What do you think?
Rate this book
Παλιά Λάθη - Χρυσά Άρλεκιν #595
Η Χόλι είχε προσπαθήσει σκληρά να ξεχάσει το παρελθόν, όμως ο νεοφερμένος από την Αυστραλία γείτονάς της επέμενε, με διάφορες ενοχλητικές ερωτήσεις, να σκαλίζει ξανά και ξανά όλα τα παλιά της λάθη. Όμως τι λόγο είχε να ενδιαφέρεται τόσο για μια ευερέθιστη, κλεισμένη στον εαυτό της κοπέλα, που ο αρραβωνιαστικός της την είχε εγκαταλείψει παίρνοντας της ότι είχε και δεν είχε;
Άραγε ένιωθε κι αυτός την ίδια ακαταμάχητη έλξη που αισθάνθηκε εκείνη από την πρώτη στιγμή που τον αντίκρισε; Ή μήπως ασχολούνταν μαζί της μόνο και μόνο επειδή τη λυπόταν; Γιατί, αν ήταν έτσι, η Χόλι κινδύνευε για δεύτερη φορά να εμπιστευτεί την καρδιά της σε λάθος άνθρωπο ...
Άραγε ένιωθε κι αυτός την ίδια ακαταμάχητη έλξη που αισθάνθηκε εκείνη από την πρώτη στιγμή που τον αντίκρισε; Ή μήπως ασχολούνταν μαζί της μόνο και μόνο επειδή τη λυπόταν; Γιατί, αν ήταν έτσι, η Χόλι κινδύνευε για δεύτερη φορά να εμπιστευτεί την καρδιά της σε λάθος άνθρωπο ...
- GenresHarlequin Presents
160 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1991
1 person is currently reading
29 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 10, 2018
Re A Stranger's Trust - Emma Richmond shares an interesting tale of betrayal and it's after effects in this one.
The book opens with the 27 yr. old h trying to make ends meet in a little English village. Her new temporary neighbor, an Australian who has house swapped with the owner, keeps popping up in her small cottage at random times.
The h is in a severe funk and has been for a year, so she doesn't feel very sociable. Thus the H popping in at all hours and making bullying, snarky remarks about how aloof and haughty she is isn't helping things.
The h is pretty blunt about telling the H to leave her alone, but he is annoyingly persistent and just keeps coming back. Eventually, when the H's taunts drive the h to go out on a long ramble, the h falls into the local mire while trying to get a piece of driftwood.
(The h, for all her self imposed isolation, does really nice little carvings of wood that she gives away free to the local doctors. The carvings are stress relief objects and the local docs give them to their patients who all seem to love them.)
While she is trapped in the mire, the H happens along and rescues her. He takes her back to his borrowed home, which is the main house next to the h's little cottage. After being dried off and given a tot of brandy, the h relates her backstory.
The h had inherited a decent amount of money from her late aunt. A local lad heard about this largess in the pub from the gossip of the h's co-workers and set out to insinuate himself into the h's life. She fell in love and they planned to be married. In the meanwhile the h moved in with him.
Her family was moving to Australia and because of her engagement and her job, the h did not go with them. The fiance told the h that he needed money for his boatyard (which wasn't his, he just worked there,) and money to buy a local property that had a small house on it. The h gave him her inheritance and the money that her parents gave her as a wedding present.
Because the fiance put only his name on the title and the h had to travel for several weeks for her job, the h had no idear that while she was off the fiance had the house emptied of it contents, (which the h paid for,) demolished and then tried to sell the land off.
The h comes home to a nasty dear Jane letter, no home and no money. The police can't help her when she goes to file a complaint either, as she gave the ex sewer sludge the money. (Tho I did wonder that the h did not file a civil suit. England's history is notorious for civil property suits over the centuries as they had the one of the very first legal systems designed to process them, but ER skipped that HP reality intrusion.)
One of the local landowners gave the h a lease on one of his cottages for a very low rent and the h has been working locally and doing free therapy carvings while she tries to pull herself together after such a huge betrayal.
It is hard for her, because she really loved her fiance and she is too ashamed and hurt to tell her parents about what happened, they totally did not approve of the nematode snot from the beginning. The h couldn't even afford to travel to Australia for her brother's wedding, so her parents are concerned and bit miffed that the h is being so standoffish.
So the h is a mixture of shame, pain and betrayal. She has been keeping herself to herself for the last year and fiercely resenting the local gossips need to blast her drama on every street corner. The H knows most of the gossip and when the h questions him, he claims that he doesn't know the h's parents in Australia.
As things go in HPlandia, eventually the H's bullying and pushing and Lurve Mojo Force wear the h down enough that she lets him give his lurve club a swing or three. Then things really hit the fan. First, the h's ex fiance comes back to the village.
The h finds out that the local villagers all feel extremely bad that such a nice h was taken for a ride so badly by one of their own. The villagers like her cause she makes a lot of therapy carvings and never charges for them, as we learn when the h and H are in a local shop and the sewer snot blobule shows up to talk to the H.
(The h is horrified and tries to run out of the shop, but the H forces her back in and makes her ignore the ex fiance slime toad -as does the shop's owner and other shoppers. Then the H kisses the h when the snot globule shows up looking for them again and this leads to big mojo passions.)
So because the villagers were trying to help the h, the guy who owns the h's cottage gave her a decent place to live for low rent while she recovered and then the local's went against one of their own and refused the ex slime snot planning permission to build a housing estate on the land he stole from the h. (The ex's plan was to get the h to buy the land in his name, dump her and then sell off the land to property developers and make a lot of money.)
The villagers have been doing their best to help the h out for the last year and not let the slime swiller profit at her expense, so the h is able to rebuild a little of her trust in people. Tho she still hates the local gossip mill, she is able to see the good side of little village life too, if the villagers decide to adopt you. So that is a good thing.
But the H has a sister who lives about an hour away and the h meets her when she goes to the H's to return some tools. The sister goes on and on about how her brother came all the way from Australia to look up some helpless duck whose family the H stayed with and how that lame duck takes up all the H's time and she never gets to see him cause he is trying to get planning permission from the local council for some undeveloped property.
The h is totally confused about the woman's property tycoon brother and his lame duck project and the fact that the brother is also getting married to some woman. Until the sister lets it drop that the H is the brother and using a different name than the one he goes by. The immediately knows that the 'lame duck idiot' the woman is talking about is herself and the h believes that the H is in cahoots with her ex fiance when the sister goes on about local planning permissions. She also believes he is lurving her up while actually engaged to another woman.
The h is betrayed all over again. The H lied about who he was, he lied about her family knowing him and he lied about not being interested in the h's past property trauma. So she goes off on another long walk and the H comes to find her and there is HUGE blow up ranty moment that ends when the h walks off.
The ex slime slurper shows up again, looking for the H and the h tells him off royally. The ex sewer blob kisses the h as he is leaving and she gives him a good shove out. So good for the h. However the h is really in love with the H and the ex's remarks puzzle her, so she goes to talk to the H about things. He is really mean and sarcastic and bullying, but the upshot is that the lurve mojo force is too strong for them both and they end up in bed together again. The H also gives the h a check, which the exact amount of money the ex slime swiller stole from her.
The H is really nasty about the h not trusting and leaping to conclusions and the h feels bad and apologizes to him. Then the H realizes he must have some issues of his own when he finds out that his sister told the h all about the property planning and the fact that the H knew the h's family and the fact that he lied about his name and the bunch of other things.
So the H has to confess that he does know the h's family. He crashed his plane in their back yard and had to stay with them for several weeks due to a spine injury where he couldn't be moved. He saw a bunch of home movies about the h and she began to obsess him.
He went back to his stud farm and his big property owning tycooning, but he couldn't get the h out of his mind and went to look her up. However, it was his obsession that led to the h, her family did not ask him to check on her.
Then he found out about the h's financial scam and being a big Australian property owner, he knew a thing or two about scamming himself. So he got two guys in the pub to say that the planning commission was going to keep the land for agricultural use only in the hearing of the h's ex sewer blob.
He then bought the land from the sewer blob and turned around and sold it to a developer who plans to build a manor house on it. (The H got the local council to agree to a house on the land, no matter the size.) The money was enough to pay the h back for the money she lost and then the H made sure the ex-slime gulper knew all about it.
But he and the h had their big falling out and the H doesn't apologize, cause he is really arrogant, but he says he maybe was kinda wildly jealous that the ex slime glob kissed her. Then he berates the h for not letting her family know about her trauma, which is kinda par for the course for this H.
Every time he does something underhanded and sneaky, he deflects accurate criticism or apologizing by haranguing the h about some supposed "character fault" and verbally attacks her. But it doesn't matter, the H wants to marry the h and she was thinking she would just be his mistress, cause she can't see someone of his wealth and status wanting to marry her.
The ex slime swiller makes his final appearance while the H and h are running around the house naked after a lurve club moment. The h punches the ex really hard and tell him to get out and the H finishes up the job and kicks him out. Then the H and h have a big cuddle moment and the H proposes.
He tells her he will let her ride his horses on his stud farm and he will make sure she has interesting wood and a place to carve it at, if she will just marry him because he loves her. The h, who by now has called her parents to tell them she is coming to visit, agrees even tho she isn't sure about being the wife of a tycoon because she is totally in love back. So true love wins the day and we leave the H and h lurving it up and planning a wedding for the big HP HEA.
This one is a bit ambivalent on the likablity scale. The writing was really good. The h was great, the villagers trying to help was well done and I believed the H and h love each other. That the slime swiller nematode con guy got some well deserved comeuppance was great.
But the H was the big drawback on this one, he was likable when got his own way, but he lied and he lied A LOT. So the h's hurt and betrayal was entirely understandable and the H pretended like he did nothing wrong - and then blamed the h.
It is HPLandia rule #1 The h is always responsible for the bad behavior of the H, no matter what or how, even if she is only breathing a continent away that is the huge force in this book and so it can make this one a slightly irritating HP outing.
The book opens with the 27 yr. old h trying to make ends meet in a little English village. Her new temporary neighbor, an Australian who has house swapped with the owner, keeps popping up in her small cottage at random times.
The h is in a severe funk and has been for a year, so she doesn't feel very sociable. Thus the H popping in at all hours and making bullying, snarky remarks about how aloof and haughty she is isn't helping things.
The h is pretty blunt about telling the H to leave her alone, but he is annoyingly persistent and just keeps coming back. Eventually, when the H's taunts drive the h to go out on a long ramble, the h falls into the local mire while trying to get a piece of driftwood.
(The h, for all her self imposed isolation, does really nice little carvings of wood that she gives away free to the local doctors. The carvings are stress relief objects and the local docs give them to their patients who all seem to love them.)
While she is trapped in the mire, the H happens along and rescues her. He takes her back to his borrowed home, which is the main house next to the h's little cottage. After being dried off and given a tot of brandy, the h relates her backstory.
The h had inherited a decent amount of money from her late aunt. A local lad heard about this largess in the pub from the gossip of the h's co-workers and set out to insinuate himself into the h's life. She fell in love and they planned to be married. In the meanwhile the h moved in with him.
Her family was moving to Australia and because of her engagement and her job, the h did not go with them. The fiance told the h that he needed money for his boatyard (which wasn't his, he just worked there,) and money to buy a local property that had a small house on it. The h gave him her inheritance and the money that her parents gave her as a wedding present.
Because the fiance put only his name on the title and the h had to travel for several weeks for her job, the h had no idear that while she was off the fiance had the house emptied of it contents, (which the h paid for,) demolished and then tried to sell the land off.
The h comes home to a nasty dear Jane letter, no home and no money. The police can't help her when she goes to file a complaint either, as she gave the ex sewer sludge the money. (Tho I did wonder that the h did not file a civil suit. England's history is notorious for civil property suits over the centuries as they had the one of the very first legal systems designed to process them, but ER skipped that HP reality intrusion.)
One of the local landowners gave the h a lease on one of his cottages for a very low rent and the h has been working locally and doing free therapy carvings while she tries to pull herself together after such a huge betrayal.
It is hard for her, because she really loved her fiance and she is too ashamed and hurt to tell her parents about what happened, they totally did not approve of the nematode snot from the beginning. The h couldn't even afford to travel to Australia for her brother's wedding, so her parents are concerned and bit miffed that the h is being so standoffish.
So the h is a mixture of shame, pain and betrayal. She has been keeping herself to herself for the last year and fiercely resenting the local gossips need to blast her drama on every street corner. The H knows most of the gossip and when the h questions him, he claims that he doesn't know the h's parents in Australia.
As things go in HPlandia, eventually the H's bullying and pushing and Lurve Mojo Force wear the h down enough that she lets him give his lurve club a swing or three. Then things really hit the fan. First, the h's ex fiance comes back to the village.
The h finds out that the local villagers all feel extremely bad that such a nice h was taken for a ride so badly by one of their own. The villagers like her cause she makes a lot of therapy carvings and never charges for them, as we learn when the h and H are in a local shop and the sewer snot blobule shows up to talk to the H.
(The h is horrified and tries to run out of the shop, but the H forces her back in and makes her ignore the ex fiance slime toad -as does the shop's owner and other shoppers. Then the H kisses the h when the snot globule shows up looking for them again and this leads to big mojo passions.)
So because the villagers were trying to help the h, the guy who owns the h's cottage gave her a decent place to live for low rent while she recovered and then the local's went against one of their own and refused the ex slime snot planning permission to build a housing estate on the land he stole from the h. (The ex's plan was to get the h to buy the land in his name, dump her and then sell off the land to property developers and make a lot of money.)
The villagers have been doing their best to help the h out for the last year and not let the slime swiller profit at her expense, so the h is able to rebuild a little of her trust in people. Tho she still hates the local gossip mill, she is able to see the good side of little village life too, if the villagers decide to adopt you. So that is a good thing.
But the H has a sister who lives about an hour away and the h meets her when she goes to the H's to return some tools. The sister goes on and on about how her brother came all the way from Australia to look up some helpless duck whose family the H stayed with and how that lame duck takes up all the H's time and she never gets to see him cause he is trying to get planning permission from the local council for some undeveloped property.
The h is totally confused about the woman's property tycoon brother and his lame duck project and the fact that the brother is also getting married to some woman. Until the sister lets it drop that the H is the brother and using a different name than the one he goes by. The immediately knows that the 'lame duck idiot' the woman is talking about is herself and the h believes that the H is in cahoots with her ex fiance when the sister goes on about local planning permissions. She also believes he is lurving her up while actually engaged to another woman.
The h is betrayed all over again. The H lied about who he was, he lied about her family knowing him and he lied about not being interested in the h's past property trauma. So she goes off on another long walk and the H comes to find her and there is HUGE blow up ranty moment that ends when the h walks off.
The ex slime slurper shows up again, looking for the H and the h tells him off royally. The ex sewer blob kisses the h as he is leaving and she gives him a good shove out. So good for the h. However the h is really in love with the H and the ex's remarks puzzle her, so she goes to talk to the H about things. He is really mean and sarcastic and bullying, but the upshot is that the lurve mojo force is too strong for them both and they end up in bed together again. The H also gives the h a check, which the exact amount of money the ex slime swiller stole from her.
The H is really nasty about the h not trusting and leaping to conclusions and the h feels bad and apologizes to him. Then the H realizes he must have some issues of his own when he finds out that his sister told the h all about the property planning and the fact that the H knew the h's family and the fact that he lied about his name and the bunch of other things.
So the H has to confess that he does know the h's family. He crashed his plane in their back yard and had to stay with them for several weeks due to a spine injury where he couldn't be moved. He saw a bunch of home movies about the h and she began to obsess him.
He went back to his stud farm and his big property owning tycooning, but he couldn't get the h out of his mind and went to look her up. However, it was his obsession that led to the h, her family did not ask him to check on her.
Then he found out about the h's financial scam and being a big Australian property owner, he knew a thing or two about scamming himself. So he got two guys in the pub to say that the planning commission was going to keep the land for agricultural use only in the hearing of the h's ex sewer blob.
He then bought the land from the sewer blob and turned around and sold it to a developer who plans to build a manor house on it. (The H got the local council to agree to a house on the land, no matter the size.) The money was enough to pay the h back for the money she lost and then the H made sure the ex-slime gulper knew all about it.
But he and the h had their big falling out and the H doesn't apologize, cause he is really arrogant, but he says he maybe was kinda wildly jealous that the ex slime glob kissed her. Then he berates the h for not letting her family know about her trauma, which is kinda par for the course for this H.
Every time he does something underhanded and sneaky, he deflects accurate criticism or apologizing by haranguing the h about some supposed "character fault" and verbally attacks her. But it doesn't matter, the H wants to marry the h and she was thinking she would just be his mistress, cause she can't see someone of his wealth and status wanting to marry her.
The ex slime swiller makes his final appearance while the H and h are running around the house naked after a lurve club moment. The h punches the ex really hard and tell him to get out and the H finishes up the job and kicks him out. Then the H and h have a big cuddle moment and the H proposes.
He tells her he will let her ride his horses on his stud farm and he will make sure she has interesting wood and a place to carve it at, if she will just marry him because he loves her. The h, who by now has called her parents to tell them she is coming to visit, agrees even tho she isn't sure about being the wife of a tycoon because she is totally in love back. So true love wins the day and we leave the H and h lurving it up and planning a wedding for the big HP HEA.
This one is a bit ambivalent on the likablity scale. The writing was really good. The h was great, the villagers trying to help was well done and I believed the H and h love each other. That the slime swiller nematode con guy got some well deserved comeuppance was great.
But the H was the big drawback on this one, he was likable when got his own way, but he lied and he lied A LOT. So the h's hurt and betrayal was entirely understandable and the H pretended like he did nothing wrong - and then blamed the h.
It is HPLandia rule #1 The h is always responsible for the bad behavior of the H, no matter what or how, even if she is only breathing a continent away that is the huge force in this book and so it can make this one a slightly irritating HP outing.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
avoid
February 7, 2018not only did he lie, he blamed the heroine for everything that went wrong BECAUSE of HIS lies. I really can’t look past it. You don’t make a victim grovel and apologise. How can anyone with a conscience EVER accuse their loved one that they don’t trust them when they are deliberately lying? He is only sorry she found out about the lies, from your review. Up until he learnt about his sister’s involvement HE has been acting like the injured party whereas, hold on a minute he is not. But because he has already emotionally abused the heroine and she’s already down from the previous betrayal a mere sorry is very big of him.
Even with this hero this could have been a winner if he owned up to his mistakes instead of blaming the heroine for it.
Boogie’s review trumps book.
Read boogenhagen's 3-star review of A Stranger's Trust by Emma Richmond
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Boogie’s review trumps book.
Read boogenhagen's 3-star review of A Stranger's Trust by Emma Richmond
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
February 11, 2017
Hilary is in a depression, the man she thought loved her, not only leaves her but has conned her out of all her money and even the house she lived in. If not for her kind neighbor who lends her a cottage on his property, she would have been homeless. Her family has moved to Australia so she has no one to turn too.
She has been living a hermit-like existence for a year when her neighbor rents out his house to a brash Australian, Leo (H). Leo constantly tries to get Hilary out of her misery, always engages her in conversation and tries to draw out the details of her failed affair. For most of the book, Hilary is annoyed and tries to avoid Leo. Leo is always trying to help her.
She sees her ex in town and the town folk stand behind her and tell her that they have been blocking his efforts to develop the land he stole from her. She feels better about herself and also starts to notice Leo.
However, there is a misunderstanding between them since she finds out that Leo is not his real name. Also she discovers that her parents who are in Australia know him and had asked him to check up on her since they are worried about her. So she feels betrayed once more and lashes out at Leo. They clear it up soon enough, he even manages to pay her back for the property. She finds out that he is a property tycoon in Australia and while he was staying with her parents, watched home videos with her in it and fell in love. So they have their convenient HEA in the end.
She has been living a hermit-like existence for a year when her neighbor rents out his house to a brash Australian, Leo (H). Leo constantly tries to get Hilary out of her misery, always engages her in conversation and tries to draw out the details of her failed affair. For most of the book, Hilary is annoyed and tries to avoid Leo. Leo is always trying to help her.
She sees her ex in town and the town folk stand behind her and tell her that they have been blocking his efforts to develop the land he stole from her. She feels better about herself and also starts to notice Leo.
However, there is a misunderstanding between them since she finds out that Leo is not his real name. Also she discovers that her parents who are in Australia know him and had asked him to check up on her since they are worried about her. So she feels betrayed once more and lashes out at Leo. They clear it up soon enough, he even manages to pay her back for the property. She finds out that he is a property tycoon in Australia and while he was staying with her parents, watched home videos with her in it and fell in love. So they have their convenient HEA in the end.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 21, 2013
stupid book. it's about how Leo bullies Hilary and she doesn't like it but doesn't fight him. and the whole book is about that. also Hilary is such a doormat.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews