Bond of Destiny

by Patricia Wilson

Damien had caught up with her

He was as hard and arrogant as ever and just as devastating. "I intend to marry you," he said, "but you'll never get under my skin again. I won't make that mistake twice."

He had haunted Victoria's dreams since she was little more than a child. He had walked like a god through her world.

But Victoria had spent the last six years trying to put the past behind her. She knew that Damien wasn't interested in her as much as in her inheritance--and she was determined not to succumb to him.

Genres: Harlequin, Romance, Second Chance, Harlequin Romance, Contemporary Romance, Harlequin Presents, Contemporary

189 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Patricia Wilson (1929 – 2010) was a best-selling writer of 53 romance novels for the Mills & Boon publisher from 1986 to 2004. She placed her novels primarily in England, Spain or France.

Reviews

[Jasbell76 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been reading some books by Patricia Wilson lately, and I can say I like this author very much 😊
These were the kind of stories I was waiting for, their heros are jealous, alfa-male, possessive, kind of protective, tender at times or cold, It's like a mix of all those elements. I haven't read a book by her with a manwhore hero until now, which is AMAZING!
It's so sad this author stopped writing books in 2004. She passed away in 2010.
About the book, I liked the story, I liked the main characters, and the secondary characters too. The hero never gave up, he wanted Victoria and he really was in love with her, I BELIEVED that.
The only thing I didn't like about Victoria was that she acted like a child at times, she was in love with Damien but she told him a few times she hated him, and it wasn't true 🤦🏻‍♀️
The only thing I missed as usually was an epilogue. The hero was celibate during the separation and that was a plus 🤩
I think this story has one of the most stalker heros I have read from all the books by PW at the moment.

Update:
February 10th/2022

I was checking other GRs' friend review, and she said hero wasn't celibate during the separation. I think, sometimes in the translations the editors omit certain things, I don't know why, but I confirm that I have seen this before in other books I have read (not all of them). Maybe I assumed hero was celibate because in the Spanish version (the one I read), it wasn't mentioned or was unclear. So, I'm sorry for the ones who read my review and expected the hero was celibate 🥺 However, I hope to check that specific detail, and correct my review.

[StMargarets · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read this several times, but have never reviewed. This is a classic PW stalkerific story with the hero saying every second sentence like a mantra - we're going to be married and you're going to be mine.

I think he has to say it for his own sanity. Seems he was semi-engaged to the heroine when she was 18 and smitten with him as well. But then grandpa let the cat out of the bag about his will - the heroine can only inherit her half of the Yorkshire textile mill if she marries the co-owner hero. Since the hero has never said "I love you" to the heroine, she assumes his passion for her is all an act so he can have control of the mill. So she runs off to London to be a photographic model for six years.

The story opens when the heroine is on the runway and she spies the hero in the audience. Her ice princess facade cracks a bit - but she falls completely apart when the hero tells her that her grandfather is dead in an abrupt and cold manner.

The rest of the story flows from there. The hero is cold and abrupt and business-like until passion over comes him and he kisses the heroine - rinse and repeat many times. The heroine keeps trying to run away - first to a hotel, then to London, and - in a very memorable part of the story - to house on an island in the middle of a river in Wales.

It's on the island in the river where the H/h finally have sex and the hero realizes the h is a virgin. Having sex is the dark moment - not the resolution. Heroine is upset because the hero never said I love you and the hero is upset because he was wrong about the heroine and maybe she really does feel trapped by the will.

The hero eventually gives her his shares so she will be the majority stockholder. He doesn't need the mills - he's got money of his own. He only wanted the heroine. Finally he says I love you. Heroine loves him, too. Too bad they couldn't say that six years ago. HEA.

PW really keeps up the intensity with these two. Hero has been celibate all this time, but he lets the heroine think the worst about his secretary to make her as jealous as he is. There are a lot of fun side characters and we get glimpses of the mill and its workers as well. Just a well-rounded story and reading experience. It's at open library - so everyone can read it.

[Verity · Rating 3 out of 5]

My mini PW marathon hit a snag. Reminded me too much of bickerfest Passionate enemy. He snaps. She snaps. He's luved her since she's 16 y/o, she's been ga-ga over him too, but her scheming, well-intentioned pimp grandpa triggered H/h's strained relationship 6 yrs ago when his big yapper told 18 y/o heroine he's been grooming her to be hero's future wife. In his ol fashioned mind, "no women can take care of my labor of luv". So hyphenating H/h's family names is his devious way to preserve his legacy. She ran away to be a successful model & hero retrieves her when grandpa expires. Heroine gets the bombshell that hero gotta marry her per grandpa's will, in order for her to inherit, or the other option, wait till she's a ripe ol' prune @ the big 30 to get her grubby paws on her shares. OW / hero's P.A. / heroine's ex-friend-of-benefits tries in vain to lure hero & drops not-so-subtle acidic hints in heroine's face that their professional relationship extends beyond office door. Hero thinks heroine's a skank & shows moments of jealousy everytime any dude so much as tickles her whiskers.

[*CJ* · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Bond Of Destiny" is the story of Victoria and Damien.

This is another of Ms Wilson's convoluted "I've-loved-you-forever" plots, in which it is obvious the h and H are crazy about each other, but behave like giant dicks to one another. He throws OW at her face, she tries to throw OM at his. He behaves like a possessive neanderthal, she throws wild temper tantrums. They both exhibit violent displays of jealous affection, and the book is riddled with the heroine "attempting" to run away, and the hero chasing her around the globe. Add to the mix a scheming grandfather, a meddling brother and a devious OW!
Childish, frustrating and eye-pain-inducing-from-all-the-rolling are few words I would use to describe this.

Phew.

SWE/Unsafe h is a virgin. The H did not sleep with Heather, but during his confession he does say the he imagined the h when he was with OW
2/5

[bookjunkie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the first Harlequin romance I'd ever read in my life. I was about thirteen maybe? I read and re-read this so many times I practically memorized some parts, so of course the rating is highly influenced by nostalgia. Objectively it's not particularly memorable or special: young heiress falls in love, runs away for years after discovering her fiance is marrying her for her textile mills, etc. I know in my head that it wasn't actually a stand-out HP, but it's hard to think of this book without extreme fondness.

[Aou · Rating 3 out of 5]

She was total crybaby and there was no forced seduction. Even slutshaming was minimal. Not for me. Lol

[Leona · Rating 3 out of 5]

Luv you long time, besotted fool, stalkerific hero, evil ow, blackmail....all the things PW does so well! Yet somehow this one just didn't quite come together like her other work. Too much of a bicker fest for my taste. Also, grandpa didn't come off very well.

2.5 stars.

[Grrrrace · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent but not great story from Patricia Wilson. The heroine fled from the hero and her family home six years earlier, breaking off their engagement because her grandfather, the hero's business partner, told her their marriage was the culmination of a plan to keep the mill in the families. The heroine, just 18, was insecure, not really believing that the sophisticated hero who had always seemed godlike to her could really love her. So she ran off to London and became a successful model.

Six years later, she is a top model, and during a runway show, is shocked to see him standing on the edge of the crowd. She tries to sneak off after the show, but he intercepts her and tells her quite brutally that her grandfather is dead. He has come to fetch her home for the funeral and will reading.

Her grandfather has left her the Victorian family pile and money, but the shares in the mill won't be hers until she marries or turns 30. The hero is determined to marry her, and the rest of the story focuses on his unrelenting PW-alpha pursuit of her and her efforts to keep running away, mainly because she is still in love with him and knows it will be a miserable existence to be married to him because she thinks he only wants her physically and mainly is marrying her to keep the mill in the families. So she thinks for him it's a business decision with definite benefits (since they can't keep their hands off each other) but not nearly what she wants or needs.

Lots of bickering and his assurances that try as she might, their marriage is a fated and foregone conclusion keep the story moving. There's some OW and OM drama (including his younger brother, who is her best friend from childhood) to keep the misunderstandings coming, along with his assumption that she is as experienced as one would expect a sophisticated London model to be. She is, of course, one of the unlikely virgins that litter Harleyland.

She finally runs off to a cottage on an island in the middle of a river in Wales, where he tracks her down. One thing leads to another, and he is shocked to realize that she really is a virgin. A rough beginning (he's not as gentle as he would have been otherwise) leads to an earth-shaking culmination, but even after an ultimately tender night in bed, differences and misunderstandings remain. She is resigned to marrying him, even if he doesn't love her, though, and he gives her the ring he's been holding onto for years.

But after seeing the easy friendship that exists between his younger brother and the heroine, the hero realizes that the fraught relationship between them is going to be no basis for marriage, and he gives her his own shares in the mill, so that she has the freedom to choose to do what she wants. They FINALLY talk it out--he'd been in love with her from the very start, when she was his too-young almost-fiancee at 18, and ditto for her; the OW was no such thing and is out of the way; there's never been anyone else for her, and HEA.

The hero is a fairly typical (in my experience, after half a dozen PW books, anyway) PW hero, arrogant and assured and older than the heroine, and ruthless about having her even if it means "capturing" her. The heroine doesn't have the daffy charm that many PW heroines have--she's a cool blond beauty whose surface sophistication masks a lot of shyness and vulnerability. I didn't find Victoria particularly memorable in the way that so many PW heroines are (I forget what book, but I'll never forget one of her heroines sweeping down a staircase pretending she's Scarlett O'Hara, more or less, only to realize that the very amused hero is watching her). She was okay but the sketchy misunderstandings and angst that underpinned the story were a little weak, and the whole "married to save the mill" premise seemed a little silly, because she had money and only had to wait another six years to have the situation sort itself out. But a decent enough light read, and she's a good enough writer that even a just-okay plot is entertaining in her hands. Not my favorite but not a complete waste of time either.

[Reader · Rating 2 out of 5]

So in the past the heroine had fallen madly in love with the hero, she was eighteen years old. But then her grandfather whom she lives with tells her that the plan that he and the hero had worked on was coming along nicely, the plan being for them to marry and the hero to run the mill. Shocked and hurt that the hero only wants her for the textile mill that her grandfather owned, and which grandad didn’t believe in women in business, she runs off to the big city where she’s having some success as a fashion model. Some six years later the hero who has never made any attempt to contact her shows up with the news that her grandfather has died.

From that moment on the hero’s behaviour was way OTT and very proprietary regarding the heroine. I didn’t quite get that, where has he been for the past six years then? The heroine’s response was to constantly battle against him, so all in all this became a bickerfest. There was another woman on the scene hoping to get the hero but eventually the OW was given her marching orders, and they all lived happily ever after.
This was okay, but there were aspects that didn’t quite make sense and when the OW was told to get lost that happened off the page which was annoying.

[Jena · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars
One of my fav harlequin author. She never disappoints. I loved the besotted H, the h was immature, insecure model.

Disliked how they bickered 90% of the time!
Weak love scene (but this is an oldie)

[Melinda · Rating 1 out of 5]

Didn't like this one at all. The hero is brutish towards the heroine. He plays games, trying to get a rise out of the h by telling her that his secretary is his mistress and indicating that marriage would not change that. The secretary also confirms that she is his mistress. Later the H tells her it was not true. I just don't understand why so many HR writes seemed the think that telling a woman that another woman is the H's mistress is supposed to make them fall in love with him. To me that would be a turn off.

[Kace | The Booknerd · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh yeah, I'm in Patricia Wilson binge today, and so far, I love it! She makes the most deliciously arrogant, overly possessive, stalkerific hero! And Damien was no exception! When Victoria annoyed me with her tendency to run away, I still ended up genuinely liking her. Although they were fighting/bickering most of the time, there were some adorable moments as well that had me grinning like an idiot. Overall, Bond of Destiny was such an angsty and fun book to read and was even better than I was expecting it to be.

[Dianna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Model Victoria experiences a disturbance on the runway when she catches Damien staring her down. She abandoned him years ago, but now he's back to tell her that her grandfather is dead. She has to come home immediately, no pausing to have sex with a photographer in his car!

Damien thinks she became a model because she wanted sex with a variety of men and I don't know, get their money or something. It's not important. Damien thinks Vic should be:
a) mill-adjacent
b) cleaving her name to his, for the good of the mill, the valley, and the entire planet, probably, and
c) producing heirs.

Vic has loved Damien since she was a child, even though she once overheard him call her a beautiful brat, and that stung, dammit. And he stopped treating her like she was his precious baby girl, just at the time what that was really starting to turn her on, so there's that too.

And she's never had much expectations of the mill, since her grandfather wouldn't let her near the door because lady parts and machine parts don't mix. So I have no idea what, if anything, she really wanted out of life. Sort of Damien? He didn't seem that big a prize and his only conversation was a, b, c and all the men who'd been in her pants.

When she discovers that the will is set up so she won't get her shares in the mill until she marries Damien or hits 30, she starts making sensible plans to sell up her one asset (the house) and move to London, which is at least something, but then she spends a lot of the book telling Damien she's going and he can't stop her, and not going anywhere.

And, she had Barbie hair. So I wasn't behind her much at all. This book was supposed to be a palate-cleanser after a particularly traumatic Wentworth read, and it worked, but didn't do much else for me.

[Annarose · Rating 3 out of 5]

Victoria knew Demon all her life and their relationship had always been confusing to her. She couldn't quite know why he hated her nor her hurt feelings whenever he belittled her because of their family business relationship and their age gape. The only real time she felt totally happy was when she became eighteen and he asked her to marry him, but even that was shattered when her grandfather confessed he and Demon had planned her future for her and her falling in love with him! This cold calculation drove her to leave home and go to London where she build a career of her own as a model for six lonely years. Unfortunately, Demon came after her after the death of her grandfather and demanded that she marry him in order the take the inheritance her grandfather put in his trust till she becomes thirty or once she marries him!!


A delicious read and one of the best that Patricia Wilson have ever written. Not as lovely as Perilous Refuge for the same author, but it would certainly make your time worthwhile and enjoyable. A recommended read.

[Christy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a ridiculously sweet story. Damien Hunt and Victoria Kendal are the children of family members who co-own a textile mill. Victoria is being raised by her old fashioned grandfather, who doesn’t think that women have any place in business. Damien is a decade older than Victoria, but is desperately attracted to her. She falls for him and agrees to marry him. When she informs her grandfather he can’t help but gloat that his plan to have her and Damien wed so that he can manage the mill has come to fruition. Hurt and outraged that Damien only wanted her for the business, Victoria flees to London where she becomes a model. Now her grandfather is dead, Victoria is back at the mill, and her grandfather’s will says she must marry Damien in order to inherit her half of the company. Victoria is angry, Damien is determined to marry her, and despite further misunderstandings and more running away the end works out beautifully.

[Roub · Rating 4 out of 5]

awesome read!grabbed me from the 1st page! i love a besotted hero when i see one!damien was clearly out of his mind for victoria. she was awfully blind as it was obvious how much he loved her and had for a very long time. the stupid girl was so insecure and it was never explained what cud have made her like dat and what a vivid imagination she had! maybe it was simple immaturity or it cud be damien's attitude which was frankly deplorable! add to dat, he practically raped her near the end, he was so brutal in the act as he was consumed by jealousy of any previous lovers she had had. he had guarded her minutely for years, for himself ! when he got her finally in his grasp or nearly so, she slipped away.

[Jenny · Rating 2 out of 5]

Smitten hero, likable heroine but the plot wasn't exciting.

[Ena · Rating 1 out of 5]

No stars. Gross. Misogyny. Doormat. All the bad. None of the good. The dude could take a swan dive for all I care. Oh and it’s disgusting that he a grown man wanted to bed a fifteen year old.

[Asteria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating: ** 3 .2 stars **

It should have been named FORCE OF DAMIEN instead, destiny had nothing to do with this. The FL's grandfather and Damien both had plotted and wanted the same end by hook or by crook though their motivations were different.

I don't think I have ever seen this level of consistency in a book and kudos to the author for no changes in the form of character development. Victoria throughout the years kept being bratty, annoying and extremely beautiful and Damien kept being a domineering possessive pooch following her everywhere.

I can understand Victoria falling for Damien cause he took care of her and looked out for her in a protector's capacity but what did Damien see in her is beyond me??!!

Well goodluck to Damien, boy will by in mental asylum before their 25th anniversary.

[DamsonDreamer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bare 3. Not my favourite PW.

[––––•(-•The Insomniac Book Hoarder•- · Rating 2 out of 5]

Never judge a book by its cover, this book is definitely a testament to that. The book cover shows a couple totally in love and happy- along with the bright blue sky. Instead the book has quite a lot of angst between and within the characters, angst that is quite positively a result of a huge and annoying misunderstanding.


Don't get me wrong, I liked the book, it was okay. I just don't fancy the guy of my dreams calling me names like 'witch' (even if it was suppose to be a compliment). Ive read about two books by Patricia Wilson and both hero's call their heroine's witch. I mean they say it like its a good thing, cause its suppose to be that the women they are in love with has bewitched them and that they are absolutely breathtaking. But still. Seriously, I just found it weird..

[RomLibrary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Damien had caught up with her

He was as hard and arrogant as ever and just as devastating. "I intend to marry you," he said, "but you'll never get under my skin again. I won't make that mistake twice."

He had haunted Victoria's dreams since she was little more than a child. He had walked like a god through her world.

But Victoria had spent the last six years trying to put the past behind her. She knew that Damien wasn't interested in her as much as in her inheritance--and she was determined not to succumb to him.

[sbf20112011 · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. This was an ok read, but this author just doesn't do it for me. I don't know why I keep coming back, except that her basic plots are exactly what I usually like. I just don't really feel the emotional tension for some reason -- it's just way too obvious how the characters feel about each other.

[Jen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've liked Patricia Wilson's books before, but this one rubbed me the wrong way. Painful read. And the hero didn't grovel nearly half enough, not to mention his excruciating angst and jealousy and thinly veiled passion (ie. just plain violence) was a bit too profuse for even my Harlequin tolerance meter.

[Tia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I originally read this a couple years back and I did enjoy it although the hero ticked me off and frustrated me to no end. The heroine, well I felt horribly bad for her and was surprised how she changed over the novel.

[Megzy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved how strong willed they both were.

[Debby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Patricia Wilson’s H’s are my favourite men: besotted, possessive, jealous, determined, protective, rich, handsome, successful men who only have eyes for the h. I especially like that they make no secret of their feelings for the h.

Patricia Wilson’s h’s are all the standard Barbie dolls: tall, blonde, slim and not very smart because they are the only ones in the entire universe who don’t understand how much they are loved by the H. And also how lucky they are that a man like that wants them.

It always works. This one too. 5 stars.

[More Books Than Time · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good but do you realize how very few romance novels would ever be written if he and she were honest? Why didn't he say he loved her 6 yrs earlier?
Good description of the run-down cottage in the middle of a river in Wales.

[Darlene · Rating 5 out of 5]

When childhood love develops adult love, and the whiles of an old man get in the way....

[Alana · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dear self, never read this again, the number of times he threats to r*pe and beat her are so many