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An Unequal Partnership
"I have no intention of selling."
Mike had made her position perfectly clear. She could not abandon her share of Kingston Air, the business her grandfather had built. And especially not to a cold, calculating business machine like Luke Duncan.
She was uneasily aware that Luke was not a man who liked to be thwarted. It was obvious that he wouldn't have left even a minor investment to a girl he regarded as barely competent.
Perhaps it was time, Mike decided, that Luke learned there was no such thing as an unequal partnership!
Mike had made her position perfectly clear. She could not abandon her share of Kingston Air, the business her grandfather had built. And especially not to a cold, calculating business machine like Luke Duncan.
She was uneasily aware that Luke was not a man who liked to be thwarted. It was obvious that he wouldn't have left even a minor investment to a girl he regarded as barely competent.
Perhaps it was time, Mike decided, that Luke learned there was no such thing as an unequal partnership!
192 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published April 5, 1991
20 people want to read
About the author
Rosemary Gibson
29 books14 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Author Bio
Rosemary Gibson was born in Cairo, where her father was in the Foreign Service. She spent her childhood in Egypt, Greece and Vietnam, returning to England at the age of eight. Though she took teacher's training at Christ Church College, her working experience has been varied - community service worker, barmaid, gas-pump attendant and ground hostess and receptionist for an airline in Bournemouth, where she first started writing seriously. She began with short stories for various women's magazines before becoming a romance novelist. She lives in New Forrest with her dog, Cindy, and a black cat called Jellybean.
Author Bio
Rosemary Gibson was born in Cairo, where her father was in the Foreign Service. She spent her childhood in Egypt, Greece and Vietnam, returning to England at the age of eight. Though she took teacher's training at Christ Church College, her working experience has been varied - community service worker, barmaid, gas-pump attendant and ground hostess and receptionist for an airline in Bournemouth, where she first started writing seriously. She began with short stories for various women's magazines before becoming a romance novelist. She lives in New Forrest with her dog, Cindy, and a black cat called Jellybean.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 17, 2017
Re An Unequal Partnership - Rosemary Carter's second and last HP is about an h who is a mechanical engineer and inherits half of her beloved grandfather's airline. It soon becomes a battle of wills as the H is the not so silent partner of the other fifty percent.
I think grandpa may have been doing a little match making from beyond the grave with this one, but the old guy must have only been really focused on the business aspects as this H is pretty much borderline cheatin user slime slurper status and he has no problems sampling the married lady buffet, as well the young tarty OW in training buffet with the h's slightly skeevy 18yr old half sister.
The kicker here is that Grandpa left a clause in his will that the h's husband gets part of her shares in the airline, ostensibly because he disapproved of the h's father's many divorces, so really we don't know if the H really loves the h or just wants to use her. I wanted to believe the H's love was real, but I wasn't sold on it.
RG makes it pretty clear initially that the H has his own huge company and that the airline is small potatoes to him, but the h is the eldest daughter of a man who has an even bigger company than the H's. The h's father, who has been married five times after the h's mother died, is continually trying to pimp the h out to various potential successors, even tho she is quite clear she isn't interested - so we can see why the H might be interested in the h for other than truly loverly reasons.
The h herself doesn't want a businessman for a husband. Mainly cause she wants to have a husband that is around to actually BE a husband and a parent and isn't always off on some trip or womanizing somewhere. Unfortunately this H isn't the stay at home and husband and parent type, tho we all know the h will adjust her expectations and swallow her disappointment in the name of the lurve club mojo. This IS HPlandia we are in here.
So the story starts with the h being told the H will show up at her grandfather's former and now her home. He dictates it without consulting the h and the h, having had one bad experience with the H already, keeps him waiting for fifteen minutes since he couldn't be bothered to be polite about anything or ask.
The H wants to buy the h out of her half of the airline, the h refuses. Then the H and h go over to inspect how the airline is actually running and things are in disarray. The twenty year valued employee who is supposed to be running things is NOT and the H wants to fire him. (The H has some inside knowledge that this employee is mentally off and willing to sabotage things, he doesn't share that info, cause he wants to humiliate the h into selling.) The h, who only knows the man was an excellent employee and a valued friend of her late grandfather's, refuses to fire the man and instead tries to figure out what is going on with him.
Then the h goes to her father's house, she agreed to act as his hostess while he is between wives and finds out that the H is invited to dinner and to stay while he is in town. The h's half sister, a tart in training if there ever was one, is determined to get all snuggled up with the much older H. Dinner is a strained affair, but more so for the h. She recalls the night before when she and the H met anonymously for the first time.
The h was driving to her grandfather's home in a rainstorm, as she is moving there to be closer to the airline and she needed to check on things. She comes across a stranded vehicle and she stops to help. Since this h is an airplane engineer and has worked on cars are her life, she figures she can take a look and maybe help get the car going again. The car's driver turns out to be the H and he makes suitably chauvinistic remarks about women's libbers etc. while the h fixes the car.
It turns out a battery cable was loose and the h generously assumes the H knew the problem but couldn't fix it as he had no tools. In repayment for the h's kindness, the H physically assaults her with a punishing kiss and tells the h she was stupid for stopping alone. Since it was pouring down rain and there wasn't a lot of traffic and the h recognized the H, the h is a mite insulted and moodily drives off. She was also intrigued by the kiss and felt that little nudge of HP mojo passion.
Then the h, after a big goodbye party at her old job where she gets a bit toasted on two glasses of champagne and almost throws up on the H when he comes to pick her up, ends up ill with the flu and the H starts doing things at the airline without consulting the h- he claims the h's father wouldn't put him through to the h.
(We also find out that the married woman the H is hooked up with is supposedly his cousin, but I wasn't getting the cousinly vibe from them really, it was just another reason for the H to berate the h and make everything all her fault as per standard HPlandia rules.)
The next bit is the H and h battling it out in the office and the H lying about meetings and things to get the h to eat dinner with him as he hates eating alone. There is also the problem of the twenty year employee sabotaging the h by using her computer access to mess flights and passengers up. The H blames the h for all of it, but really, he had a good idear of just how disgruntled this employee was and he did not bother to tell the h about it - instead he manages to blame the h for that too.
So after the old employee is retired, the H and h spend one nice day together and the H takes the h to meet his parents and the now believes she is in love and the H indicates that he wants to propose. We also find out the H really wanted to be a concert pianist, but he broke his fingers in a car door and couldn't play at that level any more so he became a business person instead.
The h is becoming less business focused as all this goes on, but she still does her bit at the airline. The only problem is that the H is continually gone and they spend no time together except for a few moments of roofie kissing and the H never bothers to let the h know what his plans are, she continually hears them from other people and sometimes after the fact. They have absolutely NO communication, but the H manages to communicate with every other woman in the book just fine, including the h's half sister.
The h is having a good view of how her future is going to be and rethinking her decision to be with the H when he corners her and blames her for being distant and withdrawn and asks her to drop her life to go to New York and wait around for him to do whatever he does. In light of the continual devolution of the h's character, the h willing accepts that it is her moodiness and not the H's perpetual absence that is ruining things, but she has some smidgen of common sense left and refuses the H's offer to be his hidden shag toy.
The H and h don't part amicably and the h's little tart sister shows up to hang on the H in the h's house and then the h's sister admits that she has spending a lot of time with the H because he has been encouraging her dream to be a nurse and she hopes to become the closest kind of sister in law if he marries the h. The h has a sad little backbone dissolution moment and goes running over to the H's house to grovel and beg for him to treat her like a blow up doll/throw rug combo. The H happily agrees, as that is what he has wanted all along and with a sorta half hearted admission of love, he gets half the h's shares in the airline and an in with her father to boot, so the H and h get married.
There is a little epilogue where the H said he shared some of his airline shares with the h to still be equal partners and he has gotten rid of his United States business interests to live full time in England. So we can be happy the h is happy for another day at the office in HPlandia, as we bid Rosemary Gibson good luck in her move to HRtopia and prepare for our next and hopefully more believable HP outing.
I think grandpa may have been doing a little match making from beyond the grave with this one, but the old guy must have only been really focused on the business aspects as this H is pretty much borderline cheatin user slime slurper status and he has no problems sampling the married lady buffet, as well the young tarty OW in training buffet with the h's slightly skeevy 18yr old half sister.
The kicker here is that Grandpa left a clause in his will that the h's husband gets part of her shares in the airline, ostensibly because he disapproved of the h's father's many divorces, so really we don't know if the H really loves the h or just wants to use her. I wanted to believe the H's love was real, but I wasn't sold on it.
RG makes it pretty clear initially that the H has his own huge company and that the airline is small potatoes to him, but the h is the eldest daughter of a man who has an even bigger company than the H's. The h's father, who has been married five times after the h's mother died, is continually trying to pimp the h out to various potential successors, even tho she is quite clear she isn't interested - so we can see why the H might be interested in the h for other than truly loverly reasons.
The h herself doesn't want a businessman for a husband. Mainly cause she wants to have a husband that is around to actually BE a husband and a parent and isn't always off on some trip or womanizing somewhere. Unfortunately this H isn't the stay at home and husband and parent type, tho we all know the h will adjust her expectations and swallow her disappointment in the name of the lurve club mojo. This IS HPlandia we are in here.
So the story starts with the h being told the H will show up at her grandfather's former and now her home. He dictates it without consulting the h and the h, having had one bad experience with the H already, keeps him waiting for fifteen minutes since he couldn't be bothered to be polite about anything or ask.
The H wants to buy the h out of her half of the airline, the h refuses. Then the H and h go over to inspect how the airline is actually running and things are in disarray. The twenty year valued employee who is supposed to be running things is NOT and the H wants to fire him. (The H has some inside knowledge that this employee is mentally off and willing to sabotage things, he doesn't share that info, cause he wants to humiliate the h into selling.) The h, who only knows the man was an excellent employee and a valued friend of her late grandfather's, refuses to fire the man and instead tries to figure out what is going on with him.
Then the h goes to her father's house, she agreed to act as his hostess while he is between wives and finds out that the H is invited to dinner and to stay while he is in town. The h's half sister, a tart in training if there ever was one, is determined to get all snuggled up with the much older H. Dinner is a strained affair, but more so for the h. She recalls the night before when she and the H met anonymously for the first time.
The h was driving to her grandfather's home in a rainstorm, as she is moving there to be closer to the airline and she needed to check on things. She comes across a stranded vehicle and she stops to help. Since this h is an airplane engineer and has worked on cars are her life, she figures she can take a look and maybe help get the car going again. The car's driver turns out to be the H and he makes suitably chauvinistic remarks about women's libbers etc. while the h fixes the car.
It turns out a battery cable was loose and the h generously assumes the H knew the problem but couldn't fix it as he had no tools. In repayment for the h's kindness, the H physically assaults her with a punishing kiss and tells the h she was stupid for stopping alone. Since it was pouring down rain and there wasn't a lot of traffic and the h recognized the H, the h is a mite insulted and moodily drives off. She was also intrigued by the kiss and felt that little nudge of HP mojo passion.
Then the h, after a big goodbye party at her old job where she gets a bit toasted on two glasses of champagne and almost throws up on the H when he comes to pick her up, ends up ill with the flu and the H starts doing things at the airline without consulting the h- he claims the h's father wouldn't put him through to the h.
(We also find out that the married woman the H is hooked up with is supposedly his cousin, but I wasn't getting the cousinly vibe from them really, it was just another reason for the H to berate the h and make everything all her fault as per standard HPlandia rules.)
The next bit is the H and h battling it out in the office and the H lying about meetings and things to get the h to eat dinner with him as he hates eating alone. There is also the problem of the twenty year employee sabotaging the h by using her computer access to mess flights and passengers up. The H blames the h for all of it, but really, he had a good idear of just how disgruntled this employee was and he did not bother to tell the h about it - instead he manages to blame the h for that too.
So after the old employee is retired, the H and h spend one nice day together and the H takes the h to meet his parents and the now believes she is in love and the H indicates that he wants to propose. We also find out the H really wanted to be a concert pianist, but he broke his fingers in a car door and couldn't play at that level any more so he became a business person instead.
The h is becoming less business focused as all this goes on, but she still does her bit at the airline. The only problem is that the H is continually gone and they spend no time together except for a few moments of roofie kissing and the H never bothers to let the h know what his plans are, she continually hears them from other people and sometimes after the fact. They have absolutely NO communication, but the H manages to communicate with every other woman in the book just fine, including the h's half sister.
The h is having a good view of how her future is going to be and rethinking her decision to be with the H when he corners her and blames her for being distant and withdrawn and asks her to drop her life to go to New York and wait around for him to do whatever he does. In light of the continual devolution of the h's character, the h willing accepts that it is her moodiness and not the H's perpetual absence that is ruining things, but she has some smidgen of common sense left and refuses the H's offer to be his hidden shag toy.
The H and h don't part amicably and the h's little tart sister shows up to hang on the H in the h's house and then the h's sister admits that she has spending a lot of time with the H because he has been encouraging her dream to be a nurse and she hopes to become the closest kind of sister in law if he marries the h. The h has a sad little backbone dissolution moment and goes running over to the H's house to grovel and beg for him to treat her like a blow up doll/throw rug combo. The H happily agrees, as that is what he has wanted all along and with a sorta half hearted admission of love, he gets half the h's shares in the airline and an in with her father to boot, so the H and h get married.
There is a little epilogue where the H said he shared some of his airline shares with the h to still be equal partners and he has gotten rid of his United States business interests to live full time in England. So we can be happy the h is happy for another day at the office in HPlandia, as we bid Rosemary Gibson good luck in her move to HRtopia and prepare for our next and hopefully more believable HP outing.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 10, 2024
I’m in love with this H. Five stars.
abrierto-to-read-hr-other
May 24, 2020Mike had made her position perfectly clear. She could not abandon her share of Kingston Air, the business her grandfather had built. And especially not to a cold, calculating business machine like Luke Duncan.
She was uneasily aware that Luke was not a man who liked to be thwarted. It was obvious that he wouldn't have left even a minor investment to a girl he regarded as barely competent.
Perhaps it was time, Mike decided, that Luke learned there was no such thing as an unequal partnership!
She was uneasily aware that Luke was not a man who liked to be thwarted. It was obvious that he wouldn't have left even a minor investment to a girl he regarded as barely competent.
Perhaps it was time, Mike decided, that Luke learned there was no such thing as an unequal partnership!
August 27, 2025
He's a knob, she's fucking useless and they are both utterly tedious. Apparently they fall in love at some point, christ knows why they are both unbearable twats to each other. The story revolves around them running a small airport and let me tell you the endless minutiae about airport management is ball numbingly dull.
November 4, 2020
Fun book where she learns more about herself than she learns about him.
May 11, 2024
3.5 stars
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews