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ΣΤΟΝ ΑΣΤΕΡΙΣΜΟ ΤΟΥ ΕΡΩΤΑ ΧΡΥΣΑ 238
But divorce seemed so final...
Ruark Lencioni, born in the Year of the Dragon--the Chinese zodiac's greatest celestial power--was back in Singapore. And the instant Katrin saw him again, she knew exactly why she'd fallen in love with him, why she hadn't recovered from their breakup.
Butthe divorce had come through almost a year ago, and Ruark hadn't bothered to get in touch with her then.
Katrin had never known the Dragon man to be unpredictable before. But Ruark wanted reconciliation one moment and to be well and truly free of her the next. . .
Ruark Lencioni, born in the Year of the Dragon--the Chinese zodiac's greatest celestial power--was back in Singapore. And the instant Katrin saw him again, she knew exactly why she'd fallen in love with him, why she hadn't recovered from their breakup.
Butthe divorce had come through almost a year ago, and Ruark hadn't bothered to get in touch with her then.
Katrin had never known the Dragon man to be unpredictable before. But Ruark wanted reconciliation one moment and to be well and truly free of her the next. . .
Unknown Binding
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
December 25, 2015
Re Dragon Man - EO brings us a tale of marital reconciliation on this expedition into HPlandia and for once there is no seekrit baby hiding in the wings.
Reconciliation stories are another pillar of HPlandia tropes right behind blackmail, revenge and the ubiquitous seekrit baby or some combination of all four. I have to confess that DM is one of my favorites, right behind Helen Brooks' A Whirlwind Marriage. The reasons are multiple, EO has an H and h whose marriage fell apart under an H ultimatum when he demands the h cast off the confines of a very smothering father/daughter relationship and she initiates a divorce when he takes off and she doesn't hear from him again.
The story starts with the 24 year old h living in Singapore, she is a very independent, savvy owner of a modeling agency still trying to recover from her martial breakdown and divorce of 18 months before. She is compèring a fashion show in a top Singapore hotel when she looks over and sees the H. He is 28 or 29, and was formerly a small cargo boat captain who lost his partner in an accident which also injured him when metal cables snapped and hit him and killed his partner. He is now a partner in an Australian advertising agency and ostensibly looking for the h to ask her for a divorce as he supposedly has another girl in mind to be his Mrs.
This stuns the h, as she had filed for and been granted a divorce some months previously while her father was dying in his final illness. The divorce had been rushed through by her fairly obnoxious and controlling step-brother, who also lent her money to open the modeling agency and so she tells the H they are already divorced.
The H claims he never received any documents and asks her to produce them. They both then discover that the step-brother's lawyer was a fraud and the divorce never happened. (Something to keep in mind for many HPlandia adventures, unless the lawyer is an H or h and up for the silk of a Queen's Council, they are usually really bad or frauds.)
This is the opportunity the H has been looking for and he manages to seduce the h a time or two before he succumbs to a black-out, caused by metal fragments from the cable accident, emerging in his eyes and hindering his sight. The h had really only started divorce proceedings to make the H talk to her, and as she was shocked by the speed in which it was granted, she isn't really unhappy that they have to start all over. She takes the opportunity to seduce the H herself and when he takes off after an unfavorable diagnosis about his eyes, she follows him.
She get stranded with him in his remote hideaway and they talk about their possible future and some of the problems with their relationship. The H admits he isn't really marrying anyone, he was playing the same game she was and hoping to use the threat of divorce to make HER talk to HIM. Apparently he had written to the h's dad, asking the dad to let the h go to him in Hong Kong (which was where his job assigned him) but no one ever answered and the h never knew until she found the letter while looking for the divorce decree.
He basically fell apart for a bit with alcohol when no reply to his letter came, and then he threw himself into building a stable advertising career (instead of running around with wild women,) because one of the father's and step-brother's objections to the h and H's marriage was that the H was poor. He felt he was in a stable position to continue the marriage now that his living was secure, but this problem with his eyes is making him rethink.
He tells the h he wants to continue on with the divorce because if he is blind after the eye treatment, he won't be able to keep her in a wealthy lifestyle. He has the impression that the h is unable to live without the accoutrements of wealth and this irkolates her as she can earn her own living, but she knows the H is very, very stubborn and won't let her argue the point. She does get in some very pointed comments on her supposed "fragility", but the H is Mr. Crankypanting and won't listen.
She goes back to set up another big fashion show and then the H shows up. They wind up in bed and the H admits that his is very worried about the coming eye treatment and the H needs her calming presence. He won't change his mind about resuming the marriage unless his eyesight is perfect, so the h just lurves him up and plans to drag her with him to her show as her assistant.
Then the step-brother shows up and is all obnoxious cause the h paid off his loan. He and the H get into a verbal argument, acting like the h is a bone between two dogs and she loses her temper and punches them both in the stomach and to make them listen to her. She tells the step-brother that she is done with his meddling. She never wanted the modeling agency, but he and her dad ganged up on her and bought it, and because her dad was ill, she went along with it.
She doesn't really have much of a tie with the step-brother as he only became her SB when she was already 18 and her dad married his mum. She explains that he has no say in her business and she won't tolerate his efforts at control anymore.
The H gets some new respect for the h as she lays down the law and over the course of the day, he sees more of how she really is and also helps her with some sticky situations involving a shy model and an insane choreographer for the fashion show. Then it is time for his eye treatment and the big explanations.
The H explains that while he wants to push her away if he is incapacitated, he really needs her and he has always loved her. He just felt excluded when they were first married because they lived with the step-brother and father in a huge house with multiple servants. They decided to live there because the H was pretty poor at the time as most of his money was going to support his old partner's widow and kids. The widow apparently is self-supporting now, so that responsibility is ended. The h did not know that, but she felt that the H had a habit of distancing himself from any real intimate discussion of feelings etc, so it was hard for her to make him understand her own feelings at the time.
The h explains that her father was getting older, and for all her life she had been more the parent and the father had been more the child. He was very dependent on her and it got worse when her stepmother died, so that when the H issued his ultimatum about Hong Kong and made it sound like she would be alone and living below the poverty line in a totally unfamiliar country, she lost her temper and decided to categorically refuse.
She wasn't really refusing permanently, she just needed time to help her dad adjust to the change. She also admits that she had some trepidation about such a big change, but now she fees the H exaggerated the direness of the Hong Kong post because he thought she was overly sheltered and wanted to force her to choose who she loved more, but she had bigger responsibilities than he realized with her father and because she loved her dad, she wouldn't just abandon him.
She tells the H that she would have gone eventually, but he left and she never heard from him - she never knew he had even wrote to her. She also explains that she isn't just a fair weather wife, and more than capable of helping him through life's trials, but he needs to understand that she is an adult and she just doesn't blow off her commitments because he wants her to.
He tells her he really wants her to stay as his wife and partner no matter what and she declares she feels the same way back. So he gets the treatment (which is a success of course,) and they happily plan their new future together in Australia with some witty repartee about the H's studliness thrown in.
What I really like about this one, even tho it is short on real emo-drama, is that it is a very good examination of how a young marriage can fail when one of the participants hasn't really graduated from the leaving home stage and nobody is willing to discuss real feelings or solve sticky situations. The h probably should have gone with the H, but she really felt that she had a duty to her parent to help him get along without her, and she just isn't the kind to abandon what she feels is her responsibility.
The H felt like she should have acted more committed than she did, but he also realizes that he did have a tendency to not talk about any thing that was emotionally intimate. He wanted things his way, but he did not want to engage in the nuts and bolts of real discussion and it came back to bite him when he was without the h and missing his other half.
I like that neither one went with anyone else, I liked that the H gave a lot of consideration to his financial status and worked to make it better (so unusual in HPlandia where all H money usually grows on trees). I like that the h was more than willing to help support him and herself. I also really like that both of them felt and explained the frustration and sense of failure that a divorce can inspire.
I really believed the HEA in this one because we saw a bunch of different aspects about what makes a real world marriage/partnership work. I believed that with their communication skills vastly improved and their respect for each other very obvious, they are a very realistic example of how a marriage succeeds --even a realistic marriage that was made in HPlandia.
Reconciliation stories are another pillar of HPlandia tropes right behind blackmail, revenge and the ubiquitous seekrit baby or some combination of all four. I have to confess that DM is one of my favorites, right behind Helen Brooks' A Whirlwind Marriage. The reasons are multiple, EO has an H and h whose marriage fell apart under an H ultimatum when he demands the h cast off the confines of a very smothering father/daughter relationship and she initiates a divorce when he takes off and she doesn't hear from him again.
The story starts with the 24 year old h living in Singapore, she is a very independent, savvy owner of a modeling agency still trying to recover from her martial breakdown and divorce of 18 months before. She is compèring a fashion show in a top Singapore hotel when she looks over and sees the H. He is 28 or 29, and was formerly a small cargo boat captain who lost his partner in an accident which also injured him when metal cables snapped and hit him and killed his partner. He is now a partner in an Australian advertising agency and ostensibly looking for the h to ask her for a divorce as he supposedly has another girl in mind to be his Mrs.
This stuns the h, as she had filed for and been granted a divorce some months previously while her father was dying in his final illness. The divorce had been rushed through by her fairly obnoxious and controlling step-brother, who also lent her money to open the modeling agency and so she tells the H they are already divorced.
The H claims he never received any documents and asks her to produce them. They both then discover that the step-brother's lawyer was a fraud and the divorce never happened. (Something to keep in mind for many HPlandia adventures, unless the lawyer is an H or h and up for the silk of a Queen's Council, they are usually really bad or frauds.)
This is the opportunity the H has been looking for and he manages to seduce the h a time or two before he succumbs to a black-out, caused by metal fragments from the cable accident, emerging in his eyes and hindering his sight. The h had really only started divorce proceedings to make the H talk to her, and as she was shocked by the speed in which it was granted, she isn't really unhappy that they have to start all over. She takes the opportunity to seduce the H herself and when he takes off after an unfavorable diagnosis about his eyes, she follows him.
She get stranded with him in his remote hideaway and they talk about their possible future and some of the problems with their relationship. The H admits he isn't really marrying anyone, he was playing the same game she was and hoping to use the threat of divorce to make HER talk to HIM. Apparently he had written to the h's dad, asking the dad to let the h go to him in Hong Kong (which was where his job assigned him) but no one ever answered and the h never knew until she found the letter while looking for the divorce decree.
He basically fell apart for a bit with alcohol when no reply to his letter came, and then he threw himself into building a stable advertising career (instead of running around with wild women,) because one of the father's and step-brother's objections to the h and H's marriage was that the H was poor. He felt he was in a stable position to continue the marriage now that his living was secure, but this problem with his eyes is making him rethink.
He tells the h he wants to continue on with the divorce because if he is blind after the eye treatment, he won't be able to keep her in a wealthy lifestyle. He has the impression that the h is unable to live without the accoutrements of wealth and this irkolates her as she can earn her own living, but she knows the H is very, very stubborn and won't let her argue the point. She does get in some very pointed comments on her supposed "fragility", but the H is Mr. Crankypanting and won't listen.
She goes back to set up another big fashion show and then the H shows up. They wind up in bed and the H admits that his is very worried about the coming eye treatment and the H needs her calming presence. He won't change his mind about resuming the marriage unless his eyesight is perfect, so the h just lurves him up and plans to drag her with him to her show as her assistant.
Then the step-brother shows up and is all obnoxious cause the h paid off his loan. He and the H get into a verbal argument, acting like the h is a bone between two dogs and she loses her temper and punches them both in the stomach and to make them listen to her. She tells the step-brother that she is done with his meddling. She never wanted the modeling agency, but he and her dad ganged up on her and bought it, and because her dad was ill, she went along with it.
She doesn't really have much of a tie with the step-brother as he only became her SB when she was already 18 and her dad married his mum. She explains that he has no say in her business and she won't tolerate his efforts at control anymore.
The H gets some new respect for the h as she lays down the law and over the course of the day, he sees more of how she really is and also helps her with some sticky situations involving a shy model and an insane choreographer for the fashion show. Then it is time for his eye treatment and the big explanations.
The H explains that while he wants to push her away if he is incapacitated, he really needs her and he has always loved her. He just felt excluded when they were first married because they lived with the step-brother and father in a huge house with multiple servants. They decided to live there because the H was pretty poor at the time as most of his money was going to support his old partner's widow and kids. The widow apparently is self-supporting now, so that responsibility is ended. The h did not know that, but she felt that the H had a habit of distancing himself from any real intimate discussion of feelings etc, so it was hard for her to make him understand her own feelings at the time.
The h explains that her father was getting older, and for all her life she had been more the parent and the father had been more the child. He was very dependent on her and it got worse when her stepmother died, so that when the H issued his ultimatum about Hong Kong and made it sound like she would be alone and living below the poverty line in a totally unfamiliar country, she lost her temper and decided to categorically refuse.
She wasn't really refusing permanently, she just needed time to help her dad adjust to the change. She also admits that she had some trepidation about such a big change, but now she fees the H exaggerated the direness of the Hong Kong post because he thought she was overly sheltered and wanted to force her to choose who she loved more, but she had bigger responsibilities than he realized with her father and because she loved her dad, she wouldn't just abandon him.
She tells the H that she would have gone eventually, but he left and she never heard from him - she never knew he had even wrote to her. She also explains that she isn't just a fair weather wife, and more than capable of helping him through life's trials, but he needs to understand that she is an adult and she just doesn't blow off her commitments because he wants her to.
He tells her he really wants her to stay as his wife and partner no matter what and she declares she feels the same way back. So he gets the treatment (which is a success of course,) and they happily plan their new future together in Australia with some witty repartee about the H's studliness thrown in.
What I really like about this one, even tho it is short on real emo-drama, is that it is a very good examination of how a young marriage can fail when one of the participants hasn't really graduated from the leaving home stage and nobody is willing to discuss real feelings or solve sticky situations. The h probably should have gone with the H, but she really felt that she had a duty to her parent to help him get along without her, and she just isn't the kind to abandon what she feels is her responsibility.
The H felt like she should have acted more committed than she did, but he also realizes that he did have a tendency to not talk about any thing that was emotionally intimate. He wanted things his way, but he did not want to engage in the nuts and bolts of real discussion and it came back to bite him when he was without the h and missing his other half.
I like that neither one went with anyone else, I liked that the H gave a lot of consideration to his financial status and worked to make it better (so unusual in HPlandia where all H money usually grows on trees). I like that the h was more than willing to help support him and herself. I also really like that both of them felt and explained the frustration and sense of failure that a divorce can inspire.
I really believed the HEA in this one because we saw a bunch of different aspects about what makes a real world marriage/partnership work. I believed that with their communication skills vastly improved and their respect for each other very obvious, they are a very realistic example of how a marriage succeeds --even a realistic marriage that was made in HPlandia.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 15, 2020
H/h were too reasonable for me. LOL. Hero even talked about his fears and his need for the heroine. That's great in real life - but not what I'm looking for in an HP. Anyhow:
This is second chance story of a coddled heroine and a rough-and-ready hero who didn't like living in her father's mansion in Singapore. Hero issued an ultimatum to move with him to Hong Kong so he could concentrate on his career. Heroine balked. When she didn't hear from the H after several months, her stepbrother convinced her to file for divorce. Heroine thinks they have been divorced for 18 months when hero shows up in Singapore.
Turns out the lawyer took the money and ran before filing papers, so H/h are still married. They each want to work on a reconciliation (in their own way) but there are few hiccups (such as the hero's eye surgery) before their HEA.
Besides the H/h being reasonable people, I also disliked the modeling agency logistics. I get that the heroine worked hard, but all of her stress was making me stressed.
For those who need to know these things:
Hero was faithful during their separation (although he let the heroine think he was going to marry again) as was the heroine.
Boogenhagen has all the details - and a more positive view - in her excellent review .
This is second chance story of a coddled heroine and a rough-and-ready hero who didn't like living in her father's mansion in Singapore. Hero issued an ultimatum to move with him to Hong Kong so he could concentrate on his career. Heroine balked. When she didn't hear from the H after several months, her stepbrother convinced her to file for divorce. Heroine thinks they have been divorced for 18 months when hero shows up in Singapore.
Turns out the lawyer took the money and ran before filing papers, so H/h are still married. They each want to work on a reconciliation (in their own way) but there are few hiccups (such as the hero's eye surgery) before their HEA.
Besides the H/h being reasonable people, I also disliked the modeling agency logistics. I get that the heroine worked hard, but all of her stress was making me stressed.
For those who need to know these things:
Hero was faithful during their separation (although he let the heroine think he was going to marry again) as was the heroine.
Boogenhagen has all the details - and a more positive view - in her excellent review .
July 7, 2022
Classic Dick Kohfield cover. By this point in 1985 his semi photo-realist approach had moved in— corporate raider style—usurping the former HP ideal of granite faced tough guy and leaving these smooth-faced, helmet-haired male specimens to dominate the HP cover forevermore. Individually the covers from this era are great; viewed in total there's a conformity taking hold. Whether it's due to stylistic zeitgeist or publisher demands I'm not sure.
This hero is reasonable. Reasonable is hot. He does something stupid? He reevaluates and self-corrects. So this hero is smart. Smart is super hot! This hero dances like John Travolta...
Low angst but it's an HP. The MCs though trying to communicate do still manage to spend chunks of the book being ridiculous. By book's end I was convinced of an aspect missing from so many of these stories; they actually really liked each other and had fun together. Both in and out of bed.
It's a qualified 4 stars mainly because amongst the funny scenes there are a few instances of ethnic and homophobic jokes. Maybe not especially virulent but I don't feel like giving an "era" pass. They landed with an unpleasant thud.
This hero is reasonable. Reasonable is hot. He does something stupid? He reevaluates and self-corrects. So this hero is smart. Smart is super hot! This hero dances like John Travolta...
Low angst but it's an HP. The MCs though trying to communicate do still manage to spend chunks of the book being ridiculous. By book's end I was convinced of an aspect missing from so many of these stories; they actually really liked each other and had fun together. Both in and out of bed.
It's a qualified 4 stars mainly because amongst the funny scenes there are a few instances of ethnic and homophobic jokes. Maybe not especially virulent but I don't feel like giving an "era" pass. They landed with an unpleasant thud.
February 9, 2020
3.5
Katrin has been getting by as owner of a modeling company, since her husband, Ruark, left for Hong Kong without a word. All of a sudden, he's back in her life and demanding the proof of the divorce she claims she got. She concludes that he must be getting married to someone new and he doesn't dispute it. They soon discover that the divorce was never put through and that they are, in fact, still married. Underneath, Katrin is brimming with hope because she never wanted to be divorced from Ruark in the first place. She still loves him desperately and wants to give things a go. But he insists she goes through with a real divorce and leaves again. Unfazed and disbelieving (and pretty angry) she tracks him down to learn of his health issues and the small chance he'd be left partially blind, which is why he's pushed her away. He insists he couldn't do that to her and that he couldn't stand it if she left him in the midst of his troubles, as he fears she would. Katrin is incensed! She's no limp noodle to not stand by her husband when he needs her - but how to convince him that she loves him enough to stick by his side?
I didn't wholly love this story, but I respect the hell out of how well it was executed. We establish that Katrin and Ruark have been separated and their reunion is every bit as frustrating as one would think - Katrin is trying to prove that she's matured and unaffected and failing miserably. In fact, Ruark comes across as something of an uncaring ass...it doesn't seem like he's back for a reconciliation and it's quite angsty reading through Katrin's confused thoughts. The reasons for her reactions become clearer as we learn of their history, the strength of their love and the reasons for their separation. But because this is only in Katrin's POV, Ruark continues to come across as an unaring ass. But before the end of the book, it's clear that he's head over heels...but doubting whether she's made enough growth in their separation. See, Katrin had been kind of attached to the hip of her family (father and stepbrother) and she very much allowed them to control her life. So much so that when Ruark left and asked her to come with him, she remained behind to take care of her family. Katrin promptly shows him how wrong he is by standing up for herself against her stepbrother and him (she punches both of them!). I adored the fact that with Ruark's decision that, if his vision failed, they'd divorce, Katrin comes back with the opposite ultimatum - if his vision didn't fail they'd divorce. She shows him exactly how ridiculous his choice is...not that it convinces him. Katrin was a firecracker and I loved her. It just took me until we had him spilling out his guts (and therefore his POV) for me to like Ruark...there were bits and pieces in there that made me wonder if he wasn't secretly pining for her, but I had my doubts...so didn't love him til the end. Wish Ollie would have gotten more of some of his own.
BTW: both characters completely celibate and devoted during their year long separation. Thank you!
Katrin has been getting by as owner of a modeling company, since her husband, Ruark, left for Hong Kong without a word. All of a sudden, he's back in her life and demanding the proof of the divorce she claims she got. She concludes that he must be getting married to someone new and he doesn't dispute it. They soon discover that the divorce was never put through and that they are, in fact, still married. Underneath, Katrin is brimming with hope because she never wanted to be divorced from Ruark in the first place. She still loves him desperately and wants to give things a go. But he insists she goes through with a real divorce and leaves again. Unfazed and disbelieving (and pretty angry) she tracks him down to learn of his health issues and the small chance he'd be left partially blind, which is why he's pushed her away. He insists he couldn't do that to her and that he couldn't stand it if she left him in the midst of his troubles, as he fears she would. Katrin is incensed! She's no limp noodle to not stand by her husband when he needs her - but how to convince him that she loves him enough to stick by his side?
I didn't wholly love this story, but I respect the hell out of how well it was executed. We establish that Katrin and Ruark have been separated and their reunion is every bit as frustrating as one would think - Katrin is trying to prove that she's matured and unaffected and failing miserably. In fact, Ruark comes across as something of an uncaring ass...it doesn't seem like he's back for a reconciliation and it's quite angsty reading through Katrin's confused thoughts. The reasons for her reactions become clearer as we learn of their history, the strength of their love and the reasons for their separation. But because this is only in Katrin's POV, Ruark continues to come across as an unaring ass. But before the end of the book, it's clear that he's head over heels...but doubting whether she's made enough growth in their separation. See, Katrin had been kind of attached to the hip of her family (father and stepbrother) and she very much allowed them to control her life. So much so that when Ruark left and asked her to come with him, she remained behind to take care of her family. Katrin promptly shows him how wrong he is by standing up for herself against her stepbrother and him (she punches both of them!). I adored the fact that with Ruark's decision that, if his vision failed, they'd divorce, Katrin comes back with the opposite ultimatum - if his vision didn't fail they'd divorce. She shows him exactly how ridiculous his choice is...not that it convinces him. Katrin was a firecracker and I loved her. It just took me until we had him spilling out his guts (and therefore his POV) for me to like Ruark...there were bits and pieces in there that made me wonder if he wasn't secretly pining for her, but I had my doubts...so didn't love him til the end. Wish Ollie would have gotten more of some of his own.
BTW: both characters completely celibate and devoted during their year long separation. Thank you!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 21, 2024
Husband and wife are divorced or so she thinks. Dumb dumb wife can supposedly run her own modeling agency but doesn’t know how she got divorced or where her divorce decree is. Husband is angry that she didn’t make him a sandwich or wash his socks during their short-lived marriage. She didn’t take care of him like he took care of her i.e. by giving her orgasms. The Iago of this story seems to be her weirdly incestuous stepbrother. The comments the heroine makes about her mostly Asian models (like comparing one to Princess Tiger Lily or commenting that another one’s Asian looks are thankfully diluted by having an American father, remind me too much of the past racist stereotypes in the beauty industry, which imho still are around today albeit not in such blatant, expressed manner). I just couldn’t get interested in the story after this dismal beginning.
January 18, 2020
But divorce seemed so final...
Ruark Lencioni, born in the Year of the Dragon--the Chinese zodiac's greatest celestial power--was back in Singapore. And the instant Katrin saw him again, she knew exactly why she'd fallen in love with him, why she hadn't recovered from their breakup.
But the divorce had come through almost a year ago, and Ruark hadn't bothered to get in touch with her then.
Katrin had never known the Dragon man to be unpredictable before. But Ruark wanted reconciliation one moment and to be well and truly free of her the next.
Ruark Lencioni, born in the Year of the Dragon--the Chinese zodiac's greatest celestial power--was back in Singapore. And the instant Katrin saw him again, she knew exactly why she'd fallen in love with him, why she hadn't recovered from their breakup.
But the divorce had come through almost a year ago, and Ruark hadn't bothered to get in touch with her then.
Katrin had never known the Dragon man to be unpredictable before. But Ruark wanted reconciliation one moment and to be well and truly free of her the next.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews