Impulsive proposal

by Jeneth Murrey

WHAT POSSESSED HER TO PROPOSE TO GIDEON!

Now a rich widow, Ellis had returned with her adopted son, Davey, to the Welsh home where once she'd been a woebegone foster child. Back then she'd suffered the contempt of her foster cousin, Gideon. And here she was --- offering herself in marriage to him!

Secretly, Ellis felt she owed it to little Davey to ensure his rightful place in Gideon's family. And she concealed from the aloof Welshman the perturbing truth about the child's roots.

She also hid the aching, one-sided love she'd always borne for Gideon. But her pain only increased when Davey's real mother turned up ...

Genres: Harlequin Romance, Harlequin, Romance

189 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

Reviews

[Preeti ♥︎ Her Bookshelves · Rating 2 out of 5]

Let me come right out and say what I didn't like about this book.

Firstly, the H was a big bore and a db to boot.
Imagine a 9 years old quiet but gritty orphaned girl who gets picked on or looked down upon by her 20 years old foster cousin. For him, her quiet stoicism (as she fears being sent back to the ‘home’) translates to sly covetousness and her response to affection from the foster mother and grandfather as ingratiating behavior. He sides with his own cousin (the ow/her foster sister) throughout their childhood. Like, as the h points out, he made sure she got left out of any rides she wanted and the other girl was taken instead. Or imagine an adult (him!) slipping in a dead mouse in a little girl’s pocket as a prank! (And then these silly hs go ahead and fall in love with such hateful characters should say a lot about them too.)
But in all such stories, it is usually revealed later that he was actually attracted to her at some level (at least in her later teenage years and thus the transferred hostility) or at least he had some liking/felt sorry for her. But not this H. As he blithely tells her that he never really liked her as a person, and physically she always paled in front of her more vivacious foster sister and so he never really noticed her that way until when they meet now in the present! Not even when she apparently threw herself at him when she was 16/17. (Btw the past is quite hazy as is not clearly portrayed but is just alluded to here and there.)


Secondly, the problems with the h.
She starts out as someone with a lot of sass and also grit (reminding me of another JM h I liked a lot) but then as the story meandered and stagnated, all her so called strength comes to a naught.
When the evil foster sister makes a comeback, all her spunk goes the way of noodles in hot water. I love a h who gives back good to evil blackmailing people. Not those who just unravel and stare back slack mouthed. Or worse make excuses/justifications for bad people’s bad behavior.
Also, she is never shown even a bit pained/affected that the H and his first cousin have had sex and produced a child. Her saint/martyr-dom was anyways complete when she let the f sister stay with her during the pregnancy and then keeps the child while the flighty ow goes off chasing fame and fortune.


Thirdly, when and where was the love? He hated and baited her for 90% of the book and suddenly decides she’s the one for him? And that midway proposal? One minute they are are talking in hypotheticals and next minute they are engaged, in a most bloodless and boring way imaginable. If I didn't know the title, I would have missed the proposal completely in the farce.

What can be termed likable?

The h in the beginning, of course.

Why these hs never really appreciate the genuinely warm loving men they get as exes/husbands in their lives, but are perpetually in love with the louses? So yes, I liked the dead husband for the person he was. Older, caring, willing to take on her responsibilities, an ex car racer (that sure added to the personality!)

The boy was adorable. Irrepressible, up to all no-goods as all little boys ought to, fiercely protective of the h- in fact head-butts the H when he thinks he had made ‘Ellis’ cry. And yes, in a smart evasive move by the author, calls her Ellis as mummies are things wrapped in bandages in museums!

[Naksed · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hero slut-shames heroine pretty much to the last page, all because heroine lied and connived and sacrificed for years to protect her worthless, deadbeat foster sister, who by the way gets no comeuppance at all and will remain in their lives like the succubus parasite that she is for the rest of eternity.

[Vintage · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sometimes it's the negative reviews that draw us to a book. Those one stars can provide a whole level of angsty goodness and fun that a solid three star just can't deliver.

Then there are those negative reviews we need to heed. I was warned. I failed to heed the warning.

An h falls for the H who dismisses her for the squeaky wheel chick that lies and cheats to make the h look bad. Unrequited love for an H never really delivers.

[Grrrrace · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of great reviews on this, and I always love when books are all over the place with regard to reviews/ratings--it suggests there's something interesting going on. I'm strictly middle of the road on this one. Familiar plot elements: MoCs; a plot moppet being raised by the heroine, who is NOT his mother (JM often has some element of this); an awful, possible OW whom the heroine doesn't really stand up to; an autocratic and difficult hero who, in this case, has long misjudged the heroine.

I found this one really uneven but there were aspects that I liked. Murrey's rendering of her native Wales was pretty evocative, and I really miss heroes who were NOT all gazillionaires; who might be "comfortable and able to afford a few luxuries now," like this hero, but not tycoons (although JM has a few of those in her books as well). The hero in this one is a Welsh farmer, who has inherited his grandfather's estate, which includes a rambling, era-spanning and expensive-to-maintain house that is such a money drain that he's considering pulling it down (except for the oldest listed building) or turning it over to be used as extra housing for a children's home. The heroine, in this one, is the one with the money--when her foster sister dumped her baby on her (claiming the hero is the unknowing father), the heroine's wealthy and infertile boss convinced her to marry him and raise the kid together. She inherited her husband's wealth after he died in an accident. JM makes it clear that it was a happy, if unexciting, marriage, and as others have noted, probably would have made a good MoC story on its own!

The hero and heroine have a combative past--she was adopted by his aunt and raised with his beautiful, tempestuous cousin, but the hero, 11 years older or so, was never very kind to her, having been led to believe by her foster sister that the heroine was secretive, sly, and a thief, who put on an act for her loving adoptive mother (the hero's aunt) and his grandfather. She was indeed pretty quiet and ultra-reserved, mainly because as a girl she feared for a long time that if she did anything wrong, she'd be cast out. She has intense loyalty to her adoptive mother and her foster sister (even after she finds out that the other girl made sure she was blamed by the hero for her own petty pilfering and misbehavior).

Despite the conflict between them, the heroine secretly worshipped the hero and confessed her adolescent "love" for him when she was 16, only to be firmly and harshly (if correctly) rejected by him. After finishing school, she moved to London and worked as a secretary for the man she eventually married--an ex-racecar driver turned mystery writer (like Dick Francis, but with racecars, the heroine explains).

After the death of the grandfather, the heroine inherits the lodge on the estate, which the hero was planning on making his home. She's the one that proposes a marriage between him, so that her "son," Davey, can take his rightful place in the family (although she doesn't bring up that she thinks the hero is his father or that her foster sister is his mother).

The hero figures out pretty quickly that the kid is his cousin's (although he has no idea the heroine thinks he's his father, and when he does learn that's what she thinks, uncategorically says that it's not possible and the cousin was lying--whether you believe him is up to you, but I usually give Harley heroes the benefit of the doubt since this is, after all, fantasy (unless you're reading Kay Thorpe or certain other authors, in which case it's anyone's guess). The heroine admits to herself secretly that she's always been in love with the hero and that the marriage is not just for the kid's sake; she wants a life with him and to return to her home, which she loves and is the place where she won a hard-held sense of belonging as a kid. Despite that, she gives the hero a pretty tough time throughout (which he mostly deserves) from a sense of self-preservation, although over time they become closer and more open and he loses some of his misconceptions about her, and she about him.

The cousin, a successful model who is aware that her time as such is limited, returns from American and blackmails the heroine, saying that she'll take back her son if the heroine doesn't pay up. Since the heroine's former husband made a previous arrangement with her that resulted in the heroine and him legally adopting the kid, her threats are pretty empty, but our formerly steel-spined heroine is a pushover for her awful cousin, as she always had been, and gives her some money, and makes arrangements with her disapproving financial advisor to pony up more. The hero gets wind that the cousin is back and retrieves the check she gave the cousin (although he does say that what she does with her money is up to her after that), and the hero and heroine clear up a few things, including the fact that they're in love with one another. But the book does end with the distasteful suggestion that the wild and beautiful cousin will be indulged, as she always has been, and there will be zero comeuppance for her (it's just Gwenny being Gwenny, pffttt), which leaves a bad taste to the HEA.

As another reviewer notes, the level of tension in this one never lets up--which I liked. I think JM writes conflict really well; it makes for a good and fairly angsty read even though not much happens plotwise. I do wish her usually fiesty heroines, who can generally hold their own with the hard-ass heroes, never really stand up to the awful OW (I guess JM wanted to show that the often-combative heroines are really softies inside who are bewildered by that level of crazy or vile OWness). At least no one got fork stabbed in this one! :-D

JM isn't for everyone--her heroes are of the vintage "my way or no way" variety and if that's not your cuppa, you probably won't much like her books. I do like vintage asshat heroes, myself, so for me, she always seems to deliver. She's good at creating atmosphere and tension, too, and in giving a good sense of place in her settings without overdoing the travelogue. Overall, I mostly liked this one (although I would have liked more comeuppance for those who deserved it!).

[Megzy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ellis was a 9 years old orphaned girl with only a worn dress, underpants and shoe when she was fostered by a family in north welsh. She had a loving foster- mother, a gentle hardworking foster-uncle, a handsome 20 years old orphaned foster-cousin who lived with his uncle and a two years older spoiled but beautiful foster-sister. Ellis worked extra hard, studied a lot and tried not to be a burden and left for London when she was 17 with her secretarial diploma and just after her foster-cousin, Gideon, who really disliked and distrust her turned her down. She was in London working for an ex-well to do race car driver now author when her foster-sister Gweeny showed up at her door with the big announcement she was pregnant by Gideon's baby and even though he proposed before she was aware of her pregnancy, she had no plan of marrying him and ending up back in Welsh... she didn't want her family to know about it and be disappointed or make her give up her dreams and lifestyle. She came to Ellis because it was too late to terminate her pregnancy safely and Ellis owed it to her family to see to her needs until she had the baby and found a home for him/her. Ellis had to tell her boss. Robert, who was going to take her to a doctor after leaving early one too many days with the migraine headache excuse. Robert had the perfect solution. He loved children but couldn't have any of his own. He agreed to adopt the baby when the child was born and help setting up Gweeny in her modeling career by sending her to the states with money and all expenses paid until she got established which Gweeny agreed to right a way. Ellis found the baby all by himself at her home upon her return from a full day at work when he was only 5 days old and before Gweeny has signed the adoption papers. Dear Gweeny had better things to do like shopping before leaving town two days later. Robert married Ellis very soon after and she was able to legally become Davey's adopted mother. As far as her foster family knew and not from Ellis herself, Ellis was a fallen woman and she might have married Davy's father. Ellis lost Robert in a car accident three years after their marriage.

The story began when Davey is over 5 years old and Gideon visits Ellis in London upon hearing she is planning to attend her foster-uncle funeral in Welsh and staying with her foster-mother. He called her greedy and basically a money hungry bitch because she told him the uncle has promised her few pieces of family jewelry and an old lodge for her to have a place to live and call home when she was a teen and he was a man of his word. Unknown to him Ellis was planning on fixing the lodge and permanently moving there after making the place habitable. She wanted Davey to have his root in his ancestral land and be close geographically to his real father and grandmother. Gideon moved to his aunt's house sharing the place because his own place was extremely large and he didn't have a proper cook or housekeeper. Ellis proposed marriage to Gideon about a month later when he told her late one night that the ancestral large home was costing him a lot and he had three options, give it to a charity to be used as an orphanage, close the place and let it rot, or marry a rich wife. He accepted and they planned on getting married after Ellis was finished with fixing the lodge on the boarder of the property. Although Gideon still met with the charity coordinator and as far as we knew by the end of the book, he was letting the orphanage to take the place so he really didn't need Ellis.

Even though Gideon was domineering, he wasn't an asshat. She slapped him in two different occasions when he was out of line and he did slap her once and shook her but honestly I was fine with it not so much with the slapping but absolutely with shaking because Ellis was completely out of control, panicked, irrational and his other method to get her attention like talking and reasoning wasn't working and only escalating her condition. This is after the reappearance of dear blackmailing lying bitch but oh so gorgeous and sophisticated foster-sister. There are lots of bantering between Ellis and Gideon so if you don't care for that style of communication beware.

[sbf20112011 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I kept waiting for more to happen in this one. A lot of emotional tension, but I didn't always follow exactly what the hero/heroine were saying to each other (lots of sarcasm I think, but it made the dialogue a little confusing). In the end, it was all a bit of a letdown because it just sort of ended and you felt like the whole story had continued at the exact same tension level without change. Also, I wish they'd disclosed who Davey's father was -- it was odd that it was discussed so much and then they just shrugged like they'd never know.

One good thing about this author -- her heroines are actually capable of keeping their heads during a kiss. Seems like in most Harlequins the heroines turn to automatic jelly the moment they're kissed, but this author gives them some backbone and the ability to stop responding when they're legitimately angry with the hero.

Anyway, this was an ok read and I had no problem finishing it, but it wasn't great.

Edited on second read: I bumped this up to four stars. It really is a decent read if you like angsty reunion stories. I think I also enjoy heroines who are kind of shrews -- caustic and coming out with fists swinging. I don't like fighting for the sake of it, particularly when it's a weak and whiny heroine, but it can be fun when the heroine holds up her side of the sparring.

[Reader · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not really my vup of tea. Kinda boring and made me want to skim, and that was after the first chapter. I didnt feel the love, didnt get why all the hate and most of all didnt understand the reason to stay in each others life. I just didnt get the story or the motive anyone had for doing what they did.

[More Books Than Time · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nowhere near the best of this author; she leaves far too many loose strings and his love doesn't seem quite real. Even so it is engaging and I enjoyed the heroine and her little boy is excellent, a true character in his own right.

He starts the story by insulting her, accusing her of pushing her foster sister out, acting like a vulture with her foster family (he is nephew to her foster mom) to take everything she can. Somehow just a few weeks later he's in love with her and claims he stopped believing the horrible things about her. This doesn't ring true, especially since her foster sister blamed her when he caught her stealing from him years earlier. Things like that stick in the mind.

[Tricia Murphy · Rating 3 out of 5]

He's just so unpleasant.

[Tia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ellis, Gideon & Gwenny grew up together. Gideon and Ellis had a stormy relationship, he always fought and badgered her, thinking the worst of her and siding with Gwenny. When Ellis had enough, she turned eighteen and took off to bigger sights and brighter lights. When Gwenny approached her later saying she was pregnant with Gideon's baby and she wanted Ellis to have him. In order to keep Davey, Ellis married her boss Robert and they raised him together until Robert died in a terrible accident. Now Ellis is back and Gideon is still harassing her, only this time it's because he loves her.

I didn't really care for this book, it was too superficial and boring for my tasted. Gwenny made me wanna punch myself in the face. hah. Sorry, couldn't stand some of the characters and their attitude, it nearly drove me up the wall.