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The Californios #1
Golden Lady
THE LIES OF LOVE
Lovely, irresistible, Amanda's golden beauty made all men notice her ... and desire her. Tragedy had driven her to the elegant bordello where the rich men of San Francisco sought young ladies schooled in pleasure's art. Desperation led her to opulent evenings with men of means ... and shameful nights when she sold what only love can truly give.
Then fate brought Amanda the one man able to claim her heart. A handsome Mexican aristocrat, his temper as hot as the passion that swept her into his arms, Esteban believed her lies about her past. His powerful hands claimed her silken flesh for his own, his unbending honor demanded she surrender not as a lover but as a virgin bride. And because a woman will risk everything for ecstasy -- even a dangerous deception -- Amanda dared a terrible betrayal and a man's deadly rage to whisper only yes ... yes I will ... yes.
Lovely, irresistible, Amanda's golden beauty made all men notice her ... and desire her. Tragedy had driven her to the elegant bordello where the rich men of San Francisco sought young ladies schooled in pleasure's art. Desperation led her to opulent evenings with men of means ... and shameful nights when she sold what only love can truly give.
Then fate brought Amanda the one man able to claim her heart. A handsome Mexican aristocrat, his temper as hot as the passion that swept her into his arms, Esteban believed her lies about her past. His powerful hands claimed her silken flesh for his own, his unbending honor demanded she surrender not as a lover but as a virgin bride. And because a woman will risk everything for ecstasy -- even a dangerous deception -- Amanda dared a terrible betrayal and a man's deadly rage to whisper only yes ... yes I will ... yes.
438 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1986
7 people are currently reading
87 people want to read
About the author
Shirl Henke
63 books77 followersaka Alexa Hunt.
Working my way through college provided great life experiences for a novelist. One problem. I didn’t know I was destined to write books. Instead, I floundered around during and after receiving my B.A. and M.A. in history from the University of Missouri. None of my wide variety of jobs satisfied me: cashier for a loan company, public welfare caseworker, assistant circulation manager for a small daily, editor for several “house organ” newspapers, administrator of a federal information program for the elderly.
Finally I was offered the opportunity to use my history degrees, teaching in a large urban university in the Northeast. I truly enjoyed it. Unfortunately, when the history requirement was dropped for incoming students, so was my instructorship. After that I taught gerontology, sociology, proposal writing for social service agencies and freshman composition at the same university. Further life experiences. My last two years of teaching were in remedial English—just the nudge I needed to take this writing thing seriously.
Since childhood I’ve been an avid reader, everything from Robert Heinlein’s sci-fi adventures to Frank Yerby’s historical romantic sagas. More recently I became hooked on thrillers. Since childhood I had story ideas in my head, but never the epiphany to write them. Okay, maybe I just didn’t have the courage. But there were just so many times I could explain what a verb was to a college senior before I realized that maybe writing a book might be easier. I sold my first novel, a big historical romance titled GOLDEN LADY, to Warner Books in 1985. Within two years, I quit remedial comp. Now I can't imagine doing anything but writing for a living. In 2005 I switched over to the “dark side.” Tor published two political thrillers, CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY and HOMELAND SECURITY under the pseudonym Alexa Hunt. I’ve also written romantic suspense for Penguin Onyx and Silhouette Bombshell as Shirl Henke. Since I began my career, I’ve appeared on the USA TODAY bestseller list, been a RITA Finalist twice, received a BookraK Bestseller Award, and won three Career Achievement Awards, an Industry Award and three Reviewers Choice Awards from Romantic Times.
My husband Jim Henke is a former cabdriver, bartender, sailor, judo instructor and English professor. He's a scholarly authority on obscene slang and a master at its use, but an astonishingly understanding man who puts up with my all-night writing sprees and sudden dashes to my desk to jot down bits of dialogue as dinner burns on the stove. Since he took early retirement from academe, he has helped me brainstorm plots and research my novels.
After four years in the U.S. Air Force, our son Matt works in telecommunications and lives in an adjacent county with his brute of a cat, Max. Jim and I now share our cedar house in the woods with a pair of utterly adorable tomcats, Inky and Pewter, whose destructive capacity rivals that of a medium sized thermonuclear weapon. But just as life without writing would be unimaginable, so would life without cats.
For therapy when I'm not at the computer or off researching a new book, I cook large dinners for our extended family, putter in my garden and greenhouse, and still read voraciously. When deadlines permit, I love to travel. I'm a member of the Author's Guild, Romance Writers of America, Missouri Romance Writers, Sisters in Crime, Novelists Inc. and International Thriller Writers
I wrote my first twenty-two novels in longhand with a ball-point pen--it's hard to get good quills these days. Dragged into the 21st century, I now use one of those "devil machines. Another troglodyte bites the dust
Working my way through college provided great life experiences for a novelist. One problem. I didn’t know I was destined to write books. Instead, I floundered around during and after receiving my B.A. and M.A. in history from the University of Missouri. None of my wide variety of jobs satisfied me: cashier for a loan company, public welfare caseworker, assistant circulation manager for a small daily, editor for several “house organ” newspapers, administrator of a federal information program for the elderly.
Finally I was offered the opportunity to use my history degrees, teaching in a large urban university in the Northeast. I truly enjoyed it. Unfortunately, when the history requirement was dropped for incoming students, so was my instructorship. After that I taught gerontology, sociology, proposal writing for social service agencies and freshman composition at the same university. Further life experiences. My last two years of teaching were in remedial English—just the nudge I needed to take this writing thing seriously.
Since childhood I’ve been an avid reader, everything from Robert Heinlein’s sci-fi adventures to Frank Yerby’s historical romantic sagas. More recently I became hooked on thrillers. Since childhood I had story ideas in my head, but never the epiphany to write them. Okay, maybe I just didn’t have the courage. But there were just so many times I could explain what a verb was to a college senior before I realized that maybe writing a book might be easier. I sold my first novel, a big historical romance titled GOLDEN LADY, to Warner Books in 1985. Within two years, I quit remedial comp. Now I can't imagine doing anything but writing for a living. In 2005 I switched over to the “dark side.” Tor published two political thrillers, CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY and HOMELAND SECURITY under the pseudonym Alexa Hunt. I’ve also written romantic suspense for Penguin Onyx and Silhouette Bombshell as Shirl Henke. Since I began my career, I’ve appeared on the USA TODAY bestseller list, been a RITA Finalist twice, received a BookraK Bestseller Award, and won three Career Achievement Awards, an Industry Award and three Reviewers Choice Awards from Romantic Times.
My husband Jim Henke is a former cabdriver, bartender, sailor, judo instructor and English professor. He's a scholarly authority on obscene slang and a master at its use, but an astonishingly understanding man who puts up with my all-night writing sprees and sudden dashes to my desk to jot down bits of dialogue as dinner burns on the stove. Since he took early retirement from academe, he has helped me brainstorm plots and research my novels.
After four years in the U.S. Air Force, our son Matt works in telecommunications and lives in an adjacent county with his brute of a cat, Max. Jim and I now share our cedar house in the woods with a pair of utterly adorable tomcats, Inky and Pewter, whose destructive capacity rivals that of a medium sized thermonuclear weapon. But just as life without writing would be unimaginable, so would life without cats.
For therapy when I'm not at the computer or off researching a new book, I cook large dinners for our extended family, putter in my garden and greenhouse, and still read voraciously. When deadlines permit, I love to travel. I'm a member of the Author's Guild, Romance Writers of America, Missouri Romance Writers, Sisters in Crime, Novelists Inc. and International Thriller Writers
I wrote my first twenty-two novels in longhand with a ball-point pen--it's hard to get good quills these days. Dragged into the 21st century, I now use one of those "devil machines. Another troglodyte bites the dust
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
June 11, 2013
Masterfully Written tale of the Old West!
This was Henke’s first novel, published in 1986, and is book 1 in the Old California Couplet (Love Unwilling is the other). The eBook version (which I read) may have changed slightly from the original since I know Henke is updating her backlist titles as she publishes them in e format. No matter the edition you read, it’s a grand story, impeccably researched and well told.
The story begins in 1848 as 19-year-old Esteban Santadar views the devastation from war torn Mexico City where the forces of Santa Anna have lost to the Americans. Wounded, he goes home to Sonora to heal and to resume his life among his aristocratic family. At the same time, 13-year-old Amanda Whittaker’s father dies on a wagon train headed west, leading her mother to marry a hard man just to survive. Four years later, Esteban is coming into his own as a merchant trader and horse breeder working with his Irish uncle but being pressured by his family to take a worthy Mexican bride. A world away, Amanda is raped by her stepfather and she flees to San Francisco where she goes to work in a brothel, first as a maid and then, under pressure to help another, as one of the prostitutes. Amanda hated it, and at the first opportunity, left to find a better life.
One night in the brothel Amanda had seen a man (Esteban) who captured her young heart. Years later, when Amanda has been freed from the bordello and adopted by a rich German as the daughter he never had, she encounters Esteban once again, this time in connection with his beautiful golden palomino horses. He is taken by Amanda’s beauty and her ability with horses, and, of course, he pursues her. She tells Esteban lies about her past, even as she knows his family and his culture would insist he take only a pure bride. She doesn’t want a man to accept her as a “reformed whore” (her words), so she marries him even as her friends tell her she is building a house of cards that will one day fall.
I love that Henke brings you into the early days of San Francisco and the different cultures and attitudes that came together in that amazing city. I wasn’t too keen on the rape and prostitution of the heroine, but Henke did a good job of redeeming her. Amanda is a very likeable heroine, and while I could understand her not wanting a man she loved to know of her past, it was clear the lies she told would eventually lead to her downfall. Henke brought us to that point in masterful fashion, as she did Esteban’s change of heart. There are also some wonderful secondary characters, too, including Esteban’s Irish uncle and his wife, the old man “Hoot” who helped the runaway Amanda, and of course the German who made her his daughter.
It’s a great story and I recommend it.
This was Henke’s first novel, published in 1986, and is book 1 in the Old California Couplet (Love Unwilling is the other). The eBook version (which I read) may have changed slightly from the original since I know Henke is updating her backlist titles as she publishes them in e format. No matter the edition you read, it’s a grand story, impeccably researched and well told.
The story begins in 1848 as 19-year-old Esteban Santadar views the devastation from war torn Mexico City where the forces of Santa Anna have lost to the Americans. Wounded, he goes home to Sonora to heal and to resume his life among his aristocratic family. At the same time, 13-year-old Amanda Whittaker’s father dies on a wagon train headed west, leading her mother to marry a hard man just to survive. Four years later, Esteban is coming into his own as a merchant trader and horse breeder working with his Irish uncle but being pressured by his family to take a worthy Mexican bride. A world away, Amanda is raped by her stepfather and she flees to San Francisco where she goes to work in a brothel, first as a maid and then, under pressure to help another, as one of the prostitutes. Amanda hated it, and at the first opportunity, left to find a better life.
One night in the brothel Amanda had seen a man (Esteban) who captured her young heart. Years later, when Amanda has been freed from the bordello and adopted by a rich German as the daughter he never had, she encounters Esteban once again, this time in connection with his beautiful golden palomino horses. He is taken by Amanda’s beauty and her ability with horses, and, of course, he pursues her. She tells Esteban lies about her past, even as she knows his family and his culture would insist he take only a pure bride. She doesn’t want a man to accept her as a “reformed whore” (her words), so she marries him even as her friends tell her she is building a house of cards that will one day fall.
I love that Henke brings you into the early days of San Francisco and the different cultures and attitudes that came together in that amazing city. I wasn’t too keen on the rape and prostitution of the heroine, but Henke did a good job of redeeming her. Amanda is a very likeable heroine, and while I could understand her not wanting a man she loved to know of her past, it was clear the lies she told would eventually lead to her downfall. Henke brought us to that point in masterful fashion, as she did Esteban’s change of heart. There are also some wonderful secondary characters, too, including Esteban’s Irish uncle and his wife, the old man “Hoot” who helped the runaway Amanda, and of course the German who made her his daughter.
It’s a great story and I recommend it.
August 1, 2021
Hated this! Boring bodice ripper and Not safe. ( details at the bottom)
Such a slow burn book. You can skip the first 30%, it’s just a tedious history lesson. They don’t even meet each other until 30% into this thick ass book, and I couldn’t believe that the H actually fell in love, this is one of those books where we are told, instead of shown. The author kept saying he loved her, but showed over and over that he didn’t....
Spoiler’ish
- unrequited love:
This is definitely a pathetic, loser heroine in pursuit trainwreck story.
h saw the H at the whorehouse where she worked, and became obsessed with him.
When she gets the chance to meet him, she weaved lies and deception to get to know him, and they fall in love. It came out of the blue.
this girl lied so much that she even had her hymen sewed back by her doctor friend to make the H think that she’s still a virgin. The trick worked.
There is rape - h is raped by her step dad when she was still living at home - not descriptive, and lots of lies are told by the h to the H, so he’ll want her.
(she pretends to be this pure virginal well bred girl from a rich family when she’s actually a dirt poor, farmers girl who was a whore before a kind elderly gentleman sort of adopted her because she reminded him of his dead wife…
I couldn’t get over how easily this girl lied so I found her unlikeable throughout the book, but they marry.
Safety
- Loads of ow before MCs meet and the sex between ow are descriptive.
- Sex between om while she’s a whore are not descriptive. Basically a 2 sentence event.
- there are only 3 or 4 love scenes between the MCs in this thick book.
- after they marry and he swears to her to be faithful, he finds out the truth about her sordid past. Then there is a long 3 yr separation, and during this time, he cheats with various ow, widows and lived with his mistress that he’s known for years. He basically goes back to being a manwhore.
-One descriptive heavy make out scene with his ex fiancé, this scene is particularly nasty because he can’t control his body, if her hub (his cousin) didn’t walk in on them, he would’ve fucked her too.. After this scene, with his betraying body parts for the voluptuous ow, I believed he would never be faithful to the h.
Not that I ever believed in his love fore the h…So this manwhore is sleeping with various ow all over the place from 70% to 90% in the book, then he finally goes after the h because a light bulb goes off after almost sexing his ex fiancé. He realizes that even the pure virginal girls from good families can turn into sluts after marriage, so who cares that his wife was a whore, he still loved her (his love is obvious by all the ow he screwed around with). No joke, this is his theory and why he goes after her.
So he finds her, he doesn’t need to grovel for all the cheating, she sheds tears and forgives all and have their HFN. The poor doormats so happy that the H couldn’t file for annulment because he loved her, but fucking ow for 3 yrs is ok I guess. He swears again to be faithful ( read above what happened when they fought). I can definitely foresee him cheating on the h with his hot ex fiancé later, because the ex is obsessed with him still, and the author showed that he couldn’t control his body with her. 🙄
- the h is celibate. There is an om, but they only kiss and she just lies and lies like she always does…I felt terrible for this poor guy.
- secret baby; she decides not to share with the H because it’s “her” baby, cuz women can have babies without sperm. 🙄
Boring book that pissed me off! I hated the conniving doormat h and the man slut H equally. I need to go read a nice romance novel after this….
Such a slow burn book. You can skip the first 30%, it’s just a tedious history lesson. They don’t even meet each other until 30% into this thick ass book, and I couldn’t believe that the H actually fell in love, this is one of those books where we are told, instead of shown. The author kept saying he loved her, but showed over and over that he didn’t....
Spoiler’ish
- unrequited love:
This is definitely a pathetic, loser heroine in pursuit trainwreck story.
h saw the H at the whorehouse where she worked, and became obsessed with him.
When she gets the chance to meet him, she weaved lies and deception to get to know him, and they fall in love. It came out of the blue.
this girl lied so much that she even had her hymen sewed back by her doctor friend to make the H think that she’s still a virgin. The trick worked.
There is rape - h is raped by her step dad when she was still living at home - not descriptive, and lots of lies are told by the h to the H, so he’ll want her.
(she pretends to be this pure virginal well bred girl from a rich family when she’s actually a dirt poor, farmers girl who was a whore before a kind elderly gentleman sort of adopted her because she reminded him of his dead wife…
I couldn’t get over how easily this girl lied so I found her unlikeable throughout the book, but they marry.
Safety
- Loads of ow before MCs meet and the sex between ow are descriptive.
- Sex between om while she’s a whore are not descriptive. Basically a 2 sentence event.
- there are only 3 or 4 love scenes between the MCs in this thick book.
- after they marry and he swears to her to be faithful, he finds out the truth about her sordid past. Then there is a long 3 yr separation, and during this time, he cheats with various ow, widows and lived with his mistress that he’s known for years. He basically goes back to being a manwhore.
-One descriptive heavy make out scene with his ex fiancé, this scene is particularly nasty because he can’t control his body, if her hub (his cousin) didn’t walk in on them, he would’ve fucked her too.. After this scene, with his betraying body parts for the voluptuous ow, I believed he would never be faithful to the h.
Not that I ever believed in his love fore the h…So this manwhore is sleeping with various ow all over the place from 70% to 90% in the book, then he finally goes after the h because a light bulb goes off after almost sexing his ex fiancé. He realizes that even the pure virginal girls from good families can turn into sluts after marriage, so who cares that his wife was a whore, he still loved her (his love is obvious by all the ow he screwed around with). No joke, this is his theory and why he goes after her.
So he finds her, he doesn’t need to grovel for all the cheating, she sheds tears and forgives all and have their HFN. The poor doormats so happy that the H couldn’t file for annulment because he loved her, but fucking ow for 3 yrs is ok I guess. He swears again to be faithful ( read above what happened when they fought). I can definitely foresee him cheating on the h with his hot ex fiancé later, because the ex is obsessed with him still, and the author showed that he couldn’t control his body with her. 🙄
- the h is celibate. There is an om, but they only kiss and she just lies and lies like she always does…I felt terrible for this poor guy.
- secret baby; she decides not to share with the H because it’s “her” baby, cuz women can have babies without sperm. 🙄
Boring book that pissed me off! I hated the conniving doormat h and the man slut H equally. I need to go read a nice romance novel after this….
Want to read
January 11, 2018Graphic Fellatio:
May 4, 2012
I read this book years ago and could never get it out of my head! This was one of the very first romance books I've ever read and it is still as good as I remembered it to be. I don't want to give too much of the plot away so I'll instead describe the characters. Amanda (heroine) had a rough life but is resiliant and strong willed. She is not like the simpering heroines you read about in other books who wallow in self pity instead of fighting for love and respect without compromise. She does stumble at times but she always draws on her will to makeher lot in world much better.
Our hero Esteban is quite captivating. Strong, family orientated and ambitious; Esteban falls madly in love with Amanda despite the fact his family has picked out a fiance for him. With both facing obstacles of culture, breeding and family can these two misfits build a life together? The fun is all in the reading!
* Our hero commits NO RAPE in this book*
Our hero Esteban is quite captivating. Strong, family orientated and ambitious; Esteban falls madly in love with Amanda despite the fact his family has picked out a fiance for him. With both facing obstacles of culture, breeding and family can these two misfits build a life together? The fun is all in the reading!
* Our hero commits NO RAPE in this book*
May 25, 2024
I would have given this another star, except that it was so sad, all that the h went through! In some old books and movies there was a story where a woman sacrifices her body to help them man she loves. in this case, it was for the friend she loved; a woman who helped her and gave her a place to stay when she was all alone and needed help, after suffering her stepfather's abuse. When the time came when she needed help in return, the h couldn't turn her back on her, even when it meant selling herself to a bunch of horny men.
The mistake she made was not being honest with the H from the start, no matter how difficult that would have been. (She had to have realized that the odds were pretty good that someone from her past would recognize her, and his finding out that way would make things a whole lot worse.) She should have come clean, instead of putting on a virginal act, though I can understand her feeling that way, as she wanted to forget her past and start over. Also, she had felt nothing but disgust when she was with all those men, so as far as sexual feelings were concerned, she really was a virgin.
It was the lying that bothered the H more than anything else. However, his reaction was pretty extreme, and then afterward he went back to his wild ways with women (which more than rivaled anything she had done with men; and in his case, he enjoyed it).
There's a lot more to the story, but I won't give away anything else, except to add that there are secondary characters (both good and bad) that keep you turning pages, wanting to know what happens next.
Worth your time!
The mistake she made was not being honest with the H from the start, no matter how difficult that would have been. (She had to have realized that the odds were pretty good that someone from her past would recognize her, and his finding out that way would make things a whole lot worse.) She should have come clean, instead of putting on a virginal act, though I can understand her feeling that way, as she wanted to forget her past and start over. Also, she had felt nothing but disgust when she was with all those men, so as far as sexual feelings were concerned, she really was a virgin.
It was the lying that bothered the H more than anything else. However, his reaction was pretty extreme, and then afterward he went back to his wild ways with women (which more than rivaled anything she had done with men; and in his case, he enjoyed it).
There's a lot more to the story, but I won't give away anything else, except to add that there are secondary characters (both good and bad) that keep you turning pages, wanting to know what happens next.
Worth your time!
May 25, 2020
It Was Okay
It's not that it's bad, it's just not great. It needed more tension and all the tension was an afterthought. Like the relationship with the hero's sort of fiance or the heroine 's relationship with her attorney. They were like roads to nowhere.
Kind of like this book.
It's not that it's bad, it's just not great. It needed more tension and all the tension was an afterthought. Like the relationship with the hero's sort of fiance or the heroine 's relationship with her attorney. They were like roads to nowhere.
Kind of like this book.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews