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A Forbidden Loving by Penny Jordan released on Sep 24, 1992 is available now for purchase.
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First published January 1, 1991
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About the author
Penny Jordan
1,125 books666 followersPenelope Jones Halsall
aka Caroline Courtney, Annie Groves, Lydia Hitchcock, Melinda Wright
Penelope "Penny" Jones was born on November 24, 1946 at about seven pounds in a nursing home in Preston, Lancashire, England. She was the first child of Anthony Winn Jones, an engineer, who died at 85, and his wife Margaret Louise Groves Jones. She has a brother, Anthony, and a sister, Prudence "Pru".
She had been a keen reader from the childhood - her mother used to leave her in the children's section of their local library whilst she changed her father's library books. She was a storyteller long before she began to write romantic fiction. At the age of eight, she was creating serialized bedtime stories, featuring make-believe adventures, for her younger sister Prue, who was always the heroine. At eleven, she fell in love with Mills & Boon, and with their heroes. In those days the books could only be obtained via private lending libraries, and she quickly became a devoted fan; she was thrilled to bits when the books went on full sale in shops and she could have them for keeps.
Penny left grammar school in Rochdale with O-Levels in English Language, English Literature and Geography. She first discovered Mills & Boon books, via a girl she worked with. She married Steve Halsall, an accountant and a "lovely man", who smoked and drank too heavily, and suffered oral cancer with bravery and dignity. Her husband bought her the small electric typewriter on which she typed her first novels, at a time when he could ill afford it. He died at the beginning of 21st century.
She earned a living as a writer since the 1970s when, as a shorthand typist, she entered a competition run by the Romantic Novelists' Association. Although she didn't win, Penny found an agent who was looking for a new Georgette Heyer. She published four regency novels as Caroline Courtney, before changing her nom de plume to Melinda Wright for three air-hostess romps and then she wrote two thrillers as Lydia Hitchcock. Soon after that, Mills and Boon accepted her first novel for them, Falcon's Prey as Penny Jordan. However, for her more historical romance novels, she adopted her mother's maiden-name to become Annie Groves. Almost 70 of her 167 Mills and Boon novels have been sold worldwide.
Penny Halsall lived in a neo-Georgian house in Nantwich, Cheshire, with her Alsatian Sheba and cat Posh. She worked from home, in her kitchen, surrounded by her pets, and welcomed interruptions from her friends and family.
aka Caroline Courtney, Annie Groves, Lydia Hitchcock, Melinda Wright
Penelope "Penny" Jones was born on November 24, 1946 at about seven pounds in a nursing home in Preston, Lancashire, England. She was the first child of Anthony Winn Jones, an engineer, who died at 85, and his wife Margaret Louise Groves Jones. She has a brother, Anthony, and a sister, Prudence "Pru".
She had been a keen reader from the childhood - her mother used to leave her in the children's section of their local library whilst she changed her father's library books. She was a storyteller long before she began to write romantic fiction. At the age of eight, she was creating serialized bedtime stories, featuring make-believe adventures, for her younger sister Prue, who was always the heroine. At eleven, she fell in love with Mills & Boon, and with their heroes. In those days the books could only be obtained via private lending libraries, and she quickly became a devoted fan; she was thrilled to bits when the books went on full sale in shops and she could have them for keeps.
Penny left grammar school in Rochdale with O-Levels in English Language, English Literature and Geography. She first discovered Mills & Boon books, via a girl she worked with. She married Steve Halsall, an accountant and a "lovely man", who smoked and drank too heavily, and suffered oral cancer with bravery and dignity. Her husband bought her the small electric typewriter on which she typed her first novels, at a time when he could ill afford it. He died at the beginning of 21st century.
She earned a living as a writer since the 1970s when, as a shorthand typist, she entered a competition run by the Romantic Novelists' Association. Although she didn't win, Penny found an agent who was looking for a new Georgette Heyer. She published four regency novels as Caroline Courtney, before changing her nom de plume to Melinda Wright for three air-hostess romps and then she wrote two thrillers as Lydia Hitchcock. Soon after that, Mills and Boon accepted her first novel for them, Falcon's Prey as Penny Jordan. However, for her more historical romance novels, she adopted her mother's maiden-name to become Annie Groves. Almost 70 of her 167 Mills and Boon novels have been sold worldwide.
Penny Halsall lived in a neo-Georgian house in Nantwich, Cheshire, with her Alsatian Sheba and cat Posh. She worked from home, in her kitchen, surrounded by her pets, and welcomed interruptions from her friends and family.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
September 4, 2021
Eighteen-year-old Katie Partington comes home from university to visit her single-mother (thirty-six-year-old heroine Hazel Partington) and she tells her mother that she is bringing a male friend, whom Hazel believes is Katie’s boyfriend. Hazel is surprised when an older man shows up (forty-one-year-old Silas Jardine). Hazel is shocked that Katie is involved with an older man. Unknown to Hazel, Katie is playing matchmaker between Hazel and Silas…
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I loved all the characters in it, from shy Hazel, to handsome and sexy Silas, to Hazel’s outgoing and outspoken daughter Katie. I liked how Silas tried to get Hazel to come out of her shell. This was a warm, gentle, and sweet romance. Another great read by Penny Jordan.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I loved all the characters in it, from shy Hazel, to handsome and sexy Silas, to Hazel’s outgoing and outspoken daughter Katie. I liked how Silas tried to get Hazel to come out of her shell. This was a warm, gentle, and sweet romance. Another great read by Penny Jordan.
December 18, 2020
"A Forbidden Loving" is a warm,sensual and charming love-story about the innocent single-mother Hazel and the handsome and smart author Silas Jardine who Hazel mistakes for being her daughter`s boyfriend at the beginning, and what they both don`t know is that Hazel`s daughter Katie are the matchmaker between them!
This was a clear 5-star read to me.I truly liked the heroine and hero,their chemistry was so hot.Their love for each other was so sweet,and how i utterly swooned over Sila`s love-confession at the end.He knew all the time that he loved her and he secretly fought to woo her.Their romance simply were mindblowing and beautiful,i also adore the cover very much!
This was a clear 5-star read to me.I truly liked the heroine and hero,their chemistry was so hot.Their love for each other was so sweet,and how i utterly swooned over Sila`s love-confession at the end.He knew all the time that he loved her and he secretly fought to woo her.Their romance simply were mindblowing and beautiful,i also adore the cover very much!
November 25, 2017
Re Forbidden Loving - Penny Jordan does her own special version of the old skool for HP Old Skool month. She doesn't, surprisingly, go the H from Hades and King of Misogyny route, maybe there were too many other examples of that in this lineup.
Nope, she gives the in depth, exhaustively detailed exploration of the Non-Virgin h Who Has to Suffer for Her Chastity Fail trope. Because the h willingly did the dirty deed as a 16 yr old teenager and got caught preggers and will now suffer for 10 years for every minute she had the piking experience.
In this case the 10 yr to 1 min rule means this h has to be on emotional ice-out lock down and suffer the shame and stigma of unwed de-virginization for approximately twenty years, (cause excited teen age boys are awfully quick off the mark but have NO endurance.)
The story is actually pretty simple. The h is 36 and her daughter is 19 and at uni. Since the h's advanced age and lack of multiple cats means that she might fall and not be able to get up and then not have enough felines around to recycle her cold body as an alternative food source, the h's daughter decides that mum needs a permanent hook-up. (To preserve the interior of the house if the worst happens, if nothing else.)
Poor mum h has been caring for the loving, but very conservative solicitor grandfather for the last gadzillion years, plus being a great nurturing mum who is au courant with healthy eating and nutrition and all the latest home decorating techniques . So h's Kid worries that mum h has NOT been getting her physical mojo tune ups attended to - besides Gramps would have had a snit fit if he though mum h was going down the gratuitous piking route again - he would NOT APPROVE with glarey faces.
But Gramps is dead, the h's Kid is kicking it high at uni and mum h's favorite author just happens to be one of h's Kid's professors AND he is hot AND he needs a place to stay near Chester for the summer. So EUREKA! h's Kid will offer Hot Professor H a space in mum h's house for the summer.
It is a brilliant idear! Mum can get her groove on, cause h's Kid bought her a sexy teddy lingerie to maximize her MILF potential, hot Prof H gets a lady who is great at supportive nurturing and an excellent cook and h's Kid can relieve her mind of the burden of anxiety that the h will have to get multiple cats to prevent unsightly fluid stains and smells.
So h's Kid springs into action and gets it all set up. Except mum h believes that Hot Prof H is the Kid's lover. OOPS! This is bad, cause mum h felt that tell tale quiver in her lower tummy that PJ likes to throw in whenever her h is going to have an exceptionally bad case of unrequited lurve mojo coup de foudre.
So there is pages and pages of h angsty angsting over her elderly age at 36, her ice storage induced re-virginization, and some good old PJ adjective physical pining for the Hot Prof H - who is of course all things manly and lurve mojoish.
Eventually the h's Kid sets mum h straight and Hot Prof H tries to woo the h on the other side of the pages and pages of h angsty angsting. But the h's angsty angsting is seriously impeding the H's sorta Beta Lurve Mojo force and winning in the early rounds.
Until the h's Kid inadvertently calls when the mum h was in the bath and Hot Prof H walks in on the h not even wearing a towel, (they were all in the wash or something,) and dripping water everywhere. We get an almost purple passion moment, but the H runs away. Mum h now acknowledges that she loves Hot Prof H, but thinks he just rejected her, cause he explains he is moving out.
Cue up double the Srsly Angsty Angsting h punishment - for getting within a foot of the potent Beta Lurve Club mojo and letting it bump her, all without the benefit of clergy and with her own tenant too! The mum h tartlett hussy! (Readers will probably be shocked, but take big breaths here and loosen up that corset, and you will make it thru with minimal trauma.)
Then Hot Prof H returns! He has another house to stay at now, but he wants to take MILF mum h out to dinner. So mum h digs out the sexy underwears h's Kid so perceptively provided when this whole thing started, puts on a button up dress that screams "TAKE ME OFF AND RAVISH THE BODY UNDERNEATH ME," and it is off to dinner we go.
Surprise! Dinner is at the Hot Prof H's new abode and the bigger surprise for the mum h is that Hot Prof H loves her! Incessantly and completely and obsessively, he is Proposing Marriage! But he promised not to whammy her with the lurve club in her house while he was living there, so he had to run off and get a new place to lurve it up right away after her temptingly wet body put him perilously close to breaking his word.
Thank the HPlandia Gods that h's Kid is precognizant and the h wore that sexy teddy. The passion explosion is so huge, it goes all the way from aubergine to ultra violet and there will be no threat of fated h promiscuity retaliation this time, cause mum h was a Good Girl and held off until the proper marriage proposal and acceptance.
Well it is all unicorns and kittens and sparkly rainbows after that. h's Kid can relax about elderly mum falling and not getting up AND Kid can brag about her matchmaking skilz. A big wedding is enjoyed by all and the H and h get to buy a new abode together, with the added bonus that all the eyeballing they do to each other makes h's Kid blush, as we conclude another successful HEA HP outing.
Nope, she gives the in depth, exhaustively detailed exploration of the Non-Virgin h Who Has to Suffer for Her Chastity Fail trope. Because the h willingly did the dirty deed as a 16 yr old teenager and got caught preggers and will now suffer for 10 years for every minute she had the piking experience.
In this case the 10 yr to 1 min rule means this h has to be on emotional ice-out lock down and suffer the shame and stigma of unwed de-virginization for approximately twenty years, (cause excited teen age boys are awfully quick off the mark but have NO endurance.)
The story is actually pretty simple. The h is 36 and her daughter is 19 and at uni. Since the h's advanced age and lack of multiple cats means that she might fall and not be able to get up and then not have enough felines around to recycle her cold body as an alternative food source, the h's daughter decides that mum needs a permanent hook-up. (To preserve the interior of the house if the worst happens, if nothing else.)
Poor mum h has been caring for the loving, but very conservative solicitor grandfather for the last gadzillion years, plus being a great nurturing mum who is au courant with healthy eating and nutrition and all the latest home decorating techniques . So h's Kid worries that mum h has NOT been getting her physical mojo tune ups attended to - besides Gramps would have had a snit fit if he though mum h was going down the gratuitous piking route again - he would NOT APPROVE with glarey faces.
But Gramps is dead, the h's Kid is kicking it high at uni and mum h's favorite author just happens to be one of h's Kid's professors AND he is hot AND he needs a place to stay near Chester for the summer. So EUREKA! h's Kid will offer Hot Professor H a space in mum h's house for the summer.
It is a brilliant idear! Mum can get her groove on, cause h's Kid bought her a sexy teddy lingerie to maximize her MILF potential, hot Prof H gets a lady who is great at supportive nurturing and an excellent cook and h's Kid can relieve her mind of the burden of anxiety that the h will have to get multiple cats to prevent unsightly fluid stains and smells.
So h's Kid springs into action and gets it all set up. Except mum h believes that Hot Prof H is the Kid's lover. OOPS! This is bad, cause mum h felt that tell tale quiver in her lower tummy that PJ likes to throw in whenever her h is going to have an exceptionally bad case of unrequited lurve mojo coup de foudre.
So there is pages and pages of h angsty angsting over her elderly age at 36, her ice storage induced re-virginization, and some good old PJ adjective physical pining for the Hot Prof H - who is of course all things manly and lurve mojoish.
Eventually the h's Kid sets mum h straight and Hot Prof H tries to woo the h on the other side of the pages and pages of h angsty angsting. But the h's angsty angsting is seriously impeding the H's sorta Beta Lurve Mojo force and winning in the early rounds.
Until the h's Kid inadvertently calls when the mum h was in the bath and Hot Prof H walks in on the h not even wearing a towel, (they were all in the wash or something,) and dripping water everywhere. We get an almost purple passion moment, but the H runs away. Mum h now acknowledges that she loves Hot Prof H, but thinks he just rejected her, cause he explains he is moving out.
Cue up double the Srsly Angsty Angsting h punishment - for getting within a foot of the potent Beta Lurve Club mojo and letting it bump her, all without the benefit of clergy and with her own tenant too! The mum h tartlett hussy! (Readers will probably be shocked, but take big breaths here and loosen up that corset, and you will make it thru with minimal trauma.)
Then Hot Prof H returns! He has another house to stay at now, but he wants to take MILF mum h out to dinner. So mum h digs out the sexy underwears h's Kid so perceptively provided when this whole thing started, puts on a button up dress that screams "TAKE ME OFF AND RAVISH THE BODY UNDERNEATH ME," and it is off to dinner we go.
Surprise! Dinner is at the Hot Prof H's new abode and the bigger surprise for the mum h is that Hot Prof H loves her! Incessantly and completely and obsessively, he is Proposing Marriage! But he promised not to whammy her with the lurve club in her house while he was living there, so he had to run off and get a new place to lurve it up right away after her temptingly wet body put him perilously close to breaking his word.
Thank the HPlandia Gods that h's Kid is precognizant and the h wore that sexy teddy. The passion explosion is so huge, it goes all the way from aubergine to ultra violet and there will be no threat of fated h promiscuity retaliation this time, cause mum h was a Good Girl and held off until the proper marriage proposal and acceptance.
Well it is all unicorns and kittens and sparkly rainbows after that. h's Kid can relax about elderly mum falling and not getting up AND Kid can brag about her matchmaking skilz. A big wedding is enjoyed by all and the H and h get to buy a new abode together, with the added bonus that all the eyeballing they do to each other makes h's Kid blush, as we conclude another successful HEA HP outing.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 1, 2019
"A Forbidden Loving" is the story of Katie and Silas.
A very sweet book!
Our h Katie is a single mother to 19 year old Hazel, whom she had when she was 16. Conceived with a teenage boy who soon dies in a tragic accident, she has the child illegitimately, much to the chagrin of her helpful but disapproving father. She grows up taking care of her only child, while hiding herself in a shell to please her dad, whom she's indebted to.
Now at 37, she works as a successful illustrator, but still shies away from men and all forms of commitment. When Hazel announces that she's bringing a man home- she never expects that it would be 41 year old Silas, who also writes as pseudonym of her beloved author! Initially mistaking them to be lovers, she finds herself getting jealous of her own child, yet cannot deny her attraction to Silas. He too, appears to be reciprocating the magnetism..until Katie's insecurities kick in!
A very skittish and naive heroine, a sweet but determined hero, very mild passion but loads of fantasies and intense gazing in this one. The h is trapped in her own inhibitions, and the H definitely frees her from them!
Enjoyable read!
Safe
3.5/5
A very sweet book!
Our h Katie is a single mother to 19 year old Hazel, whom she had when she was 16. Conceived with a teenage boy who soon dies in a tragic accident, she has the child illegitimately, much to the chagrin of her helpful but disapproving father. She grows up taking care of her only child, while hiding herself in a shell to please her dad, whom she's indebted to.
Now at 37, she works as a successful illustrator, but still shies away from men and all forms of commitment. When Hazel announces that she's bringing a man home- she never expects that it would be 41 year old Silas, who also writes as pseudonym of her beloved author! Initially mistaking them to be lovers, she finds herself getting jealous of her own child, yet cannot deny her attraction to Silas. He too, appears to be reciprocating the magnetism..until Katie's insecurities kick in!
A very skittish and naive heroine, a sweet but determined hero, very mild passion but loads of fantasies and intense gazing in this one. The h is trapped in her own inhibitions, and the H definitely frees her from them!
Enjoyable read!
Safe
3.5/5
June 1, 2010
The beginning was so skull-numbingly dull w/ too much info dump on heroine's background, that I almost went comatose. Just blah. Nuff said.
March 15, 2018
Beautiful story
October 25, 2019
Hazel is a single mother in a small town. Her father, long-suffering from an illness has just died, and her soon-to-be 19 year old daughter Katie has gone off to university. Hazel is alone for the first time in her life and it has given her a lot of time to contemplate the state of her being and the fact that at 36 years old, she has never felt like a woman.
She is impregnated at 16 by her childhood boyfriend who promptly dies in a motorbike accident and her father, a successful barrister in London quits his practice to stay at home with her and look after her and the baby. Hazel is beholden to her father because he basically sacrifices his career for her, so when her father tells her she shouldn't ever think of getting involved with a man again lest he think she's an easy lay since she'd already been knocked up once (and the whole town will brand her a scarlet woman), Hazel takes his entreaty to heart and effectively walls up her emotional and physical needs.
Fast forward almost twenty years later and her daughter Katie wants to bring home a man for Hazel to meet over the holiday break. Hazel naturally assumes the boyfriend will be Katie's age, but finds herself shocked to the core when she discovers that the man is older than she is AND is her daughter's professor.
But what's even mortifying is the instant, visceral, primal awakening of her long-dormant sexuality at the sight of this man, her daughter's lover! Is there something wrong with her? Is she one of those women desperate to prove her desirability that she'd be willing to seduce her daughter's lover? For that matter, is she deluded enough to think that an urbane, obviously sophisticated man would prefer her shabby bag of bones over the young, supple, nubile flesh of her daughter?
But Silas Jardine seems to be interested in her as well. And to Hazel's consternation, Katie has invited Silas to live in Hazel's house for a few months while he works on his new book, leaving him alone with Hazel when she returns to university. On top of that, Silas Jardine turns out to be the real name of her most favorite author. Oh, and also, he's super duper sexy and Hazel finds herself unable to stop thinking about him.
I've seen this movie! It's called Misery!
Hazel is pulled out of her arrested development and brought to life with the kiss of a man. The plot is really very simple: Hazel is dead inside, a man comes along, she hesitates because the man is her daughter's lover (or so she believes, how would she know, she has no point of reference), he leaves because things get all awkward between them, then he comes back and is all, "Do you want to get it on and get married?" And Hazel's all, "Sure, I guess. I have nothing else going on."
I would have liked to have seen Hazel come into her own and be like, "I wanna know what love is... I want you to show me!" But even when the path to Silas becomes clear, she makes no move. She just cries and cries until he comes back and asks her to go with him. Hazel can do nothing for herself. She's helpless, practically a child emotionally and sexually. I mean, cool, I get that, her dad basically stuck her in an emotional chastity belt... but even by the end of the book, Hazel still seems helpless and looking like she'll be dependent on Silas for the rest of their relationship.
The HEA did not give me the warm fuzzies. I just felt sad for the both of them. Hazel needs serious therapy and I don't just mean sexual healing.
And Silas...he's good, kind, noble, patient, understanding, devoted, handsome, and I'm sure he has a 10-inch penis. Mr. Perfect. Mr. Just What The Doctor Ordered. Sir Just What I Needed.
Two and a half stars.
She is impregnated at 16 by her childhood boyfriend who promptly dies in a motorbike accident and her father, a successful barrister in London quits his practice to stay at home with her and look after her and the baby. Hazel is beholden to her father because he basically sacrifices his career for her, so when her father tells her she shouldn't ever think of getting involved with a man again lest he think she's an easy lay since she'd already been knocked up once (and the whole town will brand her a scarlet woman), Hazel takes his entreaty to heart and effectively walls up her emotional and physical needs.
Fast forward almost twenty years later and her daughter Katie wants to bring home a man for Hazel to meet over the holiday break. Hazel naturally assumes the boyfriend will be Katie's age, but finds herself shocked to the core when she discovers that the man is older than she is AND is her daughter's professor.
But what's even mortifying is the instant, visceral, primal awakening of her long-dormant sexuality at the sight of this man, her daughter's lover! Is there something wrong with her? Is she one of those women desperate to prove her desirability that she'd be willing to seduce her daughter's lover? For that matter, is she deluded enough to think that an urbane, obviously sophisticated man would prefer her shabby bag of bones over the young, supple, nubile flesh of her daughter?
But Silas Jardine seems to be interested in her as well. And to Hazel's consternation, Katie has invited Silas to live in Hazel's house for a few months while he works on his new book, leaving him alone with Hazel when she returns to university. On top of that, Silas Jardine turns out to be the real name of her most favorite author. Oh, and also, he's super duper sexy and Hazel finds herself unable to stop thinking about him.
I've seen this movie! It's called Misery!
Hazel is pulled out of her arrested development and brought to life with the kiss of a man. The plot is really very simple: Hazel is dead inside, a man comes along, she hesitates because the man is her daughter's lover (or so she believes, how would she know, she has no point of reference), he leaves because things get all awkward between them, then he comes back and is all, "Do you want to get it on and get married?" And Hazel's all, "Sure, I guess. I have nothing else going on."
I would have liked to have seen Hazel come into her own and be like, "I wanna know what love is... I want you to show me!" But even when the path to Silas becomes clear, she makes no move. She just cries and cries until he comes back and asks her to go with him. Hazel can do nothing for herself. She's helpless, practically a child emotionally and sexually. I mean, cool, I get that, her dad basically stuck her in an emotional chastity belt... but even by the end of the book, Hazel still seems helpless and looking like she'll be dependent on Silas for the rest of their relationship.
The HEA did not give me the warm fuzzies. I just felt sad for the both of them. Hazel needs serious therapy and I don't just mean sexual healing.
And Silas...he's good, kind, noble, patient, understanding, devoted, handsome, and I'm sure he has a 10-inch penis. Mr. Perfect. Mr. Just What The Doctor Ordered. Sir Just What I Needed.
Two and a half stars.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 18, 2013
This is a brilliant example of Penny Jordan's work as a Mills and Boon author. This time she is writing from the perspective of a slightly more mature heroine, and it really works. The heroine is 36 year old Hazel, who after getting pregnant with her first love at the age of 16, has never known love or any kind of sexual experience since. This is a Jordan book, so there is some trauma at the heart of this - this time it was Hazel's old-fashioned father who ensured that she leads a life free from any hint of reproach after her one slip. However, the result of that first "slip", Katie, now nearly 19 is determined to match her mother up with someone and so she sets about playing matchmaker.
Now this is where it gets really interesting - Katie invites one of her University professors to stay over the Christmas period and then goes off, leaving her mother alone with him. Now, Hazel doesn't know this bloke from Adam and initially believes that he's Katie's (slightly too old for her at age 41) boyfriend. Hazel also believes he has "emotional problems" and it later transpires he actually has never had a home of his own but has been dossing down at his sister's house. However, instead of asking this homeless person with potential mental health issues to leave, she lets him stay and lo and behold! falls in love with him.
This is a gentle read - there's not too much rumpy pumpy for a Mills and Boon and it's all the better for it. There's a genuine feel of romance developing between the two characters and despite the ridiculousness of the set up, one finds oneself believing in Hazel and her homeless hero. The male lead isn't too forbidding (he's not all that sexy either, certainly not as sizzling as some of Jordan's later heroes) but then you can't expect too much from a homeless University professor; and the happy ending is very satisfying, even if you do end up wondering why Hazel has to sell her four bedroom Cheshire cottage and buy something bigger just to accommodate the two of them (evidently it's not enough to have some kind of home, one must have a palace after an extended period of homelessness).
I loved this book - Jordan even finds time to mock the genre she is writing within - a sign, if Shklovsky's interpretation of art is to be believed, of the true artist. Consider: "There had been times in the past, it was true, when she had yearned, ached almost if she was honest, for a man of tenderness and concern who would love her, physically and emotionally, but she had quickly learned to put such foolish daydreams from her and to concentrate on reality; those men had never been real; they had merely been vague, fictional characters" - and it's true, that homeless Silas is just that bit more believeable than some of Jordan's other creations. I also really liked the fact that this was set in Cheshire. Hazel and our heroine have an altercation in an Italian restaurant in Knutsford. I once fell of a pavement in Knutsford after a few too many - very nolstagic. I can highly recommend this one if you are a Jordan fan as being an example of her writing at her finest.
Now this is where it gets really interesting - Katie invites one of her University professors to stay over the Christmas period and then goes off, leaving her mother alone with him. Now, Hazel doesn't know this bloke from Adam and initially believes that he's Katie's (slightly too old for her at age 41) boyfriend. Hazel also believes he has "emotional problems" and it later transpires he actually has never had a home of his own but has been dossing down at his sister's house. However, instead of asking this homeless person with potential mental health issues to leave, she lets him stay and lo and behold! falls in love with him.
This is a gentle read - there's not too much rumpy pumpy for a Mills and Boon and it's all the better for it. There's a genuine feel of romance developing between the two characters and despite the ridiculousness of the set up, one finds oneself believing in Hazel and her homeless hero. The male lead isn't too forbidding (he's not all that sexy either, certainly not as sizzling as some of Jordan's later heroes) but then you can't expect too much from a homeless University professor; and the happy ending is very satisfying, even if you do end up wondering why Hazel has to sell her four bedroom Cheshire cottage and buy something bigger just to accommodate the two of them (evidently it's not enough to have some kind of home, one must have a palace after an extended period of homelessness).
I loved this book - Jordan even finds time to mock the genre she is writing within - a sign, if Shklovsky's interpretation of art is to be believed, of the true artist. Consider: "There had been times in the past, it was true, when she had yearned, ached almost if she was honest, for a man of tenderness and concern who would love her, physically and emotionally, but she had quickly learned to put such foolish daydreams from her and to concentrate on reality; those men had never been real; they had merely been vague, fictional characters" - and it's true, that homeless Silas is just that bit more believeable than some of Jordan's other creations. I also really liked the fact that this was set in Cheshire. Hazel and our heroine have an altercation in an Italian restaurant in Knutsford. I once fell of a pavement in Knutsford after a few too many - very nolstagic. I can highly recommend this one if you are a Jordan fan as being an example of her writing at her finest.
January 29, 2023
Penny Jordan’s most irritating plots use the “nobody can love me, I’m completely sexlessly unappealing and no H will ever want me and the only reason H wants to talk is to tell me he like every other man thinks I can’t possibly be a sex target and let me know he knows I’m in love so i don’t embarrass him with my wistful love attached to an ugly, lumpy (or skinny) body because he’s a good guy and I’m the pits”.
Yes, that is the center of this plot. The first time I read this plot in Taken Over it was jarring and I disliked it, but PJ didn’t waste chapters and pages and more pages on it. Unfortunately at least half of Forbidden Loving is all this interior misery. Ruins the story.
Also h is convinced based on nothing that her daughter and H are lovers, which is another annoying PJ plot point: h always assumes H and OW are lovers/in love/engaged.
I finished this but it is boring, obnoxious, a waste of time. I should have quit.
I rarely read PJ any more because she ruins her story with h’s endless angst about her unworthiness.
Yes, that is the center of this plot. The first time I read this plot in Taken Over it was jarring and I disliked it, but PJ didn’t waste chapters and pages and more pages on it. Unfortunately at least half of Forbidden Loving is all this interior misery. Ruins the story.
Also h is convinced based on nothing that her daughter and H are lovers, which is another annoying PJ plot point: h always assumes H and OW are lovers/in love/engaged.
I finished this but it is boring, obnoxious, a waste of time. I should have quit.
I rarely read PJ any more because she ruins her story with h’s endless angst about her unworthiness.
February 10, 2021
Boogenhagen has a great review so I’m just going to say a few things.
The book is low on action. Basically 3/4 of the book is the heroine lamenting over being old(36)or in love/lust with her daughter’s older lover(until she finds out that is not the case). Around page 100 she finds out daughter and H are not involved at all. So she can’t angst over that anymore. So she continues to have mental wars about her age and her love for the H since there is no way an H of his caliber could love her. We get a glimpse into the H’s thoughts. He loves the h(almost upon meeting her) and is trying to figure out how to handle her in such a way that she won’t be scared off and will embrace her repressed sexuality(when she finally does, he rejects her in error, so yeah that didn’t inspire her confidence much) Our hero is not just interested in a sexual liaison. In the last pages our hero declares his love and takes the h to a whole new level of awareness. (Her daughter is a result of 2 teenagers experimenting with sex. Basically she had unsatisfactory sex ....1x.... 20 years ago....)
I enjoyed the book...even though the inner dialogue can get a little droning. You will not find evil ow’s, well intentioned OM, or meddlesome destructive family!
The book is low on action. Basically 3/4 of the book is the heroine lamenting over being old(36)or in love/lust with her daughter’s older lover(until she finds out that is not the case). Around page 100 she finds out daughter and H are not involved at all. So she can’t angst over that anymore. So she continues to have mental wars about her age and her love for the H since there is no way an H of his caliber could love her. We get a glimpse into the H’s thoughts. He loves the h(almost upon meeting her) and is trying to figure out how to handle her in such a way that she won’t be scared off and will embrace her repressed sexuality(when she finally does, he rejects her in error, so yeah that didn’t inspire her confidence much) Our hero is not just interested in a sexual liaison. In the last pages our hero declares his love and takes the h to a whole new level of awareness. (Her daughter is a result of 2 teenagers experimenting with sex. Basically she had unsatisfactory sex ....1x.... 20 years ago....)
I enjoyed the book...even though the inner dialogue can get a little droning. You will not find evil ow’s, well intentioned OM, or meddlesome destructive family!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 25, 2014
Hazel was a pill. Silas was hot. But Katie rocked.
November 4, 2014
Decent quick read. Heroine was a good role model. A little different with the Heroine being older than most HP
September 22, 2020
It was too much inside her head not much going on at all.
The story was romantic but her just going on and on and on bout living like a nun , she's too old for love. blah blah blah it was like reading the same paragraph till half way through the book.
The ending is good, but nothing happened....
It was all in her mind just her talking herself down, got me annoyed.
I did enjoy reading what Silas thought tho, he should have tried to woo her abit more . I dunno it was just very dull and annoying to read for me.
The last two chapters was good but the other lot was painfully annoying.
The story was romantic but her just going on and on and on bout living like a nun , she's too old for love. blah blah blah it was like reading the same paragraph till half way through the book.
The ending is good, but nothing happened....
It was all in her mind just her talking herself down, got me annoyed.
I did enjoy reading what Silas thought tho, he should have tried to woo her abit more . I dunno it was just very dull and annoying to read for me.
The last two chapters was good but the other lot was painfully annoying.
January 10, 2018
heroine was 36 or 37, single mom (I think she got preggers at 16 and child's daddy died). her daughter went to the uni and came back with her prof. Prof stayed with the heroine while daughter went away somewhere (I forgot). heroine and Hero had this tension around the house like teenagers haha...
August 6, 2018
A simply beautiful story that allows our main characters to grow with each other with the helpful input of their daughter.
September 13, 2023
Heroine 36yr old book illustrator with a 19 yr old daughter. Hero 41yr old professor and writer.
March 29, 2010
2.5 actually. Predictable and the male character is not that male, if you see what I mean. It's a romanticized version of a man, but then again, this is a romance book.
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May 19, 2016 الحب المستحيل - بيني جوردان
January 26, 2017
Is this really a Penny Jordan book??? Hard to believe. She repeated two conversations twice. And I had no idea what the conflict was after the first half of the book.
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