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Heat of the Night
Vicky didn't want to take Ricco seriously
After all, she'd come to Florence to hide out. Bitter from the discovery that her fiance, however famous, was a first-class heel, she wasn't ready for another relationship.
Besides, Ricco always seemed to have the glamorous Bianca in tow. His claim that it was only business, that she was one of his top recording artists, didn't dispel Vicky's doubts.
Surely she couldn't be jealous? It just wasn't the right time or place for her to fall in love! Even if Ricco was the right man...
After all, she'd come to Florence to hide out. Bitter from the discovery that her fiance, however famous, was a first-class heel, she wasn't ready for another relationship.
Besides, Ricco always seemed to have the glamorous Bianca in tow. His claim that it was only business, that she was one of his top recording artists, didn't dispel Vicky's doubts.
Surely she couldn't be jealous? It just wasn't the right time or place for her to fall in love! Even if Ricco was the right man...
288 pages, Hardcover
First published February 1, 1986
About the author
Charlotte Lamb
263 books322 followersSheila Ann Mary Coates Holland
aka Sheila Holland, Sheila Coates, Charlotte Lamb, Sheila Lancaster, Victoria Woolf, Laura Hardy
Sheila Ann Mary Coates was born on 1937 in Essex, England, just before the Second World War in the East End of London. As a child, she was moved from relative to relative to escape the bombings of World War II. Sheila attended the Ursuline Convent for Girls. On leaving school at 16, the convent-educated author worked for the Bank of England as a clerk. Sheila continued her education by taking advantage of the B of E's enormous library during her lunch breaks and after work. She later worked as a secretary for the BBC. While there, she met and married Richard Holland, a political reporter. A voracious reader of romance novels, she began writing at her husband's suggestion. She wrote her first book in three days with three children underfoot! In between raising her five children (including a set of twins), Charlotte wrote several more novels. She used both her married and maiden names, Sheila Holland and Sheila Coates, before her first novel as Charlotte Lamb, Follow a Stranger, was published by Mills & Boon in 1973. She also used the pennames: Sheila Lancaster, Victoria Wolf and Laura Hardy. Sheila was a true revolutionary in the field of romance writing. One of the first writers to explore the boundaries of sexual desire, her novels often reflected the forefront of the "sexual revolution" of the 1970s. Her books touched on then-taboo subjects such as child abuse and rape, and she created sexually confident - even dominant - heroines. She was also one of the first to create a modern romantic heroine: independent, imperfect, and perfectly capable of initiating a sexual or romantic relationship. A prolific author, Sheila penned more than 160 novels, most of them for Mills & Boon. Known for her swiftness as well as for her skill in writing, Sheila typically wrote a minimum of two thousand words per day, working from 9:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. While she once finished a full-length novel in four days, she herself pegged her average speed at two weeks to complete a full novel. Since 1977, Sheila had been living on the Isle of Man as a tax exile with her husband and four of their five children: Michael Holland, Sarah Holland, Jane Holland, Charlotte Holland and David Holland. Sheila passed away on October 8, 2000 in her baronial-style home 'Crogga' on the Island. She is greatly missed by her many fans, and by the romance writing community.
aka Sheila Holland, Sheila Coates, Charlotte Lamb, Sheila Lancaster, Victoria Woolf, Laura Hardy
Sheila Ann Mary Coates was born on 1937 in Essex, England, just before the Second World War in the East End of London. As a child, she was moved from relative to relative to escape the bombings of World War II. Sheila attended the Ursuline Convent for Girls. On leaving school at 16, the convent-educated author worked for the Bank of England as a clerk. Sheila continued her education by taking advantage of the B of E's enormous library during her lunch breaks and after work. She later worked as a secretary for the BBC. While there, she met and married Richard Holland, a political reporter. A voracious reader of romance novels, she began writing at her husband's suggestion. She wrote her first book in three days with three children underfoot! In between raising her five children (including a set of twins), Charlotte wrote several more novels. She used both her married and maiden names, Sheila Holland and Sheila Coates, before her first novel as Charlotte Lamb, Follow a Stranger, was published by Mills & Boon in 1973. She also used the pennames: Sheila Lancaster, Victoria Wolf and Laura Hardy. Sheila was a true revolutionary in the field of romance writing. One of the first writers to explore the boundaries of sexual desire, her novels often reflected the forefront of the "sexual revolution" of the 1970s. Her books touched on then-taboo subjects such as child abuse and rape, and she created sexually confident - even dominant - heroines. She was also one of the first to create a modern romantic heroine: independent, imperfect, and perfectly capable of initiating a sexual or romantic relationship. A prolific author, Sheila penned more than 160 novels, most of them for Mills & Boon. Known for her swiftness as well as for her skill in writing, Sheila typically wrote a minimum of two thousand words per day, working from 9:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. While she once finished a full-length novel in four days, she herself pegged her average speed at two weeks to complete a full novel. Since 1977, Sheila had been living on the Isle of Man as a tax exile with her husband and four of their five children: Michael Holland, Sarah Holland, Jane Holland, Charlotte Holland and David Holland. Sheila passed away on October 8, 2000 in her baronial-style home 'Crogga' on the Island. She is greatly missed by her many fans, and by the romance writing community.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
April 25, 2018
Re Heat of the Night - CL mixes a 23 year old engagement escapee h with a wickedly seductive Italian H and the result is a very fast but surprisingly funny story. The h is on the run from a really bad romance where she was engaged to film star, the problem was the film star was a cheat and the film stars skeevey manager was trying to assault the h.
The film star knew about the attack and told her he shared all his women with the manager. The skeevey manager - who totally controls the film star in a very eerie way -- keeps using the h to set the H up in publicity stunts as well. He sics the paparazzi on the h, kidnaps her for various publicity photos and messes up her life so much she gets fired from her textile design job.
The h makes her plans to escape and goes to her married cousin in Florence. When the cousin goes to the airport to meet the h, they run into a very handsome Italian, who also happens to be renting the cousin and her hubby their current home. The H is all things charming and flirtatious and the h takes an immediate dislike to him. He is too much like her nematode ex film star and the skeevey manage for her tastes. The h goes all coldly English and lies that she is an old school friend of the cousin complete with fake name.
The H is then distracted by flamboyantly beautiful woman who throws herself on him, we find out that the OW is a famous mezzo-soprano and the h and her cousin escape. The cousin is very shy and sensitive and her husband has a small tendency to be dictatorial, the hubby is suspicious of the h and thinks she should have told her fiance she was dumping him in person. However, given the severity of the manager's attack on the h that she only escaped by threatening to vomit on him, CL makes it very clear that the h took the sensible option and left without notice.
The h is keen to avoid any paparazzi or notice, cause she is sure the skeevey manager will try to make a huge publicity op about her disappearance. The h was an orphan and lived a pretty low key life up until meeting the film star in a romantic horse moment in the park, (he was riding by early one morning and literally swept her off her feet,) it is fairly obvious she has no experience with an intense media spotlight and she doesn't want to learn.
The cousin asks her if she doesn't really love the ex fiance after all, but the h is pretty clear she was just caught up in the romantic infatuation of the moment. Any love she might have had curdled pretty quick on learning about the film stars real persona, and the skeevey manager was really frightening.
So the h settles in for a visit with the cousin and hubby, we get a nice little tour of Florence and it's major art. The h also figures out that things are a bit strained between her cousin and her hubby cause of the H's flirtatious manner. (The cousin knows it is harmless, the H is just being Italian, but the hubby is very jealous and it is upsetting the cousin.) They all wind up going to dinner together and the hubby seems to thaw in his antagonism when he realizes the H is seriously flirting with the h.
The H offers the h a moonlit walk in Florence after the dinner and then the opera singer shows up and makes a big production of dismissing and ignoring the h while hanging all over the H. The h is pretty disgusted and walks out on the H, so he has to chase her down. They go for a stroll and the banter is funny and fast. The h puts the H down a few times and they eventually part with the H being even more interested and the h denying she feels anything for the H but annoyance.
They meet again over the next several days and the H finally offers the h a job designing record covers. He has a huge family villa, but he isn't wildly rich. The H owns a recording company, and it is earning okay, but he isn't in the big leagues yet.
The H admits he is looking for a reason to keep the h in Florence and hit upon the idea of the h designing record sleeves that feature various periods of clothing - the h is a textile designer and he thinks the medium will transfer well to his classical music collection. The h also has to give the H a lecture about flirting with the h's cousin, cause the hubby is getting angrier every time he sees the H and the H is terribly shocked that the hubby thinks he is a womanizer.
The h takes the job, she wants to keep hiding in Italy after she sees an English newspaper that the film guy got into a drunken wreck and the manager is blaming it on her disappearance and break up.
The H also offers her an apartment in his huge villa and the h keeps seeing him with the opera singer hanging all over him at various locations around the house. She tries to convince herself she doesn't care and the conversations she has with herself and the lectures she gives herself in lieu of inner monologue are very funny and entertaining. The little self lectures become even more humorous as even strange women try to throw themselves at the H while the h watches and the H has to take evasive maneuvers like claiming the h is his wife.
The h starts her job with the H and there is some spite aimed at her from the typing pool, but for the most part she likes her job and she enjoys her verbal battles with the H. Until the opera singer gets angry that the H is paying more attention to the h than her and causes a big dramatic scene straight out of an Italian opera.
The h doesn't know much Italian yet, but she picks up the curse words pretty fast, and after the OW is done ranting and storms off, she uses one or two on the H to pretty good effect. There is also the usual CL food courses - this time with an Italian Straw and Hay dish and a nice little veal entree, there is also some passionate kissing during a storm power outage where the H and h fall into the bathtub and the h has to lecture herself even more severely about falling in love with the H and again about her jealousy over the women throwing themselves at the H.
Then the OW figures out who the h is really is, the H had figured out the h was lying about her name when he wanted her to work for him, but the h did not tell him about the horrific engagement or the skeevey manager.
The OW alerts the film star and the paparrazi and a big scene with the film star dramatically trying to reclaim the h is staged in the H's office. The cameras are all there to catch the moment along with the skeevey manager and the H knocks the film star on his rear - which the camera's all capture for the next day's big scandal shot.
The h runs off to a co-workers house and the H tracks her down. She tries to climb out the window but the H catches her and the whole story comes out. The H is hurt she didn't trust him, but she told him she could only trust her cousin after her horrible experience at first. The H swears he loves her and the h confesses loves him back, she finally quit lecturing herself about why she shouldn't get jealous and stopped trying tell herself she wasn't in love.
We then find out the h is really a brunette and dyed her hair blonde and that the H has creepy little mice hands that like to nest between her breasts when she isn't looking. There is passionate kissing for the big HEA and the OW is dismissed as a narcissistic attention seeker that will just have to get over the H being enraptured by the h.
This one was fast and quite entertaining, the romance is fairly light, but the book is definitely worth a read if only for the comparison of the H's hands to mice (which I am still debating if CL was being creepy or droll,) either way it was original as only CL can be-- as shown in the quote below.....
The film star knew about the attack and told her he shared all his women with the manager. The skeevey manager - who totally controls the film star in a very eerie way -- keeps using the h to set the H up in publicity stunts as well. He sics the paparazzi on the h, kidnaps her for various publicity photos and messes up her life so much she gets fired from her textile design job.
The h makes her plans to escape and goes to her married cousin in Florence. When the cousin goes to the airport to meet the h, they run into a very handsome Italian, who also happens to be renting the cousin and her hubby their current home. The H is all things charming and flirtatious and the h takes an immediate dislike to him. He is too much like her nematode ex film star and the skeevey manage for her tastes. The h goes all coldly English and lies that she is an old school friend of the cousin complete with fake name.
The H is then distracted by flamboyantly beautiful woman who throws herself on him, we find out that the OW is a famous mezzo-soprano and the h and her cousin escape. The cousin is very shy and sensitive and her husband has a small tendency to be dictatorial, the hubby is suspicious of the h and thinks she should have told her fiance she was dumping him in person. However, given the severity of the manager's attack on the h that she only escaped by threatening to vomit on him, CL makes it very clear that the h took the sensible option and left without notice.
The h is keen to avoid any paparazzi or notice, cause she is sure the skeevey manager will try to make a huge publicity op about her disappearance. The h was an orphan and lived a pretty low key life up until meeting the film star in a romantic horse moment in the park, (he was riding by early one morning and literally swept her off her feet,) it is fairly obvious she has no experience with an intense media spotlight and she doesn't want to learn.
The cousin asks her if she doesn't really love the ex fiance after all, but the h is pretty clear she was just caught up in the romantic infatuation of the moment. Any love she might have had curdled pretty quick on learning about the film stars real persona, and the skeevey manager was really frightening.
So the h settles in for a visit with the cousin and hubby, we get a nice little tour of Florence and it's major art. The h also figures out that things are a bit strained between her cousin and her hubby cause of the H's flirtatious manner. (The cousin knows it is harmless, the H is just being Italian, but the hubby is very jealous and it is upsetting the cousin.) They all wind up going to dinner together and the hubby seems to thaw in his antagonism when he realizes the H is seriously flirting with the h.
The H offers the h a moonlit walk in Florence after the dinner and then the opera singer shows up and makes a big production of dismissing and ignoring the h while hanging all over the H. The h is pretty disgusted and walks out on the H, so he has to chase her down. They go for a stroll and the banter is funny and fast. The h puts the H down a few times and they eventually part with the H being even more interested and the h denying she feels anything for the H but annoyance.
They meet again over the next several days and the H finally offers the h a job designing record covers. He has a huge family villa, but he isn't wildly rich. The H owns a recording company, and it is earning okay, but he isn't in the big leagues yet.
The H admits he is looking for a reason to keep the h in Florence and hit upon the idea of the h designing record sleeves that feature various periods of clothing - the h is a textile designer and he thinks the medium will transfer well to his classical music collection. The h also has to give the H a lecture about flirting with the h's cousin, cause the hubby is getting angrier every time he sees the H and the H is terribly shocked that the hubby thinks he is a womanizer.
The h takes the job, she wants to keep hiding in Italy after she sees an English newspaper that the film guy got into a drunken wreck and the manager is blaming it on her disappearance and break up.
The H also offers her an apartment in his huge villa and the h keeps seeing him with the opera singer hanging all over him at various locations around the house. She tries to convince herself she doesn't care and the conversations she has with herself and the lectures she gives herself in lieu of inner monologue are very funny and entertaining. The little self lectures become even more humorous as even strange women try to throw themselves at the H while the h watches and the H has to take evasive maneuvers like claiming the h is his wife.
The h starts her job with the H and there is some spite aimed at her from the typing pool, but for the most part she likes her job and she enjoys her verbal battles with the H. Until the opera singer gets angry that the H is paying more attention to the h than her and causes a big dramatic scene straight out of an Italian opera.
The h doesn't know much Italian yet, but she picks up the curse words pretty fast, and after the OW is done ranting and storms off, she uses one or two on the H to pretty good effect. There is also the usual CL food courses - this time with an Italian Straw and Hay dish and a nice little veal entree, there is also some passionate kissing during a storm power outage where the H and h fall into the bathtub and the h has to lecture herself even more severely about falling in love with the H and again about her jealousy over the women throwing themselves at the H.
Then the OW figures out who the h is really is, the H had figured out the h was lying about her name when he wanted her to work for him, but the h did not tell him about the horrific engagement or the skeevey manager.
The OW alerts the film star and the paparrazi and a big scene with the film star dramatically trying to reclaim the h is staged in the H's office. The cameras are all there to catch the moment along with the skeevey manager and the H knocks the film star on his rear - which the camera's all capture for the next day's big scandal shot.
The h runs off to a co-workers house and the H tracks her down. She tries to climb out the window but the H catches her and the whole story comes out. The H is hurt she didn't trust him, but she told him she could only trust her cousin after her horrible experience at first. The H swears he loves her and the h confesses loves him back, she finally quit lecturing herself about why she shouldn't get jealous and stopped trying tell herself she wasn't in love.
We then find out the h is really a brunette and dyed her hair blonde and that the H has creepy little mice hands that like to nest between her breasts when she isn't looking. There is passionate kissing for the big HEA and the OW is dismissed as a narcissistic attention seeker that will just have to get over the H being enraptured by the h.
This one was fast and quite entertaining, the romance is fairly light, but the book is definitely worth a read if only for the comparison of the H's hands to mice (which I am still debating if CL was being creepy or droll,) either way it was original as only CL can be-- as shown in the quote below.....
'Ricco kissed her temples, his mouth slid down over her short blonde
hair, pressed softly into her throat.
'My hair's dyed, you know,' Vicky said a little anxiously. He had to
know it all now, the whole truth and nothing but the truth—but she
was afraid he might be disappointed when he realised she wasn't a
real blonde. Italians liked fair women, didn't they?
'Of course I knew,' Ricco said, his lips just under her chin now and the
sound of his voice vibrating through her bone structure. 'Do you think
I'm stupid? Think I can't tell a genuine blonde from a dyed one?'
'I'm really brunette.' His hands had crept about like little mice, she
kept finding them in unexpected places and they made shivers run up
and down her spine. She dislodged one which had made a nest
between her breasts.....'
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 13, 2020
The heroine's name is Vicky. Which made me wonder: where have all the Vickys (Vickie, Vicki, Vickey) gone? There were three Vickys in my first grade class. Now - it's Victoria or Tori - but no Vickys. *sigh* I guess she's with all the Cindys, Debbies, Sherrys, and Lindas.
Anyhow, I had a hard time getting into this one. The heroine's cloak and dagger antics to hide from the paparazzi after breaking her engagement to an actor just seemed OTT. The hero's run-down estate and enigmatic speeches didn't captivate. The heroine's cousin had a wet weekend of a marriage. The overall tone was kind of . . . grim?
Maybe it was just me. I don't know. Check out Boogenhagen's review for more info.
Anyhow, I had a hard time getting into this one. The heroine's cloak and dagger antics to hide from the paparazzi after breaking her engagement to an actor just seemed OTT. The hero's run-down estate and enigmatic speeches didn't captivate. The heroine's cousin had a wet weekend of a marriage. The overall tone was kind of . . . grim?
Maybe it was just me. I don't know. Check out Boogenhagen's review for more info.
February 13, 2020
While it was nice that hero kicked the butts of heroine's slimy astroscopus ex and his stinky cephalopod of a manager, it should have also been mandatory to tell off his own fangtooth snake-eel of an ex-girlfriend. Instead, he stoically tells the heroine she needs to tolerate all his OWs as they continue to hiss and slither into their lives: Since he is a record executive and his artists are his bread and butter, he needs to prioritize them over the heroine. I guess the heroine is happy but as for me, I would have looked for other fish in the sea.
April 26, 2018
"Heat of the Night" is the story of Vicky and Ricco.
Vicky, a fabric designer is on the run from media and her past with a douchey-filmstar ex and his creepy lewd manager. She finds retreat in Florence with her best friend Susan and her husband, only to come across Susan's boss and estate owner Ricco- who takes instant like to Vicky.
How he chases her around with a crazy singer hanging on his arms, while she tries to run and hide herself is the story.
Honestly, this is one of the most boring CL Ive read. Yes, there was an obsessive hero and a British heroine as expected- but there was barely any angst, and I felt the couple's chemistry could have been better. Au contraire, I did like that the hero wasnt stereotypically cruel/abusive, but I dont know if it was a good thing here because the book had nothing going on otherwise. Ends with HEA?
Fav scene: The one where Miller was punched!
Safe with exceptions
1.5/5
Vicky, a fabric designer is on the run from media and her past with a douchey-filmstar ex and his creepy lewd manager. She finds retreat in Florence with her best friend Susan and her husband, only to come across Susan's boss and estate owner Ricco- who takes instant like to Vicky.
How he chases her around with a crazy singer hanging on his arms, while she tries to run and hide herself is the story.
Honestly, this is one of the most boring CL Ive read. Yes, there was an obsessive hero and a British heroine as expected- but there was barely any angst, and I felt the couple's chemistry could have been better. Au contraire, I did like that the hero wasnt stereotypically cruel/abusive, but I dont know if it was a good thing here because the book had nothing going on otherwise. Ends with HEA?
Fav scene: The one where Miller was punched!
Safe with exceptions
1.5/5
Did Not Finish
November 13, 2023Bored 🤷🏼♀️
May 27, 2021
Vicky didn't want to take Ricco seriously
After all, she'd come to Florence to hide out. Bitter from the discovery that her fiance, however famous, was a first-class heel, she wasn't ready for another relationship.
Besides, Ricco always seemed to have the glamorous Bianca in tow. His claim that it was only business, that she was one of his top recording artists, didn't dispel Vicky's doubts.
Surely she couldn't be jealous? It just wasn't the right time or place for her to fall in love! Even if Ricco was the right man.
After all, she'd come to Florence to hide out. Bitter from the discovery that her fiance, however famous, was a first-class heel, she wasn't ready for another relationship.
Besides, Ricco always seemed to have the glamorous Bianca in tow. His claim that it was only business, that she was one of his top recording artists, didn't dispel Vicky's doubts.
Surely she couldn't be jealous? It just wasn't the right time or place for her to fall in love! Even if Ricco was the right man.
July 23, 2015
An extra star for the creeptastic sentence "His hands had crept about like little mice, she kept finding them in unexpected places." Uhh...right. While this was lighter than the books I recall secretly reading when I was a sheltered teenager, I retain my conviction that if she were alive today, Charlotte Lamb would write hardcore dubcon.
June 15, 2022
The couple didn't seem to spend much time together. And the heroine's story isn't very realistic, believable, or interesting. Girl just ran rightfully away, stop judging her! I say skip it.
April 11, 2023
Just blah. Skimmed.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews