Uncaged

by Lucy Gordon

She Wanted Her Child BackDaniel Keller never should have handled that homicide case. Still grieving over the accident that had stolen his wife and son, the dazed policeman had nevertheless testified—and unwittingly convicted—an innocent woman of murder.Megan Anderson had spent three years in prison, learning to hate Daniel Keller. Because of him, she'd lost the only thing that her beloved child. Now she was free, but her battle had just begun.Megan would see that Daniel got her son back for her. And she would fight her own forbidden desire…for the man who had destroyed her life.

Genres: Romance, Harlequin Romance, Fiction, Harlequin, Contemporary Romance

192 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1994

About the author

Christine Sparks was born in England, UK. She wanted to be a writer all her life, and began by working on a British women's magazine. As a features writer, she gained a wide variety of experience. She interviewed some of the world's most attractive and interesting men, including Warren Beatty, Richard Chamberlain, Charlton Heston, Sir Roger Moore, Sir Alec Guiness.

Single life was so enjoyable that she put marriage, and even romance, on the back burner, while she went about the world having a great time. Then, while on vacation in Venice, she met a tall, dark handsome Venetian artist, who changed all her ideas in a moment, and proposed on the second day. Three months later they were married. Her friends said a whirlwind romance would never last, but they celebrated their 25 anniversary, they are still married, still happy and in love.

After 13 years on the magazine Christine decided that it was now or never if she was ever going to write that novel. So she wrote Legacy of Fire which became a Silhouette Special Edition, followed by another, Enchantment in Venice. Then she did something crazy gave up her job. Since then she has concentrated entirely on writing romances for Mills & Boon, Harlequin and Silhouette and has written over 75 books. Her settings have been European and her heroes mainly English or Italian. Christine now claims to be an expert on one particular subject. Italian men are the most romantic in the world. They are also the best cooks.

A few years ago she and her husband returned to Venice and lived there for a couple of years. This proved the perfect base for exploring the rest of Italy, and she has given many of her books Italian settings: Venice (of course), Rome, Florence, Milan, Sicily, Tuscany. She has also used the Rhine in Germany for Song of the Lorelei, for which she won her first RITA Award, in 1991. Her second RITA came in 1998, with His Brother's Child, set in Rome.

Eventually Christine Fiorotto and her husband returned to England, where they now live. She write and he paints, they have no children, but have a cat and a dog.

Reviews

[Preeti ♥︎ Her Bookshelves]

This sure is a ride - a rambling, kinda lost one that goes all over the map before reaching home.
Starts out well enough with an intense and angsty stand off between the h/H - with good reason!
But then the tough cop H goes 'soft' in the way of LG Hs. Nothing wrong with that but I was in mood for a Linda Howard/Sandra Brown type uncompromising H who although may soften up but never too much and retains that impervious alpha core. So a just me thing.

But that Tiger Lady nonsense with all its analogous descriptions? Kinda ewww. And this jungle avatar of hers only comes out in bed? Actually I liked the h's tough, bitchy persona in the beginning but she too turned meek/weird on me .
So the story gets too predictable and schmaltzy and the mystery angle didn't fly either. And I was left hoping for a better comeuppance for her ex.

Ending is sweet though and this line from the last paragraph stood out for me..
'Blessings were given, not earned'

[KatieV]

I picked this up from a revenge recs thread. This doesn't fit that bill though. The heroine is very angry, with good reason. She does contemplate revenge upon the policeman who inadvertently sent her to jail, but that's mostly the extent of it. In my rather narrow view of that genre, you have to do more than "think about" or half-heartedly act upon your revenge scheme for 2 pages.

This did turn out to be a rather nice, mature love story between two people no one would put together. The big, arrogant alpha policeman was a much more human version of the Harlequin alpha.

[Lucky_Girl]

I need to stop listening to recs for old Silhouettes. Excessive use of the words "flesh" and "loins" had me making that "ew" face throughout the book.

Edit: Forgot to add the rampant jungle cat analogies! The h is known as the Tiger Lady, so of course there are lots of claws, prowling, golden cat eye references in and amongst the flesh and loins. Yuck.

"The tigress sheathed her claws and touched her lover languidly in silky caresses. Her eyes gleamed at him in the night, but their glow was soft and full of love. She was still a creature of the jungle, but she'd chosen to be tame - just for tonight. Tomorrow it would be different, but now her growl was a purr and her danger was hidden."

Uh, no... It's not a shifter novel. And this is just one of the feline love scenes.

[Malika]

Anyone who is a mother will find this story devastatingly sad! The love of a parent is so evident in both H/h for their kids. Loved this bk Ms Gordon surrree knows how to write heartwrenching but super happy endings!
Strongly rec this!

[Katherine 黄爱芬]

Megan baru saja keluar dr penjara dimana dia sdh mendekam selama 3 thn utk kejahatan yg tdk dilakukannya, mengakibatkan dia kehilangan anak lelakinya.

Daniel, polisi yg mengakibatkan Megan hrs meringkuk di penjara, merasa sangat bersalah. Dan takdir mempertemukan Megan dgn Daniel kembali. Walau benci setengah mati kpd Daniel, tidak dinyana tumbuh benih-benih cinta diantara mereka krn kesamaan nasib, sama2 sdh "kehilangan" anak mereka. Mantan suami Megan terus-menerus mempersulit Megan yg ingin bertemu kembali dgn putranya.

Daniel terus mengusut dan mengulang2 kejadian 3 thn berselang. Megan jg ikut membantu utk menangkap pembunuh yg sebenarnya. Ketika semua hampir usai, dapatkah Megan mendapatkan kembali putranya? Akankah Daniel mendapat "keajaiban" utk kebahagiaan mendptkan keluarga baru?

Alur cerita lumayan melodramatis dan mengharukan. Pelajaran yg bisa dipetik: Selalu percaya pd keajaiban dari Tuhan. Tetap teguh dan jangan biarkan kebimbangan menguasai diri dan menghalangi melihat kebenaran.

[Mareli]

I'm from a very intense series and I was looking for something really different and so I decided to give this book a try.

It was not bad, not at all but really it seemed to me a sort of fairy tale. All the people in this book are good and even the bad people are not bad but simply stupid (yes I know that stupid can be worse than bad but it's not the case here).

It could have been more hard and with more conflict but everything is pretty light. I don't know if that's because it was a short book (I think those kind of book have restrictions on the lenghth) but everything there was light and a bit superficial.

But it was not bad at all, a light reading for me.

[Rizki Adi]

I start liking Ms Lucy Gordon's works for its "rather complicated" plot and stories and also for her heroines who are always those with strong characters. Yes, there are surely hot moments, but rarely I find doormatt heroine and stupid Heroes.

Theme: false accussations (but those accussations from a police officer, not just normal harlequin's falsely accussed by the SIL, MIL, Hero's family, nope. It is more than that.

[Elgyn]

s. 18 přestanente
s. 24 šeptal, „To
s. 27, 30 strhaná [ztrhaná]
s. 29 řekl, „To
s. 31 Andersenovou [Andersonovou]
s. 62 Kdyš
s. 108 Danileli
s. 109 jen, „A
s. 112 nenapadlo_“Už
s. 144 pozamenal
s. 151 zašeptala: „žes

uvozovky - s. 25, 31, 36, 51, 77, 79, 85, 87, 91, 116, 135, 142
mě/mně – s. 24, 26 (2x), 49, 59, 61, 77, 80, 100 (2x), 118, 119, 142, 146

[Nikki]

Awe man I wanted it to be the ex! Oh well. A lot of things wrapped up there at the end. Not bad. If you want some crime with a sprinkle or romance go ahead and check it out.

[MBR]

Rating=3.75/5

Review to come on April 7, 2012

[Sruthi]

Another one of Ms.Gordon's heart wrenching stories.