The Tycoon's Hidden Heir

New Zealand Knights #3

by Yvonne Lindsay

An eye for an eye—that was Mason Knight's motto in the boardroom and the bedroom. And it certainly applied to gold-digging Helena Davies. The ravishing beauty had spent one unforgettable night in his arms... only to marry a much older man the next morning. But, twelve years later, the newly widowed Helena was on his doorstep, claiming her son was really Mason's and she'd do anything to secure his inheritance. Oh, yes, Mason Knight would finally have his revenge.—

Genres: Harlequin, Romance, Contemporary Romance

192 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2007

About the author

A typical Piscean, USA Today! Best-selling author, Yvonne Lindsay, has always preferred the stories in her head to the real world. Yvonne is a five-time Romance Writers of Australia R*BY nominee and three-time nominee and 2015 winner of the Romance Writers of New Zealand Koru Award of Excellence. She spends her days crafting the stories of her heart and in her spare time she can be found with her nose firmly in someone else’s book.

Reviews

[Maura · Rating 2 out of 5]

After Helena accidentally drives her car into a river, it's Mason Knight who rescues her and prevents her from getting hypothermia. So she thanks him by making love to him. Afterwards, she leaves him, but Mason is determined to seek her out and find out what could be between them. So he's a little bit shocked and pretty furious to learn that Helena is marrying his mentor...and him the best man. Eleven years later, after his mentor has died and Helena is trying to save her son's inheritance, Mason is told that her son is actually HIS son and that she needs his help. Mason isn't in a forgiving mood - after all, he's just learned he lost eleven years with his son and that his mentor played a part in denying him those years. On top of that, Mason is convinced that Helena is a lying, scheming gold-digger who just wants more for herself and will do whatever it takes to get it. He steps in to help, but he wants things on his terms.

I didn't like these people. First of all, Helena agrees to marriage with Patrick (the mentor) because she needs stability and security (i.e., money), which is practical no doubt. Can't really fault her for that. But I can fault her for having sex with a complete stranger the night before her wedding and not telling her husband about it. And when she turns up pregnant, I'm to believe she didn't once think that Mason might be the father? And really, the night meant so much to her that she puts it completely behind her for 12 years and lives on happily in marriage to this guy she cheated on? I could believe that if she didn't claim to love Mason almost immediately after seeing him again. And this woman is truly TSTL. She goes to him knowing full well he thinks she's a gold-digging slut and then offers herself to him, confirming everything he believes. She walked into that with her eyes wide open (but apparently with her hormones having melted her into spineless goo). Not only that but she offers her son (and his) to him on a silver platter with absolutely no protection from his seeking custody...knowing he'd be pissed that he was denied 11 years with his son. To further doom my opinion of her, she sends her eleven year old son to an exclusive boarding school, which doesn't exactly emphasize to this reader how maternal and protective of she is of her son.

Now Mason had every right to be pissed beyond belief. In fact, I kept yelling at the book to remind the characters about that when they seemed to forget it and started remembering Patrick all fondly, like he was some hero or something. He was dishonest for sure. He knew the son's true parentage but said absolutely nothing (which I could believe if he was angry about it or something, but it wasn't Mason's fault, so why did Mason suffer in it?) Not that it gives Mason any right to be a total douchebag, but I understand where he was coming from. He was pretty vicious to the heroine. But I have to admit, he certainly had reason to believe his own opinions...he believed she was a gold-digger (she kinda was), that she was unfaithful to her husband (she did sleep with him the night before her wedding), and that she's planning to use him for her own gain (her timing is a bit suspicious). I almost felt sorry for Mason despite the fact that he was a complete ass to the heroine. But apparently, all these asshole feelings stem from his being in love with her. All this time, that one 10 minute episode in a truck eleven years ago, and he's still mad that he didn't get to keep her. I didn't really buy his love (and certainly didn't understand hers). It felt way more like he was obsessed with her sexually...hell, he didn't even know her.

So this book was kind of a bomb for me. I do give it props for its quasi-trainwreck qualities. It certainly had me glued to the page just because I couldn't believe these people.

[Kay · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 Stars ~ Twelve years ago Mason had rescued a young woman from her car that had skidded on ice into the river. Quickly he'd pulled her into his big rig and turned up the heat and urgently helped her strip out of her frozen clothes, and then he striped too and used his body heat to stop her shivering. Both exhausted, they fell asleep, until Mason woke to find her reaching for him, pleading for him to "show me I'm alive". In the morning all she'd asked was to be dropped at the nearest town and when he'd asked her if that was it, she'd confirmed with finality, "yes, that's it". Hours later, while Mason waited as best man with his mentor, he's shocked to see that the beautiful bride is the woman he'd rescued from the river.

With her husband's recent death, Helena is desperately trying to hold onto the Davies Freight for her 11 yr. old son's future. But her husband's oldest son by adoption in a previous marriage, wants to bleed the company dry, and he insists on having Brody's shares in the company too. Somehow, Evan has learned of her past before she'd met Patrick and he's willing to use her secrets to destroy her reputation and torment her son. Leaving her lawyers office after the reading of the will, she's surprised by a letter and medical documents that Patrick left for her. In the letter, Patrick tells her that if she should ever need help that she's to go to Mason, and he further tells her that she needs to tell him everything. The medical documents attest that Patrick had been infertile and that there was no way he could have fathered Brody. Somehow he had figured out that Mason was Brody's real father, something Helena had never considered. With Brody's inheritance at risk, Helena has no choice but to go to Mason.

Mason doesn't know how Helena has tracked him down to his retreat, all he knows is she's not welcome. With the weather threatening to storm, he can't very well turn her away. Hearing about the trouble Davies Freight is in, he seriously suspects it's all Helena's doing and not Evan's, even though he despises the creep. When she tells him that Brody is his son and that Davies Freight is Patrick's legacy to the boy, he doesn't believe her. Reading Patrick's letter and then the medical documents, Mason boils inside at the betrayal. How could the man he'd once loved as a father have kept his son from him? But had he? Helena was no angel, how did he know that he'd been her only other lover beside her husband. She's a conniving gold-digger. Insisting on paternity testing, Mason returns to her the city, and then he seeks out Evan. Making a deal Evan can't refuse, Mason leaves that meeting the owner of the other half of Davies Freight. He'll now get to the bottom of what is really going on and who is responsible. And should Brody prove to be his son, there is no way Mason is leaving him in Helena's clutches to ruin.

Ms. Lindsay's middle Knight brother is one who is very bitter, bearing emotional scars from battles with his father and betrayal from one of his father's mistresses. He'd never forgotten Helena and had always regretted not speaking up at the wedding. Helena is a strong woman willing to do just about anything to protect her son's future. When Mason ruthlessly takes control of her world, she has little power to fight him. Mason is brutal as he ekes out his revenge, which makes it hard to warm up to him. Harlequin was steering their Desire authors towards more ruthless heroes, which makes redemption a challenge. Ms. Lindsay does redeem Mason quick nicely in the HEA. An epilogue for this story and for the trilogy is sorely missing.

[Afaf · Rating 3 out of 5]

الرواية جيدة ولكن لا ترتقي بمستوى الرواية الثانية للسلسلة
توقعت ان ارى رواية فيها من الاثارة والحماس ما يجعلها تكون افضل من الروايتين السابقتين ولكن للأسف وجدتها أقل مستوى منهم
لذلك أعطيها في تقييمي لها ٦ من ١٠ مقارنة بالروايتين الماضيتين من السلسلة (سلسلة أبناء توني نايت knight )
أنا عادة لا أحب ذكر تفاصيل رواية حتى لا أفسد المتعة على القاريء
ولكني هنا سوف أذكرها حتى أبين مواطن الضعف فيها
في البداية قبل ١٢ عاما كانت حماسية جدا وأعجبت بها وتحمست لأقرأ ماذا سيحدث
ثم بعدها شيئا فشيئا راودني احساس أنها فقط تريد الكاتبة ان تكتب عن الجنس لا أكثر
ترابط الأحداث ليس كما المتوقع
فمثلا كون البطلة (هيلينا) لا تعلم أن ابنها ليس إبن باتريك بل إبن مايسون نايت ولمدة ١١ عاما بالرغم من التشابه الكبير بين الأب وابنه
واذا كانت هذه التفاصيل عادية هناك حدث آخر لا يدخل الدماغ أبداً😅
عندما جاء مايسون لمنزل هيلينا ووجد لملاقاته إيڤان إبن باتريك بلا ملابس مجرد بوكسر وبخده احمر شفاه
هو لم يعلم بوجود مايسون أصلا فكيف وصل أمر أحمر الشفاه إليه وهيلينا بريئة وكيف علم إيڤان أنها تستحم؟
طبعا لن تلاحظ المفارقات العجيبة في القصة حتى تقرأها
وهناك غيرها من المفارقات
فضلت لو أنها أضافت فصلاً إضافيا لمعالجة بعض الأخطاء لديها

لذلك أنا أوصي بقراءة هذه الرواية من السلسلة أولاً حتى لا تفسد المتعة على نفسك ومن الممكن أن تكون ممتعة جداً لأنها ستكون أفضل إذا قرأتها قبل الروايتين الأخريين
بعدها إقرأ رواية

THE BOSS’ S CHRISTMAS SEDUCTION

لأنها ستكون أفضل من الأولى

بعدهم إقرأ رواية

THE CEO’S CONTRACT BRIDE

لأنها الأفضل
ولا تبدأ بالعكس لأنك ستصدم مثلي تماما 😅

[Mattie · Rating 1 out of 5]

There was so much I didn't like about this book.

Past: I didn't like that heroine married man much older and was doing so because of financial reasons (I like stories where the hero is in the groom in that situation or where the wedding is stopped to the other man). I didn't find heroine really did that much wrong like hero believed for 12 years (if anything she had just almost died and he was the rescuer and had more of responsibility to not take advantage of situation, not that either one thought that he took advantage), hero did not chase after her or even indicate he was interested so why would she not marry the other man?

Present: Hero was such a freaking jerk when she did go to him after her husbands death and told him her son was also heroes son. She didn't know til after her husband died (weird she didn't even suspect though) when he left her a letter. I don't know why heroine kept going back for more after Hero was constantly kissing and then rejecting heroine even once having sex but hero stopped midway through to punish her, I did stop liking her after she kept letting him get away with that. Np.

[Ucha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kejamm!!!! Novel ini kejam sekali membuat gue nangis bersimpah air mata padahal konfliknya sekedar kesalahpahaman antar hero dan heroine.
Berkisah tentang Helena yang terpaksa menghubungi ayah kandung anaknya-dari hasil ONS- semalam sebelum menikah dengan mempelai pria yg puluhan tahun lebih tua darinya.
Kesalahpahaman mereka begitu menyedihkan karena sama-sama menjadi pihak yang terluka. Helena berjuang mati-matian agar bisa bebas dari kesalahan dan kesalahpahaman. Sedangkan Mason juga ngotot dengan asumsinya sendiri. Btw gue suka sama penjabaran sosok Patrick-mendiang suami Helena disini. Ia terkesan hidup dalam kenangan orang-orang yang dicintainya. Patrick mengajarkan kita bahwa "siapa menanam, dia menuai" dalam hidup bersama manusia :)

[LEEFE LEEFE · Rating 3 out of 5]

Satu hal yang saya suka dari cerita ini: landasan hubungan mereka cukup logis. Berawal disuruh minta tolong ke Mason, akhirnya sejarah lama terkuak. Well, peran Brody emang sebatas numpang lewat. Begitu juga Evan yang tugasnya ngomporin doang. Cerita ini bisa dikatakan mulus jika saja tidak ada plot hole yang saya temukan. Soal hasutan Evan dan tuduhan-tuduhan gila Mason ke Helena, kenapa Mason enggak mengungkitnya sama sekali di ending?

Yang lebih gregetnya lagi, Helena terima permintaan maaf Mason tanpa ngedamprat itu orang. Really? Are you crazy, Ma'am? Udah dituduh gila harta, mata duitan, pelacur, penipu, bisa maafin gitu aja? Helena... too good to be true. Karakternya yang luar biasa pemaaf malah bikin sosoknya jadi kurang manusiawi.

[Mia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lagi pengen bacaan yg ringan dan cepat dan biasanya harlequin ceritanya ringan dan bisa dibaca dengan cepat
Walaupun bagian endingnya terkesan sedikit dipaksakan masih oke lah untuk dibaca
Ceritanya juga menarik

[Laven · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sejak awal buku aku langsung tertarik dengan diksi dan penggambaran latarnya. 208 halaman terkesan sangat singkat untuk cerita ini. Konfliknya sederhana, namun aku terluka dengan segala yang diterima oleh Helena. Kesalahpahaman yang ada diantara dua tokoh utamanya membuatku frustasi.

[Steve Bender · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice romance if you like your heroines unable to say no. A little bit of business intrigue thrown in.

[A•S•R · Rating 3 out of 5]

Trope: Contemporary Romance & Baby Daddy & Widow Mother & A Sweet Boy !!!

[Ladyacct · Rating 3 out of 5]

Final book in a trilogy about brothers. This is the guy who was a total pinhead through the whole book and then everything is magically forgiven in the last three pages.....real life, no I hope not but a nice fiction book.


******Spoiler alert******



Well written series although some of the characters I found kind of empty, or maybe I just didn't connect with those characters - such as the father of the three brothers....he was sort of on the outside but really no detail about the father other than losing the boys mother to cancer. I think all three stories would have been better if more info about the father would have been included.

[Tia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't like the hero in this book, he seemed like a total douche. I know most heroes are arrogant and can sometimes be cruel but this one was over the top for me. I felt sorry for the heroine and considering this was the last book in the series, it was really a doozy! I can't say that I was all that impressed or all that unimpressed, I was walking the line. So three stars.