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The First Officer
What, Katy wondered, could she do now?
She hadn't expected the invitation to cruise on a millionaire's yacht to land her in such a predicament.
Because of her late father's disgrace, and her marriage breakup, Katy had used an assumed name. Nobody really knew who she was. So how could she suddenly announce that the yacht's first officer was her estranged husband, Charles Ormond?
Four years earlier Charles had rejected the young, spoiled Katy, who couldn't make their marriage work. She had changed, and she still loved him. But what were his feelings for her?
She hadn't expected the invitation to cruise on a millionaire's yacht to land her in such a predicament.
Because of her late father's disgrace, and her marriage breakup, Katy had used an assumed name. Nobody really knew who she was. So how could she suddenly announce that the yacht's first officer was her estranged husband, Charles Ormond?
Four years earlier Charles had rejected the young, spoiled Katy, who couldn't make their marriage work. She had changed, and she still loved him. But what were his feelings for her?
Paperback
First published January 1, 1980
48 people want to read
About the author
Anne Weale
219 books49 followersJay Blakeney
aka Anne Weale, Andrea Blake
Jay Blakeney was born on Juny 20, 1929. Her great-grandfather was a well-known writer on moral theology, so perhaps she inherited her writing gene from him. She was "talking stories" to herself long before she could read. When she was still at school, she sold her first short stories to a woman's magazine and she feels she was destined to write. Decided to became a writer, she started writing for newspapers and magazines.
At 21, Jay was a newspaper reporter with a career plan, but the man she was wildly in love with announced that he was off to the other side of the world. He thought they should either marry or say goodbye. She always believed that true love could last a lifetime, and she felt that wonderful men were much harder to find than good jobs, so she put her career on hold. What a wise decision it was! She felt that new young women seem less inclined to risk everything for love than her generation.
Together they traveled the world. If she hadn't spent part of her bridal year living on the edge of a jungle in Malaysia, she might never have become a romance writer. That isolated house, and the perils of the state of emergency that existed in the country at that time, gave her a background and plot ideally suited to a genre she had never read until she came across some romances in the library of a country club they sometimes visited. She can write about love with the even stronger conviction that comes from experience.
When they returned to Europe, Jay resumed her career as a journalist, writing her first romance in her spare time. She sold her first novel as Anne Weale to Mills and Boon in 1955 at the age of 24. At 30, with seven books published, she "retired" to have a baby and become a full-time writer. She raised a delightful son, David, who is as adventurous as his father. Her husband and son have even climbed in the Andes and the Himalayas, giving her lots of ideas for stories. When she retired from reporting, her fiction income -- a combination of amounts earned as a Mills & Boon author and writing for magazines such as Woman's Illustrated, which serialized the work of authors -- exceed 1,000 pounds a year.
She was a founding member of the The Romantic Novelists' Association. In 2002 she published her last novel, in total, she wrote 88 novels. She also wrote under the pseudonym Andrea Blake. She loved setting her novels in exotic parts of the world, but specially in The Caribbean and in her beloved Spain. Since 1989, Jay spent most of the winter months in a very small "pueblo" in the backwoods of Spain. During years, she visited some villages, and from each she have borrowed some feature - a fountain, a street, a plaza, a picturesque old house - to create some places like Valdecarrasca, that is wholly imaginary and yet typical of the part of rural Spain she knew best. She loved walking, reading, sketching, sewing (curtains and slipcovers) and doing needlepoint, gardening, entertaining friends, visiting art galleries and museums, writing letters, surfing the Net, traveling in search of exciting locations for future books, eating delicious food and drinking good wine, cataloguing her books.
She wrote a regular website review column for The Bookseller from 1998 to 2004, before starting her own blog Bookworm on the Net. At the time of her death, on October 24, 2007, she was working on her autobiography "88 Heroes... 1 Mr. Right".
aka Anne Weale, Andrea Blake
Jay Blakeney was born on Juny 20, 1929. Her great-grandfather was a well-known writer on moral theology, so perhaps she inherited her writing gene from him. She was "talking stories" to herself long before she could read. When she was still at school, she sold her first short stories to a woman's magazine and she feels she was destined to write. Decided to became a writer, she started writing for newspapers and magazines.
At 21, Jay was a newspaper reporter with a career plan, but the man she was wildly in love with announced that he was off to the other side of the world. He thought they should either marry or say goodbye. She always believed that true love could last a lifetime, and she felt that wonderful men were much harder to find than good jobs, so she put her career on hold. What a wise decision it was! She felt that new young women seem less inclined to risk everything for love than her generation.
Together they traveled the world. If she hadn't spent part of her bridal year living on the edge of a jungle in Malaysia, she might never have become a romance writer. That isolated house, and the perils of the state of emergency that existed in the country at that time, gave her a background and plot ideally suited to a genre she had never read until she came across some romances in the library of a country club they sometimes visited. She can write about love with the even stronger conviction that comes from experience.
When they returned to Europe, Jay resumed her career as a journalist, writing her first romance in her spare time. She sold her first novel as Anne Weale to Mills and Boon in 1955 at the age of 24. At 30, with seven books published, she "retired" to have a baby and become a full-time writer. She raised a delightful son, David, who is as adventurous as his father. Her husband and son have even climbed in the Andes and the Himalayas, giving her lots of ideas for stories. When she retired from reporting, her fiction income -- a combination of amounts earned as a Mills & Boon author and writing for magazines such as Woman's Illustrated, which serialized the work of authors -- exceed 1,000 pounds a year.
She was a founding member of the The Romantic Novelists' Association. In 2002 she published her last novel, in total, she wrote 88 novels. She also wrote under the pseudonym Andrea Blake. She loved setting her novels in exotic parts of the world, but specially in The Caribbean and in her beloved Spain. Since 1989, Jay spent most of the winter months in a very small "pueblo" in the backwoods of Spain. During years, she visited some villages, and from each she have borrowed some feature - a fountain, a street, a plaza, a picturesque old house - to create some places like Valdecarrasca, that is wholly imaginary and yet typical of the part of rural Spain she knew best. She loved walking, reading, sketching, sewing (curtains and slipcovers) and doing needlepoint, gardening, entertaining friends, visiting art galleries and museums, writing letters, surfing the Net, traveling in search of exciting locations for future books, eating delicious food and drinking good wine, cataloguing her books.
She wrote a regular website review column for The Bookseller from 1998 to 2004, before starting her own blog Bookworm on the Net. At the time of her death, on October 24, 2007, she was working on her autobiography "88 Heroes... 1 Mr. Right".
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
April 22, 2010
Ah, there's nothing like a Harlequin Presents. The passion... the romance... the rampant sexism. I liked this one but I'm not sure why; it was truly aggravating at times, not only for the dated gender wars but also for a seemingly endless series of sexus interruptus. (They will! No they won't! They will! No they won't!) But I thought it was cool to see an HP hero who's an actual wage-earner, there was an interesting cast of secondary characters, and the tension worked, overall. Thinking it over, I think what I liked most is that the book feels like it has a unique personality, instead of coming straight from the HP cookie cutter. Even though it wasn't a top favorite, I could see rereading it and enjoying it again.
January 4, 2016
Second chance story. Heroine goes along with her employer on a yachting trip. Hero is the first officer in charge of the yacht. Employer makes a play for the hero. Heroine pretends she doesn’t know hero. Hero treats heroine terribly – but still corners her for punishing kisses. Lots of angst and jealousy. Oh, and a nearby boat explodes.
January 16, 2021
She hadn't expected the invitation to cruise on a millionaire's yacht to lend her in such a predicament.
Because of her late father's disgrace, and her marriage breakup, Katy had used an assumed name. Nobody really knew who she was. So how could she suddenly annouce that the yacht's first officer was her estranged husband, Charles Ormond?
Four years earlier, Charles had rejected the young, spoiled Katy, who couldn't make their marriage work. She had changed, and she still loved him. But what were his feelings for her?
Because of her late father's disgrace, and her marriage breakup, Katy had used an assumed name. Nobody really knew who she was. So how could she suddenly annouce that the yacht's first officer was her estranged husband, Charles Ormond?
Four years earlier, Charles had rejected the young, spoiled Katy, who couldn't make their marriage work. She had changed, and she still loved him. But what were his feelings for her?
October 23, 2023
2.5
It was decent read.
The only issue being the h to be little less on throwing herself at the H and H to be little less prideful and condescending towards the h.
I didn't like the H continue rejecting the h in his life but i do believe they will have an hea as the h is very accommodating.
It was decent read.
The only issue being the h to be little less on throwing herself at the H and H to be little less prideful and condescending towards the h.
I didn't like the H continue rejecting the h in his life but i do believe they will have an hea as the h is very accommodating.
January 20, 2024
I haven't read a Harlequin Romance in a very long time. This didn't hold up.
December 23, 2024
Older hero married younger heroine in a fit of mutual lust then they both promptly regretted it when the sex wore off. He was condescending and sarcastic, while she was an immature daddy’s girl and prone to tantrums. They divorced and lost touch for several years, until they coincidentally meet on a millionaire’s yacht where he is the titular first officer and she is one of the guests of the millionaire. The hero is cutting, demeaning, verbally and physically abusive. The heroine thinks she deserves this mistreatment and plays St Bernadette, suffering humiliation and pain in silence. Believing her to be a gold digger who is going to marry the millionaire, the contemptuous hero spends one last night with her where he treats her like a blow up doll. The next morning, the heroine flees and the hero finds out from the millionaire that the heroine turned down his proposal because it is the hero she loves. He goes in hot pursuit of her, and they get their dubious, depressing HEA. This will work for fans of angst, old school caveman heroes and doormat heroines. They were both irredeemable in my opinion so I hated this story. Worst book I have read from this normally pleasant author.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews