Powerful Stranger

by Patricia Wilson

Ryan Landis had always loved and protected Lauren as long as she could remember. He had been a reassuring figure in her childhood. But now she was grown up and making her own decisions. And the last thing she wanted was Ryan interfering in her life. How dared he question her choice of husband! How could he whisk her off to California to work for him without giving her time to even think about whether she really wanted to? And what exactly did Ryan wantfrom her? The hard, arrogant businessman he had become was very different from the Ryan she remembered. But somehow he was even more exciting...

Genres: Harlequin, Romance, Harlequin Romance, Contemporary Romance, Hqn

189 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published December 3, 1993

About the author

Patricia Wilson (1929 – 2010) was a best-selling writer of 53 romance novels for the Mills & Boon publisher from 1986 to 2004. She placed her novels primarily in England, Spain or France.

Reviews

[Naksed · Rating 1 out of 5]

A great romantic hero wasted on an utterly stupid, vapid, bratty, flighty, did I mention stupid?, immature, rude, entitled, stammering, weak, did I mention stupid?, thoughtless, superficial, self-pitying, co-dependent, did I mention stupid heroine?

H and h are step-siblings although not related by blood and they never really had a sibling-like relationship due to their 13 year old age difference.

She hero-worshipped him until inevitably getting the requisite schoolgirl crush on him when she was 18. He felt the same but never let her know, rightly so, as he felt she was too young and immature and he didn't want to take advantage of her hero-worshipping but wanted to let her grow up, live her own life, and get to know who she was, independently from him.

Trouble is, this girl never grew up! She had the Peter Plan complex. Despite the best education, lifestyle, and opportunities that money could buy, money provided by the H, she drifts through life, playing at jobs instead of engaging in any serious academic or professional pursuit. Basically living the idle life of a rich socialite until she meets a weaselly, social climbing fiance who is very interested in the high class lifestyle that her allowance is going to make him feel accustomed to. The type of stupid heroine that I really can't identify with or root for, unless I see some sort of evolution in her personality over the course of the story. This was not the case here.

Hero puts the kibosh on the h's engagement, naturally, and heroine has a rude awakening, realizing the fiance was after her money only and to give her credit, she promptly ends the relationship.

She also realizes her lifestyle has not been supported by her deceased father's worthless trust but anonymously by the H. Her reaction to this turn of events is wildly immature, over-emotional and drastic. Feeling humiliated to be beholden to her step brother, rather than grateful and humbled at the classy way he has enabled her to have the best of everything without making her feel she was indebted to him in any way, she lashes out at him, wants to sell everything she owns to pay him back (very insulting gesture towards an incredibly generous and selfless act) and of all things, wants to embark on a career as "high class" housekeeper, basically the equivalent of a female butler running the gigantic households of the London upper crust. With zero experience, zero work ethic, and one hundred percent sense of self-entitlement! Stupid doesn't even begin to cover it.

Hero spares her the humiliation of self-destructing and instead he generously offers her an opportunity to become an executive chef for his company instead. Again, there is a lot of lashing out, suspicion, anxiety, wishy-washiness and hand-holding required by her. So what does she do once she gets acquainted with her job? Promptly start dating the company lawyer.

I mean, she just came off a terrible relationship that showed her just how bad a judge of character she is, she has been given a golden opportunity to stop paying lip service to the idea of standing up on her own two feet and acting like an adult, and instead of focusing on herself and her new, demanding job, she just starts dating someone in the company, unable to comprehend how awkward things might get with office romances, and oblivious to the disapproval of the H. *sigh* Stupid, much?

All the while of course, there is serious sexual tension between h and H, including a nighttime bedroom romp initiated by the heroine loudly banging on her window in the middle of a storm because the dumbass couldn't locate the latch that kept the window from being shut. Did I mention h was stupid? *face palm*

As for the OW in this story, despite the heroine being told by everyone that she is a nasty liar, the heroine nevertheless accepts everything the OW says about her supposed long-standing affair with the H. When the hero returns from a trip, instead of confronting him with the OW's lies, h runs headlong into a tsunami-sized wave in the ocean, necessitating a hospital visit for both of them. WTF? Who does that?!!! Wait, did I mention the heroine was stupid?

[Verity · Rating 4 out of 5]

'If I loved someone I'd be willing to sleep in a tent in a field just to be w/ her. Anyone who doesn't feel that doesn't know love. If U want a tidily arranged marriage w/ somebody calculating like Redmond then go ahead !'

'A brand,' he said thickly, ' my brand !'

'I want to kill anyone who looks @ U.'

'Tell me U want to be part of me every minute of your life,' he commanded harshly.

'Everyday I intend to own U a little more.'

'I want U w/ me always. I'll never let anyone take U from me...'

'U'd better wipe that phrase from your vocabulary,' Ryan threatened. 'Running away is something that will never be allowed.'

[*CJ* · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Powerful Stranger" is the story of Lauren and Ryan.

A sweet yet angsty romance between step-siblings with an utterly smitten H, a totally oblivious h, loads of OW/OM drama, crazy jealousy, the h behaving like a damsel every ten minutes and the H repeatedly proving his love, realizations and HEA. I enjoyed it but the h's complete ignorance of the H's love frustrated me!

Safe/SWME
3/5

[SassyLeg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love love love old HPs’ alpha, possessive, obsessive, manipulative, jealous heroes.
The heroine is dumb for most of the book, unaware that she is her “prey” and object of his desire.... so angsty and delicious.

[Leona · Rating 3 out of 5]

Besotted fool. TSTL Heroine. Mother that should know better. Gold digging OM. Evil OW.

Everyone gets the fact that he is absolutely crazy crackers for the heroine, EXCEPT the heroine.
This could have been should have been 5 stars, except the heroine kept getting in the way.

[Grrrrace · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love PW's uber-alpha possessive heroes--love them! Ruthless multinational tycoon Ryan, whose only weakness seems to be his long-held love of the heroine, whom he has finally come to claim, definitely delivers on that end. PW's heroines, for me, are a mixed bag though--sometimes I enjoy their daffy defensiveness and understand their fear of being so taken over and consumed that there's nothing left. Other times, as in this book, they verge too much on the histrionic and silly. In PS, though, the heroine's immaturity makes sense--even she realizes that she has been drifting through life, an educated dilettante whose skills (as a cordon bleu chef and in some other areas) have never been put to much use, mainly because of a mysterious legacy that has kept her in luxury without any real effort on her part. So she has never been challenged to truly grow up and take responsibility for her actions and decisions, until her ruthless step-brother, the hero, charges back into her life when she decides to get engaged to someone. He steamrolls her into waking up and taking responsibility for herself, challenging her both professionally and personally and breaking her out of the safe, dreamy cocoon she's been drifting in since his absence from her life six years before.

I don't generally like romances between step-siblings (very common in vintage Harleys), but in this case, the fact that they have not seen one another in half a dozen years, allowing her to grow into adulthood without his influence, leavens the ick factor a bit. PW makes pretty clear, too, that her past hero worship of him and his protective regard for her were never brotherly-sisterly and that the hero carefully tried to keep her at arm's length and let her have the space and distance to grow up without him. But this is a PW hero, so when the time comes for him to "capture" his lifemate, he quite ruthlessly sets about doing so, whisking her out of her safe zone and insisting that she grow up finally. The heroine, despite her feelings for him, does her best to elude capture, and therein lies our conflict--and, once she does gain some maturity and perspective, our resolution/HEA.

[Booked · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love patricia wilson. She is absolutely amazing. They are step sibs with no hang-ups until she brings a fiance home to meet the family and of course her step-brother.

[Rebecca · Rating 2 out of 5]

Heroine got on my nerves after a while. TSTL springs to mind, and if I read about her "sophistication" one more time I would have screamed I think! Liked the hero though, and nice love story. It's nice to have it the other way round for once, as in heroine not in love with hero and having no idea hero loves her!

[Kace | The Booknerd · Rating 3 out of 5]

I pulled this one off the pile as part of my "vintage-old-HP" binge. And I couldn’t resist a book that has my favorite trope on it. The older hero/younger heroine trope is as old as romance. Yep, it always does it for me. Some may find it a little weird, annoying, or a little tiring, but I find it comforting! That's why I really enjoyed this book so much, even though the heroine annoyed me sometimes. But I enjoyed how she drives him crazy and how he drives her mad because from there, sparks fly!

[sbf20112011 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know why I keep reading Patricia Wilson -- I just find her stories way too obvious. There's no tension for me when it's extremely obvious that the hero is in love with the heroine. This one wasn't as bad as some others, but still not a very exciting read.

[Debby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Patricia Wilson’s H’s are always mega: fine, rich, caring, besotted and very protective men who are their woman’s knight in shining armour.

But this h is OTT immature, ungrateful, dependent, wasting her life away.

He gives her a top catering job in his big company and all she does is whine and complain. She never even thanked him for giving her this job with her having zero experience.

Anyway, reviewer Naksed has a further detailed description of what the h was like.

This wasn’t a romance. It was more like a sugar daddy with his spoilt little brat. So therefore only 2,5- 3 stars.

[RomLibrary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ryan Landis had always loved and protected Lauren as long as she could remember. He had been a reassuring figure in her childhood. But now she was grown up and making her own decisions. And the last thing she wanted was Ryan interfering in her life. How dared he question her choice of husband! How could he whisk her off to California to work for him without giving her time to even think about whether she really wanted to? And what exactly did Ryan wantfrom her? The hard, arrogant businessman he had become was very different from the Ryan she remembered. But somehow he was even more exciting...

[Amara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Page 7, and there’s already a beta fiancé and a finishing school in Switzerland....where’s my Harlequin bingo card🧐..."

Page 12 and we have an older step-brother and mysterious paychecks that keep the heroine afloat!

p22 and we have the word “tycoon” and “tyrant”.

p108 and we’ve got a controlling, manipulative hero, a gold digger fiancé, and punishing kiss.

Heroine was annoying, but I couldn't put my finger on exactly why that was.

Seriously, this book had it all.

[JillyB · Rating 2 out of 5]

Naksed’s review captures my thoughts on most of the book and is a good one to read if you want more information.

This book was just ok for me. I put it down quite a bit and read it in small doses as I found it dragged in many places.I really wasn’t a huge fan of the heroine. The book was a lot of her thought processes, and quite frankly her thoughts aren’t that deep. Her stepbrother is the hero in the book. There is a 12 year age difference, and he has been in her life since she was very young. He has loved her since she was 17 and has just been waiting for her to grow up...I personally believe that this still hadn’t happened by the end of the book, although she did come to some realizations. Although we didn’t see the Hero’s POV, it is obvious he loves the h and he does so even knowing that she is immature and will need taken care of in some way or another the rest of her life. He seems to like that position so all should be good for an HEA.

[April Brookshire · Rating 3 out of 5]

Typical harlequin where the much older stepbrother and the stepsister he helped raise hook up.

It was entertaining, with lots of misunderstandings and a change of scene from England to California.

[Jewel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I waited 188 days for this to be available on open library because for some reason this small book that was written 25 years ago has a fifty person waiting list.

Was it worth it? At first I didn't think so.

80% of this book focuses on Lauren's catering job(no, I'm not exaggerating the whole freaking book is about catering), and 20% focuses on the actual romance.

But the romance... was actually... so swoony? I was shocked by how romantic it got in the last forty pages. I guess I'm a sucker for those broody heroes that silently yearn for the heroine for years. Ryan started off as kind of an asshole, but I grew to love him. I loved Lauren as well, even if she was a bit emotionally inept.

So despite the 80% of the book that had nothing to do with the actual romance, I'm still going to go ahead and give this four stars.

[Mel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Had a strong sense of deja vu reading this, suspect I may have read it in the 2000s?

[Marimarime · Rating 3 out of 5]

ah disappointing? sad maybe? I'm not overwhelmed so the questioning started,sometimes it's insightful if book doesn't capture your attention well,and u get to see that even in Romanceland wonderful hero is captured by looks and gloss, because something is amiss-maybe if heroine or other man was better portraited this way I just kept feeling that hero is deluded,but lets hope for HEA after... But his arrogance is really appealing -never thought I'd say that for a harlequin hero-he's a man on a mission :)
‘I’m perfectly normal,’ he assured her wryly. ‘The lady in question has the problem. She’s not normal at all.’

‘You’re marrying a moron?’ Lauren enquired waspishly.

‘Of course not.By the time I marry her she’ll be cured.' He stood laughing down at her and she
felt exhausted with frustration. He could certainly wind her up!

[AlexandraB95 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Looking for real Immature Heroine Books?I assure you,this book is for you!

[Bubblegum · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed reading this book, loved it!

[Bhabyann5678 · Rating 4 out of 5]

4112020