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James Family #1
Ride the Storm
She finagled her way into his life.
When the humpback whales return to Haven Bay, Tiffany James realised they brought opportunity. Opportunity to revitalise the coastal community and provide security for the inhabitants, including her adopted sister and disabled nephew.
Joel Faber had left Haven Bay a disillusioned boy. Now he was a successful developer, and Tiffany was sure if she got Joel's backing for her project, the town's future would be secured.
But Tiffany soon discovered her own future rested on solving the problems of Joel's past - the tragedy of Haven Bay.
When the humpback whales return to Haven Bay, Tiffany James realised they brought opportunity. Opportunity to revitalise the coastal community and provide security for the inhabitants, including her adopted sister and disabled nephew.
Joel Faber had left Haven Bay a disillusioned boy. Now he was a successful developer, and Tiffany was sure if she got Joel's backing for her project, the town's future would be secured.
But Tiffany soon discovered her own future rested on solving the problems of Joel's past - the tragedy of Haven Bay.
192 pages, Paperback
Published November 1, 1992
2 people are currently reading
67 people want to read
About the author
Emma Darcy
640 books327 followersEmma Darcy is the pseudonym created by the married writing team of Wendy (1940-2020) and Frank Brennan (1936-1995). Their life journey has taken as many twists and turns as the characters in their stories, whose international popularity has resulted in over sixty-million book sales. With more than a hundred titles, Emma Darcy appeared regularly on the Waldenbooks bestseller lists in the U.S.A. and in the Nielson BookScan Top 100 chart in the U.K.
Wendy was born 28 November 1940 in Australia. Her sister was the novelist Maureen Mary (Miranda Lee). Her father was a country school teacher and brilliant sportsman. Her mother was a talented dressmaker. She obtained an Honours degree in Latin and initially worked as a high school English/French teacher. She married Frank Brennan, an Australian businessman born in 1936. She changed careers to computer programming before marriage and motherhood settled her into a community life. She was reputedly the first woman computer programmer in the southern hemisphere.
As voracious readers, the step to writing their own books seemed a natural progression and the challenge of creating exciting stories was soon highly addictive. They were published since 1983. In 1993, for the Emma Darcy pseudonym's 10th anniversary, they created the "Emma Darcy Award Contest" to encourage authors to finish their manuscripts. After the death of Frank Brennan in 1995, Wendy wrotes books on her own. She lived in a beachside property on the central coast of New South Wales, and liked to travel extensively to research settings and increase her experience of places and people.
Wendy Brennan passed away on December 21, 2020. She is survived by her children, grandchildren, and sister, writer Miranda Lee.
Wendy was born 28 November 1940 in Australia. Her sister was the novelist Maureen Mary (Miranda Lee). Her father was a country school teacher and brilliant sportsman. Her mother was a talented dressmaker. She obtained an Honours degree in Latin and initially worked as a high school English/French teacher. She married Frank Brennan, an Australian businessman born in 1936. She changed careers to computer programming before marriage and motherhood settled her into a community life. She was reputedly the first woman computer programmer in the southern hemisphere.
As voracious readers, the step to writing their own books seemed a natural progression and the challenge of creating exciting stories was soon highly addictive. They were published since 1983. In 1993, for the Emma Darcy pseudonym's 10th anniversary, they created the "Emma Darcy Award Contest" to encourage authors to finish their manuscripts. After the death of Frank Brennan in 1995, Wendy wrotes books on her own. She lived in a beachside property on the central coast of New South Wales, and liked to travel extensively to research settings and increase her experience of places and people.
Wendy Brennan passed away on December 21, 2020. She is survived by her children, grandchildren, and sister, writer Miranda Lee.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 7, 2019
"Ride the Storm" is the story of Tiffany and Joel.
In a book about perseverance and facing the past, we meet a determined heroine and a scarred hero in this one. The heroine is fighting for a town that has been a home to not just her, but her foster family, and requests the help of the hero for the same. The hero, however, has a troubled past with Haven Bay, and wants nothing to do with it anymore. But does the hero's refusal make the heroine give up? Nope.
She works her ass off to make her plan a success, ultimately getting not just the help of the hero, but also making him fall in love? with her.
I really enjoyed the strong and independent heroine- her tenacity just made me happy. The hero was a brooding mess. Their lovemaking scenes were passionate but my only issue with this book is it lacks one GOOD grovel/confession scene where they hash out their past. In the end, the heroine assumes a lot and we do not get to hear a lot of what was actually in the hero's heart.
Anyways, a good one time read.
Safe
3/5
In a book about perseverance and facing the past, we meet a determined heroine and a scarred hero in this one. The heroine is fighting for a town that has been a home to not just her, but her foster family, and requests the help of the hero for the same. The hero, however, has a troubled past with Haven Bay, and wants nothing to do with it anymore. But does the hero's refusal make the heroine give up? Nope.
She works her ass off to make her plan a success, ultimately getting not just the help of the hero, but also making him fall in love? with her.
I really enjoyed the strong and independent heroine- her tenacity just made me happy. The hero was a brooding mess. Their lovemaking scenes were passionate but my only issue with this book is it lacks one GOOD grovel/confession scene where they hash out their past. In the end, the heroine assumes a lot and we do not get to hear a lot of what was actually in the hero's heart.
Anyways, a good one time read.
Safe
3/5
August 6, 2017
Re Ride the Storm - Emma Darcy has another go at the H who lost his first love trope and introduces the James Family miniseries with this one. The James Family is about a group of 11 but later 14 orphans who were taken in by a couple who found them in various situations and raised them together. The four books in this series are scattered over the years and include Ride the Storm, Dark Heritage , The Shining of Love , and The Bedroom Surrender. The children are all different ages and nationalities and they are fiercely devoted to each other. While we will not meet the James parents in this one, we do meet three of the siblings and the h who will motivate a town to move mountains to help her Vietnamese sister live the life she wants to live.
This one starts with the town of Haven Bay, it is a small fishing village on the Gold Coast of Australia and the town has been slowly dying for years. The h's sister, whom her older TV reporter brother rescued out of Vietnam along with her small son who had his legs destroyed by a land mine, has lived there for a while but since the town's economy is fading away, she may have to move to a bigger place and she doesn't think she can handle that. Haven Bay is very similar in some respects to the fishing village she came from where her bio family was killed and her son is accepted there, but they need some kind of financial security.
The h, who has done a variety of things promoting tourism and her brother Zachary Lee, who is now a television station manager, decide that since the Humpback Whales have started returning to the baywaters of Haven, they can get the town set up for tourist visits and do a documentary and publicize Haven Bay as a place to go see the whales. The older residents of the town are skeptical, there was a big storm 20 years earlier that discouraged the whales from returning, tho the h thinks it might have been that there just wasn't that many whales left to show up. However protection acts have meant that the whales are making a comeback and the h intends to use their comeback as the staging point for Haven Bay's comeback too.
To do that, the h needs the resources of the H. He was a resident of Haven Bay twenty years earlier too, and he left in the wake of the very big storm. None of the older residents in the town like him or think he will help, but the h has to try and so she gets one of the old fishing trawler skippers to give her a ride to the H's yacht. It is currently moored up the coast where the H has just built a huge resort and his home.
The h uses some serious chutzpah and crashes the H's party. The H has been bored and is watching the h charm his guards and he lets her on the yacht. The H thinks she is making a play for him and the h has to explain that she really wants to use his failing TV station to do a documentary abut Haven Bay. The H hates Haven Bay, bad things happened there when he left at 16 and he has no love for any of the surviving residents. But the h's plan is helped when a very rapid reporter ambushes the H and h and threatens to make the H and h appear to be romantically involved.
The H then explains that the h is going to be doing a documentary and airing it on his TV station. The h IS attracted to the H, but she had wealthy guy woo her and charm her before, and then she had to dump him when he married and wanted to keep her as a bit on the side. The h is very wary around rich guys who like to sleaze around and she is thinking the H might be the same type. But he does move her, she detects a deep well of pain and loneliness in him and so she decides that he may be one of her renovation projects too, even tho he tells her he never wants to see her again and means it. She realizes that there is very bad relations between Haven Bay and the H, but she doesn't know the story and really it is time for all of them to be moving towards the future anyways.
The h gets Zachary Lee to do the big whale documentary and it is a huge success. Suddenly everybody everywhere wants to come to Haven Bay and see the whales and the town is adapting admirably. Then the h accepts a booking for 500 Japanese tourists to whale watch and there is no boat in town big enough to take them. The h is rather desperate and she needs a yacht, she knows the H has one, so she goes to borrow it - even tho he told her to stay away.
She finds the H naked on his beach and she manages to talk him into loaning his yacht for the day, she tells him if he won't loan it she will have to get the Australian Navy to loan her a frigate. The H agrees if she will agree to manage his TV station for a month. He wants to dump the station, it is losing money and he figures if he puts the h in there as a manager and it fails, he can sell the place and get himself out of press scrutiny by the rapid reporter. (The whole reporter thing did not make a lot of sense, but ED needed a lever to put the h and H together and so rabid reporters it is.)
The h then takes over the management of TV station, she only has a month and the H is back to avoiding her again. She KNOWS she and the H should be together, she loves him and they have the whole mojo thing going on, but the h also knows that the H's past with Haven Bay is interrupting their togetherness so the h decides to save the station- even tho the H doesn't want her to- and then save the H- after she figures out what happened 20 years ago. The h has the bad feeling that there is a woman with eyes the same color of kingfisher blue as hers invovled, but the h is having problems digging out the details.
The h actually does manage to raise the ratings on the station. But there is a big interview with a dubious man who may have stolen millions from various charities and the regular interviewer is in an accident and the h has to do the big tv interrogation. The man walks all over her until the end, when the h points out that the guy has this incredible memory for tiny details of things he did several years ago and yet can't remember what happened to the millions that disappeared in the last year. It is a telling moment cause the guy is completely caught out, but the h fails to pursue the moment and when the interview ends, the h thinks she is a failure.
The H shows up to comfort her and he and the h finally make it to the bedroom attached to her TV station office. The h decides that she will move in with the H maybe, but the H will have to get someone else to manage the station. The H offers the job to her brother Zachary Lee and tells the h that if Zach wants to build a TV empire, he will back him. The h gets her brother to accept the H's offer, but the h wants more information about what happened 20 years earlier before she shacks up with the H.
Her big interview actually turns out really well in retrospect, because the police arrest the shady guy the next day and now the h is a big media sensation for catching the guy out on live TV. However the h wants the H more than a TV career, so she brings out the big charm guns on the old skipper to dig the truth out.
She corners the old fishing trawler skipper while he is out on the ocean and the full story emerges. Twenty years ago the man had a 16 yr old granddaughter. The H and the granddaughter where in love and the girl was remarkably like the h in both eye color and personality. The granddaughter got pregnant and the old skipper lost his temper. A big storm came up and the H and his grandfather went out to rescue some people on a boat. The granddaughter snuck out of her room where the old skipper locked her and went with the H and his grandfather on their boat. Everyone but the H died and the old residents of the town have hated him ever since.
The h is very saddened by the story and more than a little concerned that both the H and the old skipper see her as some sort of dead girl substitute. The old skipper outright tells her she is just like his dead granddaughter and the H has strongly hinted at it more than once. They are all heading back to the dock when notification comes that a big storm is brewing and another boat is in trouble. The h and the skipper and the two boys on the boat all decide to go attempt a rescue. They rescue the guy on the floundering boat but the storm is really bad and they can't make it back. The H comes to save the day on his yacht and the h's brother Zach is on board to help and film the big rescue.
The H and the old skipper make their peace about the granddaughter and the H announces he is marrying the h cause he loves her and the h loves him back. The rabid reporter gets her big scoop, the H is investing big money in tourist facilities in Haven Bay so the h's sister and her son will have a steady income, and Zachary Lee (who never got his own book and needed it,) will take the H's one TV station to a media empire for the big HEA.
This one is okay, but the issue of the h being a sub for the dead girl is not really resolved, tho the h believes that the H has put those memories to rest and the H doesn't seem to speculate on anything other than following the h where ever she leads.
The h being second after the H's true love is probably my most hated ED trope, I don't think they ever do it really well, tho this one was much better than The Ultimate Choice and don't get me started on the subbing in the future ED The Last Grand Passion.
I did believe the h loved the H and she was pretty assertive in that, so I could see the HEA working out as the H was just a puddle of goo following her around like a puppy. However the overall pace of the book was off and really Zachary Lee was much more interesting, so this one is just a regular HP outing and not one to really write home about.
This one starts with the town of Haven Bay, it is a small fishing village on the Gold Coast of Australia and the town has been slowly dying for years. The h's sister, whom her older TV reporter brother rescued out of Vietnam along with her small son who had his legs destroyed by a land mine, has lived there for a while but since the town's economy is fading away, she may have to move to a bigger place and she doesn't think she can handle that. Haven Bay is very similar in some respects to the fishing village she came from where her bio family was killed and her son is accepted there, but they need some kind of financial security.
The h, who has done a variety of things promoting tourism and her brother Zachary Lee, who is now a television station manager, decide that since the Humpback Whales have started returning to the baywaters of Haven, they can get the town set up for tourist visits and do a documentary and publicize Haven Bay as a place to go see the whales. The older residents of the town are skeptical, there was a big storm 20 years earlier that discouraged the whales from returning, tho the h thinks it might have been that there just wasn't that many whales left to show up. However protection acts have meant that the whales are making a comeback and the h intends to use their comeback as the staging point for Haven Bay's comeback too.
To do that, the h needs the resources of the H. He was a resident of Haven Bay twenty years earlier too, and he left in the wake of the very big storm. None of the older residents in the town like him or think he will help, but the h has to try and so she gets one of the old fishing trawler skippers to give her a ride to the H's yacht. It is currently moored up the coast where the H has just built a huge resort and his home.
The h uses some serious chutzpah and crashes the H's party. The H has been bored and is watching the h charm his guards and he lets her on the yacht. The H thinks she is making a play for him and the h has to explain that she really wants to use his failing TV station to do a documentary abut Haven Bay. The H hates Haven Bay, bad things happened there when he left at 16 and he has no love for any of the surviving residents. But the h's plan is helped when a very rapid reporter ambushes the H and h and threatens to make the H and h appear to be romantically involved.
The H then explains that the h is going to be doing a documentary and airing it on his TV station. The h IS attracted to the H, but she had wealthy guy woo her and charm her before, and then she had to dump him when he married and wanted to keep her as a bit on the side. The h is very wary around rich guys who like to sleaze around and she is thinking the H might be the same type. But he does move her, she detects a deep well of pain and loneliness in him and so she decides that he may be one of her renovation projects too, even tho he tells her he never wants to see her again and means it. She realizes that there is very bad relations between Haven Bay and the H, but she doesn't know the story and really it is time for all of them to be moving towards the future anyways.
The h gets Zachary Lee to do the big whale documentary and it is a huge success. Suddenly everybody everywhere wants to come to Haven Bay and see the whales and the town is adapting admirably. Then the h accepts a booking for 500 Japanese tourists to whale watch and there is no boat in town big enough to take them. The h is rather desperate and she needs a yacht, she knows the H has one, so she goes to borrow it - even tho he told her to stay away.
She finds the H naked on his beach and she manages to talk him into loaning his yacht for the day, she tells him if he won't loan it she will have to get the Australian Navy to loan her a frigate. The H agrees if she will agree to manage his TV station for a month. He wants to dump the station, it is losing money and he figures if he puts the h in there as a manager and it fails, he can sell the place and get himself out of press scrutiny by the rapid reporter. (The whole reporter thing did not make a lot of sense, but ED needed a lever to put the h and H together and so rabid reporters it is.)
The h then takes over the management of TV station, she only has a month and the H is back to avoiding her again. She KNOWS she and the H should be together, she loves him and they have the whole mojo thing going on, but the h also knows that the H's past with Haven Bay is interrupting their togetherness so the h decides to save the station- even tho the H doesn't want her to- and then save the H- after she figures out what happened 20 years ago. The h has the bad feeling that there is a woman with eyes the same color of kingfisher blue as hers invovled, but the h is having problems digging out the details.
The h actually does manage to raise the ratings on the station. But there is a big interview with a dubious man who may have stolen millions from various charities and the regular interviewer is in an accident and the h has to do the big tv interrogation. The man walks all over her until the end, when the h points out that the guy has this incredible memory for tiny details of things he did several years ago and yet can't remember what happened to the millions that disappeared in the last year. It is a telling moment cause the guy is completely caught out, but the h fails to pursue the moment and when the interview ends, the h thinks she is a failure.
The H shows up to comfort her and he and the h finally make it to the bedroom attached to her TV station office. The h decides that she will move in with the H maybe, but the H will have to get someone else to manage the station. The H offers the job to her brother Zachary Lee and tells the h that if Zach wants to build a TV empire, he will back him. The h gets her brother to accept the H's offer, but the h wants more information about what happened 20 years earlier before she shacks up with the H.
Her big interview actually turns out really well in retrospect, because the police arrest the shady guy the next day and now the h is a big media sensation for catching the guy out on live TV. However the h wants the H more than a TV career, so she brings out the big charm guns on the old skipper to dig the truth out.
She corners the old fishing trawler skipper while he is out on the ocean and the full story emerges. Twenty years ago the man had a 16 yr old granddaughter. The H and the granddaughter where in love and the girl was remarkably like the h in both eye color and personality. The granddaughter got pregnant and the old skipper lost his temper. A big storm came up and the H and his grandfather went out to rescue some people on a boat. The granddaughter snuck out of her room where the old skipper locked her and went with the H and his grandfather on their boat. Everyone but the H died and the old residents of the town have hated him ever since.
The h is very saddened by the story and more than a little concerned that both the H and the old skipper see her as some sort of dead girl substitute. The old skipper outright tells her she is just like his dead granddaughter and the H has strongly hinted at it more than once. They are all heading back to the dock when notification comes that a big storm is brewing and another boat is in trouble. The h and the skipper and the two boys on the boat all decide to go attempt a rescue. They rescue the guy on the floundering boat but the storm is really bad and they can't make it back. The H comes to save the day on his yacht and the h's brother Zach is on board to help and film the big rescue.
The H and the old skipper make their peace about the granddaughter and the H announces he is marrying the h cause he loves her and the h loves him back. The rabid reporter gets her big scoop, the H is investing big money in tourist facilities in Haven Bay so the h's sister and her son will have a steady income, and Zachary Lee (who never got his own book and needed it,) will take the H's one TV station to a media empire for the big HEA.
This one is okay, but the issue of the h being a sub for the dead girl is not really resolved, tho the h believes that the H has put those memories to rest and the H doesn't seem to speculate on anything other than following the h where ever she leads.
The h being second after the H's true love is probably my most hated ED trope, I don't think they ever do it really well, tho this one was much better than The Ultimate Choice and don't get me started on the subbing in the future ED The Last Grand Passion.
I did believe the h loved the H and she was pretty assertive in that, so I could see the HEA working out as the H was just a puddle of goo following her around like a puppy. However the overall pace of the book was off and really Zachary Lee was much more interesting, so this one is just a regular HP outing and not one to really write home about.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 5, 2018
Luin tämän suomeksi (nimellä Myrsky vie, myrsky tuo vai mikä se nyt olikaan), mutten jaksa lisätä suomenkielistä laitosta. Tämä siis täyttää Perkeet-haastekohdan 8. Harlekiini tai muu kioskikirja. Siinä varmaan kaikki oleellinen.
August 14, 2024
Like Darcy's other novel The Ultimate Choice, this is another story of an extremely entitled, golddigging heroine forcing her way into the life of a depressed tycoon, despite all his protests, and wrapping him around her little finger. The setting in The Ultimate Choice was an equestrian estate. Here, in Ride the Storm, it is a coastal village dabbling with whale tourism. But the blueprint is the same: an unlikable, ball-busting heroine crashing into hero's life and not for the better. Maybe these kinds of heroines were considered in the 1980s and 1990s as a refreshing change from the meek, doe-eyed innocents of vintage Harlequinlandia, but for me, the pendulum swung too far. There should be a happy middle between a sugary Mary Sue and a total bitch. This did not hit it.
September 24, 2021
Things just didn't add up. For one thing consider the partial CV of the h:
Three years with Club Med
A few years doing travel tours in New Zealand
Time doing adventure tours in the Himalayas
Traveling the silk road to China
Making TV Documentaries (This would take some significant time)
With a vacation or two and job training etc. this adds up to 10+ years.
Does this make the h to be in Mid -Thirties or does 2+2 sometimes = 22
Well the H is closing in on 40 so I quess that is about right.
Three years with Club Med
A few years doing travel tours in New Zealand
Time doing adventure tours in the Himalayas
Traveling the silk road to China
Making TV Documentaries (This would take some significant time)
With a vacation or two and job training etc. this adds up to 10+ years.
Does this make the h to be in Mid -Thirties or does 2+2 sometimes = 22
Well the H is closing in on 40 so I quess that is about right.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews