2.5 stars
Rhiannon loses her husband and 2 children in a plane accident caused by terrorists. She struggles to get over her grief and spends her days working as a hostess for a philanthropist.
Congressman Kiel whellan was the lead negotiator with the terrorist and also loses his fiancee in the crash.
For some reason, which was beyond me, the heroine blames the hero for the crash. Most other people would focus on the terrorists themselves but not rhiannan.
As soon as they meet, Kiel is drawn to Rhiannan and he decides that he will have her and will drag her kicking and screaming back to an appreciation of life.
The main problem with the couple is that Kiel always seems to be on the edge of violence with her. He is either grabbing her wrists painfully, pushing her, trapping her etc. They argue constantly and this generally pushes him over the edge. He also ignores pretty much everything she says and simply refuses to listen to her objections. When the ship that they are on is again threatened by the same terrorist ( flagged from the outset) , Rhiannon over hears something which causes her concern but when she tells Kiel about it, he dismisses her concern and shouts and roars at her - apparently on the basis that he knows that she is right but that because she is the little woman, she has no right to know what is going on, as this was a matter for the men.
I think that the book was published in the 80 s but the reality is that Kiel came over as pretty abusive and the kind of guy who nowadays would get done for sexual harassment.
The heroine was kind of annoying as well.
She behaves irrationally and seems entirely self absorbed for most of the time. For example when he locks her in the first class cabin to isolate her from other passengers when there is a fear that plague is spreading on the ship, the heroine's main reaction is to throw a hissy fit in the most silly fashion , rather than to acknowledge that all passengers have been locked in, that all passengers are being given a vaccination and that these are basic safety measures which everyone else has to put up with and so sulking at Kiel seems highly immature and pretty stupid.
Neither character was particularly likeable.
Not a keeper.