The Road

Latimore Saga #1

by Emma Goldrick

The Road by Emma Goldrick released on Oct 25, 1984 is available now for purchase.

Genres: Harlequin

192 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1984

About the author

Emma Goldrick is the penname used by the marriage formed by Emma Elizabeth Jean Sutcliffe, borned 7 February 1923 in Puerto Rico, and Robert N. Goldrick, borned on 22 March 1919 in Massachusetts, USA. They met in Puerto Rico, where married. She was a licensed practical nurse, volunteered with American Red Cross and she taught American Sign Language and he was a career USA military man. Thirty years and 4 children later they retired, and in 1980 they started to write in collaboration, and their first novel was accepted and published in 1983 by Mills & Boon. They continued publishing 40 novels until Robert passed away at 76, in 22 January 1996. After her husband death, she published her last novel and retired. Emma Goldrick passed away at 85, in 20 November 2008.

Reviews

[JillyB · Rating 3 out of 5]

My 2nd EG book. This may be 3.5 ⭐️ for me, however, I am still grappling with the last 50 pages of the book. I started reading book 2 in the Latimore series, and then stopped when I realized that there was a book 1. I decided I am going to do this in order. I am still unsure about the writing style of EG, but so far in both books, lots of the angst action takes place in the last 1/3 or 1/4 of the book and the couple have already declared their love before the angst. There are some questionable things happening in the last 1/4 of the book that I will give you fair warning about.

First of all the book gave a shout out to my hometown Grand Rapids, so I had a little point of pride with that. The story actually takes place outside of Boston, but in some ways I felt we were in a little backwards town near the Appalachian Mountains.

This review does give some spoilers along the way. I try to not go into much detail, but they still end up being a spoiler. So STOP 🛑 now if you want a total cold 🥶 read. 🛑 SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!!

Heroine(27)-Mary Chase is widowed and the stepmother to a 15 year old girl and a 30 something year old man. Yes, you heard that right. They both even call her ma. As other reviewers pointed out she acts much older than your typical 27 year old, but she was thrust into a grown up role pretty fast. When she was 12 her mother took up a position as housekeeper for the Colonel who lost his wife with the unexpected pregnancy then birth of their daughter. 5 years later, the h’s mom is dead and she marries the colonel(51 to her 17 😬) It was a full on marriage. However, due to to a prostate surgery he was unable to impregnate her yet according to her everything else worked fine. I do believe she loved him, but I am sure she had the whole daddy/lover thing combined and mixed up a bit. She is currently studying to be a lawyer and already has a degree in agriculture and went to cooking school.

Hero-35 ish has a 6 year old daughter that he barely knows as he travels all over the world starting up his construction company. I am not sure what happened to the mom but she stays with the Driscoll family when her father is traveling (she has little love for the Driscolls or her grandmother who she visits at times). He has been fighting over some land with the h for several years now. He is constructing a highway from Boston that cuts right through her farmland. He has had a representative up until this point but now he is taking charge with his child in tow. The child is instantly smitten with the h and her farm. The H is unaware that the h has been working behind the scenes through her 82 year old lawyer to find reasons they cannot build a road(ecological, historical, etc..) The hero decides to buy a house in the same town as the h and this is where the love story begins.

The H’s daughter and the h’s stepdaughter are doing their matchmaking best to get these 2 together. The H gets on board with this idea, but plans on wooing her first. He knows that she needs to get over the colonel(even though it has been 5 years!!)They go out, have lots of fun, and then the H gets tired of waiting for her to choose him or the dead colonel. So, he leaves to go work in Venezuela and sends his daughter to grandmas. It’s Christmas time and the blizzard to end all blizzards is happening. The h gets a call from Mattie that she has run away and is at a bus station. Our h takes off in a tractor and goes to get her. Phones are down and she finally gets through to the H in Venezuela and indicates that she loves him. He hops on a plane, gets there in the middle of the night. They kiss and she’s like this is nice but no fireworks...then there is some stroking and our little h comes undone. They are pretty close to putting the whole damn house on fire when Mattie interrupts it all. After this incident the h is ready to get married quickly, but the pastor steers her to Valentine’s Day.

Yay! we are married happily by the end of chapter 7, and now we have 50 more pages and 3 more chapters left to go!! Oh what to do what to do!!! This is where our train of a story goes off the rails. This is probably where a lot of people start taking stars off their review. (If they haven’t already for the pervy marriage between the h and Colonel). Last warning! 🛑 🛑 now if you do not want to know about the ending and its non pc ways.

Our h is brought to the H’s big city office where she is signing documents left and right. She is now a shareholder, although her husband gets to do what he wants with her votes. Then the Lawyer gives her 1 more document to sign. This one says she will drop the suit against the H and the proposed road. Our h becomes distraught, now she knows why he married her. There is no love, its about the 6 million dollar road deal. She leaves the office and gets in a cab arriving at her “son’s” house. She shares what she thinks the H has done to her and faints. The H is trying to find her and talk to her. She isn’t having any of it. They end up in court over the land with a new judge. This whole court scene is crazier than a Spanish soap opera. The H is actually physically shaking her in court(and doesn’t get hauled off right away?) The H keeps trying to explain a few things and he is getting angrier and angrier. The h actually thinks he wants to do her harm. It snowballs more and more, with the h fleeing the courtroom with the H following. He gets detained by the police. This whole court case becomes big news. Well unbeknownst to the h the H actually gets thrown in jail and only she can release him. She doesn’t know this until the next day. So she brings the 2 girls with her to release him and she has to take him back home. While in the car the news breaks that the construction can continue on the road, the H almost sounds like he is gloating and our h leaves the car after stalling it and runs to the farm house. He shows up later only to be greeted with a shotgun. (It’s supposedly unloaded and she shoots at him) He is super angry. He breaks down the door. He grabs her and then this happens:

“She gritted her teeth, determined not to give him the satisfaction of hearing her cry. His hand seemed practised. He flipped up her skirts and pulled down her briefs in one motion. There was no heat in the house, and the draught struck her before he did. She looked back over her shoulder at his massive hand, raised with palm open, and then ducked her head and bit her lip. When the hand came down the pain was sharp, the humility worse. She struggled to suppress it, but one small whimper escaped, and the hand came down again. And again. And again.”

Now in some stories a little spank can lead to an erotic tussle in the bed. However, this was an abusive spanking episode that leaves her bruised and unable to sit. He proceeds to explain to her that the road route was changed back in November to go the way she suggested which was south. Now why in tarnation didn’t he tell her that on the wedding night. “Hey honey I have a package for you to unwrap in the bedroom plus I am not going to mow down the precious farmland!”

He then tells her she has until 8pm to return home to him and leaves. She goes to her son’s home then decides to walk in the pouring rain to their shared home. He must have had a change of heart because he finds her walking and offers her a lift and his apologies for his anger. She tells him she can’t sit, so he lays her in the back of the vehicle on her stomach.

They get back home. He bemoans the fact that he hasn’t had sex in the last 3 days, and even though she is in pain, she hopes that tomorrow she will be good enough to resume her wifely duties. There is talk of future children and the moment they both knew they loved each other. She falls asleep and the story ends with him taking a cold shower.

I KNOW!!!! That was some crazy stuff packed in the last 50 pages. I’m not sure why I get an evil delight out of these old time stories. I’m old enough to remember when this stuff was ok, but young enough to know that this is not ok. My rating is not really based on this at all, it is based on my overall feelings for the story. I enjoyed my time reading the story, I just don’t think it warrants a 4 or 5 as those stories are ones I may read again. I am good with reading this one time 🤔 . Ok off to book 2 where I guess there will be an evil ow...can’t wait!

[Saly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating 3.25 stars
There were some points I liked about the book, some I didn't. I liked that the heroine was smart and beat the hero at law, but I found her hanging on to her husband "the Colonel" not that great since we found out she married him when she was 17 and he 51. She has two step-children one older than her and despite being 27 she behaves too old.

I also didn't like the last few pages of the book, when the hero kind of beats her and she actually behaves like a ninny in court. Overall okay book.

[EeeJay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating: 4.25.
The first of the series. Let me make one thing clear: Yes, it fits onto 190 pages but the content makes it a full-length novel. It certainly moves like one too. Anyhoo, I loved the whole book, especially since this the FIRST book where EG does NOT have a h who thinks to herself! REALLY! The only (veryyyyyyyyyyy tiny) blip on the radar was something the H did right at the end...oh, well. Can't have it all...
Very funny - I loved Mattie...!
The song for the story: Here

[Milkchis · Rating 2 out of 5]

gros red flag, je sais que c'est un livre d'époque mais entre une relation d'un premier mariage avec plus de 30 ans d'écart un mariage entre une mineur et un daron, puis un second mariage avec un homme (trop) autoritaire et (trop) violent c'est limite. Gros probleme de daddy issue je pense.

[Claire · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not recommended. Unless you don’t mind un-pc matters and you’re like me -- glomming the books in this series.

This is the first book and it introduces the matriarch of the Latimer family, Mary Kate. She meets her future husband Bruce and his adorable 6 year old daughter when Bruce decides to come to her town and settle once-and-for-all the delay in his big construction project. TheH/h are set up as adversaries as, unbeknownst to Bruce, it is due to Mary’s legal counsel and interference that work is being tied up in court.

The story is actually old-fashioned, light, fast-paced and would've easily rated 3 stars for me. One of the funny lines in the book was, when after Bruce kisses Mary, Mary asked a bit tartly, “What’s that in honour of?” and he retorted, “Just testing. Every now and again when you’re making a stew you have to taste it to see if the seasoning is proper. Not so?” This kind of banter is something I can imagine Spencer and Hepburn delivering.

That the guy was a chauvinist was bearable to me because the heroine made him sweat in return. For the most part she called the tune and he had no choice but to yield. But the book contained two significant issues that would turn off squeamish people like me.

**spoilers ahead**

The first issue was actually dealt with in a matter-of-fact way by the 27 year old heroine. You see, it greatly disturbed the sensibilities of the hero – as it rightly should -- that she was married to a 51 year old when she was only 17 years old. (As a young child, she and her mom had moved in the house of this dirty-old-man and his family as the mom was employed as a housekeeper.) This would have been tolerable had it been a marriage-in-name only… but it wasn’t. By her accounts, her short-lived marriage, only lasting 5 year, was a true union in both physical and emotional sense. (retch.)

Now the second issue happened at the end after the courtroom fight. Admittedly, the guy was greatly provoked by the girl’s madcap antics – like threatening him with an unloaded shotgun and the shotgun accidentally going off. But he spanked her afterwards! As in lay her over his knees and spanked her.

And it wasn’t just a light swat or two. He whacked her hard enough that she couldn’t sit on her backside afterwards; she had to lay down on her belly in the car. Sure enough, there was the obligatory apology afterwards and caring attention to the bruise. But nope…uh-uh…nyet…nothing doing. The author (or should I say authors because this is a husband-and-wife team) dealt with this as if it’s all done in good clean love. But sorry, the ending was totally ruined for me.

Forewarned is forearmed.


The books in the series are:
The Road
Tempered by Fire
Latimore Bride
Faith Hope and Marriage
Bringing up Babies