Coral Cay

by Kerry Allyne

He didn't deserve to know he was a father. Ravelle had hoped for a quiet pleasant holiday in Queensland, on the Barrier Reef with her fiancé, Matthew. But somehow that wasn't to be... One of the first people Ravelle saw there was none other than Steele Cunningham, the man who had so ruthlessly rejected her love four years earlier. And the memories of their encounter came flooding back. Suddenly Ravelle's proposed new life seemed threatened. Steele had ruined her life once and could easily do it again-if he discovered her secret!

Genres: Romance, Harlequin Presents

187 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

Kerry Allyne was born in England, UK. Her early childhood was uneventful, she remembered, until her father came home one day and began talking about emigrating to Australia. When they eventually arrived in Australia, Kerry took to her new land with a passion. During the family's first years "down under," she explored as much of the country as she could, journeying northward into Queensland and out onto the Great Barrier Reef, and sometimes south through New South Wales into Victoria. As a adult she returned to England for a short time. A long working holiday enabled her to travel the world before returning to Australia where she met her engineer husband-to-be, and they had a couple of children. The family eventually moved to a rural area and she started to write. She used the people and countryside as inspiration for her romances. She was published by Mills & Boon from 1976 to 1994.

Reviews

[StMargarets · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story stands out for two reasons:
(1) It’s the first secret baby book I’ve ever read where the hero never meets his secret baby toddler. The H/h agree to wed while still on the island and that's the end of the story. Poor secret toddler.

(2) It contains – and devotes waaay too much page time to – one of the worst OMs I’ve come across in a vintage romance.

It was a bad sign when the first page is the heroine ruefully biting her tongue at her fiancé’s seasickness as they approach the Coral Cay. They are taking a vacation together without heroine’s daughter before they start saving for a house. They are not staying in the same room since the 28 year-old OM doesn’t believe in premarital relations. (He thinks heroine is a widow)
So already you’ve got a man with a “delicate constitution” (his words), he’s cheap, he’s not sexually interested in the heroine. Later on, he turns into the hotel guest from hell as he tries to get freebies out of the hero’s brother (owner of the hotel) for every slight and transgression. He won’t swim, walk or do anything outdoors because he sunburns. He forbids the heroine to drink alcohol or smoke cigarettes. He only wants to play table tennis in the games room.

Why is the heroine with this guy? Who knows? It seems she is punishing herself for her ship board romance with the hero four years before. He proposed the night before they docked. She accepted. Then daddy dearest tried to pay her off. She fled and hero believed she took the money and run. He’s been bitter ever since.

He also happens to be at the family-owned resort when the heroine and dry stick arrive. Hero decides to needle the OM before he realizes he has a secret toddler.

He then threatens to take the baby unless the heroine breaks off her engagement. Heroine takes her time telling the dry stick that she’s not a widow and she is breaking it off. Dry stick comes to life and slaps her several times. Hero breaks up this scene and knocks the dry stick unconscious for an HEA.

As a romance this doesn’t work at all, but I found it highly entertaining. The OM was awful. The wannabe OW was equally awful. The heroine was brain dead, but sweet to the hero’s nephews. The hero was a typical angry, sex-starved vintage hero.

They just don’t make them like this anymore. I can almost hear the disco music wafting from the resort’s dance floor . . .

[Julz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the very best from this author but had some very interesting zingers. Keeping with the same relationship themes as her other stories, there's tons of wrist gripping and arguments between the strong and independent heroine, Ravelle, and the alphahole hero, Steele. However, in this one, there's another man in the picture, her fiancé, Matthew that carries the trophy for wtfery.

Story starts with the heroine going away on vacation with her whiney and constantly complaining fiancé to a beautiful tropical island somewhere close to a coral reef in Australia. To her great surprise, she runs into none other but the father of her illegitimate daughter who was spawned after one night of virginal ecstasy following their week long love affair aboard a cruise ship to Japan (these Harleys epitomizes “small world.” Oh, and he owns the island of course, along with his rich family. ) Of course the relationship was ill-fated to end as soon as the ship hit the shore. We learn later on that the hero’s daddy (now conveniently deceased) had played both sides against the middle in order to ensure that the love birds flew the coop separately. However, Pops was helped along by the heroine witnessing the hero embrace some hot brunette, who we find out is his fiancé he told her nothing about, in a five minute lip lock the minute he debarks the ship. Nothing like seeing your man put his tongue down another women’s throat to put a damper in a relationship. More on that later.

Back to the present. The hero spends much of the time trying his best to eff up the heroine’s relationship with her fiancé, which is made easy by the OM’s own actions. There’s pages upon pages of the OM’s horrible behavior which includes being a hypochondriac and opportunist, as well as a self-righteous hypocrite. The author went way out of her way to make him unlikeable and to make sure we knew that he didn’t hold a candle to the hawt and handsome hero. One of my favorite scenes was where the h and OM have a conversation where she says “There was no need for you to have warned Steele away from me, Matthew. I could spend the whole day in his company without once even looking like falling for that brand of vibrant maleness he exudes so effortlessly….Beauty is only skin deep, and it’s the steadfastness underneath that counts, not the attractive packaging. You’ve stood by Sam and me for a long time now. I’m not about to desert you for the first handsome face that comes along.” And instead of being pissed for basically saying that he’s a dog beside Ol’ Studly Steele, our poor momma’s boy Matthew responds, “I’m sorry Ravelle, I guess I shouldn’t have needed that explained to me. I know you’ve never even looked at another man since we’ve been going together…Knowing I couldn’t compete, I suppose deep down I’ve been nervous of any brawny, suntanned specimens we might encounter here, and then when I found you cozily chatting with someone who was the embodiment of all my worst fears…well, I’m afraid I rather let those apprehensions get the better of me.” Good times, people. Good times.

There was the usual travel brochures, OW stuff, extended family who worked hard on getting the H&h together, and slow drivel of revelations. The drama builds up to an exciting culmination which includes the fiancé bitch-slapping and backhanding the heroine when he finds out the source of the spawn’s sperm. Hot Steele follows by using his metal to coldcock and lay Matt out on the floor, literally.

Then came all the revelations of love, which includes our H’s making the excuse for kissing the fiancé. This is rich. “After I met you I knew there was no way I'd be going through with it [the marriage], so I didn't tell you because I intended calling it to a halt at the very first opportunity.'

Ìt didn't look as if that's what you intended from the way you greeted her,' she couldn't help accusing.

`Perhaps you ought to take the credit for that,' he half -laughed unexpectedly. Àfter the night we'd just spent, I rather think I was imagining it was someone else entirely I was kissing.'

A warm becoming flush covered Ravelle's cheeks and she dropped her gaze selfconsciously. Ì wish I'd known,' she whispered sadly.

'Hmm, but it's all water under the bridge now.'”

SNORT! What?! You can’t be serious? That’s just simply hilarious and one of the most piss poor excuses for giving a tongue bath to another woman that I’ve read in a long time. What a beauty.

This one didn’t rate as high as the others for me, mostly due to the irritating whine of the OM. However, still a decent enough angry, angsty, cheater (yes, cheater!) read.

[Iris · Rating 2 out of 5]

Such a great cover for the M&B edition, it's by the British artist/illustrator John Heseltine. Sure she should probably cover up all that exposed skin if she doesn't want to pay for it by evening but still they look happy and they're talking as though they enjoy each other's company. I will say that I went looking back for this because I hadn't seen it in a while and was wondering if it might have a skeevy adult male with a young teen girl on an island vibe. To me they both look age appropriate.

The Fred Oakley cover for HP is also nice but it's more open to interpretation. Aggressive or tender, it's viewer's choice.

The story falls squarely in the readable but middling category. Except that the FMC's fiancé is so over-the-top detestable that her willingness to be associated with him makes her unbelievable and unsympathetic. And this splashes onto the MMC because where is his judgement to want anyone who could have accepted the fiancé?

[RomLibrary · Rating 2 out of 5]

Holidaying in Queensland with her fiance Matthew, Ravelle was dismayed to meet Steele Cunningham again—Steele, who had brought such tragedy into her life four years ago. And to all that was now added the fact that if Steele discovered her secret, he could destroy her life yet again. Anyone but Matthew might now have given Ravelle the support she needed—but Matthew, with his selfish, weak attitude, succeeded in doing nothing but drive her, metaphorically, back into Steele's arms; for all the old attraction had flared up between the two of them. But by now Steele himself was commited—to the beautiful, bitchy Chantal Gregory...

[Beebs · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm going to write the review for this book and the book Tropical Eden by the same author at the same time, because they are so similar that I kept getting confused reading TE (the second of the two that I read, within a week of each other) thinking I'd already read it, with a couple of plot differences. Those differences are fairly significant, but not enough to make any real difference between the books lol. They were both enjoyable but not overly deep.



So I'm just going to list the main points of each book in their respective review sections and let others compare them, haha.



⦁ Location: Privately owned island located in the Barrier Reef area off coast of Queensland, Australia


⦁ Location owned by: Hero/his family/their corporation


⦁ Hero's relation to heroine: Former lover, father of her child


⦁ Heroine's relation to hero: Former lover, mother of their child


⦁ Meet-Cute: No meet cute sadly.


⦁ Major obstacle: Heroine engaged to OM; hero does not know that heroine gave birth to their child 2 years previously.


⦁ Other Man: Heroine's fiance: Wet rag, nimby pamby lazy jerkface


⦁ Other Woman: Hero's SIL's sister; just a stalker; also Hero's former fiancée (in the past only)



⦁ 3rd act breakup: Not much of one in this book. Both MCs think the other one was at fault for breaking up their romance when it was actually Hero's scheming father.


⦁ Other points: The twin kids of the hero's bro and SIL were adorable.

[Dena Hays · Rating 5 out of 5]

Couldn’t put down
09/02/2009

[Tiasha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed thoroughly 🙂

[Kerry Allyne · Rating 5 out of 5]

An island holiday with her new fiancé brought Ravelle once again face to face with the father of her child; the man who had cheated her and left her to face an uncertain future. This was a man she still loved but was loved by other women as well and what of her fiancé, her soon to be husband and step-father of the other man's child.

http://www.amazon.com/CORAL-CAY-ebook...

[Nikki]

What in the hell was that? It was like reading a soap opera based on a beach resort. Slapping the heroine around, mean other women, horrible fiancé. Oh one huge thing, the heroine had the hero's child...hero never meets his daughter in this story. Nope just chilling on this island pretending to be Bachelor Paradise or something trashy. Skip.