Thorne'S Way

Jonas Thorne #1

by Joan Hohl

Starting over with a new job after suffering a tragedy, Valerie Jordan is distraught when her new boss, Jonas Thorne, proves insufferable, but in the heat of an argument, Valerie realizes that she has developed feelings for him. Reissue.

Genres: Romance

248 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1982

About the author

For as long as she can remember, Joan Hohl has always wanted to be a writer. Her mother said Joan had her head in the clouds, always daydreaming. The only thing was, Joan's daydreams had plots!

She is a popular U.S.American writer of over 60 romance novels since 1980. She also signed her novels as Paula Roberts and Amii Lorin

Reviews

[Heather Kay · Rating 1 out of 5]

Jonas felt his eyes narrow in automatic response to the iciness of her tone. For the first time in his life, he had to fight the urge to strike a woman.

"Damn you!" Jonas turned on her, his eyes blazing. "If you call me Mr. Thorne in that tone one more time I swear I'll hit you.

"I don't want to hurt you, Val." His voice softened. "And I won't unless you force me to."



Okay, long story short. The main character loses her fiancé and everyone is a dickhead. Her best friend. Her boss/new fiancé/husband. Everyone. Seriously, what kind of person comes to visit their best friend, who just lost the man she loved and is struggling through depression, responds with: "My God! What have you done to yourself?" Of course, this is also coming from the woman who literally told her boss she'll resign if her friend doesn't do as good of a job as she says. Who does that?

And the love interest? He's a douchebag. He's not sexy, he's insane. He needs help. I like characters who are cold or easily angered, but there has to be a line, especially with the main character. He belittles her, tells her to come to him like a dog, insults her, tells her to shut up, threatens to hit her. My god. And it doesn't stop there. He invites his ex-fucking-wife (the one who left him and their newborn baby for another man) to stay with them and allows her to disrespect the main character in her own home. He believes that she's sleeping with her dead ex-fiancé's brother because his ex-wife told him so. He's an idiot. If my ex-wife were to say to my current wife "Well, the little near-mother is back. How nice." after losing her baby. I would be threatening her.

And I have no idea why they got married. They have absolutely no time together before he proposes. None. He just suddenly wants her after getting tired of all the other women he sleeps with.

I picked up this book to take a break from reading The Vampire Lestat and I honestly don't know what I was thinking. I'll never get those few hours back.

[Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 Stars! ~ Less than a year after Valerie Jordan’s father passed away, her mother remarried and moved to Australia, and her grandparents retired and moved to Florida. Alone and seeking adventure, 20-year-old Val decided to apply for a secretarial position with her company’s new office in Paris. She’d been in France for six years when she’d met Etienne DeBron. Tragedy struck and Etienne was taken from her two weeks before their wedding, and Val shut herself away from life. Jonas Thorne is a self-made man; his genius for electronics has made his company a leader in electronic innovation. He’d agreed to take Val home to Philly at the prodding of one of his executives and to employ her as his personal assistant. From the first meeting, Val intrigued him and sparked his desire. After making her his wife, Jonas now has the challenge of making her forget her Etienne. And this proves even harder when his ex-wife and then, Etienne’s brother come on the scene.

This is a great love story. Jonas’ charisma is hard to resist but his arrogance and determination make him a hard-edged hero. Val had buried her emotions, until Jonas forces them to boil up. He aggravates and annoys her, and creates a passion in her she didn’t know she was capable of. Their journey to HEA is a very bumpy one with lots of misunderstandings and hidden feelings. This is well worth the read!


This story is continued in Ms. Hohl's Desire Thorne's Wife ... I highly recommend you read that book too ... both are keepers!

[Lindsey · Rating 1 out of 5]

So sometimes you need a mindless story when you’re burned out on nonfiction or deeper content, if you will. This one... published 1982 and you can tell. A woman is described as a feminist, but the author is quick to tell you she’s surprisingly not a man hater! Eye roll. Also bothered me that twice the hero threatened to hit or thought about hitting the heroine— and he wanted to hit her because she wasn’t fawning all over him like every other woman. And he daydreamed about rape too. What a hero!

[Chrisangel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad story, and it was pretty clear from the start that once Jonas entered the scene, Valerie wouldn't be mourning the late Etienne for much longer!

I like the way the author lets you know what's going on inside Jonas's head as well as Val's. Too often, you only get the h's POV and have to just assume what the H's thinking.

Lynn sure was a snarky pain in the ass, but it was a nice surprise that MaryBeth didn't turn out to be the typical rich man's spoiled brat daughter, and had a good heart.

It's too bad Jonas and Val took so long to admit their true feelings, with him thinking she was still in love with her late fiance and using him as a substitute, and her thinking he felt only lust for her, rather than love. There was also some silliness, where Jonas thought Val was falling for Etienne's brother, Jean-Paul (whose heart was elsewhere) and a very unnecessary accident (at least in my opinion) involving Val.

A good story, though not without some faults.