Face in the Portrait

by Rosemary Carter

Now that, after three years, she had met Jason Peel again, Cindy knew that at all costs she must keep from him the fact that her little boy Jeremy was his son.After all the heartbreak of falling in love with Jason, of learning at the last moment that he had been going to marry her for any reason but love, that all the time he loved another woman, she didn't want anything to do with him ever. But Jason, she soon found, was not to be got rid of as easily as that - and he had dreamed up a most subtle way of exacting his revenge ...

Genres: Harlequin Presents, Romance, Harlequin, Contemporary Romance

192 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1980

Reviews

[Jacqueline J · Rating 2 out of 5]

That was very ordinary. I enjoy secret baby themes but this one not so much. Maybe I'll cut her some slack for running from him after a brief conversation with a conniving other woman when she was 18 but later? The baby is 2 when they meet again and he is in need of some serious surgery on his back and still the heroine lies about his parentage instead of asking the boy's father for money? Kind of a stupid set up. And the rest of the story was pretty ho hum. Still this works for a bingo challenge I'm in so there is that.

[willaful]

Worst secret baby story ever. The heroine has nothing even resembling a reason for lying to the hero about their baby, who needs medical attention she can't afford. He's no prize either, deliberately making her feel like a whore while he's painting her. Ugh.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked all the characters in this overall but Cindy tests me a lot. I love how Cindy has done so well by her son but hate how she treats Jason. Jason I admired. He was the one wronged yet she treats him like the villain. I hated that she denied his as Jeremy's father! GRR! Unless he is dangerous or abusive you don't do that! But she is trying to be independent and has a lot on her plate. Still, it made for a nice, fast read as both side learn the truth. Not an original story. Its been done countless time but I liked in how this one is shared and the bumps along the road.

[Annarose · Rating 2 out of 5]

An eighteen-year-old Cindy fell in love with the artist Jason Peel from the moment she met him in one of her friend's parties. When he asked to paint her, she accepted at once. He spend a month to know her every mood in order to capture her true nature in his painting, and during that month, her love for him intensified and eventually she let him make love to her. Later, he proposed to her, but because he never told her he loved her, she had doubts about his feelings and what made things worse is his mistress visit to her. Therefore, she stopped the wedding, fled away to her parents holiday farmhouse - where she discovered she's pregnant.

A simple, predictable and easy to read book. Not many events happen in the story, but there is a degree of emotions, albeit mostly physical. Not exactly likeable characters - not in a true sense - but not hateful ones either. I thought the heroine a little selfish though. She is welling to destroy her self-respect to pose as a call girl to the hero in order to have money for her son's operation, yet she's not welling to tell him about his son and have the money owned in dignity for the same reason. Not to marry out of love is not a good enough reason to deprive a little child from both his biological father and his right to have a fast treatment to be well and healthy!

[ANGELIA · Rating 1 out of 5]

I won't bother to review this, since the other reviewers did a good enough job and I share their opinion. I'll just add a few things:

After the h dumps the H three days before the wedding, disappears for three years, tells the H he meant nothing to her, says she just used him for a baby trap when her baby's father croaked and left her preggers (really dumb story she made up), says sex to her is just fun and games (the exception being her fictional true love), tells the H he means nothing to her at all, and assures him her two-year-old is definitely NOT his, HOW IN THE WORLD DID SHE THINK HE'D SAY THAT HE LOVED HER????? After all the crap that she spewed out at him???? One thing I HATE is these entitled h's who seem to think they can be snarky, bitchy, nasty, and hide their true feelings behind casual indifference, and still expect the H to declare his undying love!!!! This one, right after practically calling him a fool believing she ever cared, starts thinking to herself that if only he'd tell her he loved her, everything would be alright! What the hell kind of La La Land was she living in?????

I wish the kid wasn't his, so he wouldn't get stuck with her! Though maybe he deserved it, since he wasn't very bright, a 30-year-old man getting involved with an 18-year-old girl! He wasn't even sure if she was a virgin or not when they first had sex, DUH!!!! He should have stuck with the OW, she did him a favor by turning the h against him.

But what really bugs me is the author insulting readers' intelligence by expecting us to believe that a pregnant teenage girl is going to decide to live on her own in an isolated farmhouse, rather than stay close to the brother and sister-in-law who love her and could help her any way they could? Even when the kid turns out to be less than healthy and she hasn't much money she's going to (selfishly, I might add, putting stupid pride ahead of her child's needs) keep to herself and not ask for their help?

COME ON, GIVE ME A BREAK AND DON'T TAKE ME FOR A FOOL!!!!!

The author must have been stoned when she wrote this crap!

DNF!!

[Debby · Rating 3 out of 5]

She lies and lies and lies so much that she’ll give you a tummy ache. She was awful.

He is an alpha male, so he makes her pay for the hurt she has put him through. I cheered him on.

This is a second chance story. In the past they were engaged to be married. Three days before the wedding day a woman she has never seen before, shows up at her doorstep and she says to the h that she sleeps with the H and that the H doesn’t love the h.

Without talking to the H, the h then goes into hiding so he can’t find her and she doesn’t let the H know that she is pregnant.

Anyway, three years later they meet again and that is where this engaging trainwreck begins.

The HEA wasn’t satisfactory (she should have been groveling, but she didn’t) and her lies were sickening. So therefore only 3 stars and not 4.

[A · Rating 1 out of 5]

Melodramatic h and H who are both immature. Despite being 30 years old, the H has an one night stand with the 18 year old h and proposes and she accepts immediately as she is infatuated. Enter some random woman claiming to be H’s mistress and she immediately calls off the wedding. The h is pregnant and on knowing that she still doesn’t let H know. When they meet after 3 years, the h claims it was someone else’s child when he asks her if it was his. The H becomes violent and despite her son needing a medical operation she doesn’t let H even know his own son. At this point, I gave up on both the book and no longer cared to read it as whatever this is, its not romance or love or any thing resembling a good human emotion.

[RomLibrary · Rating 3 out of 5]

She had no one else, so he was everything

Cindy's son Jeremy was the focus of her whole life. She had somehow managed to raise him alone, and it had matured her greatly She was no longer the innocent girl who had loved the awesome artist Jason Peel years ago.

So when Jason suddenly reappeared, Cindy knew she must summon the strength to cope with the conflicting emotions his very presence aroused.

But most of all, she must hide from Jason the shattering truth about the little boy. Jason Peel must never discover that he was Jeremy's father

[FOTINI · Rating 5 out of 5]

το πορτραίτο μιας ζωής...

[Liz · Rating 1 out of 5]

Mills & Boon Cover (1981) is exact same cover as Lucy Walker Reaching for the Stars! Beagle Books. Published in 1973.