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Final Score
He used charm--and then bribery
But feisty Michaela James, a food columnist for a British national daily, was having none of it. She'd discovered American millionaire Keir Grant's appalling scoring system for choosing a wife, and he wanted Michaela to keep quiet.
Keir tried everything in his power to silence Michaela, and Michaela enjoyed taunting him with what she knew--knowing that spilling all to her publisher was Keir's worst nightmare.
But Michaela's game began to backfire. Especially as she found herself giving in to his latest gambit--blackmail--and then hoping she scored highest on his dreadful little list!
But feisty Michaela James, a food columnist for a British national daily, was having none of it. She'd discovered American millionaire Keir Grant's appalling scoring system for choosing a wife, and he wanted Michaela to keep quiet.
Keir tried everything in his power to silence Michaela, and Michaela enjoyed taunting him with what she knew--knowing that spilling all to her publisher was Keir's worst nightmare.
But Michaela's game began to backfire. Especially as she found herself giving in to his latest gambit--blackmail--and then hoping she scored highest on his dreadful little list!
192 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published November 4, 1988
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31 people want to read
About the author
Jennifer Taylor
494 books22 followersJennifer Taylor is a British author of more than 50 medical romance novels published by Mills & Boon since 1988. A former chartered librarian and researcher, she lives in northwest England with her husband and dog, enjoying reading and travel.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
December 24, 2016
Re Final Score - Jennifer Taylor's HP debut is a story of scoring, we have a bearded American H who thinks a wife can be selected by a system of points, (ten of ten in multiple categories.) We also get an h who is HPlandia's answer to Mary Berry - but she doesn't do Bake Off's yet. (Which was disappointing cause I was really looking forward to Lemon Drizzle Cake.)
The story starts with the h sitting next to the H on a plane bound for London, she has been doing an American cooking tour and she happens to notice the guy next to her with a sheaf of papers with various women's names on them and he is marking down points in various categories. When he sets the papers down to wander off for a moment, the h snoops through his folder. She is fascinated and appalled to realize that each woman has a score next to various topics, like looks, legs, hairstyle, cooking skills etc. Then the unknown scorer comes back and he is livid. The h thinks to apologize, but the H is nasty and antagonistic, the h just lets it go and fortunately they land.
Only to meet up again later when the h jumps into a taxi in a bid to jump the queue. Her fellow companion is none other than the H and as they are bickering, it comes out that the h works for a newspaper. The H assumes she is a reporter, not a food columnist, and offers her a bribe of several thousand pounds to keep quiet. The H is apparently looking for a wife and wants the best possible score out of a hundred for his mate.
The h is even more outraged and horrified and jumps out the cab with all her luggage in the middle of nowhere. She winds up walking home as she has lost her purse in all the melee and confusion. Then the H shows up at door the next morning with her purse, while the h is coming to terms with the almighty mess of her front hall. (She had hired a builder to change the hall around while she was away and he tore it up and then skipped out.) The H manages to get some photos of the two of them engaging in roofie punishing kisses while the h is still in her robe and pajama's.
The h and H meet again when she accepts an assignment to cook a dinner for a local socialite, the H is invited as the special guest of the lady and the woman wants to pretend that her daughter did the meal to win the H for her daughter. The h slips a 10 of 10 score into a portion of the meal and the H catches her out. (This part was a bit confusing, why the h was there and why she would agree to pretend the daughter cooked the meal made no sense, neither did her doing the scoring thing. ) However this sends the H's temper into the stratosphere.
He uses the pictures to blackmail the h into being his cook and housekeeper over a series of weekends while he tests out OW. The h calls another of her newspaper friends, this one a man who does profiles and digs into peoples backgrounds, to find out that this H is a big time American businessman who owns a big shipping/salvaging company. The h is bit more understanding of why he might want his scoring system kept quiet, but she does try to convince him that his system is only going to lead to unhappiness.
That prediction soon comes to pass when the first of his "evaluations" seems to be all charm and kindness on the surface, but soon assaults the h by slapping her when the h refuses to be her servant. The H has a big fight with the h over her supposed treatment of the other woman, until he realizes that the h has a great case for the police. Then he kisses her into submission and moves on to the next score.
The h, in the meantime, is doing her cooking things and trying to ward off the other news guy she called to get information on the H. He scents a story somewhere and he is going to push and pry until he gets it. The H, h, and the newshound wind up having lunch together and the story of the H's rags to riches background is told. The H's mum ran out on him, his sister, that he raised for years has also abandoned him and so he has reasons for his distrust of women. That doesn't stop him from putting the gropey hands on the h tho. She has to confess she likes it, so she continues to be his second evaluator in his wife scoring tests.
The next weekend is with a woman whose father has a company the H is interested in merging with. She is a huge fan of the h and her column and things are going swimmingly until the woman chokes on a fish bone. The H blows up at the h again, for leaving the bones in the fish - which he seems to think is some sort of malicious attack. The h is confused, cause the other lady is the one who deboned the fish.
So the H takes the lady to the hospital and while he is gone, ruffians break into the flat and try to assault the h. (This was another confusing moment, cause the h has a black belt in judo and should have been able to disarm her attacker fairly easily - she has done it a few times throughout the book.) The H walks in on the h being held at knife point and the sight of the H returning reawakens the h's mad judo skillz and she successfully defeats the bad guy. The H realizes he cares about the h and gives her the incriminating pictures back except for one.
The H and h share a night lurve clubbing which is ruined the next day when a story about the H's scoring system is printed in another paper. (The evil OW who slapped the h ransacked the H's study and sold the story.) The H immediately believes the h is at fault for the story, and runs off like the usual HP h does when she has aggravations. The h is miserable, cause she thought they loved each other. She mopes around for two months. Then the H returns and tries to ambush the h. She does her bit of running and hiding and the H has the picture he kept published in the paper. The h is humiliated and goes to tell the H off.
She rips up the pictures of them and tells him he is slime swilling nematode parasite and then walks off. The H knows she did not sell the story, it was the first evil OW, so he runs after her in his bathrobe and chases her down to the lobby of his flat. The h does another judo throw and the H shocks some nice little old ladies with his state of undress. The h helps the faking injury H back up to his flat. The H sorta apologizes and says that even his beloved sister betrayed him by becoming a prostitute, which is why he doesn't trust women and they both declare mutual love for the big HEA.
This one was just sorta there, the H was bearded - which is unusual in HPlandia and the h wears glasses. The whole not trusting women thing because your sister is a prostitute is just totally bizarre. (I would think that a loving sibling would want to find the reasons for this and offer some support or if that really was the sister's thing, not revile her for it cause she is still your sister.)
The scoring system was rather tacky and the reasons for the h giving into blackmail became pretty moot when the H has that final picture published. The h's career would supposedly be ruined by such scandal and her aged aunt would be mortified, but somehow that is all negligible by the end and nobody is harmed, even tho that is the impetuous for the book. I just wasn't really feeling the lurve on this one, but then again I did not really care either, so this amounts to just another day in the venturings of HPlandia.
The story starts with the h sitting next to the H on a plane bound for London, she has been doing an American cooking tour and she happens to notice the guy next to her with a sheaf of papers with various women's names on them and he is marking down points in various categories. When he sets the papers down to wander off for a moment, the h snoops through his folder. She is fascinated and appalled to realize that each woman has a score next to various topics, like looks, legs, hairstyle, cooking skills etc. Then the unknown scorer comes back and he is livid. The h thinks to apologize, but the H is nasty and antagonistic, the h just lets it go and fortunately they land.
Only to meet up again later when the h jumps into a taxi in a bid to jump the queue. Her fellow companion is none other than the H and as they are bickering, it comes out that the h works for a newspaper. The H assumes she is a reporter, not a food columnist, and offers her a bribe of several thousand pounds to keep quiet. The H is apparently looking for a wife and wants the best possible score out of a hundred for his mate.
The h is even more outraged and horrified and jumps out the cab with all her luggage in the middle of nowhere. She winds up walking home as she has lost her purse in all the melee and confusion. Then the H shows up at door the next morning with her purse, while the h is coming to terms with the almighty mess of her front hall. (She had hired a builder to change the hall around while she was away and he tore it up and then skipped out.) The H manages to get some photos of the two of them engaging in roofie punishing kisses while the h is still in her robe and pajama's.
The h and H meet again when she accepts an assignment to cook a dinner for a local socialite, the H is invited as the special guest of the lady and the woman wants to pretend that her daughter did the meal to win the H for her daughter. The h slips a 10 of 10 score into a portion of the meal and the H catches her out. (This part was a bit confusing, why the h was there and why she would agree to pretend the daughter cooked the meal made no sense, neither did her doing the scoring thing. ) However this sends the H's temper into the stratosphere.
He uses the pictures to blackmail the h into being his cook and housekeeper over a series of weekends while he tests out OW. The h calls another of her newspaper friends, this one a man who does profiles and digs into peoples backgrounds, to find out that this H is a big time American businessman who owns a big shipping/salvaging company. The h is bit more understanding of why he might want his scoring system kept quiet, but she does try to convince him that his system is only going to lead to unhappiness.
That prediction soon comes to pass when the first of his "evaluations" seems to be all charm and kindness on the surface, but soon assaults the h by slapping her when the h refuses to be her servant. The H has a big fight with the h over her supposed treatment of the other woman, until he realizes that the h has a great case for the police. Then he kisses her into submission and moves on to the next score.
The h, in the meantime, is doing her cooking things and trying to ward off the other news guy she called to get information on the H. He scents a story somewhere and he is going to push and pry until he gets it. The H, h, and the newshound wind up having lunch together and the story of the H's rags to riches background is told. The H's mum ran out on him, his sister, that he raised for years has also abandoned him and so he has reasons for his distrust of women. That doesn't stop him from putting the gropey hands on the h tho. She has to confess she likes it, so she continues to be his second evaluator in his wife scoring tests.
The next weekend is with a woman whose father has a company the H is interested in merging with. She is a huge fan of the h and her column and things are going swimmingly until the woman chokes on a fish bone. The H blows up at the h again, for leaving the bones in the fish - which he seems to think is some sort of malicious attack. The h is confused, cause the other lady is the one who deboned the fish.
So the H takes the lady to the hospital and while he is gone, ruffians break into the flat and try to assault the h. (This was another confusing moment, cause the h has a black belt in judo and should have been able to disarm her attacker fairly easily - she has done it a few times throughout the book.) The H walks in on the h being held at knife point and the sight of the H returning reawakens the h's mad judo skillz and she successfully defeats the bad guy. The H realizes he cares about the h and gives her the incriminating pictures back except for one.
The H and h share a night lurve clubbing which is ruined the next day when a story about the H's scoring system is printed in another paper. (The evil OW who slapped the h ransacked the H's study and sold the story.) The H immediately believes the h is at fault for the story, and runs off like the usual HP h does when she has aggravations. The h is miserable, cause she thought they loved each other. She mopes around for two months. Then the H returns and tries to ambush the h. She does her bit of running and hiding and the H has the picture he kept published in the paper. The h is humiliated and goes to tell the H off.
She rips up the pictures of them and tells him he is slime swilling nematode parasite and then walks off. The H knows she did not sell the story, it was the first evil OW, so he runs after her in his bathrobe and chases her down to the lobby of his flat. The h does another judo throw and the H shocks some nice little old ladies with his state of undress. The h helps the faking injury H back up to his flat. The H sorta apologizes and says that even his beloved sister betrayed him by becoming a prostitute, which is why he doesn't trust women and they both declare mutual love for the big HEA.
This one was just sorta there, the H was bearded - which is unusual in HPlandia and the h wears glasses. The whole not trusting women thing because your sister is a prostitute is just totally bizarre. (I would think that a loving sibling would want to find the reasons for this and offer some support or if that really was the sister's thing, not revile her for it cause she is still your sister.)
The scoring system was rather tacky and the reasons for the h giving into blackmail became pretty moot when the H has that final picture published. The h's career would supposedly be ruined by such scandal and her aged aunt would be mortified, but somehow that is all negligible by the end and nobody is harmed, even tho that is the impetuous for the book. I just wasn't really feeling the lurve on this one, but then again I did not really care either, so this amounts to just another day in the venturings of HPlandia.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 12, 2021
Well that was a bag of crazy nuts. But a really fun read overall. Hero is a total prick. Like from go. And our nice quiet heroine is just trying to get away from him. The 'story' is a bit nuts and over the top, not believable in the slightest. Uhhh can the hero go help his sister?!!! Dude you are rich now! Go help your sister! 'She chose to be a hooker...at 13....' No. No she didn't. The heroine gave this douche what felt like 80 chances. Just blackmails, crazy other women, his mood swings, him pawing at her every single second. Why did she have to live with him? What is wrong with his score card method, it was stupid but seemed like a jumping off point. So the story had a few too many elements mixed in that made the story too much. If it just focused on one, it would be better. Either way read it, very enjoyable in a trashy way.
October 22, 2023
Bare 3. Not quite there in terms of plot or character but on the right lines for a debut I guess. He, Keir, was a bearded (not many of those in HP) American salvage company owner, seeking a wife by a points-based scoring system. The h, cook turned Nigella-style media chef, glasses wearing, judo black belt Mickey, caught a look at it on a plane. He thinks she's a reporter (she's a food columnist) and they're off. Blackmail, OMs and OWs, her staying weekends to act as Housekeeper and help him decide who is best. It's all a bit hmm.
September 23, 2023
Good story with a touch of blackmail. H holds some set-up photos of h to keep her from exposing his scoring method to picking a wife. She should have realized that H could not release the photos of him kissing h without torpedoing his wife quest. She was gullible and H didn’t think it through.
The fact that he knew the scoring system was repugnant should have made him see it’s the wrong way to find a wife.
The fact that he knew the scoring system was repugnant should have made him see it’s the wrong way to find a wife.
April 21, 2013
Review posted at: http://tsukibooks.blogspot.com
I don't usually read older Harlequin romance novels but this one was featured in a S-HaBO on SmartBitchesTrashyBooks. It was all about hero groveling and once the book was identified, I decided to shell out the 1.47 on Amazon to read it. Let me just say I get why older romance novels had a bad rep.
Keir Grant scores his prospective wives on looks, personality, intelligence, etc. While on a plane he's working on his newest lists before going to the bathroom. Of course Michaela can't help herself so she sneaks a peek at the lists. Keir catches her and weird misunderstandings occur.
Of course Keir is angry but they go their separate ways in the airport until Michaela jumps into a cab to find Keir already inside. So some arguing, bribery, etc. occur until Michaela is so offended she gets out of the cab.
Here starts the crazy. Michaela writes for a newspaper but she does a cooking column. Keir hears 'reporter' and decides she must be running to sell the story to the highest bidder. So what does he do? No seriously this is insane. He comes to her apartment and kisses her while she's half-dressed so a photographer can take blackmail pictures. Surely she doesn't want him to run a story about her being his mistress, right?
Next Keir decides he needs help finding a wife who scores highly in his system. So what does he do with the blackmail pictures? He tells Michaela if she comes to his flat for three weeks in a row and acts as his housekeeper, he'll give her the pictures. All she has to do is monitor the top three women each weekend and let him know what she thinks. Of course the attractive is too strong to fight.
So hilarity ensues as they fall in love all while Michaela is slapped, accused, assaulted, and finally put in the hospital. During the whole time Keir is a complete idiot, blaming Michaela for everything even when someone steps in and says it was their fault. I was genuinely surprised he didn't find a way to blame her for the assault too.
Basically it ends with Keir groveling. It was interesting but frankly I wanted more than a semi-naked groveling. He was horrible to her throughout the whole book except when there were random moments of romantic elements.
By the end I couldn't believe the love story. To me, it seemed like they never fell in love but rather found a sense of liking mutual abuse and misunderstandings. I could not honestly believe Keir could suddenly trust Michaela completely. If I was Michaela I wouldn't trust Keir either. He bribed, tried to seduce, lied, yelled, threw her away, accused her of horrible things, etc. but with one grovel he was forgiven.
Oddly enough I enjoyed the book. I kept wanting to see how much more ridiculousness and hilarity would ensue at the next misunderstanding. I wanted to see just how many times Keir could accuse her of something she didn't do just so he could grovel and then accuse her again. It was an amusing cycle.
2/5 Stars
Published by Harlequin
April 1, 1989
189 Pages
Provided by-Me
I don't usually read older Harlequin romance novels but this one was featured in a S-HaBO on SmartBitchesTrashyBooks. It was all about hero groveling and once the book was identified, I decided to shell out the 1.47 on Amazon to read it. Let me just say I get why older romance novels had a bad rep.
Keir Grant scores his prospective wives on looks, personality, intelligence, etc. While on a plane he's working on his newest lists before going to the bathroom. Of course Michaela can't help herself so she sneaks a peek at the lists. Keir catches her and weird misunderstandings occur.
Of course Keir is angry but they go their separate ways in the airport until Michaela jumps into a cab to find Keir already inside. So some arguing, bribery, etc. occur until Michaela is so offended she gets out of the cab.
Here starts the crazy. Michaela writes for a newspaper but she does a cooking column. Keir hears 'reporter' and decides she must be running to sell the story to the highest bidder. So what does he do? No seriously this is insane. He comes to her apartment and kisses her while she's half-dressed so a photographer can take blackmail pictures. Surely she doesn't want him to run a story about her being his mistress, right?
Next Keir decides he needs help finding a wife who scores highly in his system. So what does he do with the blackmail pictures? He tells Michaela if she comes to his flat for three weeks in a row and acts as his housekeeper, he'll give her the pictures. All she has to do is monitor the top three women each weekend and let him know what she thinks. Of course the attractive is too strong to fight.
So hilarity ensues as they fall in love all while Michaela is slapped, accused, assaulted, and finally put in the hospital. During the whole time Keir is a complete idiot, blaming Michaela for everything even when someone steps in and says it was their fault. I was genuinely surprised he didn't find a way to blame her for the assault too.
Basically it ends with Keir groveling. It was interesting but frankly I wanted more than a semi-naked groveling. He was horrible to her throughout the whole book except when there were random moments of romantic elements.
By the end I couldn't believe the love story. To me, it seemed like they never fell in love but rather found a sense of liking mutual abuse and misunderstandings. I could not honestly believe Keir could suddenly trust Michaela completely. If I was Michaela I wouldn't trust Keir either. He bribed, tried to seduce, lied, yelled, threw her away, accused her of horrible things, etc. but with one grovel he was forgiven.
Oddly enough I enjoyed the book. I kept wanting to see how much more ridiculousness and hilarity would ensue at the next misunderstanding. I wanted to see just how many times Keir could accuse her of something she didn't do just so he could grovel and then accuse her again. It was an amusing cycle.
2/5 Stars
Published by Harlequin
April 1, 1989
189 Pages
Provided by-Me
July 24, 2014
He used charm--and then bribery
But feisty Michaela James, a food columnist for a British national daily, was having none of it. She'd discovered American millionaire Keir Grant's appalling scoring system for choosing a wife, and he wanted Michaela to keep quiet.
Keir tried everything in his power to silence Michaela, and Michaela enjoyed taunting him with what she knew--knowing that spilling all to her publisher was Keir's worst nightmare.
But Michaela's game began to backfire. Especially as she found herself giving in to his latest gambit--blackmail--and then hoping she scored highest on his dreadful little list!
But feisty Michaela James, a food columnist for a British national daily, was having none of it. She'd discovered American millionaire Keir Grant's appalling scoring system for choosing a wife, and he wanted Michaela to keep quiet.
Keir tried everything in his power to silence Michaela, and Michaela enjoyed taunting him with what she knew--knowing that spilling all to her publisher was Keir's worst nightmare.
But Michaela's game began to backfire. Especially as she found herself giving in to his latest gambit--blackmail--and then hoping she scored highest on his dreadful little list!
September 25, 2014
90% OK. Didn't like the hero's behaviour before the HEA
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews