Marriage at His Convenience [Cinta Terpendam]

by Jacqueline Baird

Amber's multimillionaire Greek boyfriend, Lucas Karadines, informed her that he was getting married; to someone else....

Five years later, Amber has put Lucas behind her; until she inherits half his company. Lucas, who's now single again, knows the only way to keep control is for him to marry Amber. But how can she consider marrying him at his convenience; when five years before, she was worthy only of being his mistress...?

Genres: Harlequin, Harlequin Presents, Romance, Second Chance, Contemporary Romance, Contemporary, Marriage Of Convenience

272 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2002

About the author

Jacqueline Baird was born on the 1st of April at home in a small village Northumbria, England, UK, where she raised. She went to the local village school, and later an all-girls' grammar school where she passed the University of Oxford General Certificate of Education in various subjects. On leaving school she joined the civil service in the then Post Office department.

She met her husband Jim, when she was only eighteen. Eight years later, after working as a hotel receptionist in a five-star hotel in Scotland and traveling abroad for a few years, she came home and married him. They still live in Northumbria and have two grown sons.

Her number one love is writing. She has always been an avid reader, and she had her first success as a writer at the age of eleven, when she won the first prize in the Nature Diary of the Year competition at school. But she always felt a little guilty because her diary was more fiction than fact. Apart from a spell as a hopeful painter in oils, when she actually did have a painting accepted for the Federation of Northern Artists' annual exhibition her real passion was for romance novels. When her sons went to school all day she thought she would try writing one. Jacqueline Baird's been writing for Mills & Boon since 1988, and she still gets a thrill every time a new book is published.

When Jacqueline is not busy writing she likes to spend her time traveling, reading and playing cards. She was a keen sailor until a knee injury ended her sailing days, but she still enjoys swimming in the sea. She visits a gym twice a week now and has made the surprising discovery that she gets some good ideas while doing the mind-numbingly boring exercises on the cycling and weight machines.

Reviews

[StMargarets · Rating 3 out of 5]

Letters to Santa

Dear Santa,
I’m an aging Greek hero and this is what I want:

A hot virgin mistress who still has sex with me after I dump her.
A virgin fiancée who helps me seal a business deal and make my dying father happy. This fiancée should turn out to not be a virgin with a drug habit. To get rid of her, I want her to divorce me for her rehab doctor.
A hot – only had sex with me – second wife who has sex with me even before I explain myself or even try to grovel.
This hot – only had sex with me – second wife should put up with my lying, my insulting mouth, my jealousy, and my arrogance.

Thanx
Hero from Married at His Convenience

Dear Santa,
I’m a doormat and I love the financial markets and aging heroes!
This is that I want:

A hero who dumps me and then returns to insult me and have sex.
Two gay bffs – one is evil and the other is an enabler
Four years of celibacy
A father who finally acknowledges me and a half brother who is a crook, so I am open to blackmail.
A sham of a wedding ceremony.
A husband who lies, cheats, and never acknowledges my pain.

Thank you so much!
Doormat Heroine from Married at His Convenience.

Dear Santa,
I’m a romance reader and I just read Married at His Convenience and I want:

A new liver
A gallon of brain bleach
Ear plugs and eye protection for the next trainwreck

I know it’s a stretch and these are very, very rare. But I’ve been a good reviewer this year and haven’t thrown my Kindle once or resorted to (much) profanity.

A heroine with a backbone
A hero with integrity.

The last one is a long shot and if I could just have a heroine with a backbone, maybe more heroes would aspire to integrity? Just asking. I know you’re busy and with Kindle Unlimited you must have lots of reviewer requests.

*sly wink* I’ll leave some cookies and Captain Morgan out for you.

Thank you,
St. Margarets

[boogenhagen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Re Marriage at His Convenience - Jacqueline Baird brings a hilarious Typhoon of Tackiness to this HPlandia adventure.

The premise of this is that the young, college student h has an affair with the big time businessman Greek H. She is massively in love and he was her first.

But after a few years together, the H ends up dumping her for a nice Greek virgin that his grandfather wants for the family dynasty and the H wants in the course of a business merger.

To make matters worse, the h gets invited to the engagement party and is presented as the girlfriend of the H's gay brother - she is USED as a cover to fool grandfather while her live in lover H is getting engaged to another woman.

Then, after that bombshell of domestic disruption, the H STILL has a lurve club event with her before kicking her out of his life- seemingly forever.

The h is heartbroken for four years, but in the interim manages to get her business degree, become a high powered broker and reunite with her sewer slurping father who couldn't be bothered to acknowledge his former temporary bedwarmer's child until she had proven herself as a successful adult.

(There is also a touching scene where the h is at a party that the H and his new bride are at and the h gets stuck baby sitting the 'pure Greek virgin' as she drugs up in the ladies room. )

This is all a cue for the re-emergence of the H four years later. He is now single and his gay brother has died and left his company shares to the h. The h never bothers to check on how many shares she actually inherits, mainly cause the H is all over her and insisting they have to marry to keep his company viable.

The H is an utter jerk about this too, he calmly berates and belittles the h for daring to reject his pathetic advances. The h manages to get some seriously funny verbal snark in, but that doesn't keep her from having a major lurve club event with the H.

She does refuse to marry him tho, she is okay with just a boudoir bounce on occasion. Four years of celibacy was really hard on her, but no one else lights her flame - in Classic HPlandia Style.

So the H pulls out the JB stock hammer to nail the h with - he decides to blackmail her. It turns out the h's newly discovered half brother is a crook, Bernie Maddox style. If the h doesn't marry the H, he will reveal the half brother duplicity to the world, thus ruining the h's newly discovered father's merchant bank.

(It was at this point that I kinda felt the h deserved what she got. Mainly because other people were being defrauded by a scum gulping nematode slime parasite and the h never gave one thought to the damage the man was doing - she just wanted him not to be exposed and was willing to allow his frauds to continue hurting innocent HP denizens.)

The h agrees to marry the H and it is off to Greece we go for the wedding. Which leads us to the funniest part of the book. The H tells the h he has a surprise for her and the h replies that she hopes it is the same one as last time - the H is marrying someone else.

The H is pretty non-pulsed by her bitterness, but as soon as they get on the plane, we learn that the H got her whole newly discovered family on board with the wedding and the h doesn't feel there is any way out, she had little family in her past and really cherishes the slime sewage she has now.

So the h makes the best of the situation and decides that since the H is now widowed, she can take the opportunity to make a good marriage- the H might even come to love her, but probably not as much as he loved his first wife. They marry and have a lurve clubathon honeymoon on the H's yacht - including tacky lurve club moments on the deck rails.

The h and H then settle down on the H's private island and the h works remotely. When the H overhears a conversation between the h and a former wanna be OM about a party for the h's birthday, he goes ballistic and storms off, leaving a trail of misogynistic and nasty remarks about the h's Tarty Tramp ways in his wake.

The h has her standard HP mopey moment and then decides she will ditch her birth control and give the H the heir he keeps demanding. So the h trails off to Athens to confront the H. Where she learns that the H is NOT widowed - as she believed he said he was. His ex-wife is quite healthy, pregnant and married to her rehab doctor and is happily greeting the h after her cozy visit with the H.

The h correctly assumes that the H is in competition mode with his ex and since the h herself has some status and is no longer just a sex companion and bed warmer, the H figured she was okay enough to pump and then dump after he got his heir.

The h totally erupts in a Typhonic Fury of Rage, she storms into the H's office and proceeds to verbally flay him in one of JB's best h smackdowns ever. The H realizes that his goose is seriously cooked and he may NEVER get his much desired heir.

The h slaps him in the face and calls him a snot snarfing slime swiller for thinking she is nothing more than an easy lay and she is finally, finally dumping his arrogant, snobby, sewer slurping hiney.

The h is magnificent, until she starts crying and the H roofie kisses her and tells her that really, he has always loved her.

He claims his mother was a drug addict with no time for him and his childhood baggage made him dump the very career focused h, whose massive love force mojo stamina reminded him of his mother.

Then we learn that his ex wife was no virgin, she would do anything and anybody for drugs. The H's baby with her was stillborn because of the drug use and the H probably had to take a lot of serious antibiotics for all the social diseases he contracted. He divorced wife number one as soon as her father died - but he still looks after her finances.

The H saw the h taking her birth control pills and thought she was a drug addict and freaked out. But now he claims he really loves her and he bought her an English Manor near her newly discovered father as an added incentive.

The h knows that she is in a JB HP adventure and that there are NO OTHER OPTIONS. She tells the H she believes his kinda sorta declaration of true love until the mojo wears off and we leave them taking off for more yacht deck rail special mojo moments for a highly hysterical HEA.

I have to admit, this is one is utterly and completely TACKY, but it is so full of verbal snark and both these two are so farcically classic HP stereotypes that I always have a wildly funny time with this book.

HPlandia rules are usually for the h, but there is the little known HPlandia rule #953 Greek HP H's sometimes have to marry HP OW because they're GREEK and their grandpa's said so.

This is a seldom invoked Get Out of HP H jail clause and may be invoked anytime an HP author needs a seriously coprophagic Greek Hero excuse to bamboozle a poor, former unicorn grooming h into a real HPlandia HEA.

My original thoughts on this one follow below and after reading this one for the gadzillonth time, I still hold them to be true today.

I know everybody hates this one but srsly peeps - a girl has gotta do what a girl has gotta do to get her some, the poor thing was withering under the lash of celibacy and wanted at least one more time before death - it wasn't like the HP fairy was going to bring her anybody else.

Remember this is HPlandia and HP rules apply - she was a virgin, she was dumped, she had no hope of new romance - the girl was normal in her drives too, so I totally get she had to take the lurve club while it was available, I supported that choice.

There was no need to actually go around declaring true lurve forever tho, she should just kept him as her boy toy and pimped him out for female clients occasionally. That is why I only gave it four stars, but it is still a very funny HP day at the office.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

It had been love at first sight for beautiful 22 year old Amber, when she met 36 year old wealthy Greek businessman, Luke. They became lovers and moved in together.
The book starts a year later. For the last two months Luke had been in New York on business and Amber was very eager and anxious to see him back in London.
She'd met Luke through his nephew, Spiro, who was her good friend from college.

The opening scene is of Luke in his New York office. He'd just signed a deal with another Greek businessman that would make him one of the largest international Hotel chains in the world.
He would also acquire the Greek businessman's 18 year old daughter, Christina, his sweet, innocent Christina who was everything he wanted in a wife. The opposite of Amber.
Christina had absolutely no desire for a career other than marriage and children.
Amber, on the other hand, was a born sensualist, he had never known a sexier woman, but she was devoted to her career and Luke was not a man to wait around for any woman.

He told Amber to give up her job but she made it clear to him that she will when she is married and pregnant.
She would always defy and challenge him.

He had never been in love and he was marrying Christina as she was a well brought up young Greek girl whose husband and children would always come first.
Amber was too beautiful, sexy and seductive for him to wed.
Christina met his criteria for a wife.

Spiro informed Amber that his uncle Luke had returned back to London and there was a celebration that night for the closing of a big business deal. And by the way, Luke was now betrothed.
Amber did not believe him and Spiro invited her to accompany him to the party and see for herself.
And yes, there was a girl clinging on his arm, a girl that he treated with tenderness and care.
Luke did his best to avoid Amber that night.
Amber found out from Christina that their wedding was scheduled for the following month.

The next morning Luke finally returned to their home. He told Amber that their affair had reached its conclusion and he hoped they can part friends.
Amber told him she loved him and if he wanted a wife, why not her? She could give him children, anything he wanted.
He was unyielding.
He said Amber was strictly lover material. Theirs, he said, was a sexual relationship, nothing more.
She was a modern woman, equal to a man, she worked hard and played hard. He said he loved Christina. He left Amber devastated and broken-hearted.

SPOILERS
Five years later:
Amber was in her office when Luke barged in unannounced. She hadn't seen him in five years.
After the first shock, Amber asked him about his family. He said he had no family. The child was stillborn, Spiro died in Athens a month earlier, his father died three years ago and Christina was gone the next year.
He said he was there because Spiro (Amber had a fall out with him four years earlier) left in his will his part of company shares to Amber.
Amber told him she was not interested and she would sign everything over to him as he was the rightful heir.
He said he would never take money from a woman. He would buy the shares when he is over his cash-flow problems.
He said the only solution to secure the shares was to get married. Amber said NO.
They made love. Amber was celibate for the last five years as no man managed to light her fire since Luke. She thought at least she could have this one night with him. She never stopped loving him.

As Amber continued to refuse his proposal, Luke used blackmail.
So a week later they got married and settled at Luke's holiday house on a Greek island.

He told Amber that he never stopped desiring her even at the time he dumped her. He had decided, back then, it was time he fell in love and marry Christina and had set about doing it exactly the same way as he pursued a business deal. He had been so confident he'd been doing the right thing, pleasing his father and expecting it to please himself.
He said it was never his intention to hurt Amber.
They should forget the past and make it work. Amber agreed.
Luke wanted them to start on a baby as he was already 41 years old.

One day Amber decided to travel to the mainland and visit Luke at his office.
As she was about to enter the building, she froze.
Christina, very much alive, was stepping out on the arm of a young man.
A very pregnant Christina.
The woman was supposed to be dead...
Christina greeted Amber enthusiastically. She said Luke's been a good sport, even after the divorce he still looked after her though he did not have to. They've just been to see him.

In disbelief Amber was in a murderous rage. She counted on Christina being dead to win Luke's love, but she had never had one chance. He lied to her that the girl was dead but the reality was that Christina had divorced Luke and married a young man and was pregnant but Luke was still looking after her.
It must had been a jolt to Luke's colossal ego to be rejected by the woman he loved.
He married Amber to use her in a competition with his ex-wife. That's why he wanted Amber pregnant.

Amber confronted him and it was ugly. Luke told her that he never said Christina was dead. He said Christina was gone, not dead. It was a misunderstanding.
He said he lied to Amber and himself when he said he loved Christina and paid for it with the worst few years of his life. He never loved Christina.
The marriage was over before the honeymoon finished. Christina was not a virgin but he still wanted to make the marriage work.
He discovered when she was pregnant that she was a drug addict since the age of fourteen and she would do anything with anyone for a fix.
He never touched her again.
He divorced her as soon as her father died.
She attended rehab and ended up marrying the rehab doctor.

He said he had always loved Amber but he was too chauvinistic and narrow minded to admit it to himself.
He jumped at the opportunity of Spiro's shares to approach Amber again. He had lied about not affording to buy the shares in order to find an excuse to marry her.

The book is 4 stars for me but the Hero deserves 1 star.
This Jacqueline Baird book is so similar to Robyn Donald's "Smoke in the wind ".

[Marajean · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hero and heroine get together in what she thinks is a relationship. Really he's just keeping her as his mistress.

Heroine lives with one of the hero's relatives, and his boyfriend. Hero thinks that she's really a slut but hasn't had a chance to exercise her slutty tendencies living with two gay men. So sure she was a virgin when he slept with her, but only through lack of opportunity.

Hero is going to marry a good little virgin girl who's going to stay at home and be the perfect wife and give him good children. He forgets to the tell the heroine until she's at a party with him and his fiancee.

Then he has sex with her one more time because she really is TSTL. After that he gets married to the other woman, who tells the heroine that he's boring, she's had plenty of other lovers and she's just doing it to get away from her parents. He wants her to help his pregnant wife because she's in the bathroom not coming out. And she does, because she's TSTL.

Then she spends the next 5 years living only for her job and putting her sex life in hibernation. That's right, she never had another relationship except the Antagonist..I'm sorry, hero, of the story. Finally the relative of the hero that she lived with dies and leaves her stock in the hero's company.

She's so TSTL that she decides to just GIFT him the stocks because she doesn't want them. Then she's blackmailed into marrying him, oh yeah, he's divorced now, and she agrees.

And the hero treated her like crap and emotionally abused her, called her a slut and tramp and was engaged to someone else while having sex with her. But his punishment is the fact that his dear sweet wife didn't like him, was a drug addict, and the baby that she was going to have less than a year after the hero and heroine part died. And she cheated on him too. Poor baby. In my opinion, that's his payback for cheating on his fiancee/wife. Since he was keeping a mistress and actually introduced the two. And actually asked the mistress to help his wife out. Yes, she wasn't a great person, but really, she deserved some revenge. The heroine? She gets nothing. Then again, she's so TSTL that she probably doesn't even comprehend that she was the second best, punching bag for the hero to feel like a real man.

Please don't let these people procreate. Any offspring they have stands a high chance of being a candidate for the darwin awards.

[Jenny · Rating 1 out of 5]

Eww the heroine was a cold vicious bitch. I hated her with a passion and for once I thought the other woman was a more decent woman who didn't deserve such contempt and criticism by the bitchy hypocritical heroine. No wonder I avoid this author.

[Preeti ♥︎ Her Bookshelves · Rating 3 out of 5]

Typical Jacqueline Baird fare with a bona fide douchebag H and a beautiful naïve h who just cannot tell him to FO (at least not effectively). I picked up this book in my rubbernecking mode, as I enjoy a good trainwreck now and then, and the bad reviews were persuasive. So yes, while I was getting more and more revolted by the minute, I just couldn’t put this book down. His grovel cannot be called satisfactory (as he did behave quite unforgivably imo) but he did turn into a new smitten leaf in the last quarter.
So definitely a 3 or a bit more for holding my interest so thoroughly.

This H was BAD even by JB’s standards. He was an abusive, angry (for no reason), cheating jerk of a H and dint fit into my idea of a H for most of the book. He takes the unforgivable stand of ‘good enough to bed but not wed’ to a new level and keeps grinding her face in it by getting engaged to a ‘suitable’ Greek girl for business reasons while still living in with the h.
And it’s not just his lying cheating ways but his revolting slut shaming the poor h that was so sickening. The amount of misogynistic rant we get from him is unbelievable! And please, the mommy-issues excuse doesn’t really cut it.

The h makes you cringe with her downright doormat tendencies. All her pride and self-respect go up in smoke whenever he is within touching/smelling distance. And this is a h who is a supposedly strong independent career girl, but who lets him grab her by the p***y any time he likes!

[Debbie DiFiore · Rating 1 out of 5]

Just as awful on re-read. I have no idea why I punished myself reading this again. I hated the hero. I will always hate him. I don't care how much he loved her. HE didn't go look for her when his marriage was over. The whole book was pathetic and so was the heroine. She stayed celibate and he had sex with his wife and who knows else. I really really hate this book.

And the heroine, I don't care how hot he is, for goodness sake have some self respect. I thought he was a pig. She caved on the first day and during the honeymoon. She never held him off. I was so disappointed in her. I loved when she sent the Pants back with the crotch cut out. It was perfect but that was the last thing she did that I respected. And at first I thought she had had sex with Clive. They had dated for a year but no sex? I was just sad for poor Clive. Oh well. Just a bad re-read and I need to go do a shot of Jaeger to clear my brain. Just disgusting.

[Lu Bielefeld · Rating 1 out of 5]

Paixão Inesquecível - Bianca Dupla 775.2
portuguese edition - paperback
----------
The hero kicks to curb our heroine as yesterday's trash and marry another.
The other woman would be the perfect woman for him to marry and he considered the heroine unworthy of being his wife and mother of his children.
A real prick.
She discovers that he's marrying someone else at a party where our heroine is presented to the bride-to-be. He didn't even finish the relationship with her and he is already with another woman. It was a humiliating situation because she loves him and thought she was loved too. But he never intended to marry her, she served only for sex.
After being treated as second-rate human being they are reunited 5 years later and he resorts to blackmail to make our heroine to marry him.
If I were her I wouldn't give to him the time of day.
But in Hpland the woman always ends up accepting the cheater back.

[Fre06 Begum · Rating 1 out of 5]

The worst book by this author I actually felt embarrassed as a woman because this female had no shame or pride for herself. Will never read this awful degrading book again!!

[Jena · Rating 1 out of 5]

Tried rage reading it, couldn’t do it. The h is one of the dumbest, clingiest doormat that ever lived, even by HP standards. She deserved to be treated like shit.



Spoilers

H cheats on the h with fiancé.
H cheats on his fiancé with the h.
The h is stupid, not naive, and she just gets more stupid.
The h finds out he’s been romancing and fine dining the ow for 2 months instead of working like he said. All that time, he never saw the h, and they lived together. As I said, the h is just stupid. She was nothing to him but a fuck, maybe because he saw how stupid the h was?
He marries the ow. He looks at the ow with tenderness and tells the h that he loves the ow and never loved the h.
The Ow and H has a stillborn baby after the marriage. He was devastated his baby with the ow died, the poor man.🙄
The h remained faithful for 5 yrs, but has sex with him not 24 hrs after seeing him again. Yes, she saw the H and his preg wife at a party too, but she’s that much of a doormat….

After everything, the h drops her panties whenever he’s close and hopes he’ll come back to her cuz he’s sooooo hot.🙄
He only comes around because his partner left half his company to her when he died, and the ow/wife left him.

But that’s ok, the doormat is waiting for jooooo….and she happily slurps up the ow leftovers.







note to self: H dumped mistress h to marry another. h is his 2nd choice.

[Nikki ღ Navareus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whew!! I ADORE a cruel, hurtful hero, who devastates his heroine, but Lucas was just a tad too much of a bastard. I truly hated everything about him.

And Amber was pathetic and embarrassing. She was cursed by Lucas's magic penis, that had the ability to make her forget Lucas shits all over her every single time she encounters him since he so horrifically dumped her ass. As soon as he's in her vicinity, she instantly spreads her legs and lets him in, just to be hurt by him as he shits all over her once again.

All of that being said, I could not put it down. It was like passing a bloody trainwreck and I was unable to look away from it.

Amber stayed a pathetic doormat through the entire story, and Lucas stayed a gigantic prick the entire story too. The ending was very rushed and his apology was flat. There needed to be a whole lot more grovel from Lucas. This could have been a four star story for me, because I do love cruel heroes, but they need to redeem themselves at some point, and I just never felt that from Lucas.

[Alexis-Morgan Roark]

Let me get this straight...five years earlier, he dumps you in public as he announces his engagement to little Miss Perfect Virgin Wife apparently forgetting the fact that you were a virgin when he made love to you for the first time. Smashes your heart to smithereens as he deems you not marriage material and you have to be around the happy couple as she's preggers with the child you wanted? Now, he has to have you 'cause his life was empty and he's a tad disallusioned? Uh huh...sure.

Kiss my...Okay. Let me finish the book first. Maybe there's redemption.

NO redemption worthy of note!

[Aou · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘Honour, honour!’ she screeched, striding across to the desk and planting her hands flat on it. ‘You don’t know the meaning of the word, you devious, lying bastard.’
She was right and should have dumped his sorry ass but it is HPlandia so I've drunk raki and loved the horrendous H. 😈

[JennyG · Rating 4 out of 5]

I re-read this last night and yet again couldn't put it down. JB can really write some cruel, ruthless heroes, but she doesn't always quite manage to show how much in love the hero is with the heroine. Not showing that he suffered because he missed the heroine and realised his mistake makes it harder for me to forgive his behavior. I gave this book four stars because it made me go through a roller-coaster of emotions and it is memorable. I love it and I hate it!

[Becky · Rating 1 out of 5]

Proving everything that is sick and wrong with the virgin heroine, abusive hero trope. It is not romantic when a woman gives her virginity to a man who is using her for sex and treats her like garbage, it is disgusting and abusive. His coldness, vicious treatment, the way he broke up with her and flaunted a fiancé in front of her face was not just cruel....this "hero" was actually a mentally disturbed sociopath. Core story is a virgin heroine celibate for years but treated like a whore and left for another woman for no good reason by disgusting hero...we are supposed to admire heroine but she was also disturbed as there was nothing loveable about hero, I don't believe she really loved him either....she was just looking for the emotional version of a red room of pain. Her giving her virginity to him and staying faithful was obscene...heroine with emotionally battered woman syndrome...nothing sexy about this. I almost wondered if this was a parody and the author was making fun of HP readers or the publishers with their absurd, sexist guidelines. If it had been a parody...5 stars. As a romance, no stars at all.

[Debbie "Buried in Her TBR Pile" · Rating 4 out of 5]

Either you love this one or you hate it. I am in the minority of those who like this one. The H is a huge jerk and sees things in black and white (especially in how he thinks things are and/or should be.) When he dumps h in the most arrogant/callous manner, she retaliates she cuts the crotch out of all his business suits. While trying to live up to his Greek heritage, his father's expectations, etc., H marries a young, virginal Greek heiress. H did not anticipate h finding out the way she did and soon learns to regret his decisions. H did suffer (all of his own making). While not a true grovel, I do believe in the HEA. 3.5 rounded stars.

[All About Romance · Rating 1 out of 5]

this book was soo bad that it deserves negative marking.!!hero is a dirt bag and heroine is plain stupid doormat with no self respect..they deserve one another!I can't believe that the author has the audacity to call this a romance!!

[Lynsey A · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is really a two star but I upped it because of the angsty goodness at the beginning. Man, it was very heart-wrenching reading about Amber realizing that Lucas, the man she loved, was marrying another woman, one he claims to love.

The two star comes from the fact that Lucas was a total ass in the beginning of this book. He treated Amber horribly! My goodness, he ripped her heart out and barely apologizes for it in the end. He says, "I know I hurt you" but really? He should've been on his knees begging and pleading for her to take him back. Which he didn't do. He tricked her into marrying him, even if it was because he loved her and didn't want to lose her. Too little too late.

As for Amber, I wanted her to tell him how badly he hurt her but she never really did. In fact, she almost seemed to shrug it off when he was apologizing for hurting her.

Anyway, it was pretty good at the beginning, so-so in the middle, and better again at the end.

[Reader · Rating 1 out of 5]

ABSOLUTELY AWFUL

SPOILERS......
Amber and Lucas had been seeing one another for a year. She's in love with him, she thinks he's in love with her, but she's stupid, and gets more stupid as the story progresses. Then without telling her he gets engaged to another woman. When confronted by Amber he tells her the girl he's marrying is more suitable as wife material. He marries the new woman but the marriage only lasts 5 years. He then goes back and blackmails Amber into marrying him. He also lets Amber believe his first wife is dead, when in reality she's happily married to someone else. Amber is one of those characters whose actions don't match her thoughts, for example she thinks all the time how much she hates him, but on the other hand falls into bed with him at the drop of a hat. As one of the other characters says to her, have a bit of pride. Unfortunately she never did.

[Tracie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a quick read. I found the blurb to be very interesting. I was hoping for a fiesty h and a groveling H. Unfortunately I got neither.

The author did a really good job of portraying the angst and emotional aspects of the story. The H is a real bastard. His treatment of the h was ruthless. I don't have a problem with that if there is sufficient groveling and the h doesn't just fall into line with him. I found myself being irritated with the h because she made things way too easy for the H. In the end I couldn't buy that he ever loved her because he never really made up for the way he treated her both in the past and in the present.

[Cheesecake · Rating 1 out of 5]

Lucas and Amber. Lucas is a douche bag. I didn't feel that he redeemed himself by the end. It seemed like the author thought we should feel sorry for him, but no, as far as I'm concerned he made his bed and he can lie in it.
Lucas had an affair with Amber many years ago. But his father was dying and he didn't think that Amber was 'wife' material because she liked sex with him too much, despite her being a virgin when they first met. So he dumps her to marry, what he thought was a good little wifey, but turned out to be a selfish lying drug addict. But really she was a sweet person after all... roll-my-eyes shallow twit. Toooooo many years later/wasted, Lucas' brother died and left his company shares to Amber. Lucas uses this as a excuse to finagle himself into Amber's life again. Lucas is single again and figures he can strong arm Amber back into his life. I liked Amber. She doesn't weaken, although they do renew their affair, she will not let him have her heart again. Then yadda yadda yadda. The ending was too quick for the amount of grovelling that asshat needed to do still.

[Jac K · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.45 Soapy Stars
I Liked this one, the H is a big asshole, so if that’s not your thing… skip it. Lucas Karadines has been dating career woman Amber when he ruthlessly dumps her for a “proper” Greek wife. He returns 5-yrs later and forces himself back into her life. Amber isn’t a doormat, but does remain celibate for the entire 5 years. There isn’t a ton of groveling, but H does suffer during their time apart. All the angsty goodness is at the beginning of the book, no OW drama. (after he returns)

[JillyB · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 to 4.0 stars on this one. I rounded up since its Goodread’s score is a lowly 3...I mean this is too twisted to only be a 3. I am going to once again defer to Boogenhagen’s fine review/overview. StMargarets has a funny one too. The review from Marjean shows her brutal dislike for the book, so that gives a different perspective.

I have read several tame, sweet, stories lately, so I was in a mood for a train wreck! Surprisingly I did not hate the hero. Ever since I read Smoke in the Wind by Robyn Donald, and had to put up with that slime ball of a hero, the heroes I have read since just don’t seem so bad...boy did I hate that hero!!!!

[Diane · Rating 2 out of 5]

the hero is an S.O.B., the heroine, at least at first, isn't a doormat. what is with these heroines staying chaste for 5 or more years, especially when the hero dumps them for other, more suitable (ha-ha) women?

[Tia]

The whole book could be summed into this statement:

The hero was an idiot, not just an idiot, an absolute idiot. He spent over three years regretting his decision and then he lied, cheated and manipulated to get the heroine back for he realized he loved her.

[Lidia's Romance]

Read it, skimmed, no rating
I felt nothing while reading this. Absolutely nothing. It was so…meh. Maybe it was a mood thing. I don’t know why I finished it.

[LilyRosa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Pffft. This dumb heroine gives women a bad name. She even gives doormats a bad name.

It was infuriating the way she kept falling into bed with the guy who had treated her like absolute dirt - only good enough to be a mistress, and then he married someone else. He didn't even have the balls to tell her about his engagement until she finds out at family event when he is there with his new fiancee.

Urgh. The heroine was supposed to be a hotshot brainy stockbroker or something. So how come she was so stupid? I loathed her so much I actually wanted to slut-shame her for the way she kept having sex with the man who treated her as if she was something vile he had scraped off his shoes. He even told her she was disgusting. And I agreed with him.

If she was that enslaved to her hormones couldn't she at least have told him (when he came back sniffing around five years later) that he would be fine to have sex with, but that he wouldn't be good enough to be her husband? She could offer to set him up in an apartment and reward him with boy-toys now and then for his services to her libido, but make it clear that he wouldn't be worthy of marrying her. If only someone would write a book like that....

[Daisy Daisy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not surprised the h slapped the H on this occasion I cam pretty much say he deserved it. The H was a complete and utter 2 faced, hypocritical, lying, cheating, scumbag. In no universe does he deserve his HEA whereas the h deserves everything.

I really liked her, she is smart (apart from her taste in men), rich off her own merit, sassy, pretty, confident (except when around the dumbass) and she really didn't deserve to end up with this moron. Her lady parts really let her down with this one.

Even his grovel wasn't good enough in my eyes he only caved when she threatened to leave him, he should have been begging on his knees with a cheeky tear or 2 thrown in to boot.

He deserved his awful marriage in fact I wish the OW would have taken all his money as well so the h had to bail him out! He was just a whiny loser who used everybody. He only wants her because of the sex.

Despite his dumb butt I really liked this one, the h made it for me!

[Mlleelizabeth · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a book.

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[Aarann · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars.

This could have been so much better. For one thing, we spend 4 or 5 chapters in the territory of five years ago, which is basically the constant degradation of Amber by Lucas. Seriously, this guy just didn't let up. He was in a year-long relationship with Amber (and you are never going to convince me that he had no idea that Amber thought they were in a relationship), at the start of which, she was a virgin. He arbitrarily decides he's had enough and it's time he marry. Of course Amber's not good enough to marry -- she likes sex too much.

Seriously. That's his reasoning. More on that in a second though.

He doesn't have the balls to tell her once he's decided this, oh no. He lies about being in town and Amber finds out about his imminent engagement to someone else by attending a party with his malicious nephew, who had been a friend of hers. So basically, she finds out in public, in a situation where the person bringing her is enjoying her misery, and Lucas is just all, Sorry you had to find out this way. He goes to see her the next day to hash it out and when she asks why he couldn't marry her he basically tells her that it's because she's a big ho. That's right, despite knowing that she was a virgin when they hooked up, he repeatedly implies that she's easy and slutty and as a result is not marriage material to be married to his exalted self. (Dude has mommy issues, but as far as I'm concerned, that's not a good enough excuse).

Even though she's just been told by the man she loves that he thinks she's skanky, the two have one last go-round at each other because Hormones. So not only is she humiliated in public and in private by this man, but she just allows him to have his way with her because she's lead by her vag. Afterwards, pissed off at himself, he nonetheless tells her she's disgusting.

When the story eventually fast-forwards to five years later (and keep in mind, this is after four chapters of seeing Amber pretty constantly humiliated by this guy), Amber is a successful stockbroker who is considering marriage to another man (which I have to admit is a nice change from the usual struggling-and-in-need-of-a-he-man-alpha trope we frequently get with these HPs). Unbeknownst to her she's inherited part of the company from the malicious nephew, whose only goal in life and death was apparently to create havoc.



(Seriously, after a while, I began to remember that Dark Knight quote and I kept picturing him as the Joker.)

Lucas comes charging back into her life and refuses to just let her give him the company and doesn't have the money to sell it. Now widowed ... or is he? and short on funds ... or is he?, he has decided that the only acceptable way to deal with this is to marry Amber. Isn't that just swell? I mean I still think you're skanky and all, but now we can get married even though I dumped you in about the worst way possible and aren't you just sooooo happy about that?

It's a pretty thin premise and honestly, I wished Amber could have been a bit more hard-to-get. I mean, no lie -- nothing wrong with an FMC enjoying sex, but when she can't control herself when she's in the vicinity of a guy who, honestly, was pretty irredeemable in the way he handled things before, that's where I start to have a problem with it. Even emotionally, she acknowledges waaaaay too early on to herself that she's still in love with Lucas.

Basically, we had a guy who did not go through the wringer nearly enough to get back the woman he ostensibly loves and a woman who was lead around by her vag, and it could have been sooooo much more satisfying than it was, especially after having to read through four chapters of humiliation at the beginning of the book. If the author wasn't going to make the hero work to redeem himself, I could have done without all of that extra page space.