Undying Love

by Carole Mortimer

The secret in her heart left no room for love

Since her husband's death in a fiery car crash six months earlier Shanna had thrown herself into her work by day and wild parties by night. The truth was, Shanna was afraid of being alone--and even more afraid of love.

But the impossibly arrogant American playboy Rick Dalmont wasn't taking no for an answer. What's more, his relentless pursuit of her was more than annoying.

For Rick seemed to know that the last months of her marriage had been far from happy--and he was dangerously close to discovering the tragic reason why!

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

191 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published October 1, 1983

About the author

I have written almost 250 romance novels in contemporary and Regency.

I am a USA Today Bestselling Author and recipient of the 2015 RWA Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2014 I received a Pioneer of Romance Award from Romantic Times in the US and in 2012 I was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II for my 'outstanding service to literature'.

I am very happily married to Peter with six sons, and live on the Isle of Man

Reviews

[Azet · Rating 5 out of 5]

THIS IS ONE BEAUTIFUL STORY...

***

´They made love slowly,savouring each moment as if it really would have to last them a lifetime.And when the passion had been spent they remained as one,staying together like that as Shanna slept in Rick`s arms,and Rick slowly,painfully, watched the black of night turn into dawn`s morning light,his hold on her never wavering,as if he were willing her to live.`

***

"Undying Love" is a Harlequin romantic tale about the arrogant playboy Rick Dalmont falling head over heels in love with the only woman who have ever turned him down,the sharp businesswoman Shanna Logan who`s husband recently died.Their story of love was explosive and sweetly painful, but developed so natural.This one is a delightful re-read for me all the time.Rick was a arrogant bastard from the start, but he grew quickly in my eyes, cuz we could all see his besotted love for her and the way he clearly could not live without her and how perplexed he actually was in her power over him.I was happy for Shanna when she at LAST admitted that she loves him.Their undying love was beautiful and i just LOVE the two of them as the main-characters.Carole Mortimer was the BEST in her early years!

[Leona · Rating 1 out of 5]

Why 1 star?
- The plot is just too weird for words.
- This has got to be one of the worst endings in HP land. (Talk about getting cheated out of a HEA)
- Heroine wins the prize for annoying.
- Extreme repetitiveness. I love my deceased (worthless) husband. I despise (kind, generous, bit of a rake) hero.

I could go on and on, but I would recommend a skip on this one. CM has written better HPs. This just isn't one of them.

[*CJ* · Rating 4 out of 5]

They made love slowly, savouring each moment as if it really would have to last them a lifetime.

"Undying Love" is the story of Shanna and Lance.

A pursuit romance, with a widowed heroine and an obsessed hero. The h has been mourning her husband since his death six months ago, taking the blame of his philandering on her shortcomings. She works as an editor for her family magazine, which her brother runs.
Her mundane life is disrupted when famous billionaire and businessman Lance takes an interest in her. She repeatedly rejects and pushes him away, but he weasels his way into her life, first by becoming her boss, and soon her lover and soulmate. There is lot of banter, and pushing away from a guilt ridden h who believes herself to be in love with her ex, but the possessive hero shatters her barriers down. He also literally stalks her, removing any OM he views as a threat.

I really, really enjoyed this book. If you like loyal and devoted, yet slightly crazy heroes who fall for stubborn heroines, this book would totally work for you. The end was pleasing yet dramatic, the angst was delicious, but I *swooned* every time the hero declared his feelings for her. I wish we got a more detailed ending though, because it went fade-to-black on a hopeful note.

Safe
4.5/5

[Mtve41 · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a ridiculous plot and unfinished tedious pursuit of undying love here. I had to recheck a couple times to make sure it was written by CM. Had very Charlotte lamb feels with an extremely rude and churlish old enough (25 is kinda really old for harley land) h who snapped instead of talk.

I was done with having to read how she “snapped” back at the H or anyone else for the zillionth time. What’s the point of bothering to write an HEA for an h like that?? What in hell was she even bringing to the relationship?

The H is supposedly a playboy but I didn’t see a single betraying hair on him the length of the book. This boorish rakish devilish side of him seemed to remain in CM’s head; she certainly didn’t transport it to her writing of this book. If anything the H was gentlemanly and a paragon of astounding patience in dealing with this cranky old non-lady h.

Why was a man of Rick’s calibre even relentlessly attracted to a woman like her. When I see this in real life, kind men in relationships with overbearing I’ll-tempered women, I always see them as being weak.

So shanna here is widowed. She carries memories of her husband and absolutely refuses to slow down on her partying post his death. The H sees her and is love struck and must have her. The h hates him and absolutely does not want to be with him. She callously refuses him at his every attempt and good lord it got tedious.

There’s uninteresting back and forth between them. The h just snaps back at anything anyone says to her, esp the H. She acts like a cutesy tantrum throwing toddler at her old age of twenty five. Acts on a whim and embarrasses herself enough times. Tbh I wasn’t sure if she really did go to a decent school growing up given that her father was a wealthy man.

The ending will make you bang your head on the wall. Wtf times infinity. I highly do not recommend this book. Way better things to burn your time with. ❌❌

[Diya✨ · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.75🌟
The story was going to be a solid 4 stars for me the ending just changed it for me. It was awful how it all just ended I couldn't believe it finished and felt pretty incomplete. it felt half baked. I definitely enjoyed the rest of book great shame the ending was so rushed!

[Roub · Rating 1 out of 5]

i was bored and had to skip pages to finish the book. the heroine shanna was weird at best. so rick definitely fell for her beauty, which will not last in the long. he shud have gone and got himself another woman. she was too difficult for my tastes and seemed still in love wid the bastard perry. ders nthg excusable about perry's awful behaviour. yet, she found excuses for him! rick was worth more than thousands of perry in gold!

[Tia · Rating 3 out of 5]

The ending was beyond crappy in this novel. I mean talk about a rush job. I couldn't get over it. I did enjoy the rest of it though, a lot.

[iamGamz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I hated Rick. Really, really hated him. He was obnoxious, cruel, arrogant, and seemed so damned disgusting unkind to Shanna.

She was no angel herself, but being a new widow, you understood and excused her reaction to Rick.

But there was so much more at play. It wasn’t until the last couple chapters of the book that the truth began to emerge. And then I loved Rick.

This book left me with all the feels. Didn’t think I would like it what I first started it, but it was such compelling story that I couldn’t help be love it.

Worth the read.

[Trenchologist · Rating 2 out of 5]

September Readathon

What a strange one.

The setup and 15/16ths of the book is compulsion-is-love, clanging couple, chase her around until she gives in. The final 16th is almost a gothic novel of big heaving feelings and admissions, secrets revealed, and an uncertain HEA that's only promised in a whisper of the short and final paragraph.

Just a tonal mess.

Neither lead likable enough to endear me to this couple and root for them despite the strangeness, and that 1/16th not enough to make it Bonkers and enjoy it as that, and anyway. Her being a widow of less than a year doesn't help, particularly as she was/is in love with her deceased husband, regardless how their marriage broke down and then ended. But this hero isn't going to take no for an answer (especially as he's at last in love, who cares about anyone else), and the heroine decides she is too, for reasons I don't understand.

Him--desire and wanting to nudge her back 'to life.' Her ... unclear.

He's brutish and when the heroine says what he's doing to her is sexual harassment, she's not wrong. Sometimes that can work, sometimes I really like that, I didn't find it working or likable in this book. She wasn't a pushover and he wasn't a total cad; found her care-taking him during his flu and him being laid low charming. I can tell myself there's undercurrents now that I know the big secret. But nothing about them had me building castles -- it's hard to weave spells on her continuing honest insistence of how much she loved her husband and his blunt assertions of how much sex he needs and who he plans to get it from.

The secret/reveal at the end -- lol goodness golly me. If my impression and feelings were based only from those OTT final pages, I'd be more enthusiastic--he's keelhauled and vulnerable and finally in his life so-in-love, and that can be delicious--but as it stands, it wasn't earned.

I'd believe it if you told me Mortimer had a different book ending she'd never used lying around, and pasted that in to finish this one, just to be well done with and rid of these two characters treading water in a plot she'd lost interest in starting around page ten.

[Crazyuga · Rating 5 out of 5]

I hated that the book had abrupt ending and no epilogue!!
I would have love to see the heroine get well and be married to the Hero....

[DamsonDreamer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Charity shop find with a different cover (Mills & Boon not HP). Wish I could screenshot it as it's truly bizarre. A man and a woman striding along a corridor several feet apart.
Says published in 1983. Was trying to think about the date of relevant employment legislation as at one point the H and h discuss the suitability of two female job interviewees, having dismissed one because she was married and he'd asked her if she was planning on starting a family soon. Ah yes, sex discrimination still alive and well in 1983.
Anyway, she's Shanna Logan, widowed magazine editor with underlying health issue. He's tycoon manwhore Rick Dalmont who takes the company over. It's all a bit "I want you and I mean to have you" but compelling enough. A bit odd and jerky as some of these often are but heart essentially in right place. Not a reread for me.

[EmMa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well... I didn't see that coming!!
The title suits the novel so much that It was a great bonus..
The last chapter, especially the last paragraph was so overwhelming I didn't help crying :")
Plus the physical attraction ,which was merely a complementary part in their story -in my opinion-, Their Controversies and quarrels then their compassion and affection afterwards!! When they fell in love with each other they were literally swept off their feet I wept..
I hope I will have love like that in my life.. undying love. Well, who wouldn't?!! :)

[Ashima · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it!!

[Emma Long · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too many typos.

The story was engaging enough if you could figure out what was supposed to be said. Extremely poor editing. Very disappointing.

[Annarose · Rating 1 out of 5]

Shanna wanted nothing to do with love and Ricardo Dalmont. He was too attached to her older brother for her liking and was relentless in his pursuit of her ever since she became a widow. For how long would she keep him at arm's length when now he is her boss in Fashion Magazine, though?

The events and the main characters gave this book away. Wonder how such a brilliant writer like Carole Mortimer wrote such an awful book! For a supposedly strong 24-year old women, the heroine acted as a demented child towards her illness! She was rich and had no trouble checking what was wrong with her. Yet, she stayed for one year and a half torturing herself without checking it out nor asking about the operation she needed! Woow. The hero is so childish to my liking as well. He lusted after her body and didn't much care about her emotions towards him in his pursuit all along. Therefore, the ending was meaningless and way too exaggerated to be taken romantically. This book fails to impress in more than one level. Disappointing.

[Mimilikestoreadandwrite · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a weird book. I read it very slowly through weeks, but around 70%, I just had to jump to the end and see what's the heroine's big secret. The story had all the elements I usually like: besotted hero, does everything to win the heroine's heart; the heroine is self reliant and strong enough to go toe to toe with the macho, possessive hero. That said, this hero is way too pushy, and the chase goes for way too long, worse even, it goes in circles with the both of them having seemingly the same conversations for 70% (at least) of the book. It goes like this:
-I want you, you belong to me. Let's have sex.
-No, I don't like you, plus I still love my late husband.

This book read to me like an overlong HR complaint over sexual harassment. I do NOT recommend it.

[Kathryn H · Rating 3 out of 5]

Back in the '80s when I was a young mum I used to read lots of Mills & Boon books. I liked them because, being a busy mum I could pick them up and put them down without losing the plot. Back then, my local second-hand store used to keep them for me and this one by Carol Mortimer was one of my all-time faves.
My M&B collection got discarded through my many moves, but I always kept this one, because I thought it was special.

Now rereading about 35 years later. I'm not quite sure what I saw in this novel.... I found it really difficult to cope with the way he spoke to her and it was a struggle to finish it this time around. I will have no issue popping this one into the donation box. 😊

[Νίνα Δοδούδη · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Στη σκιά του παρελθόντος" - Carole Mortimer, Σειρά Χρυσά, νούμερο 180, έτος έκδοσης στην Ελλάδα: 1983

Από την πρώτη στιγμή που αντάμωσαν, της είπε ξεκάθαρα ότι την ποθούσε. Φυσικά για αγάπη, δεν γινόταν λόγος. Η φήμη του Ρικ Ντάλμοντ ήταν ήδη γνωστή. Κι η Σάνυ ήξερε πολύ καλά πως είχε "ποθήσει" στο παρελθόν πολλές άλλες γυναίκες, που μόλις κουραζόταν, πέταγε σαν άχρηστα χαρτομάντιλα. Γιατί λοιπόν να προστεθεί κι αυτή, στην ατέλειωτη λίστα των κατακτήσεων του αχόρταγου Ρικ; Κι έπειτα, δεν είχε συνέλθει ακόμα από το θάνατο του αγαπημένου της άντρα, του Πέρυ. Πώς μπορούσε στ' αλήθεια να νομίζει ο Ρικ, ότι ήταν σε θέση να της προσφέρει κάτι ανάλογο, με τον έρωτα που εκείνη κι ο Πέρυ είχαν κάποτε μοιραστεί;

ΠΟΛΥ ΑΓΑΠΗΜΕΝΟ!!!!

[Kennedy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this book. If I'm being honest, I hated the H at first, but I eventually got over it. The heroine is the type I like; aloof, distant, cool (traits that have the capability of giving her the emotional upper hand even though she throws it away sometimes by slipping. I love the tug-of-war and explosiveness of their relationship. The plot was also pleasing to my tastes, not so sure about that ending though.

[Debra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Undying Love

This alpha male knew what he wanted and got it. So when he saw her for the first time she was his. But she wasn't going to give him the time of day anytime soon. Her husband had only been dead for six months. And rumor has it that he was not faithful. Why was she fighting the attraction between them? What was her secret? And was his interest in her fleeting?

[Sara · Rating 1 out of 5]

mehh. Don´t want to hear how much the h loved her dead husband. At least until he started having affairs because she was diagnosed with a heart disease. WHAAAAAT?
Nahh to weak. And the other reviewers are right. To abrupt an ending.
Mutual ILUs tho

[Pravana · Rating 2 out of 5]

An author I have always loved.

But...I struggled to finish this one.
Aruna's review sums it up very nicely.

The last few pages were best part of the book..

[3houd · Rating 1 out of 5]

The H was a creep! I don't know why authors insist on romanticizing this kind of savagery! YUCK!

[Elaine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love reading this author. This was a very enjoyable read. Loved it! 5☆

[RomLibrary]

Uncovering her secrets…

Since her husband’s death six months ago Shanna has thrown herself into her work by day and wild parties by night. Anything to avoid being alone with her own thoughts and darkest fears…

But arrogant American playboy Rick Dalmont isn’t taking no for an answer. His relentless pursuit is annoying—and more than a little exhilarating! But Rick seems to know that the last months of Shanna’s marriage had been far from happy—and he is dangerously close to discovering the tragic reason why…!

[Debby · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the very best HP’s ever. They don’t write them like this anymore.

I love it when a besotted H relentlessly pursues the h. And this H does nothing else. What made it even better was that this h was no easy pushover. She has a backbone, which is not common for HP h’s.

But the ending was too abrupt. Carole Mortimer should have written at least one page more on the happy ending. If there would have been sequel stories of this couple, I would buy them all.

[Diamond]

وانطفأت الشموع
أريدك... كل النساء اللواتي سمعن هذه الكلمة من جو لوتشي سقطن في لهيب ناره كفراشات عمياء، إلا أليسون إليوت . فأسوار قلبها أوصدها سر حزين، وعيناها قبل شفتيها أعلنتا العصيان وقالتا: لا قلبي لن يسقط في دائرة النار ..
لكن جو لوتشي رفض الرسالة وحارب على كل الجبهات دون أن ينسحب فهل ينجح أم يرفع الراية البيضاء ؟

[Janice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shanna threw herself into work and party, never wanting to be alone, after the death of her husband's 6 months earlier. But Rick Dalmont refuses to be turned aside. Bit problem introduced and solved in the last 10 pages. :(

[Maysam · Rating 3 out of 5]

fantastic .....
loooooved the ending.
If you are the crying type like me, keep some tissues at hand