Re Spellbinding - Charlotte Lamb dusts off her massively domineering H type for this one, he basically kidnaps the h as she is recovering from an eight month long coma and refuses to let her go.
This one starts with the h waking up in hospital and having no idear what is wrong, but everyone seems really excited to see her open her eyes. As memory returns to the befuddled h, we get the events leading up to the dramatic reawakening.
The h is a regular girl who works in an office, one day she met a nice blonde young man and they fell in love. They decided to marry and the h was happy and floating along on the fluffy pink cloud of infatuation until she meet her beloved's very wealthy family and realized they despise her, mainly cause she is outside of their social circle.
The h's love also has a tall, dark and very brooding older brother. The h doesn't like him at all, he is domineering and bullying, but the h doesn't think too much of him as she isn't marry him after all. (Well we all know where this is going, don't we?)
The Broody Man shows up at the h's doorstep and demands that she leave his brother alone. He tells the h that his brother is actually engaged to a family friend's long time daughter and the h will never take her place. The h is furious, as she knows her young man loves her and believes his family is just pushing the marriage on an unwilling candidate. When the h asks her love about it, he tells her that he and his old fiance are broken up, but she is out of the country and he was waiting until she returned to break the sad news that he loves the h. Then he decides that they should go visit his family again and re-enforce his decision to marry the h.
But they never make it, there is a car crash on the way and the h ends up in a coma. When she wakes up, eight months are gone and the h is feeling the pain of being kept in stasis while the world has moved on. This includes her beloved blonde marrying the woman he was originally engaged to. In fact he married her on the day the h woke up.
The h is in shock and trauma and the only person who comes to see her is the Broody Man brother. He got in the habit of showing up every day as his younger brother can't handle any type of serious situation and it is obvious to the reader, but not the h, that this is a seriously in love man who won't hesitate to get what he wants. The h is naturally angry over everything that has occurred and she thinks she might have grounds for a lawsuit against the younger brother, as she has no job and no home anymore, she is going to need to some kind of compensation.
The H arranged for her to have private care and he also arranges to bring the h to his home to recuperate. The h goes ballistic one she realizes she is effectively hi-jacked, she believes the H has done it to prevent her from taking the brother to court. Her mum lives in New Zealand with a second family and the h can't travel, so after her mum leaves she is pretty much on her own.
Well except for the Broody H, that is. They have more than a few skirmishes that always seem to end up in big time roofie kisses. The h is beginning to think she really is brain-damaged because she hates the Broody H, but she just melts when he kisses her.
After meeting some of the H's friends who run a restaurant and we get a little fresh trout with melon and homemade scones food porn, the H and h venture out onto the local river for a lovely little boat ride. This ends in another big roofie kiss moment and the h getting soaked from the wake of a speedboat.
The h had overheard from two women in the ladies room that the Broody H's brother was back in England and she demands to see him. She accuses the H of deliberately keeping her separated so that his family doesn't get discomfited about the girl whose life they wrecked. This sets the Broody H off on a really broody moment and he takes the h to the family estate, which is in the middle of a big croquet party.
The h meets the ex and his wife and is shocked beyond all measure when the H announces they are engaged. Tensions seethe between the H, OM and h and the H's family, who have another daughter of old family friend's in mind for the H, are most unwelcoming in that very well mannered upper-class kind of way, tho they never actually talk to the h.
The h realizes that her feelings were not as deep as she thought and that the OM really was turning to her in a fit of pique because he didn't get his own way with his fiancee, who wanted a year to do some further schooling. Still, the H has irked her beyond belief, especially as the family's choice for him looks like a predatory jaguar on the prowl.
So the h does what any spirited h in a CL book would do, she stirs the pot to see what explodes. The h taunts the H that he is going to have sort out his girlfriend at the party after she hears the news of his engagement to the h and she hopes the lady tears him apart, they both seemed equally matched in the tearing into other people stakes. Then the h goes off to play croquet.
In a hysterically funny scene, the h tells the H's wanna be OW they are engaged and the OW storms off. The brother's wife chases after her and the brother tells the h that the H made him stay away from the h.
The H is so blandly assertive that the h loses her temper and calls him a kidnapper and a liar and a ruthless bully, she is getting rather loud in her accusations and the H explains that the h is still volatile and emotionally unstable from the accident. The H takes it all in stride and his brother is full of horror that the h might be mentally unstable.
The brother, whom the h realizes is the weak, non confrontational type and will always take the easy path, runs off back to his wife and the H is very smug, because the h just told everyone they are getting married and now she has to follow through on it.
They go back to the H's home and the lady who cares for the house and has been helping the h explains that she was mistaken in her opinion of the h. The woman is a good friend of the H's mother and thought the h was a gold-digger, but now realizes that it was the brother who was behaving badly and she gives her unqualified endorsement to the h.
The H then tells the h that he has invited his parent's over for dinner. The h isn't enthused, cause it is clear his mother in particular despises her. The H's father is fairly neutral and we don't hear much from him, so in classic CL fashion, it is the potential mother in law that proceeds to rock the boat.
The woman makes every attempt at the dinner to undermine the h and goes into great detail about how the h has caused nothing but trouble for her family. She makes it plain that the H is earmarked for the OW and the h tells her not to worry, she isn't marrying the H. The H, on the other hand, has no intention of being denied what he wants and certainly his mother isn't going to interfere. She can like it or she can lump it, the H is very sure that she will come around eventually.
The h doesn't care tho, she is plotting her escape and plans to go to her mother in New Zealand, even tho the H explains that her mother is unreachable because she is on holiday. So when the h has her final check up to be medically cleared, she escapes from the H's watch and books herself a flight and ends up in a hotel room by the airport.
The H tracks her down and tells her he loves her and he isn't letting her go, he will hunt her down to the ends of the earth if necessary and more than that, she loves him too. He explains that his mother may have tried to marry him off to the OW, but he isn't interested in her and really she only wants him because he has the appropriate social accouterments, money and a old family and social status, there is no love between them at all.
He also tells her that he fell in love at first sight and when she was in a coma, he would go talk to her every day and when he told her about his brother getting married, that was the day she woke up and he hoped that would happen so he could take his chance. The h finally accepts that for all his broody, manipulative and bullying faults, she loves the H back and they happily share a meal and proceed to the ecstatic lurve clubbing for the big HP HEA.
This one is actually CL light, but it is very entertaining. CL updates her domineering H to show that the man is head over heels and that really, really lightens up the tone of the book. He does kidnap the h, he is borderline stalkerific and those kisses are definitely punishing, but this H is also pretty funny and the h is not a weak doormat or a throw rug, she is just a nice girl that has been through a very rough time.
I like how CL solved the mother in law issue too, normally she has the man with the interfering mother take a hike in the mists of HPlandia, but in this instance she has the H make it very clear that the mother has no say in anything and she gives him the character to enforce that. If you like CL and her uber Alpha males or if your HP dial is set to obsessive stalkerific, this one is a must read and great outing to the CL province of HPlandia.