What do you think?
Rate this book
Naturally Loving
An ill-timed attraction
Emotions were running high the day Nina Sommers finally met her fifteen-year-old daughter--especially with a high-handed adoptive father telling her how to deal with her own child. Especially since Hugh Cavendish was the most irresistible man Nina had ever met.
Nina was too worldly, too sophisticated, to be swayed by a pair of Paul Newman eyes or a smile that could immediately melt ice. She wasn't an innocent anymore. And she wasn't about to build impossible dreams around a man who made it clear he'd come into her life with only one purpose--to take advantage of her!
Emotions were running high the day Nina Sommers finally met her fifteen-year-old daughter--especially with a high-handed adoptive father telling her how to deal with her own child. Especially since Hugh Cavendish was the most irresistible man Nina had ever met.
Nina was too worldly, too sophisticated, to be swayed by a pair of Paul Newman eyes or a smile that could immediately melt ice. She wasn't an innocent anymore. And she wasn't about to build impossible dreams around a man who made it clear he'd come into her life with only one purpose--to take advantage of her!
- GenresHarlequin Presents
189 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1992
25 people want to read
About the author
Catherine Spencer
282 books60 followers In the past, Catherine Spencer has been an English teacher which was the springboard for her writing career. Heathcliff, Rochester, Romeo and Rhett were all responsible for her love of brooding heroes! Catherine has had the lucky honour of being a Romance Writers of America RITA finalist and has been a guest speaker at both international and local conferences and was the only Canadian chosen to appear on the television special, Harlequin goes Prime Time.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 13, 2018
Re Naturally Loving - Catherine Spencer tackles a very rare trope in HPlandia. The mother who gives up her child for adoption and is reunited years later.
The h in this one is 32 and a juvenile advocate lawyer in British Columbia, she represents teens who are in trouble with the law and in this book at least, she is a cross between an advocate and social worker and legal adviser.
The book opens with an extremely awkward meeting between the h, her daughter and the H. (I suspect CS has more than a nodding acquaintance with teenagers, cause she totally nailed the attitude.)
The h had listed her self on an adoption child/parent board as being interested in meeting her child. The H, who is recovering from a bad marriage and PTSD after being held hostage in South America, has brought his daughter to meet the h because as an large project engineer, he often goes to dangerous or hard to reach areas and he doesn't want his daughter to be alone if something happens to him.
The interesting thing is that the H and his wife adopted the daughter when they found out his wife was infertile. Then, four years later, they divorced. The H's wife was not a pleasant person according to the H, she was very mercenary, very uninterested in him and once she got a baby to call her own, she did her best to exclude the H from their lives and treated the child like a possession and not a person.
The H had no clue about how to deal with all this, so he just went to his job sites and paid the bills for the lifestyle his ex wife demanded. When his ex-wife died, he put his daughter into boarding school. That did not go so well, the girl is now 15 and has been thrown out of three schools for bad behavior. The H knows he isn't a great parent and he his hoping that by establishing contact with the h, his daughter will have a female role model.
That hope seems to be doomed at first, because the teenage daughter is very adamant that only bad, uncaring women give their babies away like trash. Her mother told her so. So the h and H have to try and show the girl that there really no black and whites, just shades of gray when it comes to babies and good homes.
There is also the problem of the legendary HP Lurve Force Mojo making it's sudden appearance between the H and h. They are trying to deny the attraction, but really it wouldn't be HPlandia if the H wasn't managing to get a few roofie kisses in contact in the off moments.
After a break in at the house the H is renting, the h invites the H and daughter to stay with her. She has a bedroom for the daughter and guest flat over her garage and she has a good security system and a pool. The h also has a very nice and practical French Housekeeper who is very wise about all things teenagers.
They all start living in the h's house and eventually her backstory comes out. The h's father died and her mother fell apart, then the mother married an abusive bully and the h was 15 and looking for affection and got preggers. Her stepfather was more abusive, but claimed he and her mother - who was merely a background mouse- would take the h's child and raise it themselves.
The h got smart really fast and went to live with her godmother. But her godmother was in her 60's and the h had no skills and no way to care for a child at 15. So she gave her up for adoption and then she went to law school and became a teen advocate, mainly to repay the help that she had been given.
The godmother sadly passed on and left the h her house and investments, so the h has a nice home and a nice life style, but hasn't been able to find a man who would overlook her 'shop worn' past. Then she meets the H and their attraction is growing stronger.
Especially as they all start to bond and squabble over parenting choices and what is appropriate for 15 yr old girls and what is not. The H is very much the heavy handed father wanting to keep his daughter a child and the h vividly remembers what drove her at 15 and argues for leniency and to give her daughter the freedom to grow up and mature.
There is fights about hairstyles, clothes, earrings and the young teen boy who got into a smidge of trouble and has to help the h in her garden as a repayment. All in all it is pretty standard domestic drama, except the H tends to over-react due to his lack of parenting knowledge, his resentment of his ex wife and his very real PTSD from being help captive for months until he escaped.
In the past the H just walked away from things when he couldn't overcome them and he tries to do it again after there is a big fight between him and his daughter and she runs off and the h's young gardener talks the daughter into coming back. The H decides to leave his daughter with the h and go back to South America.
The h is adamantly opposed to that, she makes her share of parenting mistakes too. But she knows that 95% of parenting is showing up and being there and just loving your kid and being willing to listen. By this point the H and h have become lovers, but the H is rejecting that too and he storms off - leaving the h and his daughter behind.
He only gets as far as the airport tho, then he comes back and he tells the h he is going to stick around. The h loves him dearly and he loves her, so the only thing now is hoping their daughter won't freak out at the thought of them together. (She had seen the h kiss the H on the cheek early on in the relationship and she had a wobbly.)
In typical teenage fashion, the daughter tells the old 'rents they should put a ring on it and since the H is now almost okay with his 16yr old daughter having a date with the h's ex-client, we leave one older couple and one teen couple having a nice dinner out and enjoying being a family for a very sweet HEA.
This one was really low key, but very well done. Considering that in real life CS has five daughters and two sons, she really knows her way around family squabbles and she brings that veracity to her story. I liked the awkward beginnings and I like how everyone just kept getting on with things and trying, even though there was some really heavy back-drama for all of the characters to deal with.
I don't know what it is about the Canadian authors, but they seem to write really low key but intense stories that aren't typical for HPlandia at, but they are very readable and relatable and CS is definitely one of the best.
Take this one out for a spin if you come across it, you won't be disappointed on this HP outing.
The h in this one is 32 and a juvenile advocate lawyer in British Columbia, she represents teens who are in trouble with the law and in this book at least, she is a cross between an advocate and social worker and legal adviser.
The book opens with an extremely awkward meeting between the h, her daughter and the H. (I suspect CS has more than a nodding acquaintance with teenagers, cause she totally nailed the attitude.)
The h had listed her self on an adoption child/parent board as being interested in meeting her child. The H, who is recovering from a bad marriage and PTSD after being held hostage in South America, has brought his daughter to meet the h because as an large project engineer, he often goes to dangerous or hard to reach areas and he doesn't want his daughter to be alone if something happens to him.
The interesting thing is that the H and his wife adopted the daughter when they found out his wife was infertile. Then, four years later, they divorced. The H's wife was not a pleasant person according to the H, she was very mercenary, very uninterested in him and once she got a baby to call her own, she did her best to exclude the H from their lives and treated the child like a possession and not a person.
The H had no clue about how to deal with all this, so he just went to his job sites and paid the bills for the lifestyle his ex wife demanded. When his ex-wife died, he put his daughter into boarding school. That did not go so well, the girl is now 15 and has been thrown out of three schools for bad behavior. The H knows he isn't a great parent and he his hoping that by establishing contact with the h, his daughter will have a female role model.
That hope seems to be doomed at first, because the teenage daughter is very adamant that only bad, uncaring women give their babies away like trash. Her mother told her so. So the h and H have to try and show the girl that there really no black and whites, just shades of gray when it comes to babies and good homes.
There is also the problem of the legendary HP Lurve Force Mojo making it's sudden appearance between the H and h. They are trying to deny the attraction, but really it wouldn't be HPlandia if the H wasn't managing to get a few roofie kisses in contact in the off moments.
After a break in at the house the H is renting, the h invites the H and daughter to stay with her. She has a bedroom for the daughter and guest flat over her garage and she has a good security system and a pool. The h also has a very nice and practical French Housekeeper who is very wise about all things teenagers.
They all start living in the h's house and eventually her backstory comes out. The h's father died and her mother fell apart, then the mother married an abusive bully and the h was 15 and looking for affection and got preggers. Her stepfather was more abusive, but claimed he and her mother - who was merely a background mouse- would take the h's child and raise it themselves.
The h got smart really fast and went to live with her godmother. But her godmother was in her 60's and the h had no skills and no way to care for a child at 15. So she gave her up for adoption and then she went to law school and became a teen advocate, mainly to repay the help that she had been given.
The godmother sadly passed on and left the h her house and investments, so the h has a nice home and a nice life style, but hasn't been able to find a man who would overlook her 'shop worn' past. Then she meets the H and their attraction is growing stronger.
Especially as they all start to bond and squabble over parenting choices and what is appropriate for 15 yr old girls and what is not. The H is very much the heavy handed father wanting to keep his daughter a child and the h vividly remembers what drove her at 15 and argues for leniency and to give her daughter the freedom to grow up and mature.
There is fights about hairstyles, clothes, earrings and the young teen boy who got into a smidge of trouble and has to help the h in her garden as a repayment. All in all it is pretty standard domestic drama, except the H tends to over-react due to his lack of parenting knowledge, his resentment of his ex wife and his very real PTSD from being help captive for months until he escaped.
In the past the H just walked away from things when he couldn't overcome them and he tries to do it again after there is a big fight between him and his daughter and she runs off and the h's young gardener talks the daughter into coming back. The H decides to leave his daughter with the h and go back to South America.
The h is adamantly opposed to that, she makes her share of parenting mistakes too. But she knows that 95% of parenting is showing up and being there and just loving your kid and being willing to listen. By this point the H and h have become lovers, but the H is rejecting that too and he storms off - leaving the h and his daughter behind.
He only gets as far as the airport tho, then he comes back and he tells the h he is going to stick around. The h loves him dearly and he loves her, so the only thing now is hoping their daughter won't freak out at the thought of them together. (She had seen the h kiss the H on the cheek early on in the relationship and she had a wobbly.)
In typical teenage fashion, the daughter tells the old 'rents they should put a ring on it and since the H is now almost okay with his 16yr old daughter having a date with the h's ex-client, we leave one older couple and one teen couple having a nice dinner out and enjoying being a family for a very sweet HEA.
This one was really low key, but very well done. Considering that in real life CS has five daughters and two sons, she really knows her way around family squabbles and she brings that veracity to her story. I liked the awkward beginnings and I like how everyone just kept getting on with things and trying, even though there was some really heavy back-drama for all of the characters to deal with.
I don't know what it is about the Canadian authors, but they seem to write really low key but intense stories that aren't typical for HPlandia at, but they are very readable and relatable and CS is definitely one of the best.
Take this one out for a spin if you come across it, you won't be disappointed on this HP outing.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 12, 2023
3.5 - something a bit different. I'm developing quite a liking for this author. At 16 Nina got pregnant and gave her daughter up for adoption- she'd been in no position to give her a home. She'd gone on to become a successful lawyer, specialising in youth offenders. The story begins when she is reunited with said daughter, the surly teen Jane. The girl's adoptive mother died and she'd fared badly in boarding school while the adoptive father, Hugh, worked overseas. The marriage had not been good and the mother had tried to keep emotional distance between father and daughter but he now realizes his daughter needs him and also needs a mother figure. The story shows the difficult emotional rapprochement of the newfound parent and child and the growing relationship between Hugh and Nina, two people with very negative experiences of love who have buried themselves in their work. There was reasonable chemistry between the leads and a believable reticence. Hugh was a bit of a stuffed shirt conservative whereas Nina had a bit more empathy. I guess she also knows what it feels like for a girl (as a famous person once said).The teenage tantrums were very lifelike (I do not miss those days). Anyway, bit cooler in tone than many HPs but a good read.
June 30, 2015
This was ok. I did not care for Hero. He was just a jerk. And the Heroine was too much a lawyer playing devils advocate.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews