Strangers In The Night

by Susan Johnson, Pam Rosenthal, Katherine O'Neal

Contents:
Natural attraction / by Susan Johnson --
Fool me once / by Katherine O'Neal --
A house east of Regent Street / by Pam Rosenthal.

Susan Johnson - To the fashionable world, Viscount Priestley is known for his utter lack of morals, his wicked wit, and his unfailing talent at seducing, any woman who strikes his fancy-and then discarding her come morning. But the viscount has never met anyone like Nicky Wemyss. A woman who dresses as a man and immerses herself in science...

Katherine O'Neal - It's 1933, and Kate Frost is the most creative flim-flam artist in all of East London - until she meets her match in the ruthless, rakishly handsome Rhys. But when these two thieves fall prey to their own deceptions, there's no telling who is fooling whom...and who is no longer pretending at all...

Pam Rosenthal - The war with Napoleon over, seaman jack Merion has turned his attentions and his newfound prize money toward real estate, specifically a house east of Regent Street that was once a fashionable brothel. Like Jack, the mysterious Miss Myles has come up in the world the hard way, and she knows how to get what she wants. To gain the property they both want, she's willing to meet all of jack's terms - with pleasure...

Genres: Romance, Anthologies, Historical Romance, Historical, Erotica, Erotic Romance

384 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2004

About the author

And it all began rather serendipitously. Long ago, as they say, in another time, when fast food hadn't reached our area and the only shopping was what the feed mill offered, I was reading a book that annoyed me .

My husband was lying beside me in bed, watching TV. Turning to him, I sort of petulantly said, "How the hell did this book get published?"

"If you think you're so smart," he replied, with one eye still on the TV, "why don't you write a book?"

So I did. And very badly.

I've since learned how to do, he said, she said, and a great variety of other adverb heavy, sometimes lengthy explanations of why my characters are saying what they're saying, along with finally coming to an understanding of what things like POV means. Point of View for you non-writers}.

Although, I still don't fully comprehend why it matters if you switch POV and I cavalierly disregard it as much as possible. So while my technical skills have hopefully improved, what hasn't changed is my great joy in writing. There's as much pleasure today in listening to my characters talk while I type as fast as I can, as there was the first time I put dialogue to paper--in long-hand, then, in my leather bound sketch-book.

Reviews

[Janet]

This is an anthology containing:

Natural Attraction by Susan Johnson = 2 stars
Fool Me Once by Katherine O'Neal = 1.5 stars
A House East of Regent Street by Pam Rosenthal = 1 star

[Nenya · Rating 1 out of 5]

The rating is only for Pam Rosenthal's House on Regent Street.

I'm very much conflicted on what to rate it, which is why I'm going with 3 stars for now.

I liked the storytelling. I liked the way the story was told, and progressed. But I did not like the main story arch. H has always been a-whoring, from quite young. He's 40 now, and looking to buy an old brothel. Someone else is also interested. And he makes a deal with the h. Meet with him for 5 days and they'll get to lease it on discount. The 5 days of sex were well done (sort of; for a patron and a whore, expensive, elegant whore, but a whore nonetheless)... and a few twists and whatnots. Turns out H used to visit this brothel, and when h decided to start in on the business (she was a char girl before that) 22 years ago, she wanted him to be her first. So instead of his regular girl, they led him up to her that night. And she's been in love with him ever since.

Can I blame Pretty Woman for glorifying prostitution? I remember liking Mary Balogh's Precious Jewel for the way the heroine enters into the profession with her eyes open. I don't mind that certain things are shown as being enjoyable by some people. But normalizing them, and removing all stigma from them is not something I can condone. Because then people get pressurized into extending their boundaries beyond what they are comfortable with. It's all very well to say that it's all consensual, but what muddies the water is after all how consent is obtained. ugh. never mind my rant.

I guess my main problem was the inconsistency. It's so sexually open minded, and then we find out she fell in love with the first guy who took her virginity, when he was terrible at sex anyway? stupid. i was expecting better. The ending, instead of taking the story to a subliminal height, completely forfeited my good opinion.

[penelopewanders]

Here's the Amazon blurb: Susan Johnson - To the fashionable world, Viscount Priestley is known for his utter lack of morals, his wicked wit, and his unfailing talent at seducing, any woman who strikes his fancy-and then discarding her come morning. But the viscount has never met anyone like Nicky Wemyss. A woman who dresses as a man and immerses herself in science...Katherine O'Neal - It's 1933, and Kate Frost is the most creative flim-flam artist in all of East London - until she meets her match in the ruthless, rakishly handsome Rhys. But when these two thieves fall prey to their own deceptions, there's no telling who is fooling whom...and who is no longer pretending at all...Pam Rosenthal - The war with Napoleon over, seaman jack Merion has turned his attentions and his newfound prize money toward real estate, specifically a house east of Regent Street that was once a fashionable brothel. Like Jack, the mysterious Miss Myles has come up in the world the hard way, and she knows how to get what she wants. To gain the property they both want, she's willing to meet all of jack's terms - with pleasure...



As is often the case with anthologies, I enjoyed some of these better than others. It was entertaining, but not life-changing. I had the hardest time getting into the last one, but ended up appreciating the ending.

[LuvBug · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

I read this solely for Susan Johnson's story, "Natural Attraction." It was way too short of course. I knew it would be. Not that I love overly long books. I don't like my books that long. I actually prefer my books to be around 200 pages, but I've yet to see a short story such as this one that's fleshed out enough for you to get to know the characters. I would have loved to have 'seen' more from the couple instead of being told. 'Action speaks louder than words' definitely applies here. I felt like I didn't know Jasper very much, and I didn't get what he even saw in Nicky that grabbed his attention the way it did. I wanted to see it, and feel it. The book needed more nurturing development. It could have been done. Susan Johnson is brilliant. Trust me.

It was also very repetitive of Susan Johnson's past work. Same dialogue, same love scenes. I literally knew what would come next in the dialogue and courtship... and even the love scenes. But when you've read every single one of Susan Johnson's old school historical romance novels like I did, it's a given that her style would be familiar. This book might not have blown me away like I know SJ can, but it still wasn't utterly boring like some of the books today. I would have probably appreciated this story more if this was a new author to me.

[gabriela]

first one ‘Natural Attraction’ by Susan Johnson is fine, pretty standard reformed rogue stuff and an Indian FMC, i liked it and don’t see it often.

the second one ‘Fool Me Once’ by Katherine O’Neal it’s where things started to go downhill for me, wasn’t able to finish it 70% of the way through and this is significant because it’s so short and yet i lacked the endurance for it. something about the already stale main characters falsely claiming Mexican and indigenous heritage (!!!) for a badly put together revenge plot did something to my brain. also frida kahlo and diego rivera are side characters in this one and are done so dirty.

however i pushed through and began the third one ‘A House East of Regent Street’ by Pam Rosenthal because i read it somewhere that it was the best one - indeed fool me twice at this point, in spite of the unlikeable main characters i still dropped this one 2/3 of the way through because they used butter as lube, i can’t do it.

[Jo · Rating 1 out of 5]

An odd little collection of short stories, nothing to make me want to read more by these authors.

[Mollie *scoutrmom* · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decently done, just nothing spectacular.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first two stories were really boring. The only one I like was by Pam Rosenthal.