I like books about people, books that have an emotional connection among the characters and to me. Too often romance novels are sex scenes draped with a thin plot and characters who don’t feel real. I finished Betty Neels’ romances and have looked for more romance authors who create people to care about.
Taken Over is the first Penny Jordan novel I read and the reason I am reading my way through our library’s digital editions of her books. She is unlike Betty Neels in many ways, writing much racier stories with far more emotional turmoil and many of her heroines are fearful and unwilling to take a venture. However some Jordan novels are quite good, rich in emotional content and with the same sense of immediacy and presence that I love in Betty Neels.
Taken Over tells us about Cassie, a brilliant lady who used her math skills and imagination to write top computer games (this takes place over 30 years ago so the terminology differs) and leveraged this into a small, innovative and profitable company. Now she fears her firm is ripe for a takeover. (We aren’t told why/how someone could take it over without her consent but then Taken Over is a romance, not a business text.)
Joel Howard approaches Cassie with a buyout offer and a lot of attitude. He is rich, good looking and used to beautiful ladies wanting him and Cassie wears drab clothes and hunches. He’s snarky and scary so Cassie rejects Joel’s offer and in fact looks for an alliance with a rival firm, whose owner just happens to have an unmarried son willing to marry Cassie in order to secure her company. Not wanting his company to fall to number 3 in the games industry, Joel kidnaps Cassie and forces her to marry him.
Things proceed with plenty of tension as Cassie and Joel fight their own physical and emotional attraction to each other. There are plenty of conflicts. Cassie and Joel don’t want to fall in love, don’t even want to like each other. Joel is insulting and crude yet somehow still caring and Cassie’s danger bells aren’t enough to warn her to keep away. We readers get to follow along and it is an enjoyable ride.
The turning point is Joel’s estranged mother shows up and sweeps Cassie back with her to Florence, where mom plays fairy godmother and teaches Cassie how to dress and present herself. Turns out that Cassie looks pretty good when she’s not wearing beige or hunching! Joel arrives under pretext of stepdad’s birthday party and takes Cassie home. He wants her to hostess a cocktail party for him. Hmmm.
Joel comes home with a migrane and Cassie helps him with it and then end up making love. Like most Penny Jordan heroines she’s too unsure of herself to believe Joel actually meant to make love with her or that he cares about her or wants her. And also like most PJ heroines she’s too proud to hear Joel say anything demeaning and she plows ahead, telling him she didn’t mean anything, blah blah blah. Both are miserable and once the cocktail party makes it clear that Joel no longer has to worry about financing Cassie decides to leave before he kicks her out.
Once more mom-in-law makes a fortuitious appearance and plays good fairy and finally Cassie and Joel fess up to themselves and to each other.
On the good side Taken Over has:
- Strong characters who are most appealing and likeable
- A heroine who is extremely smart and uses her brains to help herself
- A believable and flawed hero
- Enjoyable side characters, especially good fairy mom-in-law
- A bit of a Cinderella flavor which I am a sucker for
- A marriage of convenience that plays off against a strong, but unacknowledged sexual attraction. (I love love love MOC novels with tension between the spouses.)
- Beautiful descriptions of settings in English country home, London and Florence
- A great kidnapping move
- Excellent, believable romance
On the down side Taken Over has a heroine whose tortuous lack of confidence got a bit annoying to read about and who’s awfully quick to get her licks in first after they sleep together. (This by the way is a standard Penny Jordan moment, which I didn’t know until I read more of her books.)
4 Stars
Taken Over is available in E format on Kindle and via Glose from Harlequin. Amazon and Thriftbooks have the paperback version and you can read it for free on Archive.org
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