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Book Reviews - Romance, Fantasy, Science Fiction - By an Adult for Adults

Return to Yesterday – Reunion Romance by Robyn Donald

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Return to Yesterday is an intense story about a husband who wants his young wife back while she is determined against further emotional devastation. Catlin married her husband when she was only 17 – he was 26 and widowed with a young daughter, Jennifer, – just before her father died. She was deeply in love with her husband Conal but far too young to be his wife and unable to cope with his high powered, upper echelon Auckland society life. She found him in bed with another woman. That night she called him every name she could and he got angry and assaulted her, raped/forcibly seduced her. She ran away to Australia.

The story opens 6 years later when she wants Conal, as her trustee, to release funds so she can buy a small bookshop, and he insists she return to Auckland before he will even consider it. Conal has her come to his home where he works to inveigle her into resuming their marriage.

Plot Synopsis – Click to Skip Spoilers

There is not a lot of plot here. Essentially the story is how Conal convinces Catlin to come back to him permanently as she struggles to understand her own emotions.

Robyn Donald tells us what happened 6 years prior via Catlin’s memories. She never understood why Conal married her in the first place. Catlin lived on a remote sheep station in New Zealand’s South Island and was not ready to be anyone’s wife, much less a successful, rich, handsome, brilliant and cold man’s. Conal initially treated her well, almost as a loved young sister, but over time got impatient with her inability to adapt, and his mother did everything she could to undermine the marriage and destroy Catlin’s confidence. He seemed to think she was stupid, gauche, unattractive. He didn’t sleep with her. Instead his friends made sly comments and his mistress acted proprietorial, effectively shutting Catlin out.

One afternoon she drove to Conal’s beach house to find out how she could improve. She walked in Conal and his girlfriend in bed, left before they could see her. That night she went into his room and yelled at him, furious and hurt. Conal sexually assaulted her, although it turned into passion for both of them. That frightened Catlin and she left the next morning, saw a lawyer, went to Australia and concentrated on turning herself into everything Conal thought she was not.

Six years later Catlin is educated, articulate, well-dressed, attractive, poised and confident. She believes she is well able to deal with Conal and comes back to Auckland to discuss the bookshop purchase.

Once Conal has her back in his home he turns on the charm. His mother has a mild heart attack and Conal asks Catlin to stay and help him with his daughter, now 9. Catlin and his daughter become friends and Catlin realizes she loves Conal more than ever but she doesn’t trust him.

Conal tries to seduce Catlin several times, then when she’s finally willing, says that he won’t make love until she agrees to come back to him. They have a near-miss car accident and Catlin decides she would rather live with Conal, even if he doesn’t love her, than without him. He takes her sailing up to his cottage and they make love and have the final resolution.

Characters and Emotions

The crux of the book depends on why Conal wants Catlin back. Catlin thinks it might be:

  1. Conal wants to pay her back for leaving him, embarrassing him and causing worry.
  2. He would like a wife and thinks it’s easier to keep the new improved Catlin than find someone else. His daughter Jennifer needs a mom and his mother isn’t up to caring for her.
  3. He wants to get rid of his ex and fend off the many women who chase him.
  4. Lust

Catlin believes it’s a combination of all 4 reasons, mostly #2 and #4, practicality and lust. She never suspects he loves her. Conal doesn’t help matters. He threatens physical retribution when she angers him. Catlin realizes Conal would never hurt her and forgives the cruel comment.

There are some clues though: He lets her get rid of his other women, past and wanna-be lovers. He lets her believe her father’s estate provided her income, before his mother informs Catlin that Conal provides the funds that she lives on. He tells Jennifer that he wants Catlin back. He encourages the growing liking and trust between Jennifer and Catlin. He tells Catlin several times he wants her back. He tries to buy her gifts, takes her out, ensures his friends see her now and realize how Catlin has grown. When Catlin confronts him about providing her income Conal tells her that he made the best investment possible by helping her grow into a confident, educated, beautiful woman.

Catlin of course is afraid to believe Conal. When they finally make love in the grass at his cottage she dares to believe he feels something, but she has to challenge Conal with his feelings before he tells her he loves her.

Catlin is an excellent character but it is Conal who carries the book. Catlin describes him as cold, brilliant, ruthless, charming, an intriguing combination! When she sees him first in her Auckland hotel Catlin wants to feel indifferent, tells herself for a couple weeks that she is over him, that it had been infatuation. Conal works to get her back, first, back in his bed and second, back in his life for all time. (Of course it’s a Harlequin Presents so we expect a happy ending, but how will they get there?)

There are several minor characters, the ex-Other Woman, the wanna-be OW, daughter Jennifer, Conal’s mother, Conal’s friends, Catlin’s old friend, her current roommate, the kinda-OM whose sister is the wanna-be OW. All of these have distinct characters, more than foils for dialogue.

Setting

Return to Yesterday begins in a Sydney apartment, moves to Auckland hotel, then to Conal’s warm and beautiful home in Auckland suburb, several friends’ homes, restaurants, last Conal’s yacht and beach cottage. Author Donald describes the settings and helps us see why Conal’s home is so beautiful and how Catlin could have felt overwhelmed 6 years past. Conal’s mother decorated Catlin’s room in a rather overpowering style that didn’t fit with the rest of the gracious combination of antiques and good contemporary furniture. The settings enhance the story.

Overall

I didn’t like Return to Yesterday when I first read it, but when I re-read it to write this review I realized how well Robyn Donald created her believable characters and plot, how she wrote emotional conflict and tension that crest right at the perfect point in the story. Pacing and language are good.

The bad points are very bad. He raped/forcibly seduced her 6 years ago, he threatens to do it again now. She was a very young, innocent 17 when they married; he says now he married her because he wanted to drag her off to bed every time saw her. Ick. He could have helped her find a place to live in Auckland and get an education, grow up, before he courted her, but he didn’t.

I still don’t enjoy reading Return to Yesterday and probably won’t re-read, but do admire how well Robyn Donald handled the back story and the emotional growth for both characters.

It’s hard to rate a book when I don’t much like it but realize is well-written and has a good story and character development. 3 Stars is a bit of cop out, but it’s either 1 for the ick factor or 4 for the story.

3 Stars

I got my paperback copy from Thriftbooks. Amazon has used copies and most likely you can find this on eBay or other used book site.

Moth to the Flame – Intense Romance by Sara Craven

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Sara Craven has a near-miss with Moth to the Flame. On the plus side this is intensely emotional with rich visual imagery and three vivid main characters. On the minus the romance does not satisfy because it is not believable. The hero, Santino, does not act as though he loves the heroine Juliet. At the end he claims he intends to marry her but he never says he loves her. And I do not think he does.

Plot Synopsis (Click here to skip spoilers)

Juliet’s younger sister Jan works as a model in Italy. She is beautiful, shallow, selfish and the apple of their mother’s eye. Jan hasn’t written for three weeks and mom worries and insists Juliet must go to Italy to find out what is wrong.

Jan tells Juliet she intends to marry Mario, but his older brother Santino adamantly disapproves and intends to stop the marriage. Jan is pregnant and claims Mario is the father although she doesn’t seem to love him. Brother Santino shows up unexpectedly while Juliet is alone in Jan’s apartment, believes Juliet is Jan and demands that she agree to take the buy off he offers her to leave Mario alone. Juliet doesn’t know what he’s talking about but she’s annoyed at Santino’s nasty comments, doesn’t believe Jan would take a payoff, and decides to play along to divert his attention while Jan and Mario supposedly are off getting married. He walks in on her while she’s dressing and makes lewd comments to embarrass her.

They have dinner together and Juliet fends off Santino’s insulting demands that she take his money and acting on Jan’s behalf, refuses to leave Mario, claims she loves him. Santino slips a sedative into her coffee and instead of driving her to Jan’s apartment, kidnaps her to his remote Castillo on the coast. He takes some of Jan’s glamour outfits along but misses Juliet’s more normal clothes and leaves her purse with her passport, return ticket and money behind.

At the Castillo he tells Juliet that he has notified the scandal media that he has brought Jan to his home, expecting this will cool his brother and turn him from marrying Jan. They have several near seduction scenes and Santino, all along believing Juliet is Jan, alternately calls her a prostitute and acts as though he’s attracted himself. Santino shocks Juliet, tells her about several Jan escapades, including one time where she did a striptease dance at an exclusive party.

Juliet found Santino attractive during that first dinner and over the next two days at the castillo she is horrified to realize she’s on the verge of falling in love with him. She knows they are from separate worlds and he’s not likely to fall for her, so she fights the attraction. It doesn’t help when Santino keeps trying to lure her into bed. Juliet believes he’s after her only because she’s there and he thinks she’s Jan, available, not because he’s interested in her.

Finally Juliet has enough, decides that Jan has had plenty of time to marry Mario if that is indeed what they were doing together, and reveals that she is not Jan, she is sister Juliet. She’s dumbfounded that Santino laughs this off as fairy tales. He’s in the middle of seducing her when his mother and stepfather arrive along with a nasty aunt by marriage whose goddaughter is engaged to Mario, and who collects gossip to sell to tabloids. Santino knows this aunt would like the goddaughter to marry her son instead of Mario, but he thinks the intended marriage will help Mario grow up and doesn’t want the engagement broken. He claims Juliet and he are engaged, that the story he planted about Jan was actually a misprint and was supposed to say he had Juliet with him.

Mother is there because Mario is in the hospital after crashing his car with Jan. Juliet goes with the family to the hospital and finds Jan is quite annoyed with the set up. Mario did not marry her, she’s two months pregnant, she has no job and will lose her apartment. And now her boring, stick in the mud, less pretty sister is engaged to the rich and gorgeous Santino. Santino wants her to go along with his story that Mario was bringing Jan to a family party to celebrate his engagement to Juliet, but if Jan spills the truth, it will cause a great deal of gossip and hurt Mario’s fiancée. Jan agrees to keep silent if Santino takes her along with Juliet to stay at his Castillo.

Once the three are together Jan mounts a relentless campaign to supplant Juliet as Santino’s fiancée. Juliet finds herself pushed to the side and Santino doesn’t seem to mind this at all. In fact when Juliet joins them on the beach and insists on talking to Santino in private about getting her passport and ticket to return to her job in England, he is cold, acts as if he was interrupted and sneers at her. He says he knows why she is going and Juliet thinks he means he knows she is in love with him; she does not know that Jan took magnified Juliet’s tepid friendship with another teacher into a huge love affair.

When Santino returns to Jan on the beach he runs his finger down Jan’s spine. That evening he takes Jan to Rome and comes back a day later after his mother has visited again. Juliet tells his mother that they never were engaged, that it was fake and that she’s going home. Mother is fed up with both her sons and cannot understand why Santino took Jan to Rome. Neither can Juliet, unless Santino wants an affair with Jan.

When Santino and Jan return Jan has “all the appearance of the cat who has had the cream and intends to make the saucer hers as well.” Jan tells Juliet that she’s wearing her heart on her sleeve, that Santino is bored with their engagement and Juliet was undignified when she dragged Santino away on the beach and he didn’t want to go. “Learn to be a good loser” she advises. Santino tries to talk to Juliet but she shrugs him off and goes upstairs to her room. She’s convinced that Jan got what she wanted from Santino, either marriage or an affair.

Back in England Juliet is miserable. She now knows she loves Santino, that it wasn’t just infatuation. Walking home after work Juliet sees Santino’s car parked by her home. Jan walks in wearing an enormous diamond. She’s married and brought her husband and wouldn’t Juliet like to come and greet him? No way. Juliet tells her that is a pleasure she must forgo and wishes them both every happiness. Juliet walks up the steps and Santino comes up behind her, picks her up and carries her to her room. He’s not going to watch her walk away up some stairs again. Jan is married to a former lover and Santino wants to marry Juliet. He tells her he wants her, he has always wanted her. He even agrees to wait to marry until she works out her notice at the end of term.

Why Is the Romance Flat?

Juliet’s Side. Juliet felt she knew Santino, as though she had always known him, had been waiting for him all her life. That could be love. That could be infatuation. Both feel wonderful at first but only love lasts. She did not spend much time with Santino, one dinner where he insulted Jan non stop, two days at his Castillo where he insults and tries to seduce her, a drive to Rome, a month at his Castillo when he leaves for days at a time on business and Jan is always there.

Love at first sight romances can be completely believable – Sara Craven’s The Unwilling Wife is a good example from the man’s side – so that is not why this doesn’t work for me. The main reason is Santino.

Santino’s Side. Why did Santino allow Jan to push Juliet aside? More damning, why did he continue to flirt with her and touch her as he did on the beach when she had her bikini top off? I thought of several reasons:

  1. He’s trying to make Juliet jealous.
  2. He knows he hurt and scared Juliet and wants to give her time to grow accustomed to him
  3. He doesn’t think Juliet cares for him and wants to pay her back for it.
  4. Jan is so blatant that Santino is laughing at her internally when he allows her to play up to him.
  5. He wants to keep Jan sweet so she doesn’t spill the beans to the gossipy godmother
  6. He is physically attracted to Jan.

Santino says reason #2 is why he devised the fake engagement and implies it is why he left Juliet alone so much. Frankly, I don’t buy it. True he wanted to give her space but that does not mean letting Jan have the space – all the cream and the saucer to boot – and it certainly does not mean stroking her back when she’s lying on the beach with her top off. I think it was a combination of #4, 5 and 6.

Santino thought Jan was little better than a prostitute, certainly she was promiscuous and accepted an apartment and fancy clothes from the man she eventually marries. All along Santino thought Juliet was Jan and tried his best to seduce her into bed which says it all. Santino was too proud to allow a sleep-around to marry his brother but he wasn’t too proud to take advantage of physical proximity. Santino acted revolted when Juliet revealed she believed he and Jan had an affair and had possibly even married. Santino would never marry someone like Jan, but he was all too willing to have an affair.

Writing Style

I like Sara Craven’s style. In Moth to the Flame she lets the action and dialogue show the emotions and drive the story. We see everything through Juliet’s eyes, and there is quite a bit of introspection when she worries about falling for Santino, when she’s sickened by Jan’s behavior, when she’s desperate to get back home. The author uses Juliet’s thoughts to help explain Juliet’s reasoning and her behavior and doesn’t rely on them to make the story real.

Moth to the Flame is set mostly in Italy, either in Rome at an apartment or restaurant, or at Santino’s old Castillo. The settings are part of the story and described well enough that we can visualize them. The Castillo is built from stone by a cliff so it has some atmosphere that Juliet notes but doesn’t obsess about.

Overall

Moth to the Flame is a decent read albeit not a great story and far from one of Sara Craven’s best. The romance between Juliet and Santino doesn’t work because he spends far too much time insulting her, trying to seduce her, or flirting with Jan, and far too little time developing any connection between them.

3 Stars

I got my used paperback copy of Moth to the Flame from Thriftbooks. Amazon has copies and most likely you can find it on eBay and other used book sites.

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Bond of Vengeance – Harlequin Presents Romance by Jessica Steele

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Jessica Steele writes rather good romances that have semi-believable plots and characters. I could feast all day on her books except for one glaring problem. When her heroines worry out their man problem they think through things in a bizarre way, with illogical thinking and illogical, convoluted sentences that are hard to follow. The rest of the narrative and the way the other characters talk and think (when we can see their thoughts) are reasonably straightforward and use normal English sentence structure, not Yoda-speak. I think Jessica Steele uses this to show us that the heroine is all mixed up and miles down the wrong road.

Plot Synopsis

Keely’s widowed mom works as a housekeeper for a widower, Lucas Varley. Now she is so excited and joyful; Lucas has asked her to marry him. They love each other which thrills Keely. Keely rushes down to Lucas’s country home to find her mom is tense and worried because Lucas’s son, Tarrant, offered her money to leave, he assumed she was after his dad’s money and tried to buy her off. Keely dashes back to London and insists on seeing Tarrant in his office where she tells him off and smacks him hard. Tarrant implies that not only is her mom after a rich man, but so is Keely!

The newlyweds plan to stay at home – alone – for a few weeks but Tarrant plans to stay there too; he cynically expects his new stepmom to reveal her true, gold diggery colors and wants to be around when it happens. He’s rather nasty. Keely points out that his dad and his new wife want to be alone and tries to persuade Tarrant to leave, he agrees on condition that she spends the weekend with him at his apartment.

Clearly Tarrant is intrigued and attracted to Keely but she’s not seeing that, she sees only that he wants to humiliate both her and her mom. Tarrant insults her a few more times, they have a heavy make out session on the couch but he leaves her to sleep alone, saying he refuses to allow her to trap him. Did I mention insults? Add conceited and convinced of his own never-fail sex appeal.

Another weekend Keely decides to get her own back at Tarrant and tells Lucas and her mom the exact, literal truth, that she spent the weekend with Tarrant in his apartment and slept in his bed. She omits that she slept there alone and of course dad and stepmom have things to say to Tarrant. That makes him even madder – by this time he’s realized new stepmom loves Lucas and is not after his money – and he’s even more attracted to Keely and frustrated. He decides to forcibly seduce her and does.

A few weeks later, when Tarrant comes back from a long business trip Keely tells him she’s pregnant and says to herself but out loud, that she cannot have this child. Tarrant assumes she plans an abortion and has another fit, insists they marry. While she’s supposedly engaged Keely moves a bunch of heavy furniture around and miscarries, an all too frequent occurence in her family. Tarrant again insults her, yells at her for having an abortion, and Keely is too tired and sad to tell him the truth.

Next visit home Keely’s mom mentions that her neice miscarried and that it is sadly something that all the women in her family face. Tarrant realizes he goofed, and once again insists Keely marry him, but this time for love.

Characters

Tarrant is quite well done. We readers can see him falling for Keely, getting himself twisted in knots trying to avoid the attraction, frustrated because he wants her, angry because he thinks she doesn’t want him and doesn’t want their child. It’s almost funny.

Keely, in typical Jessica Steele fashion, jumps to all sorts of silly conclusions. For example Tarrant calls her from the airport the morning after they sleep together and Keely immediately assumes he wants her to get all of her mom visits done so he can go to his dad’s house on the weekends when he’s back without seeing her. I re-read this section and have no idea how anyone would conclude that’s what he meant, but Keely is in a swivet and not thinking clearly. She knows she’s in love with Tarrant, convinced he does not and never will love her, and her internal musings reflect this.

Mom and new husband Lucas are standard casting central characters with little development or personality. Lucas seems nonchalant when Mom mentions she suffered several miscarriages and that her sisters hae the same problem; it’s rather unnerving to see a man, who supposedly loves someone, listen to that without caring.

Overall

If this were written in straighforward English I’d give it three stars without question. Being as it is, written to show Keely’s illogical thinking, full of split infinitives (and split everything else!) it’s closer to two stars. (That sentence is my attempt to write Jessica Steele-speak. It’s a lot harder than it looks.)

2 Stars

I got my copy in a book lot on eBay and you can find copies on Thriftbooks. Many of Jessica Steele’s romances are available on Harlequin.com or from Amazon in E format, but this one, Bond of Vengeance, is not. Amazon has the comic version as of this writing.

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The Sweetest Trap. Harlequin Presents by Robyn Donald

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I usually like Robyn Donald’s Harlequin Presents for their strong stories, interesting well-developed characters and good dialogue. The Sweetest Trap is disappointing. I made myself finish it despite stopping every few pages to do fun things like dishes and laundry. The plot was simply not enticing enough to overcome wooden characters, continuity problems, spotty dialogue and the cheesy idea of a 35 year old man seducing an 18 year old, unworldly girl.

Plot Synopsis

Cressida, just 18, sails with her domineering father all over the world, gaining him raw material for his philosophical musing/travelogue books that sell well, until her dad has a fatal heart attack off the coast of New Zealand during a dangerous storm. Cressida radios for help since she cannot handle the yacht alone and Luke arrives in his fishing launch to help her bring the yacht into shore.

Luke takes her to his New Zealand home which he shares with his mom, helps her with the inquest, financial settlements, emotional turmoil. Cressida has longed to live the way Luke does, settled in a home surrounded by country yet close enough to the ocean to sail or swim for fun. She had wanted to go to college, had never wanted to accompany her father, but he had promised his dead wife to keep Cressida with him. Now she’s unable to grieve and can feel only bitter regret.

Luke has a long time girlfriend, Paula, who visits several weekends. Luke’s mom tells Cressida that Paula has not wanted to marry Luke since it meant she would have to give up the law career she loves. Later we see that Paula does want to marry Luke and Luke tells Cressida that he had thought seriously about marrying Paula since he cares greatly for her.

Cressida is wise enough to realize she has a crush on Luke and is hoping that it is nothing more, just the usual adolescent strong feelings that dissipate in time. They are physically attracted and Luke kisses her, makes it clear that he wants more. Eventually they take her yacht out on a farewell cruise before she sells it, get caught overnight in a storm and make love. Cressida is horrified afterwards because she knows that was the worst thing to do when she does not want to love Luke and does not want to be pregnant and there’s Paula. Luke says he’ll marry her but it doesn’t sound to Cressida or to me as though he wants to.

When they get back Paula is waiting for Luke in the garage, throws herself in his arms and says “You have to help me. I think I’m pregnant!” Exit Cressida.

She ends up sharing an apartment in Auckland with a nice girl, Jan, who’s pretty fed up with guys – at the moment. Luke shows up and Cressida delivers a great self-sufficiency speech: She wants to find out who Cressida Godwin is and all she’ll ever be if she marries Luke is Mrs. Luke. He’s angry and tells her Paula has been having an affair with someone else, admits he loves Paula, leaves.

Luke’s mom calls Cressida when Luke is hospitalized. Cressida charters a plane to get there and sits with him while he’s unconscious. Paula arrives too and agrees with Cressida that one of the two of them can stay with Luke, and it will be whosever voice he responds to. Luke ignores Paula but reaches for Cressida’s hand. Paula leaves, banished to the cold reaches of discarded HP Other Women. Luke then wakes up and kicks Cressida out.

Things proceed until Luke shows back up one evening when Jan is out, informs her he loves her, won’t take no for an answer, they sleep together again and agree to marry.

Characters and Dialogue

Luke starts his role in The Sweetest Trap by jumping in the ocean during a storm to reach Cressida’s boat, grinning and having a wonderful time playing Viking. Later Robyn Donald tries to show Luke as a thoughtful, emotional, warm and kind man but it doesn’t quite work. Luke is extremely kind to Cressida, supporting her through the horribleness of her dad’s death, offering her a home, helping her gain some basic skills, but he also rides over her and ignores what she wants when it conflicts with what he wants.

Case in point: Luke asks one of his employees to take Cressida shopping since all her clothes are suited to sailing in warm weather, casual or outgrown. Cressida has some money the lawyer for her father’s estate advanced her and she intends to budget only part of that for new clothes. Luke goes behind her back and has his employee go back and get all the other things that Cressida liked but didn’t buy. True, the new things are wonderful and Cressida wants them, but her whole point throughout the story is she wants to be independent, at least long enough to prove to herself that she is a separate person and can take care of herself. Luke was disrespectful.

Let’s not even go to the age difference. The experience gap is even larger and more momentous than the age gap. Cressida went to a convent school in England when she wasn’t cloistered on the yacht with her dad. She met people yes, including a repulsive guy who wanted to buy her for a short term affair, but she was completely under her father’s control. Luke has been an independent adult for almost 20 years.

Cressida had the dubious pleasure of being in the room behind a bookcase when Paula and Luke came in and started kissing and making out. Luke claimed later that was Paula’s last attempt to show him they could make marriage work, supposedly because she didn’t want the affair with the other man. I don’t buy this. This little passionate interlude took many minutes and neither one spoke. It sounded as if Luke enjoyed having Paula try to persuade him, even if he ended up rejecting her.

Cressida has the best dialogue and develops a spine although she berates herself for being weak and easily intimidated. I didn’t think she had allowed herself enough time to discover who she was but overall she was characterized as a person we could visualize being happy. The author tells us instead of showing us a little too much. Cressida is described as feeling empty, bitter, afraid several times but we don’t really see that.

I didn’t like the huge age/experience difference nor that Cressida and Luke sleep together even when Cressida believes he is in love with Paula. She doesn’t seem able to think clearly when Luke is around with his manly self.

The big romance between Cressida and Luke is inconsistent, varying from almost completely physical to metaphysical. Luke says he recognizes Cressida as bone of his bone, part of himself, but this is after he’s tried to push her away, after he’s seduced her, after he’s hurt her, after she’s seen him first make love to Paula then later reject her, after Cressida has escaped his hand. As for Cressida it’s possible for a young lady to truly love a man so much older and more experienced, but it’s far more likely to be a short term crush. Cressida was wise to leave to find out the difference; I was not convinced that she knew what she felt even at the end.

Luke uses Paula. He tells Cressida that he’d seriously considered marrying Paula, that they both cared for the other, that he didn’t love her but knew they could have a happy life together. He keeps seeing Paula and seems to swing between chasing Cressida for physical delight and clinging to Paula for emotional comfort. He finally dumps her, which is when Paula turns to her married co-worker.

The minor characters, Luke’s mom, gossipy neighbors, the young lawyer and his wife, roommate Jan, are nice touches and all have some depth, but are essentially spear carriers, foils to carry the action. I couldn’t visualize any of them.

Style and Continuity

Robyn Donald did not make me care about the characters nor believe any of them are real people. The pace is slow. Sometimes a slow pace with a slow tension build works great with romance novels but this one doesn’t have the tension.

The novel lacks a clear emotional peak. Was it when Luke and Cressida make love in the yacht? When Paula throws herself at him begging for help with a suspected pregnancy? When Luke is in hospital and Cressida and Paula joust over who he will respond to? Is it when Cressida tells Luke she needs to be on her own to find out who she is? The ending is not the peak; in fact it simply happens. Time to sleep together, yay!

I picked a page at random, #104, right after Cressida tells Luke about the degenerate rich guy who wanted her for a couple weeks. There are 6 paragraphs on this page, all quite short. Four paragraphs are tell paragraphs, Robyn Donald tells us what Cressida thinks or describes inconsequential action. Two are mostly dialogue. That ratio is pretty typical, a bit more telling than showing and that, along with the slow pace and icky age difference make this story bland and less interesting than Donald’s usual.

There are at least two glaring and some smaller continuity problems.

  • Luke broke ribs and hurt his arm in a bulldozer accident but Cressida asks him several times about his leg, does it hurt, can he walk OK? Luke says it aches.
  • Cressida doesn’t earn a lot in Auckland yet she charters a plane to get to Luke in the hospital instead of taking the bus.
  • Luke and Cressida make love in the apartment she shares with Jan. I can see Jan having a fit when she comes home and finds them both there, especially if Cressida and Jan share a room.
  • A small problem is when the yacht sells. The buyers are getting it refitted so Luke and Cressida take it out for a last sail. The boat must have been docked near Luke’s house yet we never hear that the buyers came to see it in person. I noticed that which means either the story was weak or the problem was glaring; I usually forgive small problems in a good story.

Overall

The Sweetest Trap combines the big age and experience gap with a domineering man and girl who wants to grow up and develop a spine and personality. I think this should have caused tension and conflict all on its own, and indeed that is so. However the tension is mild and Donald does not develop the conflicts. Instead we have a lot of Luke chasing Cressida around the couch (more or less) and Cressida bemoaning that she has a crush on Luke, a most unsuitable crush object.

The story does not come together.

2 Stars, OK

I got my paperback copy of The Sweetest Trap in a lot on eBay. It is available on Thriftbooks here, and Amazon here, both new and used. I didn’t see it available in E format except in pdf format to borrow on Archive.org.

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Married by Christmas Marriage of Convenience by Carole Mortimer

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Married by Christmas was one of the first books I ready by Carole Mortimer; the intense emotional connections delighted me and I noted it on my books to buy list. I reread it now, about two years later, and I still enjoyed it, but after reading so many other romances I found it closer to good, not great.

Everything happens in London, in the main characters’ homes or hotel. The story is compressed to about a week and a half.

Plot Synopsis and Characters

Lilli lost her mother to a 5 year long bout with cancer just a few months ago, and her fiancé Andrew dumped her right after. She’s had a miserable last year. Tonight her friend Sally convinces her to go to a party given by a lady she knows slightly but doesn’t much like, Gerry. Gerry has a terrible reputation for men, Lilli calls her a man-eater.

Sally points out to Lilli an older, very handsome man who is obviously enraptured with Gerry. The man is Lilli’s dad, Richard. Lilli can’t believe her dad is chasing the man-eating Gerry so soon after her mom died and is disgusted and furious. She wanders around the house where she meets Patrick in the kitchen who clearly is someone special to Gerry. They flirt a bit, Gerry and Richard walk in and Lilli sees that she can get back at both of them (and herself) and having drunk a little too much, gets Patrick to take her to a hotel. Richard and Gerry both try to dissuade them but Patrick isn’t listening and Lilli is too angry and hurt to care.

Lilli is horrified the next morning when she wakes up to Patrick singing in the shower. She goes home where she and her dad have a short argument. Several fast meetings later Lilli learns that

  • Richard owes Patrick’s bank several million pounds that he cannot pay because Lilli’s former fiancé had embezzled the money before dumping Lilli in favor of a another man and her dad doesn’t want to humiliate Lilli by prosecuting him.
  • Patrick wants to marry her.
  • Lilli doesn’t want to marry Patrick

Lilli is no dummy and realizes Richard could go ahead and prosecute Andrew if Lilli marries Patrick. So she agrees but is not too happy about it, especially when Patrick gives the usual Harlequin Presents Hero speech about not believing in love. He wants her body and he wants kids and he intends to marry forever.

Patrick’s ex-wife shows up at the wedding reception and is nasty until Lilli – not Patrick – routs her. The next morning Richard shows up, yes the morning after their wedding night. How tacky! Patrick is not amused and he’s even less thrilled when Richard tells them that Andrew insists on speaking to Lilli. Andrew gives Lilli the money he embezzled and all should be well, except Patrick is in a real tizzy. Lilli walked out! Lilli went to her former fiancé!! Lilli is at Gerry’s house drinking champagne!!!

Patrick races there, they have the usual I Love You scene and a nice epilogue where Lilli has twin girls and Gerry and Richard, now married, have a baby son. There are several explanations in there too, all to show that Richard and Gerry and Patrick and Lilli all are blessed with true love.

Surface Emotions

The main problem I see with Married by Christmas is the characters seem to feel everything on the surface. Author tells us what Lilli thinks underneath her superficial gaiety and sparkle but the emotions don’t feel solid. She tells, not shows us Lilli’s heart.

Patrick has the typical reasons for his anti-love outward stance: He lost his mother when 15, later his dad, had to raise Gerry, had a horrible first marriage with a wife who chose an abortion rather than gaining weight with a baby. Yet he loves Lilli and supposedly fell in love with her when she fell asleep the moment she lay down when they got to the hotel room. He hadn’t slept with anyone since his first marriage broke up although he’d been looking for a solid gold lady, and Lilli completely ensnared him.

This is plausible but not all that likely. Lilli is 17 or 18 years younger than Patrick, beautiful, charming and he wants her very much. Sure. But love? Love a lady who happily leaves a party with a man she never met before and begs him to take her away to make love to her? Maybe. Or maybe he simply finally felt ready to love someone and Lilli is lovely and available, in the right place at the right time.

Carole Mortimer presents the secondary romance between Richard and Gerry as fact. She later has Gerry explain to Lilli how she and Richard met years earlier before his wife got cancer and how the man-eating rumors are false. This is nice but doesn’t add much to the story. The reason Lilli was in despair and left party with Patrick was to spite her dad and Gerry, but it doesn’t advance Lilli’s story to learn how they knew each other.

Summary and Overall Rating

Carole Mortimer is usually a 3 star author for me, some are better, some are worse, some are very much worse. After rereading I would give Married by Christmas a skimpy 4 stars; it’s good to very good.

I bought my copy of Married by Christmas from Thriftbooks. You can find Kindle and new or used copies on Amazon and other used book sites and eBay.

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Devon Interlude Vintage Romance by Kay Thorpe

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Kay Thorpe’s Harlequin Romances have bossy men and ladies who stand up for themselves most of the time. Devon Interlude is one of the earliest novels she wrote for Harlequin, published in 1968, and it is a pleasant, easy to read story which, yes, does have her usual bossy guy and non-doormat girl.

After her play folds actress Gail goes to her brother’s home, an inn he is trying to make a go of, in rural Devon. Her brother and his wife had helped her to get started as an actress and Gail is aware she owes them big time and feels guilty because she let the odd letter substitute for visits. In fact her brother has been very ill but didn’t want to worry Gail so she does not know.

In typical Harlequin fashion the first person Gail meets on her way home is her bother’s best friend Mark, who makes no bones about his contempt for her. He accuses her of coming only to get more money from brother Steve, tries to shame her for being uncaring and distant and offers a check, presumably so she won’t bother Steve and wife Carol. Gail is furious with Mark but is honest enough to admit she has been at fault not coming to visit or even to do much to keep in touch with Steve and Carol.

Steve and Carol’s inn is not doing well. They are “foreigners”, outsiders to the closed neighborhood and the locals don’t patronize the inn nor are they able to get tourist traffic. Gail takes responsibility to find them much increased custom when she makes a deal with a tour bus operator in a nearby town. He will bring people to see a local attraction, then stop at the inn for dinner or drinks. This works great and Steve and Carol are pleased and happy their financial situation might improve.

Gail works evenings at the inn and meets a couple younger men who suggest she get involved with the local drama club which they claim is significantly better than the average amateur group. She is a little reluctant but agrees to step in when the lady playing the lead in the play they are rehearsing has to quit. She is impressed with the script and quality of the acting but nearly quits when she realizes that Mark is directing the play.

Mark apologizes for offering her the check and Gail agrees to start fresh with him. They go to the beach and spend time together and Gail realizes she is nearly over the infatuation she had with Paul, an actor she worked with several years. She’s not quite ready to fall for Mark though.

Right about this time Sandra, a neighbor makes it clear she’s targeting Mark and Paul shows up to try and convince Gail to go with him and an acting company to tour Australia. Gail realizes she’s quite happy away from the theater but doesn’t want to stick around and see Sandra and Mark get married. The next thing that happens is that the man who plays the lead opposite Gail in the play gets ill and Mark steps in. Gail delivers a passionate and truthful love avowal in the opening night performance and Mark and she both admit their love and agree to marry.

The conflicts in Devon Interlude are understated. Gail isn’t terribly emotional nor does she brood about Mark or Paul or Sandra. She is slow to realize she is falling in love with Mark – she’s a little afraid since she has just realized she never really loved Paul and doesn’t want to make another mistake. As she’s facing up to her heart she sees Sandra and thinks she cannot compete. Sandra isn’t obviously nasty, unlike some Other Women in later romances, but she is clear that Mark is hers and that Gail is no competition. Neither girl seems to realize that Mark is going to decide Mark’s future!

The family relationships between Steve, Carol and Gail are well done with a light touch that shows how much each values the others without having Gail wallow in guilt. Mark too has some family issues (don’t we all?) and Gail is surprised to see the animosity between Mark and his father.

Overall Devon Interlude is a happy story without a lot of the usual nastiness we see in some Harlequins. Mark is a reasonable person who willingly admits he was too fast to judge Gail and Gail is willing to admit she neglected her family and that Mark, although he was rude and made vile comments, is willing to find a way to get along with Gail since her brother is his very good friend.

Kay Thorpe is a good writer and this is a good story with people who feel like they could be real.

3 Stars

I got my copy from Thriftbooks and other used book sites and eBay likely will have copies as does Amazon.

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If Dreams Came True – Romance and Ballet by Rozella Lake / Roberta Leigh

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Rozella Lake also wrote as Roberta Leigh and Rachel Lindsay. The title, If Dreams Came True, is exactly what this lovely romance is about.

Characters and Plot Synopsis

Briony, 22, is an upcoming ballet dancer, on the cusp of moving from the corps de ballet to small solo roles. She’s dedicated to her dancing and to her older sister, Fay, who has limped from childhood and suffers from progressively worse moods and hysteria. Story opens when Briony comes home to their shabby apartment and finds Tom, their doctor and good friend, brought a friend with him, Christopher Clayton. Christopher and Briony are immediately attracted to each other and date for a couple weeks.

Christopher tries to entice Briony into bed with him; she resists but believes she is falling in love with him. He takes her to the Savoy where his mother sees them together; afterwards Christopher tells Briony that he is engaged, and although he loves her, he cannot get out of the upcoming marriage. He tells her that his older brother, Daniel, a neurosurgeon who controls the family fortune, is forcing him to marry Maureen so that Daniel can get the new hospital wing he wants. In fact Christopher tells her several bouncers, that Daniel will cut off his mother’s money, that he’ll force Christopher to dump Briony.

Both girls are shattered. Christopher had spent several hours with Fay and told her he planned to buy a bungalow in the country for them all which would have a ground floor space for her, and now she finds that was a cruel dream, nothing real. Fay tells Briony this and practically falls apart.

Fay repairs jewelry free lance and had been working on a very costly ruby and gold necklace. She wore this to the Savoy with Briony and Christopher and lost it. The necklace was not insured when Fay wore it and now that it is gone she must repay the jeweler 3000 pounds, about $25,000 today, an enormous sum for a dancer. Briony talks to Beloff, the ballet company director, who is willing to talk to the jeweler but who doesn’t have that much extra money either. Fay is devastated, hysterical, Briony is scared but determined to find the funds to keep her sister out of trouble.

A day later Beloff tells Briony that the jeweler told him that Fay had repaid him 2500 pounds, leaving a much smaller 500 pounds, still a tremendous sum for a dancer who is responsible for a crippled sister. Christopher’s brother, Daniel, comes to their apartment just before Briony dashes home still in full theatrical makeup and leotard. He is furious that Briony called Christopher and demanded money, blackmailed him to pay 2500 pounds to keep her from confronting his fiancée. Briony of course knows nothing about this, it was Fay who called, Fay who demanded money, and Fay who lied to Daniel claiming it was Briony and that she wanted the money to buy them a better flat.

A day later Daniel comes by again. He talked to Fay and learned that Christopher had promised much before betraying them and he offers to marry Briony himself and provide a home for Fay. He claims that he needs a wife for the usual social responsibilities and that having a beautiful ballerina as wife will be an asset as he raises money for his hospital wing. Briony is disgusted and at first declines, then accepts after Fay has a breakdown.

They marry in a cold business arrangement. Briony makes no secret that she dislikes Daniel and she still believes she is in love with Christopher. Over the next couple months she realizes that love wasn’t real (as she puts it, you love me “the way you love cream cakes or chocolate!”).

The night after Christopher marries Maureen Daniel suggests that he and Briony take a non-platonic holiday together. She realizes she loves him and agrees. He’s overly considerate and sends her to bed alone. The next day his Deirdre, his former fiancee calls him to South Africa to operate on her husband after a car crash. Husband dies and OW Deirdre gets Daniel to stay in South Africa for 3 weeks, then comes back to England with him, and makes no secret that she intends to marry him herself.

Briony believes Daniel still loves Deirdre, he was cold on the phone and took care of getting her settled before coming home, not the way a man acts who is in love with his wife and can’t wait to see her. She has ample evidence Daniel cares for Deirdre and he doesn’t deny it. He also makes it clear he believes Briony still loves Christopher and doesn’t much like himself. Both are too proud to stop this developing tragedy.

Finally Daniel sends Briony freesias at her debut dancing Giselle with a note saying he knows she doesn’t want his love but wishes her to find love somewhere. She replies urging him to not marry Deirdre, that he is worth far more and a final, second thought ps that she is dancing the next dance for him, implies she loves him.

Finally, both are truthful and open and happy ever after is on the horizon.

Use Dance as Metaphor for Romance

Briony has four challenges:

  • Daniel
  • Fay
  • Paying for the necklace
  • Dancing career

Briony’s dancing career blossoms during the book. She goes from the corps de ballet (the girls in the background who dance as a group) to small solos to dancing the lead role in some challenging and popular ballets. Simultaneously she finds Daniel.

Briony pays the last 500 pounds from the allowance Daniel gives her to buy a fancy dress and mink jacket for Christopher’s wedding, which makes Daniel furious. He doesn’t know to whom she gave the money, except that it was a man. It is when he learns the truth and apologizes to Briony that he suggests they go on a honeymoon.

It’s not clear when exactly Briony began to love Daniel, she stops resenting him early on, then the dislike mutes and eventually she realizes what a fine man he is, though she still does not think he loves her.

Daniel suspects Fay has a neurological problem and hospitalizes her for tests which confirm she has a brain tumor. He operates successfully, removes the tumor, which is benign, and Fay will have a happy life now with Tom.

Everything should be beautiful. Except Daniel seems to prefer Deirdre. But does he? He renews the honeymoon offer, but in an offhand manner that infuriates Briony. Here’s where I wanted to shout at her. All she had to do was point out that if the slept together, then Daniel and she could not get the marriage annulled and he would have to seek divorce, meaning he and Deirdre could not marry for a couple of years. Had she confronted him with that they could have cut through the nonsense.

Further, had Briony been honest and brave enough to tell Daniel she no longer loved his brother, even if she couldn’t tell him that she loved him, we’d have had a much shorter book.

As Briony’s career goes upwards, so does her heart, then she fears she has lost what she never truly had. Finally she resolves everything with Daniel and now is a prima ballerina, her sister is healthy, almost miraculous, and they acknowledge they love each other.

Conflicts in the Story

The obvious conflicts are between Briony and Daniel, with more conflicts between the sisters, and with Christopher and Deirdre. The biggest conflict is within Briony. She loves Daniel, doesn’t believe he cares for her once Deirdre arrives and is heartbroken. She decides several times during the story to forget romance and devote herself to dance.

This is a simple book on the surface, with a happy plot. Under the surface we see Rozella Lake (Roberta Leigh/Rachel Lindsay) creating a character who has to decide to risk her heart. She already risks her physical well being by dancing and now it is her emotions. She has to risk giving her sister the chance to stand on her own, to risk being near her former love Christopher, and to risk Daniel rebuffing her.

Overall

If Dreams Came True is a lovely story. Everything Briony dreamt about came true. She has love, a healthy and happy sister and a brilliant career. We all want to imagine having such a happy life – being top of the tree in our career, loving and being loved by our spouse, having our family healthy. It’s pure escapism yes, but Briony’s challenges are real and take the story from a lovely, sweet froth to a true romance.

5 Stars

I got my paperback copy from Thriftbooks and have seen copies on eBay and you can likely get it from other used book sellers. It is not available online in E format.

The Spanish Connection – Stereotyped Romance by Kay Thorpe

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I enjoy most Kay Thorpe romances but this one! The Spanish Connection combines all my most-disliked Harlequin Presents attributes.

  • Stereotyped characters. He’s Spanish, rich. He’s arrogant, thinks he’s God’s gift to women, bossy, obnoxious, uncaring. He files suit to take custody of his dead brother’s sons from their mother! That’s pretty low.
  • Our jerky hero is so colossally full of himself that he tells our heroine that men are always superior to women. Oh my, where to start with this one? Can we just take it as read that superiority depends on the individual and the particular area?
  • He declares he intends to “take” her and that it wouldn’t be rape because he is so gorgeous and sexy and and and. By this point, page 50 or so, I was gagging.
  • He expected all women to be docile doormats. (I worked with a lovely lady from Spain who was the furthest thing possible from doormat-hood.)
  • It’s nauseating to stereotype Spanish men the way this novel does.
  • She falls for him sexually right away and they sleep together the second night she’s in his home. Hey lady, get a grip!! He’s manipulative and obnoxious and out for his own agenda. And if you sleep with him you’ll be so confused he can lead you by the nose.

Plus the story itself is unconvincing. I just don’t buy the romance here. Nina is reflexively jealous of Rafael’s wanna-be girlfriend despite events; she simply sees Rafael with her and assumes they are sleeping together. That’s not love, that’s stupidity.

The plot is nuts, the characters don’t feel real. Even Kay Thorpe’s normal good writing can’t salvage this mess.

Feeling generous today.

2 Stars (I’d give it 1 Star except I did finish it and it is Kay Thorpe!)

I read this initially on Hoopla, which you may be able to access via your library. It’s also available in E format on Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Harlequin.com. Look for paperback copies on these sites plus Thriftbooks.com and eBay. I got a paperback copy in a lot with several other books on eBay so it now clutters up my shelves.

Dangerous Charlotte Lamb Romance Harlequin Presents

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Charlotte Lamb said once that she could write a book a month, and with that pace a few duds will slip in along with her many stellar stories. Dangerous (paid ad) is a romance between Laura, a nurse chaperoning a resentful, rebellious 16 year old daughter of a very rich man, and that man Domenicos.

Charlotte Lamb tends to take her time and word count to build strong secondary characters, in Dangerous she writes a good, believable story about Laura and Amanda. Amanda starts to grow up and leave behind rebellion for rebellion’s sake, mostly because Laura is wisely indulges her on small things and lets Amanda to meet the boy she likes under the aegis of her grandmother.

Dangerous has side stories: Amanda grows up, Domenicos begins to know her, Domenicos relationship with his mother, Laura’s friendship with Marcel, the uncle of the boy Amanda wants to date. Lamb does a nice job sketching in these stories, enough to keep us interested in the characters, but she doesn’t actually tie off the loose ends.

My biggest disappointment is the romance between Laura and Domenicos is not believable. Domenicos despises women in general and Laura fascinates him because she is honest, does not chase him nor play games and she obviously cares for Amanda and his mother. Plus she’s attractive and radiates innocence. Laura finds Domenicos attractive and she enjoys the time they spend together but she’s sensible enough to be wary of him and not want an affair.

So why do they end up planning to marry? Would Domenicos, a brilliant businessman whose first marriage was a disaster and who doesn’t trust anyone, truly propose after just a month or less, probably less than 24 hours total spent with Laura? I don’t think so. Laura thinks he is propositioning her when he does propose (he words it that way) yet she is willing to risk all for a few moments of joy. It doesn’t ring true to me.

I did not get emotionally involved with any of the characters nor engaged with the story. It was a book I could put down and pick up a day later.

Overall Dangerous is a decent read, well-written with plenty of scenes in and around Paris, with well-done secondary characters. It is meant to be a romance and on that level it doesn’t rate above a skimpy 3 stars. I didn’t love the story, or the characters nor did I get so irritated that I wanted to whack them over the head with a 2×4. (I give 5s for books that engage me to the point where I fume about the jerky hero for days after reading.)

I got my copy of Dangerous from Thriftbooks. Amazon has used copies as of this writing and you likely will find copies on eBay and other used book sites.

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Solitaire by Sara Craven

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Sara Craven tends to write stories where the primary conflict is in the heroine’s head, when she convinces herself that although she is deeply in love, the hero does not and never can love her, and therefore she faces a lifetime of misery. Usually she protects herself by acting as though she cares little, or that the attraction is physical only.

Sometimes this theme happens after marriage, marriage to take care of a child (Devil and the Deep Sea), a coerced marriage for financial/business reasons (Wife Against Her Will, The Marriage Proposition), even when the marriage was ostensibly for love (His Wedding Night Heir). In Solitaire (link is paid ad) her agony of the heart happens during courtship, when Martine leaves her aunt’s house to go to her older cousin, Uncle Jim, in France and discovers Jim is dead and film director Luc Dumaris owns his house now. Martine is not sophisticated but she’s wise enough to realize that there is no future for her with Luc.

Unfortunately she falls for Luc despite telling herself over and over to stop. For the moment she is stuck in his house because she hasn’t enough money to leave (nor anywhere to go since her aunt doesn’t want her back) and she works for him as a companion for his son to earn enough to return to England. She doesn’t see all that much of Luc but everytime they run into each other she is pulled deeper. Luc is likewise attracted and keeps grabbing Martine, kissing and caressing her and suggests they go upstairs to make love. Luc of course loves Martine but she doesn’t realize it and is reluctant to even suspect it.

This is where author Craven must be her strongest, to make such an implausible story work. Martine has zero experience of men and Luc is strong, masculine, successful, good looking, intelligent and fun to be with. In fact Martine spends very little time with Luc and is surprised to find he can be a delightful companion when he’s not kissing her senseless. Solitaire doesn’t show us anything about Luc’s feelings except through his actions, but it’s clear Luc is attracted to Martine physically but also to her integrity and innocence. He’s about 15 years older, an obvious target for her to have a huge crush.

Unfortunately Craven can’t quite pull this off. The romance is all too likely but it is hard to believe they love and are not simply attracted or infatuated or in love with love or with an ideal. The love story is not compelling.

One reason Solitaire falls just short is the sheer implausibility of the pairing, especially given the fact very young women tend to fall in and out of love until they finally are mature enough to love and not simply be in love. A second reason is that Craven doesn’t show us what Luc thinks. He avoids Martine and spends time with the older, more sophisticated other woman. We could infer that he avoids Martine because he’s attracted to her strongly and wants to play fair with such an innocent, or we could surmise that he’s not interested in her except physically and is decent enough to avoid that. If I were in Martine’s place I don’t think I would figure Luc feels love. Lust, yes. Definitely. But love is not evident in his behavior.

Craven shows us too much inside Martine, as she constantly agonizes over Luc and how he doesn’t/can’t love her. She is responsible and has integrity and wants to earn her wage, first by companioning Luc’s son and then by typing his manuscript. If Martine had been older or wiser she would have asked Luc just what was going on the first time he grabbed her and kissed her silly. He could have been leading up to an affair, or he could have been expressing frustration. Or he could have been showing love.

Had Martine been brave enough to confess her love to Luc, risking rejection or even worse, having him rush her into an affair without love, she would have seen that he did love her. Almost all of Craven’s heroines are cowards when it comes to saying “I love you”, and then they are lost in the woods because they have to wait for a crisis to prompt the man to say it. Since the ladies have spent almost 170 pages being aloof, it’s not too easy for the man to say it either.

Craven sometimes builds excellent characters, uses dialogue and actions to reveal them to us. Martine, Luc’s son Bernard, and Jean Paul, the student working at a local café who dates Martine are quite well developed and we can feel like we might recognize them if we were to meet. Luc is an enigma. We know Martine by her verbal dialogue and her inner thoughts, and I feel Craven uses far too many internal monologues to set the stage and show us Martine.

Overall Solitaire is a solid 3+ stars, not quite 4 but certainly worth reading. I got my paperback copy from Thriftbooks and you might see copies on eBay or other used book sites. Amazon has copies available as I write this. The Open Library at Archive.org does not have Solitaire yet.

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