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Outsider
Horses had always been a part of Natalie's life, but her father, successful trainer Grantham Slater, was strangely reluctant to let her get involved although, during his illness, she had proved she could run his stables single-handed. So it was hardly surprising that Natalie loathed the new partner at Wintersgarth before she even set eyes on him. Assured, confident and successful, Eliot Lang didn't need to win her to his side. So why was he prepared to marry her?
187 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1987
5 people are currently reading
60 people want to read
About the author
Sara Craven
494 books269 followersAnne Bushell was born on October 1938 in South Devon, England, just before World War II and grew up in a house crammed with books. She was always a voracious reader, some of her all-time favorites books are: "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen, "Middlemarch" by George Eliot, "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë, "Gone With the Wind" by Margaret Mitchell and "The Code of the Woosters" by P. G. Wodehouse.
She worked as journalist at the Paignton Observer, but after her marriage, she moved to the north of England, where she worked as teacher. After she returned to journalism, she joined the Middlesbrough Writers' Group, where she met other romance writer Mildred Grieveson (Anne Mather). She started to wrote romance, and she had her first novel "Garden of Dreams" accepted by Mills & Boon in 1975, she published her work under the pseudonym of Sara Craven. In 2010 she became chairman of the Southern Writers' Conference, and the next year was elected the twenty-six Chairman (2011–2013) of the Romantic Novelists' Association.
Divorced twice, Annie lives in Somerset, South West England, and shares her home with a West Highland white terrier called Bertie Wooster. In her house, she had several thousand books, and an amazing video collection. When she's not writing, she enjoys watching very old films, listening to music, going to the theatre, and eating in good restaurants. She also likes to travel in Europe, to inspire her romances, especially in France, Greece and Italy where many of her novels are set. Since the birth of her twin grandchildren, she is also a regular visitor to New York City, where the little tots live. In 1997, she was the overall winner of the BBC's Mastermind, winning the last final presented by Magnus Magnusson.
She worked as journalist at the Paignton Observer, but after her marriage, she moved to the north of England, where she worked as teacher. After she returned to journalism, she joined the Middlesbrough Writers' Group, where she met other romance writer Mildred Grieveson (Anne Mather). She started to wrote romance, and she had her first novel "Garden of Dreams" accepted by Mills & Boon in 1975, she published her work under the pseudonym of Sara Craven. In 2010 she became chairman of the Southern Writers' Conference, and the next year was elected the twenty-six Chairman (2011–2013) of the Romantic Novelists' Association.
Divorced twice, Annie lives in Somerset, South West England, and shares her home with a West Highland white terrier called Bertie Wooster. In her house, she had several thousand books, and an amazing video collection. When she's not writing, she enjoys watching very old films, listening to music, going to the theatre, and eating in good restaurants. She also likes to travel in Europe, to inspire her romances, especially in France, Greece and Italy where many of her novels are set. Since the birth of her twin grandchildren, she is also a regular visitor to New York City, where the little tots live. In 1997, she was the overall winner of the BBC's Mastermind, winning the last final presented by Magnus Magnusson.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
September 6, 2016
Re Outsider - SC brings us another completely unpc martyred h story, and it has been remarked that the really sad thing about this book is that the h has a very misogynistic father who runs a racing stable and the h desperately wants to be a trainer herself, but because of her father's misogyny, she has to be content with being a wife and bartered off as part of the deal when the father takes on a partner after his heart attack.
To be sure that is a consideration and a cause for not liking this book - the H also rapes the h in this the morning after he gets her drunk and seduces her. However, this is HPlandia and more importantly SC's HPlandia - so when we read this we must all keep in mind the that the ultimate goal of the HP h is to be the loverly wife and mother, adoringly waiting hand and foot on her handsome Alpha H forever and ever, until world's end. By those standards this book is pretty decent, and for once an SC H is almost actually nice by the end- which is pretty much a rarity in the SC province of HPlandia.
The h in this one is the twentyish daughter of the aforementioned misogynistic racing/jumping stable owner. Her father has a heart attack and the h takes over for him thinking this is her big shot to prove herself. Then she gets a nasty surprise, her father has been in seekrit negotiations with a former jockey now trainer to sell a partnership in his stables. The H himself is the bearer of this sad news when he shows up to take over, he insists on a tour of things and delivers a few punishing kisses to let the h know that she is the side of ranch he is getting as a bonus in his bag of chips.
The h is pretty near devastated, she is a widow from a very unhappy and abusive marriage with a blatantly unfaithful husband who spent all their money on his mistress and married her because her father was willing to make him a big part of the stable operation. Now it seems the whole thing is starting all over again and the h is practically frigid from the first horrible marriage, she definitely doesn't want a repeat. Especially not with a man who ruined his reputation by lurvin up another horse trainer's wife and the sordid story made the gossip headlines of most of the major papers. The H is noted as being a frequent sampler of the gorgeous blonde smorgasbord, tho he seems to be able to put his blonde preference aside if a little redhead attached to a big racing stable is offered to him on a plate.
While the father is cutting back his stable time the h continues in her office worker capacity with the H now in charge, the harassment and lewd comments are on the rise, with the h getting a full hit of the H's brand of chasing a secretary around the desk all the while pursuing other women. Then the H brings on a female stable handler and she complains to the h that some one is spying on her in the stable's bunkhouse.
The h has a feeling she knows who it is, one of the stable hands seems to be the squicky type, but she is very hesitant to accuse anyone because she knows her father would say it is the woman leading the peeping tom/harasser on and that the woman was asking for it. She figures the H is pretty much of the same cloth and I hate to say it, but given how both men are the h makes a fairly accurate call on that count.
The h decides to run an undercover op on her own and pretends to be the female stable hand in the woman's room that night. She feigns sleep and leaves the door unlocked. She isn't surprised when she is rudely awakened by a man intent on rape and that turns out to be the guy she suspected. Except the man doesn't seem to understand that she is in control in this situation, he attacks her and the h is only saved when the H comes in and pulls him off.
The h is severely shaken by this attack, it is all too reminiscent of her marriage and she has never told anyone how bad it was. She figures her father and stepmother would just blame her and so she just keeps all the trauma bottled up inside herself, then the stepmother suggests that the h was or should be lurvin it up with the H and the h can't help but remark that there isn't much difference between being attacked by a stable hand and what the father and the stepmother would have her do with the H.
The h is continually forced into social situations with the H and it is obvious she is being pimped out and the H is all too wiling to be threatening to haul her off for a thorough lurve clubbing. The h's father finagles it so that the h has to travel to a big race meet with the H. While they are there, the H's former lover who is still the wife of the other racing stable owner gets the H alone to plead with him. After an unpleasant confrontation with the racing stable owner, the h walks in on the H and the owner's wife in the middle of the big scene. The h warns them that the owner is drunk and looking for them and then brushes the H off when he chases after her. The h is disgusted, but she figures what can you expect from a low life seducer, and then the H explains.
The H never had an affair with his former boss's wife. The racing stable owner wanted the H to throw races so the owner could make some money - the H refused to do it, the owner made up stories about a non-existent affair to discredit the H and the wife was now pleading with the H to not let another race horse owner move his horses out of her husband's stables. The racehorse owner's horses are losing when they shouldn't be and the owner wants to put his horses with the H.
The h is a bit relieved to hear that the H isn't the total lech she thinks he is and they enjoy a companionable dinner together, the H does his best to get her drunk during and after and then he seduces her. The h wakes up with him and then he rapes her. She leaves, disgusted with him and herself cause the first bout of lurve clubbing while she was toasted was great and the only time she ever enjoyed anything like that in her life, the second one would have been fine for her body but the h's brain pretty much shuts her down cause she was not looking for a second attempt at all.
The next day the h puts in her resignation and the H bullies her into taking it back. He blackmails her by saying he will not say anything about the incident to her father if the h will continue working with him. She reluctantly agrees, cause she had been thinking of getting out and getting a life but then the h starts getting nauseous and the H finds her letter confirming her preggerness. She lies and tells him she is thinking about a termination, but seekritly is planning to leave and give the baby up for adoption when the H tells her father about her pregnancy and the h is pretty much bullied into marriage by the H, her father and her stepmother.
The h goes through with the wedding, but refuses to sleep with the H on the wedding night, so he makes her sleep on the couch. The h makes it clear she doesn't want the H so when he comes to bed the next night, she starts shaking, because she knows he will just rape her again and he gets the message, leaves her alone and goes to sleep.
When they return to the stables, the h has to move back into the flat she shared with her first husband and the H thinks she is harboring some kind of unrequited love for the guy. The h doesn't realize this, so she never says anything about how horrible her first marriage was. The first day they are back after the wedding, a new client shows up for the H's attention and it is clear she and the H were an item at one point. The OW is very condescending to the h and when the h goes into the room where the H and OW are, she sees them kissing - the h is getting the dreary feeling of dejap-vu and winds up making a lot of noise when she returns with the coffee. She is also pretty upset because she realizes she loves the H ( or at least she loves her drunken response to him.)
The OW patronizingly invites the h to dinner with her and the H, but after the OW leaves, the h's father shows up and the h gets really irritated when they both sideline her from doing anything around the stables - even her office job. The h tells them both off and storms out. The H shows up later and chides her for her temper and for berating her father, then he tells her she has to get ready for the dinner.
The h tells him to go on his own - she certainly wasn't wanted on their tête-à-tête and she has no desire to play third wheel while he makes up to his mistress in front of his wife. The H tries to argue, but the h tells him she saw him sucking face with the OW and she really doesn't care what he does. The H wanders off after saying he knows he has ruined her life and the h has time to regret her hasty action, she gets all dressed up to go - she was going to fight for her man, but the H had already left so the h's last minute do-over attempt is in vain.
The h goes out to the stables to see her horse and take some comfort from the animal's affection. It seems there has been some unusual accidents around the stables lately and the h surprises a new stable hand coming out of one of the tack rooms. He seems a bit suspicious and the h thinks she has seen him before, but he has a convincing excuse so the h goes back to the flat to contemplate her sorry lot in life.
The h falls asleep and wakes when the H returns, he is busy getting toasted so he harshly rejects the h's attempt to put things on a better footing and make a new start in their marriage. We then get a flashback of the h's last husband leaving her, it is a pretty harsh scene where the h realizes that the guy was using her for her father's goodwill and then he left her for a rich divorcee. The man never made it to his lover tho, cause he died while driving recklessly on his way to her. The h reflects that her father grieved more for her dead husband than she did, she was only relieved it was over and then the h notices some strange sounds coming from the stables through her open window.
The H goes out to check at the h's insistence and finds that the h's horse has gotten loose and run over and has to be shot. The h is grief stricken, she thinks she might have inadvertently unlatched the stable door while petting her horse, but the H reassures her that stable doors don't unlatch when leaning on them. The h is sad about her horse and she and the H are distantly polite. Then one day the H brings the h some pictures of a local house he wants to buy, he still believes that the h is in love with the memory of her dead husband and he wants the house to get rid of the man's ghost which he thinks the flat reminds her of.
The h starts to explain, but they get interrupted by the new jockey that the H has hired for one of the show jumping horses the H runs. The man has brought his girlfriend with him and the h pumps her for information about the H's past serious girlfriend who he almost married when she dumped him over his supposed affair with the stable owner's wife. The jockey's girlfriend explains that the H has a very wealthy business empire building family and the girlfriend wanted the H to give up horses and work in business with his family - she was great in bed but that was about it between them. The H got over her pretty quickly and his heart was not seriously involved.
The h is relieved to hear this and she and the girlfriend go out to watch the H and the jockey ride on the jumping course. Then the H's horse gets shot with an air riffle and the horse throws the H. He is knocked out for a minute and the h is horrified. The other stable hands find the guy who shot the bb gun at the horse, it turns out to be the h's almost rapist.
The other stable owner hired the man to shoot the championship horse the H was training, except the H was riding a horse that only looked like the champion so the horse's owner won't get angry and move his horses to another trainer. It turns out that the suspicious guy the h thought looked familiar was the attacker's cousin and he let the h's horse out to get run over. They were hoping to cause bad press for the stables and get revenge on the h for not succumbing to an attack and the stable owner who lost the horses to the H had paid them to cause a lot of trouble. The bad guys are all hauled off by the police and the h decides to seduce the H.
She corners him in the bath and then the big explanations begin. The h explains about her marriage and the H feels bad he assumed she was in love. He also understands why she resented his assumption that they would hook up as it was a repeat of her first marriage. He tells her he fell in love right away, but she was not reciprocating and he tried dating other women but it did not work. Then they wound up in bed and he was going to propose but the h again put him off. Then he forced her into marriage and he started hating himself because he was supposed to love her and he kept messing up her life. The H also explains that the OW kissed him but he put told her no and over dinner that night he told the OW he wasn't interested in an affair and she could move her horses if she wanted to. The OW took him at his word and moved her horses to another stable and won't be bothering them anymore.
The h tells him she loves him back and the H promises that she can be his training partner. He tells her that her father shuts her out of the horse training because her mother got kicked by a horse when she was preggers after the h and she lost the baby and then died from the injuries. The H thinks that the father will retire soon and then the h can be his full partner all the time. The H and h have blissful transcendent movement of love for the HEA and all is well in the SC province of HPlandia once again.
This one was incredibly angsty, and the big reconciliation was really well done. The H is practically nice by the end and very earnest and sincere in his avowal of true love for the h. If you can get over the overt misogyny that dominates three fourths of this book and make allowances for the HP way of the marriage/motherhood path being the only true HEA as well as buy the H's rather unconvincing explanation for the h's father's utter nonsense, then you will have yourself a pretty good read if you pick up this book.
To be sure that is a consideration and a cause for not liking this book - the H also rapes the h in this the morning after he gets her drunk and seduces her. However, this is HPlandia and more importantly SC's HPlandia - so when we read this we must all keep in mind the that the ultimate goal of the HP h is to be the loverly wife and mother, adoringly waiting hand and foot on her handsome Alpha H forever and ever, until world's end. By those standards this book is pretty decent, and for once an SC H is almost actually nice by the end- which is pretty much a rarity in the SC province of HPlandia.
The h in this one is the twentyish daughter of the aforementioned misogynistic racing/jumping stable owner. Her father has a heart attack and the h takes over for him thinking this is her big shot to prove herself. Then she gets a nasty surprise, her father has been in seekrit negotiations with a former jockey now trainer to sell a partnership in his stables. The H himself is the bearer of this sad news when he shows up to take over, he insists on a tour of things and delivers a few punishing kisses to let the h know that she is the side of ranch he is getting as a bonus in his bag of chips.
The h is pretty near devastated, she is a widow from a very unhappy and abusive marriage with a blatantly unfaithful husband who spent all their money on his mistress and married her because her father was willing to make him a big part of the stable operation. Now it seems the whole thing is starting all over again and the h is practically frigid from the first horrible marriage, she definitely doesn't want a repeat. Especially not with a man who ruined his reputation by lurvin up another horse trainer's wife and the sordid story made the gossip headlines of most of the major papers. The H is noted as being a frequent sampler of the gorgeous blonde smorgasbord, tho he seems to be able to put his blonde preference aside if a little redhead attached to a big racing stable is offered to him on a plate.
While the father is cutting back his stable time the h continues in her office worker capacity with the H now in charge, the harassment and lewd comments are on the rise, with the h getting a full hit of the H's brand of chasing a secretary around the desk all the while pursuing other women. Then the H brings on a female stable handler and she complains to the h that some one is spying on her in the stable's bunkhouse.
The h has a feeling she knows who it is, one of the stable hands seems to be the squicky type, but she is very hesitant to accuse anyone because she knows her father would say it is the woman leading the peeping tom/harasser on and that the woman was asking for it. She figures the H is pretty much of the same cloth and I hate to say it, but given how both men are the h makes a fairly accurate call on that count.
The h decides to run an undercover op on her own and pretends to be the female stable hand in the woman's room that night. She feigns sleep and leaves the door unlocked. She isn't surprised when she is rudely awakened by a man intent on rape and that turns out to be the guy she suspected. Except the man doesn't seem to understand that she is in control in this situation, he attacks her and the h is only saved when the H comes in and pulls him off.
The h is severely shaken by this attack, it is all too reminiscent of her marriage and she has never told anyone how bad it was. She figures her father and stepmother would just blame her and so she just keeps all the trauma bottled up inside herself, then the stepmother suggests that the h was or should be lurvin it up with the H and the h can't help but remark that there isn't much difference between being attacked by a stable hand and what the father and the stepmother would have her do with the H.
The h is continually forced into social situations with the H and it is obvious she is being pimped out and the H is all too wiling to be threatening to haul her off for a thorough lurve clubbing. The h's father finagles it so that the h has to travel to a big race meet with the H. While they are there, the H's former lover who is still the wife of the other racing stable owner gets the H alone to plead with him. After an unpleasant confrontation with the racing stable owner, the h walks in on the H and the owner's wife in the middle of the big scene. The h warns them that the owner is drunk and looking for them and then brushes the H off when he chases after her. The h is disgusted, but she figures what can you expect from a low life seducer, and then the H explains.
The H never had an affair with his former boss's wife. The racing stable owner wanted the H to throw races so the owner could make some money - the H refused to do it, the owner made up stories about a non-existent affair to discredit the H and the wife was now pleading with the H to not let another race horse owner move his horses out of her husband's stables. The racehorse owner's horses are losing when they shouldn't be and the owner wants to put his horses with the H.
The h is a bit relieved to hear that the H isn't the total lech she thinks he is and they enjoy a companionable dinner together, the H does his best to get her drunk during and after and then he seduces her. The h wakes up with him and then he rapes her. She leaves, disgusted with him and herself cause the first bout of lurve clubbing while she was toasted was great and the only time she ever enjoyed anything like that in her life, the second one would have been fine for her body but the h's brain pretty much shuts her down cause she was not looking for a second attempt at all.
The next day the h puts in her resignation and the H bullies her into taking it back. He blackmails her by saying he will not say anything about the incident to her father if the h will continue working with him. She reluctantly agrees, cause she had been thinking of getting out and getting a life but then the h starts getting nauseous and the H finds her letter confirming her preggerness. She lies and tells him she is thinking about a termination, but seekritly is planning to leave and give the baby up for adoption when the H tells her father about her pregnancy and the h is pretty much bullied into marriage by the H, her father and her stepmother.
The h goes through with the wedding, but refuses to sleep with the H on the wedding night, so he makes her sleep on the couch. The h makes it clear she doesn't want the H so when he comes to bed the next night, she starts shaking, because she knows he will just rape her again and he gets the message, leaves her alone and goes to sleep.
When they return to the stables, the h has to move back into the flat she shared with her first husband and the H thinks she is harboring some kind of unrequited love for the guy. The h doesn't realize this, so she never says anything about how horrible her first marriage was. The first day they are back after the wedding, a new client shows up for the H's attention and it is clear she and the H were an item at one point. The OW is very condescending to the h and when the h goes into the room where the H and OW are, she sees them kissing - the h is getting the dreary feeling of dejap-vu and winds up making a lot of noise when she returns with the coffee. She is also pretty upset because she realizes she loves the H ( or at least she loves her drunken response to him.)
The OW patronizingly invites the h to dinner with her and the H, but after the OW leaves, the h's father shows up and the h gets really irritated when they both sideline her from doing anything around the stables - even her office job. The h tells them both off and storms out. The H shows up later and chides her for her temper and for berating her father, then he tells her she has to get ready for the dinner.
The h tells him to go on his own - she certainly wasn't wanted on their tête-à-tête and she has no desire to play third wheel while he makes up to his mistress in front of his wife. The H tries to argue, but the h tells him she saw him sucking face with the OW and she really doesn't care what he does. The H wanders off after saying he knows he has ruined her life and the h has time to regret her hasty action, she gets all dressed up to go - she was going to fight for her man, but the H had already left so the h's last minute do-over attempt is in vain.
The h goes out to the stables to see her horse and take some comfort from the animal's affection. It seems there has been some unusual accidents around the stables lately and the h surprises a new stable hand coming out of one of the tack rooms. He seems a bit suspicious and the h thinks she has seen him before, but he has a convincing excuse so the h goes back to the flat to contemplate her sorry lot in life.
The h falls asleep and wakes when the H returns, he is busy getting toasted so he harshly rejects the h's attempt to put things on a better footing and make a new start in their marriage. We then get a flashback of the h's last husband leaving her, it is a pretty harsh scene where the h realizes that the guy was using her for her father's goodwill and then he left her for a rich divorcee. The man never made it to his lover tho, cause he died while driving recklessly on his way to her. The h reflects that her father grieved more for her dead husband than she did, she was only relieved it was over and then the h notices some strange sounds coming from the stables through her open window.
The H goes out to check at the h's insistence and finds that the h's horse has gotten loose and run over and has to be shot. The h is grief stricken, she thinks she might have inadvertently unlatched the stable door while petting her horse, but the H reassures her that stable doors don't unlatch when leaning on them. The h is sad about her horse and she and the H are distantly polite. Then one day the H brings the h some pictures of a local house he wants to buy, he still believes that the h is in love with the memory of her dead husband and he wants the house to get rid of the man's ghost which he thinks the flat reminds her of.
The h starts to explain, but they get interrupted by the new jockey that the H has hired for one of the show jumping horses the H runs. The man has brought his girlfriend with him and the h pumps her for information about the H's past serious girlfriend who he almost married when she dumped him over his supposed affair with the stable owner's wife. The jockey's girlfriend explains that the H has a very wealthy business empire building family and the girlfriend wanted the H to give up horses and work in business with his family - she was great in bed but that was about it between them. The H got over her pretty quickly and his heart was not seriously involved.
The h is relieved to hear this and she and the girlfriend go out to watch the H and the jockey ride on the jumping course. Then the H's horse gets shot with an air riffle and the horse throws the H. He is knocked out for a minute and the h is horrified. The other stable hands find the guy who shot the bb gun at the horse, it turns out to be the h's almost rapist.
The other stable owner hired the man to shoot the championship horse the H was training, except the H was riding a horse that only looked like the champion so the horse's owner won't get angry and move his horses to another trainer. It turns out that the suspicious guy the h thought looked familiar was the attacker's cousin and he let the h's horse out to get run over. They were hoping to cause bad press for the stables and get revenge on the h for not succumbing to an attack and the stable owner who lost the horses to the H had paid them to cause a lot of trouble. The bad guys are all hauled off by the police and the h decides to seduce the H.
She corners him in the bath and then the big explanations begin. The h explains about her marriage and the H feels bad he assumed she was in love. He also understands why she resented his assumption that they would hook up as it was a repeat of her first marriage. He tells her he fell in love right away, but she was not reciprocating and he tried dating other women but it did not work. Then they wound up in bed and he was going to propose but the h again put him off. Then he forced her into marriage and he started hating himself because he was supposed to love her and he kept messing up her life. The H also explains that the OW kissed him but he put told her no and over dinner that night he told the OW he wasn't interested in an affair and she could move her horses if she wanted to. The OW took him at his word and moved her horses to another stable and won't be bothering them anymore.
The h tells him she loves him back and the H promises that she can be his training partner. He tells her that her father shuts her out of the horse training because her mother got kicked by a horse when she was preggers after the h and she lost the baby and then died from the injuries. The H thinks that the father will retire soon and then the h can be his full partner all the time. The H and h have blissful transcendent movement of love for the HEA and all is well in the SC province of HPlandia once again.
This one was incredibly angsty, and the big reconciliation was really well done. The H is practically nice by the end and very earnest and sincere in his avowal of true love for the h. If you can get over the overt misogyny that dominates three fourths of this book and make allowances for the HP way of the marriage/motherhood path being the only true HEA as well as buy the H's rather unconvincing explanation for the h's father's utter nonsense, then you will have yourself a pretty good read if you pick up this book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 9, 2011
Natalie is 23 year old widow who has dreams of taking over her famous father's business as a horse trainer. Unfortunately, her father is a misogynist pig who believes that women shouldn't be around horses. She is further disappointed when her father sells a partnership to the hero, a former jockey.
Ugh, I dont even want to write ANYTHING about this book. But I intend to forget all about it by the time I walk out the door in 10 minutes and I dont want to chance that I would ever read this again . . . because I had forgotten that I had read it, heh.
I couldn't enjoy anything about this book because it featured one of those "frigid" widows who is more hysterical about sex than any 13 year old virgin in a medieval convent. She was also dumb as a rock and rude to boot. There was nothing redeeming about her, except possibly her devotion to her a-hole father. Her rudeness and stupidity was constantly shown up by the hero who doesn't necessarily put HIM in a good light for constantly doing it (altho it had to be done) and for actually wanting that harridan.
The plot which features a one night stand, a pregnancy, and a would-be rapist was choppy and didn't have any flow. Everything was just . . . . BAD.
Grade: D
Ugh, I dont even want to write ANYTHING about this book. But I intend to forget all about it by the time I walk out the door in 10 minutes and I dont want to chance that I would ever read this again . . . because I had forgotten that I had read it, heh.
I couldn't enjoy anything about this book because it featured one of those "frigid" widows who is more hysterical about sex than any 13 year old virgin in a medieval convent. She was also dumb as a rock and rude to boot. There was nothing redeeming about her, except possibly her devotion to her a-hole father. Her rudeness and stupidity was constantly shown up by the hero who doesn't necessarily put HIM in a good light for constantly doing it (altho it had to be done) and for actually wanting that harridan.
The plot which features a one night stand, a pregnancy, and a would-be rapist was choppy and didn't have any flow. Everything was just . . . . BAD.
Grade: D
October 9, 2017
Nice angsty tale of a heroine who married for the wrong reasons, was widowed, and is now hoping to take over half of her father's horse training stables. Her father is an old skool chauvinist and has installed the hero in her place. So the heroine has a lot of antagonism toward the hero from the beginning. It doesn't help that her first husband cheated on her and accused of being frigid. The heroine has a lot of hang ups that the hero doesn't see at first.
The hero is pretty awful to her at the beginning (thinking she's blowing hot and cold when she is just confused) but he's in love and frustrated. After a victory at the race track and some celebratory alcohol, their first sexual encounter is mutually satisfactory. However, the hero is angered the next morning by the heroine's distress and he takes her against her will. (She lets him - but she is passive through the whole encounter.) The hero knows he messed up, but doesn't know how to fix it.
Luckily the heroine is pregnant and the hero can force a marriage. From there the H/h learn about each other and the hero actually turns out to be a good guy by the end of the story for an HEA.
Trigger for non-consent and another trigger for the heroine's horse having to be put down after a terrible accident.
The hero is pretty awful to her at the beginning (thinking she's blowing hot and cold when she is just confused) but he's in love and frustrated. After a victory at the race track and some celebratory alcohol, their first sexual encounter is mutually satisfactory. However, the hero is angered the next morning by the heroine's distress and he takes her against her will. (She lets him - but she is passive through the whole encounter.) The hero knows he messed up, but doesn't know how to fix it.
Luckily the heroine is pregnant and the hero can force a marriage. From there the H/h learn about each other and the hero actually turns out to be a good guy by the end of the story for an HEA.
Trigger for non-consent and another trigger for the heroine's horse having to be put down after a terrible accident.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 19, 2016
Natalie has spent the past few weeks managing the family’s horse training stables, and she’s doing really well. Better, in fact, than she’d thought possible! Her father is in hospital recovering from a heart attack, and he’s left her in charge. This is unprecedented – Natalie’s dad is a raging misogynist who has refused to allow Natalie to have anything to do with the horse training side of the business, and has grudgingly allowed her to do low level work with very little responsibility.
Natalie’s excited (at least, she’s as excited as her general glumness will allow) – her father’s coming home soon, and she’ll be able to show him just how smoothly everything has gone, and he’ll just have to acknowledge that she can do it, and give her more opportunities to perform the work she loves.
No. Instead, handsome Eliot shows up. He’s buying into the business; he’s taking the place Natalie wanted, but was never going to have. It’s all been arranged through clandestine hospital bed meetings with Natalie’s dad. Natalie gets to hear about it all for the first time from a stranger, and a stranger who is impatient and dismissive of her emotional response to the news. Sure, Eliot had no way of knowing that he was about to destroy Natalie’s hopes of a better relationship with her dad, but this is so harsh.
Does it make any difference at all that Natalie’s done so well, brought in new business? Umm, well, actually … that was Eliot too. He’s been very busy behind the scenes.
For the rest of the book, through all Natalie’s relationship baggage and miscommunication with Eliot, and misunderstandings over the place of the other women in his life, I couldn’t get past just how sad I was for her over this devastating betrayal. I really hate when this happens to a heroine. This is ordinary suffering. And by ordinary I’m not being dismissive, but since it’s unlikely that I’ll ever know the suffering of demon curses or becoming a vampire to be with the man I love, it’s crap relationships with family that really connect. I totally get this, and how awful it is for Natalie when her feelings are dismissed and treated with impatience and scorn. I can never quite see the hero, once the happy ever after starts to look more settled, as anything other than a consolation prize. Natalie didn’t need a romance. She needed to do the work she loved, and she wanted her father to value and love and respect her. He didn’t. Late in the book, there’s a weak rationale for why he is such a misogynist. It’s basically just an emotional trap to guilt Natalie into seeing her father’s control as guided by a loving heart. It hardly justifies the way he’s treated his daughter.
At one stage, when Natalie realises just how low she’s fallen in her father’s esteem, and that she is once again about to be trapped and powerless in a relationship and a role that she doesn’t want, she considers leaving. She starts thinking about getting a job somewhere else, to start independently pursuing her dreams. I always think that this is Sara Craven at her unkindest point: she sets up her heroine’s bid for freedom, but then her heroine just … lets it go.
It means that I can’t help seeing Natalie, and heroines like her, as lost causes. Sure, every heroine has her flaws, but Natalie starts thinking about starting a new life well before she could possibly be even subconsciously attracted to Eliot. That conflict, choosing freedom over romance, doesn’t exist yet. She’s so beaten down that she starts treating her own tentative plans for her future as nothing more than a childish, ‘I’ll run away, that’ll show my dad!’ bid for attention.
At the same time … while I want her to commit to a dream and realise that to get it she’s going to have to go through some struggle … why should she? If she’d been male, she could have spent years being completely indifferent to the family business, have shown not even a hint of interest in anything other than the high life until her father’s heart attack, and it would still have been completely natural to assume that she’d now take over and do it well. Natalie can’t change her father’s attitudes, and while she loves him, she’s never going to have a really good relationship with him.
Natalie has already married once to please her father, and is a widow. That relationship was extremely toxic, and Natalie’s relationship with her father and her stepmother was never such that she could confide just how awful and toxic it was. She gets some emotional support from her stepmother, and while her stepmother is a sweet woman, her role is to act as apologist for Natalie’s father’s behaviour. It’s not really expressed in the book, but I can’t help assuming that Natalie is protecting her family from the knowledge of her failed marriage out of a deep sense of shame. Also … and this is really terrible too, I think she knew that if she’d talked to her father about it, he would have just reinforced those feelings of shame and failure. Natalie’s whole deal in this book is edging towards, and then avoiding confrontations that will once and for all prove to her how little her father respects her. She can’t win, she can’t escape. The best she can do is permanently bury her feelings and be content with the little he does offer her.
Now, Natalie is once again expected to take up another relationship that her father has arranged for her, this time with Eliot. Natalie’s father is very big on demonstrating his duty to his daughter’s future, but underlying all that is power and control. Natalie’s father controls her life, and he’s now passing that control to another man.
The relationship with Eliot is really nothing more than a distraction and I couldn’t get past the awfulness of Natalie’s life. There’s no way that even a perfect hero will fix it for her. Eliot is the usual hero mix of stupid bossy handsome with a few tiny moments of kindness. While it’s great that he comes to have a little more respect and empathy for Natalie than her dad had, I couldn’t get into their romance. While it’s presented as the one thing that she finally decides is worth fighting for, I can’t help but feeling she’s made a huge mistake. It’s so sad in a romance novel when you’re shown what the heroine really needs to grow: freedom and independence, and then expected to see the exchange of father figure for a husband and eventual motherhood as the best reward she’ll get. In the end, I can’t be happy for Natalie. I’m just … sad and angry, because it’s so wrong for a romance novel to unapologetically tell me that the best deal a woman is going to get out of life is a man who’s most loveable quality is that he’s slightly nicer than her father.
Natalie’s excited (at least, she’s as excited as her general glumness will allow) – her father’s coming home soon, and she’ll be able to show him just how smoothly everything has gone, and he’ll just have to acknowledge that she can do it, and give her more opportunities to perform the work she loves.
No. Instead, handsome Eliot shows up. He’s buying into the business; he’s taking the place Natalie wanted, but was never going to have. It’s all been arranged through clandestine hospital bed meetings with Natalie’s dad. Natalie gets to hear about it all for the first time from a stranger, and a stranger who is impatient and dismissive of her emotional response to the news. Sure, Eliot had no way of knowing that he was about to destroy Natalie’s hopes of a better relationship with her dad, but this is so harsh.
Does it make any difference at all that Natalie’s done so well, brought in new business? Umm, well, actually … that was Eliot too. He’s been very busy behind the scenes.
For the rest of the book, through all Natalie’s relationship baggage and miscommunication with Eliot, and misunderstandings over the place of the other women in his life, I couldn’t get past just how sad I was for her over this devastating betrayal. I really hate when this happens to a heroine. This is ordinary suffering. And by ordinary I’m not being dismissive, but since it’s unlikely that I’ll ever know the suffering of demon curses or becoming a vampire to be with the man I love, it’s crap relationships with family that really connect. I totally get this, and how awful it is for Natalie when her feelings are dismissed and treated with impatience and scorn. I can never quite see the hero, once the happy ever after starts to look more settled, as anything other than a consolation prize. Natalie didn’t need a romance. She needed to do the work she loved, and she wanted her father to value and love and respect her. He didn’t. Late in the book, there’s a weak rationale for why he is such a misogynist. It’s basically just an emotional trap to guilt Natalie into seeing her father’s control as guided by a loving heart. It hardly justifies the way he’s treated his daughter.
At one stage, when Natalie realises just how low she’s fallen in her father’s esteem, and that she is once again about to be trapped and powerless in a relationship and a role that she doesn’t want, she considers leaving. She starts thinking about getting a job somewhere else, to start independently pursuing her dreams. I always think that this is Sara Craven at her unkindest point: she sets up her heroine’s bid for freedom, but then her heroine just … lets it go.
It means that I can’t help seeing Natalie, and heroines like her, as lost causes. Sure, every heroine has her flaws, but Natalie starts thinking about starting a new life well before she could possibly be even subconsciously attracted to Eliot. That conflict, choosing freedom over romance, doesn’t exist yet. She’s so beaten down that she starts treating her own tentative plans for her future as nothing more than a childish, ‘I’ll run away, that’ll show my dad!’ bid for attention.
At the same time … while I want her to commit to a dream and realise that to get it she’s going to have to go through some struggle … why should she? If she’d been male, she could have spent years being completely indifferent to the family business, have shown not even a hint of interest in anything other than the high life until her father’s heart attack, and it would still have been completely natural to assume that she’d now take over and do it well. Natalie can’t change her father’s attitudes, and while she loves him, she’s never going to have a really good relationship with him.
Natalie has already married once to please her father, and is a widow. That relationship was extremely toxic, and Natalie’s relationship with her father and her stepmother was never such that she could confide just how awful and toxic it was. She gets some emotional support from her stepmother, and while her stepmother is a sweet woman, her role is to act as apologist for Natalie’s father’s behaviour. It’s not really expressed in the book, but I can’t help assuming that Natalie is protecting her family from the knowledge of her failed marriage out of a deep sense of shame. Also … and this is really terrible too, I think she knew that if she’d talked to her father about it, he would have just reinforced those feelings of shame and failure. Natalie’s whole deal in this book is edging towards, and then avoiding confrontations that will once and for all prove to her how little her father respects her. She can’t win, she can’t escape. The best she can do is permanently bury her feelings and be content with the little he does offer her.
Now, Natalie is once again expected to take up another relationship that her father has arranged for her, this time with Eliot. Natalie’s father is very big on demonstrating his duty to his daughter’s future, but underlying all that is power and control. Natalie’s father controls her life, and he’s now passing that control to another man.
The relationship with Eliot is really nothing more than a distraction and I couldn’t get past the awfulness of Natalie’s life. There’s no way that even a perfect hero will fix it for her. Eliot is the usual hero mix of stupid bossy handsome with a few tiny moments of kindness. While it’s great that he comes to have a little more respect and empathy for Natalie than her dad had, I couldn’t get into their romance. While it’s presented as the one thing that she finally decides is worth fighting for, I can’t help but feeling she’s made a huge mistake. It’s so sad in a romance novel when you’re shown what the heroine really needs to grow: freedom and independence, and then expected to see the exchange of father figure for a husband and eventual motherhood as the best reward she’ll get. In the end, I can’t be happy for Natalie. I’m just … sad and angry, because it’s so wrong for a romance novel to unapologetically tell me that the best deal a woman is going to get out of life is a man who’s most loveable quality is that he’s slightly nicer than her father.
October 23, 2020
I was checking my "read" shelf when I see this book 🙄 I read it years ago. I couldn't call this book a "love story" in this life and the next one 🙉
It is AWFUL!!!! the heroine is one of the worst I have ever read in a Harlequin🤯 Poor hero, I felt sorrow for him while reading. I remember he try to do the best for her, he tried to make the MOC work, and she always misunderstood his intentions, lack of miscommunication. She is cold and bitchy 😠 I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone 🤷🏻♀️ It cost me tears to finish it, it's the truth ✋
It is AWFUL!!!! the heroine is one of the worst I have ever read in a Harlequin🤯 Poor hero, I felt sorrow for him while reading. I remember he try to do the best for her, he tried to make the MOC work, and she always misunderstood his intentions, lack of miscommunication. She is cold and bitchy 😠 I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone 🤷🏻♀️ It cost me tears to finish it, it's the truth ✋
August 28, 2023
Well, this was an angsty little read. Natalie is waiting for her father to come back from the hospital and hoping that when he returns, he'll finally retire and hand her the reins to their horse ranch operation. Well, isn't she surprised when he claims misogyny and hands the reins to Eliot Lang, an outsider, and apparently a sexy one at that. Eliot has an interest in Natalie, but he's taken what she believes is hers and she's already been through the ringer with one awful husband who more or less made her fear sex and desire, so she's harboring nothing but resentment for his presence and his ability to arouse her. But one night leads to drinking and then unexpected sex and the consequences of such a night...and next thing you know, they're both trapped in an MOC with nothing but resentment and unrequited love simmering between them.
For an oldskool, it's not bad. Eliot isn't the most awful of people, at least towards the second half of the story. In the first part, after their night of drunken sex, Natalie is ashamed of what she's done and Eliot, stinging from the rejection, decides to make use of her while he can and rapes her. His apology for that was subpar, and then when he finds out she's pregnant he railroads her into marrying him. But about the time he realizes that he has basically ruined her life, is when he becomes more sympathetic. And this is about the same time that Natalie admits to herself that she wants to be married to Eliot and has ruined their marriage before it's already begun with her resentment. But every time she tries to bridge the gap, he puts up a wall to protect himself (evidently because he loves her). So these two are a communication nightmare and a hot mess, but the angst is quite entertaining!
Others seem to find Natalie annoying, but I didn't so much. She was a traumatized and inexperienced woman who is manipulated left and right by the men around her and she's honestly confused about her own reactions to things. I sympathized with her. If I'd been seduced, impregnated and forced into marriage, you can bet I'd have been a lot colder and more difficult to live with than her. And I'd be smacking all these people who seemed to think that I was actually happy about my current circumstances...like, open your eyes people.
For an oldskool, it's not bad. Eliot isn't the most awful of people, at least towards the second half of the story. In the first part, after their night of drunken sex, Natalie is ashamed of what she's done and Eliot, stinging from the rejection, decides to make use of her while he can and rapes her. His apology for that was subpar, and then when he finds out she's pregnant he railroads her into marrying him. But about the time he realizes that he has basically ruined her life, is when he becomes more sympathetic. And this is about the same time that Natalie admits to herself that she wants to be married to Eliot and has ruined their marriage before it's already begun with her resentment. But every time she tries to bridge the gap, he puts up a wall to protect himself (evidently because he loves her). So these two are a communication nightmare and a hot mess, but the angst is quite entertaining!
Others seem to find Natalie annoying, but I didn't so much. She was a traumatized and inexperienced woman who is manipulated left and right by the men around her and she's honestly confused about her own reactions to things. I sympathized with her. If I'd been seduced, impregnated and forced into marriage, you can bet I'd have been a lot colder and more difficult to live with than her. And I'd be smacking all these people who seemed to think that I was actually happy about my current circumstances...like, open your eyes people.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 6, 2025
Honestly, for a Sara Craven novel this was almost perfect. For one, the couple spend a lot of time together. Most of Craven’s Mcs tend to flit in and out of the storyline, hardly giving the couple a chance to realistically know each other.
Another great point was the lack of the OTT final scene where the guy is about to walk out of her life forever and so she declares her feelings. This couple led up to the ending nicely and calmly.
The backstory for the fmc was easy to swallow without being intensely dramatic.
I very much liked her relationship with her wonderful stepmother.
I didn't much care for her benignly controlling father but I guess every type of parent exists. Wasn't crazy over the, let’s call it, forced seduction scene. It didn't really fit with the storyline and seemed insensitive of the author, given the background she gave the woman.
What I most disliked was the fmc not being open with her father about the lousy marriage he pushed her into. And she should have been somewhat honest with the male Mc about her fears of intimacy. You can't treat a man you slept with like a leper because YOU have issues. TALK!
Despite all that, I give it an A-.
Another great point was the lack of the OTT final scene where the guy is about to walk out of her life forever and so she declares her feelings. This couple led up to the ending nicely and calmly.
The backstory for the fmc was easy to swallow without being intensely dramatic.
I very much liked her relationship with her wonderful stepmother.
I didn't much care for her benignly controlling father but I guess every type of parent exists. Wasn't crazy over the, let’s call it, forced seduction scene. It didn't really fit with the storyline and seemed insensitive of the author, given the background she gave the woman.
What I most disliked was the fmc not being open with her father about the lousy marriage he pushed her into. And she should have been somewhat honest with the male Mc about her fears of intimacy. You can't treat a man you slept with like a leper because YOU have issues. TALK!
Despite all that, I give it an A-.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 31, 2024
I enjoyed the hero more than other HPs I’ve read. The heroine was a ninny, if that’s even a word used anymore. The ending feels so rushed like all HPs. Very few are well paced.
May 3, 2021
The h’s dad is a strict man who is biased against working women (unless they are his housekeeper and cook) and who dictates what his daughter should do and who she goes out with. And she doesn’t have the backbone to stand up against him.
It was her dream to become a horsetrainer in her father’s company. Her father knows that, yet he hires the H to do that. The H becomes her dad’s business partner.
The h is a widow. Her late husband wasn’t nice to her and cheated on her. She is another one of Sara Craven’s typical h’s. Her h’s lie a lot to the H, they say the most hurtful things to the H and they have the strangest sense of logic. The only variation in this HP is that this h isn’t blonde for once, she has red hair.
The H makes this book worthwhile. It’s clear that he feels attracted to the h from the moment they met. He lets her know he wants her.
However, their first night together makes me cringe a bit, because it seems as if he were making her drunk. But then he says she didn’t drink that much, so that’s a bit vague.
It was her dream to become a horsetrainer in her father’s company. Her father knows that, yet he hires the H to do that. The H becomes her dad’s business partner.
The h is a widow. Her late husband wasn’t nice to her and cheated on her. She is another one of Sara Craven’s typical h’s. Her h’s lie a lot to the H, they say the most hurtful things to the H and they have the strangest sense of logic. The only variation in this HP is that this h isn’t blonde for once, she has red hair.
The H makes this book worthwhile. It’s clear that he feels attracted to the h from the moment they met. He lets her know he wants her.
However, their first night together makes me cringe a bit, because it seems as if he were making her drunk. But then he says she didn’t drink that much, so that’s a bit vague.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 2, 2013
Ok, I have a soft spot for stories that take place around horses. My only real complaint on this is that it's a short book. I think the author could easily have made a nice long novel out of it and possibly a movie.
January 2, 2025
You do feel a bit for the H in this one. He gets jerked around quite a bit by the h who just doesn't know what to think. Mainly it's the dad and deceased spouse who created all the trauma and this book is the working out of all of it.
June 18, 2016
Everything is bad in this book. Everything!
Another author who thinks rape is a good thing to 'tame' a woman.
Honestly my rating should be -100 stars.
Another author who thinks rape is a good thing to 'tame' a woman.
Honestly my rating should be -100 stars.
November 14, 2016
Star Rating: ★★½☆☆
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews