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The Perfect Crightons #11
Starting Over
Starting Over Jordan, Penny
377 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
4 people are currently reading
83 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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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 18, 2019
2 ⭐⭐ - Meh!
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Molly and Caspar ===> cheating IMO!
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Molly and Caspar ===> cheating IMO!
Caspar waited until Molly had unlocked hers and checked it out before opening the door to his own, fiercely resisting the temptation to cross the space between them. His body ached with tiredness from the drive and its anxiety, coupled with a very different kind of tension
He had just put his jeans back on and was drying off his hair when he heard it, a hesitant uncertain tapping on his door.
He reached it in two strides, pulling it open, expelling the hot, hard, aching breath of sharp desire he had inhaled and held as he prayed who his visitor might be.
'Molly!'
She shook her head.
'I was... I was...' He could see her swallow. 'I just wanted to be with you,' she told him huskily, a faint pink colour staining her skin as she looked nervously away from him.
When she started to remove her robe for a moment Caspar was too transfixed to move. Her skin was the colour of soft cream, her naked breasts full with rose-gilded nipples. As she dropped her robe to the floor it made a heavy clunking noise.
'My mobile,' she told him, following his downward gaze. 'Just in case...'
Her eyes darkened, her mouth trembling slightly.
'I shouldn't be doing this,' she said huskily. 'It's against all the "rules" and against my own rules, too,'
she admitted. 'It's so wrong.'
'No, it isn't,' Caspar corrected her gruffly as he stepped towards her and took hold of her.
'In fact, I can't think of anything that could possibly be more right. Have you any idea just how much I've been wanting youlike this?' he whispered hotly as he bent his head to kiss her.
His erection was hot and tight, straining against his jeans. Sliding his hands downwards until his fingers entangled in the ridiculous scrap of silk and lace pur-porting to cover her deliciously curved behind, he pulled her hard against himself, groaning into her hesitantly opening mouth as he felt the sensual weight and femaleness of her against his aroused body. His tongue rubbed against her lips, parting them and sliding, thrusting, eagerly inside them. Her mouth was as sweet and hot as he already knew her body would be.
As their mouths meshed, their tongues entangling, then pulling apart to explore further, he waited to feel the sweet savage bite of her teeth against the special sensual place just below his ear, his hands sliding from her buttocks up to her waist and then towards her breasts. Olivia loved it when he touched and stroked them and...
As she listened to him, a fierce wild sense of loss invaded Molly but she refused to give in to it. After all, hadn't she known all along that something like this would happen; that all the best men were inevitably already spoken for? Hadn't she known just from the way he said her name that he still loved his Olivia, even though he himself had tried to deny it?
January 8, 2026
The last book of the saga, and I am satisfied with the ending. But let's get to all the plots:
- Sara and Nick: who cares about them? If they weren't there, the story would have continued in the same way. She arrives in town to "avenge" her grandfather's second wife (Tania aka Tiggy, Olivia and Jake's mother and David's first wife). Practically Sara does not meet anyone from the Crighton family except Nick, they fall in love at first glance and after a weekend of passion she leaves, without even realizing that her step-grandma is not exactly a reliable person. The only good thing is that Nick is Saul's brother so we have so many beautiful Saul & Tullah moments.
- Jake and Annalise: I am very sorry for Jake. Sometimes we try to do things in the best way but they end up going badly anyway. For two very young lovers like them, the fear of a possible pregnancy is certainly difficult to face, but the fact that she leaves him without letting him explains, shows how much too immature she is for the kind of relationship Jake had in mind. There would be all the bases for their future meeting of the series "After fifteen years Jake meets the woman that had be the first love of his life"
- Olivia and Caspar: the story begins with Olivia's decision to seek Caspar's divorce and his exclusion from her life and that of their daughters. How do two people who love each other get to this point? Lack of communication it seems and Olivia's past things to solve. This is why their story is closely intertwined with the construction of a first relationship of trust between Olivia and David, her father. Because Caspar is right that Olivia, unconsciously, accused him of things that were actually related to David. I am happy that in the end they managed to clear up and that their marriage overcame this crisis. As for Caspar, however, the whole part about Molly seems superfluous to me: was there a need to almost go to bed with her to understand that the only real woman in his life is Olivia? Mah!
- Jon and Jenny: yes, Yes, there is a need for communication and trust even after so many years of marriage. I understand Jenny's fear that David's arrival will affect Jon, so the clarification between them towards the end of the book was a relief, I couldn't wait for them to talk about this thing!
- David and Honor: It is a joy to read their story, they are such a mature couple, it is reflected in their speeches, in the trust and understanding they demonstrate towards each other. David certainly had one of the deepest inner paths of the saga, and not only because of his faith and his relationship with the friar. It was nice to read about how he re-established the relationship with his daughter. Honor's pregnancy gives him a second chance as a father.
- Max and Maddy: after "Coming Home" I think I have a soft spot for these two, they have become my favorite couple. So, let's forget what a hideous person Max was for half the saga, now he's so in love with his wife that he doesn't even notice the girl who practically wants to throw herself into his arms. But Maddy has also changed, she is more confident, sure of her possibilities, more active. There is a passage in "Coming Home" where she thinks that if Max were to behave with her as he did in the past, now she wouldn't let him do. In this book, Maddy's new pregnancy is at risk, and so is her life, and Max is desperate. The mere thought of losing his wife haunts him so much that, speaking with the gynecologist, he says he is willing to give consent for the termination of the pregnancy to save her if necessary. Luckily Maddy gets better, but Max continues to have nightmares in which he is unable to save his pregnant wife and is overwhelmed by the guilt that the fourth child can feel, already in the womb, that he thought he was causing his death, and that this will lead the baby to hate him in the future. Yes, exactly, the same Max who asked Maddy to have an abortion during the first pregnancy, and also during the second. And it seems to me that despite this, Leo and Emma now love him very much. So his fear is absolutely unreasonable. But this is not the old Max, the new one wants to show his love for the whole family, so in the end he and Maddy clear up every problem, and he is practically in raptures in the Epilogue during the baptism of the new Crighton.
- Ben: gruff and cynical until the end of his days. The saga ends with his funeral and then with the baptism of Max and Maddy's son. An end and a beginning. I will always be in the doubt of knowing who wrote the letter that gave him the final blow, especially what was written there?
- Sara and Nick: who cares about them? If they weren't there, the story would have continued in the same way. She arrives in town to "avenge" her grandfather's second wife (Tania aka Tiggy, Olivia and Jake's mother and David's first wife). Practically Sara does not meet anyone from the Crighton family except Nick, they fall in love at first glance and after a weekend of passion she leaves, without even realizing that her step-grandma is not exactly a reliable person. The only good thing is that Nick is Saul's brother so we have so many beautiful Saul & Tullah moments.
- Jake and Annalise: I am very sorry for Jake. Sometimes we try to do things in the best way but they end up going badly anyway. For two very young lovers like them, the fear of a possible pregnancy is certainly difficult to face, but the fact that she leaves him without letting him explains, shows how much too immature she is for the kind of relationship Jake had in mind. There would be all the bases for their future meeting of the series "After fifteen years Jake meets the woman that had be the first love of his life"
- Olivia and Caspar: the story begins with Olivia's decision to seek Caspar's divorce and his exclusion from her life and that of their daughters. How do two people who love each other get to this point? Lack of communication it seems and Olivia's past things to solve. This is why their story is closely intertwined with the construction of a first relationship of trust between Olivia and David, her father. Because Caspar is right that Olivia, unconsciously, accused him of things that were actually related to David. I am happy that in the end they managed to clear up and that their marriage overcame this crisis. As for Caspar, however, the whole part about Molly seems superfluous to me: was there a need to almost go to bed with her to understand that the only real woman in his life is Olivia? Mah!
- Jon and Jenny: yes, Yes, there is a need for communication and trust even after so many years of marriage. I understand Jenny's fear that David's arrival will affect Jon, so the clarification between them towards the end of the book was a relief, I couldn't wait for them to talk about this thing!
- David and Honor: It is a joy to read their story, they are such a mature couple, it is reflected in their speeches, in the trust and understanding they demonstrate towards each other. David certainly had one of the deepest inner paths of the saga, and not only because of his faith and his relationship with the friar. It was nice to read about how he re-established the relationship with his daughter. Honor's pregnancy gives him a second chance as a father.
- Max and Maddy: after "Coming Home" I think I have a soft spot for these two, they have become my favorite couple. So, let's forget what a hideous person Max was for half the saga, now he's so in love with his wife that he doesn't even notice the girl who practically wants to throw herself into his arms. But Maddy has also changed, she is more confident, sure of her possibilities, more active. There is a passage in "Coming Home" where she thinks that if Max were to behave with her as he did in the past, now she wouldn't let him do. In this book, Maddy's new pregnancy is at risk, and so is her life, and Max is desperate. The mere thought of losing his wife haunts him so much that, speaking with the gynecologist, he says he is willing to give consent for the termination of the pregnancy to save her if necessary. Luckily Maddy gets better, but Max continues to have nightmares in which he is unable to save his pregnant wife and is overwhelmed by the guilt that the fourth child can feel, already in the womb, that he thought he was causing his death, and that this will lead the baby to hate him in the future. Yes, exactly, the same Max who asked Maddy to have an abortion during the first pregnancy, and also during the second. And it seems to me that despite this, Leo and Emma now love him very much. So his fear is absolutely unreasonable. But this is not the old Max, the new one wants to show his love for the whole family, so in the end he and Maddy clear up every problem, and he is practically in raptures in the Epilogue during the baptism of the new Crighton.
- Ben: gruff and cynical until the end of his days. The saga ends with his funeral and then with the baptism of Max and Maddy's son. An end and a beginning. I will always be in the doubt of knowing who wrote the letter that gave him the final blow, especially what was written there?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 4, 2022
O fim da Saga dos Crighton, e se você chegou até aqui merece uma abraço e um tapinha nas costas.
Penny Jordan é uma escritora meio ambivalente... ela obviamente caiu de sola no gênero bodice-ripper, mas não consegue se controlar e volta e meia escreve algo bom - como o primeiro número da série - e depois tenta compensar e oferecer algo mais light nos próximos.
O resultado dessa odisseia são vários números que tentam oferecer uma ou outra história, mas que mal dão para encher as páginas. Pense nisso como o esqueleto de um peixe, a espinha é forte mas as ramificações são fracas e inconsistentes.
Você pode estar pensando... não estamos querendo exigir demais desse gênero? A resposta é não, há muitas sagas semelhantes a essa que dão um show, por exemplo, a Saga da Família MacGregor, de Nora Roberts.
O que aconteceu de errado aqui é que a autora tentou entremear as histórias, mas não conseguiu equilibrar o nível. Assim, dá para separar apenas meia dúzia de eventos interessantes e um ou dois volumes que salvam.
Recomeçar - o último volume da saga é talvez o mais fraco dos exemplares, pelo simples motivo que a autora teve que fechar todas as pontas soltas e tentar dar um fim consistente para a série, mantendo o foco principal dos romances bodice-rippers: o casalzinho "caliente".
O problema é que Caspar e Olivia estão passando por uma crise conjugal que foi sendo construída ao longo da série (ponto para autora), mas o livro mostra uma reconciliação superficial que não se sustenta para quem acompanha desde o início.
Penny Jordan é uma escritora meio ambivalente... ela obviamente caiu de sola no gênero bodice-ripper, mas não consegue se controlar e volta e meia escreve algo bom - como o primeiro número da série - e depois tenta compensar e oferecer algo mais light nos próximos.
O resultado dessa odisseia são vários números que tentam oferecer uma ou outra história, mas que mal dão para encher as páginas. Pense nisso como o esqueleto de um peixe, a espinha é forte mas as ramificações são fracas e inconsistentes.
Você pode estar pensando... não estamos querendo exigir demais desse gênero? A resposta é não, há muitas sagas semelhantes a essa que dão um show, por exemplo, a Saga da Família MacGregor, de Nora Roberts.
O que aconteceu de errado aqui é que a autora tentou entremear as histórias, mas não conseguiu equilibrar o nível. Assim, dá para separar apenas meia dúzia de eventos interessantes e um ou dois volumes que salvam.
Recomeçar - o último volume da saga é talvez o mais fraco dos exemplares, pelo simples motivo que a autora teve que fechar todas as pontas soltas e tentar dar um fim consistente para a série, mantendo o foco principal dos romances bodice-rippers: o casalzinho "caliente".
O problema é que Caspar e Olivia estão passando por uma crise conjugal que foi sendo construída ao longo da série (ponto para autora), mas o livro mostra uma reconciliação superficial que não se sustenta para quem acompanha desde o início.
May 8, 2020
A very intricate family tree, enjoyed dipping in and out of everyone's stories.
October 19, 2022
Finalmente termino esta saga com a história de Olívia e a redenção do passado, irritou-me a atitude dela ao longo do livro, aquele ódio visceral ao passado e ao abandono do pai fizeram dela uma mulher amarga e que se esqueceu do amor da família, só mais para o final do livro consegui perceber o lado dela e ela consegue finalmente perdoar-se e entender o passado e o pai…conseguindo também recuperar a família e o amor desta! In the end all goes well!
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews