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Response
Response takes a sexy look at love in the workplace. Sure, you shouldn't date your boss, but what if he's really, really hot? Sheena is a temp hired at a busy London firm. In a stroke of luck, she's assigned to work with Alex who's smart, sexy, and interested in her But there may be a whole lot more to his attentions than he's letting on.
160 pages, Paperback
First published June 27, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
May 25, 2015
What in the freaking hell did I just read? Stockholm's Syndrome: The Manga? All the lies, the abuse, the rape, and she still goes running back to him like some fairy tale? What in the hell? That was actually rather sickening. It was disgusting. He did nothing but destroy everything that she was, use her in literally every way possible, lie to her every chance he got, and I severely doubt a guy like him is even capable of love, going off the stuff he pulled on that poor girl. And because of Stockholm's Syndrome, she ate it up and asked for more. I feel dirty and sick to my stomach after reading that. I normally think book burning is a horrible thing, but I'm not sure I want other people to be able to read that monstrosity. Suddenly, 50 Shades doesn't seem quite so bad...
I'd give it negative infinity out of five stars if it were possible. Quite possibly the worst thing I've ever read. It's right up there with The Claiming Of Sleeping Beauty (which I couldn't read further than the first few chapters because of how horrifyingly depraved and disgusting it was). What. In. The. Hell?
Edit: After thinking it over, I decided to throw the book away. I could've sold it at the yard sale I'm having this weekend, but I don't hate anybody enough to have them read that piece of crap, let alone a random, innocent stranger. I think my trash can is now dirtier for the experience.
I'd give it negative infinity out of five stars if it were possible. Quite possibly the worst thing I've ever read. It's right up there with The Claiming Of Sleeping Beauty (which I couldn't read further than the first few chapters because of how horrifyingly depraved and disgusting it was). What. In. The. Hell?
Edit: After thinking it over, I decided to throw the book away. I could've sold it at the yard sale I'm having this weekend, but I don't hate anybody enough to have them read that piece of crap, let alone a random, innocent stranger. I think my trash can is now dirtier for the experience.
December 16, 2018
At the height of the Manga revolution in the West everything it seems got manga treatment so it is no surprise I guess to find that a whole host of Mills & Boon novels got turned into manga - to make them stand out Dark Horse used different more feminine coloured ink - here violet.
So we have Sienna, a virginal temp secretary who falls instantly in love with her new Greek Billionaire tycoon boss Alexis. He seduces her and then as soon as she tells him she loves him he tells her, oh I only slept with you to get revenge on your brother who ruined my sister. charming. She mopes about a bit but encounters Alexis at a dinner with her brother where we learn that the supposed ruination of the the sister was all a misunderstanding. Alexis tries to talk with Sienna but she runs away from him straight into the road where she gets hit by a truck.
Alexis marries her (while she's unconscious!!!) and spirits her away to a Greek island where they live in sexy bliss for a bit since she has amnesia and can't recall anything. After finally recalling her past she returns home to England, mopes some more until Alexis comes back on business. He collapses from malaria and she rushes off to tend to him, nurses him back to health and then the reconcile to live happily ever after.
This commits pretty much every sin the bad romance can offer.
Stupid, wide eyed virginal heroine who has no reason to love the hero other than his looks.
Revenge plot and the hero being actively cruel to the heroine
Amnesia plot
Marriage whilst unconscious
Complete bastard hero with few redeeming qualities - were told he helps poor kids with their education, big deal.
Heroine taking the hero back after he's treated her abominably and not making him suffer (clearly a bout of malaria is enough)
So I hated the plot and the characters. Did turning this into a manga add anything? Not really other than making it quicker to read. I'd have given up on the novel I think. The art is ok, depicting the heroine in the BESM style added to her child like nativity but otherwise meh.
Hated pretty much everything about this one.
So we have Sienna, a virginal temp secretary who falls instantly in love with her new Greek Billionaire tycoon boss Alexis. He seduces her and then as soon as she tells him she loves him he tells her, oh I only slept with you to get revenge on your brother who ruined my sister. charming. She mopes about a bit but encounters Alexis at a dinner with her brother where we learn that the supposed ruination of the the sister was all a misunderstanding. Alexis tries to talk with Sienna but she runs away from him straight into the road where she gets hit by a truck.
Alexis marries her (while she's unconscious!!!) and spirits her away to a Greek island where they live in sexy bliss for a bit since she has amnesia and can't recall anything. After finally recalling her past she returns home to England, mopes some more until Alexis comes back on business. He collapses from malaria and she rushes off to tend to him, nurses him back to health and then the reconcile to live happily ever after.
This commits pretty much every sin the bad romance can offer.
Stupid, wide eyed virginal heroine who has no reason to love the hero other than his looks.
Revenge plot and the hero being actively cruel to the heroine
Amnesia plot
Marriage whilst unconscious
Complete bastard hero with few redeeming qualities - were told he helps poor kids with their education, big deal.
Heroine taking the hero back after he's treated her abominably and not making him suffer (clearly a bout of malaria is enough)
So I hated the plot and the characters. Did turning this into a manga add anything? Not really other than making it quicker to read. I'd have given up on the novel I think. The art is ok, depicting the heroine in the BESM style added to her child like nativity but otherwise meh.
Hated pretty much everything about this one.
December 8, 2023
If I could give zero stars Oh I would!
I had a rose (or should it be violet) tinted glasses when I managed to re-read this 10+ years from the early 2000s- I remembered vague bits and pieces from my browsing of it.
It should have stayed vague.
First of Sienna has got to be one of the most boring wooden scraps of character I have ever seen- but that's also due to how this manga has just chopped so much out of her actual personality (I have actually read the book this manga is from (and it is also a 1star should be 0 star book))
Our male lead? Fuck him. He's the trashiest piece of trash that needs to be set on fire.
The plot is shy virginal naïve country girl mouse is currently in London at her brother's behest after the passing of her father- she speaks multiple languages due to her helping her dad with his research- so she's working at her brother's Girlfriend's secretary for hire company.
In comes our prick of a male lead who needs a secretary (although with everything that occurs that's debatable if that's even true) anyway they seemingly fall for each other and Sienna is deeply in love with him (god knows why) and they have a passionate night together with ML asking her if she loves him during the act- she says yes and tells him multiple time.
Only for the prick to coldly reject and laugh at her- I think it was straight after, honestly the pacing on this adaptation is god awful- any back to the prick.
So he essentially set her up to fall for him and take her virginity as revenge for her brother apparently attacking and raping his sister- his literal words to our Female Lead is "How do you feel having been raped", only it turns out that the prick's sister was actually raped by his best mate so this entire thing was fucking pointless.
Does this twat beg forgiveness to an innocent victim in this? NOPE!
He chases after her, demands to know why she didn't tell her innocent brother what he did in apparent revenge- oh I don't know you prick maybe cus she knows her brother is a decent human being- then after she retorts quite a good comeback this twat has the gall to blame her for acting out his scheme!!!!! This man actually said "You wanted to make love to me until that night at least" SIR!!!!!
So obviously still purposely intending to her our female lead who in her grief, stress, anxiety and desperate need to get away gets into a traffic accident- witnessed and caused by the prick WHO THEN MARRIES HER WHEN SHE'S IN AND OUT OF COMA AND KIDNAPS HER TO GREECE AND THEN HIS OWN PRIVATE ISLAND OFF OF GREECE.
Now first of- WHAT PRIEST OFFICATED THIS WEDDING? SHE'S IN AND OUT OF CONSCIOUSNESS AFTER BEING HIT BE CAR? What hospital for that matter would let any of this happen to a person whose just been hit by a car AND IN A COMA- IN THE UK????? Did I mention this was meant to be happening in London?
Now she has amnesia and instead of this man keeping his fucking distance until she regains her memories of what a horrid little person he is- he just straight up keeps trying to get her in the mood and get her to sleep with him. Breaking down all her justified defensives and quieting down her inner voice that is screaming at her to not do it.
Now she does get her memories back on confronts him- he seems very proud of his actions (again this bitch) especially with the kidnapping and the illegal marriage- and she understandly reacts in a very upset way- screaming, crying and demanding to be sent back home- and this prick OPEN PALM SLAPS HER AND THEN FORCES SLEEPING PILLS DOWN HER THROAT- in front of his staff as well!!!!!!
SIR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
AND THEN HE KEEPS TRYING TO SLEEP WITH HER!!!!!!!!!! Despite her telling him to fuck off each and every time.
Then he leaves her and the island taking the only form of transportation for a week- A WEEK- and after he returns and she once again turns him down he then FORCES HIMSELF ON HER and they end up having sex- and then the next morning tells her she can leave.
The only reason they seem to end up together at the end is cus his sister comes to our female lead and talks about how hard his childhood was- the usual BS justification- the mange itself doesn't acknowledge whether or not his sister is aware of all the depraved things he's done to an innocent woman- and she saw how happy the female lead makes him- now he's all sad and looks a little ragged and oh no he's got a fever (good! Drop dead)
And our female lead looses all her backbone and goes to him cus he's sick and looks after him for a week - and manages to do a bang up job managing his work while still taking care of him but no we'll skip that part- does he say thank you? No- man is rude as ever and only when she says I'll go does he grab her and beg her a little bit and say sorry- note though that he does not say what he was sorry for.
Art work is the only semi decent thing about this- well done to Takako and drawing our male lead as cold and ruthless as he actually is for majority of the manga. Honestly I feel sorry for the artist as she deserves a better story than this vile crap.
This is the biggest pile of dump in romance- Penny Jordan clearly has some issues.
Stay clear of this
Fuck this manga
I had a rose (or should it be violet) tinted glasses when I managed to re-read this 10+ years from the early 2000s- I remembered vague bits and pieces from my browsing of it.
It should have stayed vague.
First of Sienna has got to be one of the most boring wooden scraps of character I have ever seen- but that's also due to how this manga has just chopped so much out of her actual personality (I have actually read the book this manga is from (and it is also a 1star should be 0 star book))
Our male lead? Fuck him. He's the trashiest piece of trash that needs to be set on fire.
The plot is shy virginal naïve country girl mouse is currently in London at her brother's behest after the passing of her father- she speaks multiple languages due to her helping her dad with his research- so she's working at her brother's Girlfriend's secretary for hire company.
In comes our prick of a male lead who needs a secretary (although with everything that occurs that's debatable if that's even true) anyway they seemingly fall for each other and Sienna is deeply in love with him (god knows why) and they have a passionate night together with ML asking her if she loves him during the act- she says yes and tells him multiple time.
Only for the prick to coldly reject and laugh at her- I think it was straight after, honestly the pacing on this adaptation is god awful- any back to the prick.
So he essentially set her up to fall for him and take her virginity as revenge for her brother apparently attacking and raping his sister- his literal words to our Female Lead is "How do you feel having been raped", only it turns out that the prick's sister was actually raped by his best mate so this entire thing was fucking pointless.
Does this twat beg forgiveness to an innocent victim in this? NOPE!
He chases after her, demands to know why she didn't tell her innocent brother what he did in apparent revenge- oh I don't know you prick maybe cus she knows her brother is a decent human being- then after she retorts quite a good comeback this twat has the gall to blame her for acting out his scheme!!!!! This man actually said "You wanted to make love to me until that night at least" SIR!!!!!
So obviously still purposely intending to her our female lead who in her grief, stress, anxiety and desperate need to get away gets into a traffic accident- witnessed and caused by the prick WHO THEN MARRIES HER WHEN SHE'S IN AND OUT OF COMA AND KIDNAPS HER TO GREECE AND THEN HIS OWN PRIVATE ISLAND OFF OF GREECE.
Now first of- WHAT PRIEST OFFICATED THIS WEDDING? SHE'S IN AND OUT OF CONSCIOUSNESS AFTER BEING HIT BE CAR? What hospital for that matter would let any of this happen to a person whose just been hit by a car AND IN A COMA- IN THE UK????? Did I mention this was meant to be happening in London?
Now she has amnesia and instead of this man keeping his fucking distance until she regains her memories of what a horrid little person he is- he just straight up keeps trying to get her in the mood and get her to sleep with him. Breaking down all her justified defensives and quieting down her inner voice that is screaming at her to not do it.
Now she does get her memories back on confronts him- he seems very proud of his actions (again this bitch) especially with the kidnapping and the illegal marriage- and she understandly reacts in a very upset way- screaming, crying and demanding to be sent back home- and this prick OPEN PALM SLAPS HER AND THEN FORCES SLEEPING PILLS DOWN HER THROAT- in front of his staff as well!!!!!!
SIR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
AND THEN HE KEEPS TRYING TO SLEEP WITH HER!!!!!!!!!! Despite her telling him to fuck off each and every time.
Then he leaves her and the island taking the only form of transportation for a week- A WEEK- and after he returns and she once again turns him down he then FORCES HIMSELF ON HER and they end up having sex- and then the next morning tells her she can leave.
The only reason they seem to end up together at the end is cus his sister comes to our female lead and talks about how hard his childhood was- the usual BS justification- the mange itself doesn't acknowledge whether or not his sister is aware of all the depraved things he's done to an innocent woman- and she saw how happy the female lead makes him- now he's all sad and looks a little ragged and oh no he's got a fever (good! Drop dead)
And our female lead looses all her backbone and goes to him cus he's sick and looks after him for a week - and manages to do a bang up job managing his work while still taking care of him but no we'll skip that part- does he say thank you? No- man is rude as ever and only when she says I'll go does he grab her and beg her a little bit and say sorry- note though that he does not say what he was sorry for.
Art work is the only semi decent thing about this- well done to Takako and drawing our male lead as cold and ruthless as he actually is for majority of the manga. Honestly I feel sorry for the artist as she deserves a better story than this vile crap.
This is the biggest pile of dump in romance- Penny Jordan clearly has some issues.
Stay clear of this
Fuck this manga
June 18, 2021
The only part I liked was that it’s done in violet colors. Other than that it’s your typical old school harlequin story.
April 28, 2022
Fairly steamy romance manga for older teens. Dabbles a little in dubious consent so it's not my favorite of the Harlequin Manga interpretations. Very old fashioned romance story.
September 5, 2017
Just NO!!!
I rarely give books 1 star. So you have to mess up pretty badly for me to do it.
I can deal with male leads that are jerks at the beginning (because they have a semi-plausible reason), but this guy is just UGH!!!
He thinks that the girl's brother broke his sister's heart, so he seduces her and sleeps with her to take revenge. No! She didn't do anything! You can't just hurt her because her brother, who she can't control did something wrong.
But that is not the worst. His sister tells him that he got the wrong guy. The main girl's brother wasn't the one that broke her heart. Any DECENT human being would at least apologize and try to make up for what he did. But no, he screams at the poor main girl, makes her cry, and when she is running away from him, she runs into the street and gets hit by a car.
Still not the worst part!
Since he feels responsible (I wonder why!), he offers to take care of her. Nice, right?
Wrong!
He takes her abroad to his house (while she's still unconscious) and when she wakes up he lies to her. He tells her that he is her husband, taking advantage of her emotionally and sexually. He continues to be a total jerk until she recovers her memories and leaves her.
At this point, I still thought I might give this book 2 stars. And I would have if he showed any remorse and apologized.
But no! His sister ends up being the one visiting the main girl and apologizing for him. She tells the girl how much the guy misses her, how he can't eat, how he's about to collapse from exhaustion and malnutrition.
I really wish the main girl had just let him die! But she, being a total idiot, decides to go back to him.
This ending is just WRONG!
The "hero" doesn't learn anything. He doesn't grow. He is a complete jerk from the beginner and continues to be one at the end. He doesn't admit his errors and doesn't apologize. I've read Harlequin books with similar heroes before, but they always recognize their errors at the end and plead for the girls' forgiveness.
And the "heroine" is a complete idiot. She goes back to an abusive relationship.
I rarely give books 1 star. So you have to mess up pretty badly for me to do it.
I can deal with male leads that are jerks at the beginning (because they have a semi-plausible reason), but this guy is just UGH!!!
He thinks that the girl's brother broke his sister's heart, so he seduces her and sleeps with her to take revenge. No! She didn't do anything! You can't just hurt her because her brother, who she can't control did something wrong.
But that is not the worst. His sister tells him that he got the wrong guy. The main girl's brother wasn't the one that broke her heart. Any DECENT human being would at least apologize and try to make up for what he did. But no, he screams at the poor main girl, makes her cry, and when she is running away from him, she runs into the street and gets hit by a car.
Still not the worst part!
Since he feels responsible (I wonder why!), he offers to take care of her. Nice, right?
Wrong!
He takes her abroad to his house (while she's still unconscious) and when she wakes up he lies to her. He tells her that he is her husband, taking advantage of her emotionally and sexually. He continues to be a total jerk until she recovers her memories and leaves her.
At this point, I still thought I might give this book 2 stars. And I would have if he showed any remorse and apologized.
But no! His sister ends up being the one visiting the main girl and apologizing for him. She tells the girl how much the guy misses her, how he can't eat, how he's about to collapse from exhaustion and malnutrition.
I really wish the main girl had just let him die! But she, being a total idiot, decides to go back to him.
This ending is just WRONG!
The "hero" doesn't learn anything. He doesn't grow. He is a complete jerk from the beginner and continues to be one at the end. He doesn't admit his errors and doesn't apologize. I've read Harlequin books with similar heroes before, but they always recognize their errors at the end and plead for the girls' forgiveness.
And the "heroine" is a complete idiot. She goes back to an abusive relationship.
January 21, 2016
Years ago, when I was a young teen, Harlequin stories used to shape romance for me. It's not that they're precisely misleading. But they're not accurate though. This was cute, simple and so innocent. But I outgrown such stories.
Sienna just lost her dad, moved in with her journalist brother and works with his girlfriend in a secretary hiring company. Alex from Greece, a rich man, wants a replacement secretary for a few days, so he hires Sienna, who instantly falls for him. The story then takes a shape for the darker, revenge, memory loss, and finally forced marriage.
Sienna just lost her dad, moved in with her journalist brother and works with his girlfriend in a secretary hiring company. Alex from Greece, a rich man, wants a replacement secretary for a few days, so he hires Sienna, who instantly falls for him. The story then takes a shape for the darker, revenge, memory loss, and finally forced marriage.
August 29, 2013
A quick read over breakfast this morning - entertaining in it's own way, but like Lottiota, I didn't really get some of the motivations or the amnesia thing. Still, any manga I can get my hands on is cool with me, as I find it quite difficult to find otherwise.
Read
February 2, 2014interesting
August 12, 2012
cheesy, as a good, stretchy mozzarella.
June 7, 2018
This artist...<3
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews