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Bellaire and Chalmers #4
Gentle Deception
How could she prove they were wrong?
Rosy Seaton, alone in the world, was only too delighted to become acquainted with her distant Cousin Elliott and his wife, Bea.
Unfortunately, Bea's younger brother and sister misinterpreted Rosy's newfound happiness and thought she was setting her cap at Elliott.
To convince them it wasn't true, Rosy had to find herself a man--and Callum Blake was just what she needed. He was perfectly prepared to be her pretend lover--but what if it suddenly became reality?
Rosy Seaton, alone in the world, was only too delighted to become acquainted with her distant Cousin Elliott and his wife, Bea.
Unfortunately, Bea's younger brother and sister misinterpreted Rosy's newfound happiness and thought she was setting her cap at Elliott.
To convince them it wasn't true, Rosy had to find herself a man--and Callum Blake was just what she needed. He was perfectly prepared to be her pretend lover--but what if it suddenly became reality?
187 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1989
119 people want to read
About the author
Frances Roding
7 books14 followersAKA Caroline Courtney, Annie Groves, Penny Halsall, Lydia Hitchcock, Penny Jordan, and Melinda Wright.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
October 10, 2018
Rosy Seaton (who is 25) is staying at her second-cousin, Elliott Chalmer's, home for a while, helping him out with some secretarial work. (Recently Rosy's great-aunt died and that's when she discovered that she had a second cousin). Rosy is really enjoying getting to know Elliott and his friendly, pregnant wife, Bea. But Bea's siblings (Miranda and William) are concerned because they think Rosy is falling for Elliott so they aren't acting very friendly towards Rosy. They love their sister Bea, and they don't want to see Bea hurt. So they come up with an idea... let William introduce Rosy to some friends/guys he knows at Oxford. Rosy, who accidentally overhears what they are saying, is hurt that they could think this of her. She now feels uncomfortable staying at Elliott's home so she agrees to go to Oxford with William.
While Rosy is there she meets a man one day who is very sick and frail looking in a wheelchair. His name is Callum Blake (34) and he is recovering from an illness. (Callum is an economist who was shot and he picked up a bug/fever while he was in Ethiopia). After Rosy and Callum talk for a while she discovers that Callum is writing articles and planning lectures about his time in Ethiopia. He asks Rosy if she can help him out with his work. Rosy accepts. She also tells him about her problem with Elliott, Miranda, and William. Callum suggests that she move in with him for a while (platonic of course, since she and Callum are only friends) and pretend that they are a couple. That will convince Miranda and William that Rosy has no interest in Elliott. But, while Rosy stays with Callum she begins to notice him as a man as well as a friend.
This was such a sweet and lovely romance. It was nice to have a slow build up of sexual tension as the two got to know each other. They talked and listened to each other about their problems and tried to help each other out. Callum was a wonderful hero, he was kind and thoughtful Rosy was a good-hearted and compassionate heroine...always concerned that Callum may be pushing himself too hard and she tried to help. It was also nice to have an appearance by Bea and Elliott from "Some Sort of Spell" (a previous book from this series, "Bellaire and Chalmers".)
A fabulous read by Frances Roding (aka Penny Jordan)!
While Rosy is there she meets a man one day who is very sick and frail looking in a wheelchair. His name is Callum Blake (34) and he is recovering from an illness. (Callum is an economist who was shot and he picked up a bug/fever while he was in Ethiopia). After Rosy and Callum talk for a while she discovers that Callum is writing articles and planning lectures about his time in Ethiopia. He asks Rosy if she can help him out with his work. Rosy accepts. She also tells him about her problem with Elliott, Miranda, and William. Callum suggests that she move in with him for a while (platonic of course, since she and Callum are only friends) and pretend that they are a couple. That will convince Miranda and William that Rosy has no interest in Elliott. But, while Rosy stays with Callum she begins to notice him as a man as well as a friend.
This was such a sweet and lovely romance. It was nice to have a slow build up of sexual tension as the two got to know each other. They talked and listened to each other about their problems and tried to help each other out. Callum was a wonderful hero, he was kind and thoughtful Rosy was a good-hearted and compassionate heroine...always concerned that Callum may be pushing himself too hard and she tried to help. It was also nice to have an appearance by Bea and Elliott from "Some Sort of Spell" (a previous book from this series, "Bellaire and Chalmers".)
A fabulous read by Frances Roding (aka Penny Jordan)!
July 7, 2016
This was adorable. Heroine is a sheltered (yet intelligent and educated) virgin who discovers she has a distant family after her great-aunt dies. She moves in with Elliot and Bea (from a previous book,Some Sort of Spell and she is happier than she has ever been. The siblings who were so annoying in Some Sort of Spell are at it again, thinking that the h is after Elliot. Heroine hears this and is very hurt. She agrees to go to Oxford with the youngest brother "to meet men" - but in actuality she is planning her escape route back to her lonely existence in the dowager house.
She meets the H, an economics professor, at a garden party. He is in a wheelchair because he was shot and contracted a near-fatal virus while researching in Ethiopia. Because he is unattractive and not putting the sexual moves on her, the h is able to relax and be her charming self. (She is charming - I really liked her). H, being no fool, immediately offers her a job as a research assistant.
This is just a nice story. I liked both the h and H. I liked how she was so open to him and how he took her seriously. Very sweet couple.
She meets the H, an economics professor, at a garden party. He is in a wheelchair because he was shot and contracted a near-fatal virus while researching in Ethiopia. Because he is unattractive and not putting the sexual moves on her, the h is able to relax and be her charming self. (She is charming - I really liked her). H, being no fool, immediately offers her a job as a research assistant.
This is just a nice story. I liked both the h and H. I liked how she was so open to him and how he took her seriously. Very sweet couple.
April 24, 2017
Re Gentle Deception - Penny Jordan as Frances Roding's last HP is pretty much worth suffering through the other two Bellaire and Chalmers HP's that are A Different Dream and A Law Unto Himself. Mainly cause Bea- the h from Some Sort of Spell over in HRtopia and the start of this mini-series- quite possibly has the most arrogantly idiotically meddling siblings in the history of HPlandia and in GD they are at it again.
It is lucky for them the h and H in this one were so fantastic, otherwise it would have been multiple skillets and a toilet seat to the head for those twee twiters.
So the h in this one is 25 and has lived a quite isolated life in a big manor house that had to be sold to the National Trust upon her parent's untimely demise - not for the house per say, but because the gardens on the h's parent's estate are fabulous. The h lived in the dower house with her very nice but very old fashioned Great Aunt and because of that, she soon found herself way out of touch with more modern ways of looking at the world.
She went to uni, but got a big rejection when the Welsh guy she liked dumped her because she was still petting unicorns instead of riding dragons. And the Welsh guy, (I think he was one of those throwbacks to the encroaching Medieval Boarder dwellers and not a real Welshman at all,) told her that he did not waste his time with innocent girls who couldn't tame the dragon to his satisfaction.
Not knowing she had a lucky escape, cause guys who are interested in rapid dragon firing aren't real great at coaxing unicorn maidens to let down their hair and give them a good time, the h suffers a tremendous shame and hurt because she feels like an outsider and that she is unacceptable to those around her. Soon after, her great aunt becomes seriously ill, so the h goes and spends the next several years taking care of her.
Now with her great aunt's passing, the h has discovered that she is a cousin to Elliot, the H of Some Sort of Spell and is soon happily ensconced with Bea and Elliot and their rather dramatic family. Bea feels that she has gained a close confidant and Elliot appreciates that the h can help him with his charity work. Elliot's secretary is off for a while and Bea is feeling ill with a recent preggerness of twins.
Unfortunately Bea's two youngest siblings take the h's new happiness to mean that she is in love with Elliot, so they conspire to send her to Oxford to "meet a ton of men." Mainly cause Bea's youngest sister is a big tart in the making I am sure. Sadly our h overhears the plotting, and while she is mightily teed off that two immature hyperactive twenty one year-olds are trying to dictate to her, she gets more concerned that Bea might be having pregger hormones and take the suggestion seriously.
Our sweet h is thinking she should be cutting her visit short and going home, cause fish and house guests start to stink after three days and it has been several weeks. But then Elliot joins in the send the h to Oxford conspiracy and the h is mortified that Elliot might think she fancies him. In a wash of anger, pain and some serious sorrow - cause they all seemed so lovely and family-like at first- the h finds herself agreeing to accompany Bea's youngest brother back to his digs in Oxford.
(Which happens to be Elliot's house, but there is also an ulterior motive at play here. The youngest brother doesn't have a car and the h does, so he won't have to take the train back.)
Elliot supposedly just wants the h to get out and meet people, but I have to raise a brow at his highhandedness, the h was starved for family and grieving, she really needed time to heal. Plus she was an introvert to the max, so thrusting her into a crowd of people wasn't going to help her much.
But I digress, cause it is off to Oxford we go and right away the h is conned into being a chauffeur for the youngest brother and his college roomies. It looks like we are all going to a faculty held student dinner with a big star economics professor as the guest and the h has to go cause she is driving.
The h does graciously go, but she isn't having a good time. Then she wanders into the orchard and there is a man who looks painfully thin in a wheelchair in the garden. The h sits down and talks to him and in the course of explaining her predicament, he offers her a job. It turns out the guy in the wheelchair, (which is a temporary prop because of recent illness,) is the big star economics professor and he just got back from Ethiopia and wants the h to take his dictations on his thoughts for the African Economic Future.
Now normally some random guy asking the h to take his dictation would send her running like the wind right back to her unicorn stable, but the H is so sharply thin and drawn and reminds the h of some sort of aesthete zealot, that she immediately assumes the H is a practicing celibate - plus Bea's youngest brother gave the h the impression that the star economics prof is the resident collegiate monk without the cassock.
So the h understands that dictation is really dictation and she likes the man, he is witty and wry and fascinating to talk to and she needs a job to do anyways. The h is comfortably well off, but there is no gardening grounds for her here and idle hands make devils' work, so the h enthusiastically takes the job.
Soon the two are dictating away like nobody's business and the h is so comfortable talking to the H, she even confesses her deep dark secret rejection. The H, who is normally a big brawny manly man but got shot in Ethiopia and then got Lassa Fever, (which is like Ebola but a different vector,) is thinking the guy who tossed this angel back was a certified loony tune. He wastes no time in reassuring the h and making her feel 110% better about herself.
He will even present himself to her now not so lovely new family as her lover and thus remove any suspicion that the h is pining for Elliot. In fact, since Elliot and Bea have decided to take an impromptu Oxford holiday, the h can move in with him and really reassure the meddling Bellaire juveniles. The h is so overwhelmed with Mr. Celibate H's thoughtfulness that she bursts into emotional tears and gratefully accepts.
So the H gets the h into his besotted clutches in one sneaky move AND with the h's enthusiastic agreement and participation, thus proving that he isn't a genius star economics professor for nothing.
The h moves in and dictation is flowing. Then the H starts getting edgy cause his leg he was shot in still isn't up to par and it has an unsightly scar as well. He has to go see the specialist and he is dreading the prognosis. The h tries to reassure him and offers to hold his hand, but the H wants the h to see him as more masculine and so he goes by himself. While he is in London, he calls the h to tell her he won't be back that night and the h has an extreme jealous moment when she hears a sultry female voice telling the H to "hurry up darling," in the background. Cue the big mopey moment and the h is rather sharp when she ends the conversation.
The H decides to rush back to his house and he wanders into the h's room just in time to see the beguiling little satin bow on her negligee untie itself and give him an eyeful while the h is sleeping. In a haze of luvstruck dizziness, he slowly backs away from the h's room.
The next day the H is fretting over his scar on his leg and the h gives him little scar kisses in lieu of sponging. This leads to the h demanding some dragon riding practice and eventually the H succumbs to the h's charms, all the while wishing he had been a unicorn for all the years before so he could experience the h's special petting mojo. The dragon riding moment is the very best ever and the h is lost in a hazy bliss of transcendent passion and now she is aware that she is in love.
The next morning they both misunderstand each other, the H thinks he was just a boy toy and the h thinks that the H was just helping out a friend, so they both develop a bit of distance between them. But then Bea's younger brother shows up at the H's and they have to get engaged. The h just wants to confess all and be done with it, but the H is adamant they are going to dinner to celebrate the engagement with Bea and Elliot.
Dinner isn't a big success, especially when the sultry voice lady shows up and tries to hang on the H. Fortunately the H has to be in a physical therapy convalescence for his leg for a few weeks, so he won't be around to hang out with the sultry lady, even tho the h is convinced that sultry voice is the woman the H loves and got rejected by and that is why he is worried about scars.
The h decides to leave while the H is at his PT hospital and after some big mopey moments, she writes the H and tells him she loves him but sincerely wishes him wtll with his one true love and she hopes he gets her back.
The next thing we know, the h is sleeping in the garden at her dower house home and the H is telling her she is terrible for leaving him but he loves her too and the sultry voice lady is just some tartlett who won't take no for an answer and he barely even knows her. They are marrying ASAP cause Elliot won't let them live together until the wedding and the h is deciding that Elliot doesn't have a lot to say about it and we leave them lurving it up with dragon riding and plotting the fastest wedding ever for the HEA.
This one was great, the build up to the relationship was well done and I really liked how they shared and talked with each other. This was a ROMANCE in the fullest sense of the word and PJ gave her Frances Roding persona a bang up five star send off from HPlandia that is well worth the time to track it down and read it.
It is lucky for them the h and H in this one were so fantastic, otherwise it would have been multiple skillets and a toilet seat to the head for those twee twiters.
So the h in this one is 25 and has lived a quite isolated life in a big manor house that had to be sold to the National Trust upon her parent's untimely demise - not for the house per say, but because the gardens on the h's parent's estate are fabulous. The h lived in the dower house with her very nice but very old fashioned Great Aunt and because of that, she soon found herself way out of touch with more modern ways of looking at the world.
She went to uni, but got a big rejection when the Welsh guy she liked dumped her because she was still petting unicorns instead of riding dragons. And the Welsh guy, (I think he was one of those throwbacks to the encroaching Medieval Boarder dwellers and not a real Welshman at all,) told her that he did not waste his time with innocent girls who couldn't tame the dragon to his satisfaction.
Not knowing she had a lucky escape, cause guys who are interested in rapid dragon firing aren't real great at coaxing unicorn maidens to let down their hair and give them a good time, the h suffers a tremendous shame and hurt because she feels like an outsider and that she is unacceptable to those around her. Soon after, her great aunt becomes seriously ill, so the h goes and spends the next several years taking care of her.
Now with her great aunt's passing, the h has discovered that she is a cousin to Elliot, the H of Some Sort of Spell and is soon happily ensconced with Bea and Elliot and their rather dramatic family. Bea feels that she has gained a close confidant and Elliot appreciates that the h can help him with his charity work. Elliot's secretary is off for a while and Bea is feeling ill with a recent preggerness of twins.
Unfortunately Bea's two youngest siblings take the h's new happiness to mean that she is in love with Elliot, so they conspire to send her to Oxford to "meet a ton of men." Mainly cause Bea's youngest sister is a big tart in the making I am sure. Sadly our h overhears the plotting, and while she is mightily teed off that two immature hyperactive twenty one year-olds are trying to dictate to her, she gets more concerned that Bea might be having pregger hormones and take the suggestion seriously.
Our sweet h is thinking she should be cutting her visit short and going home, cause fish and house guests start to stink after three days and it has been several weeks. But then Elliot joins in the send the h to Oxford conspiracy and the h is mortified that Elliot might think she fancies him. In a wash of anger, pain and some serious sorrow - cause they all seemed so lovely and family-like at first- the h finds herself agreeing to accompany Bea's youngest brother back to his digs in Oxford.
(Which happens to be Elliot's house, but there is also an ulterior motive at play here. The youngest brother doesn't have a car and the h does, so he won't have to take the train back.)
Elliot supposedly just wants the h to get out and meet people, but I have to raise a brow at his highhandedness, the h was starved for family and grieving, she really needed time to heal. Plus she was an introvert to the max, so thrusting her into a crowd of people wasn't going to help her much.
But I digress, cause it is off to Oxford we go and right away the h is conned into being a chauffeur for the youngest brother and his college roomies. It looks like we are all going to a faculty held student dinner with a big star economics professor as the guest and the h has to go cause she is driving.
The h does graciously go, but she isn't having a good time. Then she wanders into the orchard and there is a man who looks painfully thin in a wheelchair in the garden. The h sits down and talks to him and in the course of explaining her predicament, he offers her a job. It turns out the guy in the wheelchair, (which is a temporary prop because of recent illness,) is the big star economics professor and he just got back from Ethiopia and wants the h to take his dictations on his thoughts for the African Economic Future.
Now normally some random guy asking the h to take his dictation would send her running like the wind right back to her unicorn stable, but the H is so sharply thin and drawn and reminds the h of some sort of aesthete zealot, that she immediately assumes the H is a practicing celibate - plus Bea's youngest brother gave the h the impression that the star economics prof is the resident collegiate monk without the cassock.
So the h understands that dictation is really dictation and she likes the man, he is witty and wry and fascinating to talk to and she needs a job to do anyways. The h is comfortably well off, but there is no gardening grounds for her here and idle hands make devils' work, so the h enthusiastically takes the job.
Soon the two are dictating away like nobody's business and the h is so comfortable talking to the H, she even confesses her deep dark secret rejection. The H, who is normally a big brawny manly man but got shot in Ethiopia and then got Lassa Fever, (which is like Ebola but a different vector,) is thinking the guy who tossed this angel back was a certified loony tune. He wastes no time in reassuring the h and making her feel 110% better about herself.
He will even present himself to her now not so lovely new family as her lover and thus remove any suspicion that the h is pining for Elliot. In fact, since Elliot and Bea have decided to take an impromptu Oxford holiday, the h can move in with him and really reassure the meddling Bellaire juveniles. The h is so overwhelmed with Mr. Celibate H's thoughtfulness that she bursts into emotional tears and gratefully accepts.
So the H gets the h into his besotted clutches in one sneaky move AND with the h's enthusiastic agreement and participation, thus proving that he isn't a genius star economics professor for nothing.
The h moves in and dictation is flowing. Then the H starts getting edgy cause his leg he was shot in still isn't up to par and it has an unsightly scar as well. He has to go see the specialist and he is dreading the prognosis. The h tries to reassure him and offers to hold his hand, but the H wants the h to see him as more masculine and so he goes by himself. While he is in London, he calls the h to tell her he won't be back that night and the h has an extreme jealous moment when she hears a sultry female voice telling the H to "hurry up darling," in the background. Cue the big mopey moment and the h is rather sharp when she ends the conversation.
The H decides to rush back to his house and he wanders into the h's room just in time to see the beguiling little satin bow on her negligee untie itself and give him an eyeful while the h is sleeping. In a haze of luvstruck dizziness, he slowly backs away from the h's room.
The next day the H is fretting over his scar on his leg and the h gives him little scar kisses in lieu of sponging. This leads to the h demanding some dragon riding practice and eventually the H succumbs to the h's charms, all the while wishing he had been a unicorn for all the years before so he could experience the h's special petting mojo. The dragon riding moment is the very best ever and the h is lost in a hazy bliss of transcendent passion and now she is aware that she is in love.
The next morning they both misunderstand each other, the H thinks he was just a boy toy and the h thinks that the H was just helping out a friend, so they both develop a bit of distance between them. But then Bea's younger brother shows up at the H's and they have to get engaged. The h just wants to confess all and be done with it, but the H is adamant they are going to dinner to celebrate the engagement with Bea and Elliot.
Dinner isn't a big success, especially when the sultry voice lady shows up and tries to hang on the H. Fortunately the H has to be in a physical therapy convalescence for his leg for a few weeks, so he won't be around to hang out with the sultry lady, even tho the h is convinced that sultry voice is the woman the H loves and got rejected by and that is why he is worried about scars.
The h decides to leave while the H is at his PT hospital and after some big mopey moments, she writes the H and tells him she loves him but sincerely wishes him wtll with his one true love and she hopes he gets her back.
The next thing we know, the h is sleeping in the garden at her dower house home and the H is telling her she is terrible for leaving him but he loves her too and the sultry voice lady is just some tartlett who won't take no for an answer and he barely even knows her. They are marrying ASAP cause Elliot won't let them live together until the wedding and the h is deciding that Elliot doesn't have a lot to say about it and we leave them lurving it up with dragon riding and plotting the fastest wedding ever for the HEA.
This one was great, the build up to the relationship was well done and I really liked how they shared and talked with each other. This was a ROMANCE in the fullest sense of the word and PJ gave her Frances Roding persona a bang up five star send off from HPlandia that is well worth the time to track it down and read it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 11, 2022
Sorry but I wasn’t impressed. This rated high in my friends list and was apparently a work place setting so I had to try it out. I’d say it was an insta-lust of the eighties.
Rosy the h has no relatives and once she finds out of some distant cousins and tries to connect with them, she’s accused to be a husband-snatcher. Whatever the case Rosy wasn’t a total bed of roses. She was dowdy (while being a beautiful blonde) and gauche and I’d say a bit of a loony.
She keeps making all the wrong choices between A and B throughout the book. Rosy spends a suspicious amount of time with her male cousin. I fail to see what a young charismatic and good looking man, who was a newly discovered relative to Rosy could offer that had her hanging on to his every word. This cousin is married and his wife is pregnant and Rosy should’ve known better than to cross boundaries and stick to this woman’s husband all the time.
So Rosy doesn’t have any evil intentions but then why was she outspending her time with this man then. What good could he bring. He wasn’t old enough to be a brother or a father figure and at one point also suspected that she had a growing crush on him.
This is just the beginning. Rosy may be a little over shelf life with her aging v-card but it didn’t take much for her to lose it later in the book. I didn’t agree with her life choices..
Also have to say the writer totally got carried away and lost herself in very distasteful and vivid descriptions of the H’s physical incapacitation. There were hours and hours of how weak and frail and bony this man was that it was rather hard for me to see him beyond his apparent ugliness.
If I were in Rosy’s shoes I might’ve felt a bit of a cringe attack to be forced to be partnered up with such an.. omega man (last alphabet- Greek )
Rosy has no control of her verbal dysentery. She says to the H the kind of stuff she shouldn’t have. Cringe and cringe. Finally there’s an HEA where the H is still very skin and bones and scars. The h has in this while accepted all this as love and they live a happy life together.
Eye roll.
Rosy the h has no relatives and once she finds out of some distant cousins and tries to connect with them, she’s accused to be a husband-snatcher. Whatever the case Rosy wasn’t a total bed of roses. She was dowdy (while being a beautiful blonde) and gauche and I’d say a bit of a loony.
She keeps making all the wrong choices between A and B throughout the book. Rosy spends a suspicious amount of time with her male cousin. I fail to see what a young charismatic and good looking man, who was a newly discovered relative to Rosy could offer that had her hanging on to his every word. This cousin is married and his wife is pregnant and Rosy should’ve known better than to cross boundaries and stick to this woman’s husband all the time.
So Rosy doesn’t have any evil intentions but then why was she outspending her time with this man then. What good could he bring. He wasn’t old enough to be a brother or a father figure and at one point also suspected that she had a growing crush on him.
This is just the beginning. Rosy may be a little over shelf life with her aging v-card but it didn’t take much for her to lose it later in the book. I didn’t agree with her life choices..
Also have to say the writer totally got carried away and lost herself in very distasteful and vivid descriptions of the H’s physical incapacitation. There were hours and hours of how weak and frail and bony this man was that it was rather hard for me to see him beyond his apparent ugliness.
If I were in Rosy’s shoes I might’ve felt a bit of a cringe attack to be forced to be partnered up with such an.. omega man (last alphabet- Greek )
Rosy has no control of her verbal dysentery. She says to the H the kind of stuff she shouldn’t have. Cringe and cringe. Finally there’s an HEA where the H is still very skin and bones and scars. The h has in this while accepted all this as love and they live a happy life together.
Eye roll.
December 14, 2012
There was something so sweet about this book. The heroine has led a very sheltered life when she discovers some relative and then it turns out some of them have mistaken her motive, which hurts her. She meets the hero at a party and at the start he is not hero like. He is an economist who was injured badly and is frail. I loved how they were friends and colleagues at first before anything else. Their romance was gradual and sweet. The heroine was inexperienced and embarrassed because of that and I just found something very endearing in the book.
July 20, 2013
Aww this story was so sweet it gave me a toothache. The heroine Rosy is alone in the world, so when she finds out she has a distant cousin, Elliott she is thrilled. She befriends Elliott and his wife, Bea but ppl think she is smitten with Elliot and that she'll seduce him.
In reality Rosy is just a lonely very sweet and innocent girl who only seeks warmth and a family. When she meets the hero she takes pity on him and considers him a nice but highly unattractive man.
Hero is an economist who after suffering from a serious illness he is stuck in a wheelchair and has a disfigured leg. Callum asks Rosy to become her fake lover so that ppl will stop talking about her closeness with her cousin. Their charade of course results in them falling hard for each other but none of them is willing to admit it and angst ensues.
Great love story that feels 100% real. The characters are charming and well developed, the sexual tension is intense and I liked how Rosy and Callum were first true friends and then lovers. Hero was not your macho alpha male but a kind, attentive and sensitive man. Heroine was such a cutie pie I wanted to put her in my pocket. It was amazing!
In reality Rosy is just a lonely very sweet and innocent girl who only seeks warmth and a family. When she meets the hero she takes pity on him and considers him a nice but highly unattractive man.
Hero is an economist who after suffering from a serious illness he is stuck in a wheelchair and has a disfigured leg. Callum asks Rosy to become her fake lover so that ppl will stop talking about her closeness with her cousin. Their charade of course results in them falling hard for each other but none of them is willing to admit it and angst ensues.
Great love story that feels 100% real. The characters are charming and well developed, the sexual tension is intense and I liked how Rosy and Callum were first true friends and then lovers. Hero was not your macho alpha male but a kind, attentive and sensitive man. Heroine was such a cutie pie I wanted to put her in my pocket. It was amazing!
April 30, 2013
4.5 stars. Another great read by this author. Although the hero isn't very swoon worthy at the outset because he's been wasted away by tropical fever, he quickly becomes attractive through his personality. Very sweet story, good angsty tension in the middle, and a happy resolution. Great read.
September 15, 2016
As I started reading Gentle Deception, it didn’t occur to me that this was part of a series. Actually, the fourth story out of four. It would have helped my initial confusion with the first three chapters if I had read, at the very least, Some Sort of Spell.
Rosy Seaton was on an extended visit with her once or twice-removed cousin Elliott and his wife, Bea. I soon figured out that these were the main characters from the first story. Words behind doors were overheard by the sensitive Rosy and she felt an urgent need to live elsewhere. She told everyone that she was going to take up William’s (Bea’s youngest brother) offer and live with his roommates and him until she could make a permanent decision. Elliott was leery and Bea was crushed.
Before long, Rosy met the reserved professor Callum Blake in a wheelchair. The education professional had researched economics in Africa and was injured in addition to catching a disease. It was touch and go for a while.
When Rosy introduced herself she was unaware how popular Callum was on campus or that many women had tried to pursue him. He suffered from continual pain and had lost quite a bit of weight. He looked nothing like his former self. He offered her a job as his assistant. Rosy accepted.
I thoroughly enjoyed the first half of GD with awkward moments and shyness by both Rosy and Callum. Ms. Roding did a good job having the reader take notice that Callum secretly wanted to keep Rosy with him. Bea’s younger brother keeps checking on them, ready to act as the white knight. Then there is a proposal of a marriage of convenience. The second half had a few of the clichés that put a damper on Harlequins and Silhouettes- lack of communication that prod minor misunderstandings. Because of this I am giving the romance 3.5 stars.
Rosy Seaton was on an extended visit with her once or twice-removed cousin Elliott and his wife, Bea. I soon figured out that these were the main characters from the first story. Words behind doors were overheard by the sensitive Rosy and she felt an urgent need to live elsewhere. She told everyone that she was going to take up William’s (Bea’s youngest brother) offer and live with his roommates and him until she could make a permanent decision. Elliott was leery and Bea was crushed.
Before long, Rosy met the reserved professor Callum Blake in a wheelchair. The education professional had researched economics in Africa and was injured in addition to catching a disease. It was touch and go for a while.
When Rosy introduced herself she was unaware how popular Callum was on campus or that many women had tried to pursue him. He suffered from continual pain and had lost quite a bit of weight. He looked nothing like his former self. He offered her a job as his assistant. Rosy accepted.
I thoroughly enjoyed the first half of GD with awkward moments and shyness by both Rosy and Callum. Ms. Roding did a good job having the reader take notice that Callum secretly wanted to keep Rosy with him. Bea’s younger brother keeps checking on them, ready to act as the white knight. Then there is a proposal of a marriage of convenience. The second half had a few of the clichés that put a damper on Harlequins and Silhouettes- lack of communication that prod minor misunderstandings. Because of this I am giving the romance 3.5 stars.
January 4, 2022
This was a sweet romance! This book is part of a 4 book series and revisits the couple from the first book Some Sort of Spell. I have now read 3 of the 4 books with a huge gap in-between and definitely not in order, so you can definitely read this as a stand alone.
Heroine: Rosy 25 (almost 26) year old virgin who is very sensitive about that. She lived a very sheltered life and when she attempted one love affair, the male in question scoffed at her inexperience. She has decided that her lot in life will not include love and she puts the shields up. She happens upon a long lost relative and 2nd cousin Elliott, (H from ssos) and his very pregnant wife Bea(heroine from ssos) who take her in. Everyone is happy with this arrangement, except for Mirry(Bea’s interfering sister) who thinks Rosy may have inadvertently fallen in love with Elliott. She speaks with her brother William about her suspicions and how it is causing problems in their sister’s marriage. Rosy overhears them talking and is devastated that they would think this about her. She accepts William’s invitation to go stay with him at university and “meet” men. Elliot encourages this and she thinks he must also believe that she is in love with him.(Elliott, actually is sad to see that this young girl is not really living and wants her to experience life) However, her ultimate plan is to return back home to her lonely life. While at the university, William takes Rosy to a party. It is here she meets wheelchair bound Callum.
Hero: Callum, mid 30’s professor of economics. Callum in his current state, is like Steve Rogers(Chris Evans version), before he took the super serum!
While in Africa, he was shot and contracted an illness. He is lucky to be alive. He is able to walk, and he is on the mend. His current state of illness is temporary.
Like a sexy girl hiding behind big glasses, he is full of possibilities.
Rosy meets him in his current state, and finds that he is no threat. She is not attracted to him and he doesn’t give off any sexuality at all. He can tell she is down about something and encourages her to open up to him. She tells him her sad story of woe, and he offers her a job helping him with his book. She accepts.
The story continues and she goes to work for him. They get along great. They have intelligent conversations and an easy going relationship not mired down with sex. She believes that Callum intentionally lives a life of celibacy, when in actuality he just isn’t a manwhore. Plus, he is scarred and has been sickly, so his confidence as a man is a little shaken at the moment. Then Elliott and Bea decide they need to visit Rosy after learning about her job with the professor. Rosy doesn’t want Elliott to think she is in love with him, so Callum suggests that they pretend to be lovers(oh really, 🤔) and that she move in with him. He has the room, and it would be nice to have a secretary at his beck and call.
We have now entered the title of our book: Gentle Deception. The question is what is the Gentle Deception? Is it Rosy and Callum doing the deception against Elliott and Bea? Or is there a Gentle Deception going on between Rosy and Callum?
As a reader, we get very little of Callum’s point of view. However, there is actually some in the book. We see enough to know that he is definitely not immune to Rosy. Of course living together brings them closer together. Before these two can finally commit to an HEA, there is some angst near the end. The angst comes from lack of communication after they succumb to their passion. Was this just an aberration or was this a love connection?
Of course, it is a romance so all ends well.
One thing I like about this story, is that there is a lot of communication. The couple really do not keep secrets from each other until the end when they are not sure if their love is going to be returned. Even Elliott finds out the truth about Rosy leaving and lets just say that he will be having some words with both Mirry and William about their unwarranted meddling. This actually makes me want to reread SSOS, because Elliott is such a good guy.
If you are looking for low drama this is a good one to read.
Heroine: Rosy 25 (almost 26) year old virgin who is very sensitive about that. She lived a very sheltered life and when she attempted one love affair, the male in question scoffed at her inexperience. She has decided that her lot in life will not include love and she puts the shields up. She happens upon a long lost relative and 2nd cousin Elliott, (H from ssos) and his very pregnant wife Bea(heroine from ssos) who take her in. Everyone is happy with this arrangement, except for Mirry(Bea’s interfering sister) who thinks Rosy may have inadvertently fallen in love with Elliott. She speaks with her brother William about her suspicions and how it is causing problems in their sister’s marriage. Rosy overhears them talking and is devastated that they would think this about her. She accepts William’s invitation to go stay with him at university and “meet” men. Elliot encourages this and she thinks he must also believe that she is in love with him.(Elliott, actually is sad to see that this young girl is not really living and wants her to experience life) However, her ultimate plan is to return back home to her lonely life. While at the university, William takes Rosy to a party. It is here she meets wheelchair bound Callum.
Hero: Callum, mid 30’s professor of economics. Callum in his current state, is like Steve Rogers(Chris Evans version), before he took the super serum!
While in Africa, he was shot and contracted an illness. He is lucky to be alive. He is able to walk, and he is on the mend. His current state of illness is temporary.
Like a sexy girl hiding behind big glasses, he is full of possibilities.
Rosy meets him in his current state, and finds that he is no threat. She is not attracted to him and he doesn’t give off any sexuality at all. He can tell she is down about something and encourages her to open up to him. She tells him her sad story of woe, and he offers her a job helping him with his book. She accepts.
The story continues and she goes to work for him. They get along great. They have intelligent conversations and an easy going relationship not mired down with sex. She believes that Callum intentionally lives a life of celibacy, when in actuality he just isn’t a manwhore. Plus, he is scarred and has been sickly, so his confidence as a man is a little shaken at the moment. Then Elliott and Bea decide they need to visit Rosy after learning about her job with the professor. Rosy doesn’t want Elliott to think she is in love with him, so Callum suggests that they pretend to be lovers(oh really, 🤔) and that she move in with him. He has the room, and it would be nice to have a secretary at his beck and call.
We have now entered the title of our book: Gentle Deception. The question is what is the Gentle Deception? Is it Rosy and Callum doing the deception against Elliott and Bea? Or is there a Gentle Deception going on between Rosy and Callum?
As a reader, we get very little of Callum’s point of view. However, there is actually some in the book. We see enough to know that he is definitely not immune to Rosy. Of course living together brings them closer together. Before these two can finally commit to an HEA, there is some angst near the end. The angst comes from lack of communication after they succumb to their passion. Was this just an aberration or was this a love connection?
Of course, it is a romance so all ends well.
One thing I like about this story, is that there is a lot of communication. The couple really do not keep secrets from each other until the end when they are not sure if their love is going to be returned. Even Elliott finds out the truth about Rosy leaving and lets just say that he will be having some words with both Mirry and William about their unwarranted meddling. This actually makes me want to reread SSOS, because Elliott is such a good guy.
If you are looking for low drama this is a good one to read.
August 21, 2014
Definitely a keeper! Now I have to go back and re-read Bea and Elliott's story, Some Sort of Spell.
May 9, 2017
Ah well, I had to settle for some scar kissings instead of sponging, but well, it kept me away from my liquor cabinet!!!
May 5, 2023
3.5 I love an academic H and this one has the added attraction of being injured in the pursuit of noble research. He had been doing economics work in Ethiopia when he was both shot and contracted Lassa fever. Oxford don Callum Blake is unthreatening, in his weakened state, to sheltered, sexually timid orphaned woman-child Rosy. I am, I confess, a sucker for this 'awakened by a sensitive pro H' trope. So reminiscent of reading these when I was in my mid teens. She goes to work for him after meeting him at a lunch party when he is in a wheelchair and then they pretend an engagement to convince her (male) cousin's family (distant, recently discovered, have taken her under their wing) that she isn't in love with said cousin and a threat to his marriage. It's sweet and a pleasant read.
December 27, 2022
Of the four books in the Bellaire and Chalmers series (written by Penny Jordan under the penname Frances Roding...I believe this book might have been her last under this penname, but I could be wrong), Gentle Deception has to be my favourite.
There is just something so compelling about the main characters in this book and their conversations...the heroine's emotional growth with regards to her hangups is gradual and believable, and the hero (who falls in love with her at first sight) does such an amazing job of understanding her issues and ensuring she feels comfortable with him first.
Plus I'm a sucker for slow-burn and very obvious mutual pining: there is plenty of it in the second half of the book. I have to applaud Jordan for managing to make this feel *thoroughly* like a slow burn despite the fact that the story takes place over less than three weeks.
The h, Rosy Seton, is a distant cousin of Elliott Chalmers, the hero of Some Sort of Spell, and has lived an extremely sheltered life in Northumberland. By the time she started going to university she became painfully aware of how different her life and thinking was from her peers, and the (horrifically callous) rejection of the first guy who dated her has left her almost traumatized, and completely lacking in self-esteem when it comes to relationships and sex. It gets to the point where she gets intimidated just LOOKING at a man she may find physically attractive.
She feels like she's found a family in Elliott, Bea and their family, except Bea's asshole siblings are still largely assholes (tho tbh the two that feature, William and Miranda were alright in the previous books) and assume shit about Elliott and Rosy left, right and centre (tbh William doesn't quite believe this theory at first, and is conflicted about it for the rest of the book; it's Miranda who insists this is the truth).
Rosy is unlucky enough to overhear this load of bullshit, and when Elliott encourages their plan to have her go to Oxford with William (because he's asked around and found out about the heroine's isolated life...and wants her to mingle more. The siblings meanwhile plan to pair her up with people at Oxford so she can be kept away from Elliott), Rosy thinks Elliott believes the siblings' assumptions about her nursing a secret crush on him.
She meets the H, Callum Blake, at a lunch hosted by one of William's professors (Callum is a professor too, of economics, but on a sabbatical owing to his trip to Ethiopia and the subsequent injuries and illnesses). He seems to be the direct opposite of most Alpha Male M&B heroes - frail, thin, unassuming, physically unattractive - and is rumoured to be a bit of a celibate monk, thus Rosy sees him as a "safe" man to be around.
He offers Rosy a job with transcribing some of his notes from his trip as well as a couple lectures for when he returns to Oxford. Before long, she's opened up to him in ways she's never opened up to anyone else, and he offers to help her with the complications arising from the Bellaire siblings and Elliott by posing as her fake boyfriend and giving her room in his homely little cottage. Rosy, for her part, notes when he feels tired or when his injury/disability make it hard for him to continue work, and tries to make things easier for him without outwardly mothering or infantalizing him. It's also interesting how accustomed to rejection Callum himself has become, when it comes to his own body image and attractiveness, yet Rosy finds herself drawn closer to him BECAUSE of the suffering his body had obviously endured.
The fake live-in relationship gives our h plenty of space to rethink both how she feels about the hero and her own stance on sex and relationships. Rosy knows she wants a relationship and children eventually, and that she has a great capacity for love, but the fear of rejection stops her from even responding to someone she might be attracted to. While we rarely get Callum's PoV in the book, it's pretty clear that he notices when her reactions towards him begin to change and slowly nudges her towards accepting and even enjoying her need for him.
Her desire for Callum (and though she doesn't know it, his for her) comes to a head around the time a surprise visit from William forces Callum and Rosy to pretend they're engaged. She sees a huge and rather horrific-looking scar on his thigh from the gunshot injury that hurt his leg later that evening, and rather than recoiling as he totally expects her to, she touches and kisses it - leading the two to finally give vent to their pent-up feelings for each other. Rosy realises almost immediately after that she's in love with Callum, and just as quickly (due to a set of misleading circumstances and some lies of omission from Callum's end) assumes he will never love her, and that in fact he loves someone else. Callum believes Rosy regrets their night together and is in constant fear that she will leave, which causes him to close himself off to her. This is their first serious misunderstanding - and the first one the two don't work to resolve - and it comes just as Elliott and Bea meet up with the couple. A potential OW makes an appearance and Rosy figures she should leave before Callum has to make the awkward decision of asking her to leave so he can get back with said OW, and runs backs to Northumberland while he is away on a health regimen for his leg. (from Callum's PoV scene we find out OW is the wife of a friend who just likes flirting outrageously with other people in front of her husband).
To Rosy's credit, she cannot be anything BUT honest, and sends Callum a letter confessing her feelings and assuring him that she doesn't want anything from him. Callum finds her gone, and this letter, as soon as he gets back, and does everything he can to make their fake engagement a reality before finding her at her old house (which includes an awkward talk with Elliott, telling him the truth. It's implied that Elliott did warm up to Callum after that where before the two were sparring with each other). Callum confesses how he feels and they now have two days to make the most of their engaged-for-real status, before Elliott and Bea take Rosy to live with them till the wedding.
(also, Elliott now knows the truth about William and Miranda's suspicions + plans and rest assured their next visit home isn't going to be pretty).
I actually read SSoS first, then dove straight into this one before reading Lucilla's (A Different Dream) and Francesca's (A Law Unto Himself) books. I do love how the overriding theme in the series seems to be the h's letting go of their fears and rediscovering themselves in certain ways. Beatrice learns to view herself as beautiful, desirable and to not measure herself by her family's parameters, Lucilla learns she can still achieve greatness outside of her mother's shadow and essentially breaks the pedestal she had kept Cressida on, Francesca learns to take the reins for her own life and Rosy finds that her inexperience doesn't mean she isn't worthy of love or desire. In a lot of ways these are women who have faced some level of damage from their past experiences, and at least 3 out of the 4 H's fully commit to helping them resolve their issues.
Several things stood out to me on my re-reads:
1. The relationship development was lovely! They have such sweet exchanges together and I love how open they are to each other. Rosy has a naturally expressive face and finds it hard to lie, and while Callum keeps his secrets he does trust her and open up even when he doesn't need to.
2. I found the dynamics of finding attractiveness intimidating, really interesting. Rosy mentions sometime after realising she loves Callum that had he come in front of her as the "manly man" he originally was, she would have never approached him. She is also someone who - hangups aside- is instinctively is attracted to powerfully built men. It actually makes so much sense then that seeing Callum when he is incredibly vulnerable allows her to trust him first before she can act on her desire for him.
3. There are several layers to the title for this book. You have the deception that Callum and Rosy carry out in front of Bea's family, then you have the "deception" both of Callum's presumed celibacy and his feelings for Rosy. And you have the deception Rosy puts herself through, where her insecurities and fears don't allow her to see her feelings for Callum for what they are, until the end.
(It also amuses me no end that a book that has "deception" in the title has one of the most honest M&B/HP heroines I have seen lol. She even crosses her fingers beneath the bedsheet when she has to lie to the H about not loving him)
4. I thought the treatment for Callum's temporary disability and how it ties in with his own self-image issues was really well done. We get snatches of it: the way he speaks about medical practitioners viewing him as more a body and less a person, his comment about how people react to his wheelchair, his frustration when he tries to appear stronger in front of Rosy and hurts himself in the process, his telling Rosy that thanks to the scar he can only imagine making love to a woman in the dark. He's got his insecurities, but tries his best not to project his frustrations on her.
5. I do love the Alpha Male trope that a lot of Harlequin books have but I'm just as big a fan of Secret Alpha and Beta heroes. Callum seems like a Beta hero but little hints are scattered all over about his alpha tendancies, especially through reactions that Rosy cannot see but that the reader can still catch. He has very few PoV scenes but all of them allow us to see his feelings at the time and contrast them with what Rosy thinks of him.
6. Rosy herself is an intriguing blend of innocence and maturity. In some ways she's had to do more growing up than a lot of her peers: she's emotionally sensitive and perceptive to other people's pain, while not excusing people who do hurt her (even though she is nice to Will and thinks well of him, she doesn't hesitate to point out the double standards he has when she tells Callum about him). But she also doesn't have a lot of experience interacting among peers, getting into relationships or participating in social situations.
7. I really, really loved the sex scene. Rosy struggles to see herself as desirable, fears rejection AND is painfully aware of her lack of experience. So Callum needs to do two things at once to make it a safe experience for her - he has to let her know how good she makes him feel, while giving her multiple openings to leave the situation safely. He does both so perfectly *and* manages to help her gain confidence in her own sexual responses. I thought PJ struck a wonderful balance between those two elements in that scene, and I was genuinely touched by the way it was written. That doesn't happen a lot even with M&B books I love!
8. From the hints scattered throughout the book, I often wonder whether PJ was planning a book for Will. I mean, I'm glad he didn't get one coz I really, REALLY didn't like him and Miranda in this book...but something about the way Rosy is made to describe him as someone who will "grow up to be a formidable man" in the future made me wonder. Other than that, it was lovely to see Bea and Elliott again, and I loved how attached Rosy was to Bea. I also like how protective Elliott is of Rosy even though she doesn't know it, and how he really does want to make amends (even though he knew nothing about Will and Miranda's suspicions) for Rosy's alienation from their family at the end.
Sorry for the essay length review, but I really love this book and just had so much to say!
There is just something so compelling about the main characters in this book and their conversations...the heroine's emotional growth with regards to her hangups is gradual and believable, and the hero (who falls in love with her at first sight) does such an amazing job of understanding her issues and ensuring she feels comfortable with him first.
Plus I'm a sucker for slow-burn and very obvious mutual pining: there is plenty of it in the second half of the book. I have to applaud Jordan for managing to make this feel *thoroughly* like a slow burn despite the fact that the story takes place over less than three weeks.
The h, Rosy Seton, is a distant cousin of Elliott Chalmers, the hero of Some Sort of Spell, and has lived an extremely sheltered life in Northumberland. By the time she started going to university she became painfully aware of how different her life and thinking was from her peers, and the (horrifically callous) rejection of the first guy who dated her has left her almost traumatized, and completely lacking in self-esteem when it comes to relationships and sex. It gets to the point where she gets intimidated just LOOKING at a man she may find physically attractive.
She feels like she's found a family in Elliott, Bea and their family, except Bea's asshole siblings are still largely assholes (tho tbh the two that feature, William and Miranda were alright in the previous books) and assume shit about Elliott and Rosy left, right and centre (tbh William doesn't quite believe this theory at first, and is conflicted about it for the rest of the book; it's Miranda who insists this is the truth).
Rosy is unlucky enough to overhear this load of bullshit, and when Elliott encourages their plan to have her go to Oxford with William (because he's asked around and found out about the heroine's isolated life...and wants her to mingle more. The siblings meanwhile plan to pair her up with people at Oxford so she can be kept away from Elliott), Rosy thinks Elliott believes the siblings' assumptions about her nursing a secret crush on him.
She meets the H, Callum Blake, at a lunch hosted by one of William's professors (Callum is a professor too, of economics, but on a sabbatical owing to his trip to Ethiopia and the subsequent injuries and illnesses). He seems to be the direct opposite of most Alpha Male M&B heroes - frail, thin, unassuming, physically unattractive - and is rumoured to be a bit of a celibate monk, thus Rosy sees him as a "safe" man to be around.
He offers Rosy a job with transcribing some of his notes from his trip as well as a couple lectures for when he returns to Oxford. Before long, she's opened up to him in ways she's never opened up to anyone else, and he offers to help her with the complications arising from the Bellaire siblings and Elliott by posing as her fake boyfriend and giving her room in his homely little cottage. Rosy, for her part, notes when he feels tired or when his injury/disability make it hard for him to continue work, and tries to make things easier for him without outwardly mothering or infantalizing him. It's also interesting how accustomed to rejection Callum himself has become, when it comes to his own body image and attractiveness, yet Rosy finds herself drawn closer to him BECAUSE of the suffering his body had obviously endured.
The fake live-in relationship gives our h plenty of space to rethink both how she feels about the hero and her own stance on sex and relationships. Rosy knows she wants a relationship and children eventually, and that she has a great capacity for love, but the fear of rejection stops her from even responding to someone she might be attracted to. While we rarely get Callum's PoV in the book, it's pretty clear that he notices when her reactions towards him begin to change and slowly nudges her towards accepting and even enjoying her need for him.
Her desire for Callum (and though she doesn't know it, his for her) comes to a head around the time a surprise visit from William forces Callum and Rosy to pretend they're engaged. She sees a huge and rather horrific-looking scar on his thigh from the gunshot injury that hurt his leg later that evening, and rather than recoiling as he totally expects her to, she touches and kisses it - leading the two to finally give vent to their pent-up feelings for each other. Rosy realises almost immediately after that she's in love with Callum, and just as quickly (due to a set of misleading circumstances and some lies of omission from Callum's end) assumes he will never love her, and that in fact he loves someone else. Callum believes Rosy regrets their night together and is in constant fear that she will leave, which causes him to close himself off to her. This is their first serious misunderstanding - and the first one the two don't work to resolve - and it comes just as Elliott and Bea meet up with the couple. A potential OW makes an appearance and Rosy figures she should leave before Callum has to make the awkward decision of asking her to leave so he can get back with said OW, and runs backs to Northumberland while he is away on a health regimen for his leg. (from Callum's PoV scene we find out OW is the wife of a friend who just likes flirting outrageously with other people in front of her husband).
To Rosy's credit, she cannot be anything BUT honest, and sends Callum a letter confessing her feelings and assuring him that she doesn't want anything from him. Callum finds her gone, and this letter, as soon as he gets back, and does everything he can to make their fake engagement a reality before finding her at her old house (which includes an awkward talk with Elliott, telling him the truth. It's implied that Elliott did warm up to Callum after that where before the two were sparring with each other). Callum confesses how he feels and they now have two days to make the most of their engaged-for-real status, before Elliott and Bea take Rosy to live with them till the wedding.
(also, Elliott now knows the truth about William and Miranda's suspicions + plans and rest assured their next visit home isn't going to be pretty).
I actually read SSoS first, then dove straight into this one before reading Lucilla's (A Different Dream) and Francesca's (A Law Unto Himself) books. I do love how the overriding theme in the series seems to be the h's letting go of their fears and rediscovering themselves in certain ways. Beatrice learns to view herself as beautiful, desirable and to not measure herself by her family's parameters, Lucilla learns she can still achieve greatness outside of her mother's shadow and essentially breaks the pedestal she had kept Cressida on, Francesca learns to take the reins for her own life and Rosy finds that her inexperience doesn't mean she isn't worthy of love or desire. In a lot of ways these are women who have faced some level of damage from their past experiences, and at least 3 out of the 4 H's fully commit to helping them resolve their issues.
Several things stood out to me on my re-reads:
1. The relationship development was lovely! They have such sweet exchanges together and I love how open they are to each other. Rosy has a naturally expressive face and finds it hard to lie, and while Callum keeps his secrets he does trust her and open up even when he doesn't need to.
2. I found the dynamics of finding attractiveness intimidating, really interesting. Rosy mentions sometime after realising she loves Callum that had he come in front of her as the "manly man" he originally was, she would have never approached him. She is also someone who - hangups aside- is instinctively is attracted to powerfully built men. It actually makes so much sense then that seeing Callum when he is incredibly vulnerable allows her to trust him first before she can act on her desire for him.
3. There are several layers to the title for this book. You have the deception that Callum and Rosy carry out in front of Bea's family, then you have the "deception" both of Callum's presumed celibacy and his feelings for Rosy. And you have the deception Rosy puts herself through, where her insecurities and fears don't allow her to see her feelings for Callum for what they are, until the end.
(It also amuses me no end that a book that has "deception" in the title has one of the most honest M&B/HP heroines I have seen lol. She even crosses her fingers beneath the bedsheet when she has to lie to the H about not loving him)
4. I thought the treatment for Callum's temporary disability and how it ties in with his own self-image issues was really well done. We get snatches of it: the way he speaks about medical practitioners viewing him as more a body and less a person, his comment about how people react to his wheelchair, his frustration when he tries to appear stronger in front of Rosy and hurts himself in the process, his telling Rosy that thanks to the scar he can only imagine making love to a woman in the dark. He's got his insecurities, but tries his best not to project his frustrations on her.
5. I do love the Alpha Male trope that a lot of Harlequin books have but I'm just as big a fan of Secret Alpha and Beta heroes. Callum seems like a Beta hero but little hints are scattered all over about his alpha tendancies, especially through reactions that Rosy cannot see but that the reader can still catch. He has very few PoV scenes but all of them allow us to see his feelings at the time and contrast them with what Rosy thinks of him.
6. Rosy herself is an intriguing blend of innocence and maturity. In some ways she's had to do more growing up than a lot of her peers: she's emotionally sensitive and perceptive to other people's pain, while not excusing people who do hurt her (even though she is nice to Will and thinks well of him, she doesn't hesitate to point out the double standards he has when she tells Callum about him). But she also doesn't have a lot of experience interacting among peers, getting into relationships or participating in social situations.
7. I really, really loved the sex scene. Rosy struggles to see herself as desirable, fears rejection AND is painfully aware of her lack of experience. So Callum needs to do two things at once to make it a safe experience for her - he has to let her know how good she makes him feel, while giving her multiple openings to leave the situation safely. He does both so perfectly *and* manages to help her gain confidence in her own sexual responses. I thought PJ struck a wonderful balance between those two elements in that scene, and I was genuinely touched by the way it was written. That doesn't happen a lot even with M&B books I love!
8. From the hints scattered throughout the book, I often wonder whether PJ was planning a book for Will. I mean, I'm glad he didn't get one coz I really, REALLY didn't like him and Miranda in this book...but something about the way Rosy is made to describe him as someone who will "grow up to be a formidable man" in the future made me wonder. Other than that, it was lovely to see Bea and Elliott again, and I loved how attached Rosy was to Bea. I also like how protective Elliott is of Rosy even though she doesn't know it, and how he really does want to make amends (even though he knew nothing about Will and Miranda's suspicions) for Rosy's alienation from their family at the end.
Sorry for the essay length review, but I really love this book and just had so much to say!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 26, 2019
How could she prove they were wrong?
Rosy Seaton, alone in the world, was only too delighted to become acquainted with her distant Cousin Elliott and his wife, Bea.
Unfortunately, Bea's younger brother and sister misinterpreted Rosy's newfound happiness and thought she was setting her cap at Elliott.
To convince them it wasn't true, Rosy had to find herself a man--and Callum Blake was just what she needed. He was perfectly prepared to be her pretend lover--but what if it suddenly became reality?
Rosy Seaton, alone in the world, was only too delighted to become acquainted with her distant Cousin Elliott and his wife, Bea.
Unfortunately, Bea's younger brother and sister misinterpreted Rosy's newfound happiness and thought she was setting her cap at Elliott.
To convince them it wasn't true, Rosy had to find herself a man--and Callum Blake was just what she needed. He was perfectly prepared to be her pretend lover--but what if it suddenly became reality?
May 4, 2023
This one is one of my favourites. A delicious beta hero who is sexy and brainy, a strong heroine and a wonderful slow burn romance. This is the best one in the Bellaire Chalmer series. It’s a pity PJ didn’t give us more novels as Frances Roding.
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December 14, 2019Cliche plot of boss and Secretary, pretended engagement but the book was still different and enjoyable.
December 18, 2023
Soooo cute! Loved H and h! Loved everything about this sweet romance!
January 14, 2025
Definitely a keeper! Cute story, minimal misunderstandings, hot love scene. Very satisfying.
August 15, 2016
Awful. I despise both the main characters, and the secondary ones too.
April 17, 2022
A sweet romance part of the Bellaire-Chalmers Quartet. An enjoyable romance and put together story by Frances Roding aka Penny Jordan.
December 30, 2015
sweet story but I do not like beta heroes.
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