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Flawed Hero
IT WAS A BIT OF A CULTURE SHOCK
Especially to Abby, a lifelong landlubber, who now found herself running a cruise business in Granada. Of course it was only temporary --- just until she helped her aunt sort out a few problems she was having with the locals.
Problem number one was Josh Donner, the wickedly attractive owner of the only rival firm on the island.
What Abby hadn't bargained for was the devastating effect Josh would have on her. Could she trust a word he said?
Especially to Abby, a lifelong landlubber, who now found herself running a cruise business in Granada. Of course it was only temporary --- just until she helped her aunt sort out a few problems she was having with the locals.
Problem number one was Josh Donner, the wickedly attractive owner of the only rival firm on the island.
What Abby hadn't bargained for was the devastating effect Josh would have on her. Could she trust a word he said?
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First published January 1, 1990
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 1, 2017
Re Flawed Hero - Elizabeth Oldfield takes us to Grenada and offers a taste of the holiday afternoon boat cruise business.
The 25 yr old h arrives on Grenada just in time to help her aunt with the arrangements to bury her husband of one year. The h had actually come to the island to recuperate from a very demanding illustration career and the death of her own father eight months before. Because the h's mother was pretty much comatose with grief and the h's sister was still in school, the h had to take charge of all the arrangements and the aftermath that her father's death left behind. What made it even worse is that the father was with the h when he passed, and tho the h called for help and did CPR, there was nothing she could really do. So the h is pretty frazzled even before she arrives, then she has a new crisis to handle.
The trip to visit her mum's sister in Grenada was supposed to give her a chance to recover and grieve and refocus on what the h wanted to do with her illustration career. The h is very popular with her children's book illustrations, but she has kinda run out of inspiration and was hoping to find a new path during her visit. Except that her aunt's new husband unexpectedly passed away and the h is once again elected to deal with the fall out. This time it is exponentially worse as her aunt's beloved husband has left her in a financial bind as he let his business slide while he and the aunt had an extended honeymoon.
The only asset the aunt has a is a large old time sailing ship that her husband used to run short afternoon island cruises on. The aunt tells the h she has a buyer for it, an Australian lawyer who came to Grenada five years earlier and now runs a luxury yacht charter service. When the book opens, the h is fretting cause the guy buying the aunt's boat is almost an hour late and the h is not yet used to "island time".
When the guy shows up, the h thinks that he is very attractive, but the attraction palls as the H only offers her a minuscule amount for the boat. The h is offended, thinking the H is trying to pull some shady business doings and she can't accept the offer because it isn't enough to recoup the aunt's savings and give her enough to invest for a pension. The H points out that a previous offer to buy the boat was made based on the boat being used as an ongoing island cruise business. So the h realizes that she is going to have to restart the abandoned boat tour business and she tells the H she will be doing tours on the four days that his own boat cruise business isn't.
The h doesn't explain to the H that the aunt really needs the money, so he goes off thinking she is being petulant and the h goes off thinking the H is a shyster. The h does a little competition snooping and finds that the H's tour boat isn't well run, it appears the H has been neglecting that small side line in favor of his luxury yacht charters. The h takes advantage of the H's lack of attention and she gets the aunt's boat up and running at full capacity. She also manages to collect one or two of the H's employee's who jump ship on the H's side and go to work for the H.
The H invites the h to dinner and accuses her of sneaky tactics using her 'wiggle'. The h denies that she 'wiggles' or at least not very much and she explains that the crew she snaffled were going to quit anyways. The H is angry at first, but after a few dinner courses and some rum concoctions, he and the h seem to really hit it off. Or at least the physical chemistry between them explodes into a big roofie kissing session. Then the H makes another really low offer for the boat and the h feels conned. She storms off and determines to ignore the H, thus setting off a local island cruise competition between the two of them.
The h and H go back and forth between improving their individual cruise offerings and at the same time, the end up doing favors for each other too. The H helps the h when one of her cruise passengers looks like he is having a heart attack and the h panics and the H gets one of his speedboats to come out and haul the man to the hospital. The h explains about what happened to her father and the H is very understanding and supportive.
He gets the h to repay the favor by doing some illustrations for one of his yacht captains. The guy has written a book about charter sailing and needs some little pictures and sketches to liven the manuscript up. He also gets the h to help him on a three day yacht charter when he needs a cook. The h is pretty nice and there is still that attraction going on between them, so she agrees to help the H out. It turns out the party who chartered the yacht are doing nude centerfold spreads on isolated islands and one of the models is a pretty big man-eater. The H feels pursued and harassed and so the h also agrees to fake being his girlfriend to keep the hungry centerfold model at bay.
That leads to the H and h having a transcendent ocean cabin motion experience and the h is happy, cause she thinks this is the start of a beautiful new relationship. Both the H and h have been involved in relationships before. The H was married but got divorced when his wife dumped him cause he did not want to be a lawyer anymore and he wanted to delay having kids and the h was in a three year relationship that just did not go anywhere and the guy left when the h's illustration schedule left no time for him.
Then the h finds out that the H massively upgraded his island tour business while he had the h on his yacht and the h thinks she has been used and conned once again. The competition between them escalates, until the H confronts the h and she realizes that she is being over the top. The h was only running the tours to make the boat more attractive to a buyer, she isn't planning on staying and to be fair, the H doesn't realize the aunt's financial situation. The H and she start out arguing, and then the h apologizes for running amok, but the H is still angry and they break up.
The aunt then reports back later that the H has bought her boat and cruise business for an amount that will give her enough to invest to live on and the h realizes her time on Grenada is done. She gets a flight reservation, packs up and goes to drop off the finished sketches for the H's captain's book at the H's boat yard. The H is there and the h tells him goodbye and thanks him for buying her aunt's boat. The H explains that he overreacted too, and only came to his sense when he figured out the h wasn't trying to be obnoxious, she was trying to help the aunt's finances.
When the H realizes that she is leaving the island, he shanghais the h to his house and declares that he loves her and can't live without her. Since she has been in love since the yacht trip, she declares she can't live without him back and we leave the two of them planning a quicky wedding and a sail off into the sunset for the big HEA.
This one was very fun and not a whole lot of drama happens, but the H and h were well matched and they had some very good banter. The HEA was entirely believable and so give this one a go when you're in the mood for a lighter, but well done HPlandia outing.
The 25 yr old h arrives on Grenada just in time to help her aunt with the arrangements to bury her husband of one year. The h had actually come to the island to recuperate from a very demanding illustration career and the death of her own father eight months before. Because the h's mother was pretty much comatose with grief and the h's sister was still in school, the h had to take charge of all the arrangements and the aftermath that her father's death left behind. What made it even worse is that the father was with the h when he passed, and tho the h called for help and did CPR, there was nothing she could really do. So the h is pretty frazzled even before she arrives, then she has a new crisis to handle.
The trip to visit her mum's sister in Grenada was supposed to give her a chance to recover and grieve and refocus on what the h wanted to do with her illustration career. The h is very popular with her children's book illustrations, but she has kinda run out of inspiration and was hoping to find a new path during her visit. Except that her aunt's new husband unexpectedly passed away and the h is once again elected to deal with the fall out. This time it is exponentially worse as her aunt's beloved husband has left her in a financial bind as he let his business slide while he and the aunt had an extended honeymoon.
The only asset the aunt has a is a large old time sailing ship that her husband used to run short afternoon island cruises on. The aunt tells the h she has a buyer for it, an Australian lawyer who came to Grenada five years earlier and now runs a luxury yacht charter service. When the book opens, the h is fretting cause the guy buying the aunt's boat is almost an hour late and the h is not yet used to "island time".
When the guy shows up, the h thinks that he is very attractive, but the attraction palls as the H only offers her a minuscule amount for the boat. The h is offended, thinking the H is trying to pull some shady business doings and she can't accept the offer because it isn't enough to recoup the aunt's savings and give her enough to invest for a pension. The H points out that a previous offer to buy the boat was made based on the boat being used as an ongoing island cruise business. So the h realizes that she is going to have to restart the abandoned boat tour business and she tells the H she will be doing tours on the four days that his own boat cruise business isn't.
The h doesn't explain to the H that the aunt really needs the money, so he goes off thinking she is being petulant and the h goes off thinking the H is a shyster. The h does a little competition snooping and finds that the H's tour boat isn't well run, it appears the H has been neglecting that small side line in favor of his luxury yacht charters. The h takes advantage of the H's lack of attention and she gets the aunt's boat up and running at full capacity. She also manages to collect one or two of the H's employee's who jump ship on the H's side and go to work for the H.
The H invites the h to dinner and accuses her of sneaky tactics using her 'wiggle'. The h denies that she 'wiggles' or at least not very much and she explains that the crew she snaffled were going to quit anyways. The H is angry at first, but after a few dinner courses and some rum concoctions, he and the h seem to really hit it off. Or at least the physical chemistry between them explodes into a big roofie kissing session. Then the H makes another really low offer for the boat and the h feels conned. She storms off and determines to ignore the H, thus setting off a local island cruise competition between the two of them.
The h and H go back and forth between improving their individual cruise offerings and at the same time, the end up doing favors for each other too. The H helps the h when one of her cruise passengers looks like he is having a heart attack and the h panics and the H gets one of his speedboats to come out and haul the man to the hospital. The h explains about what happened to her father and the H is very understanding and supportive.
He gets the h to repay the favor by doing some illustrations for one of his yacht captains. The guy has written a book about charter sailing and needs some little pictures and sketches to liven the manuscript up. He also gets the h to help him on a three day yacht charter when he needs a cook. The h is pretty nice and there is still that attraction going on between them, so she agrees to help the H out. It turns out the party who chartered the yacht are doing nude centerfold spreads on isolated islands and one of the models is a pretty big man-eater. The H feels pursued and harassed and so the h also agrees to fake being his girlfriend to keep the hungry centerfold model at bay.
That leads to the H and h having a transcendent ocean cabin motion experience and the h is happy, cause she thinks this is the start of a beautiful new relationship. Both the H and h have been involved in relationships before. The H was married but got divorced when his wife dumped him cause he did not want to be a lawyer anymore and he wanted to delay having kids and the h was in a three year relationship that just did not go anywhere and the guy left when the h's illustration schedule left no time for him.
Then the h finds out that the H massively upgraded his island tour business while he had the h on his yacht and the h thinks she has been used and conned once again. The competition between them escalates, until the H confronts the h and she realizes that she is being over the top. The h was only running the tours to make the boat more attractive to a buyer, she isn't planning on staying and to be fair, the H doesn't realize the aunt's financial situation. The H and she start out arguing, and then the h apologizes for running amok, but the H is still angry and they break up.
The aunt then reports back later that the H has bought her boat and cruise business for an amount that will give her enough to invest to live on and the h realizes her time on Grenada is done. She gets a flight reservation, packs up and goes to drop off the finished sketches for the H's captain's book at the H's boat yard. The H is there and the h tells him goodbye and thanks him for buying her aunt's boat. The H explains that he overreacted too, and only came to his sense when he figured out the h wasn't trying to be obnoxious, she was trying to help the aunt's finances.
When the H realizes that she is leaving the island, he shanghais the h to his house and declares that he loves her and can't live without her. Since she has been in love since the yacht trip, she declares she can't live without him back and we leave the two of them planning a quicky wedding and a sail off into the sunset for the big HEA.
This one was very fun and not a whole lot of drama happens, but the H and h were well matched and they had some very good banter. The HEA was entirely believable and so give this one a go when you're in the mood for a lighter, but well done HPlandia outing.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 4, 2011
4.5 stars
Summary
http://www.fictiondb.com/author/eliza...
Review:
1 - Strong heroine
2 - Nice dialog
3 - Lovely Hero
4 - Nude Girls who model for "Girlie magazines"
5 - Need I say more? :P
One of the scenes:
'Well millions of men do choose to buy girlie magazines.' Tilting her head, she grinned. 'You?'
'I must own up to a time in my teens when a well-thumbed copy of Playboy resided beneath my bed. Though naturally, I didn't buy it to indulge my fantasies but in order to read the articles.' Josh told her, deadpan.
'Naturally', said Abby.
=D
Summary
http://www.fictiondb.com/author/eliza...
Review:
1 - Strong heroine
2 - Nice dialog
3 - Lovely Hero
4 - Nude Girls who model for "Girlie magazines"
5 - Need I say more? :P
One of the scenes:
'Well millions of men do choose to buy girlie magazines.' Tilting her head, she grinned. 'You?'
'I must own up to a time in my teens when a well-thumbed copy of Playboy resided beneath my bed. Though naturally, I didn't buy it to indulge my fantasies but in order to read the articles.' Josh told her, deadpan.
'Naturally', said Abby.
=D
June 8, 2012
I've read better by her but still I ended up liking the book if not loving it. I admired Abby for willing to help out her widowed aunt with her finances and since they couldn't sell the only asset they had and the hero wasn't willing to buy she started a business and it was really great of her. She did forget that it was meant to be temporary and attached wrong motives to Josh which annoyed me a bit.
The hero is a lawyer turned businessman who came from Australia six years ago after his divorce. He was pretty decent. The book wasn't that memorable and remarkable.
The hero is a lawyer turned businessman who came from Australia six years ago after his divorce. He was pretty decent. The book wasn't that memorable and remarkable.
March 9, 2026
This one was a treat! Really, though. A lighthearted banter-filled romp with two flawed leads and lots of antics and shenanigans.
Felt near-real life, ish? If in real life your uncle dies in the Carribean and you somehow inherit a day-tour boat that you have to keep afloat long enough to sell it as an entire business so that your aunt can retire with a decent amount of money to keep her going?
This is the premise and background of the h. She's been having a bit of a time, so she flew out to Grenada to visit her aunt and aunt's newish husband whom she's never met. Unfortunately, uncle Newb dies of a heart attack right before h arrives, and her vacation turns into a mini-sabbatical/career switch/change-is-good-as-a-rest-ation.
The H comes in as an acquaintance of her uncle's who owns and runs a charter-boat business with several yachts as well as a quasi day tour boat that barely rivals the uncle's nice boat. Aunt talked to him at the funeral and optimistically misinterpreted his offer to help out with the boat as a firm offer to purchase the boat; when he meets aunt and niece, he's taken aback as he does not want to buy the boat.
H and h get off to a poor start because they're regular people with opposing agendas- h wants to sell the boat business to someone, preferably H, and he doesn't want more responsibility and doesn't really feel the need to pay much for a single specialized boat that may or may not make more money, when he already has a crappy boat that makes a little bit of money. Or something like that.
Somehow, in the midst of talking the h down he mentions that the boat might sell for more if it were a currently-operating business, as an entire working business rather than a single boat. He and the h also insult each other leading to a war of the sexes! Yay!
Yeah all this somehow turns into them trying to one-up each other, or the h at least trying to one-up the H with her new business she's trying to start up, while trading barbs and whatnot. She gets the idea that the H is trying to swindle her or is some kind of scammer or con artist; he gets the idea that she's also trying to double cross him by poaching some of his staff (I mean, she kinda did, technically), so yeah.
A few weeks in, they've calmed down a little, but the h still keeps thinking the H is up to something shady when some things happen and the H needs h to fill in for his cook on a short, 3-day charter trip. With a photographer and three suspiciously skimpily dressed model-looking women...
They start bonding a little on the trip, and yeah that's all I'll tell because it's just a fun book. Read for yourselves!
Felt near-real life, ish? If in real life your uncle dies in the Carribean and you somehow inherit a day-tour boat that you have to keep afloat long enough to sell it as an entire business so that your aunt can retire with a decent amount of money to keep her going?
This is the premise and background of the h. She's been having a bit of a time, so she flew out to Grenada to visit her aunt and aunt's newish husband whom she's never met. Unfortunately, uncle Newb dies of a heart attack right before h arrives, and her vacation turns into a mini-sabbatical/career switch/change-is-good-as-a-rest-ation.
The H comes in as an acquaintance of her uncle's who owns and runs a charter-boat business with several yachts as well as a quasi day tour boat that barely rivals the uncle's nice boat. Aunt talked to him at the funeral and optimistically misinterpreted his offer to help out with the boat as a firm offer to purchase the boat; when he meets aunt and niece, he's taken aback as he does not want to buy the boat.
H and h get off to a poor start because they're regular people with opposing agendas- h wants to sell the boat business to someone, preferably H, and he doesn't want more responsibility and doesn't really feel the need to pay much for a single specialized boat that may or may not make more money, when he already has a crappy boat that makes a little bit of money. Or something like that.
Somehow, in the midst of talking the h down he mentions that the boat might sell for more if it were a currently-operating business, as an entire working business rather than a single boat. He and the h also insult each other leading to a war of the sexes! Yay!
Yeah all this somehow turns into them trying to one-up each other, or the h at least trying to one-up the H with her new business she's trying to start up, while trading barbs and whatnot. She gets the idea that the H is trying to swindle her or is some kind of scammer or con artist; he gets the idea that she's also trying to double cross him by poaching some of his staff (I mean, she kinda did, technically), so yeah.
A few weeks in, they've calmed down a little, but the h still keeps thinking the H is up to something shady when some things happen and the H needs h to fill in for his cook on a short, 3-day charter trip. With a photographer and three suspiciously skimpily dressed model-looking women...
They start bonding a little on the trip, and yeah that's all I'll tell because it's just a fun book. Read for yourselves!
abrierto-to-read-hr-other
November 12, 2022IT WAS A BIT OF A CULTURE SHOCK
Especially to Abby, a lifelong landlubber, who now found herself running a cruise business in Granada. Of course it was only temporary --- just until she helped her aunt sort out a few problems she was having with the locals.
Problem number one was Josh Donner, the wickedly attractive owner of the only rival firm on the island.
What Abby hadn't bargained for was the devastating effect Josh would have on her. Could she trust a word he said?
Especially to Abby, a lifelong landlubber, who now found herself running a cruise business in Granada. Of course it was only temporary --- just until she helped her aunt sort out a few problems she was having with the locals.
Problem number one was Josh Donner, the wickedly attractive owner of the only rival firm on the island.
What Abby hadn't bargained for was the devastating effect Josh would have on her. Could she trust a word he said?
November 30, 2015
Just OK. Nothing much happened, and it was a very light hearted read. The H and h are rivals in an island cruising business in the West Indies. The h is merely helping out her aunt. Anyway they are attracted to each other despite the constant one-upmanship that also breeds mistrust between them. All is sorted out in the end and they get their HEA.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews