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This Time, Forever
Her marriage had been a mistake
It had been an attraction of opposites with charming, cynical Jim Logan--one that hadn't worked out.
Now that Alexandra was happily engaged to Roxby, she could forget the past--until she encountered Jim again in Sorrento.
"You're not complicating my life any more," she told him, and made it quite clear that she wanted nothing to do with him--so she wondered why he was pursuing her. After all, he had the glamorous Juliette as his companion--just as he had three years ago!
It had been an attraction of opposites with charming, cynical Jim Logan--one that hadn't worked out.
Now that Alexandra was happily engaged to Roxby, she could forget the past--until she encountered Jim again in Sorrento.
"You're not complicating my life any more," she told him, and made it quite clear that she wanted nothing to do with him--so she wondered why he was pursuing her. After all, he had the glamorous Juliette as his companion--just as he had three years ago!
192 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published October 1, 1989
28 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
June 21, 2024
He never cheated on her so they can have their HEA!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You see, his secretary happened to show up at his doorstep in the middle of the night.
She happened to be drunk because she had just been dumped by her boyfriend.
He happened to welcome her in while the heroine, his wife, was away.
He happened to go to the kitchen to make her some coffee.
She happened to take off her clothes and put the stereo really, really loud to do a seductive dance for him.
His wife happened to walk in on that innocent scene, at night in her home, with a drunk, naked secretary dancing to loud music.
He happened to sober her up and send her on her way later on that night.
He happened to accept his wife's divorce and ignore her during a long separation.
And the Secretary happens to still work for him after all these years.
You see????????????? It was all innocent and everything was the heroine's fault!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You see, his secretary happened to show up at his doorstep in the middle of the night.
She happened to be drunk because she had just been dumped by her boyfriend.
He happened to welcome her in while the heroine, his wife, was away.
He happened to go to the kitchen to make her some coffee.
She happened to take off her clothes and put the stereo really, really loud to do a seductive dance for him.
His wife happened to walk in on that innocent scene, at night in her home, with a drunk, naked secretary dancing to loud music.
He happened to sober her up and send her on her way later on that night.
He happened to accept his wife's divorce and ignore her during a long separation.
And the Secretary happens to still work for him after all these years.
You see????????????? It was all innocent and everything was the heroine's fault!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
May 11, 2017
Re This Time, Forever - Jenny Arden's penultimate HP is a second chance story. The h is a solicitor who divorced the H three years prior to the story start. The H believe they got divorced because she wanted to be a solicitor more than being his wife. They were married for two years and the h was busy the latter half of that with school, so the H did not argue when the h came back from a school trip and asked for a divorce, he felt that they had just grown too far apart.
In reality, the h came back early from her trip and found the H in a state of semi dress with his naked secretary plastered up against him in their house. The h, being the typical hysterical TSTL HP h, quietly backed out of the room and then pretended to come home the next day. She got her divorce and never once told either her grandmother, who raised her, or her mother , who is a complete waste as a parent, that the H had been cheating on her.
I do have to admit, I almost understood why she kept silent, both the grandmother and the mother would have beaten her over the head with the fact that the H cheated cause she was a bad wife and too focused on graduating law school.
When the book opens, the h has just moved her grandmother next door to her own home and is currently engaged to another lawyer in her firm. She is taking a vacation in Italy and waiting for her new fiance to join her. The new fiance gets delayed on a big case and the h is wandering around by herself when the H shows up. The h isn't pleased to see him, in fact she is practically hysterically apoplectic with rage that he would intrude upon her. It is very obvious that she carries a tremendous amount of pent up rage and pain over his betrayal.
The H imposes himself upon her and there is a lot of bitter verbal exchanges. The H tells her that her grandmother, who really likes the H, wants the H to help her with her new home maintenance and the grandma's new overgrown garden. The h resolves to keep her cool in future H encounters, and tells him to do whatever he wants and stalks off.
The next day the h gets stranded on one of the smaller islands she was visiting and has limited funds but needs a room. She knows the H is on the island too and ends up sharing a room with him when all the others are booked up. There is more hysterical h shoutings and the H goes out of his way to be appropriately manipulative and deliberately provoking and very into forcing the roofie kisses. The h's new fiance never makes it to Italy and the h has to return home.
We meet the new fiance and it is a sure bet he won't be around long when he tells the h she will have to give up her cat to someone else when they marry cause he is allergic to them. (That pretty much ended his part for me, cause no- cat persons are not appropriate H material in my book and shouldn't be given page time.) We also learn that the h has agreed not to have kids with her new fiance, even tho she wanted them when married to the H.
The next bit is the H poping up all over the place and the h's grandma telling the h that the H is getting married again. The h assumes it is to his secretary that he was helping do her body polish and this seems to be confirmed when the H shows up with the tart while the h and her grandmother are out at dinner. The OW accosts the h in the restroom, telling her how the H called her cold and distant and how much the tart despises her. Then she grabs the h in the ladies room, the h tells her to back off or she will press charges for assault. The h tells the H off and leaves. She STILL doesn't tell her grandmother about the H's affair, even when grandma chides her for her behavior.
The H gets assigned to the h as a client over some business acquisitions and she and the h have a big dragon riding moment one night when the H makes her meet him at his house. The h finds out she is preggers and she breaks her engagement, not that the fiance really seemed to care all that much anyway. She swears her mother and grandmother to silence and then plans to move away to raise her child as the H has just bought a manor close by and the h wants nothing to do with him.
The H eventually finds out about the baby when he accuses the fiance of dumping the pregger h and he decides they need to remarry. The h doesn't want to and runs away. Her grandmother and her useless mother pimp her out to the H and he shows up at her retreat and they argue some more.
The H claims he was never engaged to his secretary, tho he told the h he was and also that he was piking the secretary on a regular basis. The h is determined to just share custody cause this H continually tries to bully her and lies and generally manipulates her. The H roofie kisses her into admitting she still loves him and he claims to love her too. She still refuses marriage because he cheated with the skeezy secretary and that is why she divorced him.
The H pretends he was utterly innocent and the h's accusations are completely unfounded. The H claims that the secretary showed up drunk after a fight with her boyfriend while the h was off on her trip. She cried all over him, then took her clothes off and passed out. He claims he never slept with the OW and that the secretary is married to someone else. That is arguably debatable, because the h's other complaint was that the H went from feast to famine in the boudoir bouncing. The H tried to blame it on her school workload, but the h was pretty sure he just did not want her and the H spent considerable amounts of time with the secretary, including overseas business trips.
The H says he has only wanted the h and he has been hounding her all this time to break her engagement - with the h's family's support- and to win her back. The h believes him without question and they decide to remarry for the HEA.
This book was too long and the h not speaking up about the H's cheating went on until literally the second to last page of the book. It doesn't work, because the H is too overwhelmingly present and into the OW for most of the scenes, except when he is antagonizing the h.
The h is too hysterical and has too many temper tantrums to make the story palatable. Plus she literally accepts the H's OW explanation in the last three paragraphs of the book WITH NO QUESTIONS AT ALL - just a lot of remorse that she made a judgement error and will spend her life worshiping at the H's feet to atone for her mistake. (I don't think the judgement error happened when she saw the H and OW, I think the judgement error was being made right then on that ending page.)
Then again she is pretty much pimped out by every character except for the distant fiance and JA relies too much on the HPlandia unspoken custom that the H is not really cheating, even when it is clear that he absolutely is - because it was just the appearance of adultery when his secretary was naked in his arms in the living room of the h's home and he was half dressed - HP H's always get the benefit of doubt. Even if the h walks in on the actual act, it is only because the H tripped and his zip got stuck. It wasn't really cheating.
That is the continual failure of JA's books though. In her HP's that she uses a cheating trope story line, she tries to make the case for the H being falsely accused of adultery and in every case of this trope, JA utterly fails.
Her circumstances are too convincing, her explanations come much too late and her h's are usually too immaturely hysterical to say anything at the time and so easily manipulated and gas-lighted by the H that it pretty much means that a JA book is going to wind up on the be happy the h is happy list with a blatantly cheating H and can be dismissed as just another long, weary day at the HP office.
In reality, the h came back early from her trip and found the H in a state of semi dress with his naked secretary plastered up against him in their house. The h, being the typical hysterical TSTL HP h, quietly backed out of the room and then pretended to come home the next day. She got her divorce and never once told either her grandmother, who raised her, or her mother , who is a complete waste as a parent, that the H had been cheating on her.
I do have to admit, I almost understood why she kept silent, both the grandmother and the mother would have beaten her over the head with the fact that the H cheated cause she was a bad wife and too focused on graduating law school.
When the book opens, the h has just moved her grandmother next door to her own home and is currently engaged to another lawyer in her firm. She is taking a vacation in Italy and waiting for her new fiance to join her. The new fiance gets delayed on a big case and the h is wandering around by herself when the H shows up. The h isn't pleased to see him, in fact she is practically hysterically apoplectic with rage that he would intrude upon her. It is very obvious that she carries a tremendous amount of pent up rage and pain over his betrayal.
The H imposes himself upon her and there is a lot of bitter verbal exchanges. The H tells her that her grandmother, who really likes the H, wants the H to help her with her new home maintenance and the grandma's new overgrown garden. The h resolves to keep her cool in future H encounters, and tells him to do whatever he wants and stalks off.
The next day the h gets stranded on one of the smaller islands she was visiting and has limited funds but needs a room. She knows the H is on the island too and ends up sharing a room with him when all the others are booked up. There is more hysterical h shoutings and the H goes out of his way to be appropriately manipulative and deliberately provoking and very into forcing the roofie kisses. The h's new fiance never makes it to Italy and the h has to return home.
We meet the new fiance and it is a sure bet he won't be around long when he tells the h she will have to give up her cat to someone else when they marry cause he is allergic to them. (That pretty much ended his part for me, cause no- cat persons are not appropriate H material in my book and shouldn't be given page time.) We also learn that the h has agreed not to have kids with her new fiance, even tho she wanted them when married to the H.
The next bit is the H poping up all over the place and the h's grandma telling the h that the H is getting married again. The h assumes it is to his secretary that he was helping do her body polish and this seems to be confirmed when the H shows up with the tart while the h and her grandmother are out at dinner. The OW accosts the h in the restroom, telling her how the H called her cold and distant and how much the tart despises her. Then she grabs the h in the ladies room, the h tells her to back off or she will press charges for assault. The h tells the H off and leaves. She STILL doesn't tell her grandmother about the H's affair, even when grandma chides her for her behavior.
The H gets assigned to the h as a client over some business acquisitions and she and the h have a big dragon riding moment one night when the H makes her meet him at his house. The h finds out she is preggers and she breaks her engagement, not that the fiance really seemed to care all that much anyway. She swears her mother and grandmother to silence and then plans to move away to raise her child as the H has just bought a manor close by and the h wants nothing to do with him.
The H eventually finds out about the baby when he accuses the fiance of dumping the pregger h and he decides they need to remarry. The h doesn't want to and runs away. Her grandmother and her useless mother pimp her out to the H and he shows up at her retreat and they argue some more.
The H claims he was never engaged to his secretary, tho he told the h he was and also that he was piking the secretary on a regular basis. The h is determined to just share custody cause this H continually tries to bully her and lies and generally manipulates her. The H roofie kisses her into admitting she still loves him and he claims to love her too. She still refuses marriage because he cheated with the skeezy secretary and that is why she divorced him.
The H pretends he was utterly innocent and the h's accusations are completely unfounded. The H claims that the secretary showed up drunk after a fight with her boyfriend while the h was off on her trip. She cried all over him, then took her clothes off and passed out. He claims he never slept with the OW and that the secretary is married to someone else. That is arguably debatable, because the h's other complaint was that the H went from feast to famine in the boudoir bouncing. The H tried to blame it on her school workload, but the h was pretty sure he just did not want her and the H spent considerable amounts of time with the secretary, including overseas business trips.
The H says he has only wanted the h and he has been hounding her all this time to break her engagement - with the h's family's support- and to win her back. The h believes him without question and they decide to remarry for the HEA.
This book was too long and the h not speaking up about the H's cheating went on until literally the second to last page of the book. It doesn't work, because the H is too overwhelmingly present and into the OW for most of the scenes, except when he is antagonizing the h.
The h is too hysterical and has too many temper tantrums to make the story palatable. Plus she literally accepts the H's OW explanation in the last three paragraphs of the book WITH NO QUESTIONS AT ALL - just a lot of remorse that she made a judgement error and will spend her life worshiping at the H's feet to atone for her mistake. (I don't think the judgement error happened when she saw the H and OW, I think the judgement error was being made right then on that ending page.)
Then again she is pretty much pimped out by every character except for the distant fiance and JA relies too much on the HPlandia unspoken custom that the H is not really cheating, even when it is clear that he absolutely is - because it was just the appearance of adultery when his secretary was naked in his arms in the living room of the h's home and he was half dressed - HP H's always get the benefit of doubt. Even if the h walks in on the actual act, it is only because the H tripped and his zip got stuck. It wasn't really cheating.
That is the continual failure of JA's books though. In her HP's that she uses a cheating trope story line, she tries to make the case for the H being falsely accused of adultery and in every case of this trope, JA utterly fails.
Her circumstances are too convincing, her explanations come much too late and her h's are usually too immaturely hysterical to say anything at the time and so easily manipulated and gas-lighted by the H that it pretty much means that a JA book is going to wind up on the be happy the h is happy list with a blatantly cheating H and can be dismissed as just another long, weary day at the HP office.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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July 13, 2019This is a wife finding husband with naked secretary book. Divorced him. She never told him that she saw him with secretary. His excuse is classic at the end. She has a delightful cat named jingles.
January 13, 2020
Her marriage had been a mistake
It had been an attraction of opposites with charming, cynical Jim Logan--one that hadn't worked out.
Now that Alexandra was happily engaged to Roxby, she could forget the past--until she encountered Jim again in Sorrento.
"You're not complicating my life any more," she told him, and made it quite clear that she wanted nothing to do with him--so she wondered why he was pursuing her. After all, he had the glamorous Juliette as his companion--just as he had three years ago!
It had been an attraction of opposites with charming, cynical Jim Logan--one that hadn't worked out.
Now that Alexandra was happily engaged to Roxby, she could forget the past--until she encountered Jim again in Sorrento.
"You're not complicating my life any more," she told him, and made it quite clear that she wanted nothing to do with him--so she wondered why he was pursuing her. After all, he had the glamorous Juliette as his companion--just as he had three years ago!
September 12, 2025
"Forever"???? I say NEVER!!!
What a load of crap this book was!
Let's list the wrongs:
The h is unsure about marriage/commitment because of her trainwreck parents but marries the H ASAP.
The H knows of her doubts yet still rushes her.
The h wants to get her law degree and pass the bar so the H can be proud of her yet doesn't let him know why she's working so hard to be a success and how much she appreciates his paying for her law school.
The H and h find themselves drifting apart but don't do anything about it, until the h suggests separating and the H agrees, when neither wants it.
The H lets his emotionally unstable secretary strip naked in his living room because she's having relationship troubles (WTF!!!)!
The h (who decided she wanted her marriage more than anything) sees this but (naturally) doesn't confront them, just runs off, pretends she doesn't know and asks for a divorce.
The H (not knowing what she saw) readily agrees to a divorce without an argument.
The H an h spent three years with false resentments: she thinking he cheated, he thinking she put her law career over their marriage and possibly used him to get tuition.
The h gets engaged to a man who's the opposite of the H (naturally) and (also naturally) doesn't sleep with him and doesn't mind a bit that he's content to wait for marriage and accepts passionless kisses for the time being.
The h gets all butthurt when she thinks the H is engaged to naked lady, keeps letting him know how "happy" she is with the OM, makes nasty, snarky comments whenever she can, gets horny whenever he's near yet - of course - she's NOT still in love with him!
The H can't keep his hands to himself when he's around the h, yet at the same time talks about his engagement to the OW/naked lady.
The h succumbs to passion and then (of course) blames the H for "forcing" her to orgasm.
If the H and h are both engaged to other people, this makes them both cheaters.
While the h gets a few good points for breaking her engagement afterwards (though not telling the OM she cheated), she loses them when she finds out she's pregnant, determines NOT to tell the H and makes her sweet grandmother (who was used by both the H and h) promise not to say anything either!
That's when I stopped reading! If there's one thing I HATE is when the h uses her baby as a weapon, planning to deprive it of Daddy because Mommy can't face the fact that she loves him! Here's my rule: unless the H is abusive, addicted to alcohol or drugs, involved in criminal activity, is mentally unstable or is living an immoral lifestyle (swinging, group sex, etc.) the h has NO RIGHT TO KEEP HIM FROM KNOWING ABOUT THEIR BABY!!!
I didn't stick around for the ending, so I made one up for myself. She miscarries, they never get back together, and no one lives HEA!
Skip this one, unless you have a toilet paper crisis!
What a load of crap this book was!
Let's list the wrongs:
The h is unsure about marriage/commitment because of her trainwreck parents but marries the H ASAP.
The H knows of her doubts yet still rushes her.
The h wants to get her law degree and pass the bar so the H can be proud of her yet doesn't let him know why she's working so hard to be a success and how much she appreciates his paying for her law school.
The H and h find themselves drifting apart but don't do anything about it, until the h suggests separating and the H agrees, when neither wants it.
The H lets his emotionally unstable secretary strip naked in his living room because she's having relationship troubles (WTF!!!)!
The h (who decided she wanted her marriage more than anything) sees this but (naturally) doesn't confront them, just runs off, pretends she doesn't know and asks for a divorce.
The H (not knowing what she saw) readily agrees to a divorce without an argument.
The H an h spent three years with false resentments: she thinking he cheated, he thinking she put her law career over their marriage and possibly used him to get tuition.
The h gets engaged to a man who's the opposite of the H (naturally) and (also naturally) doesn't sleep with him and doesn't mind a bit that he's content to wait for marriage and accepts passionless kisses for the time being.
The h gets all butthurt when she thinks the H is engaged to naked lady, keeps letting him know how "happy" she is with the OM, makes nasty, snarky comments whenever she can, gets horny whenever he's near yet - of course - she's NOT still in love with him!
The H can't keep his hands to himself when he's around the h, yet at the same time talks about his engagement to the OW/naked lady.
The h succumbs to passion and then (of course) blames the H for "forcing" her to orgasm.
If the H and h are both engaged to other people, this makes them both cheaters.
While the h gets a few good points for breaking her engagement afterwards (though not telling the OM she cheated), she loses them when she finds out she's pregnant, determines NOT to tell the H and makes her sweet grandmother (who was used by both the H and h) promise not to say anything either!
That's when I stopped reading! If there's one thing I HATE is when the h uses her baby as a weapon, planning to deprive it of Daddy because Mommy can't face the fact that she loves him! Here's my rule: unless the H is abusive, addicted to alcohol or drugs, involved in criminal activity, is mentally unstable or is living an immoral lifestyle (swinging, group sex, etc.) the h has NO RIGHT TO KEEP HIM FROM KNOWING ABOUT THEIR BABY!!!
I didn't stick around for the ending, so I made one up for myself. She miscarries, they never get back together, and no one lives HEA!
Skip this one, unless you have a toilet paper crisis!
February 6, 2023
I have a hard time believing that the OW (his secretary) completely naked in his living room was innocent. And also: why was he still hanging out with the OW after that incident?
He should have fired her immediately for getting naked and trying to seduce him while he was married to the h. Maybe if he had done that, I would have believed him.
He should have fired her immediately for getting naked and trying to seduce him while he was married to the h. Maybe if he had done that, I would have believed him.
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September 12, 2023DNF after boogenhagen's review.
Both the H and h were hopeless.
Both the H and h were hopeless.
March 18, 2024
Yikes, that was a trial to get through. I didn't support any of the decisions anyone in this book makes. And there is not falling in love, recalling in love. Just yuck. Skip.
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