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Point of Impact
They were all there, celebrating Max's birthday and his surprise engagement to Helen - Helen and Max and Madeleine and ... Joe. The face from a past love tore through Helen's protective image as bitterly as Madeleine's vitriolic barbs. At that sudden point of impact, Helen felt no happiness at the prospect of the future she had chosen, but a cold, cold despair at what had been lost, of opportunities wasted, of time irretrievably slipping away...
186 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1985
1 person is currently reading
36 people want to read
About the author
Emma Darcy
643 books331 followersEmma Darcy is the pseudonym created by the married writing team of Wendy (1940-2020) and Frank Brennan (1936-1995). Their life journey has taken as many twists and turns as the characters in their stories, whose international popularity has resulted in over sixty-million book sales. With more than a hundred titles, Emma Darcy appeared regularly on the Waldenbooks bestseller lists in the U.S.A. and in the Nielson BookScan Top 100 chart in the U.K.
Wendy was born 28 November 1940 in Australia. Her sister was the novelist Maureen Mary (Miranda Lee). Her father was a country school teacher and brilliant sportsman. Her mother was a talented dressmaker. She obtained an Honours degree in Latin and initially worked as a high school English/French teacher. She married Frank Brennan, an Australian businessman born in 1936. She changed careers to computer programming before marriage and motherhood settled her into a community life. She was reputedly the first woman computer programmer in the southern hemisphere.
As voracious readers, the step to writing their own books seemed a natural progression and the challenge of creating exciting stories was soon highly addictive. They were published since 1983. In 1993, for the Emma Darcy pseudonym's 10th anniversary, they created the "Emma Darcy Award Contest" to encourage authors to finish their manuscripts. After the death of Frank Brennan in 1995, Wendy wrotes books on her own. She lived in a beachside property on the central coast of New South Wales, and liked to travel extensively to research settings and increase her experience of places and people.
Wendy Brennan passed away on December 21, 2020. She is survived by her children, grandchildren, and sister, writer Miranda Lee.
Wendy was born 28 November 1940 in Australia. Her sister was the novelist Maureen Mary (Miranda Lee). Her father was a country school teacher and brilliant sportsman. Her mother was a talented dressmaker. She obtained an Honours degree in Latin and initially worked as a high school English/French teacher. She married Frank Brennan, an Australian businessman born in 1936. She changed careers to computer programming before marriage and motherhood settled her into a community life. She was reputedly the first woman computer programmer in the southern hemisphere.
As voracious readers, the step to writing their own books seemed a natural progression and the challenge of creating exciting stories was soon highly addictive. They were published since 1983. In 1993, for the Emma Darcy pseudonym's 10th anniversary, they created the "Emma Darcy Award Contest" to encourage authors to finish their manuscripts. After the death of Frank Brennan in 1995, Wendy wrotes books on her own. She lived in a beachside property on the central coast of New South Wales, and liked to travel extensively to research settings and increase her experience of places and people.
Wendy Brennan passed away on December 21, 2020. She is survived by her children, grandchildren, and sister, writer Miranda Lee.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
February 17, 2018
RE Point of Impact - this book is a highly emotional drama that starts with a dinner party from Hell and ends less than 24 hours later. The tight timeline of the book is really what focuses and heightens the dramatic tension. In another way the limited timeline is what ruined it for me in the end, because this is the the ONLY book in all of HPLandia where the H and h do NOT end up together - they end up with their former lovers, the OW and OM respectively, and that was the wrong choice for me - but it does make for a roller coaster of a book and a very dramatic story.
The book starts with the h getting ready to go out for a dinner party birthday celebration with her boss, the H. He is a big music/showbiz agent/promoter and she was a former top model and now works as his PA. They have a very intimate relationship, they have not slept together, but he has proposed and she decides she is going to accept. She is attracted to him and they have high degree of trust and friendship for each other. They make a really good partnership and both are hoping that the partnership can carry over to a successful marriage.
Both the H and h have been devastated by deeply traumatic love affairs in the past. The h fell in love with the OM when she was at uni, she is very, very beautiful and the OM was always very possessive and taunting about her looks. He was a struggling student and she loved him, but his insecurity over her beauty and his accusations of her potential for infidelity and wanting what he couldn't give her materially finally drove her to show that she could contribute financially to their relationship and make life better for both of them.
She entered a beauty pageant and she won. The pageant included a big modeling contract and when the OM found out, he completely rejected her, called her nasty names and took off for the U.S. His mother refused to give the h any info when she went back a second time and so the h had to forge her own life and wound up working for the H.
The H, on the other hand had a relationship 10 years earlier with the OW, who is now a high-powered journalist. She was obsessively possessive and jealous (bearing a remarkable resemblance to the OM in that regard,) and kept accusing the H of infidelity or wanting to commit infidelity. The H finally had enough of being accused of something he hadn't even thought of, his business put him the beautiful woman circle, but he really loved the OW and he was a bit of a flirt - that was part of his character and part of his business technique- but he never considered cheating.
Until the OW went wild over a different beauty pageant winner and made a big scene and stormed off. The H got totally smashed and wound up in bed with the beauty pageant girl. The OW found him and when he went to see her later, he found her in bed with another man. They ended the love affair, he married beauty pageant girl for three weeks, but they move in the same social circle, share business contacts and have needled and taunted each other quite viciously for the last ten years.
In fact the OW is the host of the H's birthday dinner aboard a decommissioned ferry that circles around Sidney harbor as a dinner cruise. The H is a big wine buff and there is a special wine ordered for his birthday present, all the couples present are wealthy, elite and involved in show business in one way or another or just really, really rich.
The H arrives to pick the h up and she accepts his proposal and he kisses her. It isn't blind passion, but there is some sizzle and the h is thinking about going to bed with the H after the dinner. Except when they arrive to the boat for dinner, the OW blindsides the h with her partner choice, the h's OM. There is a heavy insinuation that the OM is the OW's latest lover and both the OW and OM go out of their way to make some nasty insinuations about the h and her looks, those verbal jabs get worse when the H announces their engagement and the other couples are a bit surprised.
Toasts are offered and the verbal barrage from the OW and OM gets ramped up in velocity. Eye daggers are flying and the h is feeling pretty vulnerable. The H steps up to shield her, and the h gets a hold of her shocked emotions and deflects the assaults with a bit of hauteur and dignity. Then the OM gets her alone during a dance, he tells her he is rich now and can give her whatever she wants and she should marry him because he loves her.
She tells him he can't buy her and she is loyal to the man who gives her trust and respect, the H, and she rejects the OM even though she is still feeling the body chemistry. The H comes and sends the OM off and the h goes to regroup in the Ladies' Room. The OW is in there and while the h is checking her makeup, the OW harasses her, accuses her of being only a beautiful doll with no intelligence, tells her the H is hers and always will be, and then finally threatens her by breaking a mirror and attempting to slice the h's face with a shard of glass.
The h finally drops the dignified act and lays out a few home truths to the OW witch. She does have a brain and the H will dump the OW in any capacity in a second if the h wants him too, she is staying with the H and if the OW wants to be in the magic circle, she needs to straighten her pathetic jealousy and insecure self out. The OW storms off, the h is tired of the belittlement and goes back to the table where she successfully parries all the verbal darts from some of the other guests and the OM and the OW.
Then the OW goes a bit too far amidst a big wine discussion and the H votes her off the boat. The OM and OW are all sad and desperate, cause their ploy to regain their former lovers has been an epic fail and the OW gets really, really maudlin and drunk. The OM won't help her out, he claims he isn't her friend or her lover and that the H needs to take care of the OW. The H refuses until one of the other guests comes back and says OW has locked herself in the ladies' room.
The h is concerned and has a really bad feeling, she picked up the mirror pieces earlier and put them out of the way, but she wants the H and OM to go check, cause it was possible that she missed some. The H and OM go off to break down the door and they find the OW has sliced her wrists and lost a lot of blood. The H and h are incredibly guilty and the H is out of his mind with grief. He decides the emotional manipulation and blackmail of the OW is going to work and he tells the OW he still loves her in an attempt to keep her on this plane of existence.
The OM is quick to slide into the vacancy created by the H and uses some emo blackmail of his own to attach himself, rather like a leech, to the h. The H goes to the hospital with the OW, the OM takes the h home and they say they are going to try again cause she is guilted, er she realizes she lurves the OM back.
The OM leaves when the H shows up and the H tells the h he has to be with the OW, supposedly he was all at fault before, 'cause he flirted maybe more than he should have cause it incited the OW and she was more passionate when she was angry. The h is okay with that, 'cause she is going to be with the OM, but they are both sad that their working relationship/freindship has to end. The h is sad cause she was really good at her job and she really liked the H a lot. He says he has to cut her out of his life cause the OW couldn't tolerate any contact and the h agrees.
She offers him space in her bed (they are both dressed, and NO lurving occurs), 'cause by this time it is almost dawn, the H is an emotional mess and she is the only friend he has right now. They sleep for a bit and then the H finds out the OW will be okay, he tells the OW over the phone they are getting married and then the OM shows up. He hits the H cause he think the h was sexxing him up during the few hours they slept and takes off again, after a few more choice names for the h.
The H manages to stop the OM from running off by explaining nothing happened and the OM is sorta sorry. The H leaves, the h and OM wind up in bed and the h decides to have a rugby team so she will get plump and not be so beautiful and the H decides he will not be possessive and jealously insecure for a few hours and we are left with a dubious HEA.
We do see the H and OW again in ED's The Unpredictable Man, and they seem happy enough there - but the poor h is consigned to a dubious future with an insecure nematode and lost in the mists of HPlandia - where there was probably a page 2 story about the microchip manufacturer who murdered his wife cause she smiled at the postman about a year after the disastrous dinner party. I really had a sense that the bad guys won in the end, on penalties no less, and my disappointment was keen.
Read this one if you like a fast paced, highly dramatic soap opera story, but avoid at all costs if you are looking for romance or a real sense of two people belonging together. The H and h were sooo much better together than with who they wound up with, so it is with a sense of deeply felt sorrow that I conclude that sometimes love and justice have to lose in the face of overwhelming narcissism and emotional blackmail, even in the rarefied guaranteed HEA world of HPlandia.
The book starts with the h getting ready to go out for a dinner party birthday celebration with her boss, the H. He is a big music/showbiz agent/promoter and she was a former top model and now works as his PA. They have a very intimate relationship, they have not slept together, but he has proposed and she decides she is going to accept. She is attracted to him and they have high degree of trust and friendship for each other. They make a really good partnership and both are hoping that the partnership can carry over to a successful marriage.
Both the H and h have been devastated by deeply traumatic love affairs in the past. The h fell in love with the OM when she was at uni, she is very, very beautiful and the OM was always very possessive and taunting about her looks. He was a struggling student and she loved him, but his insecurity over her beauty and his accusations of her potential for infidelity and wanting what he couldn't give her materially finally drove her to show that she could contribute financially to their relationship and make life better for both of them.
She entered a beauty pageant and she won. The pageant included a big modeling contract and when the OM found out, he completely rejected her, called her nasty names and took off for the U.S. His mother refused to give the h any info when she went back a second time and so the h had to forge her own life and wound up working for the H.
The H, on the other hand had a relationship 10 years earlier with the OW, who is now a high-powered journalist. She was obsessively possessive and jealous (bearing a remarkable resemblance to the OM in that regard,) and kept accusing the H of infidelity or wanting to commit infidelity. The H finally had enough of being accused of something he hadn't even thought of, his business put him the beautiful woman circle, but he really loved the OW and he was a bit of a flirt - that was part of his character and part of his business technique- but he never considered cheating.
Until the OW went wild over a different beauty pageant winner and made a big scene and stormed off. The H got totally smashed and wound up in bed with the beauty pageant girl. The OW found him and when he went to see her later, he found her in bed with another man. They ended the love affair, he married beauty pageant girl for three weeks, but they move in the same social circle, share business contacts and have needled and taunted each other quite viciously for the last ten years.
In fact the OW is the host of the H's birthday dinner aboard a decommissioned ferry that circles around Sidney harbor as a dinner cruise. The H is a big wine buff and there is a special wine ordered for his birthday present, all the couples present are wealthy, elite and involved in show business in one way or another or just really, really rich.
The H arrives to pick the h up and she accepts his proposal and he kisses her. It isn't blind passion, but there is some sizzle and the h is thinking about going to bed with the H after the dinner. Except when they arrive to the boat for dinner, the OW blindsides the h with her partner choice, the h's OM. There is a heavy insinuation that the OM is the OW's latest lover and both the OW and OM go out of their way to make some nasty insinuations about the h and her looks, those verbal jabs get worse when the H announces their engagement and the other couples are a bit surprised.
Toasts are offered and the verbal barrage from the OW and OM gets ramped up in velocity. Eye daggers are flying and the h is feeling pretty vulnerable. The H steps up to shield her, and the h gets a hold of her shocked emotions and deflects the assaults with a bit of hauteur and dignity. Then the OM gets her alone during a dance, he tells her he is rich now and can give her whatever she wants and she should marry him because he loves her.
She tells him he can't buy her and she is loyal to the man who gives her trust and respect, the H, and she rejects the OM even though she is still feeling the body chemistry. The H comes and sends the OM off and the h goes to regroup in the Ladies' Room. The OW is in there and while the h is checking her makeup, the OW harasses her, accuses her of being only a beautiful doll with no intelligence, tells her the H is hers and always will be, and then finally threatens her by breaking a mirror and attempting to slice the h's face with a shard of glass.
The h finally drops the dignified act and lays out a few home truths to the OW witch. She does have a brain and the H will dump the OW in any capacity in a second if the h wants him too, she is staying with the H and if the OW wants to be in the magic circle, she needs to straighten her pathetic jealousy and insecure self out. The OW storms off, the h is tired of the belittlement and goes back to the table where she successfully parries all the verbal darts from some of the other guests and the OM and the OW.
Then the OW goes a bit too far amidst a big wine discussion and the H votes her off the boat. The OM and OW are all sad and desperate, cause their ploy to regain their former lovers has been an epic fail and the OW gets really, really maudlin and drunk. The OM won't help her out, he claims he isn't her friend or her lover and that the H needs to take care of the OW. The H refuses until one of the other guests comes back and says OW has locked herself in the ladies' room.
The h is concerned and has a really bad feeling, she picked up the mirror pieces earlier and put them out of the way, but she wants the H and OM to go check, cause it was possible that she missed some. The H and OM go off to break down the door and they find the OW has sliced her wrists and lost a lot of blood. The H and h are incredibly guilty and the H is out of his mind with grief. He decides the emotional manipulation and blackmail of the OW is going to work and he tells the OW he still loves her in an attempt to keep her on this plane of existence.
The OM is quick to slide into the vacancy created by the H and uses some emo blackmail of his own to attach himself, rather like a leech, to the h. The H goes to the hospital with the OW, the OM takes the h home and they say they are going to try again cause she is guilted, er she realizes she lurves the OM back.
The OM leaves when the H shows up and the H tells the h he has to be with the OW, supposedly he was all at fault before, 'cause he flirted maybe more than he should have cause it incited the OW and she was more passionate when she was angry. The h is okay with that, 'cause she is going to be with the OM, but they are both sad that their working relationship/freindship has to end. The h is sad cause she was really good at her job and she really liked the H a lot. He says he has to cut her out of his life cause the OW couldn't tolerate any contact and the h agrees.
She offers him space in her bed (they are both dressed, and NO lurving occurs), 'cause by this time it is almost dawn, the H is an emotional mess and she is the only friend he has right now. They sleep for a bit and then the H finds out the OW will be okay, he tells the OW over the phone they are getting married and then the OM shows up. He hits the H cause he think the h was sexxing him up during the few hours they slept and takes off again, after a few more choice names for the h.
The H manages to stop the OM from running off by explaining nothing happened and the OM is sorta sorry. The H leaves, the h and OM wind up in bed and the h decides to have a rugby team so she will get plump and not be so beautiful and the H decides he will not be possessive and jealously insecure for a few hours and we are left with a dubious HEA.
We do see the H and OW again in ED's The Unpredictable Man, and they seem happy enough there - but the poor h is consigned to a dubious future with an insecure nematode and lost in the mists of HPlandia - where there was probably a page 2 story about the microchip manufacturer who murdered his wife cause she smiled at the postman about a year after the disastrous dinner party. I really had a sense that the bad guys won in the end, on penalties no less, and my disappointment was keen.
Read this one if you like a fast paced, highly dramatic soap opera story, but avoid at all costs if you are looking for romance or a real sense of two people belonging together. The H and h were sooo much better together than with who they wound up with, so it is with a sense of deeply felt sorrow that I conclude that sometimes love and justice have to lose in the face of overwhelming narcissism and emotional blackmail, even in the rarefied guaranteed HEA world of HPlandia.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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February 18, 2018I better not.
July 23, 2015
One unique aspect in this story - the entire story lasts less than 24 hours. That's a tough task for a writer, and I liked the way its done.
Its the turn of events on the day the heroine, Helen, decides to compromise and marry her boss cum friend, Max. Compromise because the love of her life back in college, Joe, fell out with her.
Reasons for the fall out between the lovers is fairly reasonable. She is a beauty queen , he is penniless and insecure to his toes !
But now, he is back, as an rich man of course. She takes one look at Joe and her decision to marry Max is shaken. Max has his own back story, a fall out with his erstwhile love, Madeleine. She is a replica of Joe, jealous with a vitriolic tongue to match !
The events are high on emotion and drama, though the romance quotient is quite low in the book.
I had only one rankling feeling at the end. Max comes across as the real hero. He is older , wiser , sure of his love. Knows the difference between a friend and a lover.
But Joe, our hero, is just the same insecure doubting Thomas till the last page. Thats hardly a HEA.
Its the turn of events on the day the heroine, Helen, decides to compromise and marry her boss cum friend, Max. Compromise because the love of her life back in college, Joe, fell out with her.
Reasons for the fall out between the lovers is fairly reasonable. She is a beauty queen , he is penniless and insecure to his toes !
But now, he is back, as an rich man of course. She takes one look at Joe and her decision to marry Max is shaken. Max has his own back story, a fall out with his erstwhile love, Madeleine. She is a replica of Joe, jealous with a vitriolic tongue to match !
The events are high on emotion and drama, though the romance quotient is quite low in the book.
I had only one rankling feeling at the end. Max comes across as the real hero. He is older , wiser , sure of his love. Knows the difference between a friend and a lover.
But Joe, our hero, is just the same insecure doubting Thomas till the last page. Thats hardly a HEA.
July 5, 2011
Talk about a dinner party from hell! The whole story revolved around a party of mismatched couples and the aftermath of an ill-judged and very public showdown.
The story began exactly at 6:50pm as heroine Helen readied herself for her date with her employer and future fiancé, Max. After four emotionally barren years, she had decided to move on and accept his offer of a loveless but nevertheless respectful marriage between two equals. What was meant to be a birthday dinner then for Max became an engagement celebration that didn’t sit well with business colleague and hostess of the party, Madeline. Apparently, Max and Madeline shared a very turbulent, unresolved history together.
On her part, Madeline had brought a dinner date with her who – so conveniently – turned out to be Helen’s former love, Joe. Joe and Helen managed to find a private time where he frenziedly (the change of heart is too-quick IMO) professed his love and she adamantly refused him.
As one could imagine, the dinner party quickly deteriorated with all the undercurrents of anger, jealousy, blame and remorse. However, in less than 24 hours later, people would be reconciled to the right partners.
To be honest, I found the conflict between Madeline/Max more fascinating than Helen/Joe. If Madeline wasn’t described so unappealingly bitchy and ugly, her melodrama in the powder room (both times) struck me as pitiable. Overwrought and despairing, she did something no heroine -- who has been scorned or betrayed -- had done before. In contrast, Helen’s actions appeared tame and commonplace.
Plot line: Less of a roller-coaster ride; more of a car collision where the most damage was suffered by thebackseat passengers secondary characters.
The story began exactly at 6:50pm as heroine Helen readied herself for her date with her employer and future fiancé, Max. After four emotionally barren years, she had decided to move on and accept his offer of a loveless but nevertheless respectful marriage between two equals. What was meant to be a birthday dinner then for Max became an engagement celebration that didn’t sit well with business colleague and hostess of the party, Madeline. Apparently, Max and Madeline shared a very turbulent, unresolved history together.
On her part, Madeline had brought a dinner date with her who – so conveniently – turned out to be Helen’s former love, Joe. Joe and Helen managed to find a private time where he frenziedly (the change of heart is too-quick IMO) professed his love and she adamantly refused him.
As one could imagine, the dinner party quickly deteriorated with all the undercurrents of anger, jealousy, blame and remorse. However, in less than 24 hours later, people would be reconciled to the right partners.
To be honest, I found the conflict between Madeline/Max more fascinating than Helen/Joe. If Madeline wasn’t described so unappealingly bitchy and ugly, her melodrama in the powder room (both times) struck me as pitiable. Overwrought and despairing, she did something no heroine -- who has been scorned or betrayed -- had done before. In contrast, Helen’s actions appeared tame and commonplace.
Plot line: Less of a roller-coaster ride; more of a car collision where the most damage was suffered by the
June 2, 2021
They were all there, celebrating Max's birthday and his surprise engagement to Helen - Helen and Max and Madeleine and ... Joe. The face from a past love tore through Helen's protective image as bitterly as Madeleine's vitriolic barbs. At that sudden point of impact, Helen felt no happiness at the prospect of the future she had chosen, but a cold, cold despair at what had been lost, of opportunities wasted, of time irretrievably slipping away.
February 18, 2019
I think it could have been a really great story. Max (the h's original fiancé) would have been a better choice as a H. The relationship between h and H would never be as equals. I truly don't believe they would ever have a HEA. The H for all his new found successes would always be a jealous man who is too deeply insecure to have a successful relationship with h. The h is a fool who never moved on and is basically spineless idiot who would lie down like a doormat for H and continue to fuel his jealousies. I didn't like the h or H who come across as afterthoughts in the drama starring Max and H's current escort, Madeleine. They with their virulent tongues and undercurrents steal the limelight and leave the h and H standing in the shadow. For all this, the authors definitely have written it well. I don't think I could have put this book down as easily even while not liking the story or the characters and the whole book captures less than a day in their lives!
June 21, 2020
This one I was looking forward to reading and it fell flat. It was just off and reading from past to present was unrecognizable at times.
Then 80% of the book takes place in one night... The characters are not really likeable. They are angry bitter people all gathered together to celebrate Max's birthday. 🙄🙄
Sorry just nope....
Then 80% of the book takes place in one night... The characters are not really likeable. They are angry bitter people all gathered together to celebrate Max's birthday. 🙄🙄
Sorry just nope....
September 30, 2024
This is a different book for the time it was written.
This book took place over 24 hours and while filled with drama and angst, it was really low level. There was very little emotion and chemistry between the characters and it ended in a very low key, abrupt and an unbelievable HEA.
This book took place over 24 hours and while filled with drama and angst, it was really low level. There was very little emotion and chemistry between the characters and it ended in a very low key, abrupt and an unbelievable HEA.
November 11, 2021
It was a bit boring. Not at a lot of romance.
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