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Their Engagement Is Announced
Griffin Sinclair had announced that he and Dora Baxter were going to get married. This was a complete shock to Dora—he hadn't even asked her!
Griffin had created the fictitious engagement to avoid his mother's matchmaking—and it seemed Dora had no choice but to go along with it. Now she had to spend all her time with the gorgeous Adonis…. But it wasn't going to be that easy—because secretly, Dora had been in love with Griffin for years, and there was nothing she wanted more than his genuine proposal!
Griffin had created the fictitious engagement to avoid his mother's matchmaking—and it seemed Dora had no choice but to go along with it. Now she had to spend all her time with the gorgeous Adonis…. But it wasn't going to be that easy—because secretly, Dora had been in love with Griffin for years, and there was nothing she wanted more than his genuine proposal!
192 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published April 1, 2000
23 people are currently reading
74 people want to read
About the author
Carole Mortimer
1,302 books911 followersI have written almost 250 romance novels in contemporary and Regency.
I am a USA Today Bestselling Author and recipient of the 2015 RWA Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2014 I received a Pioneer of Romance Award from Romantic Times in the US and in 2012 I was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II for my 'outstanding service to literature'.
I am very happily married to Peter with six sons, and live on the Isle of Man
I am a USA Today Bestselling Author and recipient of the 2015 RWA Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2014 I received a Pioneer of Romance Award from Romantic Times in the US and in 2012 I was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II for my 'outstanding service to literature'.
I am very happily married to Peter with six sons, and live on the Isle of Man
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
July 7, 2019
Re Their Engagement is Announced - Carole Mortimer reverts to an earlier time in HPlandia as she moves into the new millennium.
Where most of HPlandia plots from the 2000's head straight to the bedroom or get there within the first few chapters, a few of the oldest HP authors like CM and Helen Brooks decide to avoid premarital boudoir incidents at all, in an interesting adherence to the earliest days of HPlandia.
(This is a direct reaction to the societal "Purity Movements," for women especially, popularized in the 1990's by various groups in Western world and has it origins in both religion and social reformation movements from earlier times.
So just like the Real World, HP Editors understood that for the line to survive and thrive, there had to be a choice of heroine reactions to the Patented HP Lurve Force Mojo.)
CM pulls this off by having the h in this book priorly engaged to the H's deceased would be politician stuffed shirt brother.
The h is also the victim of emotional repression and bullying by her father, ever since her effervescent and sparkly fun mum died when she was a child.
The H is the black sheep of his family and has always teased the h that she is two separate people.
The h's name is Isadora, but the H calls her Izzy and everyone else is encourage to call her the more staid Dora - CM uses this name switch to differentiate between the h's repressed, everyday personality and the side of her that is in love with the H.
When the story starts, the h's father has just died and she is in the midst of grand plans to revamp the family book business.
The H, now a successful television presenter, arrives back on the scene to tease and torment the h with his version of the Manly HP Male Lurve Force Mojo.
So a battle of wills ensues where the H teases the h unmercifully as he helps her get her plans for her shop renovation in order.
The h IS wildly attracted, but long term conditioning and the H's continual flaunting of OW don't encourage her to drop her inhibitions and return his pursuit.
Until the H's meddling and nastily maneuvering mother tries to force the H into a political career that he doesn't want and never intends to take up.
To irk his mother and the h both, the H announces that he and the h are engaged to be married.
The h is actually dating another man and when the H spouts off his engagement announcement to the OM, the h is mortified.
Because while she had no intention of marrying the OM, she liked him and she isn't too keen on the H trying to bully her about as much as her father and his brother did when they were alive.
The h and the H have a big fight and the h kicks him out of her life, until his sister shows up and invites them both to dinner. By this time, the h has found the letters the H wrote to her years earlier, when they first met and had begun a tentative romance.
Her father hid them from the h and ran the H off, then pushed the brother on the h to satisfy his own societal ambitions.
With the discovery of the letters, the h learns that the H loved her madly years earlier and she starts to see his current pursuit in a new light.
At the dinner with his sister, she shows the H the letters and we learn that the H has been celibate and waiting for her for over two years.
This convinces the h that he loves her as much as she loves him and we finally get a big mutual True Love declaration. We leave our happy couple planning the wedding and plotting for a home in the country with a huge family for the sweet HEA.
This isn't the best CM book out there, the H is a bit too reminiscent of a third grade boy teasing the girl he likes by pulling her braids and the h is a bit too long in shaking off the shackles left by her father's and dead fiance's treatment.
But it is a rare HP voyage where the h resists the tremendous force of the H's Mighty Club of Lurve and it does have some funny moments, so it wasn't a bad day for an HP outing overall.
Where most of HPlandia plots from the 2000's head straight to the bedroom or get there within the first few chapters, a few of the oldest HP authors like CM and Helen Brooks decide to avoid premarital boudoir incidents at all, in an interesting adherence to the earliest days of HPlandia.
(This is a direct reaction to the societal "Purity Movements," for women especially, popularized in the 1990's by various groups in Western world and has it origins in both religion and social reformation movements from earlier times.
So just like the Real World, HP Editors understood that for the line to survive and thrive, there had to be a choice of heroine reactions to the Patented HP Lurve Force Mojo.)
CM pulls this off by having the h in this book priorly engaged to the H's deceased would be politician stuffed shirt brother.
The h is also the victim of emotional repression and bullying by her father, ever since her effervescent and sparkly fun mum died when she was a child.
The H is the black sheep of his family and has always teased the h that she is two separate people.
The h's name is Isadora, but the H calls her Izzy and everyone else is encourage to call her the more staid Dora - CM uses this name switch to differentiate between the h's repressed, everyday personality and the side of her that is in love with the H.
When the story starts, the h's father has just died and she is in the midst of grand plans to revamp the family book business.
The H, now a successful television presenter, arrives back on the scene to tease and torment the h with his version of the Manly HP Male Lurve Force Mojo.
So a battle of wills ensues where the H teases the h unmercifully as he helps her get her plans for her shop renovation in order.
The h IS wildly attracted, but long term conditioning and the H's continual flaunting of OW don't encourage her to drop her inhibitions and return his pursuit.
Until the H's meddling and nastily maneuvering mother tries to force the H into a political career that he doesn't want and never intends to take up.
To irk his mother and the h both, the H announces that he and the h are engaged to be married.
The h is actually dating another man and when the H spouts off his engagement announcement to the OM, the h is mortified.
Because while she had no intention of marrying the OM, she liked him and she isn't too keen on the H trying to bully her about as much as her father and his brother did when they were alive.
The h and the H have a big fight and the h kicks him out of her life, until his sister shows up and invites them both to dinner. By this time, the h has found the letters the H wrote to her years earlier, when they first met and had begun a tentative romance.
Her father hid them from the h and ran the H off, then pushed the brother on the h to satisfy his own societal ambitions.
With the discovery of the letters, the h learns that the H loved her madly years earlier and she starts to see his current pursuit in a new light.
At the dinner with his sister, she shows the H the letters and we learn that the H has been celibate and waiting for her for over two years.
This convinces the h that he loves her as much as she loves him and we finally get a big mutual True Love declaration. We leave our happy couple planning the wedding and plotting for a home in the country with a huge family for the sweet HEA.
This isn't the best CM book out there, the H is a bit too reminiscent of a third grade boy teasing the girl he likes by pulling her braids and the h is a bit too long in shaking off the shackles left by her father's and dead fiance's treatment.
But it is a rare HP voyage where the h resists the tremendous force of the H's Mighty Club of Lurve and it does have some funny moments, so it wasn't a bad day for an HP outing overall.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 9, 2016
DNF.
SO unbelievably fucking boring. Seriously!!!
SO unbelievably fucking boring. Seriously!!!
May 18, 2020
Griffin Sinclair had announced that he and Dora Baxter were going to get married. This was a complete shock to Dora--he hadn't even asked her!
Griffin had created the fictitious engagement to avoid his mother's matchmaking--and it seemed Dora had no choice but to go along with it. Now she had to spend all her time with the gorgeous Adonis…. But it wasn't going to be that easy--because secretly, Dora had been in love with Griffin for years, and there was nothing she wanted more than his genuine proposal!
Griffin had created the fictitious engagement to avoid his mother's matchmaking--and it seemed Dora had no choice but to go along with it. Now she had to spend all her time with the gorgeous Adonis…. But it wasn't going to be that easy--because secretly, Dora had been in love with Griffin for years, and there was nothing she wanted more than his genuine proposal!
December 14, 2021
Sorry, but I thought this was so boring!
January 17, 2021
The hero is a travel writer with long blond hair who looks like a pirate (despite the cover model, Generic Brunet Businessman #47); the heroine is a complete doormat with a bizarrely large unicorn collection. The chronology jumps around throughout the book, so we meet them being cranky at each other shortly after the death of her domineering father, which is in turn almost a year after the death of her fiance, the hero's older brother; then we go back to when she and the hero met, which was at a quaint hotel where she assumed he was sleeping with the widowed owner and was vaguely bitchy despite the fact that the hero was in hot pursuit of her, the heroine, from minute one. This carries on throughout the book, in which he throws himself at her, dismisses his controlling mother on her behalf, tells people they are secretly engaged, etc., while she wibbles about how he's a womanizer who's going after other ladies because his mother prefers them and he will never love her. It's pretty dumb, but... y'know... at least he's not a millionaire businessman, I guess?
April 5, 2019
The h has no idea of what she wants and who she loves, the H has a toddler's version of a crush with teasing and hair pulling. Between them they have 2 Machiavellian parents one of whom died a week before this book begins, politician - dead brother/ex-fiance, a nice sister and a flimsy plotline.
August 15, 2022
Ok the cover photo is a flub: The H is a giant blonde emerald eyed hunk while the h is a petite 5 foot nothing with red hair and grey eyes.
I loved the meet cute story and how gaga the H clearly was over the h. Poor guy never had a chance, and he just keeps coming back to her door with her kicking him in the gut s/t her own self protective mechanism. The H remains celibate in the 2 years since they last met, and the h is a virgin, HOWEVER the h was engaged to his brother ( orchestrated by her super controlling, ambitious father), which hurt the H but he remained stoic.
The H stood out for me because he was not a super rich only son millionaire: In fact, he was the neglected middle child who keeps his hair too long and wears leather jacket and jeans, with an atypical career choice and a super bonhomie attitude. The h is a calm, quiet creature whose inner glow is brought out by the H: hence her Izzy vs Dora personas. The author almost made her sound like BPD lol but that's okay.
HEA, super clean.
I loved the meet cute story and how gaga the H clearly was over the h. Poor guy never had a chance, and he just keeps coming back to her door with her kicking him in the gut s/t her own self protective mechanism. The H remains celibate in the 2 years since they last met, and the h is a virgin, HOWEVER the h was engaged to his brother ( orchestrated by her super controlling, ambitious father), which hurt the H but he remained stoic.
The H stood out for me because he was not a super rich only son millionaire: In fact, he was the neglected middle child who keeps his hair too long and wears leather jacket and jeans, with an atypical career choice and a super bonhomie attitude. The h is a calm, quiet creature whose inner glow is brought out by the H: hence her Izzy vs Dora personas. The author almost made her sound like BPD lol but that's okay.
HEA, super clean.
September 13, 2017
I just couldnt get interested in this book but i did finish it.
July 19, 2021
La historia está bien, pero es un poco sosa
April 12, 2024
Lame stories by this author. Boring.
July 19, 2020
Just OK. Nice characters although less emotional involvement than some, and clean.
August 5, 2012
WTF! its a harlequin with no sex at all. I like the story it was good. it was very well writen, and the the certeres was well deaveped. But if your looking for some sex you wount find it in this on. It was a good read thowe. You could tell that they rilly wanted the sex. But i think yall would like it.
August 22, 2015
This seemed more of a historical set in the 1950's.
November 15, 2019
An OK read but really very exciting.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews