The temporary job as governess to a wealthy family in Brazil had been too idyllic sounding right from the start. Emma had taken it expecting a snag.
And the situation she found in the Adams household tugged at her heart. Her employer, automobile designer Brett Adams, possessed enough insolent sex appeal to turn the head of the Sphinx, but he knew nothing about love, Emma feared.
His little daughter needed his love badly, but Brett Adams either didn't care or didn't know how to give it. Someone had to stand up to the man!
Roberta Leigh was the most frequently used pen name of an author who also published novels as Rachel Lindsay, Rozella Lake, and Janey Scott. Her birth name was Rita Shulman.
Leigh was one of the first romance writers to introduce strong, career-minded heroines who wouldn't be bossed around by the hero.
Leigh had her own film company and wrote and produced 7 TV series for children. She would also "write" the music for her series, although this usually involved her humming or singing the tune into a tape recorder, after which someone else would arrange and write a score.
She studied oil and watercolor painting with Diana Raphael and Michael Chaitow, who her interest in abstract art. Her work has been exhibited at the Podbury Gallery and Finnegan's Gallery in London.
In 1948, she married Michael Lewin and they had a son, Jeremy. Her husband passed away in 1981.
Re A Racy Affair - RL brings us the old fashioned governess/employer trope in the tropical setting of Brazil. While the h in this one is suitably modern in her child care outlook and very forthright when it comes to lecturing the H on his parenting responsibilities, RL seems to be trying to acclimatize herself to the new HP tradition of having more lurving it up in the romance.
Srsly, there are two near completion moments and one big completion moment and they are excruciatingly awkward to read. She brings back the word flooding again, and while that would be an apt description if the Thames was overflowing it bounds, I don't really think that is a word I want to associate with lurve clubbing in a romance.
The story starts with the h being advised by her trusty family doctor that she needs a holiday and he has the perfect position for her. Since graduating from teaching college and caring for her fatally ill mother has taken it's toll, he recommends she go to Brazil as the new governess for a famous race car driver. The h isn't overjoyed when she hears who her employer would be, he is a notorious womanizing chauvinist and the h is none too fond of racing.
Still she agrees to give it a go, so one job application accepted and new nightie present from the good doctor and his wife later, we are flying into Rio - though the h only has a goggle or two before she is whisked off to a private hacienda further down the coast. She arrives and one of the H's racing crew meets her, he makes no effort to hide his interest in the h and she does her best repressive governess mode to put him off. She meets the racing H and she is not impressed - he was everything she feared and more.
The daughter turns out to be the usual emotionally neglected child since her mum died plot moppet and the h takes up the cudgels to battle it out with the H for his utter failure to parent or even really acknowledge that he has a daughter. The little girl is pining for some attention from her daddy and so the h rounds the H up and gives him a good piece of her mind and gets shaken and pushed violently to the floor for her troubles. (There was no slapping involved which shows RL is trying to modernize herself, but after the assault the h and H continue their discussion as if he did nothing untoward, that was kinda weird.) The h winds up apologizing for losing her temper and the whole matter is shelved.
The H claims he can't let his child get attached to him because she would be devastated if he died while racing. The h lets him know that the little girl feels it is her fault her mum died and that is why she thinks the H hates her. Then the little girl gets desperately ill and we all rush off to the hospital in Rio - with the H leading the way. The h softens in her stance towards the H, because it is obvious to her he really does love his kid. She starts mooning about how handsome he is too, and while the daughter is in hospital, they spend a bit of time together.
There is an awkward near consummation moment in the front seat of his car and the h is really all over him, but then reverts back to prim governess mode. (It was kinda bizarre, they are half undressed and the descriptions are purple and then the h is buttoning up her dress like she has front seat flings all the time.)
The H's former in-laws show up and his ex-sister in law tells the h a horror story of how the H neglected and abused her sister, his wife, and drove her to her death. The h doesn't know what to believe, the daughter has said a few things, the ex sister in law says more and the H won't discuss it all. He does ask the h to marry him tho, his in laws are very greedy and malicious people who want his daughter for a meal ticket, (so he says, there is not a lot of scenes with them and they did not seem that bad in the interactive scenes they had.)
The H wants the h to marry him and become his daughter's guardian if anything were to happen to him. He trusts the h where he doesn't trust anyone else and his father is too old to have the care of a child. The h agrees on the precept that it is a MOC/MINO and he is expected to do his ladylurving discreetly.
They marry and the h spends a lot of time being mad that the H won't drag her off by her hair and force her onto his tower of power all the while she is verbally telling him to keep his hands to himself. Another awkward semi passion scene ensues that ends before the culmination cause the h verbally smacks him down. Then the H decides they are going to the family English estate to hang with his dad for Christmas.
They get there and the h is dismayed to find that she and the H have to share a room. There is another lecture by the h about no handsies and respecting boundaries and the H bemoans his 5 weeks of celibacy. Since the h demanded that he be discreet, he hasn't had a chance to sneak a trip into a bigger town. They spend the night in the same bed and the h wakes up in the H's arms, then she is cranky that she wore her Dr. approved nightie and still did not get any - so obviously the H doesn't like her and she is doomed to torturing herself over all the lovely ladies he does like and might visit when he is out of town.
The h does get along very well with the H's father tho, and the dad tells the h that the H loves her. He also explains about the H's first wife. She was 31 to his 22 and chased him all over the place, faked a pregnancy to get him to marry her and then had mental issues with being jealous and possessive. She tried to fake suicide multiple times and only had the little girl to keep a hold on the H. The H started racing to get away from the woman, hoping he might kill himself off.
Then the wife took off with another man to make the H jealous and he filed for divorce with relief - he also kept the daughter since her mother abandoned her. Then the dead wife had major hissy fits until the H took her back, but she died in a plane crash on the way to meet him and her family tried to play on his guilt for not helping her more.
This puts things in a different perspective for the h and she is even more shocked when she finds out that the H has a perfectly good female married cousin who would have been happy to care for the H's daughter as well. She runs off to confront the H and the big true love confessions occur. The H admits he asked the h to marry him cause he loved her and the h flings her self into his arms with a passionate declaration of her own love. We then get to the purple prose full consummation love scene and I still don't know whether to laugh or cringe when "He flooded her with the liquid of his love." (that is a direct quote too.)
Overall, purple prose flooding aside, it isn't a bad story. The h is pretty assertive in her beratement of the H's parenting skills and she wasn't really wrong about it. Still he does come around to be a good dad and is giving up racing to be with the h and his child by the end, so the reformed rake trope goes over pretty well here. Give this one a go if you run into it and you too can experience the magic HPlandia mojo flooding of the liquid of love.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
This was adorable. I really enjoyed the H/h banter. The title refers to the fact that the H is a race car driver rather than any "affair" that takes place. The h is hired as a governess for the H's daughter in Brazil.
The governess h gave the H a hard time about the way he was parenting - and she was absolutely right. I really liked her line about where he found the other governesses - "the back of a porno magazine?" She knows she's being outrageous, but she can't seem to help herself.
The hero can't seem to help himself, either. He's been sealing himself off from emotions for so long that it's fun to watch him unbend toward his daughter first and then the h. They end up with a marriage of convenience when the daughter's grandparents show up to make mischief. (That's the hero's excuse). It's all good while they're in Brazil, but when they make their way back to the UK for a Yorkshire Christmas and a shared bedroom the tension ratchets up.
Luckily the H's father is there to explain to the heroine that the H is madly in love with her. (The way he lovingly peeled a peach is the "tell.") The heroine then reveals her feeling and HEA.
I tend to skim sex scenes, so any awkwardness in the writing didn't take away from my enjoyment of this low-angst story.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
The hero is a half witted moron, with elaborate, self-made hang ups, the story was boring and the two stars are solely for the “purple prose” at the end. I nearly fell off my chair I laughed so hard. I’d heard about purple prose but had somehow completely missed it until this book, because I do a lot of skimming. For that alone I’m prepared to give this book ten stars, but so that my rating wouldn’t get too confusing I’m afraid two will have to do.
I used to like this book a lot 20 years ago. Now I am just like ... why don't they TALK to each other instead of having these misunderstandings? If people conversed, most of the 80s series romances would disappear in a poof. 8-)
2008 review I read this book a few days ago and I did enjoy it. However, as I'm writing this review, I kinda forgot a few things about it already. So I guess this means the story didn't really super stick with me. I do remember that the heroine was a pretty spunky lady and she spoke her mind. And it is sweet and nice how she was able to bond with the hero's daughter. The book was readable and my interest was captured, but obviously not really a keeper since I kinda forgot most of the details already.
The temporary job as governess to a wealthy family in Brazil had been too idyllic sounding right from the start. Emma had taken it expecting a snag.
And the situation she found in the Adams household tugged at her heart. Her employer, automobile designer Brett Adams, possessed enough insolent sex appeal to turn the head of the Sphinx, but he knew nothing about love, Emma feared.
His little daughter needed his love badly, but Brett Adams either didn't care or didn't know how to give it. Someone had to stand up to the man!
"I don't know where you found all the previous governesses you employed, from the back of a porno magazine I should think, but I assure you the last thing I want is your attention. I'd rather bed down with a boa constrictor!"
I simply adored the feisty, steel-spined, no-nonsense but at the same time deeply compassionate and idealistic heroine of Roberta Leigh's governess-widower-plot-moppet romance A Racy Affair. She gets the best lines in the book and maybe even in all of Harlequinlandia rivaling only the heroine of Emma Darcy's Pattern of Deceit or Charlotte Lamb's female protagonist in Savage Surrender. It's not that she is a shrieking shrew, she simply knows her own worth, won't let anybody ride roughshod over her, and can put both her employer and her demon spawn from hell charge in their place BECAUSE she cares about them not because she has an ego or a huge chip on her shoulder. I also really liked that her governess job was not window dressing like in so many books in the genre, where the heroine spends more time going on dates or sight-seeing than actually doing her job, which I always find hilarious. Despite the over-the-top tropes of marriage of convenience, the spectre of the Rebecca-like malevolent Dead First Wife, the race-car driver lifestyle of groupies and other excesses, I found the story very plausible and the hero rather sweet and tortured rather than cruel or promiscuous. I believed in their HEA which is a rare feat when it comes to this author. But when she hits the mark, she nails it :)
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Oh Brett and Emma are so funny together! I got this book snd saw the cover-Brazil! Half or more of this was set in Brazil - Rio and in the ranch where the Adams Car tested their engines. The last bit was set in Yorkshire, England where Brett's father and brother lived.
It was fun watching Emma "fight" with Brett over his neglect of Cindy, and her attraction for him. All this against the backdrop of his mysterious first marriage and dead wife. She was given conflicting sides of the story, but was lucid enough to know both were biased views.
In a way I wished it was Brett who was more forthcoming, but in a way knowing Emma, she might discount his words too...as he said, please judge him for herself based on what she sees and not rumours/press or gossips.
SPOILERS
The signs Brett felt more for Emma were there, except a cautious Emma dismissed them as his playboy seductive ways. The way he wanted her near even if it's just lying on a chair after a swim, how he could relax till he slept. When he cut the peach for her, OMG so tender! And Emma cried because she slept in his arms for half the night and he still did not make a move n her?! To me that showed how much he loved her! Because she's really a shy virgin and repeatedly he had told her he'd not go where he's unwanted!
This was written in 1987 and the love scenes were more explicit than the 70s books! Though still tame by today's standards haha! The male "manhood" was mentioned, and the flowery language used to describe ecstasy was a bit overdone LOL.
Overall this was a fun read. The title was a pun, because Brett raced cars!
عندما سافرت ايما المدرسة في احد رياض الاطفال في قريتها بالقرب من لندن .لتمل مربية لاابنة بريت ادمز في البرازيل;كانتتتوقع مواجهة بعض المتاعب مع هذا الرجل الشهير كبطل سباقات سيارات,وفي نفس الوقت تامل ان تساعدها اقامتها لفترة,ستة شهور على استعادة حيويتها وصحتها الى تدهورت بعد وفاة والدتها. لم تكن يخطر في بالهاابدا ان تكون رحلتهابداية لحياة جديدةلم تكن تحلم بها.من النظرة الاولى احبت هذا الرجل,ولكنها ظنتة حبا من طرف واحد,فهو مغرم ببطلااتة يجاهر بعداوتة للمراة,ويتهمه اصهاره باانه السببفي موت زوجتة وابنتهم الحسناء ايلين. فجاةيتقدم لخطبتهاوطلب زواجها فقط بدافع الحرص على رعاية ابنتة .زواج دون حب.مصلحة فهل توافق....?
Oh nothing remarkable but nothing revolting either. Just a simple , predictable governess turns lover tale. But one thing I really enjoyed in the book is the heroine taking the hero to task for being a poor , non-expressive dad.
I loved her diatribe, and so does the hero actually. He is a charming super star race driver cut to size by our sweet , loving governess.