Relentless Adversary

Jayne Castle: Ecstasy Romance

by Jayne Castle, Jayne Ann Krentz

With his jade eyes and jet hair, Locke Channing made Kelly Winfield weak with desire--and dismay! He had the power to ruin her career and break her heart, and the easy assurance of a man who always got his way.

Now that he had been hired to catch a thief at Forrester Stereo, how long would it take him to learn her secret? He was too close for comfort-- to the truth, and to Kelly herself. It was clear that his silence could be purchased-for a price. How could she resist this devastating stranger who challenged her to a duel of passion and wits-- and was moving in for the kill?

Genres: Romance, Fiction, Category Romance, Contemporary

192 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published February 1, 1982

About the author

The author of over 40 consecutive New York Times bestsellers, JAYNE ANN KRENTZ writes romantic-suspense, often with a psychic and paranormal twist, in three different worlds: Contemporary (as Jayne Ann Krentz), historical (as Amanda Quick) and futuristic (as Jayne Castle). There are over 30 million copies of her books in print.

She earned a B.A. in History from the University of California at Santa Cruz and went on to obtain a Masters degree in Library Science from San Jose State University in California. Before she began writing full time she worked as a librarian in both academic and corporate libraries.

Ms. Krentz is married and lives with her husband, Frank, in Seattle, Washington.

Pseudonyms:
Jayne Ann Krentz
Amanda Quick
Stephanie James
Jayne Bentley
Jayne Taylor
Amanda Glass

Reviews

[reeder (reviews) · Rating 2 out of 5]

I couldn't enjoy this romance because the hero is simply too aggressive. In the first chapter, he tricks the heroine (technically his temporary boss, since he's doing security consulting for the firm where she's a manager and reports to her) into a date by implying it's going to be a business dinner. Then he "kidnaps" her after the dinner by refusing to drive her home and takes her to his place for a nightcap instead, where he proceeds to force her to kiss him even after she uses a basic self-defense move on him. (Not only is she saying no, she's forcefully acting out no. But dude wants his kiss, darnit.)

Yeah...this isn't a 21st century romance hero.

Aggressive males are the norm for JAK's category romances, so how did I manage to enjoy the last two books while only scraping through Relentless Adversary in order to write this review? (Okay, you're probably not asking me this question. I'm asking me this question.)

First, this hero embodies the dominant metaphor in Relentless Adversary: the adversarial relationship of duelists. Both the H&h are fencers (the sport) and JAK carries that over into their social interactions in both business (where the H is trying to uncover the reasons behind the h's meddling with The Computer) and courtship (because all early JAK romance is battle of the sexes). While that analogy reflects some of the excitement of the early phase of a relationship, where couples test boundaries and strengths, there's no back-up metaphor here to support a longer-term commitment, where couples provide support and comfort and compromise. Every disagreement these two have is going to be Armageddon.

But the other issue is context/character building. This H doesn't have the backstory to explain his extreme aggression like the hero in Bargain With The Devil whose bitter focus was illustrated by nearly 20 years of plotting revenge. Naturally, that's going to bleed over into his relationship with his enemy's daughter. Nor does this H exhibit the softening characteristics of the hero in A Man's Protection, who doesn't share the heroine's definition of romance but clearly has a romantic heart and tries to conform to her notion of a knight in shining armor...so unexpectedly sweet. 

The problems here aren't just a matter of the book not aging well. The H's insistence on surrender and dominance ("I told you earlier this was your night to lose. At everything. I beat you at fencing. I beat you at your little game with the computer, and I made you respond to me with all the passion that's in you...") didn't play particularly well when I first read this in the eighties. Still, time hasn't done Relentless Adversary any favors, particularly around The Computer. No, JAK doesn't capitalize it, but The Computer is treated like such a monolithic artifact it screams to be a proper noun. Here's the heroine's outdated and awkward description of her relationship with The Computer at work (spoiler cut for length and dullness):

"Shortly after I arrived at Forrester Stereo, I got involved with that damn computer. There was no way to avoid it in my work. The printouts were becoming a major management tool and I realized I was going to have to learn all I could about the machine and the information coming out of it. So I began studying the manuals and asking questions of the people who do the input work. There was no skilled programmer around at that point to teach me, so I blundered about putting two and two together.

I began working a lot with the printouts and continually looked over the shoulders of the inputers. I even got to the point where I was doing some of the input and learned how to extract the information from the terminal."

Did you know Time magazine declared 1982 the Year of the Computer? JAK is so on point!

Despite the proto-hacking, there's not really a lot of plot happening here. It's all an opportunity for psychological analysis. Here's a brief recap:
The heroine asks her widowed boss to bring in a computer security expert because there are discrepancies between physical and electronic inventory numbers at their stereo manufacturing firm. It's a risky move on the h's part because she has done something shifty in the computer (unrelated to the inventory problem) that she's hoping the expert won't discover. He invites her to dinner, then kidnaps her to his house, where she discovers that they share an interest in fencing. They arrange for a bout the following evening, which he wins by revealing he knows she's messed with the computer (thus distracting her from the match). Then he forcefully seduces her in order to consolidate his victory. 

This experience is very triggering for the heroine, who demands that the hero tell her what he wants from her. He insists he already has: he wants her. He wants her to marry him. He wants her to love him. She interrogates him over a short list of possible ways he might be intending to use her (maybe he wants more work with her company, maybe he's done something illegal in the computer system and wants her to cover up for him, maybe he's using her to make his ex-fiancée jealous). Finally the hero is driven to psychoanalyze her obsession with the notion that every man wants to use her in some way: she's a strong woman and weak men have latched on to her in the past, which is why he had to defeat her completely to prove he was as strong as she was. 

And, honestly, we never really get sufficient backstory to justify the heroine's neurosis. It turns out she (unknowingly) had a past relationship with a married man that she ended when she learned about his wife, but he continued to hang around her until the wife created a scene, forcing her to move from San Francisco to the Seattle area and take her current job. When she began dating her boss's son, she discovered he had embezzled from his mother's company to cover gambling debts and was now manipulating the accounts on the computer to put the money back. But he was doing it badly, so she stepped in and, I guess, simultaneously stopped dating him. However, the only way to read that as him using her is to assume that he started dating her deliberately to get her to help him...which might be the case, except she's the one who asked him (after they started dating) about the computer anomalies in his accounts.

So, uh, mild OW drama with h being needlessly jealous of the hero's ex-fiancée. More fencing. Full confession about hacking the accounts on The Computer. More psychoanalysis of their compatibility and mutual strength, which somehow excuses them from the need to adhere to "conventional moral principles." (Eek. Shades of Ayn Rand. I hope I don't find further seeds of Objectivism in JAK's future books.) HEA.

JAK checklist
Pacific Northwest setting: Yes! We've made it to Bellevue, just a step away from Seattle. 
Familiar professions: She's a mid-level manager at a firm that manufactures electronics. He's a computer security expert (but nowhere near as lovely a character as the hero in Trust Me).
What's in a name?: Kelly Winfield (her first name is '80s meh, but I'm wondering if the "Winfield" is supposed to suggest winning on the field of a duel) and Locke Channing.
Marital status: Both single, never married. She's carrying baggage from previous relationships, and he has the world's weakest excuse for why he previously got engaged to the wrong woman.
Age: She's 29; he's 35.
Heroine's eye exam: silver-blue
Hero's eye exam: jade-green warlock eyes (JAK has a thing about green eyes and witches/warlocks. See: Family Man)
Hair color: He has gun-metal black hair with the slightest hint of silver at the temples. She has brown hair with red-gold highlights.
Pets: None.
Vehicles spell success: He drives a Jaguar which the heroine should stay out of because whenever she accepts a ride from him, he ends up taking her to his place and refusing to drive her home.
Metaphors are for flogging: Fencing. Duels. Opponents. They spend a lot of conversational energy "parrying" one another when they speak. They fence for sport. A quasi-literal duel of honor between the protagonists is the climactic scene where the truth about her hacking is revealed.
Hero threatens to spank heroine: If he did, I didn't notice amid all the taunting and wrist-grabbing and refusing to take no for an answer. He slaps her face as a challenge to a duel, however. (It's just a formality and she slapped him harder, first.)

[Jillian Cori lippert · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was written in 1982 and it shows. I almost quit reading during the first chapter. Within the first few pages it is clear the male protagonist is arrogant and misogynistic. In the second chapter, after dinner with the female protagonist, he admits to "kidnapping" her and takes her to his house, rather than taking her home. She stupidly goes into the house with him. Despite her saying no to his advances at dinner and then at his house, he restrains her physically and she is nearly date raped. I almost quit reading again after the second chapter but kept on as I thought there had to be some redeeming qualities to his character and the story. In fact, I almost stopped reading after each chapter and there were times when I started doing something else in the middle of a paragraph. The female character, who is supposed to be a strong, intelligent, professional woman, continues to see him despite his attitude and the almost rape. I felt like the book was encouraging men who won't accept no for an answer because it's just a game and the woman doesn't really mean it. Times have changed, at least somewhat, thankfully.

Throughout the book he says he fell in love with her at first sight and is pursuing her because he loves her, and she has to be his. He uses words like surrender, possession, mine, you belong to me. There are times he threatens to beat her. He is extremely jealous.

There is no character development. There are really only 3 other characters that are developed at all and it's pretty cursory. Apparently neither main character has any friends or family, as they aren't mentioned at all. Spoiler alert: even when they ultimately get married, there is no mention of friends or family attending the ceremony.

I figured out her "secret" and the reason for her actions within the first few pages.

Other annoying things: Several times the author describes the male character's voice as metal and silk. Once was enough. His hair color was described as gun-metal black. The references to metal this and that were overdone.

The best part of the book was that both main characters were fencers. Fencing terms and references were used throughout the book. I was on the fencing team in high school, so I did enjoy that part. It wasn't enough to make up for the other parts, though.

[Mara · Rating 1 out of 5]

I can't stomach this kind of heroines, pathetic weak even when we're told they are strong; roadkills to a male bully that needs to be rolled down by a truck; women made up of hormones not brains so that a single touch makes them forget everything.

Two chapters to the end I simply gave up.
As a side note the plot didn't make sense, you don't go to the galley for a boss just because she offered you a job, nor you defend her son once the truth comes out. Plus there was instalust/instalove galore.

[Alice · Rating 1 out of 5]

Next thing to glorifing Rape. Threw it away, didn't even finish it. by Chapter two our "hero" is kidnapping and commiting criminal assault. NOT FOR ME. I expected better of Ms. Krentz

First after her objecting he takes her to his house "for a nightcap" having stated that thereafter he'd follow the rules. Next:

"Let me go. I do not like the aggressive approach!"

"Pity. I have a feeling it's the only tactic that would work with you."...

I have no wish to brawl with you. Please take me home!"

He hung on to her wrists, transferring them both into one strong hand, and leaned forward, crowding her backward onto the cushions.
"I won't let you treat me like this!" she snarled, crushed under the weight of his hard leanness as he sprawled heavily across her.
"How are you going to stop me?" he retorted, . . .
"No!"
But it was too late. Even as she tried fruitlessly to twist away from his grasp, Kelly knew it was useless. She was trapped between him and the cushions, unable to move more than an inch or two. She couldn't even free a leg. He had both of them anchored beneath his own.
"Lie still, you little hellcat. I'm not going to hurt you!"
"You already are hurting me!"
He didn't bother to argue further. With compelling, domineering aggression Locke covered her mouth with his own. Deliberately, ruthlessly, he forced apart her lips, holding her head still with his hand.
"Can't you see how much I want you?" he grated pleadingly, ceasing the ruthless dominance of her mouth to begin stringing tiny heated kisses along her throat to the top of her breast.
"Why should your desires matter to me?" she charged tightly, and then spoiled the cold effect of the words by gasping as his tongue stroked her nipple.
"Because you're the only one who can satisfy them!" he almost snarled.
He shifted his weight slightly, pulling her blouse completely free of her skirt and pushing the silky material aside to expose her to his hungry gaze.
"You hardly know me!" she accused in a breathless whisper, horribly aware of the most vulnerable sensation she had ever known. Never had a man used his superior strength to hold her immobile like this while he took his time feasting on the sight of her.
"I knew all I needed to know about you within the first few minutes of meeting you, sweetheart,"

[Maria · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another of Ms. Krentz's early autocratic heroes, Locke Channing is a computer security expert. Since my background is in computer programming, this book had me flinching from time to time with the computer references and the "logic". At least in this book, the heroine, Kelly Winfield, is allowed to win a fencing match or two eventually. I know nothing about fencing, so I could enjoy that. However the hero was definitely too much of a bully for my taste even for a book written during the 80's when male aggression was more acceptable. Any time a man uses superior strength and doesn't listen to the woman saying "No" has always been distasteful to me, even in the 80's. It is a matter of good manners.

[SaturNalia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Locke, a computer security consultant, is hired to investigate missing money in Kelly's company. Love at first sight for Locke when he meets Kelly, but she is more hesitant. His seduction technique needed a lot of improvement, he was very forceful even when she cried rape and told him no several times. His excuse, he knew she was right for him and she just needed to relax. This attitude really ruined the story for me. It felt very rapey when they were alone together, she screamed and slapped him but he didn't stop. I didn't care about the missing money or the other characters, Locke soured everything.

[Sherry · Rating 3 out of 5]

What made this title stand out was the strength of character of both Locke Channing and Kelly Winfield. And how apropos it was that both were professionals in the art of "fencing"; it brought the battle of male/female into a physical setting and not just verbal. Although the ending is typical of the early "Canlelight Romance" books, it was still an enjoyable read.

[Jess · Rating 1 out of 5]

There were some interesting elements, but the "forced seductions," beating threats and general nonsensicalness made this ... not my thing. All in all, I liked this story better as "Trust Me" (similar concepts in terms of the hero's personality quirks, but less dysfunctional and with much better execution).

[Summerita Rhayne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read it long back but distinctly remember it as one of the standout reads. Jayne Castle books were one of my mustbeboughts at one time. The fencing definitely lent a different shade to the story. The premise and the execution was faultless. I must read it again sometime.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

cute. definitely an earlier writing but enjoyable
Second read - still enjoyable and definitely a sign of the times. Man is overly aggressive and definitely thinks he's in the right all the time. But nice relationship once they get through all the macho crap.

[BookAddict ✒ La Crimson Femme · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love Ms. Castle books. This one was kind of cheesy for me. I think I'll stick to her more paranormal romance ones.

[Suzanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

fencing is a recurring theme ......often