Tangled Shadows

by Flora Kidd

Tangled Shadows by Flora Kidd released on Nov 23, 1979 is available now for purchase.

Genres: Romance, Harlequin Presents, Harlequin

Mass Market Paperback

First published August 10, 1979

About the author

Flora Mildred Cartwright was born on 1926 in Liverpool, England, UK. The youngest of four children, Flora and her family lived in the same house until she was a teen. In 1949, she graduated from Liverpool University, where she met Robert Kidd, her husband. They moved to her beloved Scotland, where she began teaching, writing, and raised their four children: Richard, Patricia, Peter and David.

Flora Kidd published her first novel, Visit To Rowanbank, in 1966 at Mills & Boon. In 1977, the family moved to Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, where she continued her romance career with Mills & Boon until 1989, when she retired. In 1994, she published the first of the The Marco Polo Project novels, to support a project to build a replica of the 19th century ship Marco Polo.

Flora Kidd passed away on March 19, 2008 at Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada.

Reviews

[Jac K · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an oldie… 1979… Follows the troubled marriage of Kathryn and Cesare who have been separated for 18 months. The couple had whirlwind courting, like maybe a weekend. H married her because he thought she was beautiful, and was a virgin. She married him, because her childhood secret love/crush (Tony) had just announced he was marrying her cousin.

This the second book in a row where the h spins her thoughts to create an imaginary love match between the H and an OW. Here our h, uses this as the reason for leaving the H, which creates the conflict for the entire plot.

This is a frustrating read, mainly because the above-mentioned conflict is DRAGGED out for almost the ENTIRE book (like all but 5 pages) which got old. In a nutshell, she believes the worst in every situation; rarely ask him to clarify, and if he does… she doesn’t believe him… gets defensive, pushes him away, but then is hurt when he doesn’t chase after her. Rinse & repeat

We also only get Kathryn’s POV, and FYI she’s not portrayed super favorably. She admits early on that once she decided he was in love with Sophia (his ex) she became very jealous… nagged him… denied him sex… accused him of being a liar constantly, and threatened to leave… all so he would admit that it wasn’t her that he wanted, but Sophia. When she hears he was in an accident a year earlier, and has partial amnesia and a limp… his family wants her to visit to spark his memory, and she says she’ll write him a letter. Later when she does visit she makes a snarky remark about him not being able to carry her luggage let alone her. 😣 She’s pretty hostile, and I wish I could say she mellows out, but she keeps it up all the way through. There’s really no reasoning why at the end she suddenly believes Cesare as opposed to the previous 10+ times he tells her there’s nothing between him and S. So, if you have zero tolerance for the stubborn “hostile h” character type… you might want to skip this one.

For his part, Cesare prioritizes his racing/engine building, and puts K on the back burner as he goes to race, or has broken parts. We don’t get a ton of C’s backstory; his characters pretty flat. He’s injured when they reconnect, and just getting over partial amnesia, so he’s bitter, but not cruel. He pushes her away a few times when he thinks she’s only giving pity. Italian pride and all 😊

Bottom Line- I would compare this plot to being stuck in the mud; we spin our tires for a long time (almost the entire book) before moving forward. It’s a lot of arguing, and the subject of Sophia is beaten like a dead horse. For those who do not like “second best” romances…. Cesare does reveal he broke up with Sophia; (she told everyone her parents forced the split to save face) she was having an affair with her cousin; (which was why she was always at the races-her family owns another racing team) and he has not been with her sexually since their break-up prior to his marriage. (they don’t state how long that was, but she was married and widowed by the time the two wed, so it had to be some length of time) He also tried to track down his runaway wife, but she didn’t let anyone know where she was, and he was celibate during the split, so I think it’s pretty safe to say we can put the “Sophia” topic to rest. I’m adding some quotes at the end for my memory, since I borrowed this one.


Cliff notes….break-up scene…
h- “Where were you all night?”
H- “Working on my car. My engine's broke and I need to race.”
h- “Liar, stop lying!”
H- “Please stop calling me a liar, I’m tired of your suspicion and jealousy.”
h- “All you do is lie! Pretending to be busy with your damn car!”
H- Carissima, I’m sorry I had to leave you alone last night. I had hoped we could go dancing…”
h- “Stop it! I can’t bear you pretending to love me when I know you love Sophia. I wish I never married you!”
H- “What are you going to do about it? If you don’t want to be my wife then why don’t you do what you keep threatening to do? Why don’t you leave me?”

h- “What about Sophia? Is she your mistress?”
H- “Good God, no, and never was. How often do I have to say it before you’ll believe me?”

H- “Following my racing career closely does not mean that she slept with me after every race.”

H- “But what’s the use of telling you anything?” You’re not going to believe me. You prefer to believe Tony. You prefer to listen to trivial gossip about me and Sophia rather than believe me. I’m only your husband, so you mustn’t believe me or trust me. You never have. What good is that?"

[MissKitty · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent older harlequin. Kathryn is separated from her husband Cesare. He has been in an accident and has amnesia. His family convinces her to visit him to help jog his memory. When they first met, Kathryn had just been dumped by her boyfriend to marry her cousin. Feeling sad and reckless she goes out with Cesare. Surprisingly he proposes and they get married. He is a race car driver. Their marriage at first seems fine but hits rocky ground. She finds out that Cesare had an ex-fiancée who is now widowed. She believes this woman is his mistress. She also thinks Cesare is unfaithful to her when he goes to races without her. After a bad fight she leaves him.
SPOILERS:
Now 2 years later she comes back to help him remember after his accident. He questions her about certain events and he slowly remembers their time together - the good as well as the bad. Although this gives them a good opportunity to thresh out everything about their marriage, they still continue to mistrust each other. She because of the OW ex-fiancé who is still around and him because he had always known that she married him on the rebound from her old boyfriend. He does eventually regain his memory, it is apparently her letter to him asking for a divorce that leads to his crash, but It is still a long rocky road to reconciliation.

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

What if you met someone, felt an instant attraction, maybe more and since you both felt the same after only a week you get married?

You don’t know each other, you don’t know how to communicate and have different ideas in how a marriage should work?

Would it be a surprise that it doesn’t work? Would it be a surprise that there was anger, drama, angst and jealousy?

So what happens? A separation and many misconceptions, miss communications, hurt and jealousy.

After an almost two year separation, you meet and fall back into old patterns, after everything neither have learned the art of listening and putting the other first.

Vows such as for better or worse, in sickness or health are ignored. Hurt is hidden and feelings never mentioned until finally after a short separation you finally really communicate, express feelings and talk about the good, the bad and the ugly…getting to the HEA.

The main characters were both stubborn and unmovable but finally put the misconceptions and pride aside. It was a painful trip to watch but that is what HQN books are all about. It’s what makes read and reread. It’s what makes us come back for more!

[Lynn Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really good read at the time. Enjoyed it.

[Lyka Jimenez · Rating 5 out of 5]

idk but it's kinda great 🎀🤍

[Live2Read · Rating 2 out of 5]

I might be on a roll of discovering bad books with coolly, detached heroines. I should have read spoilers but since I chose not to be spoiled, I wasted time instead. There was way more than what the blurb offered and it was one whacky ride…


So, here we have a race car driver and engineer of a stud hero who got into a bad accident after heroine ran off and while he miraculously recovered he also now limps and suffers from amnesia. Heroine was then tasked two years later to go see hubby and help him recovered his lost memory. That’s the premise. But neither hero and heroine are that interesting. Didn’t care for them with time.

Also, heroine’s employer in the beginning was amazingly horrible! The employer threatened and discriminated against the heroine because of her newly discovered status. This specific employer do not like being duped and never hired married women. Employer now will investigate and instigate the married woman by first wanting all the info of pre marriage and post marriage and then concluding the heroine a frightened bitch for her cowardness and past behaviors against the hero. (Honestly, didn’t expect that! Employer didn’t even pretend to sympathize at the least!) Last but not least, employer must also play marriage therapist and counsel the heroine by saying cringe things like oh, I know why you left him. It’s because you love him and oh, I know why he told you to leave…it’s because of this and that…oh, really? What exactly do you know, third party? Ultimately, said employer threatened the heroine to go see hubby or else! But if she goes then employer would keep her around despite of married status after all she really is a good employee and secretary. How silly is it? A threat of work termination to get the heroine out the door.

So, whirlwind marriages are a give and take. I always questioned the love, if not the book logic and sense behind it. There isn’t! Only lust and convenience. Here, at least we know the heroine married on the rebound, so that’s fairly reasonable. But when she was supposed to have fallen in love with the hero during their marriage her actions and thoughts never fully adds up. She was rather unaffected and uncaring towards him, thus chemistry and love felt stiff and false past and present time. I don’t find her relatable nor very honest. She is prone to lying and prefers to play the victim. She purposely leave out important details or information to mislead the hero and make herself look better than what she is. Hero was trying to remember things so he asked her about their marriage and she quickly blurted out that she had a miscarriage, to which he then asked was she even happy with the pregnancy and of course homegirl replied that she was, because if she wasn’t then why was she sad when she had lost it. Hero also wants to know if he was happy when he found out about her pregnancy. Heroine then answered she doesn’t know if he was or not since she never was his priority…and it was only later through the very thoughts of the heroine, that is, that we gained the insight that when she first found out about her pregnancy she didn’t really want it. She had never thought that far in life with him and pregnancy will only take away from her chasing hubby around the world as he raced cars. Significantly, it was indeed the hero and his family that was most excited and welcoming of the baby news. Eventually heroine settled to want a son, if that means it will make hero less prone to leave her ever. Man, what a depressing life! Maybe the employer was right! Either the heroine was meant to be that dishonest or the author messed up unknowingly. But she is kind of a B and unworthy!

DNF. DNR!!!

[RomLibrary]

I'll never give you a divorce..."

Cesare had told Kathryn firmly. "Because we married in haste it doesn't make our marriage any less solid, to my way of thinking."

Kathryn had been stung by his words. It was true she had married him on the rebound, but she had left him because of her love--to free him to marry the beautiful Sophia Barzini.

Now, eighteen months later, Cesare expected Kathryn to resume their marriage. But how could she? The issue of Sophia was still unresolved, and Kathryn wasn't prepared to be second best!

[Deane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Needed to read a romance novel after reading a thriller by Nora Roberts...not a bad story but a bit far-fetched...why Cesare couldn't figure out that his previous girl friend, Sophia and the relationship he still had with her was the 'big problem' in his and Kathryn marriage is a mystery to me....he knew Kathryn was jealous of Sophia so why didn't he reassure her instead of ignoring her feelings.

But all ends well in the end....