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Mills & Boon Desire series delivers powerful, passionate romances…The revelation turned Erica Prentice’s world upside down by birth, she belonged to a wealthy Colorado dynasty and her real father had left her a fortune. And the Jarrod family attorney, Christian Hanford, was there to show her the ropes. As Mr. Tall, Dark and Handsome escorted her around Aspen, Erica was in for a second shock her fiery attraction to the strictly off-limits attorney. Fraternising with the Jarrod heiress could get Christian fired.

Which would she choose: duty to her family dynastyor desire for a dynamic bachelor?

191 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 1, 2011

19 people are currently reading
178 people want to read

About the author

Maureen Child

1,150 books548 followers
USA Today best selling author Maureen Child is the author of more than ninety romance novels and novellas. Maureen is a five time nominee for the prestigious Rita award from Romance Writers of America.
One of her novels, A Pocketful Of Paradise, was made into a CBS-TV movie called The Soul Collector, starring Melissa Gilbert, Bruce Greenwood and Ossie Davis.
Over the years, she’s written under lots of different names and she prefers the term ‘pseudonym’ to ‘alias’. As Ann Carberry, she wrote western historical romances. As Kathleen Kane, she wrote not only Americana romances, but western paranormal romances as well. As Sarah Hart, she wrote one really spectacular western paranormal that is still one of her favorites. And once, Ann Carberry even wrote a Victorian historical which she absolutely loved doing.

Under her own name, Maureen writes short contemporary novels for Silhouette Desire—books she loves to write because of their fast pace and condensed story telling. Maureen is also writing funny, contemporary paranormal romances for NAL and darker paranormal stories for Silhouette Nocturne.

Maureen writes paranormal romance novels under the pesudonym of Regan Hastings

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5 stars
55 (24%)
4 stars
67 (29%)
3 stars
75 (33%)
2 stars
22 (9%)
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5 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
Profile Image for Christine (KizzieReads).
1,803 reviews105 followers
July 16, 2019
It was ok. For the first half of the book, it pretty much was just going through the motions of the main premise of Erica finding out that her dad isn't who she thought, and has to travel to Aspen to meet with her real siblings. The second half of the book, was the getting to know/falling in love with Christian story. You never really feel the love, you are told that it happens after they work together for a few weeks. Hoping the next story in this series shows it a bit more with the next couple.
Profile Image for Maura.
3,883 reviews113 followers
March 4, 2017
I started in the middle of this series and only now decided to read the first in the series...to see where it started out. It starts with the death of Don Jarrod and Christian, the family lawyer, has to inform the family of an illegitimate sister who has also inherited. Then he has to tell her - Erica Prentice. He's instantly attracted, but he knows she's off limits, because, as the family lawyer, a position to which he strived his entire life, he's bound by a non-fraternization clause. Falling in love with Erica would seriously jeopardize everything he's worked for in life. Erica struggles to figure out where she belongs now that she's discovered she's part of another family and begins a new life at the Jarrod Resort. Christian is the one steady thing and she realizes that she wants him, no matter what the cost.

So this was kind of frustrating primarily because of that last line there - Erica wants Christian no matter what the cost - particularly the cost to Christian. Yes, they have some great chemistry and tension, but Christian makes it very clear from early on, that he started with nothing, he worked his ass off to get where he was and that this career of his keeps his mother out of poverty, where they'd spent their whole life, and he owed it all to Don Jarrod, who made it clear that he'd lose it all if he got involved with his daughters. And thus, although Christian is interested, he can't or won't give up everything for Erica. Well instead of trying to see his POV or even wondering if there isn't something they can do so they can be together, Erica continually insists that she wants him to want her more than he wants his career. She doesn't care what he'd have to give up to be with her, the selfish bitch just moans and complains that Christian doesn't want her enough. I could forgive her being hurt for it if she was just a little more sympathetic to Christian's problem. It's not like she's going to sacrifice anything to be with him, but he's supposed to give up all for her. And so he does. And when he tells her that he quit his job for her, exactly what she wanted him to do, she insists that she won't let him give up all he'd worked for for her. WTF? Make up your frickin' mind. It's a bit late to get all sympathetic now? So maybe that's not what she wanted, but that makes it clear to me that she wasn't very articulate about what she DID want him to do. Just Grrr, Erica, Grrrr.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
181 reviews
August 30, 2022
Snoozefest. Quit at 40% of the book because the h has just barely arrived at the Aspen resort at long last, where the actual plot takes place. The H are both brown haired, brown eyed gorgeous people who fall in super sizzling lust at first eye contact. I expect some angst shortly, as the author has been warning us since page 1 that some of the h's half siblings are not happy to have her visit but I genuinely dgaf if it takes you almost half a novel to set up the scene: I'm STILL not hooked or curious, and there's very little chance of me caring about the rest of the book series characters the way things are. Pseudo DNF: I skipped to the end just to soothe my ocd against an unfinished book.
Profile Image for karen.
1,627 reviews
April 8, 2019
What is it with family patriarchs being idiots with their children and putting work first. In the end they have their reasons, but that does not help the chaos. At least Christian woke up and realized the rest of his life was more important that the current day. He finally tackled the issue head on and won.
Lucky Erica. It will be interesting to see where this series goes and how Don is controlling things from the grave.
521 reviews10 followers
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January 15, 2015
This is the first book in a series about the Jarrod Family. They are written by different authors but united under Silhouette's Desire imprint.

This book introduces Erica Prentice who was Don Jarrod's child by a woman he loved while separated from his wife. Erica did not know about this until after he died. Don's will left her a portion of the estate but she had to move to Aspen. The lawyer who delivered the news to her, christian Hanford, fell in love with her almost immediately. The problem was that he had a clause in his contract that he could not be with a Jarrod or he would be fired.

When he tries to resign, the Jarrod in charge wants him to stay with a new contract without the clause so he can be with the girl he loves.
Profile Image for Widala.
279 reviews20 followers
July 26, 2015
The beginning was nice, good story and characters. But then Chris and Erica admitted their attraction towards each other and everything went down hill from there.
Chris became this person who couldn't make up his mind, blowing hot and cold and became all around jerk.
Erica turned into selfish bitch who wouldn't understand Chris' dilemma. She even said that her situation was the same as Chris.
Girl, did you work your ass off as a teenager? Yes, you constantly felt the need to prove yourself to your father (boo hoo), but if you chose not to work a day of your life I bet your millionaire father won't let you starve. Where Chris had to provide for his family.
Well, Chris was no better himself. He should have talk to Jarrods children about his problem instead of being, yes, all around jerk.
Profile Image for Melissa Maxwell.
457 reviews22 followers
January 21, 2013
I loved Erica and Christian's story. Erica just found out that her dad is not her biological dad and that her bio dad left her 1/6th of his estate along with her other siblings who in-turn knew nothing about her. Christian is the lawyer for Jarred's Ridge and was sent to tell all this to Erica but in meeting her he felt this instant connection. But there s a problem there is a no fraternizing clause in his contract to protect the Jarred's from having employee's seek them out for a raise or something. Is Christian willing to to mess up the life he finally built for him self in order for a chance at something more?
972 reviews
May 10, 2016
D2024 Jul10, Dynasties: The Jarrods Erica Prentice discovers she is the daughter of Donald Jarrod. He met her mother, Danielle, and they had an affair during a separation from her husband, Walter. Donald Jarrod has died and his will demands his 4 sons and 2 daughters return to Aspen and run the resort the family has owned for generations. If any refuse they will all loose their family business. Lawyer, Christian Hanford, goes to San Francisco to present the facts of the will and the news she has 4 brothers a a sister. Realistic view of the interaction between the siblings and Walter, the man she had called father.
Profile Image for Shxrxn.
415 reviews
April 16, 2011
Tell me this much first. Are you about to make me happy? Or is this going to screw up my world?
- Erica
I finally figured it out.That all I need is you. If I have you, I have everything. Without you, there's nothing.
- Christian
Profile Image for Donna.
567 reviews6 followers
July 13, 2010
This was too predictable to really hold my interest. Erica was a strong heroine, but the plot was not very original.
509 reviews11 followers
August 15, 2010
Interesting. I could tell that it was the first in a series, because a lot of other plots were hinted at, but never followed up onl
Profile Image for Ashley FL.
1,045 reviews28 followers
July 26, 2016
4 stars for the genre. A bit too much made up angst.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews

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