友達

by Jessica Steele

Anstey was left holding the baby.Her friend Joanna had run away before. That's how she reacted whenever life overwhelmed her, and Lester Quartermaine denying her child's paternity had been a devastating blow.Anstey knew she'd need help caring for her friend's child, and in desperation she turned to Lester's older brother, Cale.Contrary to his reputation for ruthlessness, Cale offered immediate support. Distressing support. He allowed his shocked mother to believe the baby was theirs—his and Anstey's—and he proposed marriage. Why, his solution to her problems was positively diabolical!

Genres: Romance, Harlequin, Harlequin Romance, Marriage Of Convenience, Childrens, Enemies To Lovers, Hqn

Paperback Bunko

First published August 1, 1987

About the author

Jessica Steele was born on May 9, 1933 in the elegant Warwickshire town of Royal Leamington Spa. She has two super brothers, Colin and George, and a lovely sister, Elizabeth. She was a delicate child and missed a lot of school. In fact, she left school at aged 14, when she was diagnosed as having tuberculosis. At 16, she started work as a junior clerk. In 1967, Jessica married with her husband, Peter and within a very short space of time they had moved from her hometown to the lovely area where they now live. Their house is built into the side of a hill, and has beautiful views over more hills and valleys. Her brothers and her sister are very close and she has plenty of nephews and nieces to make up for the fact that she and her husband have no children of their own. Both she and her husband are more than a little dog-oriented, and their current dog is a Staffordshire bull terrier named Florence. Florence is gorgeous. She loves everybody but, since she is 40 pounds of dynamite and would hurl her boisterous self at everyone she meets - given half a chance - she has to be restrained (as much as possible). She is fun.

Her husband spurred Jessica on to her writing career, giving her every support while she did what she considers her five-year apprenticeship (the rejection years) while learning how to write. She published her first books in 1979. Jessica has tried using a typewriter, but it just doesn't work for her. She is much happier writing in longhand, and in actual fact has a dozen or so fountain pens filled and ready to go at the start of any one session. A friend has a secretarial agency and, after deciphering Jessica's writing, returns an immaculately typed manuscript. To gain authentic background for her books, she has travelled and researched in Greece, Russia, Egypt, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Hong Kong, China and Japan.

Reviews

[*CJ* · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Unfriendly Alliance" is the story of Anstey and Cale.

A sweet love story between a couple reunited by impulsive relatives and friends. When the heroine's best friend is dumped by her boyfriend and left with a newborn, she in turn leaves the newborn and runs away to "recuperate"...like she has always done! Taking care of a baby and doing a full time job gets extremely stressful for the heroine, and she struggles to get a sitter- when she realizes she can get the baby's father's family involved. She goes to the hero, the father's brother who is initially dismissive. He soon realizes his error, and takes the heroine and his niece to his family home. Things go wrong when his mother assumes they are a couple, and the baby is theirs!

Very random plot with a sweet couple falling in love- some drama followed by a HEA. The weird part I found was that they were supposed to "love" the baby, but I honestly did not feel it.

Anyways,

Safe
2.5/5

[SassyLeg · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars
Nice misunderstanding story featuring the following tropes:

- love child of h's friend/H's brother
- older H/younger h
- enemies to love
- bossy/scheming H
- denied love (and lust...)

Nothing new but enjoyable

[Leona · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun and engaging, except the ending was a bit OTT.

[Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 Stars ~ Anastasia finds herself overwhelmed when her best friend suddenly runs away leaving her 5 month old baby in Anstey's care.  The baby's father had rejected the baby and when he refused to be named on the birth certificate, Joanna was completely heartbroken.  Knowing her friend only needs a chance to grieve, Anstey manages as best she can.  But days become weeks and with the threat of losing her job because of her absences and eviction for having a baby in a childless building, Anstey becomes desperate.  When she can't find the dead beat father, she seeks out his older brother. It's an eventful confrontation, poor baby Rosie crying at the top of her lungs, Cale irate at another mess of his brother's to clean up, and Anstey slapping the arrogant leer off his face when he suggests that she trapped his brother with a pregnancy.  With her hand throbbing, Anstey clutches the baby and makes her escape only to have Cale track her down two days later. 

Ms. Steele is a master for creating tension between her heroes and heroines, and in this romance, the sparks are flying.  Cale is not the arrogant snob that Anstey was lead to believe and she quickly finds out that he can be counted on to help her.  Things get complicated though, when Cale's mother is told that the baby is Cale's and Anstey is the mother.  Fearing that she'll lose guardianship of Rosie before Joanna's return, she finds herself agreeing to a sham marriage, only she wishes deep in her heart that she were marrying Cale because he loved her.  Lovely, quick, quirky romance with a fleeing bride and chasing groom determined to get his HEA.

June 2019 ~ 3 ½ Stars ~ I first read this quirky 80's romance in 2016. It's a ridiculously fun and charming love story that in a world of cell phones and GPS tracking doesn't really age well. However, for this reader who was a young adult when this was written, didn't miss today's gadgets at all. Ms. Steele writes entertaining stories in a style that is completely her own, one that readers often shake their heads as they read but find they keep coming back for more.

[Grrrrace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute older Harley (1987) with a scrappy, loyal heroine and a smitten hero who, while well-mannered and honorable, is not above some manipulation of events when it comes to getting what he wants (i.e., the heroine). The heroine is likable but bickery and defensive with the hero throughout much of the book. Good sparky dialogue keeps the story moving.

As she becomes more and more attracted, heroine Anstey (Anastasia) tries very hard to keep convincing herself that hero Cale is hard and not to be trusted, but her honest inner voice keeps pointing out all the ways that he shows that he is actually kind and trustworthy and honorable—not to mention hot! It doesn’t take long before she’s thinking about him way too much and as equally smitten as he is, but it takes her a lot longer to have the dawning realization that she’s in love. Forced to join forces when his scoundrel brother and her flighty friend literally leave them holding their baby, the hero and heroine scrap their way through several chapters, with Cale increasingly showing his sweet side and growing feelings towards her and Anstey trying to keep him at arms-length, not trusting his motives. Finally, he talks her into a “temporary” marriage, which she agrees to mostly because she can’t help herself, but when it comes to light that he’s manipulated events (to hide an affair, she is led to believe), she takes off, and he has to chase her down and do a nice bit of groveling and confession before she’ll admit her own love and they get to a HEA. Jessica Steele writes a sweet and rompy tale in this one with likable main characters who keep one another on their toes. The hero is wily but the heroine is no dummy, so it's a fun match of wits as they get to their HEA. Super-cute.

[RomLibrary · Rating 2 out of 5]

Anstey was left holding the baby.

Her friend Joanna had run away before. That's how she reacted whenever life overwhelmed her, and Lester Quartermaine denying her child's paternity had been a devastating blow.

Anstey knew she'd need help caring for her friend's child, and in desperation she turned to Lester's older brother, Cale.

Contrary to his reputation for ruthlessness, Cale offered immediate support. Distressing support. He allowed his shocked mother to believe the baby was theirs—his and Anstey's—and he proposed marriage. Why, his solution to her problems was positively diabolical!

[رومولا الن emmajain-book · Rating 3 out of 5]

روايه احلام العذراء والمجهول
روايه ممتعه ومليئه بالرومانسية

[Last Chance Saloon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hero (37) has good qualities and soon realises that he’s smitten with the heroine (23). He doesn’t seem overly ready to have children, so I imagine the heroine is going to be spoiled after their month long honeymoon as he can only think of her. The heroine is very loyal to her friend, but I think there would be a lot of explaining to do to her mother for not inviting her to the wedding lol.
3 1/2 stars as it’s sweet and very main couple focused, but it would be a bit better if they had made it back to the wedding and let both families celebrate with them at the end.

[Trenchologist · Rating 4 out of 5]

3+

OH happy day to discover I have three remaining unread JS' in my possession. I'm plowing my way through weightier books atm, but hey, when you find unread Steeles, that decides your evening. And I'm still behind on my reading challenge, so notching a few more reads in short order is only a win-win.

Gonna go with this one being added to the Greater Steele ranks. It won't be a fave among those, but there's a lot going for it and some welcome little deviations from her usual that come together in a satisfying read.

I wound up enjoying this one more than I thought I would when three chapters in. The big ending--as often happens--made up for a lot. But the leads and their arc is good throughout as well. It's a convoluted plot not much helped at its start by Steele's often twisty prose, but once it gets to speed it maintains that, and is well worth the race to The Grovel at the end.

Fun, good depth of emotion, the runaway couple weren't so awful there was no redemption in my heart for them once brought back, and the hero's mother they're trying to placate by doing all they're doing complicated enough to make it seem worthwhile rather than a plot device or tiring cause.

Some solid classic Steele tropes -- hero who's poleaxed by the heroine, falls in love almost immediately and hates/fights it, to then realize it's everything he needs so his masterfulness turns instead to steering her into his arms and forever after. Heroine who's spunky and far, far too loyal to an erstwhile family member (here, a bff who might as well be a sis), falls for him over the course of their clangs and quieter moments, but holds her own and trying not to show it. An artfully arranged MoC that's secretly for love, judgey meddling family who are also decent at heart, and the very long tell-all final chapter to get us gratifyingly to HEAland.

Steele has a great sense of crackle and chemistry, and overall her characters are smart, flawed, but usually not cringe-worthy. This plus her giving her couple's endings a robust, almost indulgent, length, has me glad to return to her books again and again (both new and to reread).

I hated poor Anstey's name lol, but that was the only thing that rankled in this one.

Cale is great, upstanding and ready to do his duty if nothing else -- and also smitten immediately and way out of his depth because of it. Once you're fluent in the subtext of Steele, it really adds a lot to a read. In this one, you get quite quickly how in over his head in love with Anstey he is, and how hard he's working to make her his--all the while afraid both to show it and that he'll lose her. And that his hot-and-cold behavior is testament to this internal fight, and fear.

Anstey very much has the stubborn loyalty Steele often uses to characterize her heroines, and thus propel their motivations, but she's not a doormat or naive or loyal to the point of harm or stupidity. She's figuring things out, trying to make neat of her muddle, and falling in love even knowing it's probably not the best idea. He's clever and pulling out all the stops, but she's no doe-eyed ninny and does her best to counter or at least match his moves.

Plus it -really is- decent she stepped up to take care of her bff's baby with no idea how long the responsibility would be hers, and that Cale realizes he must too -- and sure it's unorthodox how it goes from there, but only if you're not in a romance novel.

It was nice she was believed early on the baby isn't hers, and that she told him right away rather than suffer mistreatment under false pretenses as some other Steele heroines do. Also nice he believed her and realized decisive action was needed, including that she both earned and deserved help to deal with an abandoned child. They were in it together, at odds but to a shared purpose, and then trying not to give away to the other they'd fallen in love.

It's a good balance. And makes their falling in love believable.

The penultimate scene was good too, with Cale's worst nightmare playing out as Anstey (rightly) took the wrong idea of all of it and fled. But finally a fleeing I appreciated, because in that moment, Cale did seem to deserve it, and to be left holding responsibility for explaining every last bit of the messy situation to all and sundry. And his mother.

My imagined coda is they stuff Anstey back into her wedding dress, detour to pick up her mother (parents? Steele wrote around quite confirming if Anstey's dad was still around lol), and after a hasty telling of why she's married but didn't even tell her own mother, they arrive back to Quiet Way in time for the reception with the cover story that oh, mum rushed word to Anstey that she was on her way to be there for the wedding, and went to collect her but Cale just couldn't bear to let her do it alone. Thus, mum gets to be included, there's an excellent excuse for a new bride angrily bailing on hubs in front of the whole community that no longer matters, and everyone is happy and drunk on champagne and yay wedding cake.

[More Books Than Time · Rating 2 out of 5]

Jessica Steele as usual starts out with a good plot and background (h has best friend's baby dumped on her) but the convoluted reasoning and unbelievable emotions get in the way.
I skimmed the last half.

[Floqueta · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book where we are witness of a love growing slowly, but steadily. And at the end, tipical of this author Jessica Steele, we know which have been the reasons of the H for everything he has done.

[DamsonDreamer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is definitely a more hit than miss JS with good narrative drive and an appealing (albeit old fashioned) couple Cale and Anstey. I'm afraid his name put me in mind of cabbagy cow fodder kale and hers made me think antsy but that aside there was good dialogue and good attraction. The plot regarding the baby being abandoned by both his brother and her best friend and the Hs mother's involvement was tortuous to say the least but it made for an entertaining ride. Got to love a useful old nanny retainer for all that pesky actual childcare. That cover H has a mouthwatering profile.

[Ujjwala · Rating 4 out of 5]

their banter was fun to read, the smitten hero and his actions were fun to read, and the scene where she runs from the church was so fun (though not for the hero and their families). the hero's mother and her matchmaking attempts were nice, though brother and heroine's friend were selfish though.

I enjoyed this!

[StMargarets · Rating 2 out of 5]

Heroine was a bit much. She slapped the hero at their first meeting and raged at him about nothing many, many times in the story. When she wasn't OTT annoying, she was bickering.

There are lots of summaries of this implausible plot. It felt more like a farce than a romance. JS wraps it all up nicely as she always does. I just didn't like the characters.

[Mrs J Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ending miles too long.

[Angel · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Anstey was left holding the baby

Her friend Joanna had run away before. That's how she reacted whenever life overwhelmed her, and Lester Quartermaine denying her child's paternity had been a devastating blow.

Anstey knew she'd need help caring for her friend's child, and in desperation she turned to Lester's older brother, Cale.

Contrary to his reputation for ruthlessness, Cale offered immediate support. Distressing support. He allowed his shocked mother to believe the baby was theirs--his and Anstey's--and he proposed marriage. Why, his solution to her problems was positively diabolical!"

[Diamond]

العذراء والمجهول:
أدركت أستيرا أنها تعيش في الوقت الضائع، فلم يبقّ لها إلا القليل القليل حتى تجد نفسها في الشارع مع طفلة ليست لها لذا قررت أن على أحد تحمل المسئولية ولم يكن هناك أفضل من زاكاري نورتنغاتون هل كان اختياراً مناسباً؟ لا تستطيع أن تعرف إلا بالتجربة وهكذا إقتحمت مكاتب شركته رغم الصعوبات يتقدمها صراخ الطفلة وخاطبت الرجل المذهول قائلة: هذه الطفلة طفلتكم وعليكم تحمّل مسؤوليتها

[Hasnamezied · Rating 2 out of 5]

In some how it was really predictable