What do you think?
Rate this book
Απρόθυμη Νύφη - Χρυσά Άρλεκιν #1255
Αυτή την εξέλιξη δεν την περίμενε κανείς!
Η Τζίνα Σάξτον θα κληρονομούσε τη μισή οικονομική αυτοκρατορία των Χάρλοου, αλλά υπό έναν όρο: να παντρευτεί τον κληρονόμο της άλλης μισής, τον αντιπαθητικό, αλαζόνα Ρις Χάρλοου. Ήταν η πιο δύσκολη απόφαση που είχε χρειαστεί ποτέ να πάρει, ώσπου ο ίδιος ο Ρις της πρότεινε μια λύση που της φάνηκε ιδανική. Ο γάμος τους θα διαρκούσε ένα χρόνο και θα ίσχυε μόνο στα χαρτιά.
Φαινόταν εύκολο ... Πολύ σύντομα, ωστόσο, η Τζίνα συνειδητοποίησε ότι η εικόνα που είχε για τον Ρις ήταν εντελώς λανθασμένη -και τον ερωτεύτηκε! Η πρώτη της σκέψη ήταν να φύγει μακριά του, όμως ο "σύζυγος" της δεν ήταν διατεθειμένος να την αφήσει έτσι εύκολα. Είχαν κάνει μια συμφωνία κι έπρεπε να την τηρήσει ως το τέλος. Γιατί σ' αυτό το γάμο είχε στηρίξει πολλά συμφέροντα ...
Η Τζίνα Σάξτον θα κληρονομούσε τη μισή οικονομική αυτοκρατορία των Χάρλοου, αλλά υπό έναν όρο: να παντρευτεί τον κληρονόμο της άλλης μισής, τον αντιπαθητικό, αλαζόνα Ρις Χάρλοου. Ήταν η πιο δύσκολη απόφαση που είχε χρειαστεί ποτέ να πάρει, ώσπου ο ίδιος ο Ρις της πρότεινε μια λύση που της φάνηκε ιδανική. Ο γάμος τους θα διαρκούσε ένα χρόνο και θα ίσχυε μόνο στα χαρτιά.
Φαινόταν εύκολο ... Πολύ σύντομα, ωστόσο, η Τζίνα συνειδητοποίησε ότι η εικόνα που είχε για τον Ρις ήταν εντελώς λανθασμένη -και τον ερωτεύτηκε! Η πρώτη της σκέψη ήταν να φύγει μακριά του, όμως ο "σύζυγος" της δεν ήταν διατεθειμένος να την αφήσει έτσι εύκολα. Είχαν κάνει μια συμφωνία κι έπρεπε να την τηρήσει ως το τέλος. Γιατί σ' αυτό το γάμο είχε στηρίξει πολλά συμφέροντα ...
160 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 2004
9 people are currently reading
66 people want to read
About the author
Kay Thorpe
181 books65 followersKay Thorpe was born on 1935 in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, UK. An avid reader from the time when words on paper began to make sense, she developed a lively imagination of her own, making up stories for the entertainment of her young friends. After leaving school, she tried a variety of jobs, including dental nursing, and a spell in the Women's Royal Airforce from which she emerged knowing a whole lot more about life - if only as an observer.
In 1960, she married with Tony, but didn't begin thinking about trying her hand at writing for a living until she gave up work some four years later to have a baby, John. Having read Mills & Boon novels herself, and done some market research in the local library asking readers what it was they particularly liked about the books, she decided to aim for a particular market, and was fortunate to have her very first, completed manuscript accepted - The Last of the Mallorys, published in 1968. Since then she has written over seventy five books, which doesn't begin to compare with the output of some Mills & Boon authors, but still leaves her wondering where all those words came from.
Sometimes, she finds she has become two different people: the writer at her happiest when involved in the world of books and authors; and the housewife, turning her hands to the everyday needs of husband and son. Once in a while, she finds it difficult to step from one role to the other. She likes cooking, for instance, but she finds that it can be an irritating interruption when she's preoccupied with work on a novel, so the quality of her efforts in the kitchen tend to be a little erratic. She says, "As my husband once remarked, my writing gives life a fascinating element of uncertainly: one day a perfect coq au vin, the next day a couple of burned chops!"
Luckily Kay has daily professional help with her housework, and that leaves her time to indulge in her hobbies. Like many other Mills & Boon authors, she admits to being a voracious consumer of books, a quality she shares with her readers. She likes music and horseback riding, which she does in the countryside near her home. But her favorite hobby is travel - especially to places that will make good settings for her books.
Kay now lives on the outskirts of Chesterfield in Derbyshire, along with husband, Tony, and a huge tabby cat called Mad Max, her one son having flown the coop. Some day she'll think about retiring, but not yet awhile.
In 1960, she married with Tony, but didn't begin thinking about trying her hand at writing for a living until she gave up work some four years later to have a baby, John. Having read Mills & Boon novels herself, and done some market research in the local library asking readers what it was they particularly liked about the books, she decided to aim for a particular market, and was fortunate to have her very first, completed manuscript accepted - The Last of the Mallorys, published in 1968. Since then she has written over seventy five books, which doesn't begin to compare with the output of some Mills & Boon authors, but still leaves her wondering where all those words came from.
Sometimes, she finds she has become two different people: the writer at her happiest when involved in the world of books and authors; and the housewife, turning her hands to the everyday needs of husband and son. Once in a while, she finds it difficult to step from one role to the other. She likes cooking, for instance, but she finds that it can be an irritating interruption when she's preoccupied with work on a novel, so the quality of her efforts in the kitchen tend to be a little erratic. She says, "As my husband once remarked, my writing gives life a fascinating element of uncertainly: one day a perfect coq au vin, the next day a couple of burned chops!"
Luckily Kay has daily professional help with her housework, and that leaves her time to indulge in her hobbies. Like many other Mills & Boon authors, she admits to being a voracious consumer of books, a quality she shares with her readers. She likes music and horseback riding, which she does in the countryside near her home. But her favorite hobby is travel - especially to places that will make good settings for her books.
Kay now lives on the outskirts of Chesterfield in Derbyshire, along with husband, Tony, and a huge tabby cat called Mad Max, her one son having flown the coop. Some day she'll think about retiring, but not yet awhile.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
January 6, 2026
Get out your paper and pen: you’re going to need them to draw the family tree connecting all the characters in this book.
Heroine was born in America to a single, unmarried mom. Her bio mom's father, a wealthy and powerful hotelier based in Los Angeles (think the Hilton family), forced her to give the baby up for adoption. Baby h is adopted by a loving family and they move to England.
Years later, h's bio mom dies in an accident. One year later, h's bio grandma passes away. The lonely hotelier (h's bio grandpa) makes ABSOLUTELY NO EFFORT to track down h, the last remaining member of his family, see how she is getting on, if she is doing alright, if she needs money, or even to inform her of the death of her bio mom and bio grandma. No, instead he marries a young, single mom with two kids from a previous marriage, ADOPTS them, and lavishes a millionaire lifestyle on them.
I repeat: he ADOPTS someone else's kids while he forced his own daughter to put her child for adoption.
What. A. Piece. Of. [Fill in the blank. Hint: it rhymes with pshit]
Hotelier's adopted son is the hero of this piece. He is the heir to the family fortune and hotel business and the apple of h's bio grandpa's eye. The adoption included the legal change of H's last name to the old hotelier's last name so the family name could be carried on. It is even hinted later that had h been born a baby boy as opposed to a baby girl, her bio grandpa might not have so ruthlessly forced his daughter to give the baby up for adoption.
Piece. Of. Let's say it together now...remember, it rhymes with Pshit?
When h turns 25, she gets a letter from her bio grandpa informing her who he is, that he is dying, and would she please fly to L.A. so he can set his eyes on his only bio granddaughter and obtain her forgiveness and die happy. The nerve of that piece. Of. You know the drill...
When h arrives in L.A., her bio grandpa and his second wife are warm and welcoming but H and his sister act like she is a gold digging witch intent on guilting her grandpa into changing his will in her favor. Which by the way she would be more than entitled to, certainly more than this pair of greedy nincompoops who lived the life that she was supposed to live!!! h had my sympathy up to this point but not for long...
After her bio grandpa croaks, the will is read, and lo and behold, in true Harlequin fashion, it mandates that h and H marry or else say goodbye to the millions. The h, who until then was always protesting that she is not interested in her grandpa's millions, and quite content to go back to her quaint life in England, jumps on the opportunity to benefit from the will. Her rationalization being that no one can walk away from millions. lol.
After she and the H marry, she is initially gung-ho about involving herself in the hotel business but after one boring board meeting, she abandons that plan altogether.
She keeps harping on the point that this is nothing but a marriage of convenience and all her and H have in common is a good sex life. Then, she punishes H by withholding sex if he so much as looks at another woman. There was clearly no OW action on the part of H the entire time they were together, it was all in her head. He went for a round of golf. He must be cheating. He went to get a drink at a party. He must have scurried away to a bedroom for a tryst. He got a phone call. Must be his mistress. Etc, etc. The h is constantly checking phones, doing investigating, even jumping on a red eye flight across the country to catch him with the imaginary OW at a hotel. Nada! Poor H just went along with whatever she was hammering his head with. It was obvious he was smitten with her.
Truly pathetic and unlikable h, and a dismal story overall. I was rooting for H to get away from her because after they said their I Love Yous, and decided to make their marriage "real," it was clear he was in for about fifty years of a psychotically jealous, irrational woman checking his collar for lipstick every night and threatening to withhold sex as revenge for imaginary sins. :(
Heroine was born in America to a single, unmarried mom. Her bio mom's father, a wealthy and powerful hotelier based in Los Angeles (think the Hilton family), forced her to give the baby up for adoption. Baby h is adopted by a loving family and they move to England.
Years later, h's bio mom dies in an accident. One year later, h's bio grandma passes away. The lonely hotelier (h's bio grandpa) makes ABSOLUTELY NO EFFORT to track down h, the last remaining member of his family, see how she is getting on, if she is doing alright, if she needs money, or even to inform her of the death of her bio mom and bio grandma. No, instead he marries a young, single mom with two kids from a previous marriage, ADOPTS them, and lavishes a millionaire lifestyle on them.
I repeat: he ADOPTS someone else's kids while he forced his own daughter to put her child for adoption.
What. A. Piece. Of. [Fill in the blank. Hint: it rhymes with pshit]
Hotelier's adopted son is the hero of this piece. He is the heir to the family fortune and hotel business and the apple of h's bio grandpa's eye. The adoption included the legal change of H's last name to the old hotelier's last name so the family name could be carried on. It is even hinted later that had h been born a baby boy as opposed to a baby girl, her bio grandpa might not have so ruthlessly forced his daughter to give the baby up for adoption.
Piece. Of. Let's say it together now...remember, it rhymes with Pshit?
When h turns 25, she gets a letter from her bio grandpa informing her who he is, that he is dying, and would she please fly to L.A. so he can set his eyes on his only bio granddaughter and obtain her forgiveness and die happy. The nerve of that piece. Of. You know the drill...
When h arrives in L.A., her bio grandpa and his second wife are warm and welcoming but H and his sister act like she is a gold digging witch intent on guilting her grandpa into changing his will in her favor. Which by the way she would be more than entitled to, certainly more than this pair of greedy nincompoops who lived the life that she was supposed to live!!! h had my sympathy up to this point but not for long...
After her bio grandpa croaks, the will is read, and lo and behold, in true Harlequin fashion, it mandates that h and H marry or else say goodbye to the millions. The h, who until then was always protesting that she is not interested in her grandpa's millions, and quite content to go back to her quaint life in England, jumps on the opportunity to benefit from the will. Her rationalization being that no one can walk away from millions. lol.
After she and the H marry, she is initially gung-ho about involving herself in the hotel business but after one boring board meeting, she abandons that plan altogether.
She keeps harping on the point that this is nothing but a marriage of convenience and all her and H have in common is a good sex life. Then, she punishes H by withholding sex if he so much as looks at another woman. There was clearly no OW action on the part of H the entire time they were together, it was all in her head. He went for a round of golf. He must be cheating. He went to get a drink at a party. He must have scurried away to a bedroom for a tryst. He got a phone call. Must be his mistress. Etc, etc. The h is constantly checking phones, doing investigating, even jumping on a red eye flight across the country to catch him with the imaginary OW at a hotel. Nada! Poor H just went along with whatever she was hammering his head with. It was obvious he was smitten with her.
Truly pathetic and unlikable h, and a dismal story overall. I was rooting for H to get away from her because after they said their I Love Yous, and decided to make their marriage "real," it was clear he was in for about fifty years of a psychotically jealous, irrational woman checking his collar for lipstick every night and threatening to withhold sex as revenge for imaginary sins. :(
January 25, 2021
Boring, did not finish.
You can see a longer (but just as negative) review here: https://www.morebooksthantime.com/the...
You can see a longer (but just as negative) review here: https://www.morebooksthantime.com/the...
October 29, 2017
This book was cheesy to me. Gina finds her birth family and is told to marry a guy in order to get rich. She doesnt want to be rich, but sure doesn't turn it down when she ends up with millions. Then she is so paranoid it is crazy. Ross can't do anything or look at anyone or she goes crazy thinking he is cheating or seeing these other women. She really has no self confidence at all and drags with her until the end and then BOOM it changes and that is the end of the book. For me I just wasn't super impressed with it.
March 16, 2018
Standard Harlequin category romance of the type my grandmother used to read, which unfortunately means that the hero's sheer overwhelming masculinity overpowers the heroine's weak-willed "not tonight dear" - i.e. he starts feeling her up when she tells him to shove off, and then initiates sex. So, basically, rape. There's a lot of comparison of the heroine's natural beauty to all those fake Hollywood makeup-wearing harlots. The heroine consistently refers to her parents (adoptive) by their first names and refers to her birth mother as her "real" mother. Ugh.
January 19, 2023
Again, the saga continues. Is this the correct book? Probably not. Is this the closet I can get to the Wattpad title and blurb from memory ? Yes.
I’m just relying on my book journals for these titles.
I’m just relying on my book journals for these titles.
December 18, 2018
An okay book
October 24, 2020
2.5 stars. This was a poorly done MOC. The ending was anticlimactic! I didn't like the h at all! Wishy washy and flaky!
August 27, 2016
No really my cup of tea... She's neurotic and he's arrogant and the pair of them together are rather odd! The HEA comes out of left field and several plot points are just abandoned mid story. Disappointing
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews