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In Pursuit of Love
How to handle a heartbreaker...
"What sends bachelors running for their lives? Weddings and babies! Start looking at furniture, develop an interest in expensive rings, muse aloud about the names you're going to give your children."
Blythe looked everything she was not -- sophisticated, experienced and a woman who had many men in her past. Christian Ballantine, on the other hand, was a heartbreaker of the first order, and his woman-of-the-moment was Blythe. He intended to sleep with her and she was determined he would not. But how was she to divert him? She would ask him to marry her -- that would frighten him off!
"What sends bachelors running for their lives? Weddings and babies! Start looking at furniture, develop an interest in expensive rings, muse aloud about the names you're going to give your children."
Blythe looked everything she was not -- sophisticated, experienced and a woman who had many men in her past. Christian Ballantine, on the other hand, was a heartbreaker of the first order, and his woman-of-the-moment was Blythe. He intended to sleep with her and she was determined he would not. But how was she to divert him? She would ask him to marry her -- that would frighten him off!
- GenresHarlequin Presents
186 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1992
About the author
Jayne Bauling
58 books71 followersJayne was born in England but grew up in South Africa. After many years in Johannesburg and 17 women's fiction novels published in the UK, a move to White River, Mbombela in Mpumalanga, coincided with an exploration of new writing directions - youth fiction, short stories and poetry. Her YA novel E Eights won the 2009 Macmillan Writer's Prize for Africa, Stepping Solo was awarded the 2011 Maskew Miller Longman literature award for novels in English, and Dreaming of Light won the 2012 Gold Sanlam Prize for Youth Literature and was chosen for the 2014 IBBY Honour List. Her youth short story Dineo 658 MP won the 2009 MML silver medal, while This Ubuntu Thing was shortlisted for the inaugural Golden Baobab award and The Saturday Dress was shortlisted for the same award in 2014. In 2011 she also won the inaugural African Writing flash fiction prize for Settling. She has twice been shortlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize. Another youth novel Our Side of the Wall was shortlisted for the Sanlam Prize. Her adult short stories have appeared in The Bed Book of Short Stories (Modjaji Books), The Edge of Things (Dye Hard Press), African Pens 2011 (Jacana), Feast, Famine & Potluck (Short Story Day Africa), the e-anthology Behind the Shadows, and (the stories An Inappropriate Woman and Witch and Bitch)in the People Opposing Women Abuse Breaking the Silence annual anthologies (Jacana). Rage and Misfortune, her retelling of the OT Samson story was published online by Ludic Press. Poetry: Symbiosis won SAFM's Express Yourself prize, Fist was placed 3rd in the 2008 POWA Women's Writing Project and published in Murmurs of the Girl in Me, while Unschooled was published in POWA's 2010 anthology Stories of the Othere(ed) Woman and The Ladies Take Tea in POWA's 2012 anthology Sisterhood. More poetry in ouroboros review, Markings, poetandgeek, Ons Klyntji, Litnet and the Lowvelder.
Her latest novel is Soccer Secrets (Cover2Cover Books).
Visit her Facebook page Jayne Bauling Writer or follow her on Twitter @JayneBauling
Her latest novel is Soccer Secrets (Cover2Cover Books).
Visit her Facebook page Jayne Bauling Writer or follow her on Twitter @JayneBauling
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
May 30, 2019
Note to self: this is the one where the heroine collects teddy bears and always wears polka dots. And the “OW” (really the hero’s friend, nothing more) always wears plaid and big bows. Quite the 80’s music video.
The conflict in this one is interesting. H/h are both good-looking, charismatic people who have interested the opposite sex since puberty. The hero has a reputation of being a heart-breaker and promiscuous. Hero assumes heroine is the same, although there is no hard evidence to support that assumption.
H/h meet when she is assigned to be his PA while hero works out of the Hong Kong office. Heroine has been warned of his reputation, so she is on her guard. Hero sees heroine and wants her. He knows she wants him back, but thinks this hard-to-get-stance is all a game to her.
So they dance around their attraction with the misunderstandings piling up. The virgin heroine, in desperation not have her heart broken, mentions marriage, thinking the hero will finally give up. But hero pounces.
They get married. Heroine tries to hide her love, but once they have sex, the gig is up. Hero is angry she was playing a different game than he was and now doesn’t think their marriage will work because he can’t give her what she wants. Heroine thinks he can’t love her, but what the hero really means is that he doesn’t think he can give her peace of mind/security because the heroine will never trust him.
Heroine keeps waiting for the shoe to drop – for the hero to tire of her. And it all comes to a head when she seems him dining with the plaid-wearing OW. Hero explains that they met by chance, nothing is going on, but he thinks they should break up. He loves her but he thinks she won’t believe him and will tear herself up with jealousy. Heroine just needed to hear the words from him. HEA
This hero was very smitten and heroine was really mixed up and angsty. The tour of Hong Kong was fascinating as well.
The misunderstanding about just how sophisticated the heroine was might bother some readers, but it wasn’t as simple as that. Their issues were more about vulnerability and intimacy and how they both had to learn to trust than any sort of judgment of the heroine’s “past.”
The conflict in this one is interesting. H/h are both good-looking, charismatic people who have interested the opposite sex since puberty. The hero has a reputation of being a heart-breaker and promiscuous. Hero assumes heroine is the same, although there is no hard evidence to support that assumption.
H/h meet when she is assigned to be his PA while hero works out of the Hong Kong office. Heroine has been warned of his reputation, so she is on her guard. Hero sees heroine and wants her. He knows she wants him back, but thinks this hard-to-get-stance is all a game to her.
So they dance around their attraction with the misunderstandings piling up. The virgin heroine, in desperation not have her heart broken, mentions marriage, thinking the hero will finally give up. But hero pounces.
They get married. Heroine tries to hide her love, but once they have sex, the gig is up. Hero is angry she was playing a different game than he was and now doesn’t think their marriage will work because he can’t give her what she wants. Heroine thinks he can’t love her, but what the hero really means is that he doesn’t think he can give her peace of mind/security because the heroine will never trust him.
Heroine keeps waiting for the shoe to drop – for the hero to tire of her. And it all comes to a head when she seems him dining with the plaid-wearing OW. Hero explains that they met by chance, nothing is going on, but he thinks they should break up. He loves her but he thinks she won’t believe him and will tear herself up with jealousy. Heroine just needed to hear the words from him. HEA
This hero was very smitten and heroine was really mixed up and angsty. The tour of Hong Kong was fascinating as well.
The misunderstanding about just how sophisticated the heroine was might bother some readers, but it wasn’t as simple as that. Their issues were more about vulnerability and intimacy and how they both had to learn to trust than any sort of judgment of the heroine’s “past.”
August 11, 2019
Without the silly assumptions of both MCs, there would be no book, so I don't complain about it. Also, banter was good!
November 14, 2014
2 1/2 Stars ~ Blythe is gorgeous and her voluptuous body has always attracted men which has been rather a burden for her as she's not the sort for meaningless affairs. She believes in commitment, love and forever but she hides her vulnerable nature behind the image men see. When her boss asks her to be temporary PA to the owner of the company, she's put rather on the spot because it's her sophisticated image that's her best qualification for the job. Christian has a notorious reputation as a playboy, and the last time he'd been in Hong Kong, the PA he'd been assigned had, in her innocence, fallen in love with him, causing a horrible scene when he had to reject her. When he meets Blythe he's immediately stunned. In his eyes, Blythe is a man-killer and he's confident that she's the sort to lose her heart. Just a simple touch tells them both they share a combustible attraction, and Christian pursues her relentlessly. Blythe, disconcerted by her physical reaction to Christian, hides behind the game of the chase. But when she realizes she's lost her heart to him, she worries that she'll not be able to resist him for much longer. Then the words of her friend comes to her rescue ...
When in the heat of the moment, Christian says ... 'It's something very special, isn't it? Unique, made in heaven. We belong...' Blythe coyly asks him if he truly means it and then ... 'Then don't you want to... But no, I suppose there's no need for us to be married first.' That's when it's Blythe's jaw that drops for Christian agrees, and this begins their whirlwind engagement that snowballs into a wedding.
This is a silly romance with two gorgeous sexually charismatic people who battle their exaggerated reputations. It bites Christian's ego that Blythe thinks him to be a womanizer so he doesn't try to correct her. Blythe has always had men chase her, so she's used her sexuality to her mask her inexperience. At every turn their sexual magnitism is ever present and it stops them from seeing into the hearts of the other. The banter was fun, the misunderstanding was totally silly, but they got their HEA.
'What sends bachelors—playboys—running for their lives? Weddings and babies! Start looking at furniture, develop an interest in expensive rings, muse aloud about the names you're going to give your children.'
When in the heat of the moment, Christian says ... 'It's something very special, isn't it? Unique, made in heaven. We belong...' Blythe coyly asks him if he truly means it and then ... 'Then don't you want to... But no, I suppose there's no need for us to be married first.' That's when it's Blythe's jaw that drops for Christian agrees, and this begins their whirlwind engagement that snowballs into a wedding.
This is a silly romance with two gorgeous sexually charismatic people who battle their exaggerated reputations. It bites Christian's ego that Blythe thinks him to be a womanizer so he doesn't try to correct her. Blythe has always had men chase her, so she's used her sexuality to her mask her inexperience. At every turn their sexual magnitism is ever present and it stops them from seeing into the hearts of the other. The banter was fun, the misunderstanding was totally silly, but they got their HEA.
December 19, 2019
"In Pursuit of Love" is the story of Blythe and Christian.
Our H is a notorious playboy, who arrives in Hong Kong on business. The h is a strong and sassy woman, picked to be his secretary to ward off his anticipated advances. However, sparks fly when they meet, and the H begins a full on pursuit of the h. She tries to resist him by going cold, which the H thinks is a ploy to engage and play with his feelings. One wild night she proposes marriage, hoping it would definitely put the H off..until he accepts and they end up being engaged!
A banter filled romance with a couple who spend the whole book circling around each other, one tries to fight off the attraction and the other refuses to give up. Heated kisses, OM/OW jealousy, drama, blame games, confession and ends in a HEA.
On a side note, the h is addicted to collecting teddy bears which was both weird and adorable, and the H is VERY obsessed with the h's curvy body and sex.
Safe
3/5
Our H is a notorious playboy, who arrives in Hong Kong on business. The h is a strong and sassy woman, picked to be his secretary to ward off his anticipated advances. However, sparks fly when they meet, and the H begins a full on pursuit of the h. She tries to resist him by going cold, which the H thinks is a ploy to engage and play with his feelings. One wild night she proposes marriage, hoping it would definitely put the H off..until he accepts and they end up being engaged!
A banter filled romance with a couple who spend the whole book circling around each other, one tries to fight off the attraction and the other refuses to give up. Heated kisses, OM/OW jealousy, drama, blame games, confession and ends in a HEA.
On a side note, the h is addicted to collecting teddy bears which was both weird and adorable, and the H is VERY obsessed with the h's curvy body and sex.
Safe
3/5
July 20, 2021
The entire story LITERALLY revolved around a will-they-won’t-they have sex (and we all know they will so why would you base an entire plot on this) stupid ass game that wasn’t EVEN a game in the first place just both H/h bickering and primping in their self-righteous bullshit. Ugh this shit made me so angry to the point where when they finally ended up having the seggs i didn’t even care and just wanted the whole thing to end.
The only reason why I finished and didn’t dnf was the beautiful writing (which earned the extra star) and also because I felt I had come too far to give up on seeing how this whole boring ass story would be resolved. They were so annoying I didn’t even want them to have a happy ending. Lmao with how they began and ended i don’t think their HEA is gonna last very long. So long and goodbye.
The only reason why I finished and didn’t dnf was the beautiful writing (which earned the extra star) and also because I felt I had come too far to give up on seeing how this whole boring ass story would be resolved. They were so annoying I didn’t even want them to have a happy ending. Lmao with how they began and ended i don’t think their HEA is gonna last very long. So long and goodbye.
September 24, 2022
I remember reading this and liking it.
October 30, 2012
reread
September 24, 2022
How to handle a heartbreaker...
"What sends bachelors running for their lives? Weddings and babies! Start looking at furniture, develop an interest in expensive rings, muse aloud about the names you're going to give your children."
Blythe looked everything she was not -- sophisticated, experienced and a woman who had many men in her past. Christian Ballantine, on the other hand, was a heartbreaker of the first order, and his woman-of-the-moment was Blythe. He intended to sleep with her and she was determined he would not. But how was she to divert him? She would ask him to marry her -- that would frighten him off! (
"What sends bachelors running for their lives? Weddings and babies! Start looking at furniture, develop an interest in expensive rings, muse aloud about the names you're going to give your children."
Blythe looked everything she was not -- sophisticated, experienced and a woman who had many men in her past. Christian Ballantine, on the other hand, was a heartbreaker of the first order, and his woman-of-the-moment was Blythe. He intended to sleep with her and she was determined he would not. But how was she to divert him? She would ask him to marry her -- that would frighten him off! (
October 20, 2013
I loved the sexy banter between the protagonists but the heroine left quite a bit to be desired.
January 17, 2016
Blythe has been hired to be the personal assistant to the owner of Triple A airlines while he is in Hong Kong because she is sophisticated enough not to fall for the playboy. She is so sophisticated, however, that when her boss wants to have an affair, he believes she is playing a game when she refuses. Determined to not get involved with him, since she's falling in love and doesn't want to get her heart broken, Blythe lets him know that she is only interested in marriage. Unfortunately, for her, Christian says he's interested in marriage, too.
The book spends a lot of time walking a thin line toward making the hero seem a horrible man, who would be really easy to hate, but then constantly dragging him back from being awful. The ending, however, reveals the true nature of the hero and makes you love him almost as much as the heroine does.
The book spends a lot of time walking a thin line toward making the hero seem a horrible man, who would be really easy to hate, but then constantly dragging him back from being awful. The ending, however, reveals the true nature of the hero and makes you love him almost as much as the heroine does.
February 18, 2018
I don't understand how people can like this crap. Because it is just crap, I wanted to shoot myself in the head from beginning to end of the book. Metaphorically, but still. Sh*tty characters for a sh*tty book. =__=
September 6, 2023
3.5 stars
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews