Conflict of Interest

Jayne Castle: Ecstasy Romance

by Jayne Castle

Beautiful Kali Havelock was all business. As VP of Interaction Automation, Inc., she was determined to outsmart the competition and corner the rights to the most advanced industrial robots. . .robots invented by the impossibly brilliant, outrageously handsome -- and stubborn -- Lang Sterling.

Kali was a master of manipulation, but was it possible she'd miscalculated? She was about to offer him a fortune -- the deal of a lifetime. She'd thought her "rabbit" would be all ears. But Lang was hell-bent on having his pleasure . . .and proving that Kali was functioning like a passionless well-programmed robot, while the wizard of robotics himself operated on the most primitive principles of desire.

Genres: Romance, Fiction, Category Romance, Harlequin, Contemporary

185 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published April 1, 1983

About the author

The author of over 40 consecutive New York Times bestsellers, JAYNE ANN KRENTZ writes romantic-suspense, often with a psychic and paranormal twist, in three different worlds: Contemporary (as Jayne Ann Krentz), historical (as Amanda Quick) and futuristic (as Jayne Castle). There are over 30 million copies of her books in print.

She earned a B.A. in History from the University of California at Santa Cruz and went on to obtain a Masters degree in Library Science from San Jose State University in California. Before she began writing full time she worked as a librarian in both academic and corporate libraries.

Ms. Krentz is married and lives with her husband, Frank, in Seattle, Washington.

Pseudonyms:
Jayne Ann Krentz
Amanda Quick
Stephanie James
Jayne Bentley
Jayne Taylor
Amanda Glass

Reviews

[Ioana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was reminded of this book's existence today and I'm angry again.
This could have been a very good psychological thriller!! Instead, it's a very disappointing romance with hints of sci-fi and an attempted rape that we're supposed to reclasify as something else once the protagonists get together.
Look, if your heroine decides to pretent to be dating the guy that *hours* earlier tried to force himself on her, rather than tell her ex she's single, you better give me a better reason for their breakup than just "he's boring and a bit overbearing". ESPECIALLY when the "hero" is a certified dick!
I almost want to cry when I think of the wasted potential. He was definitely not the modern day pirate with robotics skills i was promised and how can you name your heroine Kali Havelock and introduce her as this tough, competent professional, only to have her act like a welcome mat around every man in her life?!!!!!

(and Goodreads keeps recommending me books by this author bc I rated this one three stars. for what it is, it's not entirely despicable and the book is better than a lot of romance from that period that i've read. it's the wasted potential that really gets my goat! and the reca look really promising, but so did this one!!!)

[Farah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book !!! Lang was very unusual and a little out of control .. he was an entertaining character. Kali was very unpredictable .. I loved her sass and witty come backs .. she's very clever with people and situations .. and she never failed to surprise , Lang and Kali together were very interesting and captivating. I enjoyed this book a lot !!

[Eri | Encrucijadas cotidianas · Rating 3 out of 5]

#Critica 3.5 Como vicepresidenta de una importante empresa de computadoras, Kali Havelock estaba dedicada a los negocios y tenía en mente adquirir los derechos y patentes creados por el inteligente, guapo y testarudo Lang Serling. Pero no todo sería tan fácil y él sería un hueso duro de roer que quiere demostrarle a ella que podía rendirse al deseo y no actuar como una maquina bien programada como le gusta presentarse, por lo que Kali peleará con uñas y dientes, incluso, cuando toda la relación se transforme en un conflicto de intereses

[Mara · Rating 1 out of 5]

Stupid plot, stupider characters

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm actually surprised that I liked this book because it started off pretty bad.


The hero, Lang, comes across as the worst kind of irresponsible Neanderthal. He's at an upscale party and about to cause a huge scene. He's there with a woman he barely knows and who is using him to make her ex-husband jealous. She and the ex are still in love and their relationship thrives on the on-again, off-again drama of breaking up and then trying to make each other jealous. Lang's date is currently upstairs with her ex and Lang intends to drag her out by the hair and fight the ex if he tries to interfere. It's not that Lang actually cares about this woman. He just wants A woman to warm his bed that night and she was the one lined up for the job. He also feels that his pride is on the line since everyone saw him getting cuckolded. He doesn't care that by making a scene he'll embarrass his host, who is running for public office, or that he'll embarrass himself when the girl and the ex quickly get back together. He just wants to make sure he can get his rocks off in the bedroom that night.

Enter the heroine, Kali. She's a master manipulator and actually set it up so that Lang's date would know the ex was going to attend this party in the hopes of creating just such a situation. She swooped in to stop Lang from causing the scene and gave him an alternative that would leave his pride intact and allow her the opportunity to give him a sales pitch for her company to buy his patents. He needs quite a lot of persuading and keeps making references to how he was much more interested in having a bed partner for the night than in discussing how Kali's company wants to pay him millions of dollars. During this conversation we also learn that Lang has been living well, well beyond his means, already trading on the money he's sure he'll get from selling his patents. This was unnecessary in the story and painted Lang is a bad light. Normally we like our heroes to have better control than that. It all came together to make Lang seem pretty irresponsible.

He finally agrees to leave with Kali and go back to her apartment to discuss business. However as Lang said over and over at the party, he's really only got one thing on his mind and business isn't it. So once they're alone in her apartment he full-on sexually assaults her. He forces kisses, restrains her hands, ignores her protests and even removes her clothes so he can feel her up. Because this is a JAK book, naturally our heroine "unwillingly" begins to feel pleasure from this drunken assault. Eventually he stops and then passes out from all the scotch he drank.

Up to that point, there really wasn't anything to recommend Lang as a hero. He was an irresponsible bully and near-rapist who made it clear that virtually any woman would do to satisfy his requirements for the night. But despite all this, I strangely found myself warming to him as the book progressed. Maybe it was because Kali was such a strong character. Unlike a lot of JAK's early heroines who just let the hero walk all over her, Kali actually stood up for herself. Even though she couldn't fight the hero's advances physically, she kept her wits about her and used the tools she had - her manipulation talents - to steer him in the right direction. So this wasn't a situation where an overbearing man bullied a weak woman into submission. This was two strong personalities coming together in an explosion of passion and it just worked for me. And as the book progressed Lang quickly fell for Kali and knew she was the only woman for him and Kali fell hard for him as well.

Some of the other parts of the story felt a little thin and under developed. Lang's sudden decision to quit the robotics business and start writing sci fi novels came out of nowhere and felt like plot contrivance. Nowhere else in the story did he indicate that he feared having his robots used for military purposes but suddenly just before the end this fear pops up to give Kali a way to win the deal. It was pretty dumb. Lang's robotic butler was pretty ridiculous as well and didn't add anything to the plot. Kali's former mentor/fiance was barely in the book and didn't make for much of an obstacle to overcome.


Overall it was a decent read, though dated and a bit under developed due to the short length.

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Published in 1983, this is an out-of-print I had been unable to find previously. The story is pretty much what I expected of Ms. Krentz in 1983, but the characters are not as predictable in some ways as I expected. I was pretty much horrified that Lang Sterling had maxed his credit cards based on a possible sale of his patents for robotics. I'm talking huge amounts of money that he doesn't have yet. It rattled me so much that I found it hard to pay attention to anything else, including the building romance between him and Kali Havelock, whose firm wishes to buy the patents. The final scene at the restaurant with the bidding war between Kali and Davis Wakefield while Lang listens to each side is well done. Ms. Krentz also created a robot in Nalg that is appealing enough to cause a distinct pang when Lang disassembles it. When Kali says "good-bye" to Nalg as she's leaving Lang's appartment for the first time, it really illustrates the conflict between knowing something isn't alive but being unable to treat it as anything else. I would have said "good-bye" to it, too.

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the transitions were... absent, but I found it compulsive readable despite that. Kali was kind of fabulous, with impressive presence of mind in precarious situations. Lang started off as a drunk-off-his ass douchecanoe, but I grew to enjoy his character by the end, for the most part. The stuff about robots and the ethical aspects of AI development made my geeky heart sigh in happiness.

Still has some of JAK's early '80s man knows best, assault = passion unpleasantness, though, just as a warning to anyone who might be inspired to hunt down this long OOP story.

[Joy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Madam Vice President is pursuing an inventor in the robotics field. Her company wants to hire him for their research department and buy his patents. Icy, manipulative business woman versus primitive, undisciplined buccaneer. Considering the limitations of formula romance, this is actually quite good.

[Jadzia · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5 stars. Not quito so good as to give it 4 stars, but better than 3 stars - I have some doubts about the beginning. What would happen if he didn't pass out? It was all a little bit too fast, too.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was fun! light-hearted and totally enjoyable.
Second read - this time it was a little slow sometimes, but enjoyable. Will keep and read again in the future.