Hunter's Moon

by Carole Mortimer

Marriage or scandal?

Ruthless, successful—and devilishly good-looking—businessman Jonas Hunter didn't give his widowed sister-in-law Cassandra Kyle any choice. Marry him and sign over her stocks in the family company or he'd expose her family's sins to the world! With her little daughter to consider, Cassandra can only obey Jonas’s demand…

Jonas has resented delectable Cassandra from the beginning, believing her to be a gold-digger who only married his brother for money. Now it is time for retribution…in his bed!

Yet she soon succumbs to Jason’s insistent persuasion. However, news of her grandfather’s sudden death leaves Eden feeling guilty and—astonishingly—binds her irrevocably to the devastating Jason…!

Genres: Contemporary Romance, Harlequin, Harlequin Presents, Marriage Of Convenience, Romance

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

I have written almost 250 romance novels in contemporary and Regency.

I am a USA Today Bestselling Author and recipient of the 2015 RWA Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2014 I received a Pioneer of Romance Award from Romantic Times in the US and in 2012 I was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II for my 'outstanding service to literature'.

I am very happily married to Peter with six sons, and live on the Isle of Man

Reviews

[Danielle The Book Huntress · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice old school Harlequin Presents. Jonas has a repressed/dark/seething vibe that I found intriguing. Jonas is intense! He and Cassandra apparently couldn't stand each other. So why was he demanding marriage from her? This is one of those books that works better if you don't have the hero's POV. You have to use your imagination on what the hero is thinking and why he does what he does until the last few pages, and then you get the reveal and all is good.

It's a guilty pleasure of mine, but I love the blackmail marriage theme. It's harder to pull off in the newer books because most readers aren't going to go for a book with a heroine-limited POV, and it would almost surely spoil it if you know what the hero's thinking in this scenario. I think it can be done, but it would take some skills.

I liked that Cassandra decided to dive in and find out about the relationship between Jonas and his father. There is clearly something very wrong, and it very much affects her since she was married to his half-brother (she's his widow). Jonas's bitterness and lack of trust can be linked right back to his troubled relationship with his father, and secrets that come to be revealed about his father's marriage. It wasn't just selfish on her part, though. She correctly felt like it was destroying Jonas and he was missing out on a genuine relationship with his father, and she wanted to help, out of love for him.

I felt like Jonas was a "still waters run deep" guy when it came to his feelings for Cassandra (or at least I read them into his interactions with her). He is very fixated on her, and has been since they first met. I didn't think it was just about her having been married to his brother (and spillover resentment for his brother). I liked how the reveal wasn't just about their relationship, but how everything in Jonas' family's dysfunctional dynamic affected Jonas and his relationships as a grown man.

I liked his relationship with Cassandra's daughter, and it was an integral part of the story. You could see that he had a soft aspect to his personality in the way he bonded with her. He will definitely be a good father. He also did things for Cassandra that her first marriage didn't. She loved Charles, but Charles was kind of immature for his age, and she felt like the parent. With Jonas, he is able and willing to be the husband who is a protector and provider for his wife. While Cassandra is an independent woman, I think even self-sufficient women want a man who they feel will carry his weight as a partner/husband.

This book is a good read, not just a romance book, but a book about the way that family relationships can affect our ability to relate with others in our adult lives, and that we need to seek healing so we can move on and love others in a healthy way. I was glad that even though things worked out with Jonas and Cassandra, he also reestablished a relationship with his father and knew how much his father loved him. This one's worth seeking out, in my opinion.

[boogenhagen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Re Hunter's Moon - Carole Mortimer takes us back to the old skool in this one, or as Vintage calls it, The Dark Ages of HPlandia.

Now if you are not a hardened veteran of 1970's HPlandia, this may not be your cuppa. But if you have waded through the worst of Margaret Pargeter, Sara Craven and Lilian Peake, then this book is an enjoyable old-style HP outing.

The first HP Plus of December 1994 and hark back to yesteryear can only involve one trope. Marriage by Blackmail HP style, and of course you know there is going to be punishing kisses and some shaking.

But interestingly CM leaves out the forced seduction and limits her Uber Alpha Manly H to some seriously mean words and a temperamental shake of the h or two. No h's were seriously harmed in the making of this twisty throwback.

The book opens with the h contemplating the yet again unannounced invasion of her home by the H. The h is a widow with a four year old daughter and the H is the extremely estranged half-brother of her deceased husband. They had never met prior to the h's husband's death and the h is kinda glad that a big time family feud has kept the H on the other side of the Atlantic all these years.

The first words the H sarcastically ever says to the h are " The grieving widow I presume?" making it really, really clear that the much younger 25 yr old h married to the H's 46 year old brother is a tarty piece of gold digging totty that coerced his brother into marriage, in the H's estimation.

It is an estimation that doesn't falter for the nine months the H stalks the h before the start of the book. (So vintage stalkerific H fans, this one is definitely for you.) The H soon imposes himself on every area of the h's life except for her high fashion design business that is suffering some setbacks in the current financial recession.

The h's dead husband left all of his shares in the company business to the H to manage, the h can't fathom why he wouldn't leave it for her daughter, but she also thinks her dead husband embezzled funds from the company and lost them all in another business venture without telling her father, who was her husband's partner.

At least that is what her weak and spendthrift husband told her right after her father died and before he too had his fatal heart catastrophe leading to a different plane of existence.

So the h is carrying a tremendous load of financial uncertainty, coupled with sheer terror about how to replace the funds her husband supposedly misappropriated and that she prays the H doesn't know about.

The h also has two useless, vapid socialites for a sister and a mother, who think roughing it is a single room at the Savoy in London instead of a suite and have never considered getting an actual job in their tiny, flittery lives.

The h doesn't have much to do with them if she can avoid it, but she doesn't really react to their insults and put downs either. You might think this h is a bit vapid herself, but really she just chooses her battles.

She knows her sister and her mother have no understanding of her values whatsoever, or why she might want a career of her own and really, who cares what those two trouble stirring idiots think anyway? The h's mother is a good grandmother to the h's daughter and that is all the h cares about, so she ignores the lesser aspects of their character.

What also troubles the h is that her daughter really adores the H as well. In his continual home invasions of her privacy, he has become her little girl's BFF and as he is always extremely fatherly and kind to her daughter, the h just can't bear to assert herself and ban him from the house cause her daughter thinks the H is her substitute daddy.

Even then, when the H claims that it was her father that took all the money out of the partnership and lost it, then demands the h marry him and turn over her shares in the company to him, the h hesitates. She knows full well the H will make her life a living torment with his false picture of her, yet he promises that her beloved daughter will have financial security and that the money lost will be replaced with no one the wiser.

The h reluctantly agrees to the H's callous proposal and wonders at her mother's sudden glee when the engagement is announced. Especially as the h's mother threw her sister at the H in full on seduction mode when he first returned to England and the H rejected her dubious charms. The h's mother seemed to panic after that and all of the sudden the H was given carte blance to the mother's home and social occasions.

The h was busy with her own life and failed to notice the desperation behind her mother's act and then she was too busy dealing with the H's accusations of having an affair with her assistant and being a bad mother to notice that the H is hunting her down and cornering her like a tiger after a tasty meal of gazelle.

(Savvy HP readers will correctly read the H's actions as a man caught up on the spikes of True HPlandia Lurve Force Mojo Love, but the h is clueless. Tho the carefully selected and wrapped abundant piles of gifts from Father Christmas should have been a huge hint.)

The h had one low emotional moment on Christmas night in front of the H that leads to the big lurve club event on the parlor hearth rug. The h realizes with a huge shock that the H is a reliable and caring man who shoulders his responsibilities with pride and she is in utterly in love. The h has been carrying everyone around her for so long, she has totally forgotten what it felt like to have a broad shoulder to lean on and maybe clutch at in ecstatic passion.

The H gets really, really cranky after the big lurve mojo force explosion tho. He swears he will never share a bed or a rug with the h again after they are married, cause he accuses her of pretending he is her dead husband instead.

(Another clue for savvy HP readers here, this H is insanely jealous of every single man who even breathed within ten feet of the h and he vents about it a LOT.)

But it isn't until the H and h and her daughter do the Christmas visit to the H's father that the h starts to suspect that the H has some serious psychological childhood damage, most likely involving his mother and his parent's divorce when he was just a child.

The h grabs her Latoya Jackson Online Detective School Rule Book and determines to run down the cause of the H's inner child trauma. She starts with the H's father, who explains that he was madly in love with his first wife, who was the mother of the h's husband, and when she died he was devastated.

He stupidly married the H's mother, without being over his first marriage and her affairs and her jealously over the H's oldest brother led her to poison the H against his father and brother. It did not help that the H's first experience of falling in love led to the girl meeting his older and wealthier brother and getting dumped by that girl when she went after the older brother instead.

The h, knowing full well the frailties of her loved but weak husband, finally understands that the H has to learn to see both parent's side to the breakdown of their marriage, cause he believes only his mother's version. The H's mother claimed that the H's father denied paternity and then used his money and connections to get custody of the H over his mother's claims.

The H's mother also disappeared for years while the H was growing up, but she would return periodically to poison the H further and when the kerfuffle over the H's first girlfriend happened, the H stormed of to America and made a fortune. His mother was right quick to insinuate herself with him after that.

The h goes back to her house to confront the H and a big fight ensues, the h gets shaken when the H thinks she was with a lover, but the h explains about her visit to the H's father and then yells at the H to quit blaming her father for the missing money when it was his brother that took it.

The H laughs at that statement and tells the h it was definitely her father who lost most of the company's funds via embezzlement. Then he storms off. The h finally gets her detective cap sitting on her coiffed hair properly and goes to have it out with her mother.

The h's mother breaks down under the h's interrogation and the ugly truth comes out. The h's father WAS responsible for the missing money, her husband was trying hard to make up for years of being the second child in the h's marriage and lied. The mother doesn't care if the h is sold off like a prostitute to a man the mother doesn't even like - as long as her and the h's sister's social position and lifestyle can continue on as usual.

The H walks in on the mother's confession and claims that he will still put the money back into the company, but he won't force the h to marry him or turn over her shares. He went to talk with his own father and now he realizes that he got it all wrong.

The h decides that the H isn't getting out her clutches now. She informs him that they are still getting married, but chickens out and says it is because her daughter needs him for his fatherly skillz. The h verifies that there isn't another woman the H actually wants to marry and the H asserts that he loves the h and only wants her.

The H has loved her since he first saw her, but he couldn't bear to offer that love and be rejected. So he decided that blackmail was a better and safer way to get the h into his life forever. Then he realized that the h really is a decent person and he would never win her love if she hated him, so he let her go and she turned right around and lassoed him back.

The H and h are now in love and shouting it from the rooftops, the wedding in two days will go on as planned and they finally make it to a real bedroom for the pink sparkly purple fuschia love club event and a big HEA on the shining golden shores of Old Skool HPlandia.

This one was pretty good and CM did a decent job on the backstory and the pacing. The almost martyred old skool h trope was really well done in this HP outing too.

The h discovered a calcium factory just in the nick of time and the H did the repentant H walk of shame in true manly HP semi-groveling fashion to make this one a very believable HEA and a good day at the HP office.

[Preeti ♥︎ Her Bookshelves · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had one of the most wimpy and vacuous hs ever.
Okay, I hate screechy contrary hs but this is not what I would ever want in my h.
She just goes with the flow, letting people talk down to her. No one takes her seriously- not her selfish mother, nor her poisonous sister and certainly not the H who treats her like a daily verbal punching bag. And she never gives a reaction, forget a retaliation. She is supposedly a fairly good fashion designer. I would expect her to have more self-confidence and self-assurance.

Yes the angst was high but only because of all the seething hatred seeping out of the H’s pores. He hits the ground abusing her and she never stands up to him. He keeps walking in and out of her house anytime of the day or night for this. I would have felt bad for the h if I could have liked her better. The H is one of those vintage typical…the walking mocking sneering type. He just hates and lives to abuse the h, guess that’s how he gets his kicks.

He is her dead husband’s half brother who lands from the US as the dead guy leaves him his shares in the company co-owned with the h’s family, making him the majority shareholder and thus the de facto boss. And now, 9 months down the line he is bludgeoning the h into marrying him. And lays on the charm thus. .
'And you will be giving me your shares—as a wedding present!'

Only towards the end the story picks up a bit as you wait for the big family secret to be revealed, as to why the H hates so! Hates her, hates his father, hates his half brother. Of course the secret was one of usual from the HP’s bags of tricks but still at least it lifted the story.

But the change in the H was too sudden almost as if the writer realized it was time to wrap up the book. Nil romance but thankfully one sex scene, otherwise it would have been a complete dud.
The h also finally showed some spine and some personality.

[StMargarets · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nicely intense story of a hero who has huge chip on shoulder about his half-brother and father. That chip almost overshadows the insta-lust he has for his widowed sister-in-law but happily lust wins the day and he forces the heroine into a blackmail marriage.

His blackmail? He’ll publicize the embezzling done by either the heroine’s father or her husband. Since they’re both dead it really doesn’t seem to matter. But the heroine is concerned with her four year-old’s shares in the firm (and she also lusts after the hero), so she relents.

The hero is cruel to everyone but the four year-old, so that was fun. But – and there are a lot of buts to enjoying this story - the question of who really embezzled the money goes on for too long. The heroine’s mother and sister add nothing to the narrative. And there are squick factors. Heroine’s first husband was the same age as her father and was his business partner and friend. Second husband is her first husband’s half brother.

With those warning in place, go forth and enjoy a cruel, tied up in knots hero. Boogenhagen has all the details in her excellent review.

[Debby · Rating 1 out of 5]

I just couldn’t get over the fact that the H is the brother of the late husband of the h. It’s so nasty to have sex with two brothers.

The h had a good sexual relationship with her husband and they have a child together. After the death of her husband, his brother comes into play.

Doesn’t the H ever think when he has sex with her that his brother has seen the h naked and his brother has kissed and licked all those private parts of her body already. I just can’t fathom how you can not have those thoughts going through you.

Oh yeah, the H is his ‘half-brother’. As if that makes it better.

I don’t like ‘The Bold and the Beautiful’ love themes where people keep it all in the family and the h has sex with not only the man, but also his brother, his father, his cousin, etc. So unromantic.

[Tia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't really care for this one when I read it a few years back and even now it still tastes bittersweet in my mouth. I didn't really like the hero, he was an asshole in this novel and overall most of the novel was filled with sad past times.

[Pravana · Rating 2 out of 5]

An author I have always loved.
But......this book didn't appeal.

Borrowing a few shelves from Preeti.
Jul 02, 2015 Preeti ♥︎ (Romance She Reads) rated it liked it
Shelves: hero-alphahole, h-irritating-bratty-boring-or-silly, he-controlling-manipualtive, moc-arrnged-forcd-mino, grow-a-spine-girl, him-tortured-past-emo-scarred, revenge-payback-vindicatn, kids-with-other-ppl, hero-cruel-abusive-asshat, blackmail, h-hurt-betrayed-by-family, angst-some, hero-sarcastic-mocking, eye-roller, hero-i-dint-like-or-connect-wid, h-non-virgin, this-is-how-i-do-luv-neproblm, hero-judgemental-cynical, 2-plus-stars, he-badtempered-or-anger-issues, he-controlling-ruthless, history-wid-sib-czn-fren-stp_parnt, hero-cruel-heartless, secrets-shockers-revelations, h-wid-one-prvious-luvr, family-i-dislike, hs-ex-older-man, h-widow

[iamGamz · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 Meh Stars

Jonas blackmails his deceased bother's wife, Cassandra, into marriage believing that her father stole money from the family business.
The H is cold and uncaring. The h feels that she has no choice but to marry the H to save her uncaring mother and sister. The H's family his a lot of secrets and once the h learned of them, she was able to understand and help them move forward from the past.

This book was a "meh". it was an ok read.

[RomLibrary]

Marriage or scandal?

Ruthless, successful—and devilishly good-looking—businessman Jonas Hunter didn't give his widowed sister-in-law Cassandra Kyle any choice. Marry him and sign over her stocks in the family company or he'd expose her family's sins to the world! With her little daughter to consider, Cassandra can only obey Jonas’s demand…

Jonas has resented delectable Cassandra from the beginning, believing her to be a gold-digger who only married his brother for money. Now it is time for retribution…in his bed!

Yet she soon succumbs to Jason’s insistent persuasion. However, news of her grandfather’s sudden death leaves Eden feeling guilty and—astonishingly—binds her irrevocably to the devastating Jason…

[More Books Than Time · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good characters but romance and HEA were a bit hard to believe. I didn’t buy his claim to have fallen for her on sight; he was too nasty too often.
I liked her. She refused to let her mom or sister pry and gossip or manipulate her and I didn’t think she would let him continue being mean either.

I should have counted the number of times author used the word “derision” and its adverb, verb and adjective forms.

[Elaine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cassandra and Jonas are the main couple in this story of 2015. Hm, not a very happy couple in most of this story, although they do get to love each other right at the end. It was o.k., not sexy enough. 3☆

[Keriboo]

3.5

[Helen Moulden · Rating 3 out of 5]

Deary deary me. Hard to comment on this one.

[Tricia Murphy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I enjoy the crazy old school Carole. This was so boring. Not about their relationship at all, it was page after page of family trauma that did not drive the story forward.

[☠tsukino☠ · Rating 3 out of 5]

tre stelle e mezzo

Altro Harmony d'annata sbucato dal ripostiglio.
Meno imbarazzante di “Un Mondo di illusioni (il primo ad essere ritrovato), ma di poco. Il voto è uguale sempre per motivi sentimentali legati ai ricordi.