Gazing at the stunning blonde across the hotel lounge, dashing entrepreneur Conrad Wendel felt desire curl in him. He was on fire for this goddess -- and he had to make the lovely beauty his! — Heller Blane was working double shifts to pay her mother's hospital bills, but she feared she'd never earn enough in time... until the myste... more »rious stranger offered her ten thousand dollars to have dinner with him. Heller knew it was risky, but Conrad's brash proposition was dangerously appealing... and she felt undeniably drawn to the enigmatic man with eyes of emerald fire that enflamed her.But when dawn broke, she had vanished, the breathless passions of their night together only memories that haunted Conrad. He'd fallen in love with a shimmering shadow, and he must find his vanished siren whose trail led to a tropical island paradise. But could he capture the elusive water nymph whose heart had touched his soul, and keep her safe in his embrace?
Actually the back cover is wrong and he never makes an offer of money for dinner with her. As with most other books of the 80's, there are a lot of "endearments", which drive me crazy for some reason. Maybe because there’s one in every sentence the "hero" utters in the beginning? I don't know, I just get tired of hearing, "little one", "darling", and let us not forget in this book, "Heller mine"! Ugh, how awful that one is!! Not to mention all the comments about her voice going squeaky. *rolls eyes* The typical overbearing, bulldozing male is once again used in this book. Why he can't just let Heller tell things in her own time is beyond me, instead he has a private investigator (or the like) pry into her business to find out.
Some other things I didn't like about the book: 1. There was too much going on in it; mother's health, a fire, the Witness Protection Program, misunderstandings (which are usually the main or only thing in a romance book). Just pick one and stick with that, don't go over-the-top.
2. Heller was worried about endangering Conrad's life but not Simeon's, I found that wrong. Some convoluted thinking there.
3. Why-oh-why did the author decide to name Heller's best friend Doodie?
Even with all that I still found myself enjoying it more and more as I progressed through the book. Both Con and Heller became more likeable and Heller started showing more spunk. I do have to say that everything tied itself up rather nicely in the end and their relationship was rather sweet and instead of not being together until the end, they actually had a relationship during the book. And the after-party was highly entertaining, too. :)
If you can get through the first 50 or so pages it's actually rather rewarding! I ended up enjoying it way more than I thought I would. :)
This might be the worst book I've ever read. The plot was ... awful. The characters were unlikeable and the writing was just baaaad. Where was the editor on this one?? Terrible, terrible, terrible. Ugh.