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A Promise Kept
She'd hoped never to see him again
When Pippa accompanied her employer to Quinta de Estrella, his friend's home in Portugal, to research his latest book, she was appalled to discover the friend was Carlos de Alvarez.
Several years earlier Carlos had come to England to see Pip pa's father. And he'd encountered Pippa in a humiliating situation, one she'd since put behind her and fully intended to keep that way.
Now she was forced to confront her past. Worse, she soon learned that her being at Carlos's estate was no coincidence. The austere, disapproving Carlos had some very definite plans for her....
When Pippa accompanied her employer to Quinta de Estrella, his friend's home in Portugal, to research his latest book, she was appalled to discover the friend was Carlos de Alvarez.
Several years earlier Carlos had come to England to see Pip pa's father. And he'd encountered Pippa in a humiliating situation, one she'd since put behind her and fully intended to keep that way.
Now she was forced to confront her past. Worse, she soon learned that her being at Carlos's estate was no coincidence. The austere, disapproving Carlos had some very definite plans for her....
- GenresPortugal
187 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 1989
36 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 29, 2016
Re A Promise Kept - AM kinda loses it when she steps from HRtopia over the HPlandia I think, cause this book is a convoluted mess. Not even a hot mess, just one of those cold, slimy, eek! I stepped in something really icky at three in the morning on the way to the kitchen messes.
So we have an h who is 21 and lives with her dad in a little English village. Her dad is the local gentry squire and really wanted to loll about Cambridge or Oxford and read in his rooms all day. His older brother died tho, so he has to manage the family estate and farms, otherwise he lolls about his study and reads all day. He has a wife and two daughters, but 13 yrs ago his high born Portuguese wife got fed up with her marriage made in rebellion against her guardian's wishes and took herself and her baby daughter back to her noble Portuguese family, abandoning the h and her father. They don't miss her much really.
There was an incident five years earlier when the h was 16 that she could have used a mum for tho. Her father tends to be distracted and not notice much teen age comings or goings. The h got herself seduced by a visiting young man and for a short while thought she was preggers from the one time mésalliance. She frets about this for a bit and then decides to confide in her dad - who else can she go to really? Unfortunately the H happened to stop by that day as well with a message from the h's mother. The h's dad is rather irked and he tells the h to leave and let him sort the wife's messenger mess before he tries to sort her. The H is actually the h's mother's very distant cousin and head of the whole Portuguese family.
The h wanders off to the local river while waiting for her dad to finish with the H. While she is sitting on the riverbank contemplating her sorry fate, the bank collapses and she falls in. She can get out easily, it isn't deep and she has been wandering about in the river her whole life. The H happens along at the falling in moment and he drags her out of the river, thinking he is rescuing her. She confides that she is preggers and then the H thinks she is trying to drown herself. The h also shares the name of the visiting lad who seduced her before she and the H part ways - he back to his room over the pub cause it is getting late and he doesn't want to get locked out, and the h back to her home to chat with her dad. Fortunately, the h finds out in the usual way that she isn't preggers a little bit later.
Six years on and the h is working as an assistant to a local best selling novelist. They are planning a trip abroad, but the h doesn't know where they are going as the novelist is a bit of a tartar and also very cagey about his movements - plus he likes to mooch off people who have big houses under the guise of visiting them. The H also makes a return appearance, the h's mother wants her to go to Portugal, ostensibly to reacquaint themselves, but really the h's mother has an altogether more malignant purpose. The h's father is pretty furious that the H even makes an attempt to visit, but the h overrules him and says she wants to know what her mother wants. The h and H meet again and instantly recognize each other. The h kicks the H out, with her father's relief and approval. He really despises his wife and her arrogant family.
The h and her writer employer take off for their trip. The writer has told his nephew, who does travel arrangements, to meet them and escort them to their final destination. In the way of HPlandia plot devices, the man who meets them at the airport as their escort is none other than the visiting lad who hooked up with the h six years earlier. He is VERY happy to see the h again, cause he figures he is onto a sure thing. The writer is pleased too, because for as long as the h has worked for him, she has been basically writing his books for him under the guise of doing his research and notes, the h just doesn't realize it. The writer thinks that if he can get the h hooked to his nevvy, he will be set for the rest of his career. The h isn't happy to see anybody and is really NOT happy to see her past come to visit.
She is about to be even less happy, cause you guessed it, they are going to Portugal to stay in the H's big house at the invitation of the h's mother. Who has a devious plot brewing. The h is now really thinking she should run, but the need for a wage overcomes her instinct to flee and zowies, is she going to regret it. Here is where it gets REALLY convoluted, so I am going to map it out with little regard for the story line here.
The H is a widower and the h's mother is distant family. They are noble, they have a big fortune, lots of estates and they hold to a high chauvinistic and puritanical old skool code of honour. The women of this family are protected, dictated to and guarded pretty fiercely. The H and the h's mother were supposed to marry to keep the family bloodline pure, even tho the h's mother was 18 to the H's 13 at the time, per the H's father's dictates. (This book gets really medieval, in case you haven't noticed.)
However the h's mother has a very best friend, a rather plain girl that is an excellent foil to the h's mother's great beauty and she is also from a noble Portuguese family. The h's mother's BFF has a brother who is in his twenties and very happily married to the love of his life and has two children with her. The mother's BFF also has a younger sister, but more on her in a bit.
The h's mother is in love with the BFF's married brother. She doesn't care that he is married - she is obsessed and making a fool out herself and the family name and honour. The H's father threatens to lock the h's mother into a convent for five years, until the H is 18 and can legally marry her.
So the h's mother elopes with the h's dad, he was a visiting student and overwhelmed by the woman's beauty and the h's father also figured that if he took a Portuguese wife, she would be suitably submissive and happy to be a homemaker in a way that the father's English dates were not. So that is the h's mother sorted for the moment.
Remember the mother's BFF younger sister? Well the H meets her in the course of the families mingling, and he falls in love with and marries her - against his father's wishes and with the father's dire predictions of doom and curses cause the H did not marry the h's mother, as he had sworn to do on the family's illustrious Bible. They are married for several years, until the father's predictions come true and the H's wife and the wife of the brother, along with their children all die in a car accident and the brother is paralyzed. The h's mother has been with her father for 10 years at this point.
The h's mother hears of the accident, and taking her chance cause she thinks it is divine intervention, takes her youngest child and flees back to the family estate in Portugal, where she can visit her obsession on a daily basis. Even tho the mum and the BFF are not BFF's anymore because of her obsession with the brother, they still allow her to visit with the brother as the h's mother provides the man with some distraction and the former BFF is very careful to NEVER leave the h's mother and brother alone.
When the mother manipulates the h into visiting, it is because the H wants the mother to move out of his home and into an apartment away from them all. The h's mother is perturbed, because she won't be able to go see the brother - who ultimately has no interest in her because he is still mourning his family and he is paralyzed and getting worse. She knows the H was made to swear to marry one of her daughter's, the H's father made him do so when the h's mother ran off and his wife died.
Initially the mother thought to have the H marry her youngest daughter that she kept with her, but the girl has a true vocation to be a nun and the H knows this and has offered to pay her dowry to the convent. So the mother thinks that she can pressure the h to marry the H and then she will be able to stay on the H's estate and see her obsession daily.
But she tells the h that the H has threatened to kick her out and leave her homeless if one of the daughters won't marry him. She tells the h this after the h's sister tells her that her mother will not let her enter the convent unless the h marries the H to fulfill the solemn family promise and the h confronts her mother. The H also thinks he is sterile because he and his wife never had any children and the doctors think it was cause the H had some vague childhood illness.
So when the H and h meet again and she is staying at his home a few more things need to be clarified as well. The H believes the h has a male illegitimate child, and the h never says she doesn't. The H also knows that the writer's nephew was the potential father because the h gave him the guy's name at their first meeting. The nephew also tries to get the h into some compromising situations, which the H keeps walking in on. There is a quite a bit of tart shaming going on between the H and h because he thinks she is having a rekindled fling with the nephew. There is also the matter of the H obsessing on the h and he has done so since he was 34 and she was 16 and he met her for the first time. (So apparently all that keeping the bloodline pure dedication has resulted in some VERY obsessive and compulsive people.)
All the above is the background to what the h is walking into and discovers over the next seven or eight chapters. So the h gets to work for the writer doing research and notes, but she is about ready to try writing her own novel, which is her big dream, so she really has no time for lurve and relationships. She doesn't like the mother after she gets the sister convent situation sorted.
She meets the BFF and brother and figures out the whole thing going there with her mother. She realizes that the writer is using her, tells him off and gives him her notice. The nephew goes back to London, having had no luck with the h, and the H manipulates things so that he is taking the h all over and around to do her research. The bickering and fighting between them underscores their mutual passion and eventually the h gets so physically responsive to the seductive roofie kisses of the H that she thinks she is in love. Then the h worries that H keeps kissing and proposing to maintain the family bloodline and so she keeps pushing him off.
The BFF's brother finally succumbs to his frailties and passes on. The h's mother breaks down, but she and the BFF are friends again and the h finds out the H is sterile. So she marries the H, reasoning that there is no way he can think to continue the family bloodline and so he must love her as she loves him. ( This is all done in a suitably dramatic fashion.)
Until they marry and are about to consummate and the H tries to talk to her about having her illegitimate child live with them. The h freaks out, cause there is no child, (for some reason she never quite clarified that tidbit,) and she and the H have an angry consummation that is very passionate.
The h has some pain and the implication is that the h was a virgin and her inexperience led her to think she was getting more than what she actually got when she was 16. (Tho this is left to dangle unresolved and not mentioned again.) The H leaves abruptly afterwards and the h thinks that he walked out because there is now NO possibility of carrying on the bloodline. The h packs her bags and leaves to go back to England. When she gets to the airport, the writer and his nephew are there and the nephew tries it on again, but the h evades him on the plane and gets home okay.
A few weeks later she finds she is preggers and since she never told her dad about her one day marriage, she now has to explain the whole mess and the impending stork delivery. Her dad is good with her and the baby staying with him. He has filed for divorce because he meet a teacher he wants to marry. The teacher gets the h a part time secretarial job at her school and the h lives in the big family manse with her dad and new stepmother. She tries to call and write to the H to tell him of his daddy status, but the H blocks all communication and writes return to sender on her unopened letters. The h gives up on the H, starts writing a blockbuster historical based on stories the H told her and has a little girl she names after the H.
TWO YEARS later, the h gets her book published and it becomes a hit. She sends a copy to the mum's BFF in Portugal and the H finally gets around to coming to see her. He claims he loves her, but he saw the nephew and the h together at the airport when she was leaving and he figured she ran out on him for her lover so he refused to even think of her. Then the H read her book and was hoping there was a chance, as he has been obsessing on her for YEARS.
The H kinda nicely asks for a second chance and the h caves and they lurve it up for the night. Then the h tells him about his daughter and the H is happy for the HEA as they start to work on the all important male heir.
All the Captain in all the worlds is not enough to make this book work. It is kinda cringingly dramatic and icky in the worst possible interrelated ways. Unfortunately to keep up with all the inversions and perversions in this one, you really can't keep drinking or you will completely lose the plot. Maybe that is not a bad thing. Anyways, if you are craving the HPlandia strange, this is one to look for --or run from screaming in horror if you spy it.
So we have an h who is 21 and lives with her dad in a little English village. Her dad is the local gentry squire and really wanted to loll about Cambridge or Oxford and read in his rooms all day. His older brother died tho, so he has to manage the family estate and farms, otherwise he lolls about his study and reads all day. He has a wife and two daughters, but 13 yrs ago his high born Portuguese wife got fed up with her marriage made in rebellion against her guardian's wishes and took herself and her baby daughter back to her noble Portuguese family, abandoning the h and her father. They don't miss her much really.
There was an incident five years earlier when the h was 16 that she could have used a mum for tho. Her father tends to be distracted and not notice much teen age comings or goings. The h got herself seduced by a visiting young man and for a short while thought she was preggers from the one time mésalliance. She frets about this for a bit and then decides to confide in her dad - who else can she go to really? Unfortunately the H happened to stop by that day as well with a message from the h's mother. The h's dad is rather irked and he tells the h to leave and let him sort the wife's messenger mess before he tries to sort her. The H is actually the h's mother's very distant cousin and head of the whole Portuguese family.
The h wanders off to the local river while waiting for her dad to finish with the H. While she is sitting on the riverbank contemplating her sorry fate, the bank collapses and she falls in. She can get out easily, it isn't deep and she has been wandering about in the river her whole life. The H happens along at the falling in moment and he drags her out of the river, thinking he is rescuing her. She confides that she is preggers and then the H thinks she is trying to drown herself. The h also shares the name of the visiting lad who seduced her before she and the H part ways - he back to his room over the pub cause it is getting late and he doesn't want to get locked out, and the h back to her home to chat with her dad. Fortunately, the h finds out in the usual way that she isn't preggers a little bit later.
Six years on and the h is working as an assistant to a local best selling novelist. They are planning a trip abroad, but the h doesn't know where they are going as the novelist is a bit of a tartar and also very cagey about his movements - plus he likes to mooch off people who have big houses under the guise of visiting them. The H also makes a return appearance, the h's mother wants her to go to Portugal, ostensibly to reacquaint themselves, but really the h's mother has an altogether more malignant purpose. The h's father is pretty furious that the H even makes an attempt to visit, but the h overrules him and says she wants to know what her mother wants. The h and H meet again and instantly recognize each other. The h kicks the H out, with her father's relief and approval. He really despises his wife and her arrogant family.
The h and her writer employer take off for their trip. The writer has told his nephew, who does travel arrangements, to meet them and escort them to their final destination. In the way of HPlandia plot devices, the man who meets them at the airport as their escort is none other than the visiting lad who hooked up with the h six years earlier. He is VERY happy to see the h again, cause he figures he is onto a sure thing. The writer is pleased too, because for as long as the h has worked for him, she has been basically writing his books for him under the guise of doing his research and notes, the h just doesn't realize it. The writer thinks that if he can get the h hooked to his nevvy, he will be set for the rest of his career. The h isn't happy to see anybody and is really NOT happy to see her past come to visit.
She is about to be even less happy, cause you guessed it, they are going to Portugal to stay in the H's big house at the invitation of the h's mother. Who has a devious plot brewing. The h is now really thinking she should run, but the need for a wage overcomes her instinct to flee and zowies, is she going to regret it. Here is where it gets REALLY convoluted, so I am going to map it out with little regard for the story line here.
The H is a widower and the h's mother is distant family. They are noble, they have a big fortune, lots of estates and they hold to a high chauvinistic and puritanical old skool code of honour. The women of this family are protected, dictated to and guarded pretty fiercely. The H and the h's mother were supposed to marry to keep the family bloodline pure, even tho the h's mother was 18 to the H's 13 at the time, per the H's father's dictates. (This book gets really medieval, in case you haven't noticed.)
However the h's mother has a very best friend, a rather plain girl that is an excellent foil to the h's mother's great beauty and she is also from a noble Portuguese family. The h's mother's BFF has a brother who is in his twenties and very happily married to the love of his life and has two children with her. The mother's BFF also has a younger sister, but more on her in a bit.
The h's mother is in love with the BFF's married brother. She doesn't care that he is married - she is obsessed and making a fool out herself and the family name and honour. The H's father threatens to lock the h's mother into a convent for five years, until the H is 18 and can legally marry her.
So the h's mother elopes with the h's dad, he was a visiting student and overwhelmed by the woman's beauty and the h's father also figured that if he took a Portuguese wife, she would be suitably submissive and happy to be a homemaker in a way that the father's English dates were not. So that is the h's mother sorted for the moment.
Remember the mother's BFF younger sister? Well the H meets her in the course of the families mingling, and he falls in love with and marries her - against his father's wishes and with the father's dire predictions of doom and curses cause the H did not marry the h's mother, as he had sworn to do on the family's illustrious Bible. They are married for several years, until the father's predictions come true and the H's wife and the wife of the brother, along with their children all die in a car accident and the brother is paralyzed. The h's mother has been with her father for 10 years at this point.
The h's mother hears of the accident, and taking her chance cause she thinks it is divine intervention, takes her youngest child and flees back to the family estate in Portugal, where she can visit her obsession on a daily basis. Even tho the mum and the BFF are not BFF's anymore because of her obsession with the brother, they still allow her to visit with the brother as the h's mother provides the man with some distraction and the former BFF is very careful to NEVER leave the h's mother and brother alone.
When the mother manipulates the h into visiting, it is because the H wants the mother to move out of his home and into an apartment away from them all. The h's mother is perturbed, because she won't be able to go see the brother - who ultimately has no interest in her because he is still mourning his family and he is paralyzed and getting worse. She knows the H was made to swear to marry one of her daughter's, the H's father made him do so when the h's mother ran off and his wife died.
Initially the mother thought to have the H marry her youngest daughter that she kept with her, but the girl has a true vocation to be a nun and the H knows this and has offered to pay her dowry to the convent. So the mother thinks that she can pressure the h to marry the H and then she will be able to stay on the H's estate and see her obsession daily.
But she tells the h that the H has threatened to kick her out and leave her homeless if one of the daughters won't marry him. She tells the h this after the h's sister tells her that her mother will not let her enter the convent unless the h marries the H to fulfill the solemn family promise and the h confronts her mother. The H also thinks he is sterile because he and his wife never had any children and the doctors think it was cause the H had some vague childhood illness.
So when the H and h meet again and she is staying at his home a few more things need to be clarified as well. The H believes the h has a male illegitimate child, and the h never says she doesn't. The H also knows that the writer's nephew was the potential father because the h gave him the guy's name at their first meeting. The nephew also tries to get the h into some compromising situations, which the H keeps walking in on. There is a quite a bit of tart shaming going on between the H and h because he thinks she is having a rekindled fling with the nephew. There is also the matter of the H obsessing on the h and he has done so since he was 34 and she was 16 and he met her for the first time. (So apparently all that keeping the bloodline pure dedication has resulted in some VERY obsessive and compulsive people.)
All the above is the background to what the h is walking into and discovers over the next seven or eight chapters. So the h gets to work for the writer doing research and notes, but she is about ready to try writing her own novel, which is her big dream, so she really has no time for lurve and relationships. She doesn't like the mother after she gets the sister convent situation sorted.
She meets the BFF and brother and figures out the whole thing going there with her mother. She realizes that the writer is using her, tells him off and gives him her notice. The nephew goes back to London, having had no luck with the h, and the H manipulates things so that he is taking the h all over and around to do her research. The bickering and fighting between them underscores their mutual passion and eventually the h gets so physically responsive to the seductive roofie kisses of the H that she thinks she is in love. Then the h worries that H keeps kissing and proposing to maintain the family bloodline and so she keeps pushing him off.
The BFF's brother finally succumbs to his frailties and passes on. The h's mother breaks down, but she and the BFF are friends again and the h finds out the H is sterile. So she marries the H, reasoning that there is no way he can think to continue the family bloodline and so he must love her as she loves him. ( This is all done in a suitably dramatic fashion.)
Until they marry and are about to consummate and the H tries to talk to her about having her illegitimate child live with them. The h freaks out, cause there is no child, (for some reason she never quite clarified that tidbit,) and she and the H have an angry consummation that is very passionate.
The h has some pain and the implication is that the h was a virgin and her inexperience led her to think she was getting more than what she actually got when she was 16. (Tho this is left to dangle unresolved and not mentioned again.) The H leaves abruptly afterwards and the h thinks that he walked out because there is now NO possibility of carrying on the bloodline. The h packs her bags and leaves to go back to England. When she gets to the airport, the writer and his nephew are there and the nephew tries it on again, but the h evades him on the plane and gets home okay.
A few weeks later she finds she is preggers and since she never told her dad about her one day marriage, she now has to explain the whole mess and the impending stork delivery. Her dad is good with her and the baby staying with him. He has filed for divorce because he meet a teacher he wants to marry. The teacher gets the h a part time secretarial job at her school and the h lives in the big family manse with her dad and new stepmother. She tries to call and write to the H to tell him of his daddy status, but the H blocks all communication and writes return to sender on her unopened letters. The h gives up on the H, starts writing a blockbuster historical based on stories the H told her and has a little girl she names after the H.
TWO YEARS later, the h gets her book published and it becomes a hit. She sends a copy to the mum's BFF in Portugal and the H finally gets around to coming to see her. He claims he loves her, but he saw the nephew and the h together at the airport when she was leaving and he figured she ran out on him for her lover so he refused to even think of her. Then the H read her book and was hoping there was a chance, as he has been obsessing on her for YEARS.
The H kinda nicely asks for a second chance and the h caves and they lurve it up for the night. Then the h tells him about his daughter and the H is happy for the HEA as they start to work on the all important male heir.
All the Captain in all the worlds is not enough to make this book work. It is kinda cringingly dramatic and icky in the worst possible interrelated ways. Unfortunately to keep up with all the inversions and perversions in this one, you really can't keep drinking or you will completely lose the plot. Maybe that is not a bad thing. Anyways, if you are craving the HPlandia strange, this is one to look for --or run from screaming in horror if you spy it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 8, 2014
Curious Pippa is discouraged from seeing Carlos, a relative of her runaway mother. However, she really wants to know what he has to say to her and agrees to meet w/ him despite her father’s wishes. Years before Pippa a 16 year old believed something life changing and had a small accident. Yet, Carlos believed the worst of the teenager and that he saved her life. Refusing to see her mother, Pippa finds that she is soon manipulated into fulfilling Carlos’ errand and forced to face her mom. She soon discovers just how selfish her mother could really be.
Typically Carlos exhibits some double standards and old school beliefs w/ Pippa as they battle one another throughout this tale. It got a bit annoying that Carlos wanted to hold up her past to her periodically throughout the story but not his own. Lots of manipulators abound in this book to keep the story entertaining, but Carlos continues in his belief of Pippa’s indiscretion and doesn’t bother to reveal things to her instead letting someone else spill the beans. Then he punishes her because he feels it was a knock against his manliness! She does a runner after discovering he left her he supposedly follows and believes the worst of her once more. He leaves her for at least two months though when she discovers the bun in the oven scenario. Should she contact him, or let it be after his behavior on their wedding night? She realizes her dreams and hasn’t heard a peep from loverboy in over a year. She did attempt contact w/ him several times but was stonewalled several times. Did I mention that when Carlos first encountered Pippa he was 34 to her 16? Yep. Guess what? Yes! Even at the tender age of 16 and him old enough to be her father – such is the oldies.
His reasoning for letting her be alone and go through so much w/out him for 2 years was hurt pride! Now he shows up because another party that he felt she betrayed him w/ said something different – never could go directly to the horse’s mouth huh? He even claims he never lied to her and yet he did to get her to spend the day w/ him. He tells her that long ago he would have come to see her again and again….yet now that she is his wife he left her alone for TWO YEARS!!!! Where is the love? He had been angry w/ her thinking she still didn’t trust him w/ the “truth” or what he believed to be the truth as well as the knock to his manliness. There was a short paragraph – blink and you’ll mess it – explaining a possible reason for his….lack of stuff. However, when he finds what she was unable to communicate to him because of his childishness he has no anger!
Overall not a bad book as it kept me entertained w/ their shenanigans.
Typically Carlos exhibits some double standards and old school beliefs w/ Pippa as they battle one another throughout this tale. It got a bit annoying that Carlos wanted to hold up her past to her periodically throughout the story but not his own. Lots of manipulators abound in this book to keep the story entertaining, but Carlos continues in his belief of Pippa’s indiscretion and doesn’t bother to reveal things to her instead letting someone else spill the beans. Then he punishes her because he feels it was a knock against his manliness! She does a runner after discovering he left her he supposedly follows and believes the worst of her once more. He leaves her for at least two months though when she discovers the bun in the oven scenario. Should she contact him, or let it be after his behavior on their wedding night? She realizes her dreams and hasn’t heard a peep from loverboy in over a year. She did attempt contact w/ him several times but was stonewalled several times. Did I mention that when Carlos first encountered Pippa he was 34 to her 16? Yep. Guess what? Yes! Even at the tender age of 16 and him old enough to be her father – such is the oldies.
His reasoning for letting her be alone and go through so much w/out him for 2 years was hurt pride! Now he shows up because another party that he felt she betrayed him w/ said something different – never could go directly to the horse’s mouth huh? He even claims he never lied to her and yet he did to get her to spend the day w/ him. He tells her that long ago he would have come to see her again and again….yet now that she is his wife he left her alone for TWO YEARS!!!! Where is the love? He had been angry w/ her thinking she still didn’t trust him w/ the “truth” or what he believed to be the truth as well as the knock to his manliness. There was a short paragraph – blink and you’ll mess it – explaining a possible reason for his….lack of stuff. However, when he finds what she was unable to communicate to him because of his childishness he has no anger!
Overall not a bad book as it kept me entertained w/ their shenanigans.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 20, 2011
The hero Carlos is on his way to visit the heroine Pippa with a message from her mother. Pippa is not pleased to see Carlos, as she has never forgotten the hurt she felt when her mother walked out on her and her father back to her influential, and traditional, Portugese family, of which Carlos is the head of and very distantly related to her mother's side. She is also shocked to realise that Carlos is the man she met six years ago during a traumatic time in her life. When Pippa finds herself tricked into going to Portugal with her employer and has to face both Carlos and her mother she feels very confused. She is further hurt by her mothers callous attitude and by learning that her mother is trying to marry her off to Carlos, something she refuses. But she can't deny the attraction that is always between her and Carlos as they begin to get to know one another.
I enjoyed this book, it is certainly original and entertaining, if a tad far fetched at times! The writing flows wonderfully and is very descriptive, the interaction between the hero and heroine is well done, and there is plenty of sizzle, even for an older book. And, it was great that the hero's POV was included. My main issues with this book are that at times I found it a little confusing to follow and there are far too many secondary characters. Also, the events of the closing chapters take place over a period of nearly two years (the majority of the book took place over five weeks) and I feel it would have been better if those events began a lot earlier on in the book, as they are the most enjoyable.
Overall though, this is a very enjoyable book.
Originally posted at http://everyday-is-the-same.blogspot....
I enjoyed this book, it is certainly original and entertaining, if a tad far fetched at times! The writing flows wonderfully and is very descriptive, the interaction between the hero and heroine is well done, and there is plenty of sizzle, even for an older book. And, it was great that the hero's POV was included. My main issues with this book are that at times I found it a little confusing to follow and there are far too many secondary characters. Also, the events of the closing chapters take place over a period of nearly two years (the majority of the book took place over five weeks) and I feel it would have been better if those events began a lot earlier on in the book, as they are the most enjoyable.
Overall though, this is a very enjoyable book.
Originally posted at http://everyday-is-the-same.blogspot....
December 1, 2020
I think they are both nuts. It is hard to say who is the nuttiest.
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June 28, 2018She'd hoped never to see him again
When Pippa accompanied her employer to Quinta de Estrella, his friend's home in Portugal, to research his latest book, she was appalled to discover the friend was Carlos de Alvarez.
Several years earlier Carlos had come to England to see Pip pa's father. And he'd encountered Pippa in a humiliating situation, one she'd since put behind her and fully intended to keep that way.
Now she was forced to confront her past. Worse, she soon learned that her being at Carlos's estate was no coincidence. The austere, disapproving Carlos had some very definite plans for her....
When Pippa accompanied her employer to Quinta de Estrella, his friend's home in Portugal, to research his latest book, she was appalled to discover the friend was Carlos de Alvarez.
Several years earlier Carlos had come to England to see Pip pa's father. And he'd encountered Pippa in a humiliating situation, one she'd since put behind her and fully intended to keep that way.
Now she was forced to confront her past. Worse, she soon learned that her being at Carlos's estate was no coincidence. The austere, disapproving Carlos had some very definite plans for her....
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