Winter Of Dreams

Marlow Family #3

by Susan Napier

'Stop It! Don't you think you've had sufficient revenge?' Olivia said stiffly.

'Not now I have the taste for it,' Jordan murmured, and her eyes went involuntarily to his mouth. It curved sensually, knowingly, and she tried once more to push him away. This time, to her surprise, she succeeded. 'If this is revenge then I know why they call it sweet. Did I mention I have a very sweet tooth, Olivia?'

Genres: Romance, Harlequin, Contemporary, Harlequin Presents, Contemporary Romance, Category Romance

192 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published June 1, 1992

About the author

Perhaps being born on Valentine’s Day was an omen that Susan Napier would become a romance writer. This New Zealand author has written over 30 Mills & Boon category romances since 1984. Napier and her husband Tony Potter met when they both worked at the Auckland Star newspaper. After they married, she left the newspaper to work for a film company where she learned the art of dialogue. After the birth of her sons, Simon and Ben, she was a freelance scriptwriter for documentaries. It was soon after that she decided to try her hand at writing the romance fiction she dearly loved.

She and her husband still live in the home they bought in Auckland shortly after their marriage.

Reviews

[StMargarets · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of layers in this one. The H/h first met when the artist heroine was reeling from the humiliation of scathing review of her first gallery showing. The hero kept her from making a public spectacle of herself by hustling her out of the gallery before too many witnessed her tantrum and breakdown. He coaxed the heroine into drinking brandy, which led to her trying to drunkenly seduce the hero. Hero turned her down, which added to her humiliation.

The heroine’s family had to step in a few days later because her heroine had “glandular fever” and was very ill for a few months. When the story opens the heroine is being prodded out of bed by her twin who has some news. Seems while the heroine was ill, her sister ignored her wish to withdraw from a competition to provide art for the corporate headquarters of family company. She even went so far as to impersonate the heroine during an interview process at the family’s country estate. The next step is for her to paint a portrait of the company’s founder.

Heroine doesn’t want to do it. She has no confidence in her abilities and she is still physically fragile. Plus she doesn’t like her sister’s subterfuge and dreads having to pretend she’s been to this estate before and knows these people.

But she does know these people! Turns out the hero is the son of the founder of the company and he had a bit of fling – and more rejection - with her sister (thinking it was the heroine). The poor heroine keeps finding out more and more info about the hero, while trying to pretend she already knows what’s going on. She’s also madly jealous of her sister and angry she was so casual about trying to seduce the H and the subsequent physical incompatibility with the H – closing all doors for the heroine.

.There are a lot discussions about art, finding your own identity within a powerful family, the importance of confidence, and the fragility and strength of the human spirit. The hero is a rebel in his own way – his cousin is running the corporation while he farms, must to his father’s scorn. There is more to him than that and the heroine gradually learns his secrets while he learns hers. An OW, the H’s former fiancé and now his cousin’s, adds to the heroine’s torment and confusion.

By the end, the reader and the heroine finally understand the hero’s interest in her that first night and why he cried along with her. He was the anonymous critic whose review so devastated her. That review was a draft and he never meant it to go to print. The hero realizes the damage he did and doesn’t expect easy forgiveness. (He gets it, though – this is an HP)

Lots of satisfying elements in this. A unique plot with interesting characters. The OW gets her comeuppance and the heroine gets her painting mojo back. The hero’s regard and love for the heroine shines through – even though he holds back since he has his guilty secret. SN loves exploring difficult family situations and this story is no exceptions.

The hero did “make out” with the sister since he thought it was the heroine – so that might squick out some readers.

[boogenhagen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Re Winter of Dreams - Susan Napier brings us book three of her : Marlow Family Series.

This one features the only daughter besides Hugh from the first book who doesn't perform or take the stage. Olivia is an artist and when the story starts she has hit a roadblock of major proportions. First, she had a disastrous love affair that really broke her heart, then she tried a new direction in her art and then she got a really, really scathing review that not only decimated her as an artist, but decimated her as a female person too.

To totally top all that off, Olivia had a hissy fit at her gallery showing and the guy who rescued her got her a bit drunk on restorative brandy, she propositioned him and then he turned her down. Then she got glandular fever (otherwise known as mononucleosis or 'kissing disease') and she collapsed for several months.

Now she can't paint, she can't feel happy and she is worried that she has lost her painting focus. In steps her non-identical twin sister, (who gets the next book BTW.) Roz is an uber interfering idiot. She takes the emotional painting of the critic that Olivia did in outrage and desperation and submits the thing and some made up answers to a big family conglomerate that is offering a huge prize of selecting an artist who gets to produce a whole lot of art for them in their various buildings.

This is a big thing because it will literally make the chosen artist a new force majeure in New Zealand art. So Roz then goes to the family headquarters and impersonates Olivia - the looks thing isn't an issue, they resemble each other enough to get away with it.

The big problem is that Roz likes to start smack and in one day and half, she stirs up a hornet's nest. Unfortunately, what Roz does is not what Olivia would do and it causes issues. Olivia is all set to rescind her submission, but when she calls she gets the vicious pit viper slimetoad that is the OW - who also used to be the H's fiancee- and the woman sets Olivia's back up so much that Olivia is now determined to go, just to irritate the pit viper slime blob.

What Olivia walks into tho, is a hot mess of ruthless family manipulations, hellacious infighting and a lot of nasty back lash. To make things even more interesting, the man who rescued her from her meltdown and then rejected her is there too, he is the rebel son of the man who is sponsoring the big endowment.

The H has his own issues. He was raised to take over the as the head of the family conglomerate, his domineering father went to great lengths to push and manipulate and force him into the mold he required. It worked for about ten years or so, the H did as he was bid and got engaged to the pit viper slime blob. But this H wanted something different and he has a cousin who is very close in age who really enjoys the cut and thrust of boardroom politics.

So our H abdicated to the cousin and dumped the pit viper slime blob when he realized that she was essentially selling him out to his own father. The pit viper slime blob refused to slither off tho, she feels that the H's family owes her a position and living and she aims to get it.

So she set her cap for the H's father. When that did not work, she got her self engaged to the H's cousin. However the relationship is rocky and the pit viper may be overplaying her hand - she also makes it a point to interfere with the H when ever she can, she has never forgiven him for dumping her betraying hiney.

The H isn't too bothered tho. He farms and he sculpts and he has a good name in the art world. He also has a secret, he is the art critic that wrote the review that decimated Olivia. However, he feels that the h should have gone in a different direction, so he isn't too upset initially about what he wrote.

So the set up is the h is staying at the H's family compound. We get lots of family politics and manipulations, the pit viper slime blob strikes out at random and the H starts to push and probe Olivia, he seems to want to spike something in her and it is uncomfortable at times. There is many discussions about art and interpretation and what makes talent and how it should be expressed. The H eventually figures out that it was the h's sister who showed up the first time, so just to make Olivia sweat a little, he asks her if she is a better artist than her sister was a lover.

Olivia, who has a huge attraction for the H, is devastated - but the emotional spur does lead her to paint some more, tho how good the painting is will be left for later. Then the H explains that he did not sleep with her sister, they kissed, there was no mojo, they let it go. Olivia is still wary because the H is probing tender areas and she is determined to resist his Lurve Mojo Force. So there is a lot of little H pokes and prods towards the h that take some time to figure out.

Essentially what it boils down to is this. The h's previous art had a lot of passion and sensuality that attracted the H. Then she was let down in love and she repressed her inner passion mojo. The H felt that was a betrayal because he was overwhelmingly in lust/obsession with Olivia and her new art did not reflect the passion that he felt should be there.

So he got drunk, then he wrote this really scathing and humiliating review and he meant to go back and fix it later, but the copy editor got it before he could correct it and the thing got published and we start at the beginning with Olivia having a meltdown. Now he can't tell her what he did because he loves her and he is afraid she will reject him if she finds out the truth before he can snare her with the lurve club.

(So we don't actually know if Olivia's new art was good or not. What we know is that the H is very much like his father when it comes to ruthless manipulation and that he wanted the h to focus her art in a certain way to meet his standard art ideal and now he is actively working towards that goal.
He does realize that he has totally lost his objectivity about art now, so he does resign as the art critic, but it isn't enough to make him stop trying to manipulate Olivia.)

As these things always go in HPlandia, the H and Olivia get stranded while hiking and the big passion lurve club blaze burns them both. The next day the H is hauled off by his cousin for some big meeting and Olivia gives the H's father the painting that she completed of him and the H's dad likes it. He tells off the pit viper when she makes nasty comments. The pit viper slime blob, sensing that her reign of vicious back stabbing is over, reveals that the H and the art critic are one and the same.

Olivia has a HUGE ranty moment. She goes to the H's sculpture studio and she takes a hammer and she pounds his current work in progress to dust. (Probably it was better the sculpture than the H or the pit viper, homicide in HPlandia probably isn't pretty.) Then she takes off, once again heart broken, but now she has a righteous anger to fuel her passion and she does another art show.

The H shows up to plead his case and while Hugh distracts him, Olivia grabs Roz and they flee to Olivia's apartment. Olivia is very ashamed of her outburst and her destruction, she has come to accept that she needs the passion to paint in her best style and her earlier departure was a bad interpretation for her.

The H shows up at Olivia's later and knows it is Roz answering the door right away, he tells her to go away and then he does a fairly decent grovel to Olivia. He explains what happened, admits he lost the plot and shouldn't have written it and then proposes cause he is out of his head in love with her.

The H is going to accept the chairmanship of the family corporate art program and if Olivia wants it, she can have the artist endowment. Olivia , who believes that the H's father set the whole thing up to build a bridge to his son, agrees to accept the endowment and the H and Olivia make wedding plans. The pit viper slime blob got shipped out and all is well and true love rules in SN's HPlandia once again.

This one is very intense and a rather dense book, even tho it has the usual page count. SN did a good job in creating some very multi-faceted characters, tho they are not the most comfortable people to be around, they are very interesting. I also like the correlations between the h's illness at the start of the book and her art problems. Her 'passions' made her ill, so she repressed them. The H wants to let those passions out, so he stirs them, but really they have to do a lot delving to find the right happy medium.

I am not sure I was buying the love, but I did buy the intensity and the passion, so it was overall a good HPlandia outing.

[Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 1/2 Stars! ~ It had all been too much; betrayal from the man she had loved, the disastrous showing of her paintings, the terrible fatigue from the glandular fever she suffered from. The horrific review of her work had been her last straw, and suddenly she plunged over the edge that she’d been so dangerously near, and broke down, first with violent emotions and then a total physical breakdown. During those moments when Olivia Marlow had been at her most vulnerable, she had bared her body and soul to a stranger; and when she came to her senses the next day she hated him for seeing all her ugliest of emotions and refused to see him again. While Olivia recovered from her illness, her twin Roz decided to jump-start her sister’s career by posing as Olivia and presenting her portfolio to the Pendragon family, patrons of the arts, for consideration for the coveted Pendragon commission. This lead Olivia to the Pendragon estate, where as a finalist for the commission, she was to complete a portrait of Alun Pendragon. Much to Olivia’s dismay the strange man from months before was none other than Jordan Pendragon, son of her wealthy patron. While Jordan had come to know Olivia’s deepest and darkest of secrets that eventful night; he himself was a mystery with some very dark secrets of his own.

This is an awesome story! Emotionally intense, with some fun witty moments to break the tension. From the beginning, you can tell there is a tremendous depth to Jordan. He’s his own man, taking his own path often against his father’s wishes. Olivia had been a shattered woman, and Jordan had made it his responsibility to bring back her confidence. Though vulnerable, Olivia isn’t easily trod on, and she holds her own. Jordan wakes her sleeping passions, and at night she’s able to dream again. This story grabbed me from the first pages and I was sorry to have it end. Happily, I know I’ll get a glimpse of these great characters in the next installment of the Marlow family.

[*CJ* · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Winter of Dreams" is the story of Olivia and

When Olivia's sister Roz puts her name forth to do the portrait of an eccentric billionaire in the Pendragon commission while Olivia is recuperating from glandular fever, she never expects to be chosen!
However, as circumstances force her to travel, she is confronted by Jordan Pendragon himself- the son and a recluse artist himself. Olivia and Jordan share some painfully embarrassing memories, but when Olivia tries to escape, Jordan never lets her go..

Honestly, had such high expectations from this book. But it definitely did not live up to them:
-I felt Jordan spent the whole book riling Olivia up, and she responded as expected
-The whole plot about Jordan being with Roz- even though they just kissed- made me gag
-Beverly, the OW, was given too much of importance and she showed up on every second page with her relentless taunts
-The reveals were very predictable

There is a lot of drama towards the last 1/4th, and the lovemaking is super passionate- but it only made the read slightly redeemable.

SWE
2/5

[MBR · Rating 5 out of 5]

Winter of Dreams is another hit from the backlist of novels written by Susan Napier, most of which I went through during lock down and the period that followed. While a few of the titles from her backlist were misses, even then, I enjoyed reading them for the unique stories that I can always count on Ms. Napier to deliver.

26 year old Olivia Marlow is an artist who has lost her creative flow, having received a scathing review from an anonymous art critic who had earned a reputation for doing just that. Having taken ill following the scandal that ensued, Olivia is not at all ready to get back into the game and face the world. A bout of illness bringing her spirits further down, it is not until her sister forces her hand to come out and face the world again that she makes the attempt required.

When Olivia meets the 37 year old Jordan Pendragon, she wrongfully assumes that what her sister had told her about Jordan to be true. That proves to be the point which provided a lot of mirth filled scenes to the story as it developed, that is up till the point that Jordan puts those assumptions to rest by kissing her senseless.

While Olivia tries to hide from how she feels about Jordan, there is also the fact that Jordan himself holds a secret that could devastate Olivia all over again and destroy what is blossoming to life between two people who are so obviously meant for one another.

I found Winter of Dreams to be delightful in so many ways. Sexy and sinfully sensual (which is classic Ms. Napier), with a larger than life hero and a heroine who is gun-shy, who is helplessly ensnared by the web of heady desire that encapsulates them both from the onset.

Though at first the story started out a tad slow, it took off just like that and I found myself soaking in the heady sensations that coursed through me as the story progressed. I liked how Jordan and Olivia took their time to get to know each other and how that was actually reflected in the story. I loved the changes that came over Olivia as time went by, how she blossomed and bloomed into realizing her own potential and the strengths of her own character.

I have to admit however, that I loved Jordan perhaps a tad more in comparison to Olivia. I found him to be a contrasting mix of kindness, gentleness, and firmness that went well with the setting and proved to be exactly what Olivia needed in the end.

Recommended for fans of category romances, Susan Napier, and romances that stand the test of time.

Final Verdict: In Winter of Dreams, Ms. Napier brings to life a hero whose beauty lies in the remarkable facets to his character; the happily ever after that followed was a foregone conclusion.

Rating = 4.75/5

For more reviews and quotes, please visit A Maldivian's Passion for Romance

[Namera [The Literary Invertebrate] · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mmm... kind of meh, to be honest. Not one of Napier's best.

We have an artist heroine who meets the hero when she appears to paint his father's portrait. Unbeknownst to her, he's also an artist, not to mention the art critic who wrote a scathing review of her which decimated her confidence months ago. There's a little bit of intrigue with the fact that the heroine twin sister previously tried and failed to seduce the hero (whilst pretending to be the heroine).

Though the hero is an all-too-rare blond, nothing about him in particular stands out. Same for the heroine, whose faded willowiness vaguely irritated me.

[Blog]

[Maura · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one gets a bit complicated. Olivia Marlow is an artist who spent the past few months or so recovering from an illness after she had a near breakdown because of a scathing review from an anonymous art reviewer, "the Jester." Jordan Pendragon was present for the breakdown and took care of Olivia, but Olivia treated him horribly the next morning and kicked him out before learning who he was. In the present day, Olivia finds out she's been accepted for an art commission competition for which she was not entered. But she learns that her twin, Roz, entered her and even pretended to be her in order to do it. When Olivia arrives at the Pendragon estate to complete her painting, she finds Jordan and realizes who he is. He's not quite thrilled to have been so rejected before, but hasn't given up yet. Forced to live with Jordan for the next few weeks, Olivia knows she'll be fighting the attraction between them, while Jordan knows they are meant to be. But Jordan has a secret that could destroy everything he's working for.

This had a great premise, especially given Jordan's secret and its effect on Olivia (and their potential relationship). My opinion though is that Olivia let him off the hook way too quickly. Jordan was one of those heroes who had that sort of smarmy assurance that everything was going to go his way and to hell with what Olivia might want. He always seemed to be taunting her, tossing her feelings back in his face and challenging her in uncomfortable ways. I'm kind of okay with challenging her and pushing her to face her demons, but I don't care for the way he did it. He began to seem in-genuine. And after learning of his secret and that he'd been in love with her from the beginning, I found it difficult to figure out his behavior. Jordan did not behave like a man who was in love and trying to woo a woman nor he did not behave like he felt guilty and was trying to make up for it. He acted like a guy who honestly didn't care if he succeeded at getting her to fall in love with him (or otherwise who was supremely confident that this attitude was the way to go in wooing her). On the brightside, Jordan also wasn't a suave, sophisticated and rakish hero. The man was very down-to-earth despite his wealth and was even a little bit anti-social (primarily with his family). He reminded me of Hugh from the first story without the logical, legal mind.

I did like the struggle that Olivia had with her art and her identity. I liked the struggle that Jordan continuously had with his father and the fact that the father wasn't just a complete asshole...that he wanted to reach out to his son but had no idea how to go about it. There was some nuance to the characters in this story and I appreciated it. Although Jordan was not my favorite Napier hero, he was plenty complex. Also of interest and not 100% sure why - the love scenes in this story were more of a fade to black variety while other stories in the series are a bit more graphic (tastefully so). I'm not sure why...I felt like with their passion (and they had plenty) I wanted those detailed scenes instead of just a euphemistic paragraph.

[Annarose · Rating 4 out of 5]

a beautiful story of an artist who gets ill after her first failed exhibition because of the hero and so suffers a depression. Her twin sister decides it's up time she faced the world again so she enrolls her in a competition. Unfortunately, the competition is organized by the hero's company. Well-written like all Susan Napier's novel. Like it! Recommended read.

[MasterSal · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars - only because it was Ms. Napier.

I've enjoyed the first two books in the series but this one was just ok. The couple kind of annoyed me. The MMC came across as smug and the FMC has one too many fits to be convincing as an adult. I guess it was meant to be a passionate artistic temperament but honestly both of them were idiots. This relied on one too many miscommunications to work. Most of the time the couple really wasn't talking to each other which was a shame. And a big change from Book 1.

Anyway.... I mostly got bored by the latter half when the heroine turned out to veer between blushing and banshee. I hope her sister's story is better.

[More Books Than Time · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well written but I don’t like it. Complex characters are good but telling us about them loses the punch.

The HEA is a bit dubious.

[María · Rating 3 out of 5]

When "El Bufón" published his critics about her painting exposition, Olivis felt devastated. Add to that a failure romance and a neumonitis and you had Olivia present. She couldn't even get up to the bed...
Her twin sister Ross, a famous actress, took her place and presented Olivia's work to the Pendragon Fundation. Imagine her surprise when she found out that they had picked her as a finalist!!!
After her sister insisted on her taking a chance and a very unpleasant telephone conversation with a horrible woman, Olivia decided to go to the Pendragon mansion.
She never expected to be face to face with the mysterious man who had been seduced by her one fatidical night...
Jordan never allowed himself to feel this passion before, he thought that night was an espejism after seeing her the last time. So why he felt again this unstoppable atraction to her? What was her secret to pass from ice to fire? But more important, could Olivia forgive him when she found out he was not only Junius, a great sculptor, but also "El Bufón"?
I like this story very much, especially because Jordan personality and the fact that he could distinct between Olivia and Ross

[Tia · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a pretty dramatic book and in way kind of sick considering the hero 'made love' with the heroine and her twin sister. It was pretty sinister in a lot of ways. I found the ending to be sweet but not a great ending. The heroine went through a lot of bullshit in this novel, even though she was hurt and her pride was swiped at numerous times, she was a brave heroine.

[RomLibrary · Rating 1 out of 5]

Stop It!'

'Don't you think you've had sufficient revenge?' Olivia said stiffly.

'Not now I have the taste for it,' Jordan murmured, and her eyes went involuntarily to his mouth. It curved sensually, knowingly, and she tried once more to push him away. This time, to her surprise, she succeeded.

'If this is revenge then I know why they call it sweet. Did I mention I have a very sweet tooth, Olivia?'

Cold Front

If it hadn't been for an outrageous act by her twin sister, Olivia Marlow would never have been considered for the prized Pendragon commission. And the New Zealand artist would never have set eyes on Jordan Pendragon again, the man fate had made her personal devil.

Their shared memories only humiliated Olivia, but gave Jordan an advantage-he'd seen her soul. But would he ever be able to bare his own?

[LilyRosa · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded up.
I didn't enjoy this Marlow series number 3 as much as the first two. It was heavy and angsty with the heroine suffering a nervous breakdown as well as being in poor physical health. I could have done with some of the lighthearted madcap moments and witty dialogue from the first two books.

I was also hoping to see more of the characters from the first two books. The twin sister comes across as dippy in this book so I am not sure I am going to like her in the final book where she gets her own romance.

It was an intense read.

[Helen Moulden · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have already read the story about Olivia's twin sister Rosalind. Loved this one too. Jordan you are gorgeous.

[Lucimar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Romance leve, sem muita surpresas. Poucas cenas apaixonadas. Esperava mais da história que prometia muito...

[SBC · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don't be fooled by the ill-chosen blurb for this book - this is not a revenge story, and the hero is not a jerk trying to punish the heroine.

Winter of Dreams is actually a lovely, fun story about a female artist who has been unwell after some personal issues and a shattering negative review of her last exhibition. She has a confident near-identical twin and a brief history with the hero. The story takes place at his father's farm in Taupo, as the heroine is trying to paint a portrait of the crotchety older man for an art commission. Artists of any form should enjoy this story, as well as readers who enjoy a heroine struggling to find her feet and a kind hero.