Η Υπόσχεση του Γκρεγκ - Άρλεκιν Συλλογή #906

by Daphne Clair

"Θα σε βοηθήσω να σβήσεις το παρελθόν". Αυτή την υπόσχεση έδωσε ο διάσημος σκηνοθέτης Γκρεγκ Στόουν στη γυναίκα του Ελοίζ. Πριν πολλούς μήνες είχαν χωρίσει εξαιτίας της ανεύθυνης και επιπόλαιης συμπεριφοράς του που την είχε πληγώσει βαθιά.
Τώρα ο Γκρεγκ δήλωνε πως είναι αποφασισμένος να μην ξανακάνει τα ίδια λάθη. Οι τραυματικές εμπειρίες όμως από το παρελθόν την κάνουν να διστάζει. Θα μπορέσει άραγε να τις ξεπεράσει και να ξαναεμπιστευτεί τον άντρα που δεν έπαψε ποτέ ν' αγαπά;

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

160 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1987

About the author

Dahpne Clair is one of many pseudonyms of Daphne de Jong, a New Zealand writer who also uses the names Laurie Bright, Claire Lorel and Clarissa Garland. She is the winner of the Katherine Mansfield Short Story Award and has been a finalist for the Romance Writers of America Rita Award more than once.

Daphne Clair de Jong decided to be a writer when she was eight years old and won her first literary prize for a school essay. Her first short story was published when she was sixteen and she's been writing and publishing ever since. Nowadays she earns her living from writing, something her well-meaning teachers and guidance counsellors warned her she would never achieve in New Zealand. Her short stories have appeared in many magazines and anthologies, and a collection of them was presented in Crossing the Bar, published by David Ling, where they garnered wide praise.

In 1976, Daphne's first full-length romantic novel was published by Mills & Boon as Return to Love. Since then she has produced a steady output of romance set in New Zealand, occasionally Australia or on imaginary Pacific islands. As Laurey Bright she also writes for Silhouette Books. Her romances often appear on American stores' romance best-seller lists and she has been a Rita contest finalist, as well as winning and being placed in several other romance writing contests. Her other writing includes non-fiction, poetry and long historical fiction, She also is an active defender of the ideology of Feminists for Life, and she has written articles about it.

Since then she has won other literary prizes both in her native New Zealand and other countries. These include the prestigious Katherine Mansfield Short Story Award, with Dying Light, a story about Alzheimer's Disease, which was filmed by Robyn Murphy Productions and shown at film festivals in several countries. (Starring Sara McLeod, Sam's wife in Lord of the Rings).

Daphne is often asked to tutor courses in creative writing, and with Robyn Donald she teachs romance writing weekend courses in her home in the "winterless north" of in New Zealand. Daphne lives with her Netherlands-born husband in a farmlet, grazing livestock, growing their own fruit and vegetables and making their large home available to other writers as a centre for writers' workshops and retreats. Their five children, one of them an orphan from Hong Kong, have left home but drift back at irregular intervals. She enjoys cooking special meals but her cake-making is limited to three never-fail recipes. Her children maintain they have no memory of her baking for them except on birthdays, when she would produce, on request, cakes shaped into trains, clowns, fairytale houses and, once, even a windmill, in deference to their Dutch heritage from their father.

Daphne frequently makes and breaks resolutions to indulge in some hearty outdoor activity, and loves to sniff strong black coffee but never drinks it. After a day at her desk she will happily watch re-runs of favourite TV shows. Usually she goes to bed early with a book which may be anything from a paperback romance or suspense novel to history, sociology or literary theory.

Reviews

[Carol, She's so Novel ꧁꧂ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I still have great fondness for Daphne Clair's (aka Laurey Bright and Daphne de Jong) Mills & Boon romances.

The best of her works are wonderful studies of both the main couple's character & motivations. It is amazing how much Daphne can pack into less than 190 pages. They often feature New Zealand settings - in this book's case, both where I mostly grew up (Auckland) and where I live now. Both descriptions are on the generic side and I would wonder if our town's former (very tiny) library would have had more than one librarian in the seventies. (We got a new, more modern library around 1990) But there is just enough of a flavour of both places and NZ ('hanky' for handkerchief, individual fruit pies - not so common now!) to delight a Kiwi.

But this novel is problematic - very problematic.

For some it will have more triggers than Roy Rogers and neither of the main characters are particularly likeable. Some of Guy's past actions are inexcusable - and he definitely seems to be a slow learner. Eloise's bitterness & fragility is more understandable. She does show a pleasanter character when she is dealing with anyone but Guy!

I did like the way Eloise's parents were allowed to grow in character & her mother in particular was given some very strong motivation.

But overall I just don't buy the happy ending (not a spoiler - all M&B have happy endings!) and in fact I find it very hard to think of this ending as happy.

I was all over the place with my rating, but finally settled on a 3. I will probably read more of Daphne's books and as with other favourite authors, I want to leave enough room to give her better works a higher mark.

I think a skilled writer like Daphne was bored with some of the rigid restrictions of the Mills & Boon formula, and was trying to push the boundaries. Brave move, but I don't think this was the right one.

https://wordpress.com/view/carolshess...

[boogenhagen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Re No Winner - I count this one as one of DC's best, but I don't put it on the required HPlandia reading list. Because while this is a fantastic exploration of young marriage gone very wrong, the story is predicated on marital rape. In general terms, outside of the 70's bodice rippers, marital rape is not a prelude to romance. DC makes this one work though.

If it helps, the rape takes place five years before the story starts and is the hidden undercurrent between the H and h for most of the book. DC doesn't even tell us what happened, tho we know it must have been bad, until her characters are well established and the book is in the last 40 pages.

The story starts with the h at a party of artistic and film people, she is thinking of going home when a man walks in and is instantly surrounded, the ladies in particular seem to be very interested. The man, who the h doesn't really want to see, is now a big time film director who started in New Zealand. He really made his name in America and it appears he has come home for a spell.

The h decides to get a cab and go home. While she is in her host's bedroom trying to call a taxi and return the host's shirt she borrowed, the man follows her into the room and gets angry when he sees her with the host.

The h manages to slip away and while walking to a taxi queue, the man comes up behind her and offers her a ride. The h is reluctant but eventually she gets in his car and the two definitely know each other, but the h is really antagonistic and demands to be taken home when the H wants to take her back to his place.

There is a very passionate kissing moment, which the h reacts to pretty negatively even tho she was into it. The H takes the h back to her house as she asked after she flinches away from him. We can see that her fear bothers the H a lot, but we don't why the h is reacting like that.

They get back the h's house and she offers him coffee if he will just drink it and go. Then there are some heated words about who he has been sleeping with and who she may have been sleeping with over the past five years. The h claims she had one bad experience and wrote men off. The H questions her bitterness but she throws his supposed conquests in Hollywood in his face.

They wind up doing the boudoir bouncing moment and in the morning the h is clearly having night before regrets. The subject of the H's possible lady lurves comes up and he claims not to have had any as he is a married man.

(You would be forgiven here for thinking the thing keeping the H and h apart is his marriage to another woman, tho his wife isn't mentioned by name or description. DC deliberately gives that impression and it appears to be a very good reason for the h's overt hostility and an allowable excuse for having a rush of lust to the brain and slipping.)

The H takes himself off but the h hasn't heard the last of him. She gets a call later from her publishing agent who asks her to come out for lunch. The h is a librarian, but she is also a multi published author, tho her writing doesn't support her full time yet. When she gets to the lunch, the H wanders in with another woman and they want to do a film of her first published novel.

It is a historical drama set during the World War period and the main source of the plot is the destruction of a marriage when the husband thinks the wife was unfaithful. The interesting thing is that the story is told in the husband's POV and the h says she doesn't know if the wife was innocent or not, it wasn't the point of the book.

The H wants the h to write the screenplay for the movie as well and the h agrees to give it a go. So now she is committed to doing this movie with the H. However the h doesn't appear to be that eager to be around the H, she goes to the host of the party at the beginning of the story for help when she gets stuck - the man is a script editor and good at his job- and the H doesn't like it at all.

The H and h have some more arguments and the h is most emphatic that no matter how many good times they had, her overriding memories are very dark and she asks the H if he is considering divorce, she says she doesn't care one way or the other.

The H and his producer want to do the filming around the h's home town, her parents still live on a farm there and the H winds up taking the h to her parent's when she goes home for the weekend. During the journey the H is pretty convincing in his appeal to the h to try their relationship again.

He tells her he doesn't intent to let her go, and they do have some nice moments when they go swimming together. The h is reluctant because she is obviously harboring some really deep trauma from the H, we just don't what, tho we get a hint when he forcibly kisses her and tells her that she can quit waiting for the worst.

They get to the parent's house and the h's dad wants them to share a room while her mother offers the H the guest bedroom. Then we find out the H and h are married. We also find out that there is a significant power struggle over the h going on between the H and her mother. They both seem to think the other one is terrible and want the h to chose between them.

The h tells her mother that the mum needs to stay out of it. The h loves the H, but given the past, she isn't sure what to do and she isn't happy without him, tho there are some huge problems. The H gets angry that the h is talking to her mother, but the h tells him that he needs to back off too. The H has no family and was pretty much an abandoned child growing up, so he has no clue about the dynamics of a close loving family and the h is very close to her mother.

DC doesn't give the impression that the h is a total mommie's girl tho. More that the h loves her parents and tries to do right by their expectations. The H was so jealous of the relationship that he demanded she cut her parents off and she couldn't do that. The h's dad seems to have come around to liking the H, but the mum SERIOUSLY disapproves of him.

They leave the h's parents house and the H accuses the h's mother of breaking them up before, even tho the h says that is not the case and adds that back then they had good reason to worry. We get the flashback of the beginning of the H and h's relationship - the h was 17 and the H was 22, he had dropped out of university to do guerrilla filming around the world and enthralled the h with his tales of adventure.

They part for a while when her parents won't let them marry because the H is unemployed and has no home and she is only 17. Two years later they find each other again and wind up marrying when the H pushes her into it. But the H never made a good impression as a reliable provider with her parents and the mother in particularly wanted the h to give him up.

(The parents are hardworking and doing okay, but financial security was a big issue for them. When the h wanted to be a writer, the parents said fine but get a day job and that is why she is a librarian too.) The dad wasn't too impressed with the H when he did not enjoy the local pig hunt and thought he was a pansy and neither one liked the fact that H wasn't gainfully employed.

The H had been working in film all that time and for a large part of their marriage the h was pushed and pulled between the H's ambition for films and her parent's need to make sure their only child was cared for financially and safe and sound.

The h herself had a few fairy tale dreams about marriage and romance and white picket fences and so the reality was hard for her, but overall I thought she did her best to compromise between the H and her parents and sadly the H just did not seem to have any faith that she could hold out on her parent's wishes. It always had to be his way or the highway and finally the dam broke.

The H gets an offer to join a production company, the h and he had been working regular jobs and building up their savings. The h was hoping to have a regular house and kids and domesticity. The H hadn't told her about the offer until the guy who is putting it together shows up. The h can tell the H really wants to do it, so she tells him to take their savings and go for it, then she leaves him.

She believes that the H can't stand the confines of marriage and wants to be free to do his movies. She gets that and tells him that their goals are just incompatible together, but she loves him enough to want to see him happy and they both need to follow their own dreams before they start hating each other. The H goes off to do his films and the h moves back home.

The story then continues in the present with the movie being shot and a pivotal scene involving a live pig hunt. The h is having nightmares involving the H being attacked by wild pigs and tensions are mounting between them when the male and female leads on the movie seem to be getting to cozy with the h and H respectively.

For the h's part, the leading man is a flirt but nothing serious, the leading lady may or may not have something going on with the H, the h doesn't know. The h manages to get in the way of the boar when she thinks it is going to attack the H and he hauls her injured self off to her parent's house. The h berates both the H and her mother and tells them that they have to get along because she is tired of being in the middle.

Then we get another flashback of the h and H and what happened to break them up. The H went and did his movies and was finally becoming recognized. The h was at home with her parents and two years on the H is going to America. He shows up in a flash car and clothes, ready to drag the h off with him.

A neighbor had come by that day and helped the h with a sick cow while her parents were gone. He kisses the h on the front porch as the H is driving up. When the h rejects the H and his offer, (which was fairly meanly put,) he violently rapes her in part because he thinks she is unfaithful. (She wasn't. The neighbor was new in the neighborhood and good looking and checking the local ladies out for a future wife. The h turned him down, but he was a guy and he had to try, it was just unfortunate that the H came when he did.)

The H then goes to America and the h winds up pregnant. She gets into a car accident when she is six months along and the baby dies. The h had her mother send a cable to the H's address, but he never came and that is overall what the h can't forgive. She really needed him and their baby died and he did not even write.

The H explains that he never got the cable. He accuses her mother of not sending it, but the mum's reaction makes it clear that it just got lost - the mum did not try to keep them apart. The H and her mum finally reconcile and the H and h are back together.

The book ends with the H apologizing for his actions and both of them realizing that their jealousies and insecurities had a lot to do with the way their relationship went but that both of them have grown up.

The h explains that she left because she felt she couldn't compete with the H's passion for films and was harboring some jealousy of her own over his career that she actually wrote symbolically into her first book. She also says that she wouldn't go with him because she felt she let him down by not having faith in him to begin with.

The H admits that he was too possessive of her and jealous of anyone that took her attention and that she was right to call him ungenerous in his love, but he also avows that he has changed - DC shows that he really had. The film is going to be a big success and the leading man and lady never got anywhere with the H and h, so they wound up together. The script editor wound up with the H's lady producer and the H and h end up happily married and preggers for the big HP HEA.

This is a really good story and DC does an excellent job of delaying the really horrible part of the H's actions until the very last part of the book. By that time the relationship between the two is so convincing and so strong, it is easily understandable why the h still loves him and how she can take him back.

This is an excellent study of a relationship about true love that comes too early, before both partners have the emotional equilibrium to really make a marriage work, especially when one of the partners has a really driving ambition in the face of parental disapproval. I actually bought the idea that the H remained faithful, I think his passion for his work and winning the h back pretty much overrode all of his other drives.

He tells the h that one of the reasons for his big success is that he wanted to show her parents he could win and the h admits that her success stemmed from losing the H and their tumultuous relationship, her writing was her attempt to exorcise her demons. So in practical terms, both of them suffered for their art, but managed to get an HEA anyways.

If you can handle the thought of marital rape and loss, I urge people to read this book. This is a really, really well done story about youth, love and identity and I rank it as one of the best DC has ever done. For being only 187 pages, DC writes a very complete, evolved story and you won't be having a disappointing HP venture if you give this one a read and the believability in the HEA is worth the reading time.

[Naksed · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a sad, sad book. Beautifully written but very depressing for me. Other reviewers have written detailed reviews of the plot of this book and I could never do justice to it the way they have. Suffice it to say that I absolutely loved and identified with the heroine, but the hero was and remained hopelessly clueless and vile. For me, personally, he hadn't changed or at least not enough even after the long separation to be worthy of his wife or to redeem himself in my eyes. Lots of domestic abuse in this one including emotional blackmail, controlling ways, trying to isolate his wife from her parents, and worst of all of course, rape.

[StMargarets · Rating 4 out of 5]

Re-read. This didn't have the same impact on a re-read*, simply because I knew the H/h's relationship to each other from the opening of the story. The story is designed for the reader to not know *why* the H/h can't be together - at least in the heroine's mind for the first few chapters. The hero is very adamant about a relationship and the heroine blows hot and cold.

As the H/h's backstory is spooled out between discussions of the heroine's book being turned into a movie by the director hero, it becomes more and more obvious that there really are no winners in this relationship - so far. The H/h have quite a history from the time they first met when the heroine was 17. They were together and apart *twice* before this meeting at the beginning of the story.

But they can't just quit each other. Sounds dysfunctional, I know. But it's more that they were both too young and immature the first two times they tried to make a go of their relationship. The heroine was too worried about pleasing her parents. The hero was arrogantly sure that what made him happy would make the heroine happy.

By this third go around, they are actually listening to each other and trying to break some bad habits. They finally grew into the feelings they have always had for each other. But now they are each established in their careers and they know what they want in life.

Give this one a try if you want something nuanced and angsty about a couple who love each other but can't let go of hurt and jealousy and ambition.

*For this reason I'm not spoiling. If you want details, Boogenhagen has them all in her excellent review.

[Aou · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vintage love!

[Debby · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a sad book.

I read HP books to relax, unwind, have a good time reading.

This book is not a joy. It is sad.

I found it uncomfortable already in the beginning of the book to read how much she resisted to sex and he still persisted. Apparently at a certain point she gave in and she went hot for him too.

And later on in the book she gets raped again by him. Or was it a flashback to the past?

The book is written with flashbacks back and forth. I don’t like that. It makes the book complicated to read.

For me, it was not enjoyable but that’s because, as I said, I read HP to relax. This was not relaxing.

In old vintage books the rape theme happens a lot. But never have I read about a woman who resisted so much, who fought so hard against having sex. That’s what made it shocking to me. Her fight against him when he wanted sex was described in detail. It was really disturbing.

The woman was then hot and then cold. The man was way too hot.

This is not love. They are both insane.

[DamsonDreamer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this without reading any reviews, it's the best way. Eloise is a librarian and writer. Greg a successful film director who wants to film her book. Eloise's parents own a small farm. That's all I'm saying, to remember it. The sexual tension in the early chapters is very well done. Absolute respect to DC for this intense and emotional exploration.

[RomLibrary · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I can make new memories for you."

When Greg Stone suddenly appeared in her quiet life, Eloise Dalton did her best to resist the flaming attraction between them. She couldn't risk her heart that way again. The hurt from the past had been too devastating

Gut Greg, a successful director who'd just returned to New Zealand from California was persistent. He offered to make Eloise first novel into a film. How could she refuse?

Working with Greg stirred such painful memories. Eloise had to decide how much of the past she could let go for the sake of a future with Greg.

[Diana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another one that I fully admit I had a hard time getting into simply due to the absolutely ridiculous front cover. This guy just looks goofy. The story however was touching and although I figured out quickly who he was, the telling was fun to read. The negative is that again I find myself having a difficult time equating romance with forcing sex.

[Melinda · Rating 1 out of 5]

Rape is not romantic.

[Bea Tea · Rating 1 out of 5]

A wretched, disgusting, utterly miserable read that left an awful feeling in my stomach. How to even sum this up? A sexually aggressive jobless loser bullies a sheltered teenager into marring him, isolates her from her family, resents her for needing security, brutally rapes her in a fit of rage (that leaves her battered and hysterical) then dumps her cold to go live abroad to live his dream to become a film director.

Years later he is rich, famous, and decides he wants her back. So what does he do? He forces his way into her house and rapes her (again, but you know this is a make-up rape you see), is nasty to her, manipulates her, tries to isolate her from her family again, sexually assaults her multiple times, and then is forgiven at the end because he's just a man and men will be men or some other bullshit.

There is also a 'twist' halfway through the book where it is revealed the main couple were married all along. Up to this point it's made out, even in her own thoughts, that he is a stranger. So the reveal is jarring and above all STUPID.

Fuck I HATED this. This wasn't some risque dub-con, it doesn't even get a pass as rape fantasy, it's just awful awful rape that leaves her traumatized (oh and btw she suffers a miscarriage at 6 months and she is left alone to deal with the death of her daughter). It's just so bleak and sad and sickeningly horrible I have NO IDEA why it's framed as 'romantic'. It makes me want to throw up.

[أجمل زهرة · Rating 3 out of 5]

مترجمة للعربية (لا رابح).

[Ellyn (Mrs. Darcy in my Dreams) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great book! The way DC organized the events of the backstory was very good! I won't spoil by revealing more. Glad I didn't read in reviews.

[Gogol]

Dear self this is just too tedious and real for you to like.

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

Wow. This is about marriage, growing apart and together. Excellent characters and interesting setting and the plot is realistic. DC is one of my favorite romance authors and she always packs a lot into her stories.

This is not an HP to read when you want light, instead this is intense and sometimes the h is too easily controlled by her mother who believes H is a loser. Author’s His Trophy Mistress has a similar backstory and is also intense, but it is easier to read because hope runs through the story.