Su relación había sido corta… pero cambiaría sus vidas para siempre…
El matrimonio de Luc Sarrazin y Star Roussel había sido breve, pero intensamente apasionado. Se habían separado casi inmediatamente después de casarse y Star había desaparecido, pero Luc nunca había llegado a pedir el divorcio. Dieciocho meses después, consiguió localizar a Star… ¡y descubrió que había tenido gemelos!
Lynne Graham was born on July 30, 1956 of Irish-Scottish parentage. She has livedin Northern Ireland all her life. She grew up in a seaside village with herbrother. She learnt to read at the age of 3, and haven't stopped since then.
Lynne first met her husband when she was 14. At 15, she wrote her firstbook, but it was rejected everywhere. Lynne married after she completed adegree at Edinburgh University. She started writing again when she was athome with her first child. It took several attempts before she sold herfirst book in 1987 and the delight of seeing that first book for sale in thelocal newsagents has never been forgotten. Now, there are over 10 million ofher books in print worldwide.
Lynne always wanted a large family and has five children. Her eldest and heronly natural child is 19 and currently at university. Her other fourchildren, who are every bit as dear to her heart, are adopted. She has two9-year-olds adopted from Sri Lanka and a 5- and a 3-year-old adopted fromGuatemala. In Lynne's home, there is a rich and diverse cultural mix, whichadds a whole extra dimension of interest and discovery to family life. Thefamily lives in a country house surrounded by a woodland garden, which iswonderfully private. The family has two pets. Thomas, a very large andaffectionate black cat, bosses the dog and hunts rabbits. The dog is Daisy,an adorable but not very bright white West Highland terrier, who loves beingchased by the cat. At night, dog and cat sleep together in front of thekitchen stove. Lynne loves gardening, cooking, collects everything from oldtoys to rock specimens and is crazy about every aspect of Christmas.
This review was brought to you be sheer boredom, the desire NOT to bitch about HP Riddikulus, and Giphy.com.
Not another one!
LG hero. No not one of the besotted ones. One of the other ones.
A French one named Luc.
She’s British. Her name is Star.
Actually more like
When they first met she soooooo in wuv with the older, suave hero.
They have twins he thinks someone else fathered. Twins named Venus and Mars. Really.
He thinks he may hate her, but he can’t stay away.
She tries to hold off his Rico Suave French hero ways, but she’s easy...and in love
Me over the hero, the heroine, the state of romances
He wants sex so he buys her a chakra necklace to drain her personality.
Amber for calm, amethyst for spiritual peace, aquamarine for communication…’ he enumerated steadily. ‘Azurite to help you find your life path and to trust in your intuition, topaz to protect you through life changes, opal for meditation, tourmaline to heal past traumas, lapis lazuli to change negative views into positive ones…and a rose quartz pendulum for powerful healing energy.’ She doesn't get it.
He woos her with romantic words…
Luc tightened his grip on her slender fingers as they began to slide inexorably from his. ‘I think the less you think about love the happier we will be,’ he stated with flat conviction. Stop! You romantic, you.
The heroine finally protests his treatment…Vigorously.
Failure to communicate is engaged
She thinks he wants her and married her only because he feels guilty over her sad childhood.
She doesn’t fall into bed ONE TIME, and he worries she may never love him again
He finally caves and admits he was jealous of her and her friend that happened to be a boy
She’s thrilled he didn’t go to his mistress the night they were married, She decided there and then that he was a god amongst men. because she has such a high standards. No, she doesn’t.
He surprises her with a white wedding
And her petite and annoying mother surprises her at the wedding with her long-lost father. Juno and Bruno. No, I did not make that up either.
Where they kidnap her and Venus and Mars right after the ceremony.
Luc eventually confesses he loves Star and was celibate the whole 18 months she was gone
This has to be one of the LG -est stories ever. It stars a very immature besotted heroine named Star who is impulsive and not at all interested in wealth or power, and a French banker hero who is so emotionally shut down that his range of emotions run from "on" (in lust) or "off" (icy indifference/rage). Not a good combo to begin with.
There is also the heroine's mother from hell, an angelic relative on the hero's side, a hapless OM who is firmly in the friend zone yet the hero is wildly jealous of, and twin secret babies named Venus and Mars.
How LG gets them back together is to have the heroine lie by omission about the twin's paternity, have the hero construct logical arguments that are blown away every time by sex, and have the heroine screech out her grievance that are squelched every time by sex. But like the heroine says, love is messy and LG manages to get these two to listen to each other and finally admit their feelings. But only after the heroine's mother and new husband try to kidnap the heroine and the twins after they have their marriage blessed in the church.
Lots of crazy all around.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
This is the kind of romance novel that makes me start feeling, halfway through, like I just want to drop romance novels for good. I disliked both the hero and the heroine, but I especially disliked the way Luc treated Star. They married when Star was just eighteen. The night after they had sex, she ran off. She never told him about their twins. Eighteen months later, he appeared because of a mess her mother got involved with.
Any time she got emotional, he told her to stop being irrational and stop acting like a child. He constantly disrespected her early on, when he simply assumed her children weren't his and nettled her with questions like "Do you even know who the father is?" He blackmailed her into returning to France with him, and he even threatened her with taking custody of their children. Probably what I hated the most--you see this ALL THE TIME in romance novels--was how attracted to him she was. I just couldn't stand it. He'd be taunting her about something and she'd be furious about it, yet heat would be "pooling in her belly." Disgusting! I really started feeling like I was reading a book intended on brainwashing young women or something. When a man talks down to you like that, feeling attracted to him is not normal. I would've been totally into this book if she'd stopped feeling that attraction, packed up her kids, and left, instead of softening up toward him every time he manifested a human emotion. This is just not the kind of stuff that makes me tick and it was hard to get through. In a way, the two of them deserved one another, but only because he was such a bastard and she was such a weak-willed flake. I didn't feel happy for anyone in the end.
4 stars for the crazy. This girl is incredibly young and a couple of years before the book starts she is married to Luc at 18 and is so crazy about him that she chases him relentlessly. It was pretty realistic because 18 year olds can do that sort of thing. The kind of thing that you look back at from 30 or 40 and cringe. So I cringed for her. There was POV from both the H and the h so we saw that even though he didn't admit it to himself the hero was in love with her. Really it seemed like these two fruit loops were meant for each other.
Fun read but in no way did it have any basis in the real world.
Luc was a cold, irredeemable asswipe. Star was a very annoying and weak-willed 20-year-old. I couldn't respect her after she jumped SO easily into bed with Luc who'd treated her like crap.
Why these two fell in love with each other is a mystery. (Hmm, this could be a topic on the investigative show In Search Of.) They didn't seem to feel much affection for each other or possess much chemistry. Luc supposedly had been in love with Star for a while and didn't realize it. He did a very good job because I couldn't tell either!
To top it all off, the writing seemed choppy. The points of view often switched abruptly and so did the scenes.
Lynne Graham is one of my favorite Harlequin authors, but this early offering by her was a big miss.
She sees him again after 1,5 years. They were separated because of some misunderstanding.
He asks her for sex within an hour or so after meeting again and she just jumps at the opportunity. No persuasion necessary by him and no protection used of course. It was way too easy for him.
Anyway, he doesn’t know her children are his children. She names her kids Mars and Venus. 🙄 Instead of getting a job to earn money to provide for her kids, she lives off her mother’s money and she has an art gallery which her mother (she thinks) has financed. Mweh.
This book is exhausting. The H/h are fighting/disagreeing/lying the entire book. It's basically one misunderstanding after another, and them slinging insults.
The characters are interesting so that held my attention. But the side stories about parents and friends and blah blah and the ridiculous backstory detracted from the book.
Es una historia de muchos enredos entre los protagonistas. Pero resulta imposible dejar de leer una novela de Lynne Graham. Al final, como esperaba, he disfrutado el rato.
Reread. Would have been a 2 or even lower if not for the H making up for it at the end. I am guessing romance novel times have changed over the years in keeping with our current society's evolving beliefs, and we readers no longer are happy with reading a doormat h. I don't have issues with age gap but the maturity gap between these two were so obviously an ocean apart, it made it even harder to credit this pair will work.
The h is quite frankly detestable to me. Besides hiding the kids, the way she acted has been immature, self serving and totally bordering on harassment. If not for the fact that the H returns her feelings here and doesn't have other entanglements, it would have been an epic disaster that wrecks 5 lives. Absolutely disgusted with how she pants like an animal whenever H is near, she gives me a feeling she is more in lust or in heat than in love with the H. The things she did when they first married is borderline stalkerish and made me cringe, especially when she doesn't even try to be interested in H's work. To my way of thinking marriage only works for life if 2 people can frankly discuss every concern and worry in all areas of their lives besides spending time with each other. Love is more than playing kissy kissy and telling each other this every other minute. I feel seriously bad for the H especially when he finally told her his pov, which to me is really all true, she basically forced herself on him. She got better later on as she no longer pants every other page not because she has more control but rather due to less sexy times mentioned (thank god!) but still cannot warm up to her as what she did is really very selfish in my book. The image of her being all hippy gypsy like and spacing out in her own world just makes it so much worst to me.
The H isn't likable at first either Just a typicsl harlequin ice H, and we are given snatches of his thoughts all along to make him more human. To be honest though, he never did anything too mean in my book all along, except asking her to be his mistress and not being knowledgable of feelings enough to know he has hurt her. He has in fact been really tolerant and nice to the h.There are threats but they largely seems empty. Towards the end, we see him starting to work on opening up and we are given a treat to see him express his feelings during various events that had occurred.
The H also has not been running after ow so another plus point in my book.
Still enjoyable though was v tempted to dnf with the childish h by halfway mark. She is so immature even I feel like cringing during sexy times as she seems an underage more to me just as our H had thought. Pretty grossed out...I would have been more accepting if we are shown a more mature h or if we see how these 2 interact like a couple more.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
This book by Lynne Graham is one of the worstest of books I’ve ever read in my life. Don’t ask me what else do you expect out of Mills and Boons? I expected at least how female fantasy would be like. Got bored of Male fantasy and to gain some knowledge of the fairer sex I read this book. I wouldn’t have complained even if it didn’t have any story but it didn’t even satisfy by sexual urge. That’s how terrible the book was.
To start with the title was cheesy enough but given the erotic genre (or that’s what I thought the book would be) I liked the title. Right from the title everything was confusing. An estranged husband and wife have sex one night but they do every time they meet then after. So why name it as one night with his wife. It could have been named ‘of nights and affairs with his wife’. At least the title is more erotic and makes some sense.
Star, the protagonist is such a loser. The only thing that you’d do with such a girl is fuck and that’s what Luc his husband does. He fucks her bad and they get twins. Premature babies, Venus and Mars. Yeah you read it right its Venus and Mars. What kind of mom names their children as Venus and Mars? Star says her mom named them as they’d give them good luck. Am I not right in calling Star a loser?
It’s not the leads Star and Luc who are confused. It’s the writer who is confused which in turn gets us confused. There is no clarity of thought in writing. It’s like sewn pages of lost manuscript made in a hurry marry with masala fresh out of pockets. It’s just how mindless a book can get.
I still wonder why ladies and young girls read this book. If sex is what you want there are million hungry guys with hot sperms ready to burst out there and if you’re not brave enough there is Sidney Sheldon. Some claim her book to be soft porn. I heavily condemn. Even if the book is mindless entertainer and things happen in a similar fashion it still entertains. Sheldon never claimed her book to be a classic. She intended to write pulp fictions and page turners which she did and almost every one of them is page turners.
Lynne Graham has written more than 50 books it seems and the front page of the novel claims them to be best seller. If that’s true I pity mankind. I got a two novel edition of which I read this one. I definitely don’t have heart to read the second novel and I would swear my life that I would never touch a Mills and Boons novel. Ever.
Luc Sarrazin has been looking for his runaway wife for 18 months, and when he does find Star, he realizes she has born twins with another man. In a foul rage he does everything to have her back, and lastly blackmails her into staying married to him when he knows that the twins are his.
Damn, i choose today to re-read one of my earlier reads by LG, and i yet again realize why i came to love it so much. Star and Luc together learns why their marriage ended up so wrong, and Luc`s affection for the twins were so ADORABLE, and i simply swooned when he tried to learn them to call him pa-pa! Star were moon-over heels in love with Luc, and only if she had realized Luc`s terrific jealousy and despair she wouldn`t have been so insecure about his feelings. That man had i BAD for her, even when he didn`t realize it. Lynne Graham ends up the story with another baby and Luc and Star glorifying in their passionate love for each other.!
Backing off several steps, Luc wrenched off his tie and pitched his jacket down on the floor. That very unexpected development grabbed Star’s entire attention. ‘If you think for one moment that I have any intention of letting you—’
‘Letting me?’ Luc queried with an insolent appraisal that was so blisteringly confident it made her teeth grit. ‘You’d let me have you in a thunderstorm, with lightning hitting the ground round us and a full orchestra playing beside us.’
‘Why, you—’
‘And you wouldn’t notice the storm or the music because you would be that lost in what I can make you feel,’ Luc derided, ripping off his shirt with such impatience that several buttons went skimming in all directions. ‘And you call my hormones over-active? Even before I married you, you were eating me alive with the strength of your desire for me.’
I LOVE this scene, Luc`s such over-top arrogance made him a sexy beast in my eyes,ahh i want to jump on him!
Det här är min fjärde eller femte bok av Graham,och hittils den absolut bästa.Eftersom jag är en obotligt hopplös romantiker har den här boken allt jag älskar:spännande angsty,het romantik och sådan söt kärlek att jag bara vill svimma.Hjälten Luc,är en typisk hjälte av Graham.Han är en kallhjärtad sexig miljonär,som gör allt för att få kvinnan han älskar.Hjältinnan Star är en stark och envis kvinna som försöker stå emot sina känslor för honom,men hon lyckas inte ett enda dugg.
Omg... This 'hero' made me fizz with rage in the early stages of this one. I was so angry I actually snapped a pic of his dialogue the morning after the heroine succumbs to his seduction. (I had to do this as for some reason, although I am fully invested in Harlequins when I read them, once I close the covers, I seem to be overtaken by some kind of amnesia whereby I can only remember the vaguest of details!) Now I love Lynne Graham, but this is my least fav type of heroine from her - very young and besotted with the older hero. ** SPOILERS AHEAD ** Star is a nitwit, but when the hero tells her she needs to sleep with other men to get some kind of perspective/ experience, she does thankfully leave him. Of course, she is pregnant with twins - called Venus and Mars due to her dippy mother. Now the hero finds out the heroine's mother borrowed money from a family friend, went bankrupt and then fled the country so uses these circumstances to approach the heroine and demand one more night with her between the sheets to purge his tortured memories of her nubile body. For some reason during their marriage he told the heroine she was gauche and naïve and not sophisticated like his mistress. *hard eye roll* Anyway, the morning, after she succumbs to his dubious charms he tells her she is an "airhead who thinks of nothing but sex" and that he feels ashamed of her for accepting his proposition as she clearly has no morals and should have refused him! (I am deleting that screenshot now with flaring nostrils). I DETESTED this guy! Usual dragging back to country of hero's origin occurs - usual threats re: child custody ensue. We are all familiar with the drill. Star was a drip the first time around and this is hammered home by the fact she considers herself friends with her husband's predatory PA who encourages her to dress in luminous colours and generally do the opposite of what she ought and of course Star swallows every poisonous word of advice. Carrying on the bizarre names - the PA's name is Bliss! There is a very strange anti-climax where it turns out the hero figured out the PA was a villainous due to a lie she tells about not owning a grandfather clock (very odd detail) and so the confrontation scene lacks the usual punch to the hero's gut. (And believe me this jacka** needed that punch. Badly). I felt kind of flat at the end, though I did like the touch that the heroine's Mother was NOT the big user the hero insisted she was and that the family friend stood by the heroine and the Mother even while the hero was raging and making outlandish threats. Also, the villainess's accomplice 'fessed up and wasn't such a bad guy in the end, just sort of chinless. Even the hero figuring out things by himself did not redeem him in my eyes. The heroine should have stuck with her new casual boyfriend who worried about her shopping and was a considerate guy! I need to find a good Lynne Graham now to get rid of the bitter taste in my mouth! Rant over.
Adorable. Another angsty-yet-lighthearted read by LG. She is so good at creating pompous asshat heroes who are just bowled over by sweet, bubbly, ditzy heroines. Loved that the hero was totally smitten, even when he didn't know it himself.
Awwe. Luc got his feelings handed to him. Typical male, he took a long time to figure out just what Star meant to him. I was so proud of Star, she grew up so quickly and well.
2.25 stars. Started well. Really well, actually. There was a nice, wonderfully dramatic opening confrontation that got me hooked.
I absolutely loved the H…for the most part. Yes, he drove me crazy. And he was maddeningly quick at answering back and acting all cool as if the h was a hysterical ninny. But there was something really interesting about how his actions shone through despite his words. I liked his reaction to finding out he was the father.
I also have to say, all the old-school harlequins who say things like “the H is so intelligent” and then proceed to have him behave exactly the same way as a petulant 5 year old need to take a leaf out of this book!!!
Yes, it did say the H is so intelligent, and he still proceeded to behave in exactly the same way as a petulant 5 year old child…but for once we actually got to see evidence of his intelligence! ‘He answered by rote but his mind was focused on something else’…and ‘he composed his speech, choosing his words very carefully in the back of his mind while spending quality time focusing on the babies.’ Not direct quotes…anyways, it was such a nice touch and I feel it really needs to be acknowledged.
Then…as the book progressed it sort of degraded. There was some character growth, more for him and not her, and I did believe their HEA, but there were high-school melodrama elements that took away from my confidence that she, especially, had changed for good.
One other note - The twins. What is up with these twins? Are they even people???
This became a major distraction. Partly because she didn’t seem to mentally be living a “I have kids” lifestyle, at least not after the traveling scene. And partly because there was a huge gap in the story that I just couldn’t get my head around.
She is a mom, for goodness sakes; and, by all accounts, a good one. Suddenly having a nanny would be a HUGE life change. She would have to get out of the habit of having her automatic “are the babies ok” radar on. To take time off and be herself, to evaluate how much she’s grown, to get some sleep, even??? To not have any of that character growth happen was just…weird.
And when did she even feed these kids?? I mean, seriously? No mention of juggling bottles or baby food, no mention of diaper changes, daring escapes, pulled hair, drool…I’m telling you, this was a HUGE missed opportunity for her to play the “DH, I love you but I can’t pay attention to you because I’m so busy help me PLEASE the twins are insane” card…
She could have potentially had to deal with a jealous husband who had to learn to share…but no, she became jealous when he played with them! I mean, feelings are feelings and I would probably have felt the same way too, but you are talking about baby twins here! This is what goes through my head “…Um…hold on. You are a perfectly capable adult who can be trusted around children for a few moments, and you want to play with them??? Oookay! Well then. Let me go…um…check on something …I’ll be right back” << runs away at top speed, falls in bed fully clothed and proceeds to catch up on as much desperately needed sleep as possible >>
Yea, yes, ok, this is a harlequin. The babies are fluffy imaginary angels and I just have to deal with it.
My point is, once the “hold on, these are MY kids” moment happened, there really wasn’t a point to them being there.
Then I got a BRILLIANT idea. I started substituting the words “toy poodles” for “babies” when she mentioned them and switched out “harness” for “car seat” and suddenly I felt WAY better about the entire story.
Anyways, that’s about it…towards the end it got really frilly and happy-go-lucky which dropped down the stars a bit.
There were some nice moments, so I can’t grade it down too harshly.
2.25 stars
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
This book had some good points, but also some irritating ones. The most irritating was those godawful names: the h's name, Star, is cute but Mars, Venus, Juno, Bruno, and Orion???? COME ON!!!!
The character of Juno was too middle-aged to be an attractive scatterbrain. Bruno was a real beta simp, despite his alpha name. And Rory, as the OM/good friend, was a bit too intrusive for my taste.
As for the h, though I liked Star, there were times when, despite being an intelligent young woman, she seems to like coming across as the teenage airhead she was when she fell for the H, Luc. And Luc stretches credibility when he admits phoning his ex-mistress on his wedding night, to drop off the keys to her place! WTF!!!! His excuse was that (due to circumstances I won't give away) because he was determined not to consummate his sudden marriage to Star, he needed to get out of the house before he gave in to his desire for her. Okay, so take a long walk, go see a late movie, take a drive somewhere, whatever. But planning to stop by your ex-bedmate's place on your wedding night??? I guess his brains dropped from his head to his butt!
On the positive side: both Star and Luc are willing to admit their faults and errors, rather than hurl accusations at each other, and even when they do argue, or say something they wished they shouldn't have out of hurt or jealousy, they later admit it and say they were wrong. and they each see hat the unconventional way they were both brought up accounts for quite a share of the troubles they've had, so the faults/compromises even out.
I wish - as I do with so many of these books where either the H or h has an artistic career - that more was said about Star's talent for creating embroidery patterns and how she was starting a career from this. But you can't have everything.
When authors decide to deal in exaggeration and hyperbole, there is no stopping them.
This one is full of all the stuff you expect, in tonnes !!!
Naive, poor relation to the rich tycoon hero. He marries her in haste but she leaves him after one night. She suspects an affair with the OW. And she had deep insecurities that the hero is too much above her in status, age, etc. All this at the age of 18 !!!!!
Two years later, the kiddos make an expected appearance. Twins this time. And now she has another rich tycoon in tow. Just a loving friend you see ;))
I don't know how these Dumbo heroines manage to find, not one but two billionaire tycoons - one husband, one backup OM !!!
The hero finds her 2 years later. And the first thing he says to her - "where's the bedroom, we need to get dirty right away" @#$!##@$#@##@
You meet your estranged runway wife. Living in a building that's crumbling, with twin kids, with an OM visiting. But getting into bed with her is the first thing you do. Right, charming indeed...
Then all the regular fluff follows. The OW, OM clarifications. Reconciling the past. Glossy remarriage. Yet another kid. Gimme a break LG, you are on a roll here !!!
*****for Luc being faithful to his wife Star. No OW, no mother in law from hell Star speak s her mind and go for it .. The H Luc really put effort to win his wife back... A nice lovely story .... Star was looked after by Luc s father on her stepfather s death,Luc takes the responsibility of 9 year old and leaves her with a kind widow Emily and later on boarding school... Stars mother Juno is all messed up, irresponsible female a useless mother . . Star had been harboring a crush on Luc ,her cought them kissing and threatened Luc so he married her...They had lots of miss communication and bad moment s during their six weeks married life, until Star ran away... after 18 months they meet with star having two twin kids...and the story begun... The best part H never slept with his mistress on his wedding night.***** So read it no spoilers
I can't decide between a 3 1/2 star and 4 star rating for this book. The h left the H a year and a half ago, just six weeks into their marriage. She left the morning after they finally consumed the marriage that the H told her would not be a real marriage. The H's father was made the guardian of the h when she was ten and he was twenty. There are many complicated emotions based on partial, incomplete information about events e.g., the H thinks that another man is the father of the h's twins because he assumes that the twelve month old preemies are only six months old. The H see saws between cold and hot with the h. The h acts like an impulsive twenty year old free spirit. It feels like there would have been less drama with more emotionally mature characters who were more open, trusting and honest.
I gave it 3-stars because this plot is crazy all over the place. Also hero did try and keep the teenaged heroine (18.5 year-old) out of his bed after they were sort of forced to marry but she chased him. Then they had a major fallout and she ran away. Second chance marriage because they have kids. But there's way more madness to this plot than that. So if you like arguing, lies, misunderstandings and madness - then this is a 5-star read. Plus great LG humour in the names - Star, Venus and Mars - hilarious.
I do adore a good Lynne Graham book and this one rocked! The heroine is sweet innocent young but she gets tough and tells the hero she is not going to take it anymore. She sticks to her guns and lets him finally discover what he is feeling. Our hero is an alpha who is clueless about emotions but is drawn to our heroine but doesn't understand why. This is a sweet romance with some zaniness thrown in.