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Saved from Sin
She'd rushed into marriage
Clay Forrester had swept his starry-eyed Australian bride off her feet. He'd made her feel special—witty and rather daring—a person who existed only for him, when all along she'd existed only as his instrument of revenge!
Melly's last words the night she'd confronted her father had been, "It's not true! Clay loves me. He does!" And yet she ran away.
For three long years Melly had managed to evade the past—until the day she ran right into her husband and a situation she had
Clay Forrester had swept his starry-eyed Australian bride off her feet. He'd made her feel special—witty and rather daring—a person who existed only for him, when all along she'd existed only as his instrument of revenge!
Melly's last words the night she'd confronted her father had been, "It's not true! Clay loves me. He does!" And yet she ran away.
For three long years Melly had managed to evade the past—until the day she ran right into her husband and a situation she had
187 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1985
5 people are currently reading
396 people want to read
About the author
Lindsay Armstrong
318 books92 followersGillian Smith (alias Lindsay Armstrong) was born in South Africa. She grew up with three ambitions: to become a writer, to travel the world, and to be a game ranger. She didn't achieve the last one, but her fascination for wildlife and that special something about Africa and its big game still remains with her. When she went to work it was in travel, at an agency and an airline, and this started her on the road to seeing the world.
Lindsey met her New Zealand-born husband, who had been working in West Africa, when he was on his way home through Johannesburg. He did go home but in a matter of weeks he was back in South Africa, and six months later they were married. Three of their five children were born in South Africa. Then one in London and one in Australia, after they made the decision to emigrate from South Africa.
It wasn't until her youngest child started school that Lindsay sat down at the kitchen table determined to tackle her other ambition to stop dreaming about writing and do it! She hasn't stopped since. She's not happy unless she has a book under way, and she's discovered she can write through just about anything.
Lindsay and her husband have moved around a lot. They've trained racehorses,farmed, and lived on their boat for six months while they sailed it from the Gold Coast to the Torres Strait and back, an epic voyage! They currently live in Queensland, overlooking the water; they sold their farm, and they're looking around for another boat. She and her husband love to travel and have been back to Africa twice in the past few years. The highlight of one of their trips was a visit to the Serengeti, in Tanzania, where Lindsay did the one thing she swore she would never do: take a ride in a hot-air balloon. She was a nervous wreck as the balloon tottered upright, but will remember it as a unique experience to see the game spreading out on the Serengeti plain beneath her as the sun rose.
"They say you can take someone who was born in Africa out of the bush but you can't take the bush out of someone born there..."
Despite this passion for wildlife and Africa, Lindsay considers Australia her home now and loves the country. She travelled to Sydney to witness the closing weekend of the Olympic Games in September 2000; it made her proud to be an adopted Aussie!
Lindsey met her New Zealand-born husband, who had been working in West Africa, when he was on his way home through Johannesburg. He did go home but in a matter of weeks he was back in South Africa, and six months later they were married. Three of their five children were born in South Africa. Then one in London and one in Australia, after they made the decision to emigrate from South Africa.
It wasn't until her youngest child started school that Lindsay sat down at the kitchen table determined to tackle her other ambition to stop dreaming about writing and do it! She hasn't stopped since. She's not happy unless she has a book under way, and she's discovered she can write through just about anything.
Lindsay and her husband have moved around a lot. They've trained racehorses,farmed, and lived on their boat for six months while they sailed it from the Gold Coast to the Torres Strait and back, an epic voyage! They currently live in Queensland, overlooking the water; they sold their farm, and they're looking around for another boat. She and her husband love to travel and have been back to Africa twice in the past few years. The highlight of one of their trips was a visit to the Serengeti, in Tanzania, where Lindsay did the one thing she swore she would never do: take a ride in a hot-air balloon. She was a nervous wreck as the balloon tottered upright, but will remember it as a unique experience to see the game spreading out on the Serengeti plain beneath her as the sun rose.
"They say you can take someone who was born in Africa out of the bush but you can't take the bush out of someone born there..."
Despite this passion for wildlife and Africa, Lindsay considers Australia her home now and loves the country. She travelled to Sydney to witness the closing weekend of the Olympic Games in September 2000; it made her proud to be an adopted Aussie!
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December 25, 2015
Re Saved from Sin - the title in this one comes from an old fashioned saying that Scottish Calvinists used to warn of the temptations of the flesh without benefit of marriage. In fact the original M&B title is Save My Soul From Sin which is a paraphrasing of lines from either Dr. Faustus, Psalm 22:20, or St Augustine's comments on St Paul's statement that it is better to marry than to burn.
What is even more extraordinary about this book, (besides the very different title with it's very Christian implications,) is what other reviewers mention, the h does indeed meet the H again after a three year separation while he is with another woman.
Any writing class will tell you that one of the most important things in any story is what they call the "hook" - an opening that draws the reader in and keeps them turning the pages- this is true for both non-fiction (news stories etc) and fiction stories. The H with the OW hook is a very bold but dangerous one to use, 'cause it has a very great chance of backfiring and alienating the reader so much that they won't finish the book. This is especially true in HPlandia, cause while there may be the implication/perception of the H being unfaithful, it is pretty much understood that once an H falls in love, he really doesn't sleep with anyone else. (Well at least we like to believe so.)
In fact that opening is so dangerous to the relative peace and familiar harmonic undercurrents of HPlandia that it has only been used three times, and judging by the wildly varying reviews and ratings both on Ammy and Goodreads, there is a very good cause for author's hesitating to use it.
Both Sharon Kendrick's Bought By Her Husband and Sarah Morgan's Powerful Greek, Unworldly Wife use this device and SK's book is one of the most reviled in HPlandia anywhere - she is also the only one to take it to the extreme of the H actually using the OW while he is talking to the h. SM's book sets up the H with the OW but the h makes an appearance before anything truly occurs. It is a risky opening and how well it works is entirely dependent upon the skill with which the author relates the backstory of the couple and how convincing they are in the follow up romance.
LA did a fairly good job on this one, mostly I think because her books are always very h-centric and focus more on how the h comes to the conclusions she does and how she acts on her convictions after she arrives at them. She takes the betrayal for revenge and reconciliation tropes to some interesting conclusions with her internal musings of the h and the h's actions and for once provides a very believable reason of WHY an h would continue a life with a man who horribly betrayed her.
She also provides a certain amount of H redemption, although it is all h pov, the reader does get a sense that this man has suffered greatly for his arrogance. So circumstances being what they were, and how the h manages to resolve her turmoil to what I believe was a genuine HEA with a believable outcome, make this one a keeper for me although mileage does vary and other people may not feel the same.
The story starts with our 22 year old h. She is on her own, having left her marriage and her father behind three years earlier when she found out her beloved H had only married her for revenge. She runs into him while conducting consumer surveys and she happens to knock on the door of the OW's apartment. The OW answers the door buttoning up a man's shirt and the h introduces herself, she starts to explain she is out taking surveys when the OW apologizes very embarrassedly, and calls the man in the room over - who is buttoning up his shirt- and when the h looks at him, it is her estranged husband. The h then does what all good HPlandia h's do when confronted with emotional trauma they can't run away from - she faints.
Later she wakes up and finds herself in the OW's bed and then the backstory portion begins. The h remembers how she got to where she is now and the lead up to the present is very detailed, it takes over half the book.
The h has two rather distant, but fabulously wealthy parents who appear very cold to each other, and when her beloved mum dies, her father sent her away to a Swiss finishing school rather than grieve with her. This had caused a fair amount of resentment in the h, so when she returns home, after having to threaten her father to make him let her, she further asserts herself by moving in with a dear friend, getting a job and basically having a typical life for a young lady making her stab at independence.
For some reason, everybody around her thinks she needs to be sheltered. Part of this is that no one knew her parents even had a child until her mum's funeral and the other part is the h is painfully direct and honest about her feelings about pretty much EVERYTHING. She is just one of those people that wears her heart on her sleeve and what she likes she is wildly enthusiastic about. She doesn't hold back on her joy or her appreciation of life and because of it, people tend to treat her like a naive child.
Her father worries that she is going to be swept up by some fortune hunter and her best friend is worried that some guy is going to take advantage of her. The h IS childlike in her enthusiasm, but she is also pretty sensible for a 19 year old. She knows that she isn't up to a big affair with a really sophisticated man. She has lots of dates with guys in her social circle and she describes them very well as young men with more interest in the Rugby Union or fast cars than having a serious affair. She is aware that they might want to get more physical than she is, but she also makes herself pretty safe by paddling in the shallows of the dating pool with guys who wouldn't really try to take advantage of her and she has a few strategies for discouraging them when they get too amorous.
Then she meets the H at a big society party her roommate's parents house. She is rather daringly dressed in a slinky gown style she hasn't worn before and the H is very nice to her when he finds her alone after her date for the evening leaves to get her a drink. She chats with him for a bit and is very attracted, but he is 32, wildly wealthy and obviously used to a much more sophisticated woman than she knows herself to be. She is a bit disappointed when her date comes back, but figures she is better way below the H's league and her roomie agrees when she lists the H's known companions.
The list includes several high powered, glamorous career women (the OW from the story beginning is listed, she is apparently a very famous artist). All of the ladies are very experienced, in all meanings of the word, and the h knows she is just too "country bumpkin" to even get a look in. Until the H looks her up and asks her out. She eventually agrees to go out for dinner after a really honest conversation about what his expectations in his dates are and how she is no where near his level in dating experiences. The H bemusedly agrees to keep his hands to himself and so they start have excursions together over the next several months.
The excursions come to an end when one of the h's other dates gets a bit rough and tries to kiss her, he leaves bruises which the H discovers and he volunteers to kiss her so she can test the differences. He gives her one of the best kisses in HPlandia and possible in all the universes, (at least from her pov,) and she doesn't like how it makes her feel and tells the H she can't see him anymore. The h very wisely concludes that she falling in love and the H isn't going to stick with a girl like her so she dumps him.
The H isn't ready to be dumped tho, so he shows up some weeks later and proposes. She agrees and wants to do it right away. Her father is out of the country for several months and she wants to just be a "normal" couple with a little house and things instead of a big society bridal pair and all the attendant social parties etc. The H agrees and they get married. The roommate is unsure about it, but relents and wishes them happy when her cat jumps into the H's arms and apparently approves of him. (We all know that everything is really going to be okay in the end when the imperial cat approves.)
Then the father returns and tells the h that the H married her for revenge. The h's father and the H's mum were engaged years before. The H's mum eloped with another man two weeks before the wedding and so the father married the h's mum. But he was a real jerk and named the h after his eloped love and then the h's mum found out what he did and realized that the father was using her. Since she was really in love with the man, this tore her apart and she grew to hate him -- but she also had a child with him and did not want to raise her in a broken home. The h's mum insisted that the h be called by another name, and that was the reason why the h sensed that her parents did not really like each other and why they were so removed from the h herself. Her father says he tried, but he just couldn't get over the H's mum.
The H puts a bit more perspective on the story. It turns out that the h's dad ruined the H's dad career and so his dad couldn't work in his chosen field of chemical research. This put a lot of pressure on the marriage and his mum died in part because the stress wore her out. The h's dad wasn't really mourning his lost love, he was just nursing the wound to his ego and he pretty much destroyed everyone else's life because of it.
The h is in utter shock, she really believed the H loved her and she just can't handle a marriage under such deceitful circumstances. She isn't comfortable with the H anymore and her father's behavior absolutely appalls her. She also relates to how her mum must have felt and she doesn't want any of that torment, so after she see's the H kissing another woman and realizes their physical relationship down the tubes, she refuses any H explanations and takes off.
The story resumes in the present when the H tells the h that her father is very ill and needs a major surgery but may not survive. Both the H and the father have been searching for her, and worry over her disappearance has made the father's condition worse. The h doesn't want to go anywhere with the H, but she has a long talk with the OW - the OW always calls her lovers Mike (she is remarkably impersonal in her affairs) and the H is no exception- and the OW explains about the relationship she has with the H.
The OW and the H knew each other for years in school etc. She had a very bad relationship break up and fell to pieces. The H helped her recover and got her painting again and they lived together for a little while (well before the H was really rich and met the h), but they weren't really meant to be a couple so they parted ways and only kept in distant contact. When she met the H again for the first time in over three years, he was pretty messed up, so she offered her companionship as way to pay him back for his prior kindnesses. She hadn't known anything about his marriage until she saw him again the day before.
This brings us to HPLandia rule # 7 - the H is ALWAYS allowed OW, even if he is technically married, as long as he is not cohabiting with the h. In HPlandia non-cohabitation means no commitment, and this book is far from the first to use that handy little get out clause, often with worse offenders than the one verifiable time this H has - as we all know from Anne Mather.
( A lot of reviews on this book mention multiple one night stands for the H, secondary characters in the book mention that as well, for reasons I will describe later on, I totally believe the OW was the ONLY OW and only because she was a very sincere old friend and he was pretty much at the end of his rope.)
The h confides to the OW that she is still devastated over losing her baby, as she was unknowingly preggers when she left and she miscarried when she tripped and fell from what she thought were the H's detectives following her. She explains that she has been pretty fine by herself and really has no desire to get involved with the H again. The OW suggests returning with the H to her father's sickbed to prove that she really is indifferent and maybe he will let her go.
The h finally agrees but upon returning to her father's side, she is shocked by how ill and feeble he is and is unable to say anything when the father assumes the H and h are back together. The h tells the H what happened and he decides to insist upon a real consummated marriage when she just wants a name only partnership. She tells him off and the father is set up to have his surgery.
What follows is the h having a very intense examination of her feelings and the nature of forgiveness and love. (LA gets rather philosophical here and there is some comparison to Christian charity, but it really works for the story.) She is still horrified by her father's actions but she loves him too and he is very close to death and that shakes her up. She realizes that she forgives him and her conscience really starts in on her when she applies that same theory of forgiveness to the H.
Plus to be fair, her father acted much worse than the H did. The H really did nothing to the h that hurt her or that she did not want. The only thing that happened was he married her for revenge, but he did not ACT mean or horrible or hurtful to her. He appeared to be just as enthralled with her as she was with him and if she is the forthright person she wants to be, and if she wants to keep her self respect, she knows she needs to forgive the H as well.
The h also runs into her old roommate who further enforces that the H MAY have had a one night stand or two, but has essentially done nothing but look for the h and work for the last three years. No affairs and he is looking worse all the time.
The H then interjects his own pathos into the situation, while waiting for the father to be surgery ready, he pretty much leaves the h physically alone. He does want her and there are a few punishing kisses, but he doesn't pursue her. Then he sees her in the nursery area at the hospital looking sad and brow beats the OW into telling him about the miscarriage. He does a full on seduction of the h and then leaves her the next morning, thinking that she must hate him for her loss and he isn't planning on returning. Her dad will make a full recovery so she can tell him whatever she wants. The h realizes that she is still wildly in love with the H and that they can move on and so she has to track him down.
The h finally finds the H in their old house he bought her when they married and that she decorated all herself. He has kept all her things there and everything is exactly how she left it. It is his shrine to her. He explains that he really did initially marry her for revenge. Then he got to know her and lived with her and then he fell totally in love with her.
When she left him, she completely broke his heart. She was the best person he ever met and when he found her again, he was going to be sneaky and seduce her and get her preggers so she wouldn't leave him. Then he saw her sadness and realized he was still being evil, cause he thought she hated him, and so he took his one night to last forever and then was leaving the country. However all the flights were grounded in a Divine Act of fate, so he went to their home to brood.
The h tries to apologize for running off and losing the baby, but he takes all of the blame and they both avow true love forever. There is some magic reunion lurve time and then the epilogue where the h has just had twins and everybody is happy.
Overall, the followup story makes the opening of the book work. The important thing becomes the dissection of the h's feeling and motives and LA does this extremely well. The h isn't issuing a blanket act of blind forgiveness for either her father or the H. She is realistically examining what happened and how it REALLY affected her as opposed to just nursing some wounded feelings.
The h examines her own moral values and how she wants to live with HERSELF and her own sense of being a decent person. She is a fairly good example of how a person gets to unconditional love and she doesn't tolerate people treating her badly while she does it. I had a very clear sense of why she took the H back and why she acts as she does and I believed the HEA.
The H is also believable in this one, his actions make it very clear that he sincerely regrets his part in the whole thing. I liked how devastated and broken he was shown to be, and I have to say it was one of the best stories of how an arrogant H gets knocked off his high horse by the skillet smack of real love in all HPlandia - and that aspect is all the better because it is all demonstrated via his actions and not through his POV.
This story, with it's notorious opening is one the gems of HPlandia. If you can get over the beginning, you will be in for a very engrossing few hours and a happy glow from the inner joy of experiencing a very believable HEA that is made even better because of the angst trainride it took to arrive at it.
What is even more extraordinary about this book, (besides the very different title with it's very Christian implications,) is what other reviewers mention, the h does indeed meet the H again after a three year separation while he is with another woman.
Any writing class will tell you that one of the most important things in any story is what they call the "hook" - an opening that draws the reader in and keeps them turning the pages- this is true for both non-fiction (news stories etc) and fiction stories. The H with the OW hook is a very bold but dangerous one to use, 'cause it has a very great chance of backfiring and alienating the reader so much that they won't finish the book. This is especially true in HPlandia, cause while there may be the implication/perception of the H being unfaithful, it is pretty much understood that once an H falls in love, he really doesn't sleep with anyone else. (Well at least we like to believe so.)
In fact that opening is so dangerous to the relative peace and familiar harmonic undercurrents of HPlandia that it has only been used three times, and judging by the wildly varying reviews and ratings both on Ammy and Goodreads, there is a very good cause for author's hesitating to use it.
Both Sharon Kendrick's Bought By Her Husband and Sarah Morgan's Powerful Greek, Unworldly Wife use this device and SK's book is one of the most reviled in HPlandia anywhere - she is also the only one to take it to the extreme of the H actually using the OW while he is talking to the h. SM's book sets up the H with the OW but the h makes an appearance before anything truly occurs. It is a risky opening and how well it works is entirely dependent upon the skill with which the author relates the backstory of the couple and how convincing they are in the follow up romance.
LA did a fairly good job on this one, mostly I think because her books are always very h-centric and focus more on how the h comes to the conclusions she does and how she acts on her convictions after she arrives at them. She takes the betrayal for revenge and reconciliation tropes to some interesting conclusions with her internal musings of the h and the h's actions and for once provides a very believable reason of WHY an h would continue a life with a man who horribly betrayed her.
She also provides a certain amount of H redemption, although it is all h pov, the reader does get a sense that this man has suffered greatly for his arrogance. So circumstances being what they were, and how the h manages to resolve her turmoil to what I believe was a genuine HEA with a believable outcome, make this one a keeper for me although mileage does vary and other people may not feel the same.
The story starts with our 22 year old h. She is on her own, having left her marriage and her father behind three years earlier when she found out her beloved H had only married her for revenge. She runs into him while conducting consumer surveys and she happens to knock on the door of the OW's apartment. The OW answers the door buttoning up a man's shirt and the h introduces herself, she starts to explain she is out taking surveys when the OW apologizes very embarrassedly, and calls the man in the room over - who is buttoning up his shirt- and when the h looks at him, it is her estranged husband. The h then does what all good HPlandia h's do when confronted with emotional trauma they can't run away from - she faints.
Later she wakes up and finds herself in the OW's bed and then the backstory portion begins. The h remembers how she got to where she is now and the lead up to the present is very detailed, it takes over half the book.
The h has two rather distant, but fabulously wealthy parents who appear very cold to each other, and when her beloved mum dies, her father sent her away to a Swiss finishing school rather than grieve with her. This had caused a fair amount of resentment in the h, so when she returns home, after having to threaten her father to make him let her, she further asserts herself by moving in with a dear friend, getting a job and basically having a typical life for a young lady making her stab at independence.
For some reason, everybody around her thinks she needs to be sheltered. Part of this is that no one knew her parents even had a child until her mum's funeral and the other part is the h is painfully direct and honest about her feelings about pretty much EVERYTHING. She is just one of those people that wears her heart on her sleeve and what she likes she is wildly enthusiastic about. She doesn't hold back on her joy or her appreciation of life and because of it, people tend to treat her like a naive child.
Her father worries that she is going to be swept up by some fortune hunter and her best friend is worried that some guy is going to take advantage of her. The h IS childlike in her enthusiasm, but she is also pretty sensible for a 19 year old. She knows that she isn't up to a big affair with a really sophisticated man. She has lots of dates with guys in her social circle and she describes them very well as young men with more interest in the Rugby Union or fast cars than having a serious affair. She is aware that they might want to get more physical than she is, but she also makes herself pretty safe by paddling in the shallows of the dating pool with guys who wouldn't really try to take advantage of her and she has a few strategies for discouraging them when they get too amorous.
Then she meets the H at a big society party her roommate's parents house. She is rather daringly dressed in a slinky gown style she hasn't worn before and the H is very nice to her when he finds her alone after her date for the evening leaves to get her a drink. She chats with him for a bit and is very attracted, but he is 32, wildly wealthy and obviously used to a much more sophisticated woman than she knows herself to be. She is a bit disappointed when her date comes back, but figures she is better way below the H's league and her roomie agrees when she lists the H's known companions.
The list includes several high powered, glamorous career women (the OW from the story beginning is listed, she is apparently a very famous artist). All of the ladies are very experienced, in all meanings of the word, and the h knows she is just too "country bumpkin" to even get a look in. Until the H looks her up and asks her out. She eventually agrees to go out for dinner after a really honest conversation about what his expectations in his dates are and how she is no where near his level in dating experiences. The H bemusedly agrees to keep his hands to himself and so they start have excursions together over the next several months.
The excursions come to an end when one of the h's other dates gets a bit rough and tries to kiss her, he leaves bruises which the H discovers and he volunteers to kiss her so she can test the differences. He gives her one of the best kisses in HPlandia and possible in all the universes, (at least from her pov,) and she doesn't like how it makes her feel and tells the H she can't see him anymore. The h very wisely concludes that she falling in love and the H isn't going to stick with a girl like her so she dumps him.
The H isn't ready to be dumped tho, so he shows up some weeks later and proposes. She agrees and wants to do it right away. Her father is out of the country for several months and she wants to just be a "normal" couple with a little house and things instead of a big society bridal pair and all the attendant social parties etc. The H agrees and they get married. The roommate is unsure about it, but relents and wishes them happy when her cat jumps into the H's arms and apparently approves of him. (We all know that everything is really going to be okay in the end when the imperial cat approves.)
Then the father returns and tells the h that the H married her for revenge. The h's father and the H's mum were engaged years before. The H's mum eloped with another man two weeks before the wedding and so the father married the h's mum. But he was a real jerk and named the h after his eloped love and then the h's mum found out what he did and realized that the father was using her. Since she was really in love with the man, this tore her apart and she grew to hate him -- but she also had a child with him and did not want to raise her in a broken home. The h's mum insisted that the h be called by another name, and that was the reason why the h sensed that her parents did not really like each other and why they were so removed from the h herself. Her father says he tried, but he just couldn't get over the H's mum.
The H puts a bit more perspective on the story. It turns out that the h's dad ruined the H's dad career and so his dad couldn't work in his chosen field of chemical research. This put a lot of pressure on the marriage and his mum died in part because the stress wore her out. The h's dad wasn't really mourning his lost love, he was just nursing the wound to his ego and he pretty much destroyed everyone else's life because of it.
The h is in utter shock, she really believed the H loved her and she just can't handle a marriage under such deceitful circumstances. She isn't comfortable with the H anymore and her father's behavior absolutely appalls her. She also relates to how her mum must have felt and she doesn't want any of that torment, so after she see's the H kissing another woman and realizes their physical relationship down the tubes, she refuses any H explanations and takes off.
The story resumes in the present when the H tells the h that her father is very ill and needs a major surgery but may not survive. Both the H and the father have been searching for her, and worry over her disappearance has made the father's condition worse. The h doesn't want to go anywhere with the H, but she has a long talk with the OW - the OW always calls her lovers Mike (she is remarkably impersonal in her affairs) and the H is no exception- and the OW explains about the relationship she has with the H.
The OW and the H knew each other for years in school etc. She had a very bad relationship break up and fell to pieces. The H helped her recover and got her painting again and they lived together for a little while (well before the H was really rich and met the h), but they weren't really meant to be a couple so they parted ways and only kept in distant contact. When she met the H again for the first time in over three years, he was pretty messed up, so she offered her companionship as way to pay him back for his prior kindnesses. She hadn't known anything about his marriage until she saw him again the day before.
This brings us to HPLandia rule # 7 - the H is ALWAYS allowed OW, even if he is technically married, as long as he is not cohabiting with the h. In HPlandia non-cohabitation means no commitment, and this book is far from the first to use that handy little get out clause, often with worse offenders than the one verifiable time this H has - as we all know from Anne Mather.
( A lot of reviews on this book mention multiple one night stands for the H, secondary characters in the book mention that as well, for reasons I will describe later on, I totally believe the OW was the ONLY OW and only because she was a very sincere old friend and he was pretty much at the end of his rope.)
The h confides to the OW that she is still devastated over losing her baby, as she was unknowingly preggers when she left and she miscarried when she tripped and fell from what she thought were the H's detectives following her. She explains that she has been pretty fine by herself and really has no desire to get involved with the H again. The OW suggests returning with the H to her father's sickbed to prove that she really is indifferent and maybe he will let her go.
The h finally agrees but upon returning to her father's side, she is shocked by how ill and feeble he is and is unable to say anything when the father assumes the H and h are back together. The h tells the H what happened and he decides to insist upon a real consummated marriage when she just wants a name only partnership. She tells him off and the father is set up to have his surgery.
What follows is the h having a very intense examination of her feelings and the nature of forgiveness and love. (LA gets rather philosophical here and there is some comparison to Christian charity, but it really works for the story.) She is still horrified by her father's actions but she loves him too and he is very close to death and that shakes her up. She realizes that she forgives him and her conscience really starts in on her when she applies that same theory of forgiveness to the H.
Plus to be fair, her father acted much worse than the H did. The H really did nothing to the h that hurt her or that she did not want. The only thing that happened was he married her for revenge, but he did not ACT mean or horrible or hurtful to her. He appeared to be just as enthralled with her as she was with him and if she is the forthright person she wants to be, and if she wants to keep her self respect, she knows she needs to forgive the H as well.
The h also runs into her old roommate who further enforces that the H MAY have had a one night stand or two, but has essentially done nothing but look for the h and work for the last three years. No affairs and he is looking worse all the time.
The H then interjects his own pathos into the situation, while waiting for the father to be surgery ready, he pretty much leaves the h physically alone. He does want her and there are a few punishing kisses, but he doesn't pursue her. Then he sees her in the nursery area at the hospital looking sad and brow beats the OW into telling him about the miscarriage. He does a full on seduction of the h and then leaves her the next morning, thinking that she must hate him for her loss and he isn't planning on returning. Her dad will make a full recovery so she can tell him whatever she wants. The h realizes that she is still wildly in love with the H and that they can move on and so she has to track him down.
The h finally finds the H in their old house he bought her when they married and that she decorated all herself. He has kept all her things there and everything is exactly how she left it. It is his shrine to her. He explains that he really did initially marry her for revenge. Then he got to know her and lived with her and then he fell totally in love with her.
When she left him, she completely broke his heart. She was the best person he ever met and when he found her again, he was going to be sneaky and seduce her and get her preggers so she wouldn't leave him. Then he saw her sadness and realized he was still being evil, cause he thought she hated him, and so he took his one night to last forever and then was leaving the country. However all the flights were grounded in a Divine Act of fate, so he went to their home to brood.
The h tries to apologize for running off and losing the baby, but he takes all of the blame and they both avow true love forever. There is some magic reunion lurve time and then the epilogue where the h has just had twins and everybody is happy.
Overall, the followup story makes the opening of the book work. The important thing becomes the dissection of the h's feeling and motives and LA does this extremely well. The h isn't issuing a blanket act of blind forgiveness for either her father or the H. She is realistically examining what happened and how it REALLY affected her as opposed to just nursing some wounded feelings.
The h examines her own moral values and how she wants to live with HERSELF and her own sense of being a decent person. She is a fairly good example of how a person gets to unconditional love and she doesn't tolerate people treating her badly while she does it. I had a very clear sense of why she took the H back and why she acts as she does and I believed the HEA.
The H is also believable in this one, his actions make it very clear that he sincerely regrets his part in the whole thing. I liked how devastated and broken he was shown to be, and I have to say it was one of the best stories of how an arrogant H gets knocked off his high horse by the skillet smack of real love in all HPlandia - and that aspect is all the better because it is all demonstrated via his actions and not through his POV.
This story, with it's notorious opening is one the gems of HPlandia. If you can get over the beginning, you will be in for a very engrossing few hours and a happy glow from the inner joy of experiencing a very believable HEA that is made even better because of the angst trainride it took to arrive at it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 6, 2018
What a stupid, fucked up piece of shit H this guy was. Clay was such an asshole. He wasn't even a sexy asshole in my opinion. I read this years ago and was just surfing through goodreads trying to see which nice sweet oldies I should put on my re-read list when I came across THIS PATHETIC EXCUSE FOR A ROMANCE NOVEL. Sometimes I remember romance novels because of the sheer beauty and passion of the story and the fascinating MC's. Then there are times I remember romance novels for the utter F up bullshit that was a complete waste of my eyesight. Seriously. Never mind. Even if I was blind and this was on audiobook I would rather pour bleach in my ears than listen to this story. I've read romance novels with a hero who has cheated and I've even believed that those guys had redeemed themselves by the end, but something about Clay just rubbed me the wrong way. I disliked him from the beginning and not a thing that he did in his attempt to redeem him could have earned any support from me. He explained it all away by saying how long and hard he had searched for the heroine. He might have searched for her but it didn't stop his traitorous dick from screwing his OW every once in a while did it ? That is what I found unforgivable. I didn't care that the author tried to make him appear sweet and reformed. I didn't buy it.
I remembered Clay as a sleazy H. He was one of those snake oil salesmen type of a guy with the too white teeth, perfect hair, dashing smile and the heart of a fucking snake. This guy was a nasty promiscuous bastard. I usually tend to have a lil' old soft spot for the old school alpha assholes because I love a masterful man. But Clay was just EVIL ! The one thing I hate in a romance novel is when an author takes the sweetest most sheltered and selfless little Mary Sue heroine who wouldn't harm a soul and makes her the victim of a vile nasty H whose dick should have been bobbitted . I remembered the scene where the heroine meets the asshole for the first time after so many years and the dirty mother fucker has just finished screwing his "bimbo with benefits friend".
That's just fucking nasty man. Seriously. A second chance romance is not romantic when the rat bastard H re-enters the heroine's life by discreetly tucking his wet floppy dick back into his trousers after screwing some OW. This heroine was also stupid and annoying. Sometimes it is cute and sweet to meet a gal who lives in the land of the Mary Sues. This heroine was an insult to Mary Sues everywhere. The stupid spineless girl just let the asshole re-enter her life again after she had tried too hard to become independent. All her hard won independence is just blown to dust in a second. And that's not even the worse ! She even becomes friends with his "bimbo with benefits". Lindsay Armstrong has got to be fucking kidding me. An OW becoming pals with the heroine and even being all sweet and helpful to the heroine. What's WORSE is this pathetic heroine NEVER even came close to even dating another guy while Clay is burning out his dick screwing every bimbo he can. Fuck this shit. Nah. This crapfestival of rotten eggs does not deserve a special place on my elite "read again" list. And Clay ? That mother fucker will never be on my "sexy hero" book shelf. Good looks alone are not the sole requirement for my "sexy hero" shelf. I might be extremely superficial but a guy has got to have looks, class and moral standards. Oh yeah, and MUCH intelligence and a comfortable amount of money and be over 6 feet tall and have straight hair and not be fat and and have good breath and have symmetrical facial features and did I mention be over 6 feet tall?
I remembered Clay as a sleazy H. He was one of those snake oil salesmen type of a guy with the too white teeth, perfect hair, dashing smile and the heart of a fucking snake. This guy was a nasty promiscuous bastard. I usually tend to have a lil' old soft spot for the old school alpha assholes because I love a masterful man. But Clay was just EVIL ! The one thing I hate in a romance novel is when an author takes the sweetest most sheltered and selfless little Mary Sue heroine who wouldn't harm a soul and makes her the victim of a vile nasty H whose dick should have been bobbitted . I remembered the scene where the heroine meets the asshole for the first time after so many years and the dirty mother fucker has just finished screwing his "bimbo with benefits friend".
That's just fucking nasty man. Seriously. A second chance romance is not romantic when the rat bastard H re-enters the heroine's life by discreetly tucking his wet floppy dick back into his trousers after screwing some OW. This heroine was also stupid and annoying. Sometimes it is cute and sweet to meet a gal who lives in the land of the Mary Sues. This heroine was an insult to Mary Sues everywhere. The stupid spineless girl just let the asshole re-enter her life again after she had tried too hard to become independent. All her hard won independence is just blown to dust in a second. And that's not even the worse ! She even becomes friends with his "bimbo with benefits". Lindsay Armstrong has got to be fucking kidding me. An OW becoming pals with the heroine and even being all sweet and helpful to the heroine. What's WORSE is this pathetic heroine NEVER even came close to even dating another guy while Clay is burning out his dick screwing every bimbo he can. Fuck this shit. Nah. This crapfestival of rotten eggs does not deserve a special place on my elite "read again" list. And Clay ? That mother fucker will never be on my "sexy hero" book shelf. Good looks alone are not the sole requirement for my "sexy hero" shelf. I might be extremely superficial but a guy has got to have looks, class and moral standards. Oh yeah, and MUCH intelligence and a comfortable amount of money and be over 6 feet tall and have straight hair and not be fat and and have good breath and have symmetrical facial features and did I mention be over 6 feet tall?
January 3, 2026
A revenge plot involving an older, worldlier hero setting out to seduce and marry the naive, country bumpkin heroine just to get his “revenge” on her father, whom he blames for ruining the lives of his parents. Years ago, hero’s mother was engaged to Heroine's father but jilted him in favor of one of his employees. Unsurprisingly, Heroine's father fired his rival. He then went on to blackball him so that he could not find another job in his field. Hero blames heroine’s father for ruining claims his parents lives.
Ooooookay. First of all, I am not saying that heroine's father was right in his petty revenge but can we just remember that he got jilted two freaking weeks before his wedding by his fiancee who was obviously cheating on him with his own employee? I don't think anyone should expect him to keep the other man as one of his employees after that, hmmm? The classy thing, not to mention smart thing, would have been to resign and then move far, far away, where job and social life sabotage would be out of reach for his nemesis and he and his wife could start fresh. Out of sight, out of mind, right? The hero's parents do not sound like very nice or smart people and this blaming their woes on heroine's father poisoned their child's mind, making him grow up to be the emotionally stunted, bitter person who would be callous enough to think this revenge plot on a completely innocent girl is in any way okay.
Fast forward to the current story. So naturally, as it always happens in Harlequin plots, in the process of seduction/revenge, the hero actually falls in love with heroine. When Daddy Dearest finds out about their secret marriage, he berates his daughter for her stupidity, tells her this marriage is nothing more than a revenge plot, and predicts that the hero will soon get tired of her and dump her. Wow, what a nice dad!
The hero does nothing really assertive to deny his father-in-law’s accusations. I thought it was bizarre that he learned she was going to meet her father and tell him about the marriage, and he knew the big Escandalo was about to explode both their lives, but instead of rushing to her to at least have a chance to explain his side of the story first, before her dad got to poison her mind against him, he claims he was held up doing business. If he truly cared, wouldn't he have dropped everything? I think it was cowardly as he had all kinds of opportunities to come clean and she was dumb and weak enough to believe anything he spoon-fed her. He could have at least made sure she would be ready to withstand the emotional shitstorm that her father would be unleashing on her upon news of the marriage. I can only conclude that subconciously, the hero really did want to bring the revenge plot to fruition because he had lived with this fixation all his life and he was not strong enough to put the brakes on it. The revenge was more important than his wife, however innocent she may be.
Heroine is left devastated by both men in her life. She decides to run away from both, disappearing for three years, changing her name so that neither her dad or her husband can track her down. Which is about the only smart decision she made in the entire book. In doing that, she achieved the independence that she had craved all her life so something positive came out of it. However, upon a chance meeting with her husband and reunion with a now ailing father, it seemed that all that cool self-assuredness just turned to dust and she once again became the trembling, indecisive, weak, young girl that she used to be. There was no growth! I was disappointed in that. She let everyone, from her husband, to her father, to her best friend, to her nanny, and EVEN THE OTHER WOMAN that the hero slept with during their separation, ride completely roughshod over her, basically guilting her for running away and making the people she left behind suffer. She was the bad guy in this scenario, really???!!!!
There is one more secret that is revealed before the conclusion which is that the heroine miscarried their baby shortly after she ran away from home. When the hero finds this out, his reaction is to a) forcibly seduce his wife for one last time before he walks out of her life forever and b) write her the most awkward Dear John letter in which he tells her that he can't ask her for forgiveness (Really? Cause I think it would have helped if you had at least asked for forgiveness instead of bullying her into taking you back) and asks her to visit a gynecologist to get a second opinion whether she can have more children. I know this was supposed to be emotionally poignant but the cynical, shriveled up little heart of mine burst into a fit of unintentional hilarity at that letter. Nothing sats romance like gynecological advice in the middle of a break-up!
As for the conclusion, the hero and heroine reunite only because he misses his plane and she runs to him to beg HIM for forgiveness. I can't even with this book. Just not for me.
Ooooookay. First of all, I am not saying that heroine's father was right in his petty revenge but can we just remember that he got jilted two freaking weeks before his wedding by his fiancee who was obviously cheating on him with his own employee? I don't think anyone should expect him to keep the other man as one of his employees after that, hmmm? The classy thing, not to mention smart thing, would have been to resign and then move far, far away, where job and social life sabotage would be out of reach for his nemesis and he and his wife could start fresh. Out of sight, out of mind, right? The hero's parents do not sound like very nice or smart people and this blaming their woes on heroine's father poisoned their child's mind, making him grow up to be the emotionally stunted, bitter person who would be callous enough to think this revenge plot on a completely innocent girl is in any way okay.
Fast forward to the current story. So naturally, as it always happens in Harlequin plots, in the process of seduction/revenge, the hero actually falls in love with heroine. When Daddy Dearest finds out about their secret marriage, he berates his daughter for her stupidity, tells her this marriage is nothing more than a revenge plot, and predicts that the hero will soon get tired of her and dump her. Wow, what a nice dad!
The hero does nothing really assertive to deny his father-in-law’s accusations. I thought it was bizarre that he learned she was going to meet her father and tell him about the marriage, and he knew the big Escandalo was about to explode both their lives, but instead of rushing to her to at least have a chance to explain his side of the story first, before her dad got to poison her mind against him, he claims he was held up doing business. If he truly cared, wouldn't he have dropped everything? I think it was cowardly as he had all kinds of opportunities to come clean and she was dumb and weak enough to believe anything he spoon-fed her. He could have at least made sure she would be ready to withstand the emotional shitstorm that her father would be unleashing on her upon news of the marriage. I can only conclude that subconciously, the hero really did want to bring the revenge plot to fruition because he had lived with this fixation all his life and he was not strong enough to put the brakes on it. The revenge was more important than his wife, however innocent she may be.
Heroine is left devastated by both men in her life. She decides to run away from both, disappearing for three years, changing her name so that neither her dad or her husband can track her down. Which is about the only smart decision she made in the entire book. In doing that, she achieved the independence that she had craved all her life so something positive came out of it. However, upon a chance meeting with her husband and reunion with a now ailing father, it seemed that all that cool self-assuredness just turned to dust and she once again became the trembling, indecisive, weak, young girl that she used to be. There was no growth! I was disappointed in that. She let everyone, from her husband, to her father, to her best friend, to her nanny, and EVEN THE OTHER WOMAN that the hero slept with during their separation, ride completely roughshod over her, basically guilting her for running away and making the people she left behind suffer. She was the bad guy in this scenario, really???!!!!
There is one more secret that is revealed before the conclusion which is that the heroine miscarried their baby shortly after she ran away from home. When the hero finds this out, his reaction is to a) forcibly seduce his wife for one last time before he walks out of her life forever and b) write her the most awkward Dear John letter in which he tells her that he can't ask her for forgiveness (Really? Cause I think it would have helped if you had at least asked for forgiveness instead of bullying her into taking you back) and asks her to visit a gynecologist to get a second opinion whether she can have more children. I know this was supposed to be emotionally poignant but the cynical, shriveled up little heart of mine burst into a fit of unintentional hilarity at that letter. Nothing sats romance like gynecological advice in the middle of a break-up!
As for the conclusion, the hero and heroine reunite only because he misses his plane and she runs to him to beg HIM for forgiveness. I can't even with this book. Just not for me.
May 23, 2021
I really like this author and this story does not disappoint. I won’t go into the plot because other reviewers have already covered it, but I will say that the misdeeds and suffering are nicely calibrated in this hero revenge story.
And speaking of the hero, for someone who wants revenge, he’s incredibly sweet to the heroine while he is courting her and when they are married. I loved the flashback scenes from their marriage, putting their house together.
The heroine is a pure soul and of course the hero fell for her. That’s why it seemed important to this reader for the heroine to find peace and her enthusiasm for life again. We’re with her as she goes on her journey from darkness and bitterness to light and love. It’s not forced and it’s not insta-love sex – it’s the hard work of digging deep into her values and what kind of person she wants to be.
The hero has done some of that work during their separation (making peace with his father-in-law), but he too has to face the full extent of what’s he’s done to the heroine and it almost breaks him. In the end, it’s the heroine who has the power to heal and she uses her powers for good.
The opening is shocking, but we see it through the lens of a very numb heroine. The OW is apologetic and understanding – not taunting and horrible. The h gets lots of apologies throughout the book – that’s why her forgiveness didn’t feel instant or forced at the end. It’s been coming all along.
And speaking of the hero, for someone who wants revenge, he’s incredibly sweet to the heroine while he is courting her and when they are married. I loved the flashback scenes from their marriage, putting their house together.
The heroine is a pure soul and of course the hero fell for her. That’s why it seemed important to this reader for the heroine to find peace and her enthusiasm for life again. We’re with her as she goes on her journey from darkness and bitterness to light and love. It’s not forced and it’s not insta-love sex – it’s the hard work of digging deep into her values and what kind of person she wants to be.
The hero has done some of that work during their separation (making peace with his father-in-law), but he too has to face the full extent of what’s he’s done to the heroine and it almost breaks him. In the end, it’s the heroine who has the power to heal and she uses her powers for good.
The opening is shocking, but we see it through the lens of a very numb heroine. The OW is apologetic and understanding – not taunting and horrible. The h gets lots of apologies throughout the book – that’s why her forgiveness didn’t feel instant or forced at the end. It’s been coming all along.
December 16, 2012
3.5 stars...ok, 4
Spoilers, spoiler, spoilers. Reading this review will take away all the surprise. Just letting you know.
Some of this story I still haven't wrapped my head around. It's strange. I don't know how I feel about it.
If you read the first couple of pages, you'll come up on how the heroine knocks on a random door as part of her job and is greeted by a sexy woman in a man's shirt...the heroine's husband's shirt to be exact. Sooo, she hasn't seen him in three years. It's still his shirt. And yes, they did it. But you know this right out from the gate so you know if you want to flounce or not. Gotta give kudos on that, right? Of course, I continued to read.
The majority of the first half of the story is told as a flashback. Apparently our little miss married the H under false pretenses when she was a innocent 19 to his worldly 32 as part of a revenge plot the H enacted on her father. When she finds out, she splits soon after (after adding insult to injury) and stays gone for three years until that opening scene.
The rest is the fallout of them finding an excuse for getting back together and the trials and tribulations involved with that.
Something really weird about this story? The OW. She plays matchmaker, which is kinda creepy. You can be too close, you know. Yeah, she screwed him but it was just a comforting f**k among friends. Hmm. Makes you wonder what they'll be up to next time they do lunch, right?
To add to the fun, he's also had sex another time or two the last couple of years. Not with the friendly OW, other ones...but it didn't mean anything. Hmm. I do recognize that she left him but, hey, he was using her to get even with her dad and then on top of that she caught him sucking face with some chick on the porch after finding this out. Of course she's gonna leave. I don't know if I'm perversely thrilled or disgusted that he couldn't keep it in his pants, because he was actually a nice guy. A very much in love, forgivable, whoredog of a hero.
So, this was a fabulous angsty, sneaky bastard, cheater/but-it-didn't-mean-anything, payback is a biach, satisfying grovel kind of story. If you like those kind of stories, you'll love this one.
Spoilers, spoiler, spoilers. Reading this review will take away all the surprise. Just letting you know.
Some of this story I still haven't wrapped my head around. It's strange. I don't know how I feel about it.
If you read the first couple of pages, you'll come up on how the heroine knocks on a random door as part of her job and is greeted by a sexy woman in a man's shirt...the heroine's husband's shirt to be exact. Sooo, she hasn't seen him in three years. It's still his shirt. And yes, they did it. But you know this right out from the gate so you know if you want to flounce or not. Gotta give kudos on that, right? Of course, I continued to read.
The majority of the first half of the story is told as a flashback. Apparently our little miss married the H under false pretenses when she was a innocent 19 to his worldly 32 as part of a revenge plot the H enacted on her father. When she finds out, she splits soon after (after adding insult to injury) and stays gone for three years until that opening scene.
The rest is the fallout of them finding an excuse for getting back together and the trials and tribulations involved with that.
Something really weird about this story? The OW. She plays matchmaker, which is kinda creepy. You can be too close, you know. Yeah, she screwed him but it was just a comforting f**k among friends. Hmm. Makes you wonder what they'll be up to next time they do lunch, right?
To add to the fun, he's also had sex another time or two the last couple of years. Not with the friendly OW, other ones...but it didn't mean anything. Hmm. I do recognize that she left him but, hey, he was using her to get even with her dad and then on top of that she caught him sucking face with some chick on the porch after finding this out. Of course she's gonna leave. I don't know if I'm perversely thrilled or disgusted that he couldn't keep it in his pants, because he was actually a nice guy. A very much in love, forgivable, whoredog of a hero.
So, this was a fabulous angsty, sneaky bastard, cheater/but-it-didn't-mean-anything, payback is a biach, satisfying grovel kind of story. If you like those kind of stories, you'll love this one.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 14, 2012
An emotionally gripping story about love, revenge and betrayal. A young wealthy heiress protected by her family, finally decides to stretch her wings and become independent. She meets an older devastatingly handsome man and is instantly attracted. She can't figure out why he is interested in her "country bumpkin" ways, but he pursues her and eventually proposes. She accepts, they secretly marry and live a happy existence until her Father reveals that she is just a pawn of revenge between the two of them. Hero does not deny the charges and she leaves him, vanishing off the face of the earth.
Now I really haven't told you more than what is on the back cover. But I will leave you with this....
The book opens, when she is canvassing a wealthy neighborhood to conduct a survey. She rings a bell of apt# 59 and gets the surprise of her life when a giggling woman dressed only in a man's shirt opens the door. The man's shirt happens to belong to hubby dearest.
From there I was hooked, couldn't put it down. I highly recommend.
Now I really haven't told you more than what is on the back cover. But I will leave you with this....
The book opens, when she is canvassing a wealthy neighborhood to conduct a survey. She rings a bell of apt# 59 and gets the surprise of her life when a giggling woman dressed only in a man's shirt opens the door. The man's shirt happens to belong to hubby dearest.
From there I was hooked, couldn't put it down. I highly recommend.
not-interested
August 4, 2020Gah, what the m*%#+^f*ck crap is this!? Married hero was dipping his wick in other women during his separation, but it's okay because he loves his wife and they were only substitutes. (Worse still, heroine catches him in the act in one instance.) Yeah, and I'm the Virgin Mary!
Calms down . . . and gets in line to punch the "hero". 😛
Disclaimer: Cheating doesn't bother me as much if H/h haven't consummated their relationship yet. Clearly, they did in this book.
See Tatiana's review.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Calms down . . . and gets in line to punch the "hero". 😛
Disclaimer: Cheating doesn't bother me as much if H/h haven't consummated their relationship yet. Clearly, they did in this book.
See Tatiana's review.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
March 11, 2016
Ok, this is NOT my type of book. If you abhor cheating H then I warn you stay away!!! Anyhow I really actually super skimmed/ read this. I was conflicted by the varying reviews of high stars and low stars and that the H was a freaking cheater and that totally holy crap meeting again between the h/H/OW. So my curiosity got the best of me and now I'm traumatized. I'm sorry but that whole mess is just plain weird, insulting and I wanted to punch someone. (actually I want to punch the H and the OW), yeah yeah the OW was all kind and helpful blah blah blah but holy freaking mother of what the blazes this was just a few hours after that evil H and OW doing it and the poor h had to witness this?!!!! I'm REALLY mad. And I'm sorry that OW explanation that H was pretending it was the h while they were doing it and that means trueeeeee loovee?!!! DISGUSTING!!! what kind of heroe does that to a woman (even though the OW was OK with being a substitute)?!!! and the OW helped with their reconciliation so they're one big happy family? NO JUST NO. and the groveling was NOT ENOUGH. I thought that other book I read about an affair cheating heroe (the perfect marriage by laurey bright), angered me but then I forgave the story because book was under the Harlequin American Romance i. e. More realistic stories but this is harlequin presents! The heroes shouldn't be cheaters :( anyway this is a really weird book/story for me... But if the h is happy with her choice then that's all that matter right.. And that's why I gave it 2 stars coz at least the poor h is happy...... And she got what she thought she never get. But I still HATE THE H.
August 23, 2017
For some reason I knew this book had cheating but still decided to give it a go..
"Saved from Sin" is the story of Melissa and Clayton, a separated couple and the story actually begins with the h walking in on H with OW, post coitus.
The story then proceeds into a typical HQN plot, where the H tries to convince h to get back together for sake of her dying father, and later, the h is consoled by H's mistress?!
Then the story goes into flashback, when a naive h is seduced by the cunning H for some vicious revenge, and her innocence is ripped from her when he cruelly reveals the truth-after which the h runs away.
Flash forward to the present, there's a tête-à-tête between h and his mistress, where they have a heart to heart
Not ashamed to say I glazed over a few parts because I DETEST CHEATING HEROES and no excuses can make it right.
Even after that, the H is smug pressuring h to accept him despite sleeping around and then she's preached to do the Christian thing and LOOK THE OTHER WAY!
So, no. I didn't like the book. I didn't like the ending. The H didn't deserve redemption.
This was no "The Ultimate Betrayal".
EGH
Unsafe
0.25/5
"Saved from Sin" is the story of Melissa and Clayton, a separated couple and the story actually begins with the h walking in on H with OW, post coitus.
The story then proceeds into a typical HQN plot, where the H tries to convince h to get back together for sake of her dying father, and later, the h is consoled by H's mistress?!
Then the story goes into flashback, when a naive h is seduced by the cunning H for some vicious revenge, and her innocence is ripped from her when he cruelly reveals the truth-after which the h runs away.
Flash forward to the present, there's a tête-à-tête between h and his mistress, where they have a heart to heart
Not ashamed to say I glazed over a few parts because I DETEST CHEATING HEROES and no excuses can make it right.
Even after that, the H is smug pressuring h to accept him despite sleeping around and then she's preached to do the Christian thing and LOOK THE OTHER WAY!
So, no. I didn't like the book. I didn't like the ending. The H didn't deserve redemption.
This was no "The Ultimate Betrayal".
EGH
Unsafe
0.25/5
January 8, 2015
I didn't realise this was a Christian HP! That means the heroine is advised to do what the bible says and turn the other cheek. This poor heroine is even subjected to a "how to keep your man" chat from the OW(a few hours after the OW has just had comfort sex with the heroines husband).
I felt that every other character was emotionally abusive to Melissa, not to mention manipulated the life out of her.
Armstrong tried to pull everything together at the end, but you just don't start a HP book like that, the damage was done!
I felt that every other character was emotionally abusive to Melissa, not to mention manipulated the life out of her.
Armstrong tried to pull everything together at the end, but you just don't start a HP book like that, the damage was done!
October 21, 2019
This has been on my tbr for ages and finally I dragged it out to read ...
Very old skool HP ... and obviously with tropes that modern readers will not agree with ...
Personally, I think the H didn't measure up ... he cheated ... which happens in many books but really an author should be able to justify the reasons for his cheating ... this would have worked for me if he had remained celibate ...
The h becomes an utter doormat once she meets the h again ... and she really needed to get rid of her nanny ... that woman was just ... the nanny, the bestie and the OW were pimping the h out to the H on a huge scale ...
And the tackiest bit ... h takes advice from the OW .... that was just ... never mind ...
She didnt need to apologise to him for anything ... most certainly not beg him to take her back ...
Very old skool HP ... and obviously with tropes that modern readers will not agree with ...
Personally, I think the H didn't measure up ... he cheated ... which happens in many books but really an author should be able to justify the reasons for his cheating ... this would have worked for me if he had remained celibate ...
The h becomes an utter doormat once she meets the h again ... and she really needed to get rid of her nanny ... that woman was just ... the nanny, the bestie and the OW were pimping the h out to the H on a huge scale ...
And the tackiest bit ... h takes advice from the OW .... that was just ... never mind ...
She didnt need to apologise to him for anything ... most certainly not beg him to take her back ...
July 27, 2014
definitely one of those guilty pleasure books, but i cud not get past clay's duplicity, like his going for one-night-stands and calling dat pining for heroine/living like a monk! he cud atleast have stayed faithful if he was really sorry. i'm a vindictive person by nature and i cud never get back wid him, if i was in melissa's place!
April 29, 2013
4 Stars ~ Conducting opinion polls door to door, Melissa encounters the last person she'd ever hoped to see again, her husband, and what appears to be his current lover. She does the only thing she can, she faints. It's been three years since she fled her marriage and disappeared, not wanting any contact with either her husband or her father. An heiress to her father's vast fortunes, Melissa had always lived a protected life, but when she turned 18 she had insisted that she be allowed to live with a friend and take a job of her own. She'd sworn she would be careful of men, and know that if any insisted they elope, they would be after her money and not herself. Meeting Clay at her flatmate's parents party, she's intrigued. And when he shows up outside her place of employment to take her to dinner, she goes. Clay begins to court her, though Melissa can't fathom why he'd want to be with her, the shy hick from the country while he's sophisticated and well known to date gorgeous women. After months of companionable dating, Clay finally kisses her and Melissa admits she's been wondering what that would be like since she met him. Clay proposes and Melissa agrees but she insists that they marry quietly before they tell her father. As her father's away, they have several wonderful months together. The afternoon he returns, Clay is tied up in meetings, and Melissa insists she see him alone. And so she learns the real reason Clay married her, he'd married her for revenge. Her betrayal is twofold not only has Clay seduced her into marriage but her father is not the man she thought he was. At first she's willing to work at her marriage, but she sees Clay kissing another woman and that's just too much to bear. And so she disappears. Now waking from her faint, Clay tells her he's never stopped searching for her. Her father's gravely ill and he's made Clay promise to find her and bring her home, insisting that they reconcile their marriage.
This compelling read is told mostly from Melissa's introspection. The first half of the book is dedicated to her flashback of meeting Clay, the friendship they shared and then the glorious days of their marriage. She realized just how naive she'd been, for not once during their marriage had Clay ever told her he'd loved her. Clay is quietly desperate to rebuild their marriage using her father's illness to persuade Melissa to try. When he insists that he wants it all, a real marriage and her love, Melissa isn't sure she can. While his love is obvious to us, Melissa needs the secondary characters to convince her and to help her realize that she's never truly stopped loving him. There is such a melancholy tone to this story that I wasn't sure their HEA would be convincing. Ms. Armstrong weaves her magic words together, and gives us a very satisfying ending.
This compelling read is told mostly from Melissa's introspection. The first half of the book is dedicated to her flashback of meeting Clay, the friendship they shared and then the glorious days of their marriage. She realized just how naive she'd been, for not once during their marriage had Clay ever told her he'd loved her. Clay is quietly desperate to rebuild their marriage using her father's illness to persuade Melissa to try. When he insists that he wants it all, a real marriage and her love, Melissa isn't sure she can. While his love is obvious to us, Melissa needs the secondary characters to convince her and to help her realize that she's never truly stopped loving him. There is such a melancholy tone to this story that I wasn't sure their HEA would be convincing. Ms. Armstrong weaves her magic words together, and gives us a very satisfying ending.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 17, 2019
I really couldn't decide to give this book 1 star or 5 so I settled on the middle 3. In some ways I LOVED this car crash of mush. Naïve, (wealthy) sheltered, 19 year old young thing meets older (32), wealthy, womaniser and its gentle, calming insta love or is it?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 29, 2021
I read this 15 yrs ago, and I remember it because the first scene in the book is the h knocking on her estranged hubs OW door, and catches them right after they had had sex. They’ve been apart for 3 yrs, and he’s been looking for his missing wife…and that’s how he finally finds her with his penis still wet from the ow…🤮🤭.
Basic plot is, he married her for revenge but fell in love instead (which he and she didn’t know). She finds out about the revenge, then saw him kissing some woman in front of a hotel (he said it was an old friend) and leaves him.
This could’ve been a great book, but the h was too much of a doormat at the end, and that ruined the story for me. I mean she became great friends with the H mistress…. The same ow who opened the door wearing only her hubs shirt. 🙄what a fucking doormat, the h in this story pissed me off more than the H.
Giving it 1 extra star for uniqueness, the fact that I remember this book after 15 yrs and thousands of books speaks volume.
Basic plot is, he married her for revenge but fell in love instead (which he and she didn’t know). She finds out about the revenge, then saw him kissing some woman in front of a hotel (he said it was an old friend) and leaves him.
This could’ve been a great book, but the h was too much of a doormat at the end, and that ruined the story for me. I mean she became great friends with the H mistress…. The same ow who opened the door wearing only her hubs shirt. 🙄what a fucking doormat, the h in this story pissed me off more than the H.
Giving it 1 extra star for uniqueness, the fact that I remember this book after 15 yrs and thousands of books speaks volume.
March 21, 2013
This was a pretty great read. Chock full of angst. And sometimes I'm just in the mood for the perfect, sweet little innocent heroine, which these older HPs like to dish up. You do have to look past the hero's cheating during their separation -- including ridiculous exchanges like this:
Really, that's living "like a monk"?
It's also pretty odd that it was one of his mistresses who was trying to get them back together. And that apparently he was pretending the mistress was the heroine while having sex with her, yuck.
But still, overall I thought this was a great, angsty reunion romance.
'And do you realise that for the past nearly three years, he's lived like a monk?'
'I doubt that. I really…'
'Well he has, believe it,' Tiffany said forcefully. 'Oh, I'm not saying he hasn't taken someone to bed once in a while.
Really, that's living "like a monk"?
It's also pretty odd that it was one of his mistresses who was trying to get them back together. And that apparently he was pretending the mistress was the heroine while having sex with her, yuck.
But still, overall I thought this was a great, angsty reunion romance.
March 22, 2023
Note to self; this is the one with the totally messed up opening paragraph.
Heroine has been estranged from her husband for a few years, she is going house to house selling insurance (or something, I forget). She rings the doorbell and a woman, lets her in. The woman is in the process of buttoning up her shirt, and has obviously just had sex. As the heroine is speaking to this woman, a man comes out of the room, also buttoning up after sex...and DAN DAN DAN😱 you guessed it! Yes, its her estranged husband!
And Spoilers:
They were NOT buttoning up their shirts because they, maybe, spilled something on them and needed to do laundry. 😳
Heroine has been estranged from her husband for a few years, she is going house to house selling insurance (or something, I forget). She rings the doorbell and a woman, lets her in. The woman is in the process of buttoning up her shirt, and has obviously just had sex. As the heroine is speaking to this woman, a man comes out of the room, also buttoning up after sex...and DAN DAN DAN😱 you guessed it! Yes, its her estranged husband!
And Spoilers:
They were NOT buttoning up their shirts because they, maybe, spilled something on them and needed to do laundry. 😳
April 23, 2019
Well this was a miserable little tale, where’s the romance? That is what this is supposed to be isn’t it? The characters were total twats, especially the lead male character. I found the opening few chapters unbelievable nonsense. As far as a tale of revenge goes it failed miserably as I was hoping for some high drama and passion and energy. But I got something else entirely, instead this story covered the topic of misery and all the depressing stuff that goes with it.
not-for-me
November 23, 2021He'd rushed into marriage
Clay Forrester had swept his starry-eyed Australian bride off her feet. He'd made her feel special--witty and rather daring--a person who existed only for him, when all along she'd existed only as his instrument of revenge!
Melly's last words the night she'd confronted her father had been, "It's not true! Clay loves me. He does!" And yet she ran away.
For three long years Melly had managed to evade the past--until the day she ran right into her husband and a situation she had to stay and face..
Clay Forrester had swept his starry-eyed Australian bride off her feet. He'd made her feel special--witty and rather daring--a person who existed only for him, when all along she'd existed only as his instrument of revenge!
Melly's last words the night she'd confronted her father had been, "It's not true! Clay loves me. He does!" And yet she ran away.
For three long years Melly had managed to evade the past--until the day she ran right into her husband and a situation she had to stay and face..
November 20, 2014
This is one of those ones where you like it at the same time you don't
SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!
Because no one likes a cheating hero, no matter the circumstances
With HPs like this I always want a couple more chapters full of groveling
SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!
Because no one likes a cheating hero, no matter the circumstances
With HPs like this I always want a couple more chapters full of groveling
February 15, 2014
This was my first and the last book by the author. The story was too simplistic with many suspend disbelief situations and chopped writing style
January 2, 2026
She is deliberately seduced and betrayed, but she’s scolded by every single person in her life for being upset by it. And made to apologize for being childish! This book made me want to tear my hair out as well as to ask Lindsay Armstrong for her definition of fidelity.
Don’t get me started on the spectacularly weird and cringey friendship the h gets into with the OW. Arghhhhh.
Don’t get me started on the spectacularly weird and cringey friendship the h gets into with the OW. Arghhhhh.
July 7, 2021
I liked this a lot because the story is a little challenging, makes us think about the difference between actual behavior, plans, idle thoughts, malicious thoughts and motives. The plot is pretty basic, a 2nd chance romance with very ill father, but Lindsay Armstrong makes every scene do double duty and starts the book off with a bang. Heroine Melly is doing surveys and knocks on the apartment where her estranged husband is waking up from a night with a long time former girl friend. Melly ran away from Clay three years ago and successfully hid from teams of investigators, not easy.
We learn why Melly ran away and why she's now in a real emotional whirlpool, unsure whether to flush Clay and marriage down the drain or divert into a happy-ever-after.
Reviews for this one are all over the map, mostly due to Clay's ambiguous behavior and motives. I looked more at Clay's behavior than at the revenge motive and I thought Melly over-reacted. She married Clay privately without telling her Dad, and now Dad is home from long overseas trip and informs her that Clay must have married her for revenge and that any "love" was more a short term physical attraction. Oops.
Melly has guts and confronts Clay with this. She is deeply in love and loves Clay but she is not 100% certain that Clay loves her, in fact she has pretty good reason to believe her dad. Clay is older, far more sophisticated, successful, and all his past girlfriends have been equally sophisticated and successful. Melly sees herself as just an ordinary girl, a hick, not aware that she is breathtakingly innocent and true. She radiates goodness.
Clay admits he originally wanted to marry Melly because it would anger her father, BUT he goes on to say that he had other reasons and that he like being married and he likes Melly. He did not state any plans to mistreat her or make her miserable, in fact he denies any such intention. He makes it clear he wants to stay married, that he's happy with her.
Melly conflates Clay's reasons for pursuing her initially and his reasons for marrying her - which were quite different, revenge vs. revenge plus almost-love, and makes herself and him miserable for a few weeks. She runs away, not telling anyone, not even her best friend and the only contact anyone has is she sends postcards to her old nanny a few times, traveling a full day each time to mail them.
Three years later she's convinced herself that she no longer loves Clay and that she's happy being independent and self sufficient. Clay makes no bones about wanting her back, wanting a real marriage, for better or worse till death do us part. He tries to tell Melly that he had loved her - without using the magic L word, and that he still does love her, but Melly doesn't believe it, and she's too fixated on his supposed motives.
When she sees her sick Dad she instantly forgives him; she still hates what he did but she cannot hate him (hate the sin, love the sinner) and realizes she must apply the same logic to Clay. She and Clay work at cross purposes for a while, complicated by her tendency to either cry or throw up when under great emotional stress. But finally she takes the mature step to reach him, realizing that his motives really don't matter, that his behavior says it all.
The weak part of the book is that LA uses internal musings plus a few conversations to tell us the back story and the slow steps Melly must take to see her emotional roses for the weeds. There is a lot of emotion and a lot of story here and I'm not sure how LA could have included everything in 183 pages without the internal monologue technique, but it does slow the pace.
On the Melly side, could she, should she have stayed originally? Or perhaps asked Clay to back off for a while, or even a semi-separation? It would have been hard but she loved him and he stated every intention to be married, to be a good husband. However, she was 19 and thought of herself as a charmless hick, married to a much classier guy.
There are funny parts of the book too, with Confucius say jokes.
We learn why Melly ran away and why she's now in a real emotional whirlpool, unsure whether to flush Clay and marriage down the drain or divert into a happy-ever-after.
Reviews for this one are all over the map, mostly due to Clay's ambiguous behavior and motives. I looked more at Clay's behavior than at the revenge motive and I thought Melly over-reacted. She married Clay privately without telling her Dad, and now Dad is home from long overseas trip and informs her that Clay must have married her for revenge and that any "love" was more a short term physical attraction. Oops.
Melly has guts and confronts Clay with this. She is deeply in love and loves Clay but she is not 100% certain that Clay loves her, in fact she has pretty good reason to believe her dad. Clay is older, far more sophisticated, successful, and all his past girlfriends have been equally sophisticated and successful. Melly sees herself as just an ordinary girl, a hick, not aware that she is breathtakingly innocent and true. She radiates goodness.
Clay admits he originally wanted to marry Melly because it would anger her father, BUT he goes on to say that he had other reasons and that he like being married and he likes Melly. He did not state any plans to mistreat her or make her miserable, in fact he denies any such intention. He makes it clear he wants to stay married, that he's happy with her.
Melly conflates Clay's reasons for pursuing her initially and his reasons for marrying her - which were quite different, revenge vs. revenge plus almost-love, and makes herself and him miserable for a few weeks. She runs away, not telling anyone, not even her best friend and the only contact anyone has is she sends postcards to her old nanny a few times, traveling a full day each time to mail them.
Three years later she's convinced herself that she no longer loves Clay and that she's happy being independent and self sufficient. Clay makes no bones about wanting her back, wanting a real marriage, for better or worse till death do us part. He tries to tell Melly that he had loved her - without using the magic L word, and that he still does love her, but Melly doesn't believe it, and she's too fixated on his supposed motives.
When she sees her sick Dad she instantly forgives him; she still hates what he did but she cannot hate him (hate the sin, love the sinner) and realizes she must apply the same logic to Clay. She and Clay work at cross purposes for a while, complicated by her tendency to either cry or throw up when under great emotional stress. But finally she takes the mature step to reach him, realizing that his motives really don't matter, that his behavior says it all.
The weak part of the book is that LA uses internal musings plus a few conversations to tell us the back story and the slow steps Melly must take to see her emotional roses for the weeds. There is a lot of emotion and a lot of story here and I'm not sure how LA could have included everything in 183 pages without the internal monologue technique, but it does slow the pace.
On the Melly side, could she, should she have stayed originally? Or perhaps asked Clay to back off for a while, or even a semi-separation? It would have been hard but she loved him and he stated every intention to be married, to be a good husband. However, she was 19 and thought of herself as a charmless hick, married to a much classier guy.
There are funny parts of the book too, with Confucius say jokes.
July 24, 2018
I probably read this when it first came out and I think I loved it. I am more discerning now. I haven't re-read it but I read some of the reviews.
January 25, 2021
Μέσα από τα βιβλία της Άρμστρονγκ και φυσικά στο συγκεκριμένο, αναβλύζει ένας κόσμος γεμάτος αίσθημα και συγκίνηση. Μου άρεσε πολύ, όταν το διάβασα!!!
January 19, 2022
This is one of My all time favorite books. I come back to it over and over again. The angsty drama is so sweet and I think it was my first book with flashbacks. I kind of hate the flashbacks now but only because I want it to get to the conflict and it's inevitable conclusion faster. I really wish the pusblisher would also convert this to an ebook too, I need easy access to it instead of waiting to be home to dig it out of boxes everytime I want to read it! grrr.
I am sure there are a lot of things wrong with the story. And yes the MMC is a douche, but I don't have the heart to critique this book as it has been with me since the 90's. Read it for yourself and understand that this is old style writing.
Enjoy!
I am sure there are a lot of things wrong with the story. And yes the MMC is a douche, but I don't have the heart to critique this book as it has been with me since the 90's. Read it for yourself and understand that this is old style writing.
Enjoy!
January 27, 2019
I liked the book but i can't really ignore the fact that he is a Cheating husband! I can forgive anything but being cheated by a man who loves me ! Really! LOVE and CHEATING they don't go together Never and Ever! And I didn't liked the "sweet " Tanya ! She is your husband's mistress and yet you treat her like a freind! I feel sick ! It could have been a wonderful book if the hero remained faithful to our heroine:/
April 22, 2020
Uhhh did the heroine's job think she was murdered?! Cause she never went back. So this story is lacking a lot of detail. It has the overall idea but none of the 'reasons' was strong enough for any of the character's actions. I didn't believe that the dad loved the other woman, didn't believe the other woman was a real character(just a plot device), hero weird revenge(you're 32! how about taking some responsibly), the heroine just running away. Just nothing was believable.
May 27, 2013
I first read this book 10 years ago but I still remembered the plot. Very memorable story
May 29, 2019
Read for the second time and just loved this story...it's sweet!
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