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Too Hot to Handle #4
Dark Fire
Dancing with the devil..."You're certainly not in love with Paul. Because you want to go to bed with me." Devilish words indeed. But what made Flint Jansen so arrogantly assume that Aura would choose him over Paul—his friend and Aura's warm and loyal fiance? From the moment they met, he had shattered Aura's world. It was true, she found him undeniably attractive, overwhelmingly charismatic. So much so that she now faced a battle with her conscience and with Flint; both demanded that she abandon security and her fiance. She had to cancel the wedding—but could she entrust herself to Flint's dark seduction...?
288 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1994
13 people are currently reading
172 people want to read
About the author
Robyn Donald
448 books148 followersRobyn Elaine Donald was born on 14 August 1940 in Northland, New Zealand. She was the oldest child in her family, and as a child, she thrilled her four sisters and one brother with bloodcurdling adventure tales, usually very like the latest book she'd borrowed from the library.
Robyn owes her writing career to two illnesses. The first was a younger sister's flu. She was living with her husband and Robyn and spent most of that winter acquiring, suffering, and recovering from various infections. One day she croaked that she had read everything on Robyn's bookshelves, so would Robyn please buy her something cheerful and sustaining. Robyn found three paperbacks- one Mills and Boon Modern Romance novel and a couple of other romances. Robyn read them, too, of course, and so enjoyed them she spent the next couple of years hunting down more Mills and Boon books. This was much more difficult then than it is today, so she decided to write her own, and for the following busy 10 years she wrote and hoped that one day she would finish a manuscript good enough that was good enough to send to a publisher.
The second illness was her husband's, and it was bad a heart attack. He was so young it terrified them all. While he was recovering, he suggested that Robyn finish the manuscript she was writing and send it off. It wasn't a perfect manuscript, but the doctor had said to humour her husband, so she finished the manuscript, edited it as best she could, and sent it off. Three months later, she was astounded to read a letter from the editor saying that if She made a few revisions they would buy her novel Bride at Whangatapu.
Published since 1977, Robyn sees her readers as intelligent women who insist on accurate backgrounds, so she spends time researching as well as writing.Robyn Donald sometimes thinks that writing is much like gardening. It's a similar process creating landscapes for the mind and emotions from the seeds of ideas and dreams and images. Both activities can also lead to moments of extreme delight, moments of total despair, and backache.Now Robyn lives in the Bay Islands. She continues writing, and also finds time for a very supportive husband, two adult children and their partners, a granddaughter and her mother, not to mention the member of the family that keeps her fit - a loud, cheerful, and ruthlessly determined "almost" Labradordog.
Robyn owes her writing career to two illnesses. The first was a younger sister's flu. She was living with her husband and Robyn and spent most of that winter acquiring, suffering, and recovering from various infections. One day she croaked that she had read everything on Robyn's bookshelves, so would Robyn please buy her something cheerful and sustaining. Robyn found three paperbacks- one Mills and Boon Modern Romance novel and a couple of other romances. Robyn read them, too, of course, and so enjoyed them she spent the next couple of years hunting down more Mills and Boon books. This was much more difficult then than it is today, so she decided to write her own, and for the following busy 10 years she wrote and hoped that one day she would finish a manuscript good enough that was good enough to send to a publisher.
The second illness was her husband's, and it was bad a heart attack. He was so young it terrified them all. While he was recovering, he suggested that Robyn finish the manuscript she was writing and send it off. It wasn't a perfect manuscript, but the doctor had said to humour her husband, so she finished the manuscript, edited it as best she could, and sent it off. Three months later, she was astounded to read a letter from the editor saying that if She made a few revisions they would buy her novel Bride at Whangatapu.
Published since 1977, Robyn sees her readers as intelligent women who insist on accurate backgrounds, so she spends time researching as well as writing.Robyn Donald sometimes thinks that writing is much like gardening. It's a similar process creating landscapes for the mind and emotions from the seeds of ideas and dreams and images. Both activities can also lead to moments of extreme delight, moments of total despair, and backache.Now Robyn lives in the Bay Islands. She continues writing, and also finds time for a very supportive husband, two adult children and their partners, a granddaughter and her mother, not to mention the member of the family that keeps her fit - a loud, cheerful, and ruthlessly determined "almost" Labradordog.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
December 28, 2021
Engaged heroine meets her fiance's best man two weeks before the wedding and - oh, dear. The best man really *isn't* the best man in any way, shape or form. The fiance is a good, generous guy who just doesn't turn the bride's crank. Unfortunately, the best man does.
Oh, she denies it, of course, and avoids him and hopes for the best and agonizes and the 'best man' is relentless in his chase. He says it's to save his friend from the gold-digging tramp heroine, but lets get real - he wants her, too.
I like my angst contained to the H/h, so this missed out on four stars. It is that intense of a story, though. If you're in the mood for angst - this is a good one.
Oh, she denies it, of course, and avoids him and hopes for the best and agonizes and the 'best man' is relentless in his chase. He says it's to save his friend from the gold-digging tramp heroine, but lets get real - he wants her, too.
I like my angst contained to the H/h, so this missed out on four stars. It is that intense of a story, though. If you're in the mood for angst - this is a good one.
July 10, 2018
Re Dark Fire - Robyn Donald manages to get spots in both HP mini-series running for the first six months of 1995. This is her contribution to the Too Hot to Handle series and is also a continuation of RD's The Forsythes series.
This is the second of the Forsythe books and it is about the female cousin of the H in Some Kind of Madness. It isn't necessary to read the first book to understand this one, but for more background on Aura, the heroine in our story, it is a great place to start.
The Too Hot to Handle series contains HP H's that are much more nematodish that the Secrets series. So while RD had a much kinder, gentler H in The Colour of Midnight and that book was more a study in survivor guilt, this book features an all out rat dropping toe rag slime swiller of an H. He is NOT overtly violent, but his damaging antics and how far he will go is pretty shocking.
The book opens with Aura, who is engaged to Paul, meeting Flint, the slime swiller, for the very first time. Paul is a sweetheart and he adores Aura and Aura loves Paul, he makes her feel safe and cared for.
Aura's backstory is that her father was a doctor and decided to go to Africa to work with people there. Aura's mother, Natalie is a useless sewer slurper helpless gold digger of a woman and she refused to go, she just couldn't face life in a place with no modern conveniences up to her standard.
Sadly, Aura's dad did not take Aura with him when he left and her useless and pathetic mother remarried a guy who was a controlling martinet and Aura hated him. This same disgusting, wanna be pedophillic snot scarfer was also given control of Aura's trust fund by her skank tart idiot mother.
Aura got her cousin Alick, the H from Some Kind of Madness, to front her a loan for uni and she got a double degree in IT and Accounting while working extra to pay Alick back. Then her stepfather shoots himself in the head and dies and it all comes out that the controlling wanna be pedophile also spent the family fortune on gambling and women and Natalie is just too fragile to deal with it all, so she takes an overdose of sleeping pills.
Aura is a decent person, so she calls the paramedics and her mother is saved. It was a stupid decision, but this HPlandia and so Natalie being cossetted while Aura devotes her self to the ungrateful, useless twit is a given.
Aura had been engaged twice before, she is incredibly beautiful with the kind of pin-up girl looks that made her childhood friend's father tell her all about how he wanted to do explicit things to her fourteen year old self. Aura managed to get some poise and threaten the guy a few years later, but her inner self is permanently marred by how men treat her as a sex object only good for one thing.
Aura couldn't handle being touched in any type of intimate way in her previous engagements, so she broke them off. However Paul is so kind and nurturing towards her, that Aura is positive they are going to have a sunny, safe and happy life together and she is adamant that she will make Paul a perfect wife.
There is also the small matter of Paul being willing to help her mother out financially too. So while it makes Aura uncomfortable, Natalie uses her wiles to get Paul to pay for a new flat and Aura realized a long time ago that Natalie has to be nudged, not jack hammered with a skillet, to get around her manipulations.
Besides, Aura has every intention of developing Accounting software systems on her own and surely once she gets established as Paul's wife and starts her business, she will be able to take care of Natalie's extra spending herself. Natalie does have an annuity that she can live on as well, Aura's grandfather bound it up in an unbreakable trust.
None of that matters to Flint tho, he looks at Aura and all he sees is a gold digger tramp and he lets Aura know it. To add to the boiling aura of tension and dislike, he and Aura are both having a bitter blow of the Patented HP Lurve Force Mojo.
Aura realizes that she is physically attracted to Flint and she hates it. Flint is more enigmatic, but he makes it clear that the attraction is mutual. So there is accusations of Tarty Tramp Gold Diggery Harlothood from Flint to Aura and Aura ends up slapping Flint's arrogant, pirate, marauding face.
Flint decides to pump the narcissistic slime snot Natalie for more ammunition against Aura and Natalie, being Natalie, gives Flint plenty of ballistics to aim at Aura and her engagement to Paul. At Aura's engagement party we learn a bit more about Flint.
He was the son of a Bernie Madoff type who embezzled money from the parent's of the kids at the exclusive boarding school Flint and Paul both attended. He learned to defend himself from an early age against the school bullies and Paul helped with that, now he is a high priced trouble shooter for a big international conglomerate.
Flint goes around sorting out dicey situations, but his soon to be implemented future plan is to become a major Red Wine Vintner north of Auckland and go into competition with France for the World's Best Red Wine.
We also learn that Paul and Flint are BFF's, but Flint has walked off with the only other woman Paul cared about before. There is a seekrit streak of envy of Flint in Paul and tho Paul claims that Flint wasn't at fault in the incident, his girlfriend dumped him to chase Flint with no encouragement, it is an ominous foreshadowing of what is about to occur.
None of that really matters much to Flint's treatment of Aura tho, he is convinced she is wrong for Paul and he goes all out to break them up. The tart shaming of Aura is never ending and Paul contributes fuel to the fire when he decides that Flint is an admirable escort for Aura while Paul has to take an emergency business trip.
(In hindsight, this was rather mean of Paul, he knows Aura's problems with men and that she feels safe with him, but loyalty is paramount to Paul. So he practically gift wraps Aura and hands her to Flint on a platter, knowing that Flint is pretty indomitable in getting what he wants and that this will be the ultimate test of Aura's loyalty.)
Flint forces Aura to go out with him to Paul's planned excursion to the opera. Ironically the plot is about two men as close as brothers destroying each other over a woman- Bizet's The Pearl Fishers. Aura comes to the sickening realization that she is physically entrapped by Flint and because of that useless urge of Lurve Force Mojo, she can never marry Paul and now she has to cancel the wedding.
Aura is in love or obsession and tho she knows Flint only wants to use her body and dump her, she can't help herself. She has enough character to know that she can't marry Paul, but before she can respectfully break things off with Paul, Flint steps in to really mess things up.
There is a near miss accident on the road with Flint and Aura's car and Flint uses that to stage a fairly forceful semi- seduction moment. There are some really harsh words about friendship, sex and disloyalty exchanged between the two of them and Aura resolves to end it with Paul, but she dreads doing it, Natalie is going to freak out.
Aura goes and talks to Alick, her cousin and he tells her he will deal with her mother. But then Aura finds out Natalie has a huge seekrit debt and Aura has to sell her jewelry to pay it. Natalie insists that Aura take some wedding gifts over to Paul's apartment. Aura doesn't want to do it because Flint is living there, but reluctantly she goes.
It is a set up by Flint, Paul walks in when Flint is physically harassing Aura and he goes ballistic. Aura ends up walking home three miles in the rain, having to cancel her wedding and finding out that her stupid, disgusting tramp of slime swiller mother has mortgaged their flat. Aura needs a ton of money and Natalie is of course useless.
They have a huge fight and Aura winds up selling practically everything they own. Aura's friend Jessica steps up with a modeling job and Aura sends her mother off to Alick's family and models during the day and tries to finish up her revolutionary accounting software package in the off times.
She is managing, but then she runs into Flint while on a photo shoot. The inevitable big night of Purple Passion happens, but Flint just walks away in the morning and Aura knows that she is doomed to be forever in love with Flint after being used. She foolishly thought she could get rid of the attraction by giving into her urges and her unicorn grooming is done forever.
Flint realizes that he was her first, but he claims she isn't over Paul because she fell asleep and had a horrible nightmare that woke him up. Plus, he really doesn't care, he just wanted to bring her down to a level where he could disparage her completely and his job is done, so off he goes to the HP mists.
Aura gets on with getting on, her mother manages to use her wiles to snag a rich Canadian and RD mercilessly inflicts Natalie on the unsuspecting people of Calgary. (I felt for those people and I wouldn't blame Canada or Calgary for declaring Natalie's arrival to be an Act of War and taking appropriate counter measures against New Zealand for it.)
Aura finds out that Flint is ready to start his winery and lost to the mopey moment, she decides to go check it out. She runs into Flint's partner there and this leads to Flint showing up when Aura takes a little trip to RD's Fala' isi for her modeling contract.
She is walking on the beach and crying when Flint seeks her out. He claims he wants to return her jewelry that she sold to pay part of Natalie's debts, but really he is there because he can't live without her. He does a pretty desperate "I am in love with you tho I treated you like dirt" speech and the h foolishly gives in with nary a protest.
She agrees to marry Flint, subverting his plan to ravage her in bed until she turned up preggers and was forced to marry him and we find out that he and Paul are no longer BFF's, that doesn't matter to Flint, his obsession with possessing Aura is all that he cares about. He lied to Paul about sleeping with Aura when he did not, so that tells us just how determined he was to drag Aura into his muck.
(Paul, who has some messed up things of his own to deal with, will get his HEA in the next Forsythe book during a Giant Penguin invasion, A Forbidden Desire.)
We get a little epilogue where Aura and Flint are married and their winery is a huge success, Aura does the accounting and promotions for it. They have plot moppets and a big wine launch. Paul shows up and for some reason RD has him apologize for the past.
Flint doesn't care because he has Aura and she doesn't care cause Aura feels that her and Flint were inevitable and it was better that she and Paul did not marry, otherwise she would be guilty of adultery too. So all is resolved and Flint and Aura's future is assured in another rosy glow RD HPlanida outing.
This one is extremely intense and Flint is epitome of sewer slurping in this. RD does a good job of keeping Aura just on the right side of betrayal in the force of Lurve Mojo Passion, but Flint is truly a big toe rag.
The two of them deserve each other, but I still felt Flint needed to acknowledge his own complicity a bit more. Aura suffered severely for his arrogance and I really did not feel his big speech at the end or the epilogue five years on really made up for that.
Still the book is very well written and while the subject is a bit tacky, you could do much worse for a little HP outing.
This is the second of the Forsythe books and it is about the female cousin of the H in Some Kind of Madness. It isn't necessary to read the first book to understand this one, but for more background on Aura, the heroine in our story, it is a great place to start.
The Too Hot to Handle series contains HP H's that are much more nematodish that the Secrets series. So while RD had a much kinder, gentler H in The Colour of Midnight and that book was more a study in survivor guilt, this book features an all out rat dropping toe rag slime swiller of an H. He is NOT overtly violent, but his damaging antics and how far he will go is pretty shocking.
The book opens with Aura, who is engaged to Paul, meeting Flint, the slime swiller, for the very first time. Paul is a sweetheart and he adores Aura and Aura loves Paul, he makes her feel safe and cared for.
Aura's backstory is that her father was a doctor and decided to go to Africa to work with people there. Aura's mother, Natalie is a useless sewer slurper helpless gold digger of a woman and she refused to go, she just couldn't face life in a place with no modern conveniences up to her standard.
Sadly, Aura's dad did not take Aura with him when he left and her useless and pathetic mother remarried a guy who was a controlling martinet and Aura hated him. This same disgusting, wanna be pedophillic snot scarfer was also given control of Aura's trust fund by her skank tart idiot mother.
Aura got her cousin Alick, the H from Some Kind of Madness, to front her a loan for uni and she got a double degree in IT and Accounting while working extra to pay Alick back. Then her stepfather shoots himself in the head and dies and it all comes out that the controlling wanna be pedophile also spent the family fortune on gambling and women and Natalie is just too fragile to deal with it all, so she takes an overdose of sleeping pills.
Aura is a decent person, so she calls the paramedics and her mother is saved. It was a stupid decision, but this HPlandia and so Natalie being cossetted while Aura devotes her self to the ungrateful, useless twit is a given.
Aura had been engaged twice before, she is incredibly beautiful with the kind of pin-up girl looks that made her childhood friend's father tell her all about how he wanted to do explicit things to her fourteen year old self. Aura managed to get some poise and threaten the guy a few years later, but her inner self is permanently marred by how men treat her as a sex object only good for one thing.
Aura couldn't handle being touched in any type of intimate way in her previous engagements, so she broke them off. However Paul is so kind and nurturing towards her, that Aura is positive they are going to have a sunny, safe and happy life together and she is adamant that she will make Paul a perfect wife.
There is also the small matter of Paul being willing to help her mother out financially too. So while it makes Aura uncomfortable, Natalie uses her wiles to get Paul to pay for a new flat and Aura realized a long time ago that Natalie has to be nudged, not jack hammered with a skillet, to get around her manipulations.
Besides, Aura has every intention of developing Accounting software systems on her own and surely once she gets established as Paul's wife and starts her business, she will be able to take care of Natalie's extra spending herself. Natalie does have an annuity that she can live on as well, Aura's grandfather bound it up in an unbreakable trust.
None of that matters to Flint tho, he looks at Aura and all he sees is a gold digger tramp and he lets Aura know it. To add to the boiling aura of tension and dislike, he and Aura are both having a bitter blow of the Patented HP Lurve Force Mojo.
Aura realizes that she is physically attracted to Flint and she hates it. Flint is more enigmatic, but he makes it clear that the attraction is mutual. So there is accusations of Tarty Tramp Gold Diggery Harlothood from Flint to Aura and Aura ends up slapping Flint's arrogant, pirate, marauding face.
Flint decides to pump the narcissistic slime snot Natalie for more ammunition against Aura and Natalie, being Natalie, gives Flint plenty of ballistics to aim at Aura and her engagement to Paul. At Aura's engagement party we learn a bit more about Flint.
He was the son of a Bernie Madoff type who embezzled money from the parent's of the kids at the exclusive boarding school Flint and Paul both attended. He learned to defend himself from an early age against the school bullies and Paul helped with that, now he is a high priced trouble shooter for a big international conglomerate.
Flint goes around sorting out dicey situations, but his soon to be implemented future plan is to become a major Red Wine Vintner north of Auckland and go into competition with France for the World's Best Red Wine.
We also learn that Paul and Flint are BFF's, but Flint has walked off with the only other woman Paul cared about before. There is a seekrit streak of envy of Flint in Paul and tho Paul claims that Flint wasn't at fault in the incident, his girlfriend dumped him to chase Flint with no encouragement, it is an ominous foreshadowing of what is about to occur.
None of that really matters much to Flint's treatment of Aura tho, he is convinced she is wrong for Paul and he goes all out to break them up. The tart shaming of Aura is never ending and Paul contributes fuel to the fire when he decides that Flint is an admirable escort for Aura while Paul has to take an emergency business trip.
(In hindsight, this was rather mean of Paul, he knows Aura's problems with men and that she feels safe with him, but loyalty is paramount to Paul. So he practically gift wraps Aura and hands her to Flint on a platter, knowing that Flint is pretty indomitable in getting what he wants and that this will be the ultimate test of Aura's loyalty.)
Flint forces Aura to go out with him to Paul's planned excursion to the opera. Ironically the plot is about two men as close as brothers destroying each other over a woman- Bizet's The Pearl Fishers. Aura comes to the sickening realization that she is physically entrapped by Flint and because of that useless urge of Lurve Force Mojo, she can never marry Paul and now she has to cancel the wedding.
Aura is in love or obsession and tho she knows Flint only wants to use her body and dump her, she can't help herself. She has enough character to know that she can't marry Paul, but before she can respectfully break things off with Paul, Flint steps in to really mess things up.
There is a near miss accident on the road with Flint and Aura's car and Flint uses that to stage a fairly forceful semi- seduction moment. There are some really harsh words about friendship, sex and disloyalty exchanged between the two of them and Aura resolves to end it with Paul, but she dreads doing it, Natalie is going to freak out.
Aura goes and talks to Alick, her cousin and he tells her he will deal with her mother. But then Aura finds out Natalie has a huge seekrit debt and Aura has to sell her jewelry to pay it. Natalie insists that Aura take some wedding gifts over to Paul's apartment. Aura doesn't want to do it because Flint is living there, but reluctantly she goes.
It is a set up by Flint, Paul walks in when Flint is physically harassing Aura and he goes ballistic. Aura ends up walking home three miles in the rain, having to cancel her wedding and finding out that her stupid, disgusting tramp of slime swiller mother has mortgaged their flat. Aura needs a ton of money and Natalie is of course useless.
They have a huge fight and Aura winds up selling practically everything they own. Aura's friend Jessica steps up with a modeling job and Aura sends her mother off to Alick's family and models during the day and tries to finish up her revolutionary accounting software package in the off times.
She is managing, but then she runs into Flint while on a photo shoot. The inevitable big night of Purple Passion happens, but Flint just walks away in the morning and Aura knows that she is doomed to be forever in love with Flint after being used. She foolishly thought she could get rid of the attraction by giving into her urges and her unicorn grooming is done forever.
Flint realizes that he was her first, but he claims she isn't over Paul because she fell asleep and had a horrible nightmare that woke him up. Plus, he really doesn't care, he just wanted to bring her down to a level where he could disparage her completely and his job is done, so off he goes to the HP mists.
Aura gets on with getting on, her mother manages to use her wiles to snag a rich Canadian and RD mercilessly inflicts Natalie on the unsuspecting people of Calgary. (I felt for those people and I wouldn't blame Canada or Calgary for declaring Natalie's arrival to be an Act of War and taking appropriate counter measures against New Zealand for it.)
Aura finds out that Flint is ready to start his winery and lost to the mopey moment, she decides to go check it out. She runs into Flint's partner there and this leads to Flint showing up when Aura takes a little trip to RD's Fala' isi for her modeling contract.
She is walking on the beach and crying when Flint seeks her out. He claims he wants to return her jewelry that she sold to pay part of Natalie's debts, but really he is there because he can't live without her. He does a pretty desperate "I am in love with you tho I treated you like dirt" speech and the h foolishly gives in with nary a protest.
She agrees to marry Flint, subverting his plan to ravage her in bed until she turned up preggers and was forced to marry him and we find out that he and Paul are no longer BFF's, that doesn't matter to Flint, his obsession with possessing Aura is all that he cares about. He lied to Paul about sleeping with Aura when he did not, so that tells us just how determined he was to drag Aura into his muck.
(Paul, who has some messed up things of his own to deal with, will get his HEA in the next Forsythe book during a Giant Penguin invasion, A Forbidden Desire.)
We get a little epilogue where Aura and Flint are married and their winery is a huge success, Aura does the accounting and promotions for it. They have plot moppets and a big wine launch. Paul shows up and for some reason RD has him apologize for the past.
Flint doesn't care because he has Aura and she doesn't care cause Aura feels that her and Flint were inevitable and it was better that she and Paul did not marry, otherwise she would be guilty of adultery too. So all is resolved and Flint and Aura's future is assured in another rosy glow RD HPlanida outing.
This one is extremely intense and Flint is epitome of sewer slurping in this. RD does a good job of keeping Aura just on the right side of betrayal in the force of Lurve Mojo Passion, but Flint is truly a big toe rag.
The two of them deserve each other, but I still felt Flint needed to acknowledge his own complicity a bit more. Aura suffered severely for his arrogance and I really did not feel his big speech at the end or the epilogue five years on really made up for that.
Still the book is very well written and while the subject is a bit tacky, you could do much worse for a little HP outing.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 7, 2016
What a hideously vile group of characters here. The so-called hero was the worst; heroine not much better, and the ever-clinging, materialistic aggravating mother that annoys everyone but especially the readers.
I'm giving a 1 star for vile hero/heroine, but it is a well done book. The writing, the set up and angst are 4 stars.
Aura, the h is engaged to be married and loves Paul. Flint, Paul's best friend from childhood, shows up and jumps right into the you must be a gold-digger trope at first glance. He stalks and molests his BEST FRIEND'S fiancee and warns her she'll never marry Paul. She tries to fight off her attraction to fucking Flint as she really does love her fiancee, but she knows she's not IN love with him. Due to some trauma as a teen and more daddy issues than I want to get into, she has trust issues and is in need of love and stability. Paul provides that plus he doesn't make her skin crawl. Lucky Paul. The fighting-off thing against Flint doesn't work too well as any reader of a Harlequin will know.
Bottom line, Aura realizes that she can't marry Paul although she'll have to put up with her mother's whining and carrying on. Like I said, few good people here. She resolves to tell Paul after a mega grope session with Flint the SOB rat-bastard. Well, Flint, the SOB bastard, jumps the gun and stages an intervention along the lines of let's-get-caught by Paul. I want to remind you that these men have been best friends since they were 8 and 9.
Long story short, Paul actually expresses some kinda scary outrage that with another author could have been hot. The engagement is over and fallout begins.
Aura falls into a modeling job. Of course. She ends up running into Flint months later and, yippee, loses her virginity. It's awesome because who is worthier than the man that called you a slut, a gold-digger and betrayed his childhood best friend who defended him as a kid.
Even more months later, her mother is married off to a rich tycoon in Canada (Hallelujah, as the h lives in New Zealand), and effin' Flint shows up again. He has some of the jewelry she sold to pay off her mother's debt. She explains she is going to move from modeling into accounting and computers as that's her field of study. Color the SOB rat-bastard surprised as he may lust after her, but still thinks she's a shallow/user bimbo.
Bottom line, Flint fell in love with at first sight, and there was no way he was going to let her marry Paul.
He let her go after the breakup with Paul and after they had sex the first time as she needed to get over her relationship with Paul. Yeah. Uh huh.
Epilogue shows them happy as clams with two kids and a successful winery. Paul shows up and effing' apologizes for making a fuss. Excuse the F out of me! Why the hell should YOU apologize? Once again, they acknowledge that nothing could keep them apart even ripping out Paul's heart.
I HATED THESE TWO! Spare me the "We have to be together, Heathcliffian love" BS. I just don't buy it. There had to be some way they could have been together without destroying Paul the fiancee. I place the onus on the hero as he was the best friend and the impetus of change.
I'm giving a 1 star for vile hero/heroine, but it is a well done book. The writing, the set up and angst are 4 stars.
Aura, the h is engaged to be married and loves Paul. Flint, Paul's best friend from childhood, shows up and jumps right into the you must be a gold-digger trope at first glance. He stalks and molests his BEST FRIEND'S fiancee and warns her she'll never marry Paul. She tries to fight off her attraction to fucking Flint as she really does love her fiancee, but she knows she's not IN love with him. Due to some trauma as a teen and more daddy issues than I want to get into, she has trust issues and is in need of love and stability. Paul provides that plus he doesn't make her skin crawl. Lucky Paul. The fighting-off thing against Flint doesn't work too well as any reader of a Harlequin will know.
Bottom line, Aura realizes that she can't marry Paul although she'll have to put up with her mother's whining and carrying on. Like I said, few good people here. She resolves to tell Paul after a mega grope session with Flint the SOB rat-bastard. Well, Flint, the SOB bastard, jumps the gun and stages an intervention along the lines of let's-get-caught by Paul. I want to remind you that these men have been best friends since they were 8 and 9.
Long story short, Paul actually expresses some kinda scary outrage that with another author could have been hot. The engagement is over and fallout begins.
Aura falls into a modeling job. Of course. She ends up running into Flint months later and, yippee, loses her virginity. It's awesome because who is worthier than the man that called you a slut, a gold-digger and betrayed his childhood best friend who defended him as a kid.
Even more months later, her mother is married off to a rich tycoon in Canada (Hallelujah, as the h lives in New Zealand), and effin' Flint shows up again. He has some of the jewelry she sold to pay off her mother's debt. She explains she is going to move from modeling into accounting and computers as that's her field of study. Color the SOB rat-bastard surprised as he may lust after her, but still thinks she's a shallow/user bimbo.
Bottom line, Flint fell in love with at first sight, and there was no way he was going to let her marry Paul.
He let her go after the breakup with Paul and after they had sex the first time as she needed to get over her relationship with Paul. Yeah. Uh huh.
Epilogue shows them happy as clams with two kids and a successful winery. Paul shows up and effing' apologizes for making a fuss. Excuse the F out of me! Why the hell should YOU apologize? Once again, they acknowledge that nothing could keep them apart even ripping out Paul's heart.
I HATED THESE TWO! Spare me the "We have to be together, Heathcliffian love" BS. I just don't buy it. There had to be some way they could have been together without destroying Paul the fiancee. I place the onus on the hero as he was the best friend and the impetus of change.
January 10, 2015
Aura loves her fiance Paul for the tenderness and security he gives her, so she’s horrified when his best friend Flint strikes sparks in her she’s never felt before. Even worse, Flint believes she's only marrying Paul for his money -- and he’ll do anything he can to come between them.
This was my second read of Dark Fire and it held up. It’s a very intense story and definitely won’t be to everyone’s taste: there’s no rape or physical abuse, but Flint is very manipulative and verbally cruel to begin with. It works (for me) because of the intensity of their passion and because there’s growth in Aura’s character that give balance to their relationship; at the end of the story, I felt they met as equals.
This was my second read of Dark Fire and it held up. It’s a very intense story and definitely won’t be to everyone’s taste: there’s no rape or physical abuse, but Flint is very manipulative and verbally cruel to begin with. It works (for me) because of the intensity of their passion and because there’s growth in Aura’s character that give balance to their relationship; at the end of the story, I felt they met as equals.
December 21, 2021
The heroine is a slut and a bitch.
Her mother is a pimp and a slut too.
The hero is a pig and a louse.
So much for being a psychologist and knowing I don't have to judge people without knowing their reasons.
But this threesome is too much even for me.
The hero should be om's best friend and his best man.
He sees the heroine and decides she's a gold-digger who doesn't love his friend and wants to have sex with him.
He seduces her - forcibly, and forces her to leave her fiance.
Om is shattered: his best friend and his fiancee. The best of clichè.
The heroine understands that she can't marry her fiance since she's on fire whenever the hero is around.
What a pair.
They meet again accidentally while she's modeling and they have a ons, but she has a nightmare and wakes up crying her ex fiance's name and the hero of course is a lil hurt and thinks she's still in love with om.
She leaves without an explanation and keeps on modeling.
The hero eventually goes to her and tells her he wanted her as soon as he saw her and he only wanted to wait until she was over om, but he can't live without her.
The book was well written but the characters are awful.
The hero is the worst friend one can ever have.
Om helped him when he was bullied at school and this is what he gets in return.
The heroine is a hipocrite and a coward (and a slut).
She used the om to feel safe and didn't really love him.
I know om has a book with his own story but I don't think I'll read it, he was a deluded man and it was the second time he fell in love with a woman and the hero stole her.
In the end there's a sort of reconciliation between the hero, the heroine and om, but I don't think they deserved one.
Her mother is a pimp and a slut too.
The hero is a pig and a louse.
So much for being a psychologist and knowing I don't have to judge people without knowing their reasons.
But this threesome is too much even for me.
The hero should be om's best friend and his best man.
He sees the heroine and decides she's a gold-digger who doesn't love his friend and wants to have sex with him.
He seduces her - forcibly, and forces her to leave her fiance.
Om is shattered: his best friend and his fiancee. The best of clichè.
The heroine understands that she can't marry her fiance since she's on fire whenever the hero is around.
What a pair.
They meet again accidentally while she's modeling and they have a ons, but she has a nightmare and wakes up crying her ex fiance's name and the hero of course is a lil hurt and thinks she's still in love with om.
She leaves without an explanation and keeps on modeling.
The hero eventually goes to her and tells her he wanted her as soon as he saw her and he only wanted to wait until she was over om, but he can't live without her.
The book was well written but the characters are awful.
The hero is the worst friend one can ever have.
Om helped him when he was bullied at school and this is what he gets in return.
The heroine is a hipocrite and a coward (and a slut).
She used the om to feel safe and didn't really love him.
I know om has a book with his own story but I don't think I'll read it, he was a deluded man and it was the second time he fell in love with a woman and the hero stole her.
In the end there's a sort of reconciliation between the hero, the heroine and om, but I don't think they deserved one.
July 31, 2011
Aura loves her fiance Paul, but she doesn't love him that way that she feels for Flint. To Aura, Paul is comfort and safety. Flint is danger, white hot passion, and as far from 'safe' as possible. But Flint keeps pushing at her, tormenting her with the desire she feels for him, and the fact that he thinks she's nothing but a gold digger. That makes Flint a big jerk in my opinion. Even if he is right and Aura is making a mistake marrying Paul. He might try to deceive himself into thinking he's doing it for his friend's own good, but the truth is he wanted Aura for himself.
I felt bad for Aura. She really did want to do the right thing, and she knew she wouldn't marry Paul when it became clear that she was so blatantly in lust with his friend. If only Flint had trusted Aura to do the right thing.
I can't remember if I've read this before. Chances are I did, but I still enjoyed it. The passion and the emotional intensity are all there in this story. Aura's situation tugged on my heart, and I think with her emotional integrity, she deserved her happy ending. I wasn't 100% convinced that was with Flint until the end, and then I was satisfied that he truly did love her. I loved the epilogue, because it showed how they were meant to be together, and also things are resolved with Paul and Flint and Paul and Aura.
I think this is one of Robyn Donald's best books. Flint is definitely her style of cruel hero, but I saw some things in him that redeems him in my eyes. I enjoyed this book.
I felt bad for Aura. She really did want to do the right thing, and she knew she wouldn't marry Paul when it became clear that she was so blatantly in lust with his friend. If only Flint had trusted Aura to do the right thing.
I can't remember if I've read this before. Chances are I did, but I still enjoyed it. The passion and the emotional intensity are all there in this story. Aura's situation tugged on my heart, and I think with her emotional integrity, she deserved her happy ending. I wasn't 100% convinced that was with Flint until the end, and then I was satisfied that he truly did love her. I loved the epilogue, because it showed how they were meant to be together, and also things are resolved with Paul and Flint and Paul and Aura.
I think this is one of Robyn Donald's best books. Flint is definitely her style of cruel hero, but I saw some things in him that redeems him in my eyes. I enjoyed this book.
September 25, 2013
Full Review at: Review: Dark Fire
January 14, 2022
I liked it. 🤷🏼♀️🤣
November 13, 2011
Those old RD books are a bit strange for me. As I've never been in New Zealand I don't know anything about this country or its people, besides they are from England. And in those books I feel like I'm in a strange victorian romance, with all those tea parties and gentlemen and huge plantations. Really they seem to be coming straight from another era.
But the book was good. I think RD has heroines who cannot resist their men. But they're not weak or whining, just overhelmed by the sexuality of themselves and their lovers. And this book followed that rule.
I loved the heroine Aura, too young to be in charge of so many things in hre life and I can relate with her desire to have a mean to lean on. But she was strong and ready to see her mistakes and make amends.
A good book. I really like this author.
But the book was good. I think RD has heroines who cannot resist their men. But they're not weak or whining, just overhelmed by the sexuality of themselves and their lovers. And this book followed that rule.
I loved the heroine Aura, too young to be in charge of so many things in hre life and I can relate with her desire to have a mean to lean on. But she was strong and ready to see her mistakes and make amends.
A good book. I really like this author.
March 19, 2018
Aura is all set to marry Paul in two weeks when she meets his best friend Flint, and is instantly attracted to him. Flint thinks she’s pretty hot too, but also that she’s a gold-digging tramp, so he drags her up to Auckland’s most romantic lookout spot to lecture her on her all-round disgustingness, and to mash on her face.
Poor Aura’s got problems. Her mother has always been a selfish numpty, and when her second husband dies it’s discovered that he went through all the money (including Aura’s trust fund) he could get his hands on, and now Natalie is living in substandard accommodation and Aura is lecturing her about spending habits. She had something of a breakdown after her husband’s death and is only just coming out of it now. Assisted by the fact that Paul is wealthy and is buying her a very nice flat, and would have bought her a car too, if Aura hadn’t been such a wet blanket about pre-wedding mooching.
Aura is also cursed with the sort of beauty that makes men want to grab her boobs and fill her ears with perverted sex talk, and theoretically this makes her nothing out of the ordinary, but still sucks for her. And, looking after her mother has meant she can’t follow her dream of writing a revolutionary piece of accounting software. She loves Paul, and Flint should just shut his sexy pirate face.
Which, of course he doesn’t. Flint orchestrates the end of Paul and Aura’s engagement in the most brutally awful way that he can contrive, and Aura is left sad and humiliated and with a huge stack of bills she can’t really pay. Flint is a manipulator. I did not like his name, I did not like his face, I did not like anything about him.
I get the angst. I like that Donald doesn’t make it easier for herself by, for example, revealing that Paul is a monster, but this is a really tough plot to pull off without the lead characters looking like awful people. Donald develops a nearly paranormal-level of attraction between her leads, and while I usually like this approach it wasn’t enough. I could not get over how badly this turned out for Paul.
I’d hoped for better from Aura. She first turned up in her cousin Alick’s book. Alick broke off his almost-engagement with a very sweet girl (who I didn’t like much) to take up with the heroine, and while that plot is a mirror to this one, it feels more awful here. She’s had a miserable life, and I’m sad for her, but she doesn’t get much growth in this story: she just gets more suffering followed by a HEA. And, an epilogue. I’m always sad when I realise I’ve reached the Age of Epilogues. Goodbye abrupt endings, where everyone is miserable until the last three pages, I’ll miss you. Hello boring happy people having children and throwing parties because they’re now living their dream etc blah blah blah.
The brightest spot in this book is that Natalie finds herself a rich Canadian to marry, and surprisingly: falls in love with him. It’s a very minor transformation. She’s never going to be a good mother by any standards, and RD heroines are always slightly contemptuous of women who cling to men and won’t shift for themselves, but honestly: she may as well have a nice life and be happy and in a different time zone so Aura doesn’t have to worry about her.
Poor Aura’s got problems. Her mother has always been a selfish numpty, and when her second husband dies it’s discovered that he went through all the money (including Aura’s trust fund) he could get his hands on, and now Natalie is living in substandard accommodation and Aura is lecturing her about spending habits. She had something of a breakdown after her husband’s death and is only just coming out of it now. Assisted by the fact that Paul is wealthy and is buying her a very nice flat, and would have bought her a car too, if Aura hadn’t been such a wet blanket about pre-wedding mooching.
Aura is also cursed with the sort of beauty that makes men want to grab her boobs and fill her ears with perverted sex talk, and theoretically this makes her nothing out of the ordinary, but still sucks for her. And, looking after her mother has meant she can’t follow her dream of writing a revolutionary piece of accounting software. She loves Paul, and Flint should just shut his sexy pirate face.
Which, of course he doesn’t. Flint orchestrates the end of Paul and Aura’s engagement in the most brutally awful way that he can contrive, and Aura is left sad and humiliated and with a huge stack of bills she can’t really pay. Flint is a manipulator. I did not like his name, I did not like his face, I did not like anything about him.
I get the angst. I like that Donald doesn’t make it easier for herself by, for example, revealing that Paul is a monster, but this is a really tough plot to pull off without the lead characters looking like awful people. Donald develops a nearly paranormal-level of attraction between her leads, and while I usually like this approach it wasn’t enough. I could not get over how badly this turned out for Paul.
I’d hoped for better from Aura. She first turned up in her cousin Alick’s book. Alick broke off his almost-engagement with a very sweet girl (who I didn’t like much) to take up with the heroine, and while that plot is a mirror to this one, it feels more awful here. She’s had a miserable life, and I’m sad for her, but she doesn’t get much growth in this story: she just gets more suffering followed by a HEA. And, an epilogue. I’m always sad when I realise I’ve reached the Age of Epilogues. Goodbye abrupt endings, where everyone is miserable until the last three pages, I’ll miss you. Hello boring happy people having children and throwing parties because they’re now living their dream etc blah blah blah.
The brightest spot in this book is that Natalie finds herself a rich Canadian to marry, and surprisingly: falls in love with him. It’s a very minor transformation. She’s never going to be a good mother by any standards, and RD heroines are always slightly contemptuous of women who cling to men and won’t shift for themselves, but honestly: she may as well have a nice life and be happy and in a different time zone so Aura doesn’t have to worry about her.
May 21, 2020
Scratched my angst itch and I do like Robyn Donald's vintage uber-alpha uncompromising heroes (don't judge). The h is about to marry a nice Ken doll for gentle love and security but the appearance of his best man two weeks before the wedding scuppers that idea. They are immediately and irresistibly attracted physically but antagonistic in every other way. H tells her to end the engagement or he will (and makes sure the ex-fiance will not want to see her again by saying they slept together). He's looking out for his buddy, and the h, to her credit, realizes that she can't marry the OM b/c it's now clear she doesn't love him *that* way. Like many an older-era RD H, this H is pretty cruel to the h, not cutting her any slack or giving her any outs. After the broken engagement, they don't see one another for a while, since she is busy trying to make money (as a reluctant model) to pay off her debts incurred by her selfish idiot of a mother.
The H and h reconnect when she is on assignment in Oz, and they end up having sex. It's the best ever, just as they had known it would be. But she tells him it's one and done, and he thinks she's still in love with fiance, so they separate again. By now, she knows she's in love but thinks he was just into the sex.
She ends up taking a trip to nearby RD tropical island, and he shows up. Explanations and sexytime lead to a HEA.
A good one from RD, with all the angst and mutual torture that's a hallmark of her earlier books. She has a rare talent for writing overwhelmingly dominant H's but her h's are seldom doormats (even if they are usually vanquished by the unstoppable H's) and the drama is usually caused by the situation they're in, not by some stupid misunderstanding that can be cleared up in one conversation. I like her writing style too. A winner for me, overall.
The H and h reconnect when she is on assignment in Oz, and they end up having sex. It's the best ever, just as they had known it would be. But she tells him it's one and done, and he thinks she's still in love with fiance, so they separate again. By now, she knows she's in love but thinks he was just into the sex.
She ends up taking a trip to nearby RD tropical island, and he shows up. Explanations and sexytime lead to a HEA.
A good one from RD, with all the angst and mutual torture that's a hallmark of her earlier books. She has a rare talent for writing overwhelmingly dominant H's but her h's are seldom doormats (even if they are usually vanquished by the unstoppable H's) and the drama is usually caused by the situation they're in, not by some stupid misunderstanding that can be cleared up in one conversation. I like her writing style too. A winner for me, overall.
March 19, 2020
So I stepped into this mid-series and I can assure other readers it isn't necessary to read the first one in the series to get this one. Aura Forsythe is all set to marry her safe and stable fiancee, Paul. She honestly does love him, but maybe isn't "in love" with him...but she doesn't understand the difference yet. Along comes Paul's BFF, Flint Jansen, who definitely ignites Aura's dormant passion and it's clear she does the same for him. Although he clearly wants her, Flint obviously hates and disdains her, calling her a gold-digger, a tramp, a slut, a whore...you get the idea. And yet, Aura can't get Flint and his sexiness out of her mind. When Paul is called away for an emergency, she ends up in Flint's arms and realizes that she can't marry Paul. But before she can say anything, Flint engineers for them to be caught together in a compromising situation and Aura loses everything (her chance at stability and financial security since her mother racked up some debts just before the wedding). Aura is a wrecked mess for the time being, but when she encounters Flint a bit later, she gives into their passion and hands him her v-card. But Flint doesn't stick around, and eventually Aura realizes she's in love with him and that she'll never move on. Too bad he never offered her more...
So not a complete and total trainwreck, but definitely some great drama and angst. Aura goes through absolute hell in this story and the author does a great job of conveying her despair and struggle. This is told entirely from Aura's perspective, which means that to the reader, Flint is a true asshat, set on manipulation and destroying Aura's happiness. His motives are unclear right up to the end...partly it seems he wants to protect Paul at all costs (even at the cost of his own friendship with him) and partly it seems like he just wants Aura to be commitment free so he can sleep with her. Either way, he is an absolutely Machiavellian asshole who ruins Aura's life...as it turns out for his own purposes. He did all of his assholery in order to get her single so that they can eventually be free to be together. Who cares about Paul? Who cares about Aura? As long as he gets the chance to pursue this absolutely gorgeous woman that he doesn't know at all (and honestly believes is a gold-digger). His methods were definitely OTT and did not endear him...especially since he doesn't really regret what he did and he never really takes the hit in the apology realm either.
Aura was a much better character. I respect the hell out of the fact that she decided she couldn't marry Paul before she went into full cheating territory (though she did makeout with Flint while still engaged to him, but she'd already decided she had to end it beforehand...and Paul was out of the country at the time...she did give resistance a damn good effort). Then of course, Flint sets it up that Paul sees them together and tells Paul that they were sleeping together already. And yet, despite all of that, the evidence of Flint's ruthlessness, she decides that what she feels isn't just lust, it's love. Nah. It ain't. I kinda think she was rationalizing it since Aura had no good reason to fall in love with Flint. But things end happily for these guys and they end up not regretting anything in the end, since Aura says that Flint was right to break her up with Paul before the marriage, otherwise they'd have been adulterers. Neither of them talks to Paul for 5 years, but the epilogue has them all forgiving everything, which didn't feel right, but I suppose was necessary?
So not a complete and total trainwreck, but definitely some great drama and angst. Aura goes through absolute hell in this story and the author does a great job of conveying her despair and struggle. This is told entirely from Aura's perspective, which means that to the reader, Flint is a true asshat, set on manipulation and destroying Aura's happiness. His motives are unclear right up to the end...partly it seems he wants to protect Paul at all costs (even at the cost of his own friendship with him) and partly it seems like he just wants Aura to be commitment free so he can sleep with her. Either way, he is an absolutely Machiavellian asshole who ruins Aura's life...as it turns out for his own purposes. He did all of his assholery in order to get her single so that they can eventually be free to be together. Who cares about Paul? Who cares about Aura? As long as he gets the chance to pursue this absolutely gorgeous woman that he doesn't know at all (and honestly believes is a gold-digger). His methods were definitely OTT and did not endear him...especially since he doesn't really regret what he did and he never really takes the hit in the apology realm either.
Aura was a much better character. I respect the hell out of the fact that she decided she couldn't marry Paul before she went into full cheating territory (though she did makeout with Flint while still engaged to him, but she'd already decided she had to end it beforehand...and Paul was out of the country at the time...she did give resistance a damn good effort). Then of course, Flint sets it up that Paul sees them together and tells Paul that they were sleeping together already. And yet, despite all of that, the evidence of Flint's ruthlessness, she decides that what she feels isn't just lust, it's love. Nah. It ain't. I kinda think she was rationalizing it since Aura had no good reason to fall in love with Flint. But things end happily for these guys and they end up not regretting anything in the end, since Aura says that Flint was right to break her up with Paul before the marriage, otherwise they'd have been adulterers. Neither of them talks to Paul for 5 years, but the epilogue has them all forgiving everything, which didn't feel right, but I suppose was necessary?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 5, 2024
Опитах се да зачета един съвсем нов Арлекин, честна дума. И бяс ме хвана както към непоносимата героиня, към на практика несъществуващия герой, така и към авторката, която смята, че само глупаци могат да претендират за “доброта”. Такава груба грешка старите Арлекини - при все наложената им “партийна” линия - по-рядко допускат (като тук) или просто така преувеличават, че е леко сатирично (т.е. не се вземат на сериозно). Което ги прави читаеми, макар и не модерни по сегашните искрено смешни критерии на жанра.
Обаче и старите, и новите арлекини имат едно огромни предимство пред сегашния “любовен” жанр - кратки са! И не морят с 500 страници превзети глупости.
3,5⭐️
Обаче и старите, и новите арлекини имат едно огромни предимство пред сегашния “любовен” жанр - кратки са! И не морят с 500 страници превзети глупости.
3,5⭐️
December 2, 2022
Very intense with lots of angst and drama, Robyn Donald at her best.
dnf
July 12, 2018DNF
This was like watching a train wreck about to happen, so I just decided to jump off the train.
This was like watching a train wreck about to happen, so I just decided to jump off the train.
May 11, 2022
He chases the bride-to-be of his best friend. It all comes down to what he makes clear to her in the HEA, that he would choose her over anyone, including over his best friend.
This H is a really vocal H. I love that he wears his heart on his sleeve. He tells her again and again what he thinks, what he feels:
“You drive me insane. No other woman has ever been able to make me hard just by looking at me.”
“You look so rare and precious and exquisite in my bed.”
I can understand why in the beginning the H thinks she’s a golddigger, so I don’t hold it against him.
Because at her young age, she already has had two fiancé’s before the H’s best friend, all were richer than the previous one. She doesn’t have a job. Her fiancé has bought a flat for her mother. And the H senses that she doesn’t really love his best friend.
I actually would have given it 3 stars, but he uses protection. Wow, birth control. I’m surprised. So I bump it one star up.
The steamy scenes are steamy without becoming porn. Excellent.
This H is a really vocal H. I love that he wears his heart on his sleeve. He tells her again and again what he thinks, what he feels:
“You drive me insane. No other woman has ever been able to make me hard just by looking at me.”
“You look so rare and precious and exquisite in my bed.”
I can understand why in the beginning the H thinks she’s a golddigger, so I don’t hold it against him.
Because at her young age, she already has had two fiancé’s before the H’s best friend, all were richer than the previous one. She doesn’t have a job. Her fiancé has bought a flat for her mother. And the H senses that she doesn’t really love his best friend.
I actually would have given it 3 stars, but he uses protection. Wow, birth control. I’m surprised. So I bump it one star up.
The steamy scenes are steamy without becoming porn. Excellent.
March 14, 2019
Lust and more lust
November 7, 2024
The heroine Aura is exceptionally beautiful. Dark red hair. Green and gold eyes. Voluptuous. Sizzling hot. A male fantasy.
She’s barely thirteen when a man she probably baby sat for while dropping her home describes the graphic things he wants to do to her. She feels violated.
Her mother is a selfish self centred c*nt. She offers no protection or guidance to this child.
The girl’s father went away to Africa to practice medicine for charity.
The mother remarries a psychopath who in some way (not described) breaks the heroine. He controls the women and also steals all their trust fund. For wine and gambling and women and then very obligingly dies leaving them destitute.
The heroine is searching for a safe father figure. She’s already broken two engagements leaving the men scarred.
She meets the other man, Paul, who is beautiful, rich and also KIND!!
He is understanding and loving and does not hurry her along for sex. She starts feeling safe and actually starts loving him.
In this book the heroine loves the other man and would probably have had a very happy life with him and even fallen “in” love with him.
But the asshole hero arrives. There are no redeeming qualities in the hero. He is without scruples. Without morals.
He takes one look at the heroine and as he says at the end, he decides she is his woman.
He chases her ruthlessly. Imposes on her. Invades her personal space. Does not respect that his best friend is engaged to her. Like a thief. He steals her.
He lives in his best friend’s house and chases his fiancée. He makes remarks of sexual nature. He kisses her and more. He harangues her for wanting to marry the other man.
I didn’t like the hero or heroine. I forget the hero’s name. A whore. They were both sluts.
They were slaves to their libidos.
The heroine was a good woman. Unfortunately the hero arrived and totally messed with her hormones and her morals.
I really contemplated giving it three stars but the writing is good. Therefore three point seven five stars.
One defect/flaw in Robyn Donald’s writing. The plot lines lack clarity.
When you feel the story should conclude. She throws in some more stuff.
There is never a grand explosive ending which is how I think romances should end.
But that’s me.
Go on and read it if you don’t get triggered by cheating. I was. But I read it anyway.
Paul was shown as diminished in front of the lying cheating scumbag hero. Not fair. He was a good decent man.
So that’s my review.
She’s barely thirteen when a man she probably baby sat for while dropping her home describes the graphic things he wants to do to her. She feels violated.
Her mother is a selfish self centred c*nt. She offers no protection or guidance to this child.
The girl’s father went away to Africa to practice medicine for charity.
The mother remarries a psychopath who in some way (not described) breaks the heroine. He controls the women and also steals all their trust fund. For wine and gambling and women and then very obligingly dies leaving them destitute.
The heroine is searching for a safe father figure. She’s already broken two engagements leaving the men scarred.
She meets the other man, Paul, who is beautiful, rich and also KIND!!
He is understanding and loving and does not hurry her along for sex. She starts feeling safe and actually starts loving him.
In this book the heroine loves the other man and would probably have had a very happy life with him and even fallen “in” love with him.
But the asshole hero arrives. There are no redeeming qualities in the hero. He is without scruples. Without morals.
He takes one look at the heroine and as he says at the end, he decides she is his woman.
He chases her ruthlessly. Imposes on her. Invades her personal space. Does not respect that his best friend is engaged to her. Like a thief. He steals her.
He lives in his best friend’s house and chases his fiancée. He makes remarks of sexual nature. He kisses her and more. He harangues her for wanting to marry the other man.
I didn’t like the hero or heroine. I forget the hero’s name. A whore. They were both sluts.
They were slaves to their libidos.
The heroine was a good woman. Unfortunately the hero arrived and totally messed with her hormones and her morals.
I really contemplated giving it three stars but the writing is good. Therefore three point seven five stars.
One defect/flaw in Robyn Donald’s writing. The plot lines lack clarity.
When you feel the story should conclude. She throws in some more stuff.
There is never a grand explosive ending which is how I think romances should end.
But that’s me.
Go on and read it if you don’t get triggered by cheating. I was. But I read it anyway.
Paul was shown as diminished in front of the lying cheating scumbag hero. Not fair. He was a good decent man.
So that’s my review.
July 16, 2016
Aura is engaged to Paul - until she meets his best friend Flint, and realises that the affection, respect and love between her and her fiancé doesn't compare to the fiery lust she has for his best friend.
I really disliked this book. I'm surprised that it was written as late as 1994, because it had a sort of '70s vibe to it.
The big thing that I disliked about the book was Flint, the hero. He was extremely cruel to Aura, and I detest cruel people. I like alpha males, but I like KIND alpha males - there's a big difference between being masculine and macho, and being beastly, and I think a lot of these older romance authors write heroes that fall on the wrong side of that line. I found Flint controlling, unkind and a little misogynistic, as well as being someone who jumps to very unfair conclusions. In addition, he was totally unapologetic for his earlier behaviour - even after he found that he was wrong about Aura in so many ways, it never occurred to him to show remorse for the way he treated her.
I have a lot of sympathy for Aura, both because of her treatment from Flint, and because of her sick, selfish mother. In some ways Natalie reminds me of my own mother (although mine was never that bad), and I can absolutely understand the stress that Aura is under, living with a clingy spendthrift who is totally unable to do anything for herself except spend money they don't have. That said, while I had sympathy for Aura, I can't say I really liked her. I don't feel that I really got to know her - aside from her beauty (which was mentioned every other page, it seemed) I have no idea what her defining characteristics were. I got very little sense of personality from her, and that made it impossible to really root for her.
I also strongly object to the idea that great chemistry with a guy who treats you badly is preferable to love, affection, respect, trust and friendship. I love sex, and physical attraction is very important to me, but without all those other things it's not really worth much, and without my partner being kind and treating me well, it's worthless. In addition, great sex doesn't usually come about by chance - it's something you achieve by working at it, learning what you like and your partner likes, making the effort to please them. I see no reason why Aura couldn't have had that with Paul.
Altogether, I found the book shallow, cold and depressing, and would not want to read it again. 1 - 1.5 stars.
I really disliked this book. I'm surprised that it was written as late as 1994, because it had a sort of '70s vibe to it.
The big thing that I disliked about the book was Flint, the hero. He was extremely cruel to Aura, and I detest cruel people. I like alpha males, but I like KIND alpha males - there's a big difference between being masculine and macho, and being beastly, and I think a lot of these older romance authors write heroes that fall on the wrong side of that line. I found Flint controlling, unkind and a little misogynistic, as well as being someone who jumps to very unfair conclusions. In addition, he was totally unapologetic for his earlier behaviour - even after he found that he was wrong about Aura in so many ways, it never occurred to him to show remorse for the way he treated her.
I have a lot of sympathy for Aura, both because of her treatment from Flint, and because of her sick, selfish mother. In some ways Natalie reminds me of my own mother (although mine was never that bad), and I can absolutely understand the stress that Aura is under, living with a clingy spendthrift who is totally unable to do anything for herself except spend money they don't have. That said, while I had sympathy for Aura, I can't say I really liked her. I don't feel that I really got to know her - aside from her beauty (which was mentioned every other page, it seemed) I have no idea what her defining characteristics were. I got very little sense of personality from her, and that made it impossible to really root for her.
I also strongly object to the idea that great chemistry with a guy who treats you badly is preferable to love, affection, respect, trust and friendship. I love sex, and physical attraction is very important to me, but without all those other things it's not really worth much, and without my partner being kind and treating me well, it's worthless. In addition, great sex doesn't usually come about by chance - it's something you achieve by working at it, learning what you like and your partner likes, making the effort to please them. I see no reason why Aura couldn't have had that with Paul.
Altogether, I found the book shallow, cold and depressing, and would not want to read it again. 1 - 1.5 stars.
March 6, 2016
Who said cheaters never win? They certainly didn't read this book. The heroine, Aura, messes around with her fiancee's best man, Flint, and wins it all.
It's an angst-ridden read with a cold, manipulative and repressive hero. The heroine is seeking comfort and a father-figure (she has daddy and mommy issues) in her lover, but throws it all away because she really likes dominance and recklessness in her man.
I haven't given a book five stars in what seems like years. I had to to give it to Dark Fire. The author doesn't paint a picture of true love, but this dark and intoxicating obsession that sparks after just one meeting. The characters are drawn to each other and consistently burned each time they meet. That doesn't stop them from pining for each other. Aura admits that she hardly knows Flint, but she cannot control her emotions around him. It is like reading about Aura suffering through an unhealthy addiction.
My only two complaints are that the story is restricted solely to Aura's POV (it's in third person, though) and the ending + epilogue were very sweet. Too sweet for this book. It did not fit the tone at all!
It's an angst-ridden read with a cold, manipulative and repressive hero. The heroine is seeking comfort and a father-figure (she has daddy and mommy issues) in her lover, but throws it all away because she really likes dominance and recklessness in her man.
I haven't given a book five stars in what seems like years. I had to to give it to Dark Fire. The author doesn't paint a picture of true love, but this dark and intoxicating obsession that sparks after just one meeting. The characters are drawn to each other and consistently burned each time they meet. That doesn't stop them from pining for each other. Aura admits that she hardly knows Flint, but she cannot control her emotions around him. It is like reading about Aura suffering through an unhealthy addiction.
My only two complaints are that the story is restricted solely to Aura's POV (it's in third person, though) and the ending + epilogue were very sweet. Too sweet for this book. It did not fit the tone at all!
June 24, 2025
This book is a tribute to that famous quote: "the lady doth protest too much" or thereabouts. You just know the whole time the h is telling herself she loves the OM (always "love" never "in love") and that what she feels for the H is just lust, sex attraction, a good dose of the old horndogs, etc., that she's lying to herself and not fooling the readers one bit!
Yet again, Ms. Donald gives us a h with a flawed mother, in this case a woman who's physically in her 40's or 50's but mentally she's perpetually 18, depending on her daughter like she's her younger sister rather than her mom, flirting outrageously (and embarrassingly) with every man in sight, and somehow managing to find a rich one to fall for her (must have a few screws loose) and take care of her, after leeching off her daughter and other relatives. No wonder her first husband (the h's father) left her, and her second one had no respect for her at all!
That does NOT excuse the way they treated the h! Her father walked out of her life and never looked back, never even answered her letters! (I thought this was going to be a case of her letters never reaching him or his answers never getting to her, but that didn't happen, so he was just a jerk.) And her crappy step pop stole her inheritance money to gamble with and was verbally abusive.
And to top it off, a family friend turned out to be a pervert and when she was only 14, told her of all the erotic fantasies he had about her in great detail! SICK!!!
It would have made more sense for her to be a man hating feminist, but instead she kept turning to men for the love and security she was denied, first to a cousin (who wouldn't put up with her temper tantrums as a child and won her loyalty and respect), then to three (yes, THREE) fiancées!
This really didn't make sense! For a young woman with sexual insecurities, the last thing you'd think she'd want would be to get married, no matter how much of a void in her life she felt since her cousin got married and his attention became focused on his wife. Yet at only 18 she was supposedly ready for such a big step???? For that matter, her boyfriend accuses her of being frigid when she won't let him get too far, so why the heck did he propose to her?? He only tended up dumping her, anyway!
Even more ridiculous, she rebounds to another guy to prove she's not frigid, then acts all frozen with him anyway, and he proposes, too??? Did these guys want a challenge and then decided the juice wasn't worth the squeeze? We're supposed to think they were hurt, but they must have known the h was too young and emotionally damaged to be ready for marriage, unless they were complete nincompoops!
And speaking of nincompoops, just when she's finally getting herself together, Momcompoop goes and screws things up yet again, so the h AGAIN turns to a man (I'm no diehard feminist but I can't help getting annoyed by this)!This time, it's the OM in the story, a really nice person (but not without some flaws) who offers money, security, kindness and love, and she jumps at the chance and accepts his proposal, only three months after they met! (Rushing things a bit???) Because they're not waiting that long to tie the knot, he's okay with waiting before they hit the sheets, which is music to the h's ears! She convinces herself she'll have a HEA1
And then she meets the H!!!
He's a friend of the OM and goes into protective mode, convinced the h is just a conniving gold-digger who wouldn't give the OM the time of day if he wasn't wealthy. He sets out to prove this but finds himself as sexually enthralled by her as she is by him. Meanwhile, he discovers that she really does care for the OM, and she discovers that she has a capacity for desire and passion she had no idea existed in her! (Of course, it's all for the H and none for her fiancé!)
She also finds out it's not the first time the H and OM have been involved in a love triangle, as the OM had been engaged before and his fiancée fell in love with the H and broke up with him, only to discover that the H had no romantic feelings for her and never gave her any reason to believe he did.
Relationship messes galore in this one!!
It takes too long (and several close calls to getting naked) for the h to finally admit she can't marry the OM but still refuses to admit to herself that what she feels for the H is more than lust. (You'd think the fact that she gets jealous as hell if another woman so much as glances at him and nearly lost her mind when the OM's sexy blonde cousin threw herself at him and kissed him would have given her a clue! Not to mention her feelings of hurt and sadness when she thinks she's only a sexy body to him.)
It takes even longer for them to FINALLY hit the sheets, where the h hoped he wouldn't discover she was a virgin, but he knew a hymen when he felt one.
But with her thinking he just wanted her body and would soon tire of her, and him thinking she was still hung up on (and feeling guilty about) the OM (who felt hurt and betrayed by both of them and cut them both out of his life), they go their separate ways for a time, with the H working on his dream of starting a winery and making a perfect red wine and the h becoming a model for a cosmetics firm, thanks to a friend in the business who got her the job easy-peasy.
It takes a while to cut through all the misunderstandings for their HEA, but they FINALLY get together (and are on the road to making peace with the OM), but the epilogue makes you sorry the book wasn't about their marriage and partnership in the winery instead.
However, with all the emotional angst the h had, I think she should have gone for some well-needed therapy before considering marrying anybody! That whole incident with the perverted family friend really messed her up and she didn't confide in anyone, not even the H.
Flawed, but still good.
Yet again, Ms. Donald gives us a h with a flawed mother, in this case a woman who's physically in her 40's or 50's but mentally she's perpetually 18, depending on her daughter like she's her younger sister rather than her mom, flirting outrageously (and embarrassingly) with every man in sight, and somehow managing to find a rich one to fall for her (must have a few screws loose) and take care of her, after leeching off her daughter and other relatives. No wonder her first husband (the h's father) left her, and her second one had no respect for her at all!
That does NOT excuse the way they treated the h! Her father walked out of her life and never looked back, never even answered her letters! (I thought this was going to be a case of her letters never reaching him or his answers never getting to her, but that didn't happen, so he was just a jerk.) And her crappy step pop stole her inheritance money to gamble with and was verbally abusive.
And to top it off, a family friend turned out to be a pervert and when she was only 14, told her of all the erotic fantasies he had about her in great detail! SICK!!!
It would have made more sense for her to be a man hating feminist, but instead she kept turning to men for the love and security she was denied, first to a cousin (who wouldn't put up with her temper tantrums as a child and won her loyalty and respect), then to three (yes, THREE) fiancées!
This really didn't make sense! For a young woman with sexual insecurities, the last thing you'd think she'd want would be to get married, no matter how much of a void in her life she felt since her cousin got married and his attention became focused on his wife. Yet at only 18 she was supposedly ready for such a big step???? For that matter, her boyfriend accuses her of being frigid when she won't let him get too far, so why the heck did he propose to her?? He only tended up dumping her, anyway!
Even more ridiculous, she rebounds to another guy to prove she's not frigid, then acts all frozen with him anyway, and he proposes, too??? Did these guys want a challenge and then decided the juice wasn't worth the squeeze? We're supposed to think they were hurt, but they must have known the h was too young and emotionally damaged to be ready for marriage, unless they were complete nincompoops!
And speaking of nincompoops, just when she's finally getting herself together, Momcompoop goes and screws things up yet again, so the h AGAIN turns to a man (I'm no diehard feminist but I can't help getting annoyed by this)!This time, it's the OM in the story, a really nice person (but not without some flaws) who offers money, security, kindness and love, and she jumps at the chance and accepts his proposal, only three months after they met! (Rushing things a bit???) Because they're not waiting that long to tie the knot, he's okay with waiting before they hit the sheets, which is music to the h's ears! She convinces herself she'll have a HEA1
And then she meets the H!!!
He's a friend of the OM and goes into protective mode, convinced the h is just a conniving gold-digger who wouldn't give the OM the time of day if he wasn't wealthy. He sets out to prove this but finds himself as sexually enthralled by her as she is by him. Meanwhile, he discovers that she really does care for the OM, and she discovers that she has a capacity for desire and passion she had no idea existed in her! (Of course, it's all for the H and none for her fiancé!)
She also finds out it's not the first time the H and OM have been involved in a love triangle, as the OM had been engaged before and his fiancée fell in love with the H and broke up with him, only to discover that the H had no romantic feelings for her and never gave her any reason to believe he did.
Relationship messes galore in this one!!
It takes too long (and several close calls to getting naked) for the h to finally admit she can't marry the OM but still refuses to admit to herself that what she feels for the H is more than lust. (You'd think the fact that she gets jealous as hell if another woman so much as glances at him and nearly lost her mind when the OM's sexy blonde cousin threw herself at him and kissed him would have given her a clue! Not to mention her feelings of hurt and sadness when she thinks she's only a sexy body to him.)
It takes even longer for them to FINALLY hit the sheets, where the h hoped he wouldn't discover she was a virgin, but he knew a hymen when he felt one.
But with her thinking he just wanted her body and would soon tire of her, and him thinking she was still hung up on (and feeling guilty about) the OM (who felt hurt and betrayed by both of them and cut them both out of his life), they go their separate ways for a time, with the H working on his dream of starting a winery and making a perfect red wine and the h becoming a model for a cosmetics firm, thanks to a friend in the business who got her the job easy-peasy.
It takes a while to cut through all the misunderstandings for their HEA, but they FINALLY get together (and are on the road to making peace with the OM), but the epilogue makes you sorry the book wasn't about their marriage and partnership in the winery instead.
However, with all the emotional angst the h had, I think she should have gone for some well-needed therapy before considering marrying anybody! That whole incident with the perverted family friend really messed her up and she didn't confide in anyone, not even the H.
Flawed, but still good.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 8, 2021
"You're certainly not in love with Paul. Because you want to go to bed with me." Devilish words indeed. But what made Flint Jansen so arrogantly assume that Aura would choose him over Paul—his friend and Aura's warm and loyal fiance? From the moment they met, he had shattered Aura's world. It was true, she found him undeniably attractive, overwhelmingly charismatic. So much so that she now faced a battle with her conscience and with Flint; both demanded that she abandon security and her fiance. She had to cancel the wedding—but could she entrust herself to Flint's dark seduction...?
May 1, 2012
This was pretty darn good. I liked the way the hero was drawn to her against his will. But I wish he'd had some kind of "OMG, I was so wrong" moment we could see instead of apparently falling in love with the heroine secretly without much discernible emotion. Overall though, a good amount of emotional tension throughout, and the ending was very satisfactory.
September 16, 2023
Nope. DNF p.29.
Wow, it's rare I can barely stomach the first chapter, but man, it was a slog. I was struggling by page 6 but I pushed on like a champion to clear chapter one.
It was everything I hated.
The h is set to marry in 2 weeks and her fiancé is besotted with her. The H is the fiancé's best friend and best man, in the country for the wedding. Already this set-up is a hard NO from me. It's positively disgusting. I *loathe* cheaters and think it makes a wretches start to a romance.
The entire first chapter is us the reader being told how incredibly manly the H is. The prose is overwrought to the point of absurdity. He's a dynamo, a rugged adventurer, a tiger, a predator, he commands the respect of all lowly mortals who cast their unworthy eyes upon him. The author harps on about his God-like aura for like 6 pages solid, and by that point I was near choacking down on my own laughter. This guy could drink a glass of water and be a powerful, virile force of nature as he goes about it.
The h meanwhile is undergoing a serious episode of insta-lust. She is ushered into the presence of the ultimate male specimen and at once she is overwhelmed by her hot skin, pounding heart, faint head and throbbing crotch. Ohhh what's happening to me? This man, this manly man o man has such a devastating, powerful effect... ohhh I'm going to pass out from the radiance of his massive masculinity. Puh-leeease!
Un-freaking-bearable. I'm a big fan of trashy romance, but I have my limits. A hard DNF, I'm rather impressed I had such a negative reaction after a single chapter.
Wow, it's rare I can barely stomach the first chapter, but man, it was a slog. I was struggling by page 6 but I pushed on like a champion to clear chapter one.
It was everything I hated.
The h is set to marry in 2 weeks and her fiancé is besotted with her. The H is the fiancé's best friend and best man, in the country for the wedding. Already this set-up is a hard NO from me. It's positively disgusting. I *loathe* cheaters and think it makes a wretches start to a romance.
The entire first chapter is us the reader being told how incredibly manly the H is. The prose is overwrought to the point of absurdity. He's a dynamo, a rugged adventurer, a tiger, a predator, he commands the respect of all lowly mortals who cast their unworthy eyes upon him. The author harps on about his God-like aura for like 6 pages solid, and by that point I was near choacking down on my own laughter. This guy could drink a glass of water and be a powerful, virile force of nature as he goes about it.
The h meanwhile is undergoing a serious episode of insta-lust. She is ushered into the presence of the ultimate male specimen and at once she is overwhelmed by her hot skin, pounding heart, faint head and throbbing crotch. Ohhh what's happening to me? This man, this manly man o man has such a devastating, powerful effect... ohhh I'm going to pass out from the radiance of his massive masculinity. Puh-leeease!
Un-freaking-bearable. I'm a big fan of trashy romance, but I have my limits. A hard DNF, I'm rather impressed I had such a negative reaction after a single chapter.
March 30, 2024
"Dark Fire" is the story of Aura and Flint.
Hold your horses, this will take you on a morally shaky roller coaster.
Heroine has a bad past with men, and has a high maintenance mother who is now dependent on her. She decides to marry her safe choice Paul, who is nice to her and loves her. She also believes she loves him, yet feels no passion for him.
Things change when his friend, the hero enters the picture. There is burning passion, and the heroine is basically h o r n y for him. They try to stay apart, end up together and she then has to break her fiance's heart (as she cheats on him)
The book sort of puts the heroine in many scenarios of head vs heart. The confrontation happens midway and then we see both the hero and heroine attempting to move on from their misdeed.
Lots of interludes and separations later, we get a nice ending with all characters finally reconciling.
Safe for main couple
3.5/5
Hold your horses, this will take you on a morally shaky roller coaster.
Heroine has a bad past with men, and has a high maintenance mother who is now dependent on her. She decides to marry her safe choice Paul, who is nice to her and loves her. She also believes she loves him, yet feels no passion for him.
Things change when his friend, the hero enters the picture. There is burning passion, and the heroine is basically h o r n y for him. They try to stay apart, end up together and she then has to break her fiance's heart (as she cheats on him)
The book sort of puts the heroine in many scenarios of head vs heart. The confrontation happens midway and then we see both the hero and heroine attempting to move on from their misdeed.
Lots of interludes and separations later, we get a nice ending with all characters finally reconciling.
Safe for main couple
3.5/5
June 24, 2017
I really liked this hp. HPs are my guilty pleasure reads lol but this one was older and had a lot of angst and I do so love the drama of a forbidden love. Aura was basically on fire the instant she laid eyes on flint. She didn't want to want him but he just brought something out in her that she couldn't help. It wasn't the best written book ever but it definitely entertained me.
May 28, 2021
Have read dozens by this author. This is my go to re-read. I think it's the instant forbidden (with her being engaged to the H's best friend) awareness and attraction that builds beautifully in the early chapters. H is such an arrogant so and so. I also like the h's character development. First read it decades ago and Flint and Aura still pop into my head occasionally, like real people 😁
November 24, 2022
Loved it. I found it interesting. Can't say I have read many harlequin books were H and h were got cheating together. Haha. They were attracted to each other and neither could do a damn thing about it
July 26, 2024
Wow, not a fan. Not a fan of this plot. Not a fan of this hero. Not a fan of this heroine. Not a fan of these side characters. Not a fan! How could any woman want someone who is such a terrible friend? Skip. Not fun. Very bland.
August 15, 2019
For a book that promised so much drama, it did not gel and I skimmed the last few chapters of the book.
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