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Craving Jamie

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Non ce l'aveva fatta a resistere. Era stata troppo forte la voglia di rivedere il grande amore della sua gioventù, anche se aveva tradito la promessa reciproca di scappare insieme, così Beth Delaney si è precipitata a perdifiato in una delle gallerie d'arte che lui gestisce nella città dove sono cresciuti. Appena i loro occhi si incrociano, il battito furioso del cuore le comunica che per lei non è cambiato niente. Jim Neilson la vede, la riconosce ma...

187 pages, Mass Market Paperback

Published May 1, 1997

11 people are currently reading
96 people want to read

About the author

Emma Darcy

640 books327 followers
Emma Darcy is the pseudonym created by the married writing team of Wendy (1940-2020) and Frank Brennan (1936-1995). Their life journey has taken as many twists and turns as the characters in their stories, whose international popularity has resulted in over sixty-million book sales. With more than a hundred titles, Emma Darcy appeared regularly on the Waldenbooks bestseller lists in the U.S.A. and in the Nielson BookScan Top 100 chart in the U.K.

Wendy was born 28 November 1940 in Australia. Her sister was the novelist Maureen Mary (Miranda Lee). Her father was a country school teacher and brilliant sportsman. Her mother was a talented dressmaker. She obtained an Honours degree in Latin and initially worked as a high school English/French teacher. She married Frank Brennan, an Australian businessman born in 1936. She changed careers to computer programming before marriage and motherhood settled her into a community life. She was reputedly the first woman computer programmer in the southern hemisphere.

As voracious readers, the step to writing their own books seemed a natural progression and the challenge of creating exciting stories was soon highly addictive. They were published since 1983. In 1993, for the Emma Darcy pseudonym's 10th anniversary, they created the "Emma Darcy Award Contest" to encourage authors to finish their manuscripts. After the death of Frank Brennan in 1995, Wendy wrotes books on her own. She lived in a beachside property on the central coast of New South Wales, and liked to travel extensively to research settings and increase her experience of places and people.

Wendy Brennan passed away on December 21, 2020. She is survived by her children, grandchildren, and sister, writer Miranda Lee.

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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
Profile Image for boogenhagen.
1,993 reviews890 followers
December 3, 2018
Re Craving Jamie - Emma Darcy does a unique second chance romance. Ironically the tag on the book cover is noted as being "Memorable" and yet the entire story is predicated on the fact that the H doesn't remember what the h, the supposed big love of his life, looks like.

Therefore when the betrayed h comes seeking him out 15 years after they parted, he doesn't recognize her and various dubious dealings ensue.

To buy into this story, you have to make the leap that a feeling of betrayal, years of abuse and an 18 yr old's idealism skewed his memories enough not to recognize his soul mate, even while he is complimenting himself on his perfect recall for people and faces.

It does sorta work, in a HP kind of way, but what ED is trying to do here is flip the impetus for the Big Misunderstanding onto the H, instead of the h. For once, the H is the one who runs off without confronting the h after getting the wrong end of the stick and so it is up to him to try and breach the barriers caused by his lack of faith.

This one starts out with the h showing up at an art gallery because she knows the H will be there. The back story on this is that the h and family were neighbors of the H and his abusive grandfather. When the h was five and the H was seven, they became BFF's and as they grew up, they became even closer.

The H set out to make his way into the world at 18 and promised the h he would find her after the h and her family had to move to the big city after losing their farm. In the intervening years, the h's mum died and the h had a lot of family responsibilities. She kept writing to the H, but he never wrote back or came to find her.

When the H and h meet again, the H is drawn to her, but thinks she is a gold digger out on the prowl. They connect and have some really tacky and torrid lurve club events during the night before the h announces her identity the next morning.

The h was looking for closure over a man who haunted her for years and the H was all about their wild Lurve Force Mojo connection, the h terminates their one night stand by telling the H who she is and that he in no way shape or form resembles the boy she loved and that their time together is truly over.

Since the h also mentions that she is hoping to buy back her family farm for her father, the H decides he hasn't had his fill or punished the h enough for what he thinks is her betrayal. (We don't know what that big betrayal is yet, but hang on, ED is getting to it.)

The h's family farm is being auctioned and the H buys it when the price gets too high for the h. The h's practical, but willing to pimp the h out, aunt suggests the h try to negotiate with the H for a repayment of the farm's cost in order to let her father live there.

The H and h have another tacky lurve club event and then the H is willing to do business, he gives the h the deeds to the farm and tell her that is her reward for continuing to sleep with him. The h is pretty disgusted, she isn't a pay to play kind of girl and her whole journey was to see if her image of the man she knew in the past was accurate.

Unfortunately while there is a tremendous amount of Treacherous Body Syndrome going on, the character of the H has only deteriorated over the years, so the h tosses his deeds back into the H's face and goes back to her life.

The h goes home to her father, she is now a successful children's author after many years of struggle. When the h's mother died, she left many young children and a baby to be cared for. The h managed to mother them all while attending school and building up a writing career. Then the youngest sadly passed away too, when he was ten and was hit by a car while riding his bike.

To her surprise, the H is waiting for her at her father's home. He offers her father a partnership to rebuild the old family farm and her father has told the H all about their years of difficulty. It turns out that the H did try to see her after he left his grandfather's, tho his grandfather never gave him the h's letters.

He went to the h's house three years after they parted and saw her with a baby and thought she had married someone else, so he went away heartbroken and disillusioned and bitterly blamed the h for betraying him ever since.

But now he knows that his impression was wrong and he wants a second chance with the h. She isn't inclined to give it to him, she believes there are still strings attached, but the H assures her that her father's stake in the farm is free and clear of obligations.

So the h and her father and her aunt move back onto the old family farm. The H shows up and is trying very hard to court the h. They still have a lot of passion between them and gradually the h starts to see the reemergence of the boy she loved.

After a few months of dating and family events, the h and H decide that this time their love is real and will endure and we leave them getting married for the HEA.

This one isn't terrible and both the H and h have their moments of bad behavior. The beginning is more in line with a book out of ED's sister Miranda Lee's lexicon with the very purple passion events and that is a bit jolting for those familiar with ED's back list.

I did believe that they loved each other by the end and I was fairly happy they got their second chance, but the journey to get to the HEA was very rocky and the sudden shift in tone between the first and second halves of the book make this a very disjointed HP outing.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for StMargarets.
3,230 reviews636 followers
October 5, 2023
The opening of this story was rather shocking for Emma Darcy. Heroine seeks out her childhood "soulmate." He doesn't recognize her, but propositions her and treats her like a whore in the bedroom. When heroine gives him her name the next morning, he's angry because ???

They meet again when hero outbids her on the old family homestead. Hero is just as rude to heroine and her aunt as he was back in the big city. It's only when the hero discovers that Now he knows she stayed his soul mate even though *he* didn't recognize her.

From there he's Santa Claus and . . . eh. The shift in tone was really off-putting.

Boogenhagen has all the details in her excellent review.
Profile Image for *CJ*.
5,113 reviews630 followers
August 16, 2021
"Craving Jamie" is the story of Beth and Jim.

An unexpectedly emotional and passionate tale about soulmates finding one another. The hero and heroine were made for each other, when circumstances tore them apart in childhood. Years later, the heroine decides to seek the hero again.. only to realize he doesn't recognize her. But he does feel attracted to her, and thinking of her as a gold digger- seduces her. They make wild, crazy love.. until her identity is revealed which makes him mad. Ofcourse, after more "revenge", she decides to leave, and the hero takes matters into his own hand, planning to get her back.

It was angst filled and very sexy. I didn't mind the plot at all, actually quite enjoyed it. Very sweet overall.

Unsafe
4/5
Profile Image for KC.
527 reviews21 followers
November 26, 2018
Beth and Jamie were childhood sweethearts who mistakenly believed they had each betrayed the other and were kept apart as a result. Years later Beth decides to find closure by arranging a meeting with Jamie, who doesn't recognize the love of his life! Beth, in turn, doesn't disclose her identity even when they initiate reunion sex. . . .

Beth's deception reeked too much of immaturity, and I didn't like how Jamie had casual sex with Beth, thinking she was a stranger. Even though some heroes often engage in promiscuity in romances, the author's choice to have Jamie have casual sex with the heroine marginalized what they once had. Jamie not recognizing Beth made it even more sordid. Yuck-o. This could have been an emotional read. However, all the angst in the world doesn't matter much if the protagonists aren't that likable.
Profile Image for Kay.
1,937 reviews123 followers
July 27, 2015
4 Stars ~ When Beth was 5 she'd reached out and befriended her 7 yr old neighbour, Jamie. He'd been an unwanted child; dumped on a bitter, abusive grandfather. It was Beth and her family that gave Jamie the affection he needed and had shown him what a real family was like. From childhood to adolescence, they were inseparable; their bond deeply rooted. Then Beth's father ran into financial hardship and the family lost their farm and were forced to move away. Jamie promised that one day he'd come for her, and as the years passed on, Beth's mind told her that Jamie had moved on without her, but her heart couldn't let go of their dreams. It's now fifteen years later, and Beth has a chance to buy back the farm that means the world to her father. Back in Jamie's part of the world, she decides it's time to confront him. Her aunt had kept news clippings of all of Jamie's accomplishments, marking his swift rise in self-made wealth and respect as an entrepreneur. From these very same clippings, Beth knew Jamie was to attend a gallery showing; the perfect situation to meet him again.

When Jim learns from his friend, the gallery owner, that the breathtakingly beautiful woman mingling with the city's rich and famous, had used his name to gain entrance to the private showing, he thinks she's on the make. Which is fine with him, he's game for a little fun.
Cynicism soured his mind as he continued to observe her meticulous assessment of the male half of the company. If he was her mark, he was in the mood to string her along for a while before delivering a comeuppance she wouldn’t forget in a hurry. He despised freeloaders. He’d worked damned hard to get where he was. A pretty face and a beguiling body bought nothing from him. Except space in his bed if he really felt enticed to take what was offered.
She came through the archway that linked the two rooms on the first floor of the gallery. Jim tensed as her gaze swung towards him. Any second now, the moment of truth. He waited, a savage challenge brooding in his mind, his eyes simmering with dark intent.
She found him, her eyes widening as he stared straight at her. A questioning? An expectation of some response from him? Almost as if he should recognise her. Well, she was bound to disappointment if she thought that old line would work on him. He’d never seen her before in his life.
If there was one thing Jim prided himself on, it was total recall, people, places, figures. It was his one great talent, the means by which he had climbed to the pinnacle he now occupied, the hottest financier in town. The woman in yellow was not, and never had been, part of his world. Her expression changed. It was as though she had mentally stepped back from her first reaction. She studied him with an intensity he found oddly discomforting. He could feel her trying to burrow under his skin to see the man inside.


The chemistry between them is electric and Jim easily persuades her to leave with him. Beth's hurt because in the grown man, Jim, there doesn't seem to be anything left of the boy, Jamie, and neither man or boy remembers her. She can't deny the attraction she feels to him, and she decides to have one night with him, a night that neither will ever forget. Beth taunts him, willing the boy to surface and remember the promises made.

Beth barely had time to gasp. His mouth covered hers, invading it with shocking swiftness, no pause for persuasive or seductive preliminaries. His tongue embroiled hers in an erotic tangle, darting provocatively, sweeping her palate with sensational effect, inciting a fiercely primitive response. It was as though he’d pressed some dormant trigger in her, exploding a deeply buried mine of sexuality that demanded satisfaction.
A torrent of feelings pumped through her—anger to have waited so long to experience this, frustration that he’d never come for her, never invited her to share in his new life, a fierce jealousy of the women he had given himself to, a seething desire to take all he offered, experience it to the hilt, make him remember her for the rest of his life, whether he wanted to or not.
She clawed her fingers up his leather jacket, thrust them through the thick mat of his hair, curled them around his skull, urging on the passionate plunder that could not be called a kiss. Not from him. Not from her. A kiss was an exchange of good feelings, warm feelings, a wish to give and take pleasure. This was the boiling blood of a battlefield, each of them striving to win concessions from the other.
She sensed his drive for submission from her. She wouldn’t give it. With sheer wanton provocation, she rubbed her lower body against his, feeding the frenzy of released feeling, exulting in the hard bulge of his erection, hating him for being so aroused by a woman he’d merely picked up. A nobody to him. Yet he could do this to her, with her, an intimacy that had no grounds for intimacy on his side. Just sheer animal lust, taking, uncaring of the object being taken.
It was obscene.
She wanted to kick him. She wanted to kill him. She wanted him to want her because she was Beth. Damn him! Damn him to hell for closing his door on her! Forgetting her!


In the morning when Beth reveals who she is, Jim is shocked and then angry, especially when he assumes that all she wants from him is the money to buy back the farm.
“Not once have you used my name,” he said with slow deliberation. “Now you’re going without telling me yours. Did you intend all along for us to be ships passing in the night?”
She shrugged, dismissing the point as of no real importance. “It was always a possibility.”

His mouth twisted. “Why do I have the feeling there is more to this encounter than you’re letting on?”
“Why worry?” she asked him flippantly. “You won the contest. You didn’t let me get to you. You stayed on top.”
“If you go, I lose,” he stated with a certainty that puzzled her.
“I’m sure you can generate great sex with any amount of women,” she said sceptically.
“No. It was the mental fight. Something... quite different.” He hesitated, seemingly feeling his way along uncharted territory. “I think I’ve been looking for someone like you for a very long time.”
The sickening irony of those words cut deep.
“No, you haven’t,” she retorted with blistering certainty.
“Shouldn’t I be the judge of that?”
“If you’d been really looking, you’d have found me long before this.”
His eyes narrowed on the burning derision in hers. “Perhaps I’ve been blind.”
“No.” The bitterness of total defeat poured into words before she could stop them. “You’ve been too busy being Jim Neilson. I think you’ll never be anyone else but Jim Neilson now. So I’m leaving, because I didn’t come for Jim Neilson and I don’t belong in Jim Neilson’s life. Is that enough recognition of your name for you?”
“For whom did you come?” he asked her, homing in instantly on the one significant point.
She sighed, wrung out by this futile confrontation. She looked at him with dull, weary eyes, seeing the aggressive vitality of the conqueror determined on climbing another mountain. But her mountain had been climbed, and she was returning to the valley he’d put behind him.
“Who are you?” he demanded, propelled from his stance at the window of his private eyrie, high in the sky above the city he’d made his. He came straight for her, unprepared to let her go when he wasn’t satisfied.
The urge to hit him in the face with it was strong. Her deep disappointment, the long years of wondering and the final frustration of last night’s intense campaign to reach him—all surged together in a compelling need for some kind of recognition from him, a glimmer of memory...even if he hated it.
“I’m Beth Delaney.” She shot the words at him.
It stopped him dead in his tracks. Shock, confusion, a wild searching for features that would confirm her identity to him, a glassy stare at her eyes, recoil, then slowly the dawning of realisation, a look of appalled horror at her reemergence in his life and the form it had taken.
It gave Beth savage satisfaction to see he hadn’t completely forgotten her. The years they had shared were not a blank to him, either. Though Aunty Em was right. He didn’t like having them recalled. But be damned if she would let him off scot-free now. He’d forced the issue. She proceeded to give him the answers he’d demanded, straight between the eyes.
“I came looking for Jamie.”

From the opening pages, Emma Darcy sets a tone of intense emotions and passions. Forced to go on with their lives, both Beth and Jim couldn't deny that their lives weren't complete. Buried deeply were the dreams of their youth. This star-crossed lovers story begins with an intensity that sweeps you along for the ride. Ms. Darcy keeps the sexual tension high, the sex scenes hot and graphic, and the vulnerable moments poignant. This one's a non-stop start to finish read perfect for a hot summer afternoon.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Raffaella.
1,951 reviews306 followers
April 6, 2022
Another weird book of this author.
Here the heroine meets the hero again after some 15 years or so.
They were childhood friends, he was from a dysfunctional family and she was kind to him, so they became friends until he left at 15, and the heroine was 12.
He promised her he would be back, but he didn’t.
So the heroine goes to meet him when he’s back in her town.
The man doesn’t recognize her. Of course, since when he saw her last she was a teenager and now she’s all grown up.
He thinks she’s one of those woman who wants to have affairs with millionaires, and she’s so hurt that he didn’t recognize her that she decides to have a lil revenge on him.
Since he’s openly flirting with her, she decides she will have sex with her and then she will leave him behind.
They have a night or great sex and in the morning she reveals who she is.
How crazy is this???
Why when he didn’t recognize her she didn’t tell him who he was???
Of course she had changed.
People change, especially from teenage years to adulthood.
When she tells him who she is, he’s stunned and horrified that he treated her as a tart. He’s no better than her since it’s no excuse that he believed her another person, he treats women as tarts and that’s it.
Then she leaves him and he decides to have a lil re- revenge too.
Silly? No! Insane!
Of course she didn’t like the way he behaved!
So, to have his lil petty revenge he goes to an auction and buys her father’s property so he can give it to her as a payment. For her kindness when they were young? For the night of sex? Who knows.
Petty and mean all the same.
The heroine tells him where he can put the property and leaves him after another very good sex moment.
No comment.
The hero understands he had it all wrong and that she’s still his one and only love.
So he decides to make amends and give the property back to his father if the man works to restore it.
And he works with him.
Just to see and date the heroine.
So eventually all is well but how much crazy is this book I don’t know.
And oh, he did look for her when she was 18, but he saw her with a baby and thought she had married and had a child.
So he was too shattered to stop and talk to her and felt betrayed.
Mmmmm. I don’t know.
Eventually it was some kind of cute even if the heroine’s fixation with the hero bordered on stalking and her hurt in not being recognized was too much.
Safety: both had other partners, so all this great love in the end was a childish crush and nothing more.
They built a relationship the second time they met.
Profile Image for Jena .
2,313 reviews2 followers
September 6, 2021
Steamy love scene but pretty boring other wise. It’s a soulmate story but the H can’t remember the poor hs face🙄.

The h was strong at least. DNF 80%.
364 reviews7 followers
September 15, 2021
Ένας ασφόδελος, ανάμεσα σε μαύρες ορχιδέες.....Μια ιστορία για ξεχασμένους έρωτες, που όμως δεν ξεχνιούνται ποτέ στ' αλήθεια και αρκεί να ανάψει ένα φυτίλι , να ξεπηδήσει η φωτιά και να σε κάψει... ΠΟΛΥ ΩΡΑΙΑ ΙΣΤΟΡΙΑ!!!Γεμάτη συγκρούσεις και πάθη!!!
Profile Image for EeeJay.
479 reviews
June 5, 2011
The story could have worked if not for a very basic mistake ED made. I mean, really? How much do you think people facially change after their teenage? Not to the point where they are unrecognizable, surely, unless they've been in an accident and/or have had plastic surgery done. Now, if we can establish that the heroine was no Heidi Mon-whatever her name is and didn't go from being:

Whatever Lady Before

to:

Whatever Lady After

then we can safely establish that the H would have recognized the heroine when she came to the gallery to meet him specially when he'd seen her when she was 16 and he sure as hell had recognized her then! I fail to believe that after staring at her intently, he failed to recognize her.... Just this rankled so much for me that the melodrama that followed the meeting after 18 years didn't affect me at all. Not that it was all that attractive anyway. Too much chumminess and cheesiness for my taste


Profile Image for Nishtha.
318 reviews16 followers
August 7, 2015
I started a Emma Darcy's Novels marathon last week and ended with five of her books today, there are more in library but well, let's see if I can complete with ARC'S by this month.


Okay so I will start with the names of the five books I read,
1) Last Stop Marriage
2) Marriage and Mischief
3) The Father of her child
4) Their wedding day
5) Craving Jamie,



I completed with Beth's and Jim's story tody morning and a nice experience it was. The collection of five awesome stories has finally come to an end.


This story had it all, alpha hero, independent heroine, emotions, reunion,love quarrel, YOU NAME IT.

From the inception to the end, I couldn't focus on anything else. I loved this story. It ranked third but it was giving some serious competition to the first two rankings.

I simply adore the books written by Emma Darcy. The stories are always new and divergent.

Four.five stars!
Profile Image for MissKitty.
1,748 reviews
November 13, 2021
It would have been a good enough story except for the fact that he totally didn't recognize her. I mean that's just unbelievable, barring plastic surgery how can anyone not recognize their 'soulmate' as supposedly they were. And he did see her when she was 16, so, no one changes that much!

Oh I just saw an earlier reviewer said exactly the same thing. And yes it did spoil the story.
548 reviews16 followers
December 16, 2019
If you can swallow one fact in the story then its an alright read.

The leads are childhood buddies. He has to leave the town due to some family issues, but promises to return to her after making a life for himself. He doesn't turn up. So she is embittered. Seeks him out just for one attempt. So far so good.

The guy sees her at some painting exhibition and the zing, the electricity is all there. Just that he cant recognize her one whit !! A teenager is unrecognizable in just a few years ? Really ??? And he prides himself on his super duper memory.

Now that he doesn't remember, the girl decides, why waste all that zing and electricity. Let me DO IT with him once and get him out of the system. So within 10 milliseconds of meeting each other again, they are in bed. Still no recognition !!!!

She does enlighten him before going away. But he has his own theories about her being a gold digger and all that. So a 100 odd pages are filled with his and her misunderstandings.

Finally of course, the true love of childhood triumphs and HEA.

Not bad, but did not work for me.
Profile Image for Yvonne Gom.
90 reviews1 follower
May 20, 2020
What a story. Love lost and found. MISUNDERSTANDINGS and forgiveness
425 reviews
August 5, 2020
To be honest I found the story dull. The whole thing could have been written in just a couple of chapters.
Profile Image for Melluvsbooks.
1,570 reviews
dnf
March 15, 2023
DNF @ 22% - the smex scene happens too early and is all kinds of hokey - h too sexually aggressive for my tastes - it’s ridiculous that the H doesn’t know who she is. 🙄
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Nikki.
2,205 reviews9 followers
October 30, 2023
What was that?!! There are no problems here...which makes the book very very dull. Skip.
Profile Image for Kit★.
864 reviews57 followers
Read
November 2, 2010
This was the first romance book I ever read. I was probably about 13 or so, and man, I was like "whoa!" I think I read the spicy parts over and over, shocked, but intrigued.
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