Έρωτας και Ζήλια - Χρυσά Άρλεκιν #700

by Patricia Wilson

Από τότε που ο Νταν είχε γκρεμίσει με τόσο σκληρό τρόπο και την τελευταία της ελπίδα ότι μπορεί να ανταποκρινόταν στον έρωτά της, η Άννα είχε παλέψει με όλες της τις δυνάμεις να τον βγάλει από τη σκέψη της κι από τη ζωή της. Σ' αυτό βοήθησε αρκετά και η απόσταση που τους χώριζε, αφού εκείνος ζούσε στις Μπαχάμες κι εκείνη σπούδαζε στην Αγγλία.

Ωστόσο τώρα, ο Νταν είχε ξαναγυρίσει και δεν έχανε ευκαιρία να βρίσκεται συνεχώς δίπλα της, ενώ έδειχνε φανερά σε όλους πόσο πολύ του άρεσε η Άννα. Με ποιο δικαίωμα όμως, ζήλευε τη σχέση της με τον Μπράιαν, τη στιγμή που κι ο ίδιος δεν ήταν ελεύθερος;

Genres: Harlequin, Harlequin Presents, Romance, Contemporary Romance, Contemporary, Hqn, Harlequin Romance

160 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1990

About the author

Patricia Wilson (1929 – 2010) was a best-selling writer of 53 romance novels for the Mills & Boon publisher from 1986 to 2004. She placed her novels primarily in England, Spain or France.

Reviews

[boogenhagen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Re Dangerous Obsession - Anna is 21 and when the book opens Anna is obsessed with being furious. As we will soon find out, Anna, the little Italian-Welsh black haired pixie that she is, likes to obsess about things. She used to obsess about Dan.

Dan is the older brother of Elaine and Anna met both of them for the first time when she was 7 and Dan was 18 and Elaine was ten and Anna got Dan's dad as her guardian, because her mother picked him out to do that before she died.

So now Anna is furious because Gavin, Dan and Elaine's dad, has sadly passed away. She is mad he died and she is mad that Dan has to come back from his private Caribbean Island retreat and she is furious her mum said she had to have a guardian until she was 25 and Dan gets to inherit the guardianship.

(Not to burst anybody's HP bubble here, but in England guardianship cannot be inherited or appointed by the legal guardian at his or her demise, only the Court of Chancery can appoint a new guardian, so Anna being 21 would be legally of age and would have no guardian. That doesn't mean she got her parent's estate right away - the will said when she was 25, but technically Dan is not her guardian for legal purposes outside of HPlandia.)

Mainly Anna is furious she might have to start obsessing about Dan again, she spent years hiding in plain sight and staring at him with dark, hungry eyes, but Anna would rather obsess about her maths degree at Oxford instead.

Dan and Anna have a bad history, after Dan moved out when Anna was 15 and she couldn't feast upon him with her hungry eyes anymore, Anna pined about Dan. Dan came back two years later and he had his fiancee Daphne. This broke Anna's heart, but Dan started writing blockbuster novels while he was away and they make movies out of them and then he came back with a fiancee and Anna's heart was broken.

It didn't help when Dan gave her a huge roofie kiss right before he was supposed to take off with his fiancee. 18 yr old Anna begged him to take her too, but Dan said Daphne was preggers. Anna eventually got obsessed with maths - and she got a bit of a boyfriend Bryan- so that made things okay then.

But now Gavin is dead and Elaine is supposed to get married in two weeks and Elaine is dithery and Anna is having to take charge of things. Dan is back and Daphne is nowhere to be seen, but Dan says they did not get married after all. Anna doesn't like to ask Dan questions, and now that she is almost through with finals and Elaine's wedding, she finds herself obsessing about Dan and his baby momma more and more. Anna gets ill after her finals and Bryan doesn't look in on her and Dan has to kidnap Anna off to his private Caribbean Island retreat to recuperate.

Anna is okay with that tho, cause she earned her honors maths degree and her brain LIKES obsessing about Dan. Dan seems to be a bit surlier now that he knows about Bryan, but things settle down a bit when they get to Dan's Caribbean Island. There are dinners and dancings and pink dresses and coral attacks upon poor Anna.

There is also film people whining about Dan's latest script - he writes the blockbuster screenplays for all his blockbuster books and Anna flirts with the male film star while the wanna be OW leading lady tries to harass poor Anna about Daphne cause she wants Dan for herself. Dan is getting more and more insanely jealous cause Anna flirts and does maths with everyone but poor Dan.

Anna sends the wanna be OW off with a threat that if Dan finds out the wanna be OW is talking about Daphne, Dan's baby mama, she might find herself short of a film part and a staring role. So with a huff and paler complexion, the wanna be rides off on the tide and Dan tries to make Anna leave too. A big hurricane is coming and Dan wants Anna safe. Anna gets to the airport at Nassau, but her brain's obsessed with Dan again, so she ends up not leaving. Instead she makes her way back to Dan and they spend a huge night of lurve in Dan's super safe hurricane strong room. The next morning Daphne shows up, and Anna is reminded all over again that Dan is pretty much only on loan.

Dan and Anna are heading back to the airport, recovery crews need to fix up the island and Dan is furious that Anna isn't being friendly anymore. Anna is sad that Daphne is back, tho she doesn't understand how Dan's baby mama can stand to live apart from Dan, but she will take her night of love and treasure it forever, cause there will never be Another Man Like Dan. Dan yells about Anna using him as a convenient obsession reliever when she really wants Bryan and finally Dan gets a clue that maybe he needs to speak in a language Anna can understand.

Dan does :

9x-7i > 3(3x-7u)
---------------------------
9x-7i > 9x-21u
-9x -9x
---------------------------
-7i > -21u
---- ----
-7 -7
---------------------------
i <3 u

And it WORKS!?! Anna understands Maths and knows now that Dan loves her too!

They cuddle up for the big HEA, and they will live in England for half the year and on Dan's Island for the other half and Anna will meet Alexa from Robyn Donald's A Bitter Homecoming and together they will write philosophical Nobel Prize winning micro economic math theory and have beautiful babies that will never, ever be the H or h in a Robyn Donald HPlandia expedition.


(Okay so Dan was really an English Major and never did Maths, but I liked that equation better and I am sure Dan would have used it for the big declaration if PW had Googles when she wrote it.)

Either way it was a Dan confesses true lurve for the win, cause Dan explains that Daphne was just his dead friend's pregger girlfriend that he felt responsible for and never loved, cause his heart always beat for Anna and Dan did his whole Caribbean Island just to make her happy. (I like my equation better tho, so I am sticking with it.)

[Naksed · Rating 2 out of 5]

One of the lamest Great, Big, Terrible Misunderstandings ever. The heroine thinks the H is married or at least in a committed relationship with another woman, whom he has a son with, for the entire length of the story, which is why she fights her obsession with him at every turn. Hero expressly gave her that impression and does nothing, absolutely nothing, to clarify that it is not his son and OW is just a platonic friend, until pretty much the last page. Seriously? This was just too stupid.

[StMargarets · Rating 2 out of 5]

This started off so well. Heroine has had a crush on her foster brother since forever and she has lived with the knowledge that he is off in the Bahamas with his wife and young son for the past four years. She has spent her time at Oxford taking a maths degree (as you do).

The story opens after the hero’s father (heroine’s guardian) has died. Heroine hasn’t seen the H for four years. It’s all delightfully angsty until the hero explains that he never married his fiancé. Heroine still thinks he has a son and that he is in the OW’s life – so the angst can continue.

Meanwhile the heroine has a breakdown after she finishes her exams (reviewers note: any math exam would give me a breakdown), the hero whisks her off to his island. Actors and actress show up and . . .

It just got very saggy and boring. Turns out that OW was a big misunderstanding and hero has been as obsessed with the heroine as she was with him.

Boogenhagen has all the details.

[Verity · Rating 4 out of 5]

Step-sibs, craddle-robber (11 yrs gap), reluctant guardian - ward, bicker-fest, 1 hero-slap by infuriated heroine.

Heroine became the ward of hero's dad @ 6 y/o, he expired when she's 21 y/o, hero becomes her reluctant guardian till she's 25 y/o per dad's will. Heroine is the epitome of damsel perpetually in distress, hero has to rescue her from the jaws of death again & again cuz she's a ninny even tho she's supposedly brilliant in math. Heroine thinks she suffers from unrequited luv cuz 4 yrs ago when she's 17 y/o, hero kissed her & dropped the bombshell in her face that he was getting hitched to his preggers GF. H/h lob snippy comments @ each otha till the sweet HEA where hero fesses up he'd waited 4 years for heroine, bought a tiny Bahama island, built a hurricane-proof home, decorated w/ things he thought she'd like, all 4 her. Aaawww. I didn't have much success w/ previous PW so lowered expectations going in, turned out to be pretty good. Alpha hero finally scores w/ virginal heroine in the shower. He coulda saved the angst if he had told her the truth that the bun in his fiancee's toaster wasn't his but his daredevil stuntman BFF's who got killed during a spectacular movie shoot based on hero's best-selling book. He had guilt-tripped himself into popping the question to his BFF's grieving fiancée & by doing that, he signed his own death warrant to happiness w/ his true' luv, step-sista. U know this book ain't fluffy romance when the word "Harsh" pops out 14 X & "Aggressive" = 7 X. Also, a mutual "You're mine !" declaration & heroine semi-captive by hero were a big plus. I'm so eazy to pleaze. Obsessed w/ anyfink that says Dark / Dangerous / Savage / Obsession on the cover.

Honorable mention : 4 once, they got the cover similar to the H/h between the covers, down to the flower in her hair & sarong.

[Danielle The Book Huntress · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think if I don't write this review sooner, I'll forget all the details. So, yeah, it wasn't my favorite Patricia Wilson. It was good though. It was obvious Dan was in love with Anna. I could see why he was keeping his distance from her when she was younger. It was interesting to see things from Anna's eyes and then to hear about Dan's point of view. When she's older, and when the story begins in the present Dan seems to making a play for her and he's definitely staking his claim when Dan takes her to his island to recover. I was surprised at the reveal with the woman that Dan had been engaged with years ago. I didn't expect that at all. I think that I've loved some books so much by her, that this one pales in comparison. It was entertaining and I had no major issues. Anne was a bit of a wilted flower for my tastes at the time (although I liked that she was a student in higher maths) and the story slows down a bit on the island.

Overall rating: 3.5/5.0 stars.

[Dianna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anna does maths! She's so awesome at maths she's doing it at Oxford! She's very beautiful with black hair and dark eyes and perfect skin, but she's also kind of oddball. After her parents died, she went to live at Langford Hall with her foster father. He had two children, a daughter only a couple of years older than Anna, and Dan.

Anna's favourite thing to do growing up was to hide in corners and stare silently at Dan. He found it very unnerving, and tried to be kind, but she made him uncomfortable. That all changed the time he came home and Anna was seventeen and suddenly gorgeous and sexy. Unfortunately for Dan, he'd brought his fiancé home, so suddenly discovering that there's this hot intense chick who would do literally anything for him is very inconvenient. There's a snogfest as he's getting ready to leave, and Anna begs him not to get married, to stay with her. Dan tells her he's made a commitment, and that his fiancé, Daphne, is pregnant. Anna is heartbroken. But she channels her heartbreak into maths, yay for her! And she gets herself a doctor boyfriend who seems really nice!

Poor old Dan wouldn't have banged a 17-year-old, because he's a good guy. He's a good guy about Daphne too, which Anna would have found out if she hadn't been such a jellyfish when it came to asking personal questions. It's no wonder he's so grumpy. And he's now back at Langford Hall four years later, because his father has unexpectedly died. And his sister is getting married, and he's watching Anna do all the work and make herself sick. And to top it all off, he's now Anna's guardian.

Anna manages to ask Dan one personal question, which is basically, where's your wife, Daphne? He lets her know they decided not to get married after all. Great opening! Anna has no follow up questions. The rest of her jealous misery fantasies are fed by her 'accidental' eavesdropping.

If you're wondering how no one in the family happened to mention the broken engagement to Anna, I ended up deciding that this was plausible. I guess Anna, who was avoiding all intel about Dan that she could without it looking weird, could have got into the habit of never asking after Dan at all, and the rest of the family could have just assumed that she knew he hadn't got married, and it was no big deal.

I guess it's also plausible that Anna's mother would insist that she'd have a guardian until she was 25. Anna was young when her parents died, but I imagine that she was already obviously introverted, and her worried mother would have wanted her daughter tied to a family for as long as possible, so that she would keep those connections into adulthood. Sure, it's there as a plot point to throw Anna and Dan together, but I found it rather sweet, that Anna's mother anticipated that a solitary, quiet child would be both fiercely independent and then, in exercising her freedom, fiercely lonely.

When Anna collapses after her final exams (she's dramatically indifferent to her health!), Dan whisks her off to his private Caribbean island. Dan, at around 32, has been a famous novelist since his early 20s. All his books get made into films and he writes the screenplay for all of them.

Dan is sexy and blonde. He has sort of kidnapped Anna. He buys her bikinis and pink silk dresses, takes her to dinner and dancing in (on?) Nassau. Anna, in addition to not really understanding 'kidnapping' doesn't understand 'dates.' He teaches her how to dive. He gets pretty impatient and cranky and is telegraphing his own jealousy over Anna's doctor boyfriend all the time, but Anna's too caught up in her own jealous fantasies over the absent Daphne to get anything to add up.

Their romance is pretty action-packed. Film people show up, and there's this glamorous star who is making a play for Dan, so Anna gets to angst over that, while she innocently flirts with the film's male star and drives Dan insane. There's a diving accident and Anna is attacked by coral and dramatically almost dies. But two dramatic owies aren't enough for Anna - she and Dan also have to weather a hurricane.

And then, all that near-naked in bikini sexy tension becomes actual naked and wet in the shower, and sexy times ensue.

What I love about Wilson heroines is this whole 'dramatically injured/sick, must be saved by the uber protective and competent hero!' It's such an obvious bid for sympathy, but it works on me every time. Wilson is perfect for those of us who have mild hypochondriac tendencies, and light fantasies about being fragile but somehow still beautiful and sexy in suffering.

Poor Dan had a pretty rotten time of it, what with all that jealousy, and Anna pushing him away while eating him up with her eyes, and never asking him anything or telling him anything about what's going on in her head.

Their love declaration is sweet. Dan's plan is that they will live six months in England and six months on the island. Ummm, what about maths? Anna asks. Dan looks a trifle concerned, will maths divide them? (Sorry). Anna quickly reassures him that she'll work something out. And besides, she's sure to have smart babies, that'll be fun.

I choose not to let this depress me. I choose to think that when they get to England, Anna's maths professor is all, hey, that Oxford Maths First means you get this super interesting maths opportunity! And when Anna tells Dan about the super interesting maths opportunity, he is so incredibly proud and supportive of her that he says: baby, I can write bestselling books and award winning screenplays anywhere. Let's follow your maths passion! And go to the Caribbean when you get sabbaticals!

And that's what they do, and they live happily every after. And somewhere in HPLandia, there's an incredibly awesome maths thing with Anna's name on it.

The end.

[Jenny · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kind of boring and zero sex scenes.

[Diya✨ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this very much - worth rereading. The chemistry was sizzling and there was enough angst and jealous H losing his head over his ward. Beautifully written the ending was super sweet.

[Debby · Rating 2 out of 5]

I usually like Patricia Wilson’s HP’s, but this one I didn’t.

It started off promising with the H being her foster brother (so no relationship by blood).

But quickly it became boring. The h came across as a scared mouse (but then a beautiful mouse) always trying to duck away whenever she sees the H.

She has a headache, then she is tired, then she has a cold, there is always something wrong with her. She is hiding in her room, she is hiding behind curtains to keep the H from seeing her. And she is 22 years old. 🙄

The H has never given her any reason to be scared of him. He was never harsh to her. He is 8 years older than she is, so not a whole lot older, and he was busy doing his own things like studying and working on his career.

It was always only in her own mind, growing up, that she wanted to impress him and that she thought he looked down on her.

With a h afraid of her own shadow and even more afraid of the H, the story never came alive.

[*CJ* · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Dangerous obsession" is the story of Dan and Anna.
Anna had adored Dan since she came under his father's guardianship as a child, and the infatuation bloomed into love..even when Dan broke her heart.
Now with his father's death, he is back- and even though she has a "boyfriend" Bryan-old chemistry ignites as trivial truths are revealed.
I liked how crazy Dan was about her, and how he took care of Anna.
I feel the h made TOO MANY pre-assumptions without even clarifying a single fact about the H- if not-whole years would'nt have been wasted (and well the whole book could have been avoided).
The other characters play a significantly very minor role as the story revolves mainly around our main couple.
Overall, an average one time read.
Safe/SWE
2.5/5

[Fiona Marsden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anna loved Dan from the time she came to live with his family as a child. Just when it seemed Dan had seen her, he was to marry another woman. A woman who was pregnant.

Five years later they meet again and Dan isn't married, but Daphne and the child are still in the background. Struggling against her attraction, she stays with Dan on his Bahama island retreat.

This is a fairly traditional romance with a conflict that could have been resolved if they'd been honest with each other. In particular, Dan's role in Daphne's life.

I always enjoy a hero who is totally besotted with the heroine even if she doesn't realise it. A nice story with a satisfactory resolution.

[Sapheron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really liked it. Is was the first book in a while that had me eager to continue reading (not surprisingly it is slightly vintage). It was a good re-introduction to Patricia for me and now I'm gonna dig up some more stuff of hers.

[Booked · Rating 5 out of 5]

She's adopted into his family and this could technically count for guardian theme also. He sweeps her off her feet to his private island, now who can say no to that!

[Fre06 Begum · Rating 3 out of 5]

Forgot how much I used to like this author.

[Tatiana Stefan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really should write my reviews right after I read a book LOL. But I wanted to be kept in a state of AWWWW that I went ahead and read another Patricia Wilson book. Ahem, let's see. I did enjoy this book. I'm starting to see a pattern where there's these super angst/secret and bickering back and forth with between the H/h and then boom, the super sweet AWWWWW HEA. I love it! LOL! I'm especially fond of these step sibling stories (sorry in fantasy HP world only of course!) Although some of you guys may not like that the h was 17 when they had their first "encounter". But I really enjoyed this book because I was anticipating and craving the HEA. The H was also REALLY sweet in that he really really was into the heroine, that yes, in 4 years he had no other! And he bought a whole island decorated with her in mind! The title really is appropriate because the h had "dangerous obsession" lol with the H. In the beginning and maybe the middle of the book I wanted to shake her and say, get yourself together! Although I give her a few thumbs up for making the hero jealous/pretending she didn't give a damn. (But in retrospect knowing what we know at the end about the hero's true feelings, it was a little cruel) As for the hero's reasons why they didn't "hook up" later/cleared the misunderstandings initially I thought it was pretty "stupid". But then again 17 is too young and heck four years later h is still too young. Yep vintage HP, totally un-PC! So I'm not too annoyed or sad that they had that 4 year separation. I know that HP have a page number limit so I should really complain but it would have been nice to see more of a reaction from her step sister that her and her brother hooked up. I mean, that should have been a shocker/out of the blue right? Anyhoo, I recommend this book :)

[atomickitten · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5 stars rounded up

DNFed at 65%

That was a snoozefest with a very immature and annoying mousy heroine who has 2 marbles instead of a brain.
Plus, no sex scenes in a harlequin?
It's like a chicken salad with no chicken.
Very disappointing.
I wanted to like it because it did have potential but I just couldn’t.
It wasn’t the worst thing I’ve read, hence the 2 stars.
But that ain't my jam, sorry.

[sbf20112011 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh. The end wasn't bad, but basically this one struck me as one of those older romances where both characters go back and forth between amorousness and hostility without any seeming rhyme or reason. They just seem silly and childish. Not terrible and again, the ending was better than the beginning and middle, but not a great one.

[DamsonDreamer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just a little bit overwrought for my taste, this one. Nevertheless it's well written.

[halina mae · Rating 1 out of 5]

Now, I didn't expect much from this book because cmon it's a harlequin romance. After all, i'm in my "i want to read dumb books" phase, and this was part of that. But I expected an actual storyline. Maybe a tolerable character. Not this sht.
First of all, Anna is a wimpy, mousy, helpless heroine. Not attractive. Strong women are hot yall.
Second, Dan is manipulative and abusive. It may seem like he's just passionate, but the way he treats her cannot be described as anything but coercion and emotional abuse. It's not okay.
Third, it was so boring and had literally nothing interesting happening.
Fourth, the language was so overly flowery for no reason.
Josie was the only good character. I liked her.

[Bea Tea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Typical Patricia Wilson - guardian/ward age gap relationship, he's gruff and utterly incapable of connecting with his emotions and she's confused and wrought. It sort of bimbles along doing it's safe and predictable thang. I tend to enjoy these types of books because they are the romance equivalent to a nice cup of tea.

[RomLibrary · Rating 2 out of 5]

Anna had done her best to forget Dan.

Since her foster brother so cruelly dashed her hopes of winning his love, she'd tried to eliminate him from her thoughts and from her life.

It seemed easy enough--with Dan living in the Bahamas and she studying in England. Only now Dan was back and showed no inclination to keep out of Anna's way. Worse, he made no secret of his attraction to the grown-up Anna.

And he had no right to be so jealous of her friend Bryan when his own long-term loyalty lay elsewhere!

[Becca]

No le daré una calificación al libro, porque realmente no sé quien hizo la traducción, o paso el documento con cosas así:

"y la agarró por los hombros para sacudida."

"Dan no tenía nada que decide"

"Pero de ese momento en adelante,no volvería a vedo. "

". La mía es la siguiente. Y como no has comido nada desde anoche, vaya pedir que te suban algo."

[Flor Casella · Rating 1 out of 5]

I got a translation of this book, which was an awful one, but surely I'm not giving it just 1 star due to a translation. When a plot is good, you realize it even though the translation sucks. And the same happens whith a poor plot. I read it looking for a light reading between tests, but I surely didn't expect it to be so light...

[Diana · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was an ok story. I am getting a little tired of the strung out "does he love me, does she love me, oh but what about this or that in the way", in these books due to lack of communication though. Maybe that is true to life? I suppose.

[Leslie Teresa]

Está de moda una frase entre los grupos de pdf y decían que procedía de este libro, por curiosa lo busqué, y pues nada, esa frase no es de aquí, así pues, la historia está muy melosa y así y ya, esa fue mi aventura.

[Kace | The Booknerd · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is so much like Ms. Palmer's works. It's your typical vintage book with older hero-younger heroine, secretly in love with each other, with the hero going hot-cold towards the heroine. Good thing I'm a sucker for those that's why I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

[Roub · Rating 3 out of 5]

nice read though the basic plot was inconsistent. i never did understand Dan in misguiding Anna about getting married and Daphne being pregnant. he never did get married and she never knew. surely they must have known dat he was not married as he did not invite his own father to his marriage.