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Late Rapture
The last person Cleo had expected to meet when she went to work in Corsica was her former husband Luc - and to make matters worse, he was going to be her boss. She soon realised that even five years apart from him had not killed her love for him - but since he had never loved her and obviously didn't love her now, what was the use of that?
187 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1978
2 people are currently reading
72 people want to read
About the author
Jane Arbor
113 books11 followersEileen Norah Murphy Owbridge was born on 8 September 1903 in Yeovil, Somerset, England, she lived in Preston, Sussex, England, and passed away on 4 February 1994 in Worthing, West Sussex.
Under the pseudonym Jane Arbor she wrote over 55 romance novel for Mills & Boon from 1948 to 1985. She started writing doctor-nurse romances, and many have been reedited with diferent titles, that included the words "nurse", "doctor" or "surgeon". Later, she focused her writing in foreign settings like the continental Europe, the Caribbean, Morocco...
Under the pseudonym Jane Arbor she wrote over 55 romance novel for Mills & Boon from 1948 to 1985. She started writing doctor-nurse romances, and many have been reedited with diferent titles, that included the words "nurse", "doctor" or "surgeon". Later, she focused her writing in foreign settings like the continental Europe, the Caribbean, Morocco...
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
November 29, 2019
Second chance story.
“Cinderella” heroine met and married sophisticated French hero when she was 18. She had been working for little pay for her godmother when she met the H at a dinner party.
They had two weeks of wedded bliss until she saw a tabloid item that the hero had to marry before his 32nd birthday to claim an inheritance. To add to her pain, she overhears the hero gloating about his smitten bride to a woman he called “darling” on the phone. When she confronted the hero, he was angry she believed the tabloids and when he started to explain about “darling” she cut him off.
Hero flounced off and heroine packed her bags for England. Hero’s solicitors caught up with her and offered to pay her maintenance, but heroine refused.
For five years she worked in various hospitality and office jobs. The story opens when she arrives at an assignment at a new resort in Corsica. Surprise! It’s the hero’s resort and he knew she was coming.
Hero doesn’t tell anyone they are still married, and he drops lots of insults, but it’s obvious he can’t quit her. There is a wannabe OW that the heroine actually likes, the hero’s lawyer. There’s also an OW who tries to entrap the hero as part of a revenge scheme, but heroine saves the day. Heroine has her own OM to contend with. He pops in from England and causes trouble when hero has to rescue them from a boating accident.
None of these moments are enough to break the impasse (Hero thinks the heroine was too judgmental and won’t explain himself. Heroine truly thinks he only married her for his inheritance, and he had “darling” on the go at the same time they were married). It’s only when the heroine’s brakes fail and she is in a coma for a week that the hero gets over himself and explains it all.
“Darling” was a girl from his village he and lawyer OW were helping get an education. He didn’t need inheritance and it’s been sitting in the bank in the heroine’s name for five years. He married her because he fell in love and then pride kept him away. Lawyer OW is just a friend.
Hero also claims he was celibate, as was the heroine for an HEA.
This is classic vintage with misunderstandings and lots of OM and OW incidents to keep the angst bubbling along.
“Cinderella” heroine met and married sophisticated French hero when she was 18. She had been working for little pay for her godmother when she met the H at a dinner party.
They had two weeks of wedded bliss until she saw a tabloid item that the hero had to marry before his 32nd birthday to claim an inheritance. To add to her pain, she overhears the hero gloating about his smitten bride to a woman he called “darling” on the phone. When she confronted the hero, he was angry she believed the tabloids and when he started to explain about “darling” she cut him off.
Hero flounced off and heroine packed her bags for England. Hero’s solicitors caught up with her and offered to pay her maintenance, but heroine refused.
For five years she worked in various hospitality and office jobs. The story opens when she arrives at an assignment at a new resort in Corsica. Surprise! It’s the hero’s resort and he knew she was coming.
Hero doesn’t tell anyone they are still married, and he drops lots of insults, but it’s obvious he can’t quit her. There is a wannabe OW that the heroine actually likes, the hero’s lawyer. There’s also an OW who tries to entrap the hero as part of a revenge scheme, but heroine saves the day. Heroine has her own OM to contend with. He pops in from England and causes trouble when hero has to rescue them from a boating accident.
None of these moments are enough to break the impasse (Hero thinks the heroine was too judgmental and won’t explain himself. Heroine truly thinks he only married her for his inheritance, and he had “darling” on the go at the same time they were married). It’s only when the heroine’s brakes fail and she is in a coma for a week that the hero gets over himself and explains it all.
“Darling” was a girl from his village he and lawyer OW were helping get an education. He didn’t need inheritance and it’s been sitting in the bank in the heroine’s name for five years. He married her because he fell in love and then pride kept him away. Lawyer OW is just a friend.
Hero also claims he was celibate, as was the heroine for an HEA.
This is classic vintage with misunderstandings and lots of OM and OW incidents to keep the angst bubbling along.
July 10, 2011
If anyone wants to know which 1970s HP books resemble in plot the contemporary angsty books by Lynne Graham, Sandra Marton and Michelle Reid, this is one of them. It has the necessary components: estranged marriage between brooding European male and naïve female, jerk-y hero/doormat-y heroine, OW, big misunderstanding, a strained reunion, forced seduction, AND the requisite confessions by the hospital bed. It’s fast-paced and dialogue-oriented. Though we don’t get the man’s point of view, neither are we plagued by the heroine’s constant internal musings.
My copy is more than 3 decades old; the last pages are loose from the binding; the back cover long lost from several house moves ago. But whenever I want to read a passage on the death-defying importance of naming one’s own, I reach for this book.
Briefly: heroine finds herself working for the husband she had walked away from 5 years previously. He was then a worldly 32 years old and she was a very young 18 years old. They were so in love until she discovered rumors, later substantiated by an overheard phone conversation, that her husband had only married her for financial gain. She fled.
Fast forward to current time: Now that she’s working as his employee, he refuses to acknowledge their marital status. He’s bent on punishing her for leaving him and showing her that he can date others. Only after a near fatal car crash does he release pent-up guilt and remorse for rejecting her when they met again. He despairs that he had denied her far too long and perhaps too late; he vows that though she might never awaken to know of this, he was going to “make [her] his wife again – if only in name.”
Aww. Isn’t that sochauvinistic sweet of him? He literally means you are mine.
Highly recommended for Lynne Graham lovers.
My copy is more than 3 decades old; the last pages are loose from the binding; the back cover long lost from several house moves ago. But whenever I want to read a passage on the death-defying importance of naming one’s own, I reach for this book.
Briefly: heroine finds herself working for the husband she had walked away from 5 years previously. He was then a worldly 32 years old and she was a very young 18 years old. They were so in love until she discovered rumors, later substantiated by an overheard phone conversation, that her husband had only married her for financial gain. She fled.
Fast forward to current time: Now that she’s working as his employee, he refuses to acknowledge their marital status. He’s bent on punishing her for leaving him and showing her that he can date others. Only after a near fatal car crash does he release pent-up guilt and remorse for rejecting her when they met again. He despairs that he had denied her far too long and perhaps too late; he vows that though she might never awaken to know of this, he was going to “make [her] his wife again – if only in name.”
Aww. Isn’t that so
Highly recommended for Lynne Graham lovers.
April 15, 2020
Too much cruelty for my tastes, and the h was an emotional wreck.
November 16, 2024
This was a good read based on a well used formula by HARLEQUIN. The relationship between the couple based on half truths, misconceptions and a lack of communication.
Five years on when they meet again it’s seems like the past will repeat with the same nonsense as the first time.
Only this time, they have matured though it takes an unexpected problem to overcome their reticence and claim each other.
In some ways I have a hard time with them as a couple. No chemistry what’s so ever is apparent and such I don’t believe the HEA!
However, the story is good filled with drama, angst.
If you love the old Harlequin’s then you will enjoy this one as well.
Five years on when they meet again it’s seems like the past will repeat with the same nonsense as the first time.
Only this time, they have matured though it takes an unexpected problem to overcome their reticence and claim each other.
In some ways I have a hard time with them as a couple. No chemistry what’s so ever is apparent and such I don’t believe the HEA!
However, the story is good filled with drama, angst.
If you love the old Harlequin’s then you will enjoy this one as well.
January 2, 2022
I like Jane Arbor’s novels for their more complex plots and richer language, setting and usually sympathetic, likable characters. Unlike many contemporary Harlequins she writes literate adult sentences and vocabulary. I detest reading novels written for 8th grade reading level.
Late Rapture has everything that I enjoy about Arbor’s novels except I had a hard time with the heroine’s backstory. She loved her husband but left him because she read a trashy gossip column that claimed he married her to secure a legacy and overheard him calling another woman “darling” and gloating about his marriage. He wouldn’t explain so she left. She was 18 - and acted like it.
If he had stopped the pride and used common sense he could have prevented the break up, and if she had a sense of proportion, or a bit of wisdom, or had listened to her heart and not her pride, she would have stayed. But they were both idiots so we have a set up for this lovely second chance romance.
The main conflict is that both he and she pretend not to know the other. (Yes, it’s stupid but probably realistic given their ages and his greater sophistication.). It’s 5 years later and she has never stopped loving him or grieving for the might have been. He and she are too proud and afraid of confirming the other is truly lost to risk a simple acknowledgment. Now what? How to get by this when he’s angry and hurt she didn’t trust him and she’s hurt (yes, 5 years later) that he made fun of how “easy” she was and that he lied by omission. She doesn’t think he loved her and infers “easy” as an insult.
Author manages to get them to face each other finally. I didn’t care for the big car accident plot device that finally got them talking but the rest of the book is excellent.
Late Rapture has everything that I enjoy about Arbor’s novels except I had a hard time with the heroine’s backstory. She loved her husband but left him because she read a trashy gossip column that claimed he married her to secure a legacy and overheard him calling another woman “darling” and gloating about his marriage. He wouldn’t explain so she left. She was 18 - and acted like it.
If he had stopped the pride and used common sense he could have prevented the break up, and if she had a sense of proportion, or a bit of wisdom, or had listened to her heart and not her pride, she would have stayed. But they were both idiots so we have a set up for this lovely second chance romance.
The main conflict is that both he and she pretend not to know the other. (Yes, it’s stupid but probably realistic given their ages and his greater sophistication.). It’s 5 years later and she has never stopped loving him or grieving for the might have been. He and she are too proud and afraid of confirming the other is truly lost to risk a simple acknowledgment. Now what? How to get by this when he’s angry and hurt she didn’t trust him and she’s hurt (yes, 5 years later) that he made fun of how “easy” she was and that he lied by omission. She doesn’t think he loved her and infers “easy” as an insult.
Author manages to get them to face each other finally. I didn’t care for the big car accident plot device that finally got them talking but the rest of the book is excellent.
November 29, 2025
You got your angst, but no romance. Not much of the hero and heroine in action, toward the end they almost put me to sleep. Also, near the end there was a vendetta setup between the hero and some vengeful man. What was planned and how the heroine and hero responded to that mess was messy. It got me eye rolling for a minute. Indeed, the concluded ending wasn’t satisfying.
August 9, 2025
Yet another Harlequin where the doormat FMC has absolutely no pride or spirit as an asshole MMC treats her like absolute garbage.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews