Fallen Idol

by Margaret Way

Nick Grey was everybody's hero.

Claudia Ingram had always loved Dominic Grey, and when her father encouraged them to marry she was ecstatic - at first.

Then she discovered her childhood idol had feet of clay. She suspected Nick of having an affair with her stepmother, Cristina, and even though Nick denied the rumors, Claudia knew they had to be true.

Why else would Cristina be fighting so hard to keep Nick away from her?

Genres: Harlequin Romance, Romance

Paperback

First published November 23, 1984

About the author

Margaret Way was born and educated in the river city of Brisbane, Australia. Before her marriage she was a well-known pianist, teacher, vocal coach and accompanist, but her hectic musical career came to a halt when her son was born and the demands of motherhood dictated a change of pace.

On a fortuitous impulse she decided to try her hand at romance writing and was thrilled when Mills & Boon accepted her first effort, Time of the Jacaranda, which they published less than a year later in 1970; a feat that brought tears to her father's eyes. Some seventy odd books have followed resulting in a loyal readership whose letters provide a source of support and encouragement. A driving force in all her writing has been the promotion of her much loved country, Australia. She delights in bringing it alive for her readers; its people, way of life, environment, flora and fauna. Her efforts so far have not excited official recognition, but she expects one day she will be awarded the "Order of Australia."

Her interests remain with the arts. She still plays the piano seriously, but her "top Cs" have gone. She is still addicted to collecting antiques and paintings and browsing through galleries. She now lives within sight and sound of beautiful Moreton Bay and its islands, inspiration for some of her books. Her house is full of books, spectacular plants, Chinese screens and pots. She is devoted to her garden and spends much time "directing the design and digging and providing cold drinks and chocolates."

Reviews

[Naksed · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good grief. The heroine spends 99% of the book suspecting the hero of conducting an affair with her step mom despite his vehement and credible protestations to the contrary, the fact that pretty much all her true friends and relatives tell her she is horribly mistaken and her step mom is an unhinged harpie on the verge of a nervous breakdown. *sigh* In other words, she is acting like the paranoid, TSTL heroes of HPlandia. I couldn't get behind a character like that, which made reading this tedious and extremely frustrating.

Read at your own risk. You may get a chuckle or two at the chauvinist attitudes including that the step mom is acting crazy because she is having early menopause (she is in her early thirties!!!! Rofl) and that having a baby is the remedy for female hysteria :DDDDD

[MissKitty · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember reading this way back in the day. I recall thinking that the hero was one of the few Margaret Way characters who was not a cattle baron. Anyway, poor hero is totally besotted with the heroine, but her evil step-mother keeps dropping poisonous innuendo that they are having an affair. Heroine has idolized the hero for a long time and is so disillusioned. She had come home early one day and catches the hero walking out of the bedroom area and her step-mom rushing after him in a revealing neglige. The hero denies anything was going on and the step-mom does as well but in a manner that leaves doubts. The heroine is young and insecure so she believes the manipulations of the other woman. She is a typical Margaret Way heroine, breathtakingly beautiful, intelligent and too kind. Her emotions are so overwrought but her, she is young. The hero spends the whole book trying to make her see sense amidst her continuous rebuffs. Felt bad for him since she didn't trust him at all.

[Melinda · Rating 2 out of 5]

I felt sorry for Nick. He was falsely accused and nothing he did would convince the heroine otherwise. She convicted him on scanty circumstantial evidence because of her own immaturity.

[Live2Read · Rating 2 out of 5]

Leaving a personal review for who it may benefit, MW is not the smoothest author in terms of ease. Expect some choppy bickering and transitions. The heroine’s inner rants may or may not be that significant and can go on for an extended amount of time, turning into a tangent of something else unrelated. I’m sure the author only wanted to give us story background and details, but I found too much details to be rather distracting.

Hero, in some scenes, seems to be pretty open, so I don’t know why there shall ever be angst. Of course, forced angst, pulled by the author. I think MW wants us to feel the emotion but I couldn’t. Not to mention, I found some of the things they bickered about to be a tad bit random? Their little back and forth runs deep, obviously. Supposed to be revealing, I presumed, but once again, it was too distracting. It’s almost as if MCs were trying to hold as many topics as they can in one conversation at one time…

In the first actual scene between MC, after some bickering already, he suddenly mentioned a lady name Jane into the convo, and of course, we proceeds to learn all about this Jane-person. She’s an architect at the firm and daddy, heroine, hero all admired her. It’s a loss that Jane left the company, and why, Jane is tough and so unlike the spoiled and ungrateful heroine at all! Per, hero’s words! (And, I’m pretty sure this was the only and the last time we ever heard of this ‘all in favored’ Jane. Jane had done her part for the story so onto the next...) We also learned that the hero had helped her with her studies (math) once upon a school day, and the heroine then whined that she’s not ungrateful for his tutoring, for she had told everyone she wouldn’t have passed if it wasn’t for him. I’m not sure what’s the purpose of all that! I mean, it was informative but me thinks, that’s one too many fine points exchanged already.

[ANGELIA · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well, we have a self-righteous h, who takes things too much at face value and can't give the benefit of the doubt, an overly confident H who's so used to his devastating effect on women (even without any encouragement) that he expects others to take it as lightly as he does, the h's father, who's a brilliant businessman but a dim bulb when it comes to people, a stepmother who, despite being adored by her sugar daddy hubby, keeps throwing her unwanted self at the H, and for all her supposed sophistication, is too dumb to realize pregnancy hormones are making her act so berserk, and a selfish, entitled, manipulative jerk OM, who actually believes he's what's best for the h and won't accept their just being friends.

Put it altogether and what have you got? A BIG MESS!!

Not worth it.

[RomLibrary]

Nick Grey was everybody's hero.

Claudia Ingram had always loved Dominic Grey, and when her father encouraged them to marry she was ecstatic - at first.

Then she discovered her childhood idol had feet of clay. She suspected Nick of having an affair with her stepmother, Cristina, and even though Nick denied the rumors, Claudia knew they had to be true.

Why else would Cristina be fighting so hard to keep Nick away from her?

[Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story has a very weak heroine who I could not empathize with. Poor hero.