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The Perfect Crightons #4
The Perfect Match?
The Perfect Match? by Penny Jordan released on Mar 25, 1998 is available now for purchase.
186 pages, Mass Market Paperback
Published April 1, 1998
3 people are currently reading
96 people want to read
About the author
Penny Jordan
1,125 books668 followersPenelope Jones Halsall
aka Caroline Courtney, Annie Groves, Lydia Hitchcock, Melinda Wright
Penelope "Penny" Jones was born on November 24, 1946 at about seven pounds in a nursing home in Preston, Lancashire, England. She was the first child of Anthony Winn Jones, an engineer, who died at 85, and his wife Margaret Louise Groves Jones. She has a brother, Anthony, and a sister, Prudence "Pru".
She had been a keen reader from the childhood - her mother used to leave her in the children's section of their local library whilst she changed her father's library books. She was a storyteller long before she began to write romantic fiction. At the age of eight, she was creating serialized bedtime stories, featuring make-believe adventures, for her younger sister Prue, who was always the heroine. At eleven, she fell in love with Mills & Boon, and with their heroes. In those days the books could only be obtained via private lending libraries, and she quickly became a devoted fan; she was thrilled to bits when the books went on full sale in shops and she could have them for keeps.
Penny left grammar school in Rochdale with O-Levels in English Language, English Literature and Geography. She first discovered Mills & Boon books, via a girl she worked with. She married Steve Halsall, an accountant and a "lovely man", who smoked and drank too heavily, and suffered oral cancer with bravery and dignity. Her husband bought her the small electric typewriter on which she typed her first novels, at a time when he could ill afford it. He died at the beginning of 21st century.
She earned a living as a writer since the 1970s when, as a shorthand typist, she entered a competition run by the Romantic Novelists' Association. Although she didn't win, Penny found an agent who was looking for a new Georgette Heyer. She published four regency novels as Caroline Courtney, before changing her nom de plume to Melinda Wright for three air-hostess romps and then she wrote two thrillers as Lydia Hitchcock. Soon after that, Mills and Boon accepted her first novel for them, Falcon's Prey as Penny Jordan. However, for her more historical romance novels, she adopted her mother's maiden-name to become Annie Groves. Almost 70 of her 167 Mills and Boon novels have been sold worldwide.
Penny Halsall lived in a neo-Georgian house in Nantwich, Cheshire, with her Alsatian Sheba and cat Posh. She worked from home, in her kitchen, surrounded by her pets, and welcomed interruptions from her friends and family.
aka Caroline Courtney, Annie Groves, Lydia Hitchcock, Melinda Wright
Penelope "Penny" Jones was born on November 24, 1946 at about seven pounds in a nursing home in Preston, Lancashire, England. She was the first child of Anthony Winn Jones, an engineer, who died at 85, and his wife Margaret Louise Groves Jones. She has a brother, Anthony, and a sister, Prudence "Pru".
She had been a keen reader from the childhood - her mother used to leave her in the children's section of their local library whilst she changed her father's library books. She was a storyteller long before she began to write romantic fiction. At the age of eight, she was creating serialized bedtime stories, featuring make-believe adventures, for her younger sister Prue, who was always the heroine. At eleven, she fell in love with Mills & Boon, and with their heroes. In those days the books could only be obtained via private lending libraries, and she quickly became a devoted fan; she was thrilled to bits when the books went on full sale in shops and she could have them for keeps.
Penny left grammar school in Rochdale with O-Levels in English Language, English Literature and Geography. She first discovered Mills & Boon books, via a girl she worked with. She married Steve Halsall, an accountant and a "lovely man", who smoked and drank too heavily, and suffered oral cancer with bravery and dignity. Her husband bought her the small electric typewriter on which she typed her first novels, at a time when he could ill afford it. He died at the beginning of 21st century.
She earned a living as a writer since the 1970s when, as a shorthand typist, she entered a competition run by the Romantic Novelists' Association. Although she didn't win, Penny found an agent who was looking for a new Georgette Heyer. She published four regency novels as Caroline Courtney, before changing her nom de plume to Melinda Wright for three air-hostess romps and then she wrote two thrillers as Lydia Hitchcock. Soon after that, Mills and Boon accepted her first novel for them, Falcon's Prey as Penny Jordan. However, for her more historical romance novels, she adopted her mother's maiden-name to become Annie Groves. Almost 70 of her 167 Mills and Boon novels have been sold worldwide.
Penny Halsall lived in a neo-Georgian house in Nantwich, Cheshire, with her Alsatian Sheba and cat Posh. She worked from home, in her kitchen, surrounded by her pets, and welcomed interruptions from her friends and family.
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February 6, 2019
Re The Perfect Match? - Penny Jordan celebrates 25 years of HPlandia and brings us her fourth book in The Perfect Crightons series.
Our cast of characters is updated as follows:
BEN CRIGHTON: Proud patriarch of the family, a strong- minded character
in his seventies, determined to see his dynasty thrive and prosper.
RUTH REYNOLDS: Ben’s sister, a vibrant woman now happily reunited with Grant, the man from whom she was tragically separated during the war years—and also with the daughter she gave up for adoption. Ruth is a caring, perceptive woman and she holds the Crighton family together.
JON AND JENNY CRIGHTON: Steady, family-oriented couple. Jon keeps the Crighton law firm running smoothly, and Jenny is a partner in a local antiques business with Guy Cooke. Guy helped Jenny through difficult times in her marriage. He has always been close to Jenny, and they have a strong friendship.
MAX CRIGHTON: Son of Jon and Jenny, a self-assured, sexy, ruthlessly ambitious lawyer who married his wife, Madeleine, a gentle woman and daughter of a High Court judge, to advance his career. The couple lives in London with their two children, but Madeleine has concerns about the stability of their marriage....
ROSE OLDHAM: Rose had connections with the Crighton family when she was growing up—as did her mother and grandmother. But she’s since moved away from the area and is reluctant to return to Haslewich when her brother dies, sending her daughter Chrissie instead.
CHRISSIE OLDHAM: Rose’s daughter, a spirited but romantic English teacher who is convinced her ideal hero just doesn’t exist. She longs for a passionate, unconventional man—and is astonished when she arrives in Haslewich to be swept off her feet by the broodingly sensual Guy Cooke....
GUY COOKE: Jenny’s partner in a successful antiques business, Guy is close to the Crighton family and very loyal to Jenny. He has Gypsy ancestors and is devastatingly sexy and adored by women. Fiery and impetuous, he’s the exact opposite of gentle Chrissie—but feels an instant bond when he
meets her
Our romantic paring in this one is Guy and Chrissie. Chrissie's dubious and disowned black sheep uncle on her mother's side has finally diced his last craps game and he owes a lot of people money.
Rose, Chrissie's mum, is not at all keen to return to the village of her youth and sort his cottage and his things out, so Chrissie volunteers to take point on the project.
Rose and Chrissie's Dr. Dad have got to go to a physician's seminar anyways and it is school holidays, so Chrissie can take care of the cleaning and sorting and get some sightseeing in Chester in too. Rose is quite happy to let Chrissie handle things, she can't bear the probable condemnation of the locals over her disgraceful brother.
Jon Crighton is the disreputable uncle's estate trustee and if Chrissie will get the uncle's possessions in order, Jon can sell off his things and maybe pay back some of the people that the late, unlamented scoundrel owed money to.
The only thing Rose is really interested in is a fake French Provincial desk that belonged to her grandmother. She and Chrissie's dad will be happy to buy it from the estate, if Chrissie will have it valued.
Rose likes the desk, it has been in her family since before Rose was born, and Rose's scalawag brother pretty much snaffled it when their mother died.
Chrissie sends an enquiry to Guy and Jenny's antique shop, hoping to get an appraisal and in due course, an appointment between Guy and Chrissie is set.
Guy is not a Crighton, tho his family has been in the area for years. His background is a bit more dubious and much is made of the rogue Gypsy who seduced his maternal great grandmother a few generations back.
Apparently having Gypsy forefather's is quite shocking to the locals, so Guy has spent his entire life trying to live down his ancestor's roving and probably thieving ways. Guy also has an intense hatred for the late unlamented uncle that finally keeled over.
They were in school together as boys and Guy had asthma. Chrissie's evil uncle bullied Guy and almost drowned him one day, Guy was only saved when one of his rugger playing cousins happened by and beat the bully uncle up. Guy was kinda small at the time, but now he is a big beau hunk of a man.
In very typical PJ fashion with a twist, Guy is also an amazing home decorator - tho he doesn't do rag rolling. So when Chrissie moves into her uncle's house to get it ready to be sold, she isn't expecting a very handsome man to show up to evaluate her desk.
In once of the fastest cases of insta Lurve Force Mojo in all of HPlandia EVER, Chrissie answers Guy's knock on the door, a genuine psychic friends connection is established when their eyes meet in greeting and they are Purple Passion Lurving it up approximately 10.2 seconds later.
They only stop to adjourn to the bedroom for the tower of power riding, cause the parlor rug is badly in need of cleaning.
In two hours, Guy and Chrissie are ready to declare true love forever and that they are soul mates joined together by destiny. Guy is talking Amsterdam diamonds for rings, Chrissie is wondering if there are any teacher openings locally and it looks like we are going to get another 100 pages of boring other Crighton things.
But Wait! PJ isn't really to avow and seal the True Love deal quite yet.
Jenny, Guy's partner and former unrequited love that was never consummated, mentions that Chrissie is related to Guy's childhood nemesis bully and Guy has a snit fit of EPIC proportions.
Then he spies the desk in the uncle's house that very closely matches the one that was recently stolen from Queensmead, Elder Scion Ben Crighton's home.
Guy has another freak out, drags the police to the uncle's house and practically accuses Chrissie of being the leader of a group of local housebreakers that are rumored to have a woman running things.
Chrissie is heartbroken and hurt and preggers. Then Guy's cousin Natalie is introduced to her by Guy's sister and Guy's sister doesn't say ONE word as Natalie goes on and on and on about Guy's lurvely lady pumping and dumping tendencies.
(Tho we later learn this is PJ's very weak toss in of a wanna be OW and she was totally exaggerating things.)
So we get three chapters of standard PJ mopey moments from both Guy AND Chrissie, with some PJ patented Guy family and Crighton family pimp out moves, that only end when Guy discovers Chrissie is preggers and ill, so he kidnaps Chrissie and dumps her on his other local sister.
Guy's sister drags Chrissie to Guy's annual Vintage Victorian Antiques fair and Guy almost gets killed saving Chrissie from a runaway beer barrel. Chrissie faints, Guy gets stabbed with a gadzillion splinters and has to get stitched up and a very tentative truce is declared.
In the meantime Aunt Ruth nee' Crighton, still happily married to her WWII reunited love Grant, discovers that yes, Ben's desk was stolen.
But apparently there were TWO desks made and Ruth's grandfather gave one to Chrissie's great grandmother when she was forced into marriage with some farm guy because she was preggers with Ruth's grandfather's illegitimate baby.
But before Chrissie can be cleared of the suspicion of housebreaking, the physic friend's hotline kicks in. Chrissie can't sleep all night because she has the strangest feeling something is terribly wrong with Guy and she drags Guy's other sister out at five o'clock in the morning to go check on him.
I was anticipating some long awaited Patented PJ Sponging at this point, but alas, Guy is almost comatose with septicemia, so he has to go to hospital and have surgery instead.
Chrissie has to pace the waiting room, instead of soothing Guy's fevered brow, but in the aftermath of the anesthesia, Guy wakes up enough to declare his True Lurve for Chrissie Forever Vow.
Chrissie loves Guy madly back and we get a joyous hospital bed reconciliation - with only a tiny swipe of a sponge. Guy quickly recovers and we all go to visit Aunt Ruth, who kindly explains about the duplicate desks and also that Chrissie is, in fact, a Crighton.
Aunt Ruth also lets us all know that Chrissie's uncle just got the bad immoral scalawag gene that pops up in the male side of the Crighton family every now and again, so his bad behavior was just cause he couldn't help himself.
Which, PJ takes pains to point out, means that he is just as badly behaved as Max Crighton, Madeline's philandering ,nematode snot trail spouse, and we can start to see PJ's build up to the non-HP seventh book that features Max and his slime slurping, snot pustule ways.
But all that is for the upcoming next two books. The end of this HP outing to the wilds of Cheshire is Guy and Chrissie's very happy wedding, with the whole Crighton gang and Chrissie's parents celebrating a True Love Connection-even if the groom is part Gypsy-and the impeding arrival of a brand new Psychic Gypsy Crighton offspring to push the ongoing saga into the next generation.
Our cast of characters is updated as follows:
BEN CRIGHTON: Proud patriarch of the family, a strong- minded character
in his seventies, determined to see his dynasty thrive and prosper.
RUTH REYNOLDS: Ben’s sister, a vibrant woman now happily reunited with Grant, the man from whom she was tragically separated during the war years—and also with the daughter she gave up for adoption. Ruth is a caring, perceptive woman and she holds the Crighton family together.
JON AND JENNY CRIGHTON: Steady, family-oriented couple. Jon keeps the Crighton law firm running smoothly, and Jenny is a partner in a local antiques business with Guy Cooke. Guy helped Jenny through difficult times in her marriage. He has always been close to Jenny, and they have a strong friendship.
MAX CRIGHTON: Son of Jon and Jenny, a self-assured, sexy, ruthlessly ambitious lawyer who married his wife, Madeleine, a gentle woman and daughter of a High Court judge, to advance his career. The couple lives in London with their two children, but Madeleine has concerns about the stability of their marriage....
ROSE OLDHAM: Rose had connections with the Crighton family when she was growing up—as did her mother and grandmother. But she’s since moved away from the area and is reluctant to return to Haslewich when her brother dies, sending her daughter Chrissie instead.
CHRISSIE OLDHAM: Rose’s daughter, a spirited but romantic English teacher who is convinced her ideal hero just doesn’t exist. She longs for a passionate, unconventional man—and is astonished when she arrives in Haslewich to be swept off her feet by the broodingly sensual Guy Cooke....
GUY COOKE: Jenny’s partner in a successful antiques business, Guy is close to the Crighton family and very loyal to Jenny. He has Gypsy ancestors and is devastatingly sexy and adored by women. Fiery and impetuous, he’s the exact opposite of gentle Chrissie—but feels an instant bond when he
meets her
Our romantic paring in this one is Guy and Chrissie. Chrissie's dubious and disowned black sheep uncle on her mother's side has finally diced his last craps game and he owes a lot of people money.
Rose, Chrissie's mum, is not at all keen to return to the village of her youth and sort his cottage and his things out, so Chrissie volunteers to take point on the project.
Rose and Chrissie's Dr. Dad have got to go to a physician's seminar anyways and it is school holidays, so Chrissie can take care of the cleaning and sorting and get some sightseeing in Chester in too. Rose is quite happy to let Chrissie handle things, she can't bear the probable condemnation of the locals over her disgraceful brother.
Jon Crighton is the disreputable uncle's estate trustee and if Chrissie will get the uncle's possessions in order, Jon can sell off his things and maybe pay back some of the people that the late, unlamented scoundrel owed money to.
The only thing Rose is really interested in is a fake French Provincial desk that belonged to her grandmother. She and Chrissie's dad will be happy to buy it from the estate, if Chrissie will have it valued.
Rose likes the desk, it has been in her family since before Rose was born, and Rose's scalawag brother pretty much snaffled it when their mother died.
Chrissie sends an enquiry to Guy and Jenny's antique shop, hoping to get an appraisal and in due course, an appointment between Guy and Chrissie is set.
Guy is not a Crighton, tho his family has been in the area for years. His background is a bit more dubious and much is made of the rogue Gypsy who seduced his maternal great grandmother a few generations back.
Apparently having Gypsy forefather's is quite shocking to the locals, so Guy has spent his entire life trying to live down his ancestor's roving and probably thieving ways. Guy also has an intense hatred for the late unlamented uncle that finally keeled over.
They were in school together as boys and Guy had asthma. Chrissie's evil uncle bullied Guy and almost drowned him one day, Guy was only saved when one of his rugger playing cousins happened by and beat the bully uncle up. Guy was kinda small at the time, but now he is a big beau hunk of a man.
In very typical PJ fashion with a twist, Guy is also an amazing home decorator - tho he doesn't do rag rolling. So when Chrissie moves into her uncle's house to get it ready to be sold, she isn't expecting a very handsome man to show up to evaluate her desk.
In once of the fastest cases of insta Lurve Force Mojo in all of HPlandia EVER, Chrissie answers Guy's knock on the door, a genuine psychic friends connection is established when their eyes meet in greeting and they are Purple Passion Lurving it up approximately 10.2 seconds later.
They only stop to adjourn to the bedroom for the tower of power riding, cause the parlor rug is badly in need of cleaning.
In two hours, Guy and Chrissie are ready to declare true love forever and that they are soul mates joined together by destiny. Guy is talking Amsterdam diamonds for rings, Chrissie is wondering if there are any teacher openings locally and it looks like we are going to get another 100 pages of boring other Crighton things.
But Wait! PJ isn't really to avow and seal the True Love deal quite yet.
Jenny, Guy's partner and former unrequited love that was never consummated, mentions that Chrissie is related to Guy's childhood nemesis bully and Guy has a snit fit of EPIC proportions.
Then he spies the desk in the uncle's house that very closely matches the one that was recently stolen from Queensmead, Elder Scion Ben Crighton's home.
Guy has another freak out, drags the police to the uncle's house and practically accuses Chrissie of being the leader of a group of local housebreakers that are rumored to have a woman running things.
Chrissie is heartbroken and hurt and preggers. Then Guy's cousin Natalie is introduced to her by Guy's sister and Guy's sister doesn't say ONE word as Natalie goes on and on and on about Guy's lurvely lady pumping and dumping tendencies.
(Tho we later learn this is PJ's very weak toss in of a wanna be OW and she was totally exaggerating things.)
So we get three chapters of standard PJ mopey moments from both Guy AND Chrissie, with some PJ patented Guy family and Crighton family pimp out moves, that only end when Guy discovers Chrissie is preggers and ill, so he kidnaps Chrissie and dumps her on his other local sister.
Guy's sister drags Chrissie to Guy's annual Vintage Victorian Antiques fair and Guy almost gets killed saving Chrissie from a runaway beer barrel. Chrissie faints, Guy gets stabbed with a gadzillion splinters and has to get stitched up and a very tentative truce is declared.
In the meantime Aunt Ruth nee' Crighton, still happily married to her WWII reunited love Grant, discovers that yes, Ben's desk was stolen.
But apparently there were TWO desks made and Ruth's grandfather gave one to Chrissie's great grandmother when she was forced into marriage with some farm guy because she was preggers with Ruth's grandfather's illegitimate baby.
But before Chrissie can be cleared of the suspicion of housebreaking, the physic friend's hotline kicks in. Chrissie can't sleep all night because she has the strangest feeling something is terribly wrong with Guy and she drags Guy's other sister out at five o'clock in the morning to go check on him.
I was anticipating some long awaited Patented PJ Sponging at this point, but alas, Guy is almost comatose with septicemia, so he has to go to hospital and have surgery instead.
Chrissie has to pace the waiting room, instead of soothing Guy's fevered brow, but in the aftermath of the anesthesia, Guy wakes up enough to declare his True Lurve for Chrissie Forever Vow.
Chrissie loves Guy madly back and we get a joyous hospital bed reconciliation - with only a tiny swipe of a sponge. Guy quickly recovers and we all go to visit Aunt Ruth, who kindly explains about the duplicate desks and also that Chrissie is, in fact, a Crighton.
Aunt Ruth also lets us all know that Chrissie's uncle just got the bad immoral scalawag gene that pops up in the male side of the Crighton family every now and again, so his bad behavior was just cause he couldn't help himself.
Which, PJ takes pains to point out, means that he is just as badly behaved as Max Crighton, Madeline's philandering ,nematode snot trail spouse, and we can start to see PJ's build up to the non-HP seventh book that features Max and his slime slurping, snot pustule ways.
But all that is for the upcoming next two books. The end of this HP outing to the wilds of Cheshire is Guy and Chrissie's very happy wedding, with the whole Crighton gang and Chrissie's parents celebrating a True Love Connection-even if the groom is part Gypsy-and the impeding arrival of a brand new Psychic Gypsy Crighton offspring to push the ongoing saga into the next generation.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 25, 2017
Guy and Chrissie meet and sparks fly. They become lovers very quickly but Guy hates Chrissie's family and when he finds out she deceived him he breaks up with her. Chrissie is pregnant and heartbroken. Nice angst! I really miss Penny Jordan. I love her books and I adore her sweet heroines and alpha heroes. Guy and Chrissy have amazing chemistry and I just loved them together!
February 14, 2019
Re The Perfect Match? - Penny Jordan celebrates 25 years of HPlandia and brings us her fourth book in The Perfect Crightons series.
Our cast of characters is updated as follows:
BEN CRIGHTON: Proud patriarch of the family, a strong- minded character
in his seventies, determined to see his dynasty thrive and prosper.
RUTH REYNOLDS: Ben’s sister, a vibrant woman now happily reunited with Grant, the man from whom she was tragically separated during the war years—and also with the daughter she gave up for adoption. Ruth is a caring, perceptive woman and she holds the Crighton family together.
JON AND JENNY CRIGHTON: Steady, family-oriented couple. Jon keeps the Crighton law firm running smoothly, and Jenny is a partner in a local antiques business with Guy Cooke. Guy helped Jenny through difficult times in her marriage. He has always been close to Jenny, and they have a strong friendship.
MAX CRIGHTON: Son of Jon and Jenny, a self-assured, sexy, ruthlessly ambitious lawyer who married his wife, Madeleine, a gentle woman and daughter of a High Court judge, to advance his career. The couple lives in London with their two children, but Madeleine has concerns about the stability of their marriage....
ROSE OLDHAM: Rose had connections with the Crighton family when she was growing up—as did her mother and grandmother. But she’s since moved away from the area and is reluctant to return to Haslewich when her brother dies, sending her daughter Chrissie instead.
CHRISSIE OLDHAM: Rose’s daughter, a spirited but romantic English teacher who is convinced her ideal hero just doesn’t exist. She longs for a passionate, unconventional man—and is astonished when she arrives in Haslewich to be swept off her feet by the broodingly sensual Guy Cooke....
GUY COOKE: Jenny’s partner in a successful antiques business, Guy is close to the Crighton family and very loyal to Jenny. He has Gypsy ancestors and is devastatingly sexy and adored by women. Fiery and impetuous, he’s the exact opposite of gentle Chrissie—but feels an instant bond when he
meets her
Our romantic paring in this one is Guy and Chrissie. Chrissie's dubious and disowned black sheep uncle on her mother's side has finally diced his last craps game and he owes a lot of people money.
Rose, Chrissie's mum, is not at all keen to return to the village of her youth and sort his cottage and his things out, so Chrissie volunteers to take point on the project.
Rose and Chrissie's Dr. Dad have got to go to a physician's seminar anyways and it is school holidays, so Chrissie can take care of the cleaning and sorting and get some sightseeing in Chester in too. Rose is quite happy to let Chrissie handle things, she can't bear the probable condemnation of the locals over her disgraceful brother.
Jon Crighton is the disreputable uncle's estate trustee and if Chrissie will get the uncle's possessions in order, Jon can sell off his things and maybe pay back some of the people that the late, unlamented scoundrel owed money to.
The only thing Rose is really interested in is a fake French Provincial desk that belonged to her grandmother. She and Chrissie's dad will be happy to buy it from the estate, if Chrissie will have it valued.
Rose likes the desk, it has been in her family since before Rose was born, and Rose's scalawag brother pretty much snaffled it when their mother died.
Chrissie sends an enquiry to Guy and Jenny's antique shop, hoping to get an appraisal and in due course, an appointment between Guy and Chrissie is set.
Guy is not a Crighton, tho his family has been in the area for years. His background is a bit more dubious and much is made of the rogue Gypsy who seduced his maternal great grandmother a few generations back.
Apparently having Gypsy forefather's is quite shocking to the locals, so Guy has spent his entire life trying to live down his ancestor's roving and probably thieving ways. Guy also has an intense hatred for the late unlamented uncle that finally keeled over.
They were in school together as boys and Guy had asthma. Chrissie's evil uncle bullied Guy and almost drowned him one day, Guy was only saved when one of his rugger playing cousins happened by and beat the bully uncle up. Guy was kinda small at the time, but now he is a big beau hunk of a man.
In very typical PJ fashion with a twist, Guy is also an amazing home decorator - tho he doesn't do rag rolling. So when Chrissie moves into her uncle's house to get it ready to be sold, she isn't expecting a very handsome man to show up to evaluate her desk.
In once of the fastest cases of insta Lurve Force Mojo in all of HPlandia EVER, Chrissie answers Guy's knock on the door, a genuine psychic friends connection is established when their eyes meet in greeting and they are Purple Passion Lurving it up approximately 10.2 seconds later.
They only stop to adjourn to the bedroom for the tower of power riding, cause the parlor rug is badly in need of cleaning.
In two hours, Guy and Chrissie are ready to declare true love forever and that they are soul mates joined together by destiny. Guy is talking Amsterdam diamonds for rings, Chrissie is wondering if there are any teacher openings locally and it looks like we are going to get another 100 pages of boring other Crighton things.
But Wait! PJ isn't really to avow and seal the True Love deal quite yet.
Jenny, Guy's partner and former unrequited love that was never consummated, mentions that Chrissie is related to Guy's childhood nemesis bully and Guy has a snit fit of EPIC proportions.
Then he spies the desk in the uncle's house that very closely matches the one that was recently stolen from Queensmead, Elder Scion Ben Crighton's home.
Guy has another freak out, drags the police to the uncle's house and practically accuses Chrissie of being the leader of a group of local housebreakers that are rumored to have a woman running things.
Chrissie is heartbroken and hurt and preggers. Then Guy's cousin Natalie is introduced to her by Guy's sister and Guy's sister doesn't say ONE word as Natalie goes on and on and on about Guy's lurvely lady pumping and dumping tendencies.
(Tho we later learn this is PJ's very weak toss in of a wanna be OW and she was totally exaggerating things.)
So we get three chapters of standard PJ mopey moments from both Guy AND Chrissie, with some PJ patented Guy family and Crighton family pimp out moves, that only end when Guy discovers Chrissie is preggers and ill, so he kidnaps Chrissie and dumps her on his other local sister.
Guy's sister drags Chrissie to Guy's annual Vintage Victorian Antiques fair and Guy almost gets killed saving Chrissie from a runaway beer barrel. Chrissie faints, Guy gets stabbed with a gadzillion splinters and has to get stitched up and a very tentative truce is declared.
In the meantime Aunt Ruth nee' Crighton, still happily married to her WWII reunited love Grant, discovers that yes, Ben's desk was stolen.
But apparently there were TWO desks made and Ruth's grandfather gave one to Chrissie's great grandmother when she was forced into marriage with some farm guy because she was preggers with Ruth's grandfather's illegitimate baby.
But before Chrissie can be cleared of the suspicion of housebreaking, the physic friend's hotline kicks in. Chrissie can't sleep all night because she has the strangest feeling something is terribly wrong with Guy and she drags Guy's other sister out at five o'clock in the morning to go check on him.
I was anticipating some long awaited Patented PJ Sponging at this point, but alas, Guy is almost comatose with septicemia, so he has to go to hospital and have surgery instead.
Chrissie has to pace the waiting room, instead of soothing Guy's fevered brow, but in the aftermath of the anesthesia, Guy wakes up enough to declare his True Lurve for Chrissie Forever Vow.
Chrissie loves Guy madly back and we get a joyous hospital bed reconciliation - with only a tiny swipe of a sponge. Guy quickly recovers and we all go to visit Aunt Ruth, who kindly explains about the duplicate desks and also that Chrissie is, in fact, a Crighton.
Aunt Ruth also lets us all know that Chrissie's uncle just got the bad immoral scalawag gene that pops up in the male side of the Crighton family every now and again, so his bad behavior was just cause he couldn't help himself.
Which, PJ takes pains to point out, means that he is just as badly behaved as Max Crighton, Madeline's philandering ,nematode snot trail spouse, and we can start to see PJ's build up to the non-HP seventh book that features Max and his slime slurping, snot pustule ways.
But all that is for the upcoming next two books. The end of this HP outing to the wilds of Cheshire is Guy and Chrissie's very happy wedding, with the whole Crighton gang and Chrissie's parents celebrating a True Love Connection-even if the groom is part Gypsy-and the impeding arrival of a brand new Psychic Gypsy Crighton offspring to push the ongoing saga into the next generation.
Our cast of characters is updated as follows:
BEN CRIGHTON: Proud patriarch of the family, a strong- minded character
in his seventies, determined to see his dynasty thrive and prosper.
RUTH REYNOLDS: Ben’s sister, a vibrant woman now happily reunited with Grant, the man from whom she was tragically separated during the war years—and also with the daughter she gave up for adoption. Ruth is a caring, perceptive woman and she holds the Crighton family together.
JON AND JENNY CRIGHTON: Steady, family-oriented couple. Jon keeps the Crighton law firm running smoothly, and Jenny is a partner in a local antiques business with Guy Cooke. Guy helped Jenny through difficult times in her marriage. He has always been close to Jenny, and they have a strong friendship.
MAX CRIGHTON: Son of Jon and Jenny, a self-assured, sexy, ruthlessly ambitious lawyer who married his wife, Madeleine, a gentle woman and daughter of a High Court judge, to advance his career. The couple lives in London with their two children, but Madeleine has concerns about the stability of their marriage....
ROSE OLDHAM: Rose had connections with the Crighton family when she was growing up—as did her mother and grandmother. But she’s since moved away from the area and is reluctant to return to Haslewich when her brother dies, sending her daughter Chrissie instead.
CHRISSIE OLDHAM: Rose’s daughter, a spirited but romantic English teacher who is convinced her ideal hero just doesn’t exist. She longs for a passionate, unconventional man—and is astonished when she arrives in Haslewich to be swept off her feet by the broodingly sensual Guy Cooke....
GUY COOKE: Jenny’s partner in a successful antiques business, Guy is close to the Crighton family and very loyal to Jenny. He has Gypsy ancestors and is devastatingly sexy and adored by women. Fiery and impetuous, he’s the exact opposite of gentle Chrissie—but feels an instant bond when he
meets her
Our romantic paring in this one is Guy and Chrissie. Chrissie's dubious and disowned black sheep uncle on her mother's side has finally diced his last craps game and he owes a lot of people money.
Rose, Chrissie's mum, is not at all keen to return to the village of her youth and sort his cottage and his things out, so Chrissie volunteers to take point on the project.
Rose and Chrissie's Dr. Dad have got to go to a physician's seminar anyways and it is school holidays, so Chrissie can take care of the cleaning and sorting and get some sightseeing in Chester in too. Rose is quite happy to let Chrissie handle things, she can't bear the probable condemnation of the locals over her disgraceful brother.
Jon Crighton is the disreputable uncle's estate trustee and if Chrissie will get the uncle's possessions in order, Jon can sell off his things and maybe pay back some of the people that the late, unlamented scoundrel owed money to.
The only thing Rose is really interested in is a fake French Provincial desk that belonged to her grandmother. She and Chrissie's dad will be happy to buy it from the estate, if Chrissie will have it valued.
Rose likes the desk, it has been in her family since before Rose was born, and Rose's scalawag brother pretty much snaffled it when their mother died.
Chrissie sends an enquiry to Guy and Jenny's antique shop, hoping to get an appraisal and in due course, an appointment between Guy and Chrissie is set.
Guy is not a Crighton, tho his family has been in the area for years. His background is a bit more dubious and much is made of the rogue Gypsy who seduced his maternal great grandmother a few generations back.
Apparently having Gypsy forefather's is quite shocking to the locals, so Guy has spent his entire life trying to live down his ancestor's roving and probably thieving ways. Guy also has an intense hatred for the late unlamented uncle that finally keeled over.
They were in school together as boys and Guy had asthma. Chrissie's evil uncle bullied Guy and almost drowned him one day, Guy was only saved when one of his rugger playing cousins happened by and beat the bully uncle up. Guy was kinda small at the time, but now he is a big beau hunk of a man.
In very typical PJ fashion with a twist, Guy is also an amazing home decorator - tho he doesn't do rag rolling. So when Chrissie moves into her uncle's house to get it ready to be sold, she isn't expecting a very handsome man to show up to evaluate her desk.
In once of the fastest cases of insta Lurve Force Mojo in all of HPlandia EVER, Chrissie answers Guy's knock on the door, a genuine psychic friends connection is established when their eyes meet in greeting and they are Purple Passion Lurving it up approximately 10.2 seconds later.
They only stop to adjourn to the bedroom for the tower of power riding, cause the parlor rug is badly in need of cleaning.
In two hours, Guy and Chrissie are ready to declare true love forever and that they are soul mates joined together by destiny. Guy is talking Amsterdam diamonds for rings, Chrissie is wondering if there are any teacher openings locally and it looks like we are going to get another 100 pages of boring other Crighton things.
But Wait! PJ isn't really to avow and seal the True Love deal quite yet.
Jenny, Guy's partner and former unrequited love that was never consummated, mentions that Chrissie is related to Guy's childhood nemesis bully and Guy has a snit fit of EPIC proportions.
Then he spies the desk in the uncle's house that very closely matches the one that was recently stolen from Queensmead, Elder Scion Ben Crighton's home.
Guy has another freak out, drags the police to the uncle's house and practically accuses Chrissie of being the leader of a group of local housebreakers that are rumored to have a woman running things.
Chrissie is heartbroken and hurt and preggers. Then Guy's cousin Natalie is introduced to her by Guy's sister and Guy's sister doesn't say ONE word as Natalie goes on and on and on about Guy's lurvely lady pumping and dumping tendencies.
(Tho we later learn this is PJ's very weak toss in of a wanna be OW and she was totally exaggerating things.)
So we get three chapters of standard PJ mopey moments from both Guy AND Chrissie, with some PJ patented Guy family and Crighton family pimp out moves, that only end when Guy discovers Chrissie is preggers and ill, so he kidnaps Chrissie and dumps her on his other local sister.
Guy's sister drags Chrissie to Guy's annual Vintage Victorian Antiques fair and Guy almost gets killed saving Chrissie from a runaway beer barrel. Chrissie faints, Guy gets stabbed with a gadzillion splinters and has to get stitched up and a very tentative truce is declared.
In the meantime Aunt Ruth nee' Crighton, still happily married to her WWII reunited love Grant, discovers that yes, Ben's desk was stolen.
But apparently there were TWO desks made and Ruth's grandfather gave one to Chrissie's great grandmother when she was forced into marriage with some farm guy because she was preggers with Ruth's grandfather's illegitimate baby.
But before Chrissie can be cleared of the suspicion of housebreaking, the physic friend's hotline kicks in. Chrissie can't sleep all night because she has the strangest feeling something is terribly wrong with Guy and she drags Guy's other sister out at five o'clock in the morning to go check on him.
I was anticipating some long awaited Patented PJ Sponging at this point, but alas, Guy is almost comatose with septicemia, so he has to go to hospital and have surgery instead.
Chrissie has to pace the waiting room, instead of soothing Guy's fevered brow, but in the aftermath of the anesthesia, Guy wakes up enough to declare his True Lurve for Chrissie Forever Vow.
Chrissie loves Guy madly back and we get a joyous hospital bed reconciliation - with only a tiny swipe of a sponge. Guy quickly recovers and we all go to visit Aunt Ruth, who kindly explains about the duplicate desks and also that Chrissie is, in fact, a Crighton.
Aunt Ruth also lets us all know that Chrissie's uncle just got the bad immoral scalawag gene that pops up in the male side of the Crighton family every now and again, so his bad behavior was just cause he couldn't help himself.
Which, PJ takes pains to point out, means that he is just as badly behaved as Max Crighton, Madeline's philandering ,nematode snot trail spouse, and we can start to see PJ's build up to the non-HP seventh book that features Max and his slime slurping, snot pustule ways.
But all that is for the upcoming next two books. The end of this HP outing to the wilds of Cheshire is Guy and Chrissie's very happy wedding, with the whole Crighton gang and Chrissie's parents celebrating a True Love Connection-even if the groom is part Gypsy-and the impeding arrival of a brand new Psychic Gypsy Crighton offspring to push the ongoing saga into the next generation.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 15, 2019
If this were my first Penny Jordan, I would be thinking...HAAAAAA! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
The "love at first sight" scene is the quintessential cliche romance scene--straight out of a SNL parody skit. The heroine opens the door and sees a complete stranger and is instantly zapped by Cupid's arrow of love/lust--and of course, at the exact same time, the exact same thing is happening to our hero as he sees the heroine for the first time ever--and then they fling themselves into each other's arms and starting making out (true!) and then find the nearest bedroom and consummate their love at first sight. (Excuse my run-on sentence).
I know. This sounds absolutely ridiculous. And it is. However...
Because I am a Penny Jordan fan, I stuck with the book, knowing that angst/conflict was on the way. And family drama. And lots of odd details. And a bunch of extraneous external conflicts and weird family backstory.
Yep! We got it all in there!
And because I am a PJ fan, I loved every weird, quirky minute of it.
This one needs a huge heaping spoonful of willing suspension of disbelief. That love-at-1st-sight scene is something else. LOL!
The "love at first sight" scene is the quintessential cliche romance scene--straight out of a SNL parody skit. The heroine opens the door and sees a complete stranger and is instantly zapped by Cupid's arrow of love/lust--and of course, at the exact same time, the exact same thing is happening to our hero as he sees the heroine for the first time ever--and then they fling themselves into each other's arms and starting making out (true!) and then find the nearest bedroom and consummate their love at first sight. (Excuse my run-on sentence).
I know. This sounds absolutely ridiculous. And it is. However...
Because I am a Penny Jordan fan, I stuck with the book, knowing that angst/conflict was on the way. And family drama. And lots of odd details. And a bunch of extraneous external conflicts and weird family backstory.
Yep! We got it all in there!
And because I am a PJ fan, I loved every weird, quirky minute of it.
This one needs a huge heaping spoonful of willing suspension of disbelief. That love-at-1st-sight scene is something else. LOL!
January 14, 2020
"The Perfect Match?" is the story of Chrissie and Guy.
Big meh!
The book begins when our h goes to Cheshire to sort out her late uncle's belongings. She soon meets the H, both fall in love at first sight, and quickly engage in boisterous lovemaking. They start weaving plans for their future- only to realize that not only has the h forgotten to mention her identity, but the H might be in love with OW. Then there's a pregnancy, family and desk drama, revelations, grovel-less giving in, ancestral discoveries and ending.
Disappointed with this one- but the first half was hot! Could have been a much better, angsty read.
Safe
2/5
Big meh!
The book begins when our h goes to Cheshire to sort out her late uncle's belongings. She soon meets the H, both fall in love at first sight, and quickly engage in boisterous lovemaking. They start weaving plans for their future- only to realize that not only has the h forgotten to mention her identity, but the H might be in love with OW. Then there's a pregnancy, family and desk drama, revelations, grovel-less giving in, ancestral discoveries and ending.
Disappointed with this one- but the first half was hot! Could have been a much better, angsty read.
Safe
2/5
February 9, 2019
The chemistry and passion between Guy and Chrissy was hot. In fact, it's pretty much love (and lust) at first sight. They kissed even before exchanging a single word when meeting for the very first time! As I've mentioned before in other reviews, insta-love works for me as a plot device in romantic fiction. It's fantasy after all.
As instantaneous as their connection was, it quickly went downhill as misunderstandings popped up to tear the two lovebirds apart. Chrissy's family connections also added to the conflict.
As instantaneous as their connection was, it quickly went downhill as misunderstandings popped up to tear the two lovebirds apart. Chrissy's family connections also added to the conflict.
May 4, 2022
Esse romance não existiria se não fosse o fato de que Guy Cooke, o personagem que roubou a cena no primeiro volume da série, não estivesse aqui. Ele que foi como um bálsamo para a ferida emocional de Jenny, a mãe de família e mulher de Jonathon em "Família Perfeita", serve também como meta de consumo de quem lê.
Infelizmente, muito do que fez esse personagem tão carismático - como o peso emocional do relacionamento com Jenny - foi retirado, o que o tornou apenas mais um protagonista de receita de bolo.
O livro é basicamente um amontoado de cenas de sexo, embora não necessariamente erótico, e a adoração quase mediúnica entre o casal. Pode ser interessante para os fãs da barra-pesada que alguns autores aplicam a relacionamentos "ciganos e selvagens", mas fora algumas implicações, não há muito para se ver.
Na verdade, esse título poderia ter sido facilmente retirado na série Crighton pois não se vê nada sobre eles aqui, tirando o fato de que no último minuto a autora arranja uma explicação meia-boca sobre parentesco entre a mocinha e a família supracitada.
Infelizmente, muito do que fez esse personagem tão carismático - como o peso emocional do relacionamento com Jenny - foi retirado, o que o tornou apenas mais um protagonista de receita de bolo.
O livro é basicamente um amontoado de cenas de sexo, embora não necessariamente erótico, e a adoração quase mediúnica entre o casal. Pode ser interessante para os fãs da barra-pesada que alguns autores aplicam a relacionamentos "ciganos e selvagens", mas fora algumas implicações, não há muito para se ver.
Na verdade, esse título poderia ter sido facilmente retirado na série Crighton pois não se vê nada sobre eles aqui, tirando o fato de que no último minuto a autora arranja uma explicação meia-boca sobre parentesco entre a mocinha e a família supracitada.
September 18, 2022
Esta primeira história só me dava vontade de rir ao início, Guy e Chrissie põem os olhos um no outro e é amor a primeira vista, caem nos braços um do outro e entregam-se logo ao desejo e a paixão, duas páginas depois estamos na fase “do amo-te, casa comigo e quero ter uma família contigo”, uma pessoa gosta de romance mas não é preciso tanto! Além do segredo dela ser sobrinha do homem que atormentava Guy enquanto criança e ele não a perdoar por isso é só no final quando ela descobre estar grávida eles se entendem, demasiado para mim.
A segunda história mais plausível, voltamos a Louise Crighton e ao seu passado difícil nesta família com a obsessão toda com o primo supostamente ultrapassada, onde ela volta a cruzar-se com o orientador de curso Gareth depois de no passado se ter refugiado nos braços dele depois do desgosto com Saul? Anos mais tarde e ao voltarem a trabalhar juntos reacende-se a chama do passado e afinal era amor! Tudo acaba bem!
A segunda história mais plausível, voltamos a Louise Crighton e ao seu passado difícil nesta família com a obsessão toda com o primo supostamente ultrapassada, onde ela volta a cruzar-se com o orientador de curso Gareth depois de no passado se ter refugiado nos braços dele depois do desgosto com Saul? Anos mais tarde e ao voltarem a trabalhar juntos reacende-se a chama do passado e afinal era amor! Tudo acaba bem!
December 24, 2011
A morte do seu tio levou Chrissie Oldham a Haslewich de modo a tentar pagar as suas dívidas. é nesta cidade que encontra Guy Cooke, o homem perfeito, descendente de ciganos e apaixonam-se. No entanto, a confusão e a desconfiança provocadas por uma antiga rivalidade familiar podem separar o casal.
Mais um livro que acompanha a familia Crighton, não se pode esperar muito destes livros, são leituras que agradam para quem gosta de romances leves.
Mais um livro que acompanha a familia Crighton, não se pode esperar muito destes livros, são leituras que agradam para quem gosta de romances leves.
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