心のともしび

by Yvonne Whittal

The Light Within by Yvonne Whittal released on Sep 24, 1981 is available now for purchase.

Genres: Harlequin Romance, Harlequin, Romance, Harlequin Presents, Contemporary Romance

Paperback Bunko

First published February 1, 1981

About the author

Yvonne Whittal was born and raised in South Africa, the setting of most of her romances. She started writing stories at a young age, but didn't really get serious about writing until after she married and had children. She got many rejection letters from publishers, until a friend who loved romances gave her to encouragement to continue.

Reviews

[Naksed · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm appalled and this is why.

The heroine in this story is blind. The author handles the topic with extreme sensitivity and insight. Not only through the heroine's personal trials and tribulations but through those of various patients with sight disabilities at the clinic she volunteers at. And her guide dog Sheba is adorable.

The hero, on the other hand, is a big fat jerk. Like, a donkey-faced, shit-for-brains pig.

The heroine is understandably intrigued. He doesn't handle her with kid gloves because of her disability. He treats her as an equal i.e. he is just as thoughtless, rude, and blunt with her as he would be with anyone else. I can actually respect that and understand why that was so attractive to a woman used to either being pitied or ignored by the opposite sex.

HOWEVER. The author went and ruined the whole set up for me when she has the hero cruelly talk derisively about her to his friend when they are at a party. The friend is basically like, "attractive girl, too bad she's blind." And that big fat pig-faced shit-for-brain donkey replies mockingly that "oh, you know me, I like a bit of variety."

WTF?!

Then, when the friend asks if he is serious about her? The hero zero adamantly dismisses that issue by saying that if he were crazy enough to take the matrimonial plunge, it would be with someone who he had shared interests with.

The heroine, who overhears this conversation, is destroyed by it. It confirms all her worst insecurities that as a woman with a disability, she will never be more than a casual date for someone so worldly, active, and sexed up as the hero. She can never be a wife because most men would consider her to be a burden to them.

My biggest problem is that the otherwise proud, dignified heroine NEVER confronts the hero with this and frankly, I think it is because the author could not find a way to excuse or distort the cruel nature of the hero's words for the conclusion. So she just bypassed that issue and focused on a dumb Great, Big, Terrible Misunderstanding created by a minor OW wannabe.

And it definitely didn't help that the hero proposed marriage to the heroine only AFTER a miraculous operation the likes of which only occur in HPlandia restores her eyesight.

Would the hero have found her enough to be his wife if she had a disability? Sadly, my take on it is that he would not. Fun for an affair, sure. But not a forever kind of girl. And that is what was so appalling and very disappointing because the story started out so wonderfully, with a heroine who did not fit the mold of the perfect HP Barbie and who I hoped would find the unconditional love that she so deserved :(

[StMargarets · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh, the drama. Read if you're in the mood for a blind heroine and the hero "who likes variety" who falls for her.

Heroine literally runs into the hero while visiting her father's office. He is rude and not at all understanding of her blindness. He does seek her out and heroine is suspicious because she doesn't have any experience with men except for the good doctor at the eye clinic. They go out for a picnic, but heroine is afraid of her responses and hero is feeling the unresolved sexual tension. When he drops by later, she refuses to go out with him, so he asks out Vera (OW name or what?) in front of heroine.

Meanwhile heroine befriends boy at the eye clinic and hangs out with her guide dog and makes good use of her time, all while feeling conflicted about the hero.

He apologizes for being an ass and they go to a party and heroine overhears hero telling the host he likes variety and who knows who he'll marry. Heroine breaks it off with him, but he sends her a letter telling her to meet him at 1:00 at a restaurant or else he knows she means it and she'll stay away. OW sees letter and sends a typewritten note telling her the meeting is cancelled.

Heroine realizes (too late) what OW has done and goes to hero's apartment to explain. He won't listen and he's got another woman in the apartment. Heroine is upset and gets hit by a car which moves the shrapnel pressing on her optic nerves (she had been an car explosion caused by a grenade that killed her mother). Anyway - the upshot is that the good doctor can operate but she might not survived the operation or be brain dead or something. Heroine has nothing to live for and she wants the surgery. When she comes out of the surgery the hero wants to see her, but heroine is hysterical, faints and when she awakes she has amnesia. She can't remember the last two months or the hero.

*deep breath*

She takes six months to recover, but she's still not happy.

They pack her off to a hotel in the mountains and there she meets James Allen - who takes her around and kisses her and generally acts like her last boyfriend. Heroine is still afraid of her responses, recognizes the phrase "liking variety", and once home puts two and two together. Marcus and James Allen are the same hero. She goes out with him to break it off. Hero explains all - women in his flat was his sister. He's been celibate since she ran into him - lets get married tonight so we can have sex tonight. Magistrate comes. Off to bed we go. HEA



This is old school Harley fun. Hero is just obnoxious enough to be interesting, and it's forgiveable because he's suffering from all that sexual tension, poor dear. Heroine holds her own with him and goes through a lot without lapsing into self-pity.

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Roxana "Roxy" Cunningham is visiting her father at his office and accidentally bumps into a man, Marcus Fleming. Roxy has been blind for ten years--she was in a car accident when she was twelve (a hand grenade was thrown at the car she was in and it also killed her mother.) Roxy and Marcus talk briefly and then go their separate ways. Two weeks later she meets Marcus again--her father is having guests over for dinner and Marcus is a client of her father. Marcus asks Roxy out and she accepts. But their growing relationship becomes strained--Roxy is hesitant to have a relationship because, since she is blind, she feels that she would be a burden to the man she got involved with. But Marcus is very persistent.

This was a very enjoyable romance. I liked Roxy. She was a sweet and thoughtful heroine. She visited patients at the eye clinic who had lost their sight. I liked how she helped the eight-year-old boy, Chris, who was partially blind and very depressed. She went out of her way for him, bringing her dog in to visit him, and that really cheered him up! I also liked Marcus, though, in the first half of the book, he was a bit cranky and arrogant, but I really grew to like him in the second half. There was also some added drama, with amnesia, operations, etc. This was a pretty good book by Yvonne Whittal.

[Leona · Rating 2 out of 5]

Re-read this one after stumbling upon it on one of my bookshelves. I wanted to see if it would stand the test of time. I still do applaud the author for a dynamic story. A story that compellingly and realistically explains the life of a young blind woman.

However, I have to take off stars for the hero. He just didn't appeal to me the second time around. He's one of those people that the more you get to know them, the more you dislike them. He really was an arrogant, selfish ass. He was more appropriate for the role of OM, than hero. I think the long-time friend and doctor would have been a better pick for hero.

It's still an enticing story. Yvonne Whittal is a great writer so I believe most HP readers will find this to be an easy, absorbing, and compelling story.

I just have to deduct 2 stars for the jackass hero.

____________________________________

Wow..this one packed a punch, or at least there were times I wanted to punch the hero...This is what makes Harlequins the ver best in guilty pleasure reads!

I have not read much of this author's work, but this book makes me want to seek out more of her work.

[KC · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just as good if not better than the first time. I’m bumping this up to 4.5 stars because I cried again. Plus, I gained clarification on the first and big misunderstanding which had caused Roxy so much heartache and caused me to question Marcus's integrity. See the spoiler below.

On my reread, it became clear to me that Marcus only said what he said to end his friend's intrusive questions and comments—Was Marcus serious about Roxy?—by giving brusque, expected answers. As an intensely private person Marcus didn't like it when confronted with personal questions (he even grew testy when Roxy sometimes questioned him), so it's not surprising he wanted to end this uncomfortable "interview" as quickly as possible.

Original Review

I admit it: I cried like a baby at one point.



The angst, passion and drama sucked me in! In fact, this reminded me in some ways of the classic movie An Affair to Remember, starring Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr (also a redhead like Roxy), with one major difference being that there was no cheating in the book.

I loved Roxy for her compassion and moxie. Marcus earned bonus points for treating Roxy like any other normal person (she's blind) and for his overall, persistent courtship of her. The demise of their burgeoning relationship was bitter indeed, making their happy ending so sweet when it happened.

One thing I wished that would have happened was to have the first misunderstanding clarified which wasn't addressed at the end. It didn't shed Marcus in a positive light, and made me think he only made the remarks he did to divert the topic and maintain his alpha pride because he seemed smitten even then.

While at a party with Marcus, Roxy overhears him talking with the host who's also a friend. She is left with the impression that he's only dating her because he likes "variety", and if he ever married it would be to someone with whom he could share his interests (like karate, mountaineering, etc.). This is the beginning of the end of their affair as Roxy tries to distance herself. She's hurt as she thinks Marcus is just toying with her, and also believes her blindness would prevent her from sharing in Marcus's life.

A well-written, old school romance that had me reading nearly into dawn!

[*CJ* · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Light Within" is the story of Roxana and Marcus.

Wow! This had two separate stories, interwoven in a single plot.

We have a lovely blind h, who spends her days helping other patients deal with their blindness. A kind, funny lady who does not treat her disability like her crutch, she has an adorable guide dog Sheba and a loving father. Her life changes when she meets the H, her father's acquaintance, and he starts courting her. Then we have a pursuit, a jealous OW, a kind OM, miscommunications, miraculous surgery, amnesia, deception, confrontation and HEA.

Thoroughly enjoyed it..and I want to pet Sheba!

Safe
4/5

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

My Yvonne Whittal marathon continues and she is yet to fail me. This story had everything. Blind heroine, misunderstandings who drive H and h apart, amnesia, deceit, fake identity and the list goes on. Super enjoyable read!

[JillyB · Rating 4 out of 5]

First off, this book surprised me in that I really enjoyed it. There was also a little twist in it that I was not expecting, (and another that I was, because Hey, this isn’t my first Harley!) I also found that I was able to read this book quite quickly. Time seemed to go quite fast! The HEA itself takes almost a year to complete.

Ok, so before reading a book, I will often look at the star ratings from my favorite reviewers. Sometimes I will skim the reviews, other times I refuse to, and then there are times I just have to know and I will read the spoilers. I decided to read Naksed’s 1 star review because forewarned is forearmed. It actually worked in my favor to do so, because I was able to see the hero in a more positive light as I put my own “rosy tinted glass spin on his actions. “

Hero meets heroine when she rams into him coming off an elevator. He is rather annoyed and rude to her and then she explains she is blind. Life goes on and isn’t until 2 weeks later that the h runs into the H again at one of her father’s dinner parties. They strike up a conversation, and he asks her out on a boating trip. She accepts, and now begins the courtship.

The beautiful Heroine, Roxy 22 has been blind since the age of 12. She has accepted this for this most part. She works, volunteers, and gets around well with her dog Sheba. She seems to surround herself with good people. However, when it comes to men she is reluctant. Any dates she has gone on have been a one and done sort of thing. She feels her blindness will only make her a burden to a man. So she protects herself by refusing dates and or stopping them before her heart can get too involved.

The very handsome, successful hero Marcus, 35, is very interested with the innocent heroine. He knows to take it slow with her, plus he doesn’t treat her any different than he would treat anyone else(except for taking it slow). Plus, the dog Sheba likes him, and she is very particular. Unfortunately for him the h keeps pushing him away….so here we enter the spoiler part of my review, where I will attempt to interpret the heroes actions with my specially designed reinforced rosy tinted glasses.



So, as I said, the H is in hot pursuit of the heroine, and he is a man that can have his pick of women. Due to her hang ups about involving herself with a man, she pushes away every invite he offers after the boating trip where he got a little amorous with her and pushed her comfort zone. So, he shows up to her house unannounced to ask her in person. She makes excuses again. Then, Vera the venomous wannabe gf next door happens to stop by the h’s house while he is there. They had all met previously and Vera had made her interests clear, while the H couldn’t believe that this was a friend of the h(she explained that it was more of a courtesy kind of relationship) So when the H says that Roxy refused his invite, Vera was more than glad to be a stand in. He invites Vera out in front of Roxy.

*Ok, so I can see why this would be considered an asshole move by many. However, I interpreted it as sheer strategy on the H’s part. He knows the h likes him, but he needs to light a fire under her butt even if it makes her feel a little sad. All is Fair in Love and War if you get the needed results.

Anyhoo, the next day he picks the h up from her job. She still is pushing him away, but when he comes to the house and they play chess, the atmosphere changes and they start to date each other. Then we get the black moment at a party she attends with the H. This is the point that most people despise the H….but I have my trusty interpretive glasses firmly in place.

At the party the h hears the H talking to his friend Dave.

“Attractive girl you brought with you this evening…..Pity she’s blind, though.”

“Roxy doesn’t need to be pitied.”

“Are you serious about her?”

“You know me, Dave,” Marcus laughed shortly. “I like variety.” Glasses activated: Marcus is thinking I am not giving details to this shmuck about a girl I am truly serious about. I am going to blow him off with some innocuous statement and go find my gal.

Dave tells him it is time Marcus settled down.

“If I ever decide to plunge myself into the state of matrimony it will have to be to someone who could share my interests,” Marcus replied testily. Does this mean the h doesn’t fit the bill because she is blind and kayaking, hiking, boating may be difficult? I don’t think so. He is getting testy with the friend, because he is hardly going to talk about his future marriage prospects with him. Plus, we are barely a 1/3 into the book. He has known the h for mere weeks. Marriage may not be his focus as of yet.



SOOOO, the h is turned off by this exchange and she puts her own negative spin on it. She doesn’t call the H out on it and instead distances herself from him again. She keeps thwarting his attempts to be with her, and he has to be gone a lot for his business. Before one of his trips he sends her a message asking her to meet him for lunch so they can discuss things. If she doesn’t show up he will not bother her ever again. Venomous Vera happens to see the letter on one of her visits and decides to do some mischief of her own. The h gets a type written message delivered the next day from the H saying he has to leave early and cannot do lunch but will contact her on his return. However, when he returns he never contacts her and runs into her at her father’s office. He is cold and dismissive. Her father informs her that the H will most likely be relocating to South America(they are currently in South Africa) This upsets the h as he will for sure be out of her life, of course we know he is leaving because he can’t stand to run into the h as he most likely loves her. A few days later the distracted h is hit by a car and ends up in the hospital. There was some shifting of the shrapnel in her head and yep…surgery may fix her sight. However, it is a 50/50 chance and she could end up dead or with impaired brain function if it doesn’t go well. She decides to think about it. In the meantime she finds out that the H thought she stood him up at the restaurant weeks ago as he did not leave on a later flight. Armed with this new information, she decides, with the help of her trusty housekeeper, to show up unannounced at his apartment late at night to clear the air. She goes to his door. He is cold.(and why not, this woman has him all twisted into knots) She starts to explain about the note(the one Vera wrote to cancel their date) When she hears a woman ask him who is at the door. He tells Gail, the ow, that “it is no one of importance” The h is not only shattered by his words but also the voice of the ow. She tells him never mind and stumbles away heartbroken and shattered. The next day she tells the Dr(the 45 year old friend and man who loves her) that she wants the risky surgery. This goes against both him and her father. At this point, she just doesn’t care what happens.

She has the surgery. Right after she wakes up, her father is there and he tells her someone wants to see her. When she realizes who it is, she freaks out, and ends up developing Hysterical amnesia. She has conveniently lost about 10 weeks of her memory. The weeks involving the H. She then takes months recovering from the surgery which ended up being a success. Her dad sends her away for a vacation in the Mountains. While there a mysterious man keeps watching her and making her feel ill at ease. He introduces himself as “James Allen” . He spends time with her and he does tell her that he knew her before the operation. She gets some fragments of her memory but it feels like a cloudy deja vu. Her memory hasn’t returned and they drive back home together. We aren’t done with black moments yet though but we are running out of pages. Venomous Vera comes by to check out the fully operational h and then tells her that she saw Marcus with a beautiful blonde and there are rumors of marriage swirling about. Roxy doesn’t really care as she can’t remember Marcus and is very interested in Jame. She decides to call James but doesn’t have his number. Looking amongst her dad’s things she stumbles upon the deception that James is actually Marcus. She calls the number and a woman answers then Marcus. She hangs up and decides to get her own back. So when James invites her to his place she is going to skewer him. It doesn’t quite go down as she expected, and Marcus delivers the speech that imo absolves him of treachery.


“How dare you a treat me like this!’ she demanded. I’ll treat you any damn way I please, Roxana Cun- mingham,’ he told her harshly, his lips drawn back against his teeth in an angry snarl, and she shrank from the fury in his eyes when he leaned over her threateningly with his hands on the arms of her chair. ‘If you think you’re the only one who’s been living ‘under the pressure of strain these past months, then - ‘you're mistaken. At first I had to put up with your touchiness because of your blindness, and the barricade you’d erected because of your ridiculous idea - that you could never be more than a burden to a man. ‘Then there was that stupid misunderstanding that plunged me into the depths of hell. I went a little mad, I think, and for a time I considered settling in South America, but when I finally discovered the truth I found I was too late to prevent you from taking a step ‘which could have killed you as certainly as it had cured you. God, Roxy,’ he groaned white-faced, ‘moving away from her and pushing his hands through his crisp hair, ‘I don’t think you’ll ever know what I felt like when I rushed into that clinic to discover that the operation had been in progress since thirty ‘minutes before my arrival. I aged years while I sat there in that infernal waiting-room with your father, and then, when you were told I wanted to see you, you. collapsed hysterically and wiped me out of your memory along with a lot of other things.’

You see, he would have married the blind h according to this statement. He went to the hospital to stop the surgery. He would have never risked her life for her to see. What about the gorgeous blonde? And the marriage plans? The blonde is his very married sister. Wedding plans? Oh yeah, he has everything he needs to marry the h including a ring. Conveniently there is a magistrate upstairs who can marry them that night. We get a fade to black marriage night, where the h has become a “fulfilled, drowsily, content woman”Love avowals are shared left and right, and it is another HEA in Harleyville!

Of course, some of this is just a little too good to be true. It is rare in a book for the h and/or H to stay impaired. There is usually some miracle that restores them to their former vigor. I think YW did a good job handling the h’s blindness with care and sensitivity. I liked the part where she looks in the mirror and her 12 year old self is not looking back at her. However, miracles like this are not the norm for most people. One book I read where the heroine was mute she was kept mute the whole time. In the end she was starting to regain some sound but for the most part she still communicated using other ways Silence Speaks For Love I applauded the authors (husband/wife team) for being able to write such an emotional story with little verbal communication. Overalll, TLW was a pleasant read that I really enjoyed. Even though it wasn’t hard to guess some of the devices used like the mystery man, and the ow being his sister, the amnesia one threw me a nice unexpected curve ball.

This book was one in a list of celibacy books I have been enjoying recently. It was recommended on GR under “experienced yet celibate men”!

[Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 1/2 Stars ~ Roxy is a beautiful and sensitive 22 year old, and she was blinded by hand grenade shrapnel when she was 12, an explosion that also took her mother's life. She leads a full life running her barrister father's house and helping new patients who are newly blind to adjust. She's vowed never to be a burden to anyone, and so, she keeps men at arms length. That is until she literally bumps into Marcus, a client of her father's, and his abrupt behaviour at her clumsiness intrigues her. He doesn't treat her with kid gloves because of her blindness which impresses her. Roxy's off balance with Marcus, and when she over hears him tell a friend who questions his choice of date that he likes variety in his women, Roxy thinks he's been playing with her and she pulls back. Roxy is involved in an accident that causes the shrapnel in her head to shift, and now a very dangerous operation could restore her sight. There's a huge misunderstanding between Marcus and Roxy because of the interference of a jealous neighbour, and Roxy's heart is broken. So she decides she has nothing to lose and insists on the surgery. Roxy is dismayed to actually wake up after the surgery, and when she learns Marcus is there to see her she gets hysterical and passes out. This time when she wakes she doesn't remember having met Marcus or anything of the last two months. With her eyesight restored, her father insists she take a holiday away and while there she meets a man who disturbs her in a way she doesn't understand.

This is one of those romances that made me want to read it all over again, and I did. As we don't have Marcus' point of view and as this is written from Roxy's blind point of view, we have a very difficult time gauging Marcus. We aren't aware of his facial expressions, though Ms. Whittal uses Roxy's enhanced hearing aquity to catch various inflections in his speech this really isn't enough to tell what Marcus is thinking or feeling. Once she has her sight returned, it's much easier to see that Marcus really does care for her and has suffered too. I thoroughly enjoyed this romance and did not find it dated in any way

[Margo · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is very readable. The heroine is very likable and the H is appalling. The storyline is interesting, with lots of drama. The story has a good ending because it is well for the heroine in one very important way. She can always dump the H later since he is bound to either cheat or be emotionally abusive. The good news is that after they separate, she is going to have a great time learning that there are so many fish in the sea.

[lily · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a lovely enjoyable read ❤

[Jena]

Dry, dull. Hero’s an ass. DNF for now.

[DamsonDreamer · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75
I was heading to bed when this popped up on OL and it wasn't a 14 day borrow, so...Suffice to say I rattled through it in a couple of very absorbing hours despite being tired. A blind h, Roxy, felt a bit different (she had a beautiful golden lab guide dog, Sheba). She visited newly blind people in hospital, lived with her successful lawyer father and assorted kindly housekeeping staff and got on with life. She'd been involved in an accident and lost her sight and her mother aged 12. Men were off her radar due to them being put off by her disability. Enter Marcus, man about town, who pursues her and doesn't pity or mollycoddle her. Nevertheless she's wary and seems to have her fears confirmed when she overhears some remarks he makes at a party. There's interference from a bitchy neighbour, an ow incident and hey presto, she's devastated. Spoiler in next bit - she gets knocked down, the shrapnel in her brain shifts and there's a possibility of sight via a very dangerous operation. This was a bit of a shame in some ways, I'd have liked her to have her romantic hea without the miracle. We aren't done yet though because she's now got that old classic amnesia and doesn't remember the relationship with Marcus. Off to the mountains she goes for a restorative break where she meets the mysterious but strangely familiar James Allen. This one really kept me reading and was very well written. It wasn't overly sentimental and the H was appealing in spite of being a bit of a YW bastard.

[SassyLeg · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars
Could not put it down…… wonderfully addictive angst!!!

[Connie N. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting Harlequin romance from the 1980's in which a young blind woman falls in love with a strong and forceful man. I liked the heroine, Roxy, although as is typical of this type of romance, she is quite dramatic in her thinking--my life is over because he doesn't love me, I'll never be good enough for him, blah blah blah. And because of the style of the time period, I suppose, she is a totally innocent woman despite the fact that she's in her early 20's. There was a lot of talk from Marcus about having sex (which always made her blush, of course), but there was none of the candid descriptions that there are in today's romances. Marcus, on the other hand, is a strong and domineering personality. Whittal overdid it a bit and made him seem pretty much unlikeable. He was always either mocking...or snarling...or sardonic...or losing control and forcing his kisses on Roxy. Although she always gave in and was overcome by her feelings (dramatic again), it was a sign of the times, I suppose, that this type of alpha male was popular a couple of decades ago. All this being said, I enjoyed the twist to the story about her blindness and working with other blind people. And the romance was predictable and fairly enjoyable. I would have rated it higher if the hero had been more pleasant throughout, not just at the end.

[Purple Nerd · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this a long time ago as a tween and I loved it so much. It took me a while to finish because I was sneak reading it and didn't want my sisters to rat me out to our mom, as she didn't want me reading these ' kinds' of books, which is funny since I got my love of books from her lol.

Anyway, I reread it again a few years ago and I still found it entertaining. Perhaps, not as much as my rebellious younger self did, but it brought fond nostalgic memories and I did not skim at all.

3.5 stars 🥰🥰

[RomLibrary · Rating 4 out of 5]

He'd shattered every one of her defenses

Even at their first meeting, Roxana had feared Marcus Fleming. But she had fallen in love with him anyway -- a dynamic man whose life-style would be severely hampered by her blindness.

"I won't hurt you, Roxy," Marcus had said. "Before that happens, I'll get out of your life--if that's what you want."

Roxy knew in her heart it wasn't what she wanted, far from it. But for Marcus's sake it had to be... (less)

[Nikki · Rating 3 out of 5]

The other woman picks on and sabotages a BLIND girl! How messed up can you get? The hero wasn't much to write home about either, very pushy. We really didn't need the miracle surgery, the accident was enough. Didn't like everyone tricking her or the amnesia...never a fan of that. But not bad overall. The other woman needed to get mauled to death by the seeing eye dog, but other than that, okay. Read.

[More Books Than Time · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is two stories. #1. Roxy is blind and Marcus courts her and she falls in love with him. This story is excellent. #2. Roxy overhears Marcus deny any long term interest in her because he will marry only a woman who can share his hobbies, all of which require sight. Roxy has miracle and regains her sight. Marcus marries her. See the problem?

[أجمل زهرة · Rating 1 out of 5]

Totally disaster.
I couldn't finish it I stopped at chapter 8.
The hero was disrespectable, Insensitive and cruel with his relationship with Roxy.
The heroine, who endured a lot from this jerk, received more from him without any real confrontation because she was so weak to do any thing.

[L · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect!

[suman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Till half the book it was 5 stars but after that it went downhill. I didn't like the hero in the entire book we can see his arrogance, mockery, anger but never his love.

[MJ4S · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots of misunderstandings in this one, and the hero is quick to jump to conclusions. Wrong ones. So the heroine run him in well-deserved circles.

[Rongbu]

Two people had hot temper and fought a lot!

[Julianne King · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent 1st read from the collection of vintage harlequins I just got at the library book sale. Predictable but soft, sweet and intriguing.

[Bookaddict · Rating 3 out of 5]

YW loves curing blindness!

[Eliana]

Old books

[Diedre · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good story. Thought I wouldn't really get into reading about a blind heroine but this was done well. The hero had a temper but you could tell he always loved her.

[Christian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this a few days ago, but for some reason I can't seem to get it out of my mind. The first half was interesting and cute as unusual courtships go. I found the heroine's reaction toward the hero supposedly not loving her a bit extreme, and her drive to take a very dangerous operation to spite herself was downright irresponsible and several loved ones should have put their feet down and outright REFUSED to capitulate to her insane demand, but then this wouldn't be a Harlequin novel. I found the second half unbelievably over the top, not only due to the heroine's miraculous cure, but also how far the men in her life went to try to restore her memories. While reading, I was starting to think maybe the heroine really didn't survive her operation and the second half of the story is her crazy dying dream. But no, this is a Harlequin and there must be an HEA! And despite all the crazy, I ended up liking the whole thing anyway.

As an aside, I do agree with one reviewer here about the hero's "liking variety" comment: he was likely feeling uncomfortable with the conversation and wanted to say anything to get out of it. Throughout the story, you can tell he hates being questioned about certain things in his life and tries to shut these conversations down however he can. It was just unfortunate the heroine had to hear it that way. Critical thinking, guys and gals! So I'm not bothered that this particular comment never got resolved in the end. And I can't help but buy the HEA in the end because I could tell just how much the hero was suffering along with the heroine.

Do I recommend this? Possibly, if you like your romances sweet with several sides of crazy!

[Melody · Rating 3 out of 5]

Surprisingly, I like it. The heroine is not annoying and the Hero is not really that jerk of a man.