback
First published June 1, 1993
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123 people want to read
About the author
Anne Mather
799 books360 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 - 11 of 11 reviews
June 27, 2018
Re Tidewater Seduction - Anne Mather's epicly and too rotten to even be culticly bad attempt at a Southern Gothic/Melodrama is nothing short of an utter angsty bitter trainwreck in an avalanche wrapped up in a typhoon smouldering mess.
This one starts with the 26 yr old artist h taking her first holiday in a long while in the Bahamas.
She is having fun in the sun when the H shows up. He is her ex-husband who is a good ole' Southern Boy with a plantation family heritage from South Carolina. He wants the h to go back to his family home with him, as his cancer ridden dying father is asking for her. The h right off tells him no.
(Tho please note that what is commonly called the Tidewater area of the US is actually in Virginia along the Chesapeake Bay and it borders Maryland and North Carolina - not South Carolina where this story takes place, that area is called the Lowcountry {and it really matters to people who live there, I learned.} But in this case Tidewater is the name of the H's big plantation home. )
The H and h had a passionate youthful marriage until the H believed the h was having an affair with his illegitimate half brother and so he went and hooked up with an ex-girlfriend while married to the h.
Naturally the h took exception to that, plus his parents are true scum sewer turd blossoms from Hell and they hated the h's guts, there was a shocking death on top of everything else, so they got a divorce and the H married his ex girlfriend at mummy dearest parasite blob's demand.
The h is English and the H's aunt is her agent. Because it is Anne Mather and she likes to stir the pot, the h never dumped the H's aunt for someone who doesn't have a whole really horrible history with her. (Plus AM is never short a pandering relative or six to pimp out her h or guilt her into pimping out herself.)
The h still doesn't dump the silly pandering bovine blob when she tells the H where the h is on vacation at and then also tells the h that she should go see what the H's father wants - irregardless of the fact that they hate the h and the h despises them, as she holds the family responsible for the H's half brother's death.
The H, whom the h believes is currently married to the ex he dumped her for, asks the h out to dinner. The h, for some unknown and probably pathetic reason, agrees to go.
(There were h thinky thoughts of a quid quo pro seduction of the H while he is married to the OW, just as the OW did to the h with H's mummy dearest's encouragement.)
There is several pages of the H and h making bitter biting comments and trying to score verbal points against each other over dinner, while both of them are trying to keep from ripping the other's clothes off as well.
When the evening is over, after the H first strangles and then roofie kisses the h in a taxicab, the h decides she will go back to the H's home with him after all.
It only gets tackier from here.
The H's mother is an evil leech of giant squid proportions. The H, who is no longer married for some reason, is an utter spineless doormat in the face of his parents, but especially his mother's manipulations and the h is an idiot for keeping any sort of contact with any of these seriously inbred people at all - including her agent.
We find out that the reason the H's dying father wants the h there is to stage a reconciliation between the H and his father - for some reason these people believe the h can still influence the H, even after he dumped her for the family approved bimbo next door to increase the family lands. Apparently the H hasn't been toeing the line in recent years to the slime parent's satisfaction.
We get pages and pages of irrelevant H relations and family subplots that essentially all boil down to the fact the H, his parents and all the other siblings are cliched stereotypes of Southern Bigots straight of out the lower depths of a Tennessee Williams-inspired ninth circle of Hell and the h now gets her chance to get her own nasty digs in for retaliation.
The h was of course the only equitable, decent and fair minded person in the entire bunch of racist bigots and so of course she wouldn't fit in and of course she would make friends with the despised illegitimate half brother and of course this drove the H's mother in particular around the bend, as her husband liked the sharecropper trash bimbo he had the mixed race illegitimate child with more than all her breeding etc. The h was also blamed for not conceiving right away and the H seemed to be convinced she was secretly taking birth control.
The final straw was the h starting a health clinic to help the poor sharecroppers and betraying the fact that the H's father had an illegitimate mixed race son. The H got really nasty and evil to both his half brother and the h and then tragedy struck.
The half brother was pulled dead from the river and his mother, the H's father's mistress, accused the H's father of driving their son to his death by accusing the h and the half brother of having an affair in a really ugly racist way and hounding the young man about it until he was driven to an act of desperation.
The h holds the H's parents equally complicit in the half brother's death and since the H is cheating anyways, she leaves and they divorce. The H's father, in an effort to gain some local respect back, funds the h's health clinic and names it after his dead son. The H apparently is very bitter towards his father and they have a huge falling out.
(So this your basic standard AM betrayed by family plot with the especially evil mother in law and an evil father too, just add a magnolia or twenty. Then, since this is an HP Plus, add a few more pages of digs and nasty remarks and thundering lurve force mojo and a beach sex scene with some useless subplots that peter out and that is basis for this very bloated and ugly book.)
After a few days and intermittent pages, the h realizes that she is getting nowhere - so she pleads with the H to make amends with his father who has had a stroke- (for whatever reason, maybe she was smoking hash)- and the H's mother tells her she knows she was sleeping with the H's half brother as the h is on her way home. The h denies it, but really who cares at this point.
Once back in England, the h has the standard mopey moment, realizes she is preggers from the beach lurve club moment and the H shows up. He doesn't know about the pregnancy, he offers a half-hearted sorta apology because it was the H's mother who wrote anonymous letters insisting the h and half brother were lovers, she claimed it for his own good. But really it was his mother's attempt to get revenge for being cheated on. As the h suspected, the woman knew all about the father's mistress and child and she wanted to get even.
So now the H loves the h, he even explains that he did not do the full lurve club with his OW until the h left the H's home the first time, but he did cheat and he did just fall into line with his sewer slime pustule parent's wishes and now he just wants the h and they will live at his family home minus the slime gulping sub sewer blobs and have the baby for the big HEA.
There are just no words for this ugly wreck of a book. But really HPlandia should leave Southern Gothic stories to Southern writers, cause the theme just doesn't carry over well for an HP outing and AM clearly isn't able to write coherently using it - this is even worse than her usual, so I don't recommend spending any quality HP time with it.
This one starts with the 26 yr old artist h taking her first holiday in a long while in the Bahamas.
She is having fun in the sun when the H shows up. He is her ex-husband who is a good ole' Southern Boy with a plantation family heritage from South Carolina. He wants the h to go back to his family home with him, as his cancer ridden dying father is asking for her. The h right off tells him no.
(Tho please note that what is commonly called the Tidewater area of the US is actually in Virginia along the Chesapeake Bay and it borders Maryland and North Carolina - not South Carolina where this story takes place, that area is called the Lowcountry {and it really matters to people who live there, I learned.} But in this case Tidewater is the name of the H's big plantation home. )
The H and h had a passionate youthful marriage until the H believed the h was having an affair with his illegitimate half brother and so he went and hooked up with an ex-girlfriend while married to the h.
Naturally the h took exception to that, plus his parents are true scum sewer turd blossoms from Hell and they hated the h's guts, there was a shocking death on top of everything else, so they got a divorce and the H married his ex girlfriend at mummy dearest parasite blob's demand.
The h is English and the H's aunt is her agent. Because it is Anne Mather and she likes to stir the pot, the h never dumped the H's aunt for someone who doesn't have a whole really horrible history with her. (Plus AM is never short a pandering relative or six to pimp out her h or guilt her into pimping out herself.)
The h still doesn't dump the silly pandering bovine blob when she tells the H where the h is on vacation at and then also tells the h that she should go see what the H's father wants - irregardless of the fact that they hate the h and the h despises them, as she holds the family responsible for the H's half brother's death.
The H, whom the h believes is currently married to the ex he dumped her for, asks the h out to dinner. The h, for some unknown and probably pathetic reason, agrees to go.
(There were h thinky thoughts of a quid quo pro seduction of the H while he is married to the OW, just as the OW did to the h with H's mummy dearest's encouragement.)
There is several pages of the H and h making bitter biting comments and trying to score verbal points against each other over dinner, while both of them are trying to keep from ripping the other's clothes off as well.
When the evening is over, after the H first strangles and then roofie kisses the h in a taxicab, the h decides she will go back to the H's home with him after all.
It only gets tackier from here.
The H's mother is an evil leech of giant squid proportions. The H, who is no longer married for some reason, is an utter spineless doormat in the face of his parents, but especially his mother's manipulations and the h is an idiot for keeping any sort of contact with any of these seriously inbred people at all - including her agent.
We find out that the reason the H's dying father wants the h there is to stage a reconciliation between the H and his father - for some reason these people believe the h can still influence the H, even after he dumped her for the family approved bimbo next door to increase the family lands. Apparently the H hasn't been toeing the line in recent years to the slime parent's satisfaction.
We get pages and pages of irrelevant H relations and family subplots that essentially all boil down to the fact the H, his parents and all the other siblings are cliched stereotypes of Southern Bigots straight of out the lower depths of a Tennessee Williams-inspired ninth circle of Hell and the h now gets her chance to get her own nasty digs in for retaliation.
The h was of course the only equitable, decent and fair minded person in the entire bunch of racist bigots and so of course she wouldn't fit in and of course she would make friends with the despised illegitimate half brother and of course this drove the H's mother in particular around the bend, as her husband liked the sharecropper trash bimbo he had the mixed race illegitimate child with more than all her breeding etc. The h was also blamed for not conceiving right away and the H seemed to be convinced she was secretly taking birth control.
The final straw was the h starting a health clinic to help the poor sharecroppers and betraying the fact that the H's father had an illegitimate mixed race son. The H got really nasty and evil to both his half brother and the h and then tragedy struck.
The half brother was pulled dead from the river and his mother, the H's father's mistress, accused the H's father of driving their son to his death by accusing the h and the half brother of having an affair in a really ugly racist way and hounding the young man about it until he was driven to an act of desperation.
The h holds the H's parents equally complicit in the half brother's death and since the H is cheating anyways, she leaves and they divorce. The H's father, in an effort to gain some local respect back, funds the h's health clinic and names it after his dead son. The H apparently is very bitter towards his father and they have a huge falling out.
(So this your basic standard AM betrayed by family plot with the especially evil mother in law and an evil father too, just add a magnolia or twenty. Then, since this is an HP Plus, add a few more pages of digs and nasty remarks and thundering lurve force mojo and a beach sex scene with some useless subplots that peter out and that is basis for this very bloated and ugly book.)
After a few days and intermittent pages, the h realizes that she is getting nowhere - so she pleads with the H to make amends with his father who has had a stroke- (for whatever reason, maybe she was smoking hash)- and the H's mother tells her she knows she was sleeping with the H's half brother as the h is on her way home. The h denies it, but really who cares at this point.
Once back in England, the h has the standard mopey moment, realizes she is preggers from the beach lurve club moment and the H shows up. He doesn't know about the pregnancy, he offers a half-hearted sorta apology because it was the H's mother who wrote anonymous letters insisting the h and half brother were lovers, she claimed it for his own good. But really it was his mother's attempt to get revenge for being cheated on. As the h suspected, the woman knew all about the father's mistress and child and she wanted to get even.
So now the H loves the h, he even explains that he did not do the full lurve club with his OW until the h left the H's home the first time, but he did cheat and he did just fall into line with his sewer slime pustule parent's wishes and now he just wants the h and they will live at his family home minus the slime gulping sub sewer blobs and have the baby for the big HEA.
There are just no words for this ugly wreck of a book. But really HPlandia should leave Southern Gothic stories to Southern writers, cause the theme just doesn't carry over well for an HP outing and AM clearly isn't able to write coherently using it - this is even worse than her usual, so I don't recommend spending any quality HP time with it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 27, 2018
Oh. My. God.
I didn't know Anne Mather smoked crack. I don't know what she was on, but whatever it was I never want any of it
When Boogenhagen gives a one star. Listen. I didn't. I am troubled.
Boogehagen's rundown if this nightmare.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Random Thoughts
Off to have nightmares now.
I didn't know Anne Mather smoked crack. I don't know what she was on, but whatever it was I never want any of it
When Boogenhagen gives a one star. Listen. I didn't. I am troubled.
Boogehagen's rundown if this nightmare.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Random Thoughts
Off to have nightmares now.
May 2, 2013
in this tale the vicious OW was his b&tch of a mother, and a hateful father and a looming ex girlfriend... a shocking death, but as the story was coming to a end i had high hopes for the "hero" which he killed on page 208 with a confession that had i been paying attention earlier and realized he had told the truth about "this situation, not just lying to hurt her" so the book went from 3 to 2 stars... too many unredeemable people in it....just wanted the heroine to tell them all to GTH and grab the next plane back to England.
February 19, 2018
paperback
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great review here
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great review here
May 18, 2016
2008 Review: Alright...
MY THOUGHTS: Ok, the story is that Cole and Joanna were married and had a passionate relationship but because of mistrust and the evil machinations of Cole's parents, they separated and got divorce. But now Cole's father is dying and he asks Joanna to come back to help mend the fences with his son Cole. Anyway, I was a bit SO-SO in the story because, god, the first half of the book was full of bitterness, anger from both sides! I guess it was understandable since they were divorced but I felt that pain and anger overshadowed the love they supposedly had... And I can't believe Cole married someone else too by the way, so as usual I don't like it when the hero supposedly does another girl when he's already met the heroine, etc. I guess the only saving grace for me is that they got divorced so its not like he cheated or anything. But to me he's a tainted hero. And Cole's parents are kinda evil too! Basically Cole's father actually had a secret son, Nathan, and Cole's mother hates Joanna and lets Cole believe that Joanna and Nathan had something going on. Aaah... the only good thing about the book is that at least Cole does beg/lowered his pride and says he loves her, do anything for her and has learned his lesson, etc. (As you can see, I still can't forgive Cole for marrying another woman!! I want my hero untainted and true to the heroine!) I also liked the fact that they give you an epilogue - that's cool. I'm glad I read the book, but I don't think I'll re-read it again. Otherwise, I recommend Mather's other books.
MY THOUGHTS: Ok, the story is that Cole and Joanna were married and had a passionate relationship but because of mistrust and the evil machinations of Cole's parents, they separated and got divorce. But now Cole's father is dying and he asks Joanna to come back to help mend the fences with his son Cole. Anyway, I was a bit SO-SO in the story because, god, the first half of the book was full of bitterness, anger from both sides! I guess it was understandable since they were divorced but I felt that pain and anger overshadowed the love they supposedly had... And I can't believe Cole married someone else too by the way, so as usual I don't like it when the hero supposedly does another girl when he's already met the heroine, etc. I guess the only saving grace for me is that they got divorced so its not like he cheated or anything. But to me he's a tainted hero. And Cole's parents are kinda evil too! Basically Cole's father actually had a secret son, Nathan, and Cole's mother hates Joanna and lets Cole believe that Joanna and Nathan had something going on. Aaah... the only good thing about the book is that at least Cole does beg/lowered his pride and says he loves her, do anything for her and has learned his lesson, etc. (As you can see, I still can't forgive Cole for marrying another woman!! I want my hero untainted and true to the heroine!) I also liked the fact that they give you an epilogue - that's cool. I'm glad I read the book, but I don't think I'll re-read it again. Otherwise, I recommend Mather's other books.
April 17, 2016
the fact dat Cole did not trust his wife and married Sammy-Jean after the breakdown of his marriage wid heroine condemned him irreparably for me. it was like he let his parents win and was really a mama's boy! i disliked the book as Joanna was treated badly and Cole was cold and cruel and never asked her to justify herself. i think he shud have told her long ago dat he received anonymous letters in which it was mentioned she was being adulterous wid Nathan and asked for an explanation.
August 15, 2012
Can't remember much of the book but my ratings have always been based on fairness and likability for me, so the book have been on of those 'on the fence' type novels for me. As I usually rate them three stars. Certainly because they are enjoyable but something always holds me back from four staring it!
June 5, 2020
Perhaps this was meant to be a second chance romance? If so, wouldn't that mean that the H and h had resolved their differences and were equally working on their HEA? Thought so. It would not include the H's allowing himself to be manipulated by mommy dearest and dumb father. It would not include infidelity. It would not include taking everyone's word over the h's. The h kept her agent who was a member of this toxic family!!?? Right. The h slept with the H to payback the H for sleeping with the OW when they were married! Not because she loved him...no, that would have been too easy. The H never told h he was divorced...another example of excellent communications.
Not a good book unless you are into stereotypes, cliches, misuse of geographically specific terms, etc.
Not a good book unless you are into stereotypes, cliches, misuse of geographically specific terms, etc.
March 3, 2022
First of all, who are these women on these book covers?! The heroine is a black woman! So ignoring all the extended family and racist south, why would anyone want to be with this hero in the first place?! He’s a loser! Lives at home, doesn’t support his wife’s success or passion, does he HAVE a job?, decides things and drags the heroine around miserably after him, doesn’t believe the truth because it hurts his feelings, tells the heroine to shut up and grabs her throat in an argument. Just ewww. And I get the feeling a lot of women in the American south know this type of turd man. Our heroine is fine except when she gets around the hero. Her iq and common sense drops around him. No one should ever move back to a place where they had a miserable marriage. Yeah, terrible. Skip.
March 23, 2025
This book had a few good points, as it's reminiscent of the 1980's nighttime soaps, TV movies and miniseries so prevalent (as well as entertaining) back then, but I doubt many southerners will enjoy reading the author's stereotypical depictions of them. It's enough to make all the snowflakes melt!
The H and h sure let his family influence them, and NOT for the better! They were divorced and living separate lives for three years, thanks to both his parents, especially his wackadoodle mother!
I felt sorry for both the OM (the H's half-brother), who deserved a better fate, and the OW (the H's rebound wife) because no one likes being used as a substitute.
I would have liked more about the h's art career, but of course, the dysfunctional family had to take top priority.
Not one of the best, so if you skip it, no big deal.
The H and h sure let his family influence them, and NOT for the better! They were divorced and living separate lives for three years, thanks to both his parents, especially his wackadoodle mother!
I felt sorry for both the OM (the H's half-brother), who deserved a better fate, and the OW (the H's rebound wife) because no one likes being used as a substitute.
I would have liked more about the h's art career, but of course, the dysfunctional family had to take top priority.
Not one of the best, so if you skip it, no big deal.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews