Temptation

by Charlotte Lamb

Nothing would ever be the same again!

Linden had only been seventeen when Joss crashed into her life. Naively, she offered him her friendship and trust. In return, he had aroused emotions in her she was too young to handle, wrenching her from childhood to womanhood in a few startling days.

When he left her, Linden realized that she been ruthlessly used. Her love for Joss had been almost worshipful. His love had been a savage devouring--taking and never giving. His love had destroyed her-just as she would now destroy him!

Genres: Harlequin, Romance, Harlequin Presents, Contemporary Romance, Second Chance, Contemporary, Second Chance Romance

187 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

Sheila Ann Mary Coates Holland
aka Sheila Holland, Sheila Coates, Charlotte Lamb, Sheila Lancaster, Victoria Woolf, Laura Hardy

Sheila Ann Mary Coates was born on 1937 in Essex, England, just before the Second World War in the East End of London. As a child, she was moved from relative to relative to escape the bombings of World War II. Sheila attended the Ursuline Convent for Girls. On leaving school at 16, the convent-educated author worked for the Bank of England as a clerk. Sheila continued her education by taking advantage of the B of E's enormous library during her lunch breaks and after work. She later worked as a secretary for the BBC. While there, she met and married Richard Holland, a political reporter. A voracious reader of romance novels, she began writing at her husband's suggestion. She wrote her first book in three days with three children underfoot! In between raising her five children (including a set of twins), Charlotte wrote several more novels. She used both her married and maiden names, Sheila Holland and Sheila Coates, before her first novel as Charlotte Lamb, Follow a Stranger, was published by Mills & Boon in 1973. She also used the pennames: Sheila Lancaster, Victoria Wolf and Laura Hardy. Sheila was a true revolutionary in the field of romance writing. One of the first writers to explore the boundaries of sexual desire, her novels often reflected the forefront of the "sexual revolution" of the 1970s. Her books touched on then-taboo subjects such as child abuse and rape, and she created sexually confident - even dominant - heroines. She was also one of the first to create a modern romantic heroine: independent, imperfect, and perfectly capable of initiating a sexual or romantic relationship. A prolific author, Sheila penned more than 160 novels, most of them for Mills & Boon. Known for her swiftness as well as for her skill in writing, Sheila typically wrote a minimum of two thousand words per day, working from 9:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. While she once finished a full-length novel in four days, she herself pegged her average speed at two weeks to complete a full novel. Since 1977, Sheila had been living on the Isle of Man as a tax exile with her husband and four of their five children: Michael Holland, Sarah Holland, Jane Holland, Charlotte Holland and David Holland. Sheila passed away on October 8, 2000 in her baronial-style home 'Crogga' on the Island. She is greatly missed by her many fans, and by the romance writing community.

Reviews

[Azet · Rating 5 out of 5]

What...in the HELL WAS THIS!I have never...ever come across a book like this.THIS BOOK WAS SO AMAZING,PASSIONATE AND SEXY...AND HEARTBREAKING!So incredible and strongly beautiful...a powerful and epic love-story i will never forget.This was a force i could NOT put down.
"Temptation" has to be one of the most magnificent romances i have ever read,and it has to be the best work by this author..it certainly is my favourite one by her.Joss aka "Joshua White" are one kind of hero i will never forget.Before the story even starts he was a Anti-hero,filled with arrogance and cold ruthlessness and selfishness,deeply scarred by a love-less marriage,a family without love and a life that meant nothing to him.He was a scarred devil...until he met an Innocent Angel..Linden Howard and fell deeply and unstoppable in love with her.He changed her,and made her fall in love with him too,and after one night full of passion he leaves her.They both were each others cure,and destruction.They meet again,and Linden are full force on destroying him as he destroyed her.How she utterly and completely broke him.The grovelling was epic and she had already from the start captured him around her finger.God how he LOVES her and makes no secret of that knowledge.She punished him and my heart was just BREAKING for him!She denyed him love and showed him only hate,she forbid him to touch her,threatened him that she would have lovers,flirted openly with others and throwed his love back to his face.But i loved them both anyway,they were so passionate as human beings,and they could simply not function without each other.Linden were a shining beauty both inside and outside and i understood her obsessive crave for revenge.But i never dreamed that the author would let the heroine punish the hero this much,IT SIMPLY WAS TOO MUCH,trust me on that.

Their chemistry were uniqe and a EXPLOSIVE one...loved these two so much,and i desperately wanted the heroine to understand and forgive him.Charlotte Lamb has TOTALLY changed me with this terrific kind of love-story-it is one i will never forget...NEVER!

***

Across the room their eyes met like duellists. 'Tell me, Linden,' he said coolly, 'what's the next move? Am I right in imagining that it's for you to begin an affair with someone?'

'Who, for instance?' she asked, knowing what he would answer.

'Two can play at that game,' he said, ignoring her question, however.

'But only one can win,'she answered.

-Joss & Linden

[KatieV · Rating 3 out of 5]

No one would argue that Hqn/M&B's are high art. Mostly they are mind candy. Short enough to read after work and generally don't cause you to lose sleep. Most are instantly forgettable like that slice of pizza that was yummy at the time, but still just a slice of pizza.

Anyway, I've always felt that Charlotte Lamb had talent beyond most of the category writers. Ironically, she's far from my favorite. Often her heroes are a bit too scary, but I have to give her credit for making me feel the scary.

This one is different in that it is the heroine with the cruel/vengeful intentions. I've seen reviews from those who hated her with a passion. Many of us (myself included at times) are very willing to forgive a hero for such behavior, but not a heroine.

Linden is 17 when the book starts and the hero is ~40, I'd guess. He gets in an auto accident while on holiday and ends up staying with the heroine and her father in their small town for a bit.

There is instant attraction between the two and the morning after she gives him her virginity, he leaves without saying goodbye. He confesses to her father that he is married and although he's fallen in love with the heroine he cannot stay.

Linden is heartbroken, to the point of attempting suicide. An act which leaves her father gravely injured when he tries to save her. However, this situation had the side effect of bringing the two together. Her father was an artist, totally immersed in his work and cut off from everyone since the death of his wife. He'd never really been a father figure to Linden until this happened and he experienced the rage of seeing his child taken advantage of and the fallout.

Linden gradually recovers from her depression and goes to university the next year. She's very cautious about relationships, but it sounds like she's healing and starting to enjoy life again. Honestly, I think she'd have been fine if she'd never encountered Joss again.

She meets a young man, Daniel, in her second year and they gradually go from friends to a relationship in it's early stages. Daniel is a really good guy and someone Linden feels like she could have a future with, although they haven't slept together or gotten very serious yet.

It's notable that Daniel complains quite often about his father, "Sir Sloshua" who is an unbending autocrat who went from womanizer to drunk. Daniel reckons this is what happens to rakes when they get too old to keep womanizing. LOL

Then there's the big reveal when Daniel takes Linden home for Christmas and she realizes his drunk, controlling, tyrant of a father is the man who broke her heart. Turns out Joss White was really Sir Joshua Wyatt.

Now, why would you lie about your name right off the bat if you had no nefarious purposes and did not intend to, at the very least, play with the affections of an innocent young girl? Really? When you start to feel like he's the victim, think about that.

Linden learns that Joss' wife had died the year before after living in a prolonged vegetative state for 10 years. Since then he's turned into a bitter old drunk. Supposedly he's been wanting to come to her, but too afraid of her and her father's reaction. So, he feels sorry for himself and broods in his whiskey.

Linden is FURIOUS and blood thirsty. And I can forgive her. For one, Joss does deserve it to some extent, two, she's heartbroken and in pain herself, and three she's 19!! Everything is felt so much more strongly at that age. When you love it's with everything you have and when it turns south you can hate with the same intensity. Teens don't typically see things in shades of gray, everything is life or death, black or white. Linden is definitely at a stage of wallowing in self-pity, anger, and a self-destructive impulse to torture the both of them to death.

Think teen angst to the extreme. She even sits around reading Blake poems at one point and wallowing in her tears. *hangs head* - I may have done something similar in those years. Basically, Linden thinks she's this tough, jaded, world-weary person now. In reality she's experienced only a few hard knocks when you consider the whole of the crap life has to offer.

Obviously, the process of growing up is very much a part of this. In fact, I'd say the theme of forgiving people their human failings (particularly parents and lovers) greatly overshadows the romance.

[Verity · Rating 5 out of 5]

The 1st 1/2 was slow, but the ultra dwamatic 2nd 1/2 had the impact of getting hit by a sledgehammer. 4 once, a CL hero that goes thru the wringer & the heroine makes him spin to her tune. Hard to believe she could be that purposeful, focused & methodical in executing her revenge @ the ripe age of 19 y/o. I failed to check my pulse B4 & after reading this classic, but the heady adrenaline rush made me scramble 4 more.

The hero proves that his luv for (22 yrs younger) heroine is GR8ER than paternal luv for his son (who's dating heroine) :

'I love U,' He said thru' his teeth. 'And I'd cut his throat & leave him to bleed to death before I let him have U.'

Guess which 1 he's gonna perform CPR on if both heroine & his son are gasping for last breath ?

[StMargarets · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not only is this an intense read, it’s catnip to the English majors out there.

The intensity derives from the complete 180 in the heroine’s feelings for the hero from love to hate after he betrays her. Hero was 39 (with a wife in a coma) when he took the 17 year-old heroine’s virginity and then left without a word.

And when I say hate, I mean hate. This heroine is crazed with it. Her word and thoughts are beyond cruel. But when they meet again (because she is dating his son) the now-widowed hero humbly accepts her vitriol because he feels he deserves punishment. Heroine makes him pay for his sins by marrying him and making his life hell for three months until she runs out of steam.

The English major catnip? The William Blake references – including a poem about the worm entering the rose and the overall theme of innocence and experience meeting in a post Garden-of-Eden world.

There is some role reversal from the original Garden of Eden story. Heroine is tempted to sin by the worldly hero. But they pay for their sins by living together in ‘hell’ with a realistic knowledge of each other. Better to marry then to burn.

The heroine is named Linden. Linden or Lime trees symbolize life, fertility and loyalty. It was one of the trees (along with the oak) Zeus turned a married couple into after they died as reward for showing him hospitality. CL reinforces this by surrounding heroine with nature imagery, including the character’s introduction of sleeping in a meadow among the wildflowers.

Joss, the fake name the hero gave to the heroine and her father, means a Chinese god or idol. Heroine did idolize him in their first short acquaintance. He is introduced as the driver of an out-of-control, obsolete car. How’s that for symbolism?

I could go on, but the bottom line is that CL chose her details carefully to dress up this rather depressing tale. Hero is too old for the heroine, and they both hurt his son. They are not likable characters. But this is a memorable story, beautifully written. It shows what can be done within the category romance format.

Check out the other reviews for more plot details, if you are interested. I left out a lot.

[KC · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whew! The drama, passion, and angst kept me glued to the pages.



At the same time, I thought Linden's obsessive need to punish Joss dampened the romance a bit. It saddened me to see her deliberately hurt him even while I empathized with her.

I am normally hard on unscrupulous characters, but the author made me feel sorry for Joss to my surprise. That doesn't mean I endorse his actions, however. Joss had lied about his marital status and name, and cheated on his brain-dead wife. (He should have been honest with Linden from the beginning and divorced his wife before dallying with her.)

Linden, as part of her emotional maturation, ultimately comes to understand Joss's point of view and to see that things aren't always black and white. Relationships aren't always what they seem. People are fallible; Joss is fallible. Linden does eventually forgive Joss, with the two reconciling in a passionate ending and with her understanding that loving someone includes accepting them—warts and all. But not before Linden extracts some blood!

P.S. Lamb's writing seemed more lush and literary than usual. One device which stood out was the use of the seasons to symbolize Linden's transformation to adulthood. When Linden and Joss first meet it's summer, a carefree time full of warmth and innocence very much like Linden. So it's no coincidence their reunion happens at winter, representing the cold and unforgiving new Linden.

[Namera [The Literary Invertebrate] · Rating 5 out of 5]

⤅ This is the book I come back to when I want to read about a vengeful, emotionless, ice-cold heroine who ACTUALLY makes the hero regret messing with her.

Honestly, part of me is stunned that in my frantic search for grovelling heroes, it's a Charlotte Lamb Harlequin romance (of all books) which pretty much delivers.

The premise is beautifully simple. Two years ago, 17-year-old Linden fell in love with 39-year-old Joss, the dark, handsome houseguest of her artist father. He seduced her and took her virginity - only to reveal that he was married and then proceed to abandon her. She went through a period of extreme depression, but she's now 19 and doing alright, studying at uni.

One of Linden's new friends is the vivacious Daniel, who invites her to stay over at his house. She takes him up on it, but when she arrives, she finds that the autocratic, alcoholic father he complains about is none other than Joss, who's really the successful businessman Sir Joshua Wyatt.

Joss is just as poleaxed to see Linden. He's spent the last two years being eaten up by guilt; his wife is now dead, but he's never dared go back and see Linden, knowing how badly he betrayed both her and her father's trust. But as soon as he encounters her again, he can't hold himself back anymore. He proposes marriage.

And... Linden agrees. But not because she loves him, although she makes no secret that she does, and nor does he. It's just that she knows their love isn't a good thing, and she doesn't want his selfish affection. She wants to bleed him dry. She tells him that to his face, but Joss is so desperate for any scraps she'll throw him that he agrees.

The best part of the book is the middle, where we actually see Linden starting to implement her plan of vengeance against Joss. She manipulates his emotions like a master maestro playing a piano. It's actually great to see a hero so twisted up in the heroine that he doesn't even know which way up the sky is anymore. But of course, Linden's getting slowly sucked into her own trap...

The emotions in this book are INCREDIBLE. In such spare prose - this book is under 200 pages, about 50k words - Lamb fully makes me feel Joss's tormented guilt and love, and Linden's freezing hatred. Linden is one of the strongest heroines I've ever encountered. She doesn't let up until well over 80% into the book, and only after she's fully put Joss through the emotional wringer.

I do think that at the very end of the book, Joss regains his confidence a smidgen too quickly, but I suppose that's because he is fundamentally written as the confident alpha male. Which makes his fawning over Linden so uncharacteristic and satisfying: Lamb contrasts his hard-headed attitude in the business world with the meekness that comes over him when Linden enters the picture.

[Naksed · Rating 4 out of 5]

O Rose thou art sick.
The invisible worm,
That flies in the night
In the howling storm:

Has found out thy bed
Of crimson joy:
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy.

Well, it's not every day that you come across the poetry of William Blake while reading a Harlequin. But as far as I can see, Charlotte Lamb is a lot more than your typical Harlequin writer, she is a good writer period.

In Temptation, you have what is a typical Harlequin plot and characters: the virginal "rose", the older, more sophisticated "worm" who destroys her life with his brand of dark love, the revenge plot, the ultimate coming back together of the main characters. It is really the telling of the story that differentiates it from the mass of other books with similar themes.

Lamb really knows, first of all, how to create a setting. The idyllic, isolated, countryside village in which we meet the main characters for the first time is dream-like, like a fairy tale. There were allusions to Tess and Alec D'Urberville, forewarning the reader of the dark twist ahead in the plot.

The secondary characters in Lamb's stories also often play an important part, not just background. The tumultuous relationship between the female character and her father in this story was at least as compelling as her doomed relationship with her stand-in father-figure/lover. It was where the most authentic emotion of the book lay, in my opinion.

This was a gem of a book, with classic literary elements, which goes to show you that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover or rather by its category.

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow! That was intense! Heroine was bend on revenge but I guess I can see where she came from. Hero was a much older married man who left after he took her virginity. She was naive and crazy about him so love turned into hatred. It was kind of gross that she dated his son but old school Harlequins are crazy! I'm on a Charlotte Lamb marathon!

[Noël Cades · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an absolutely incredible romance, possibly the best Mills & Boon/Harlequin I have ever read. It is a wonderfully sweet, absolutely forbidden love at first sight, between Linden (17) and Joss (39).

Joss White crashes his car near the remote Yorkshire home of Linden and her eccentric artist father. He stays with them for a few days, during which time he falls hopelessly in love with Linden. On the last night, despite trying to control himself due to her age, he ends up making love to her under a willow tree (it's a fade-to-black, sadly!)

He pulled away abruptly, trembling, breathing like a drowning man, and his hands went to unclasp her hands from his neck. "I can't," he said in an anguished tone. "Linden darling, we've got to get out of here."

She was deaf to all reason, her small face blind with aroused need, the slender naked body on flame. "I love you," she cried, her fingers restlessly touching his dark head, and it was not merely the first time she had said it, it was the first time she had known it, and all the miracle of her understanding was in her shivering voice.

Joss made a wild, smothered sound, staring down into her face, then his hands slid under her and lifted her. He waded out of the stream and Linden raised her limp head to meet his hard mouth, her lips filled with a sensuality which turned them both to fire as he carried her into the secret green cave beneath the overhanging willows.

The next day he's gone. Linden finds out from her father that Joss is actually married, and she's nearly mad with grief. After travelling through Europe with her father, she becomes an art student in London, where she's shocked to see Joss's vintage car. However the driver is a young man, David Whyatt. Linden and David become friends and start falling in love, and he invites her to his house for Christmas.

His father is Sir Joshua Whyatt - and, well, everyone except Linden has guessed who this is. (She even berates herself later for not spotting the Whyatt-White similarity). So of course Linden arrives at Castle Whyatt only to meet Joss, who has taken to drink in his despair at being parted from her. It turns out his wife died a year ago after being a vegetable for the previous decade, and she was a frigid emotionless woman anyway, they were never in love and only married for their parents' sake, and only conceived David as a drunken accident.

"I never meant it to happen," he groaned. "I was leaving because I knew damned well I was losing my control when I was alone with you. You were so innocent. The last thing in the world I ever wanted to do was destroy that innocence, Linden."

His eyes flashed, pain in the line of his mouth. "It was what I loved in you, that sweetness. God, I could cut off my right hand for what I did. It's driven me mad ever since. I'd do anything to put it right for you."

The book is endlessly, wonderfully dramatic, to the point that when I was listening to the eBook, via Voice Dream Reader, I found myself physically shaking as The Shock Reunion scene approached. David soon discovers that his father knew Linden earlier, so they split up, and Linden agrees to marry Joss. She is the first and only woman he has ever been in love with. However, she's still so angry with Joss for deserting her that she vows never to sleep with him again (even though she wants to). So they drive one another mutually crazy, while he adores her and showers gifts on her. Then she meets David, they reconcile as friends, and finally she decides she can't resist Joss any more and they consummate the marriage.

"I love you," she cried, tears in her eyes. "I want to bear your children, live with you all my life."

He shuddered. "All mine," he said grimly. "I'm over forty now, Linden. I'm too old for you. I'm not fit to kneel at your feet. You should have married Daniel, not me."

But even as he said it his eyes were tortured with jealousy and need and his mouth was crooked as he spoke.

I can't recommend this book more highly. It was hot, it was heart-wrenching, it was a sweet, perfect love, it was forbidden, there's a huge age gap which just added to the frisson and also the intensity of Joss's love for Linden - because he knows it's wrong to have seduced a teenager.

"You may not know this yet, my darling, but you're a very sexy little girl, and I love you to distraction."

Her lashes lowered and she flickered a look over the lean, masculine body lying close to her, her heart beating wildly, importunately. "I want you," she whispered.

"You're going to have me," he said mockingly, pushing her back against the pillows, and her wild cry of pleasure was smothered under the force of his possessing kiss."

[Tia · Rating 5 out of 5]

The heroes car crashed close to the heroines house, when she dragged him out of the car and brought him home, she was only seventeen and almost instantly in love with the handsome stranger. The heroines father let the hero stay with them for a while and as time went on the hero began to fall in love with the heroine. One night he caught her naked and swimming and he seduced her, taking her pleasure to whole new levels. Then the next morning the heroines father told her that he had left because he was married. The heroine then tried to kill herself. After accepting but still loving the hero she eventually moved on with a handsome young man named Daniel, never knowing the hero was Daniel's father...

Oh the drama! The hero was kind of an ass for taking her innocents and then running off without an explanation to her face. Although when the heroine met up with him again, she was all kind of heartless from being so tortured and hurt. Either way, the story was a bit of old school but totally enjoyable!

[Raffaella · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely one of the best CL's book I've read.
So much angst, so much passion and ah, what a heroine!
I think that modern HP writers should learn from this heroine.
She was cruel, mean and vindictive.
And I loved her.
The book is almost perfect, the prose is nearly poetry, I loved the first part of the book, with the description of that hydillic country village, where the young and utterly innocent (too innocent) heroine lived with her artist father, a place made of authentic people who care for one another.
The heroine has been in a convent for the past years, she only has her father, an extravagant artist who doesn't treat her as a daughter, so she is a blend of innocence, purity and wisdom very dangerous and very appealing.
I love the image of her barefoot, sitting in the swing with her long hair in the wind, a woman yet still a child.
The hero has an accident with his car and has to stop in this village until his car is repaired, so the heroine rescues him and her father invites him to stay in his house.
The man is fascinated by the heroine and charms her until one night they have sex.
Then he leaves without a word.
There are two very big triggers here.
- the age gap: the heroine is 17 and the hero is 39. Ehem.
-the hero is married.
Of course the sob lied and gave a false name and said he had no wife, until, after he had sex with her, and confronted by her father, he told the truth. And left.
When the heroine finds out the truth, she tries to kill herself and her father, trying to save her, is severely hurt.
Two years later, the heroine is a student of art in London and meets a young man with a car similar to the hero's.
They date and he asks her to come and meet his family at Christmas.
Guess who's his father? yes, the hero!
The heroine hates his guts. And when I say she hates him, I mean it.
She really hates him for what he did to her.
And she tells him, without any consideration.
The hero is a broken man, he's a widower now, but he never tried to see the heroine again because he's too shamed of himself.
He's drinking all the time, and is a bitter and desperate.
He proposes her and the heroine accepts, because she wants to make him pay.
And she does.
She makes him life pure hell for months, until of course, in the end, she realizes she's hurting herself and him and there isn't joy any more in her vengeance, so she forgives him and all is well.
Ok, the book is really angsty.
It's intense, full of grief, pain, the characters are imperfect but perfect for the story, and I loved the heroine because she had a backbone and really made him suffer.
She was an innocent, a teenager and he was an experienced man and he seduced her.
He was guilty and he deserved all she gave him.
The hero was really a rotten man.
He was married and his wife was a vegetable afer a car accident happened ten years before.
Theirs was a moc, so he never loved her anyway.
He had several affairs when she was alive, and he left the heroine even if he loved her because he couldn't divorce his wife.
He didn't want to actually.
He basically was a coward and an egotist.
He told the heroine he loved her, and she, wonderful creature, told him that she didn't want his love because he didn't have any qualm to use her and hurt her.
He could have divorced his wife if he really loved the heroine.
He preferred to give up on her instead of going out of his comfort zone.
And he didn't go back to her when he was free because he was too coward.
A poor excuse of a man, worth much less than the teenager heroine with all her faults.
Oh and in all this mess, the casualty: the hero's son, who was in love with the heroine and found out that his father seduced her and abandoned her when she was a teenager.
And the hero telling the heroine he'd rather kill his son than allow him to touch her. Really? But didn't he say he stayed married with his wife for his son's happiness? Where's his love for his son now???
Appalling.
So, if you can stand the triggers, I recommend it, because it deserves to be read.
For the style, the characters, the angst, the heroine.
I really loved this book, it is one of my favourite now.

[Booklover · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful Intense Emotional Romance,another book that knocked me out what more surprised me was after reading worse books from this author i got such a fantastic wonderful emotional romance.I wanna rate this book 10 out of 10, 5 stars will not do justice to it

Absolutely adored Lindsey and my heart went out to Josh,he was cheated out of all happiness in his life and when he fell in love got his happiness yet he was tied to his responsibilities and duties,and way he punished himself for hurting Lindsey,what ever time he had with Lindsey he gave her happiness as he could,made her father realise how he was hurting Lindsey and she was in need of her father so much.Lindsey changed after losing Joss but still under those cool hard exterior the soft warming caring Lindsey was still there and i was really ecstatic that instead of living in bitterness she choose to forgive and take her chance at happiness

Joss i am short of words to describe him,such a selfless lonely man who did'nt get any happiness in his life and when he got his happiness he could'nt grab it,he knew he could never give his love to Lindsey yet he gave her his father's love to her,he had the choice to live his life but for his son and Dolly he sacrificed it,punished himself for lying and hurting Lindsey

When Joss-Lindsey got married and way Lindsey made it clear how he hated and loathe him still Joss never said anything he kept taking all her hatred and in his won way wanted to win her love again,most of the time i was for Joss

This is on my keepers list
Wonderful read
Recommend it

[*CJ* · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Temptation" is the story of Linden and Joss

Oh the angst in this..SO GOOD!

So back in 2017, I was a giant wuss and had decided I would not read this story. But now I had my big girl panties on, and decided to give this a go. NOT DISAPPOINTED.

Our h is a naive 17 year old, convent graduate, vegetarian, carefree village girl and daughter to a reclusive famous artist. When our 39 year old H has an accident, she rescues him and is instantly taken by the charming city man. Her usually grouchy father accepts him too- and within a few days, he becomes her everything- showing her an all new world and passion. However, the night after they finally give into their carnal desires, he informs her father that he is "married" and leaves. The h, heartbroken, then tries to suicide, almost kills her father, and on surviving vows vengeance.

Flash forward to present. At 19, she is a college student who has a healthier relationship with her father. A young man Daniel starts pursuing her, and she is finally ready to open her heart. When Daniel invites her to his home for Christmas, she never expects his drunkard father would be Joss- or that Joss would instantly admit crazily being in love with her- making her revenge plans much easier. Will the retribution the heroine has planned finally give her the satisfaction she craves? Or will she end up breaking them both?

So let's get the triggers out
-The h and H have an age gap of 22 years
-The H was married his wife has been in coma for years
-The h kisses the H's son

But why the high rating.
It's the angst and the intense passion in this book. The hero is CRAZY about the h and not afraid to grovel or admit it. The h loves him back- and that's where her whole retaliation stems from. Their hunger for each other is intense. There's A LOT of jealousy, anger, pain, love and regret. And the heroine is totally in the Mata-Hari mood- she makes him WORK for it. I went from hating the hero to feeling bad for him- she legit made him grovel at her feet. Ah so gooood!!

SWE/Unsafe
3.75/5

[Tmstprc · Rating 4 out of 5]

Holy crap! This is 1970s HP at its best! Much older man “seduces” and ABANDONS the TEENAGE heroine, breaks her heart. He’s MARRIED! Her father takes her away gets her back on her feet emotionally and sends her off to university, where she meets the hero’s SON... all sorts of extenuating circumstances and 60 pages later HEA.

[Melluvsbooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow. I am continually amazed at how much story CL can weave into 190 pages.

I like all the basic plot points: age-gap, betrayal, attempted suicide, father/son love triangle, revenge by h, grovel… I mean the plot is bananas and I’m a banana fan. 🤷🏼‍♀️

I think what makes this not quite a 4-star read is that after taking Linden’s (17) v-card, the H (Joss-39) abandons her, telling her father that he’s married so he can’t stay. 😐 And yeah, that sucks, but it’s a romance, so I’m expecting explanations and a grovel for that…. No, what tanks this is that when she shows up at his house with his son, we find out that the wife has been dead for a year. And before that? She was just a vegetable for a decade. He never even loved her.

So… 👀 Joss, honey, WTF?!

Besides the obvious option of explaining his circumstances instead of abandoning the h and running away like a coward…. Why didn’t he go to the h after his wife died??? He’s just sitting his dumb ass in the house drinking himself to death. 😐 The ONLY reason they get their 2nd chance for happiness is because the h was unknowingly dating his son and stumbles into his living room. Would Joss just have remained a lonely sad sack in his mansion if that hadn’t happened? 👀 That’s not alpha to me. 🤷🏼‍♀️

I think some readers will like that Linden gets revenge on the H, but I wasn’t crazy about that story line. The only reason she seems to give up on driving Joss to drink, is that she decides she wants B A B I E S … and she can’t continue withholding her body from her husband, the broody Captain Blueballs, if she wants to get pregnant. 👀

So all is forgiven.

The End.

👀

🤡





Bottom Line? It wasn’t my favorite CL, but it was entertaining 🤷🏼‍♀️ 3.5 stars



⚠️SAFETY SQUAD SPOILERS⚠️

- no cheating between h & H - technically the H is married so he cheats on his wife when he has sex with the h the 1st time

- no sharing

- OW drama - he’s married, but the wife is only in the book as an idea - she plays no significant role.

- OM drama - the h dates the H’s son during their separation (she doesn’t know)

- no dubcon

- the h is virgin

- the H is married and has slept around in the past (while the wife was in a vegetative state)

- the h attempts suicide

[Chantal ❤️ · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love Charlotte books but this one pissed me off. Guys who are married (yes I know the situation) should not cheat. They are not a hero. He just came in and ruined her life and almost killing her in the process then he is demanding a second chance??!! Wtf I would give him a knee to the groin. Why are the heroines soooo understanding? She was little weak also so maybe that's why I did not like this book.

[Tatiana Stefan · Rating 5 out of 5]

2/14/20 3rd Read (I really think its 3rd)

This book still grabs me and its still 5 stars (for 40 year old me). Now the times and thinking have changed - I’m talking about real life / real world now. I think if you are way younger than me maybe 10 years + and younger (?) you may be disgusted by this book. The H is not a Hero at all. And yes what he did to the h can be considered sexual abuse of a minor 0_0. I’m sorry. Let me rephrase that – What he did to the h is sexual abuse to a minor. In my opinion new readers must be aware of the time this book was written, the environment, how men and women were during that time period, the way of thinking, etc.. Once all that is taken into consideration you may be able to understand and enjoy the book – as I did and still do. I can relate to the whole innocence taken and innocence lost, the whole tree of knowledge, Adam and Eve biting into the apple and never being able to go back to the way you were. So anyhoo, still 5 stars for me 41 years later!

Re-read 10/16/16
I read this book many years ago and gave it 5 stars. Years later on my 2nd/3rd re-read with older eyes I still give it 5 stars. The plot is what the back cover states. h young and fresh has been shattered and destroyed by the H and fate has led her back to him and now she is out for revenge and blood!

I feel this book is divided into two distinct parts – the sweetness, peacefulness and awakening and the 2nd part is boom(!) revenge, revenge, revenge!

Warning, this book may have a lot of ICK factors.

What you might not like:
1. H is 22 years older (17 to 39) Uhuh, 17. Uh-huh. Perv.
2. There’s a father/son dynamic involvement. Gross (or hot? You tell me -_-)
3. h is hellbent on annihilation of the H – (in the 2nd part of the book and it totally looks like that to me!)

Now if you can withstand/survive the above here’s what you might like!

What you might like:
1. The story is well-written and will not bore you.
2. Drama with a capital D – D – D, the angst, the pain, the SORROW!!
3. H is obsessively in love with the h.
4. h REALLY gives it to the H and he takes it all in – he just takes it because he knows he be at fault yo!
5. The HEA – I feel it was satisfying and yay-like given the way the h acted. Their coming-together was explosive.

Final thoughts. So my 1st reading of this book I didn’t pay too much attention the H and his really sinister and snakelike luring and awakening of the h. Here we have the h, minding her own business, happy with her life (at least not THAT unhappy) happy with herself and in absolutely NO HURRY to change her status from girl to woman. La di da di da, H comes along, wow, this fresh, young, innocent, h I am caught, hooked, I must have her! My charm, experience and good looks will get her! Hey, why isn’t she reciprocating? Grrr… let me show her this, No? Double GRRR! Ok here’s some of my intoxicating kisses? No, then how about this? Not yet, ok THIS!! Yes, mission successful!

I should have pictures with that -_- This H just kept coming on and on to the h, teaching her unwanted lessons, and was getting frustrated and annoyed as heck (hahaha) when the h really was clueless or should I say, totally unaware of him as a man and she’s not really there yet with those whole flirtation, sexual innuendoes, tension and all that! I was smirking when the H asks the h how old she thinks he is and she answers 40 (a year older than his real age) and she laughs at him and says something to the effect of why you think I was going to say you look younger than your real age? Bwahahahaha! So, do I feel any sympathy for the H and what he gets subjected to by the h. Big fat NO. I really he think the H was a selfish, stalkery swine for his behavior. He couldn’t leave well enough alone. He just couldn’t resist the TEMPTATION! Do I still love this book? Big fat YES hee hee!

As for the h. I am 100% on her side. I agree with the other reviewer. I truly feel if h did not meet H again, she would have her life back on track, she would have met someone else and yes, she would have been TOTALLY happy with the h’s son Daniel. I honestly feel sad for her. I think h could have had a happy ending with Daniel if not for the H and I do believe Daniel would have accepted the h even knowing about her involvement with his father. It would be weird as hell but I think it could have worked. But alas, the H is Joshua so the happy ending is him. Despite all my mean comments about the H, I can sort of applaud that he was willing to stick with the h despite knowing how EXTREMELY PISSED she was.

----------

Heartwrenching, October 22, 2008

This review is from: Temptation (Harlequin Presents #310) (Mass Market Paperback)
I got this book based on the reviews and what an excellent decision! It's been awhile since I've read a Harlequin Presents that is just different. Even though it was written in 1979, this book totally enthralled me. The hero and heroine had very distinct personalities and were not cookie cutter characters at all. Even though HP novels tend to have a specific number of pages, Charlotte Lamb was able to incorporate everything there to satisfy me, the dream, the heartache, the pain, forgiveness, the loving ~_~ I too do not want to spoil the story, so all I can say is get this book!!!

[Fre06 Begum · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved loved this book!

[Jacqueline J · Rating 3 out of 5]

Old skool crazy. This time it was the heroine who was bat shit crazy. Of course she was only 19 so she was still in that everything is drama phase. But wow, she was the epitome of over reacting. He lied to her about being already married and slept with her then left her. So she tried to kill herself and when they meet again she marries him just to punish him. Fair enough but she's whackadoodle about it. He's horribly contrite and apologetic and tells her he loves her and will do anything to make it up to her so she marries him and keeps telling him that she wants him to bleed and die and she wants to be the one who shoves the knife in him. 'Cuz she's so perfect I guess. He needs to run the other way. I give it three stars for the crazy.

[Grace*dnfing books since 2022* · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is the reason that I feel like Charlotte Lamb writes a lot like Sally Wentworth. The way that she writes is very...matter-of-fact, somehow, and the writing is not excessively weighed down by unnecessary descriptions of feelings and minute details. Later on in her books, I think Charlotte Lamb puts in some third-person omniscient generalizations that I find amusing when I read, such as "she ordered her around quite naturally, but it was because she was her older sister and had gotten into the habit of it." I wondered if Charlotte Lamb had an older sister, because I noticed this "older sister" business popping up in several of her books.

Some of the reviews on here say that they didn't think Charlotte Lamb had it in her, but honestly, reading a lot of her older ones, I feel like this woman can write just as crazy as the vintage authors. Take Seduction, for example. That book had pseudo-incest and the daughter runs away from her stepfather, only to be tracked down and tricked by the hero's friend and becoming a prisoner in his apartment. I mean, literally. She locks herself in that room, and there he is, picking at the lock in order to try to get in and assuage his fantastic lust-o-mania for her. It's craziness! Or Vampire Lover, which was a newer one, but also chock full of old-time crazies, where the woman is certain that the hero is a lover with vampire-like abilities (what? in an HP?) and waiting to suck her younger sister dry. So she tricks him into viewing this house, and then she handcuffs him to the bed "just until her sister has left the country." But then at one point, she gets on top of him and arouses him to no end and then suddenly leaves the poor bedeviled guy. Ridiculousness!

So, this book is sort of beautifully written at the beginning. Linden has grown up sort of set aside from the world, as she was raised in a convent and only been allowed to live with her recluse father, who basically hates all people, because she's still a child. The beautiful part was one description of her day, and even though it should have been inutterably boring, as she really does nothing, she goes and lies in the field and watches a butterfly flitting around. But somehow, there was a sort of beauty and simplicity in that part, and in how young she was, and she was quite content to stay in that role.

A lot of the reviews hated this crazy heroine, but I felt for her, because she really had no problem with not growing up. She was truly content with herself and living with her father in a sort of weird, hermit-surroundings, and at 17, she's not ready to grow up either. But the guy obviously has his eyes on her and sort of forces her to recognize him as a man. I find this so terrible, as he is married at the time. Of course, it makes it seem all better when it's explained that his wife is a cripple and he can't marry Linden even though he wants to, yadda yadda yadda. Oh, spare me. Then keep your pants on, sonny! So he leaves the day after he basically corners her swimming in the nearby secluded lake and has his way with her. She's totally in love with him, obviously, being 17 and made to fall in love with him, and completely devastated, to the point she tries to commit suicide and is only rescued by her father, who's then jerked out of his antisocial regime.

After this (and I am a huge fan of how old skool books do segue, because it's done so subtly and beautifully that you don't even realize you've been transitioned, in the span of a couple of lines, into a new time), she goes off to school in London, and one day she sees that same car Joss was driving and nearly passes out. Turns out, it belongs to some young stud; they start dating, and it's pretty great until she goes home with him for the holidays one day and finds out that Joss is the young stud's father and is drinking himself to an early grave. Oh, yes, and he also lied about his name. He's Sir Joshua.

Linden is every bit as shocked as Sir Josh is, and would be devastated had she not noticed his reaction. So then she begins to "torture" this poor sob, but unlike other reviewers, I am totally on her side. I mean, the girl was 17 when he used his wiles to attract her, sleep with her, and then take off. What kind of a sick @#$% does something like that, intentionally! when he knows he can't offer her a future? The girl tried to swim away and is trying to escape him, but he's just so overtaken by her nekkedness that he overpowers her.

I mean, I find his actions totally irresponsible and reprehensible. Like, he does this AFTER he has stayed with them for a while and knows her situation and knows she grew up in a convent. And she certainly wasn't heading off to local pubs and dancing on tabletops in a slinky top either. What if she had gotten pregnant? I mean, young girls are so impressionable, they really are. It's one thing to mutually fall in love with some young guy, who's just as unknowing as you are, but it's another to be made to fall in love with a guy twice your age, who's been around the block, and I'm sorry -- does this ON PURPOSE to "awaken her." Like he's so happy in his life he feels like he can jolt her into really "living"?

This is terrible to me, and for me, I felt her "torture" of him was totally reasonable, and the book is only good because he actually does love her (in his clearly selfish way) -- even though I find this a bit grossish as well because of how old he was when he met her. Because what was not to like about Linden? Anyone who was anyone would be enchanted by her, so what makes him so special?? She was just a really calm, sweet, fun and considerate young girl who's somehow also a bit old for her age just because she's always been with older people. Like a person who's innocent in the world, but content in her life, and not self-righteous at all. But in no way a doormat. Any guy would have liked her. I would have wanted to be her friend. I actually really wanted her to end up with the son, and they both agreed at the end that if she hadn't met Joss first, she could have been happy with the son.

In HP land, the book is quite satisfying. But in real life, were I any sort of relation to this young girl, I would pummel the hell out of Joss (seriously, I would devise worse than what she did) and advise her to go for the son, who was also just head over heels gaga for her, and honestly, not that bad of a catch. So at the end, I feel like Joss ended up getting what he wanted (her) and she got, what, an old fogie with a drinking problem. Yay for Linden.

As for the "revenge" bit...well, I would have wanted a lot more torture and for a lot longer as well. Sorry. People need to take responsibility for their actions. That rat bastard.

[Shivani Singh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hero is twenty years older than beautiful blonde heroine.

He’s a shipping tycoon. She’s a barefoot wild child daughter of a genius painter.

Hero makes her his trophy wife.

Very well written. All the characters are ideal types yet it still did not jar on a reader like me.

Read it for the second time and as mentioned by a reviewer it felt like catnip for the avid romance reader that I am.

************************
Joss is driving a car he has gifted his son and crashes it. In Yorkshire in the summertime.
He is rescued by Linden who as Jeffrey Epstein would have said is underage.
Her innocence and naivety pull at him and he does not reveal his full name or who he is.
He goes to her house and accepts her father’s and her hospitality.
She shows him around all the beautiful places close to her house. He flirts with her as perhaps men do with pretty young women but very soon he is in deadly earnest.
He entraps her and as he is her first brush with any presentable male she falls under his spell. He is beyond the ordinary as a man and an achiever. This is established by the author in the scene where he plays chess with the girl’s father and is asked “what are you? A grand master?”
The way he plays chess is used to show his personality and character. He likes to win.
He buys our heroine a party dress and shoes, because of course she is a complete flower child and walks everywhere barefoot. They go to the village dance.
I was slightly amazed at the character of the hero. To go to a small community. To take this young/underage child to a dance over there and not be bothered by what anybody thinks.
Anyway, as he is one of this world’s takers.. he cannot stop himself from taking the heroines virginity that night.
He then informs her father that he is married, his wife is comatose, he cannot divorce said wife. Then he leaves.
The heroine is distraught when she hears it the next day. She tries to do something dangerous which could result in her death.. she climbs up the rocks of a waterfall. Her father almost dies preventing her.
A year later. She is in London. She is studying art in college. She’s now travelled over Europe with her artist father and become harder.
She sees the car the hero was driving when they met and faints. The young owner of the car rescues and befriends her. They start going out together. He takes her home for Christmas and wham she realises the hero is the young man’s father. That she still loves hero whom she had convinced herself she hated.
The hero and heroine marry. She tells him she loathes him and wants to give him pain. Which she does. By preventing any intimacy.
Finally, the hero’s mother in law who adores him and lives with him.. makes the heroine understand his character and motivations.
The heroine understands that she had been completely blaming him for using and abandoning her.. but circumstances had played out like that. He had tried to resist.
There is a big age gap between them. He is of course besotted with her. How would this marriage work out in the long run?
She would still be young .. fifty when he is seventy. Makes me feel bad for him!!
First she hero worshipped him. Then she realised her idol had feet of clay. He was as human as anyone else. Finally she felt tenderness. Maybe her love will only grow deeper and stronger.
If they were real people I would certainly wish them well.
I will try not to think of all the real world practical implications and repercussions.
She has a strong young stepson who she almost fell in love with and felt deep friendship and empathy for.
What happens in the future? When our hero grows old and the son steps into his shoes?
I like that the stepson’s character remains good and decent till the ending. Most authors would have shown him in a bad light to justify heroines choosing the father rather than him.
The hero seemed literally weak in his adoration of the heroine.
I’m beginning to think Charlotte Lamb wrote with a greater depth of understanding of human character and motivations than your usual harlequin presents author.
It’s a pleasure to read her.

When the heroines tells her father that Daniel (hero’s son) will never forgive her or the hero, her father replies “You’d be surprised. You’re very wise for your age but you’re only 19… I know you’ve suffered..during the past months…. You still have a lot to learn. Human nature is like a deep- growing root. It twists and turns underground, in the darkness, and we can never guess which path it will take..”

This is such a deep truth!

CL’s hero’s are much weaker than her heroines, I think, even when being very alpha and very masculine.

So that’s my assessment.

The way he seduced her is slightly discomforting. How could a 39 year old man of the world fall for a seventeen year old like that. Not in lust but in love. That is a question I do ponder about. .

[Giovanni · Rating 4 out of 5]

wow..i don't know what i should say...

i thought i'd found the most miserable hero in a novel, i forgot the title..
but guess i'm wrong.

this hero is just, well, damn in agony and i felt so much sorry for him. i was speechless. he's so unselfish, passionate, and so tortured in his past life since he's young. and then he met the heroine.

i must say Linden doesn't deserve him. at all. she's all cruelest, bitch and it's her who deserved to bleed to death. really.

i winced and flinched every time she hurt him, and for the bullshit she felt the pain too? i didn't believe it for a sec! i didn't care! i still want to slap her and throw her down from the cliff.

even after i read the ending i just well, i don't know if i can meet a man like him, full of misery and agony, and not pity him to death. i wanted to yell, scream, anything to release all the angry for all the unfairness in his life FOR him! because it seems that he'd not felt it, he's just too soft-hearten to feel bitterness to other people. he'd got angry and punished himself instead! he'd lost his youth (from 18 to over 40 in anguish!), he'd cared for his son alone (except his grand of course), and what'd he got? he had to watch his love - only love - in relationship with his own son! guess what? then his own son despised him, father whose life and love had been sacrificed just for his sake (father's love stronger isn't it?) so i loved it when FINALLY he chose her than his son! my...

if this author wanted to create a vulnerable hero, this is a great success, because i myself bleeding to death. i don't know it should be the heroine who tried to suicide, for me it seems the hero who had to feel the need to kill himself *sarcasm*

...the happy ending...what do you hope? of course it has to be a happy ending! he's over forty and he'd just had his happiness...oh well, we couldn't turn back the time. and even if i wanted to 'give' him a happiness sooner in his life, this is not my story. humph.

i hope i forget this story soon, or else i'll be haunted by this at night.

*i know my grammar is getting worse, but since it's not my main language and i'm TOO upset, i don't care, read what you read*

[Melanie♥ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Re-read 2020
Still gets 5 stars for the angsty drama of it all.

2009:
Wonderful, classic Charlotte Lamb!

[Miki · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ick factor was too high for me...female character is 17, lead male is 39. The whole book is about lust, not love, and he is insanely jealous. And yet, they live happily ever after? I don't think so.

[Yesmina · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot to unpack with this one!

I liked the plot twists and the drama. It was not soap-opera drama, but an entertaining one nonetheless.

In real life, would such couple fall in love and work? I don't think so. I think our life is so complicated, ridden with fear and judgements. That's why fiction land is always home.
And I just loved how FMC responded to "living in one's age and century". She eloquently explained, there is no time but natural seasons. Everyone lives at the pace that they truly want.
When MMC kept telling her, you're going be shocked when you get out to the real world, she just told him, People take their perception of their inner world with them. That really warmed me inside.

[SmittenKitten · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just like the title, this is a story about temptation... temptation of a extremely naïve 17-year old underage girl to a 39-year old (married) experienced man who knows better.

'It's such a temptation,' he said huskily, his eyes lifting to the sky. 'That cool, exquisite thing revolving silently up there, and what man could resist being the first to possess it?'

I was captivated throughout the hero's (Joss) seduction of the heroine (Linden), while at the same time feeling discomfort and knowing that the hero is completely in the wrong. He even later admits that it was intentional, a game he meant to play but then took it to far because he fell in love with her. Linden feels betrayed and used (rightfully so) when she discovers that Joss left her. She wants to destroy him.

The second half when Linden is set on payback dragged a little for me. I felt bad for poor Daniel, the other man of the story and Joss's son (who is only one year older than the heroine). There was clearly a normal, healthy young adult relationship blooming between Linden and Daniel until the discovery of his father's identity.

What could she say to him? I think I might have loved you, but your father seduced me when I was too young to know what I was doing?

Daniel already had a rocky relationship with his father. It certainly doesn't help that his father would choose Linden over him.

'I love you,' he said through his teeth. 'And I'd cut his throat and leave him to bleed to death before I let him have you.'

That's pretty harsh pops. Daniel is better off without him. Also, I found it interesting that in the beginning of the story, Joss is very concerned about the lack of parenting Linden gets from her own father, only later to find out that Joss is no paradigm of fatherhood himself.

I had to work hard to mentally overlook the seduction of a 17-year old and focus more on the Joss's real love for Linden, but then he had to ruin it during the happily ever after ending by saying:

'You may not know this yet, my darling, but you're a very sexy little girl, and I love you to distraction.'

Ew Daddy.

[Melinda · Rating 1 out of 5]

A lot of people like this book but not me. Thirty-nine year old married man flirts and tries to arouse seventeen year old virgin. This guy is old enough to be her daddy and he has a son a year older than her. He eventually has sex with her after he sees her swimming nude at night in a pond. Of course he has the excuse that he could not stop himself. Yeah right, he didn't have to take his clothes off and join her in the pond in the first place. After he gets what he wants the coward takes off and leaves her without a word. Later the author tries to excuse his behavior by showing that he had a miserable marriage. This was one of the more disgusting HP's that I have read.

[Roub · Rating 4 out of 5]

indeed the 1st 1/2 was not dat great ! it got very intense n good when they met again. i loved how linden did not forgive n made him grovel. the 1st book i read where the the hero got his just deserves n he grovelled till the very end. she did not let him touch her again until he redeemed himself. not like those other books where the heroine can't resist the hero even when he had done her wrong n she acts so pitiful. this is one book very different from others. hats off 2 u charlotte.unfortunately u miss the 5 star due to the start of the book

[Sanya · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just imagined my 17 year old niece-a child!!- and my 39 year old friend together---eeeeeek!!! That ruined it for me.
He was just in lust with her, nothing to do with love.

[SassyLeg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mrs Lamb at her top…. But I only read a few of her books.

Well, we have: forbidden desire, large age gap, unprotected sex/traitorous body syndrome, drama overload, heroine coming of age and turning from Dr Jekyll to Mr Hyde but with final redemption, conflicting feelings, anger, sexual tension….. and all old school HPs repertoire
A feast for “strum und drang” addicts!!!