Emerald Fire

by Sandra Marton

'The lady belongs to me... she's my woman!'

OK, so Slade McClintoch had rescued her from a few tight situations, but that didn't make her his property... and now Brionny resolved to take the upper hand! The trouble was that, having fallen victim to Slade's powers of seduction once before, she was afraid of making the same mistake again. And, of course, she couldn't be sure of Slade's intentions. Did he simply want her for herself? Or was he trying to discover her precious secret...?

Genres: Romance, Harlequin, Harlequin Presents

187 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

I've been a writer, one way or another, all my life. Before I could read, I made up poems and my mom wrote them down for me. In elementary school, my teachers almost always let me write poems or stories instead of requiring me to do art projects. Always, I dreamed of becoming a published writer...and that dream came true! I write novels about sexy, powerful men and independent-minded women, and what happens when they find each other and fall in love. My books are sexy and romantic, and they've very often full of romantic suspense. I write the kinds of books I love to read, and I hope that makes my readers happy.

Reviews

[kilty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rated - R for Really?!!

Lets see..the Amazon jungle, jaguars on the prowl, Mali-Mali tribesmen shooting arrows (must have been the cupid variety), the shut-up-or-i'll-kiss-you hero and the me-jane-you-ape heroine..

Hmm! Why am I surprised? First of all it was a re-read (I'm beginning to wonder whether my lousy memory is intentional..I'm going to market a new product called Re-Kindle exclusively for worthy re-reads, and avoid further wrong turns down the memory lane | Copyright © 2011 kilty =)

Secondly, I think of SM HPs as fun flip books where if you flip fast enough the story begins to take shape and you might even get a laugh out of it! (hey! I can comment...I read/re-read her books)

In this book, the above average bickering (in quantity rather than quality) were a build up to..no! not the love scenes..the love/kissing scenes were stand-alone for creative reasons that the hero came up with after the event.

Seriously, the first kiss went a little like this..

the h walks into a seedy bar and the H saves her from this vile character with bad breath..and he kisses her to lay claim and she puts up with it even if she thinks he is just as vile but the sweat & mint made him an irresistible colgate total man!

And plot twist..
(psst. there was no plot..but there were a lot of twists..makes sense?)

Then the next kiss was to cure her phobia of heights.

And so on..

After about the 7th or 8th kiss, she wonders "Was he flirting with her? If he was, he was wasting his time.."

Really?????

[Susan in Perthshire · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh good grief - this was so seriously dated and unbelievable. The plot sucked because it all hinged on the heroine’s prejudices and utter stupidity. She appeared to know nothing at all. I really disliked the heroine.

What a supercilious, arrogant, stupid, snobbish bitch. I absolutely loathed her. If I’d been Slade, I would have walked away and left her. For a supposedly intelligent and educated woman, Brionny ( and what an awful name), was unbelievably thick. She was also a nasty little bitch. The way she looked down on Slade and then judged him based on her prejudices was just so sickening.

This started with such a great premise but the execution was dreadful. ‘Romancing the Stone’. Did it so, so much better. Give me that version any time. This was just awful.

I thought Slade was a great hero - pity he ended up with her.

[Sandra R · Rating 3 out of 5]

A new reissue of a book originally published in the mid nineties. The writing itself was excellent, but the story and the characters... Strange. This really is very typical of Mills and Boon books written 30/40 years ago. An adventure in a jungle with the H/h 'hating' each other, but unable to deny their romantic connection. I needed to have the jungle trek part of the story way longer, but this whole book suffered from being too short. M & B word count rule. I wonder what the author would come up with today, if this book had been newly re-written and self published? It's sort of a Romancing The Stone type of action romance, but without the humour, just the nastiness, then the steamy scenes which made no sense.

Brionny came across as a total shrew, unable to process anything that was happening in a reasonable way and Slade came out as sexy, lovely and heroic. He was completely smitten from the second he saw Brionny, although he didn't want to be, and we have no idea why he was. Chemistry? (Ms Marton usually writes her heros this way and I've loved most of the books she's written.) However, the heroine in this one is pretty bad - over the top nasty - and I know many readers couldn't stand her character - including me. I wanted to shake Bree... She denied her attraction to Slade to the end. 😣 One minute they were calling each other by their christian name, then it was back to surnames, then they were grappling with each other. 🔥 So much banter, soap opera drama and interrupted sentences.

The story was dialogue and action driven, which I liked, but the flow of the story was disjointed and strange in places. Nothing was mentioned about either of the H/h's backgrounds - so no substance to the characters. There was so much going on in this book and I think it suffered from being the traditional, short, Mills and Boon length. If it had been fleshed out and the author had given us backstories and reasons behind the H/h's actions along the way, then I think it would have been much better. Something nasty in Brionny's past was hinted at in the beginning, which would make sense of her prickly reaction to Slade's advances, but wasn't explored.

The romance scenes were steamy and nicely written. This book gets 2.5 stars rounded up, because at least I finished it - and I wanted to find out what happened. Probably if I'd read it in 1995, (which I might have, but can't remember), I would have given it 4 stars. I didn't miss the lack of mobile phones or social media, rather it was refreshing. I have no idea why I've spent so much time on this review... Maybe because I love this author and this book could have been a five star read, had it been handled differently.

[willaful]

This was gearing up to be the kind of Sandra Marton bickerfest with a stubborn pain in the ass heroine who's always almost getting herself killed. Add in jungle natives and I am so done.

[Di · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible, what a waste. I feel bad for the hero. What a quick about turn when she finds out he's rich.
She stole an emerald but she's the heroine. 🤮🤮🤮🤮
One of the worst books I've read.

[Yu Li · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just started and hate the beginning.
I really hate stories about a character that is told as a smart one but has no common sense at all

[RomLibrary · Rating 2 out of 5]

Most women found Slade McClintoch irresistibly attractive, with his dark charisma and hardmuscled physique. But Brionny Stuart vowed she wasn't one of them. If anything, she had always been turned off by Slade's arrogant sort! So why couldn't she forget how skillfully Slade had tried to seduce her? She must concentrate on taking the Eye, an ancient, legendary, Inca emerald, back from Peru to New York!

However, her expedition went tragically wrong, and suddenly Brionny, the cool, city girl, was at the mercy of the steaming jungle...and Slade. Would he help her back to civilization, or tempt her into making fierce, primitive love...

[Tonya Warner]

When Slade runs in to Brionny, both are struck by ghosts from their pasts that had never been put to rest. Finding herself alone in the jungle with Slade, Brionny fights both him and the way she feels for him.



A very nice story.