As different as possible in character from her identical twin, Alaine Marsland was persuaded to take Estelle's place on a cruise to the Greek islands. Away from the drudgery of her work, relaxing in the sun, enjoying the sightseeing, Alaine blossomed--and learned that life could be beautiful. Cimon Duris, boarding the ship at Pireaus, added the perfect romance...
Then, along with the realization of her love for Cimon came an equally disturbing discovery. It was Estelle who had sown the seeds of the trouble -- but it was Alaine who was about to reap the harvest of revenge!
Anne Hampson was born on 28 November 1928 in England. At age six she had two ambitions: to teach and to write. Poverty after WWI deprived her of an education and at 14 she was making Marks & Spencer's blouses at one shilling (5p) each.
She retired when she married. Later, when her marriage broke up, she was homeless with £40 in her purse. She went back to the rag trade and lived in a tiny caravan. But she never forgot her two ambitions, and when Manchester University decided to trial older women she applied, and three years later had achieved one ambition, so set her thoughts on number two.
In 1969, her first novel, Eternal Summer, was accepted five days from posting and she soon had a contract for 12 more. From the caravan she went to a small stately home, drove a Mercedes and sailed on the QE2. From the first book, came over 125 more written for Mills & Boon, Harlequin and Silhouette. Alan Boon (the Boon of Mills & Boon) and she came up with the title for 'Harlequin Presents' over lunch at the Ritz. She suggested to Alan that they have a historical series. He told her to write one - it was done in a month, entitled Eleanor and the Marquis under the pseudonym Jane Wilby. She has the distinction of being number one in Harlequin Presents, Masquerade and Silhouette. Many of "Presents" have been reprinted many times (some as many as 16) and are now fetching up to $55, being classed as "rare" books.
She has had 3 awards, one at the World Trade Centre where she received a standing ovation from her American fans, who had come from many states just to meet her.
She was retired, but in 2005 she wrote two romance and crime novels, both of which were published by Severn House.
She passed away on 25 September 2014. She has been written her autobiography, entitled Fate Was My Friend.
"The Fair Island" is the story of Alaine and Cimon.
A tale of twin switcheroo and revenge, we have a callous and promiscuous twin switching places with a nice and caring one. The heroine is a single mother to her cousin's child, and lives with her elderly aunt, struggling to make ends meet. Her sister is a frivolous model who loves using and discarding men. The heroine decides to go instead of her twin on a cruise, and meets an enigmatic Greek man, falling for him. She is soon disillusioned when it is revealed that he is the uncle to a man her sister hurt- but is able to reveal herself before he goes too far for revenge. She returns home heartbroken, only to be pushed by her sister to make the hero pay for what he did. She comes up with a super idiotic plan and dupes him into marrying her, loads of drama ensues and truth is revealed in the end.
Angsty read with a temperamental child, a foolish heroine and a nice hero. Maybe it's just me, but I didn't enjoy reading how easily she was agreeing to tell the child she apparently loved so much that she wasn't her real mother- I mean the whole book all Jinx did was defend the heroine and tell the heroine how much she loved her- It felt like a betrayal to me.
“informing her bluntly that she had no idea how to bring up a child.”
Hero was absolutely correct. Heroine was the dumbest of all the dumbs. I thought I was going to read a good old school revenge story, what a disappointment!
There is nothing at all new in this book -- in fact I keep having to go back and refresh my memory so I can write the review, but finally I gave up and now I'm just going to concentrate on whether I think the model on the cover is modeled on 1970s beauty Barbara Bach or Britt Eklund.
Alaine Marsland is the boring twin. Caring for her invalid aunt and bringing up the orphaned daughter of an ex-boyfriend who dumped his baby on her and left she has no time for fun and games. Jinx has started school now and is running wild, needing a father.
Meanwhile, Alaine's twin sister Estelle is leading a hedonistic life living off her boyfriends who lavish expensive gifts on her in return for her 'favours'. Her most recent conquest, a young man from Crete, almost killed himself when he discovered her perfidy.
Estelle doesn't think much of the young man's threats of retribution from his guardian because she is off on a yacht cruise with her new boyfriend. Only thing is she had planned a cruise to the Greek islands which she can't go on. She gives the ticket to Alaine along with her passport for the first real holiday our heroine has had in years.
At first it looks like being a little dull, but the arrival of Cimon Duris who boards the ship in Greece changes all that. He is rich, handsome and seemingly interested in Alaine. It seems like all her dreams are about to come true...unless we recall that she is travelling as her sister Alaine.
This was a classic angsty read with a vengeful hero and an innocent heroine who has her own ideas about revenge.
Oh the twin sisters trope again. The heroine is a gem - a hard working virgin with an aunt and a kiddo to support at home. The twin is a floozie, slutting it out with random men.
The heroine agrees to take a holiday cruise masquerading as the floozie sis, because she hasn't had a real holiday in years. So taking up the once in a life time opportunity she sets off. And promptly finds the hero on the cruise, showering extra attention on her. She is flattered but also suspicious. Turns out the hero is out to take revenge because the floozie duped his nephew, agreed to marry him and stole a lot of money from him.
So its uncle's turn to plot revenge. Of course, he's got the wrong sis. He figures this out, and how he makes amends forms the rest of the story. There is a motor mouth kiddo in the story that's a brat but quite lovable.
Oh dear. He actually wants to lock her in a dungeon and she tries to blackmail him. And not in a good way. Neither character are sympathetic and the ‘love’ story is unbelievable
As different as possible in character from her identical twin, Alaine Marsland was persuaded to take Estelle's place on a cruise to the Greek islands. Away from the drudgery of her work, relaxing in the sun, enjoying the sightseeing, Alaine blossomed--and learned that life could be beautiful. Cimon Duris, boarding the ship at Pireaus, added the perfect romance...
Then, along with the realization of her love for Cimon came an equally disturbing discovery. It was Estelle who had sown the seeds of the trouble -- but it was Alaine who was about to reap the harvest of revenge!
This book gets 3.5 STARS just because Jinx was hilarious. I loved what a little scrapper she was. I wish the hero had made even more mistakes when it came to his revenge plot because it would've been more interesting (and a bit sadistic of me), but don't we all love it when the hero has to right wrongs to the heroine?
Really good book, wish we could've seen more of the relationship that develops between the hero and the little girl, Jinx.