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A Reason for Being
She'd unleashed his fury with her jealous lies
Ten years ago teenage Maggie had fled her beloved Deveril House--driven off by Marcus Landersby's savage outrage. Her falsehoods, an attempt to hang on to Marcus, her attractive older stepcousin, had backfired horribly.
Now Maggie had returned to her home. Reluctantly she'd been drawn back by an urgent letter from Marcus's schoolgirl halfsisters, Susie and Sara.
The two motherless girls desperately needed her. But Marcus would never tolerate Maggie's presence.
Ten years ago teenage Maggie had fled her beloved Deveril House--driven off by Marcus Landersby's savage outrage. Her falsehoods, an attempt to hang on to Marcus, her attractive older stepcousin, had backfired horribly.
Now Maggie had returned to her home. Reluctantly she'd been drawn back by an urgent letter from Marcus's schoolgirl halfsisters, Susie and Sara.
The two motherless girls desperately needed her. But Marcus would never tolerate Maggie's presence.
187 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published May 1, 1989
73 people are currently reading
224 people want to read
About the author
Penny Jordan
1,125 books668 followersPenelope Jones Halsall
aka Caroline Courtney, Annie Groves, Lydia Hitchcock, Melinda Wright
Penelope "Penny" Jones was born on November 24, 1946 at about seven pounds in a nursing home in Preston, Lancashire, England. She was the first child of Anthony Winn Jones, an engineer, who died at 85, and his wife Margaret Louise Groves Jones. She has a brother, Anthony, and a sister, Prudence "Pru".
She had been a keen reader from the childhood - her mother used to leave her in the children's section of their local library whilst she changed her father's library books. She was a storyteller long before she began to write romantic fiction. At the age of eight, she was creating serialized bedtime stories, featuring make-believe adventures, for her younger sister Prue, who was always the heroine. At eleven, she fell in love with Mills & Boon, and with their heroes. In those days the books could only be obtained via private lending libraries, and she quickly became a devoted fan; she was thrilled to bits when the books went on full sale in shops and she could have them for keeps.
Penny left grammar school in Rochdale with O-Levels in English Language, English Literature and Geography. She first discovered Mills & Boon books, via a girl she worked with. She married Steve Halsall, an accountant and a "lovely man", who smoked and drank too heavily, and suffered oral cancer with bravery and dignity. Her husband bought her the small electric typewriter on which she typed her first novels, at a time when he could ill afford it. He died at the beginning of 21st century.
She earned a living as a writer since the 1970s when, as a shorthand typist, she entered a competition run by the Romantic Novelists' Association. Although she didn't win, Penny found an agent who was looking for a new Georgette Heyer. She published four regency novels as Caroline Courtney, before changing her nom de plume to Melinda Wright for three air-hostess romps and then she wrote two thrillers as Lydia Hitchcock. Soon after that, Mills and Boon accepted her first novel for them, Falcon's Prey as Penny Jordan. However, for her more historical romance novels, she adopted her mother's maiden-name to become Annie Groves. Almost 70 of her 167 Mills and Boon novels have been sold worldwide.
Penny Halsall lived in a neo-Georgian house in Nantwich, Cheshire, with her Alsatian Sheba and cat Posh. She worked from home, in her kitchen, surrounded by her pets, and welcomed interruptions from her friends and family.
aka Caroline Courtney, Annie Groves, Lydia Hitchcock, Melinda Wright
Penelope "Penny" Jones was born on November 24, 1946 at about seven pounds in a nursing home in Preston, Lancashire, England. She was the first child of Anthony Winn Jones, an engineer, who died at 85, and his wife Margaret Louise Groves Jones. She has a brother, Anthony, and a sister, Prudence "Pru".
She had been a keen reader from the childhood - her mother used to leave her in the children's section of their local library whilst she changed her father's library books. She was a storyteller long before she began to write romantic fiction. At the age of eight, she was creating serialized bedtime stories, featuring make-believe adventures, for her younger sister Prue, who was always the heroine. At eleven, she fell in love with Mills & Boon, and with their heroes. In those days the books could only be obtained via private lending libraries, and she quickly became a devoted fan; she was thrilled to bits when the books went on full sale in shops and she could have them for keeps.
Penny left grammar school in Rochdale with O-Levels in English Language, English Literature and Geography. She first discovered Mills & Boon books, via a girl she worked with. She married Steve Halsall, an accountant and a "lovely man", who smoked and drank too heavily, and suffered oral cancer with bravery and dignity. Her husband bought her the small electric typewriter on which she typed her first novels, at a time when he could ill afford it. He died at the beginning of 21st century.
She earned a living as a writer since the 1970s when, as a shorthand typist, she entered a competition run by the Romantic Novelists' Association. Although she didn't win, Penny found an agent who was looking for a new Georgette Heyer. She published four regency novels as Caroline Courtney, before changing her nom de plume to Melinda Wright for three air-hostess romps and then she wrote two thrillers as Lydia Hitchcock. Soon after that, Mills and Boon accepted her first novel for them, Falcon's Prey as Penny Jordan. However, for her more historical romance novels, she adopted her mother's maiden-name to become Annie Groves. Almost 70 of her 167 Mills and Boon novels have been sold worldwide.
Penny Halsall lived in a neo-Georgian house in Nantwich, Cheshire, with her Alsatian Sheba and cat Posh. She worked from home, in her kitchen, surrounded by her pets, and welcomed interruptions from her friends and family.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews
December 1, 2022
2.5 stars
Tell me
HOW THE FUCK DID THIS BLOODY GIRL MANAGE TO MISINTERPRET SO BADLY EVERY LITTLE GESTURE, MANNERISM AND WORD THAT THE HERO DIRECTED HER WAY?
His gaze lingered on her for too long?
— Oh no, he hates my guts. 🤡
His breathing turned quicker?
— Ah, he must be thinking of kicking me out of this house for good. 🤡🤡
He kissed her passionately?
— Fuck to the no, WHAT AN UNFATHOMABLY CRUEL REVENGE HE JUST UNLEASHED ON ME. 🤡🤡🤡
Maggie couldn't read the room even if her bloody life depended on it. I'm really impressed she made it to her late 20s alive.
After binge-reading a couple of books by this author I came to the conclusion that she can't pull off angst that wouldn't be directly linked to ATROCIOUS MISCOMMUNICATION between the main characters, fed by baseless assumptions and childish refusal to sit down and discuss problems like adults. It would have taken the MCs to have one (1!) conversation years ago to sort things out. There was 0 substance to their conflict in the past with her young age having been the only obstacle on their way to a happy marriage with kids. They really blew things out of proportion and lost 6~10 years for nothing. 🤡
Both celibate, both miserable. 🤡🤡🤡 Make it make sense.
But gotta admit that the last dozen of pages had me reconsider my rating. The rape scene between these two (where she's, of course, willing despite pushing him away and saying 'no' multiple times) and the subsequent sweet reunion filled with tender confessions, passionate revelations and little nothings that Marcus was whispering sweetly into her ear made this book for me. So unbearably CUTE.
Tell me
HOW THE FUCK DID THIS BLOODY GIRL MANAGE TO MISINTERPRET SO BADLY EVERY LITTLE GESTURE, MANNERISM AND WORD THAT THE HERO DIRECTED HER WAY?
His gaze lingered on her for too long?
— Oh no, he hates my guts. 🤡
His breathing turned quicker?
— Ah, he must be thinking of kicking me out of this house for good. 🤡🤡
He kissed her passionately?
— Fuck to the no, WHAT AN UNFATHOMABLY CRUEL REVENGE HE JUST UNLEASHED ON ME. 🤡🤡🤡
Maggie couldn't read the room even if her bloody life depended on it. I'm really impressed she made it to her late 20s alive.
After binge-reading a couple of books by this author I came to the conclusion that she can't pull off angst that wouldn't be directly linked to ATROCIOUS MISCOMMUNICATION between the main characters, fed by baseless assumptions and childish refusal to sit down and discuss problems like adults. It would have taken the MCs to have one (1!) conversation years ago to sort things out. There was 0 substance to their conflict in the past with her young age having been the only obstacle on their way to a happy marriage with kids. They really blew things out of proportion and lost 6~10 years for nothing. 🤡
Both celibate, both miserable. 🤡🤡🤡 Make it make sense.
But gotta admit that the last dozen of pages had me reconsider my rating. The rape scene between these two (where she's, of course, willing despite pushing him away and saying 'no' multiple times) and the subsequent sweet reunion filled with tender confessions, passionate revelations and little nothings that Marcus was whispering sweetly into her ear made this book for me. So unbearably CUTE.
December 11, 2018
re-read.
So Penny Jordan. Wow. I realize that now after reading more of her work:
Young love imprinted on the heroine (she was 17)
Long period of celibacy for both the H/h
Guilt and neurotic behavior by the heroine
Smitten hero who shows it through growls and pained expressions
Rural home with tangled family trees
A sweet career for the heroine that can easily be folded into domestic life.
I still like it, btw.
I liked this a lot. The artist heroine spent ten years away from her home after she is convinced that she ruined the step-cousin hero's life by telling her grandfather they were lovers. In her vivid 17 year-old imagination, they belonged together and she lost it when she found out the hero was engaged. The hero turned on her, calling her a liar, wishing he never knew here, etc . . . The overwrought heroine escaped in the night, not even returning when her grandfather died and there were all kinds of notices in the newspapers begging for her to return home.
The heroine was befriended by a family in London and they helped her go to art school. She became a successful illustrator. Her 16 year-old cousin who lives with the hero saw her name in a book and wrote to her. They had been corresponding for a year when the cousin suddenly begs her to come home.
The heroine does return to find the hero with a broken arm and leg, suffered from a fall from a horse. He also has a fiance from hell, an opening for a housekeeper, and a bad attitude.
From here it's a matter of the heroine overcoming her horrible guilt about ruining the hero's life, to pursing more wholesome hobbies like cooking, gardening, doing the school run, and fantasizing about the hero.
It's pretty obvious from the beginning that the current "Hero hate" is just as much a figment of the heroine's imagination as the "affair" she indulged in her own mind ten years before. The poor guy has been celibate for 12 years - no wonder he was a bit cranky when he saw the heroine again.
So Penny Jordan. Wow. I realize that now after reading more of her work:
Young love imprinted on the heroine (she was 17)
Long period of celibacy for both the H/h
Guilt and neurotic behavior by the heroine
Smitten hero who shows it through growls and pained expressions
Rural home with tangled family trees
A sweet career for the heroine that can easily be folded into domestic life.
I still like it, btw.
I liked this a lot. The artist heroine spent ten years away from her home after she is convinced that she ruined the step-cousin hero's life by telling her grandfather they were lovers. In her vivid 17 year-old imagination, they belonged together and she lost it when she found out the hero was engaged. The hero turned on her, calling her a liar, wishing he never knew here, etc . . . The overwrought heroine escaped in the night, not even returning when her grandfather died and there were all kinds of notices in the newspapers begging for her to return home.
The heroine was befriended by a family in London and they helped her go to art school. She became a successful illustrator. Her 16 year-old cousin who lives with the hero saw her name in a book and wrote to her. They had been corresponding for a year when the cousin suddenly begs her to come home.
The heroine does return to find the hero with a broken arm and leg, suffered from a fall from a horse. He also has a fiance from hell, an opening for a housekeeper, and a bad attitude.
From here it's a matter of the heroine overcoming her horrible guilt about ruining the hero's life, to pursing more wholesome hobbies like cooking, gardening, doing the school run, and fantasizing about the hero.
It's pretty obvious from the beginning that the current "Hero hate" is just as much a figment of the heroine's imagination as the "affair" she indulged in her own mind ten years before. The poor guy has been celibate for 12 years - no wonder he was a bit cranky when he saw the heroine again.
November 14, 2016
I have read some pretty trashtastic fare from Penny Jordan so color me surprised by the somber, sensitive tone of Reason for Being. The author spent a lot of time developing the female protagonist and it was really moving and felt very authentic.
We have an HPlandia heroine who has had ten long years to analyze herself back when she was a teenager and really have some self-insight into why she acted in the horribly misguided, obsessive, and hysterical way she did, accusing her older cousin of having engaged in an unethical and immoral sexual affair with her.
The picture of teenage, obsessive, hysteria was succinct and not cartoonish at all. She looks back time and time again on her behavior and realizes that the circumstances of her being suddenly orphaned, and grasping onto this attractive, older man, like a lifeboat upon a stormy, scary sea, coupled with her own, flawed, perception and delusions, resulted in the horrendous episode that broke up the remaining family composed of her grandfather and three cousins.
The woman that she grew up to be after the ten years, cut off from her family, has a tendency to self-flagellate and let herself be consumed with guilt so that she has been unable to really move on and live her life to the fullest. It could have been annoying to have a martyr heroine if this character was left in clumsier hands but Penny Jordan here takes the time to really draw her and provoke the necessary empathy in her reading audience.
The epiphany that the heroine had with her two younger, orphaned cousins, upon her inevitable return to the home of her childhood, was really moving too. Her "reason for being" that is referred to in the title of the book is not to rekindle a relationship with the man that she had an unhealthy fixation with, quite the contrary. Her eureka moment occurs when she realizes how much the two young girls have been lacking in a feminine, nurturing presence in their lives, despite the best efforts of their older brother, who had to rely on a bunch of unfeeling housekeepers and assorted friends to raise the girls.
When our heroine reflects on how much love, warmth and nurturing she had when she was growing up despite the lack of biological parents, she realizes how much she wants to give back what she had gotten, this time with her in the maternal role, towards her two younger cousins. The past ten years have been completely emotionally arid for her and now, she has the chance to live a life that has a very good, compelling, difficult but extremely fulfilling reason, that of preparing these young girls on the brink of womanhood for healthy, balanced, adult lives. This made me immensely like her.
This is all not to say that there weren't some fabulously trashtastic moments in the book, particularly with a typically cartoonish, evil, OW and some over-the-top bodice-rippery WTF moments that finally get the two protagonists back together where they belong. It is too bad because these elements did not combine very smoothly with the patient, steady and introspective pace that preceded them.
This is the kind of book that had the potential to become a very good, full-length, contemporary romance but I am afraid it was cut short abruptly due to the constricting format of a Harlequin and that is a real shame.
We have an HPlandia heroine who has had ten long years to analyze herself back when she was a teenager and really have some self-insight into why she acted in the horribly misguided, obsessive, and hysterical way she did, accusing her older cousin of having engaged in an unethical and immoral sexual affair with her.
The picture of teenage, obsessive, hysteria was succinct and not cartoonish at all. She looks back time and time again on her behavior and realizes that the circumstances of her being suddenly orphaned, and grasping onto this attractive, older man, like a lifeboat upon a stormy, scary sea, coupled with her own, flawed, perception and delusions, resulted in the horrendous episode that broke up the remaining family composed of her grandfather and three cousins.
The woman that she grew up to be after the ten years, cut off from her family, has a tendency to self-flagellate and let herself be consumed with guilt so that she has been unable to really move on and live her life to the fullest. It could have been annoying to have a martyr heroine if this character was left in clumsier hands but Penny Jordan here takes the time to really draw her and provoke the necessary empathy in her reading audience.
The epiphany that the heroine had with her two younger, orphaned cousins, upon her inevitable return to the home of her childhood, was really moving too. Her "reason for being" that is referred to in the title of the book is not to rekindle a relationship with the man that she had an unhealthy fixation with, quite the contrary. Her eureka moment occurs when she realizes how much the two young girls have been lacking in a feminine, nurturing presence in their lives, despite the best efforts of their older brother, who had to rely on a bunch of unfeeling housekeepers and assorted friends to raise the girls.
When our heroine reflects on how much love, warmth and nurturing she had when she was growing up despite the lack of biological parents, she realizes how much she wants to give back what she had gotten, this time with her in the maternal role, towards her two younger cousins. The past ten years have been completely emotionally arid for her and now, she has the chance to live a life that has a very good, compelling, difficult but extremely fulfilling reason, that of preparing these young girls on the brink of womanhood for healthy, balanced, adult lives. This made me immensely like her.
This is all not to say that there weren't some fabulously trashtastic moments in the book, particularly with a typically cartoonish, evil, OW and some over-the-top bodice-rippery WTF moments that finally get the two protagonists back together where they belong. It is too bad because these elements did not combine very smoothly with the patient, steady and introspective pace that preceded them.
This is the kind of book that had the potential to become a very good, full-length, contemporary romance but I am afraid it was cut short abruptly due to the constricting format of a Harlequin and that is a real shame.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 2, 2017
Re Reason for Being - PJ brings us her most neurotic, guilt ridden, martyred h in her impressive martyred h backlist and possibly in all of HPlandia.
We never really get to know the H all that much, except he is tall, dark and grey eyed coupled with the HP male epitome mein of manly, competent and he managed to inherit the h's family home when he isn't even a blood relation. He is just SO GOOD at managing things.
The h returns to the family homestead after her young cousin writes a letter to her publisher and the h starts corresponding with her. Several months of this goes on and then the h gets an SOS. The cousins, there are two of them and teenagers - the H's very much younger half siblings, need the h to come save them from a Fate Worse Than DEATH! Or at least help them run off the H's new witch cow of a fiancee, who wants to dump the twosome into a boarding school while she has her wicked way with the H and the teen ladies don't want to go, they like life as it is currently.
The H himself is laid up with a broken leg and other assorted broken things, apparently the fiancee let loose her badly trained puppy while driving her car into the H's path whilst he was out on his horse. The horse threw the H and then fell on him. Yet the H is going to marry this woman - amazing what 85 stone of horse weight (1200 lbs)- can put into a guy's head.
So the h, who is the epitome of all things motherly and cooking with fresh vegetables, (no decorating this time, the h's family homestead is Historical and has all the named English Classical Artistic touches added over the Centuries,) is going to creatively vegetate and daily school-run her way back into the family bosom, or the H's manly male hard chest.
But the h's homecoming is complicated, cause REASONS. The h is currently based in London and is willing to move back to care for the teens. But the return to the family fold is troubled by the h's DARK SECRET SHAME.
Srsly, I was waiting to read that she ate some hallucinogenic mushrooms and took an ax out of the woodshed and hacked up the Vicar's family, in a misguided effort to stop him from stealing the Church Roof Fund. Thus causing her to flee to London in the middle of the night and get adopted by a continental artist and his equally continental daughter, after the Manly, Handsome, Competent H had to dissolve the bodies in acid in an effort to prevent shame from falling on the family name and told the h she had to go away forever.
I read one hundred pages of the h reiterating her shame and remorse over and over, I felt hit with my own skillet with the h's remorse for her behavior. And what is the Big, Shocking, Seekrit?
The h was 17 and in love with the H and told her grandfather they were lurvin it up when the H announced his engagement to some woman the h did not even know about. The grandfather knew she was lying and the H said he never wanted to see her again and she ran away in the middle of the night. She met the continental artist's daughter in London and the artist dad paid for her to go art school and she has been beating herself up for ten years, not even coming home when her grandfather died and the H put an advert in the paper.
But now things are different, she is older and wiser and has paid her penance. She only wants to mother the teen sisters with all the pent up love stored in her lonely heart and feed everyone lots of fresh vegetables, (and maybe do some dusting,) but really vegetables are for everyone when prepared in creative ways. And the teen girls can learn to do creative vegetables too! Cause everyone should be able to carve a carrot in an emergency. So she is committing to the girls for the next four years, after all the house is one-third hers anyway, the H can hardly kick her out.
So the h is guilty and remorsefully insinuating herself into the daily life of the girls and sneaking longing glances at the H's manly chest on the sly. The H himself is a pretty cranky person, as you might be when your noodle won't stay in a limp doodle and there is no way for him to get any satisfaction so to speak - well except for that punishing kiss or three he inflicted on the h, and he an engaged H too! The h doesn't take it seriously tho, she knows he is only getting his own back for her ruining his first engagement.
Things are trundling slowly along when the H's fiancee drops a malicious bombshell. The h doesn't actually inherit a third of the house, the H got it all cause dear old Grampy changed his will. In Grampy's little stroked out mind, the H, who is no relation to him at all except the son of the h's dead Uncle's wife, was the best caretaker of the house for future generations - or maybe it was just that H was fairly wealthy and could afford to run it. We will never know cause just like the poor h's parent's, Grampy died before we ever start reading this story.
The h broods for a bit, and contemplates running off again, but the girls need her so she pulls up her big person knickers and resolves to stay. Only to have Another Horrid Shock when she see's the H's fiancee making time with another guy. She is HORRIFIED that anyone could betray the Darling, Manly, Handsome, Competent H, but she can't tell the H about it - she doesn't want to be the cause of yet ANOTHER H broken engagement.
( I have to say I did wonder if this h was having some passive aggressive sneaky hostility subconscious deal going on here. She obviously adores the H, knows him very well and thinks that her Dream Man would be okay with his future wife playing away on him. I can't help but think she was hoping he got his heart broken just like she got hers torn apart and maybe he would suffer just as she has.)
But it never comes to that, cause just as the h is arriving home and shepherding the teen sisters off to a teen play date, the H's fiancee dumps him and finally the big magic lurve club mojo moment arrives. It is ecstasy and the h is finally a real woman and lurving it, until she realizes that the H was just making his revenge complete by using her as fiancee sub and she wanders off to make tea and crumpets for the now conveniently returning teen girls.
Finally the blood makes it back to the H's brain and the big confessions can begin. The H LOVES the h and always has. SAY WHAT!?! (I know, I was shocked too.) But truly he does and he was never engaged all those years ago - he made it up to prevent the h and her huge, needy eyes from overwhelming his competent and manly self and thus force him to seduce the h in the rose garden and marry her out of hand. Seems Grampy knew the H intended to marry the h, and he was good with that - hence the whole house willing business. It doesn't matter now, cause the H and h are discreetly marrying ( in light of his recent broken engagement,) for the big HEA.
As for the current OW evil fiancee, well the H had his OW evil fiancee-caused accident and when he woke up, he was engaged. He never asked the woman to marry him and part of his surliness all this time has been because he was racking his brains on how to get rid of her. I guess a simple "Pike off you delusional, spoilt brat." wasn't in his vocabulary. (Tho how the fiancee got an actual ring from the H is a mystical unknown, if the H wasn't serious and never asked nor meant to marry the woman. This is PJ tho, so just roll with it, she needed a plot point out of it.)
Then again the H's brain wasn't working quite right either - twelve years of celibacy waiting around for the h to wander back will do that to you. Although I do think with all the H's manly competence and the h's fame as an illustrator would have enabled him to track her down and force a few roofie kisses on her years earlier. However that would not have made nearly as entertaining an HPlandia outing as this one - and probably neither would hallucinogenic mushrooms and a handy ax either.
We never really get to know the H all that much, except he is tall, dark and grey eyed coupled with the HP male epitome mein of manly, competent and he managed to inherit the h's family home when he isn't even a blood relation. He is just SO GOOD at managing things.
The h returns to the family homestead after her young cousin writes a letter to her publisher and the h starts corresponding with her. Several months of this goes on and then the h gets an SOS. The cousins, there are two of them and teenagers - the H's very much younger half siblings, need the h to come save them from a Fate Worse Than DEATH! Or at least help them run off the H's new witch cow of a fiancee, who wants to dump the twosome into a boarding school while she has her wicked way with the H and the teen ladies don't want to go, they like life as it is currently.
The H himself is laid up with a broken leg and other assorted broken things, apparently the fiancee let loose her badly trained puppy while driving her car into the H's path whilst he was out on his horse. The horse threw the H and then fell on him. Yet the H is going to marry this woman - amazing what 85 stone of horse weight (1200 lbs)- can put into a guy's head.
So the h, who is the epitome of all things motherly and cooking with fresh vegetables, (no decorating this time, the h's family homestead is Historical and has all the named English Classical Artistic touches added over the Centuries,) is going to creatively vegetate and daily school-run her way back into the family bosom, or the H's manly male hard chest.
But the h's homecoming is complicated, cause REASONS. The h is currently based in London and is willing to move back to care for the teens. But the return to the family fold is troubled by the h's DARK SECRET SHAME.
Srsly, I was waiting to read that she ate some hallucinogenic mushrooms and took an ax out of the woodshed and hacked up the Vicar's family, in a misguided effort to stop him from stealing the Church Roof Fund. Thus causing her to flee to London in the middle of the night and get adopted by a continental artist and his equally continental daughter, after the Manly, Handsome, Competent H had to dissolve the bodies in acid in an effort to prevent shame from falling on the family name and told the h she had to go away forever.
I read one hundred pages of the h reiterating her shame and remorse over and over, I felt hit with my own skillet with the h's remorse for her behavior. And what is the Big, Shocking, Seekrit?
The h was 17 and in love with the H and told her grandfather they were lurvin it up when the H announced his engagement to some woman the h did not even know about. The grandfather knew she was lying and the H said he never wanted to see her again and she ran away in the middle of the night. She met the continental artist's daughter in London and the artist dad paid for her to go art school and she has been beating herself up for ten years, not even coming home when her grandfather died and the H put an advert in the paper.
But now things are different, she is older and wiser and has paid her penance. She only wants to mother the teen sisters with all the pent up love stored in her lonely heart and feed everyone lots of fresh vegetables, (and maybe do some dusting,) but really vegetables are for everyone when prepared in creative ways. And the teen girls can learn to do creative vegetables too! Cause everyone should be able to carve a carrot in an emergency. So she is committing to the girls for the next four years, after all the house is one-third hers anyway, the H can hardly kick her out.
So the h is guilty and remorsefully insinuating herself into the daily life of the girls and sneaking longing glances at the H's manly chest on the sly. The H himself is a pretty cranky person, as you might be when your noodle won't stay in a limp doodle and there is no way for him to get any satisfaction so to speak - well except for that punishing kiss or three he inflicted on the h, and he an engaged H too! The h doesn't take it seriously tho, she knows he is only getting his own back for her ruining his first engagement.
Things are trundling slowly along when the H's fiancee drops a malicious bombshell. The h doesn't actually inherit a third of the house, the H got it all cause dear old Grampy changed his will. In Grampy's little stroked out mind, the H, who is no relation to him at all except the son of the h's dead Uncle's wife, was the best caretaker of the house for future generations - or maybe it was just that H was fairly wealthy and could afford to run it. We will never know cause just like the poor h's parent's, Grampy died before we ever start reading this story.
The h broods for a bit, and contemplates running off again, but the girls need her so she pulls up her big person knickers and resolves to stay. Only to have Another Horrid Shock when she see's the H's fiancee making time with another guy. She is HORRIFIED that anyone could betray the Darling, Manly, Handsome, Competent H, but she can't tell the H about it - she doesn't want to be the cause of yet ANOTHER H broken engagement.
( I have to say I did wonder if this h was having some passive aggressive sneaky hostility subconscious deal going on here. She obviously adores the H, knows him very well and thinks that her Dream Man would be okay with his future wife playing away on him. I can't help but think she was hoping he got his heart broken just like she got hers torn apart and maybe he would suffer just as she has.)
But it never comes to that, cause just as the h is arriving home and shepherding the teen sisters off to a teen play date, the H's fiancee dumps him and finally the big magic lurve club mojo moment arrives. It is ecstasy and the h is finally a real woman and lurving it, until she realizes that the H was just making his revenge complete by using her as fiancee sub and she wanders off to make tea and crumpets for the now conveniently returning teen girls.
Finally the blood makes it back to the H's brain and the big confessions can begin. The H LOVES the h and always has. SAY WHAT!?! (I know, I was shocked too.) But truly he does and he was never engaged all those years ago - he made it up to prevent the h and her huge, needy eyes from overwhelming his competent and manly self and thus force him to seduce the h in the rose garden and marry her out of hand. Seems Grampy knew the H intended to marry the h, and he was good with that - hence the whole house willing business. It doesn't matter now, cause the H and h are discreetly marrying ( in light of his recent broken engagement,) for the big HEA.
As for the current OW evil fiancee, well the H had his OW evil fiancee-caused accident and when he woke up, he was engaged. He never asked the woman to marry him and part of his surliness all this time has been because he was racking his brains on how to get rid of her. I guess a simple "Pike off you delusional, spoilt brat." wasn't in his vocabulary. (Tho how the fiancee got an actual ring from the H is a mystical unknown, if the H wasn't serious and never asked nor meant to marry the woman. This is PJ tho, so just roll with it, she needed a plot point out of it.)
Then again the H's brain wasn't working quite right either - twelve years of celibacy waiting around for the h to wander back will do that to you. Although I do think with all the H's manly competence and the h's fame as an illustrator would have enabled him to track her down and force a few roofie kisses on her years earlier. However that would not have made nearly as entertaining an HPlandia outing as this one - and probably neither would hallucinogenic mushrooms and a handy ax either.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 31, 2019
"A Reason for Being" is the story of Maggie and Marcus.
10 years ago, a distraught Maggie runs away from her home at the Deveril estate, when Marcus, our hero chides her for a lie which could have had disastrous consequences.
17 year old Maggie is an orphan, when she moves to her uncle's house, who had married Marcus's mother. Instantly infatuated with Marcus, she believes herself in love with him, until she makes a false confession to his grandfather, leading Marcus to lose his temper on her and make her face the truth.
Heartbroken, she runs away to London, where a stranger Lara provides her with emotional and financial support, and she ends up becoming an artist.
Years later, she receives a phone call from her now orphan cousins Susie and Sara, begging her to return home to help, and realizes she needs to face the past.
She returns to a crippled and engaged Marcus, the Deveril house in shambles, the girls not having anyone to guide them, and soon assumes the role of a pseudo-mother who takes over the house. But as Marcus's fiance is hell bent on sending both Maggie and the girls away, can she hash out her issues with Marcus and finally find peace?
A wonderfully written, angst filled, emotional roller coaster ride with a strong heroine who spends a lot of time introspecting, learning and growing up, a silent and brooding hero, a conniving OW, scheming stepsisters/nieces and a sweet HEA.
There is crackling chemistry between the h and H, and SO many unresolved problems- they speak with their eyes and their eventual union is oh so sweet.
I cried, I laughed and I sighed. I adore the "I've loved you forever" trope.
Overall, a great read.
SWE/Safe for me
4/5
10 years ago, a distraught Maggie runs away from her home at the Deveril estate, when Marcus, our hero chides her for a lie which could have had disastrous consequences.
17 year old Maggie is an orphan, when she moves to her uncle's house, who had married Marcus's mother. Instantly infatuated with Marcus, she believes herself in love with him, until she makes a false confession to his grandfather, leading Marcus to lose his temper on her and make her face the truth.
Heartbroken, she runs away to London, where a stranger Lara provides her with emotional and financial support, and she ends up becoming an artist.
Years later, she receives a phone call from her now orphan cousins Susie and Sara, begging her to return home to help, and realizes she needs to face the past.
She returns to a crippled and engaged Marcus, the Deveril house in shambles, the girls not having anyone to guide them, and soon assumes the role of a pseudo-mother who takes over the house. But as Marcus's fiance is hell bent on sending both Maggie and the girls away, can she hash out her issues with Marcus and finally find peace?
A wonderfully written, angst filled, emotional roller coaster ride with a strong heroine who spends a lot of time introspecting, learning and growing up, a silent and brooding hero, a conniving OW, scheming stepsisters/nieces and a sweet HEA.
There is crackling chemistry between the h and H, and SO many unresolved problems- they speak with their eyes and their eventual union is oh so sweet.
I cried, I laughed and I sighed. I adore the "I've loved you forever" trope.
Overall, a great read.
SWE/Safe for me
4/5
September 21, 2021
It was just some days ago I was thinking about one of my first romance, a romance about a hero named Marcus, and a heroine who came home after 10 years. And then I read this one and I found out this is the very book I was thinking about.
And I found out that I still love this book.
It has a very high angst level, due to the fact that all emotions are exalted even excessive sometimes.
The heroine lived with her grandfather and two cousins and the hero step cousin, and of course she was very much in love with him. When she was 17 he told her he was getting engaged and she went crazy, she told him he loved her and couldn’t be engaged to another woman and told her grandfather that the hero had sex with her many times. The hero reacted badly and the day after the heroine flew.
This was really excessive, because she stays away for 10 years. The heroine is a over emotional and sensitive creature who suffers still of panic attacks each time she thinks about the hero.
Ok, maybe he was a bit rude but the heroine’s reaction was excessive.
So now her teenage cousin asks her to come home because there are real problems.
And there she finds a critical situation with the hero with a plaster on his leg and engaged to a evil ow.
The martyr heroine suffers in silence between a quiver and a shudder and a stolen kiss in the hero’s study.
Eventually, after 167 pages of pain, shudder, hurt, longing and of course misunderstandings, they talk and they find out, and we too, that they have always love each other and that wow, the hero was celibate for 12 years! Record!
So, what’s the expression, a storm in a teacup. By the pain, suffering, drama that pervades all the book you should think that the heroine was guilty of multiple murders and stealing and selling drugs to teenagers, instead she quarreled with the hero and ruined her life for 10 years for it. This is madness.
But this is PJ and we love it.
And I found out that I still love this book.
It has a very high angst level, due to the fact that all emotions are exalted even excessive sometimes.
The heroine lived with her grandfather and two cousins and the hero step cousin, and of course she was very much in love with him. When she was 17 he told her he was getting engaged and she went crazy, she told him he loved her and couldn’t be engaged to another woman and told her grandfather that the hero had sex with her many times. The hero reacted badly and the day after the heroine flew.
This was really excessive, because she stays away for 10 years. The heroine is a over emotional and sensitive creature who suffers still of panic attacks each time she thinks about the hero.
Ok, maybe he was a bit rude but the heroine’s reaction was excessive.
So now her teenage cousin asks her to come home because there are real problems.
And there she finds a critical situation with the hero with a plaster on his leg and engaged to a evil ow.
The martyr heroine suffers in silence between a quiver and a shudder and a stolen kiss in the hero’s study.
Eventually, after 167 pages of pain, shudder, hurt, longing and of course misunderstandings, they talk and they find out, and we too, that they have always love each other and that wow, the hero was celibate for 12 years! Record!
So, what’s the expression, a storm in a teacup. By the pain, suffering, drama that pervades all the book you should think that the heroine was guilty of multiple murders and stealing and selling drugs to teenagers, instead she quarreled with the hero and ruined her life for 10 years for it. This is madness.
But this is PJ and we love it.
May 27, 2018
Oh God,love the flavour of electric and lovely..this romance by Penny was mixed with both of them.Maggie Deverils and Marcus Landersby are step-cousins who are undenyable in love with each other.
They haven`t seen each other in 10 years,and when Maggie returns for the sake of his young step-sisters,they get irresitable drawn to each other.
There are many misunderstandings between them,which ignites the fire caused by angst,and how i LOVE it in PJ books.I knew that the stepsisters were trying to match-make them.So adorable of them.And the hot sex-scene near the end between Maggie and Marcus was so so so sexy!
(Can`t believe that Marcus stayed celibate the whole 12 years he was in love with her!!!SO ROMANTIC!)
"I love you," he told her simply."It had to be either you or no one."
They haven`t seen each other in 10 years,and when Maggie returns for the sake of his young step-sisters,they get irresitable drawn to each other.
There are many misunderstandings between them,which ignites the fire caused by angst,and how i LOVE it in PJ books.I knew that the stepsisters were trying to match-make them.So adorable of them.And the hot sex-scene near the end between Maggie and Marcus was so so so sexy!
(Can`t believe that Marcus stayed celibate the whole 12 years he was in love with her!!!SO ROMANTIC!)
"I love you," he told her simply."It had to be either you or no one."
July 20, 2020
This really isn’t soapy, (tagging for tracking only) it’s more of a serious, sad family drama/second-chance romance. A lot of reviewers loved it, but I found it lacking to pull at my heartstrings, or entertain me. For these types of books, I need either OTT dramatics, or gut wrenching angsty goodness, and I didn't get either. So it's just "ok" for me. This book requires you to take several leaps…. The conflict alone doesn’t make sense, and there are several other parts you’ll just have to swallow, or you’ll get a headache. 😊
Here we have Maggie who is riddled with guilt (it takes about 100 pages of her ranting *see below* about her dark secret shame to get to it)
She was the one at fault. She was the one who had deliberately lied about their relationship, who had deliberately tried to force… But no…even now there were some things she just could not acknowledge; some truths she just could not accept. It was a physical agony even now to face up to her own failings, the muscles in her chest and throat locking as she battled with herself, refusing to allow herself to escape and hide from reality. From the truth.
This “conflict” isn’t really explored, or explained in a way to make her actions believable, so I found Maggie emotionally unstable with a huge martyr complex, and not a poor mistreated h deserving of sympathy. Regardless she receives a desperate letter from her cousin begging her to return, and is reunited with Marcus.
Maggie is skittish and CONSTANTLY projecting her feelings of shame, but she’s a domestic whiz… total #momgoals… Marcus is a pretty flat character, other than being tall, handsome with grey eyes, and injured from a horseback riding accident… we don’t get much. He’s a smidge broody, but the couple doesn’t interact a ton, and it always feels like they’re having two different conversations. It’s very obvious what’s going on, and it takes forever for poor Maggie to get there.
Bottom Line- Tame, and IMO not really dramatic or angsty. It’s basically 200 pages of misunderstandings, and waiting for them to catch up. There’s an OW, Isobel, but she’s basically a spoiled brat, and isn’t around much. Totally safe, she’s a virgin, and he’s been celibate for 12 years since meeting Maggie I believe.
Here we have Maggie who is riddled with guilt (it takes about 100 pages of her ranting *see below* about her dark secret shame to get to it)
She was the one at fault. She was the one who had deliberately lied about their relationship, who had deliberately tried to force… But no…even now there were some things she just could not acknowledge; some truths she just could not accept. It was a physical agony even now to face up to her own failings, the muscles in her chest and throat locking as she battled with herself, refusing to allow herself to escape and hide from reality. From the truth.
This “conflict” isn’t really explored, or explained in a way to make her actions believable, so I found Maggie emotionally unstable with a huge martyr complex, and not a poor mistreated h deserving of sympathy. Regardless she receives a desperate letter from her cousin begging her to return, and is reunited with Marcus.
Maggie is skittish and CONSTANTLY projecting her feelings of shame, but she’s a domestic whiz… total #momgoals… Marcus is a pretty flat character, other than being tall, handsome with grey eyes, and injured from a horseback riding accident… we don’t get much. He’s a smidge broody, but the couple doesn’t interact a ton, and it always feels like they’re having two different conversations. It’s very obvious what’s going on, and it takes forever for poor Maggie to get there.
Bottom Line- Tame, and IMO not really dramatic or angsty. It’s basically 200 pages of misunderstandings, and waiting for them to catch up. There’s an OW, Isobel, but she’s basically a spoiled brat, and isn’t around much. Totally safe, she’s a virgin, and he’s been celibate for 12 years since meeting Maggie I believe.
October 27, 2017
Reading this book made the sadness of Penny Jordan’s so much sharper. She is my favorite Harlequin author and in my humble opinion, one of the best.
This is one of her best works. It’s a story of a young girl whose intense love for the man in her life makes her make a rash decision that colors the next 10 years of her life and causes her unexplainable pain.
The book starts with her return to her childhood home and meeting the cause of her pain all over again. Now as an adult she believes she is over her love for him. She soon learns that she’s not as immune as she thinks and things go downhill from there.
I enjoyed this book. It was beautifully written and I adored the characters. It is Penny Jordan’s writing at it’s best. Definitely worth the read.
This is one of her best works. It’s a story of a young girl whose intense love for the man in her life makes her make a rash decision that colors the next 10 years of her life and causes her unexplainable pain.
The book starts with her return to her childhood home and meeting the cause of her pain all over again. Now as an adult she believes she is over her love for him. She soon learns that she’s not as immune as she thinks and things go downhill from there.
I enjoyed this book. It was beautifully written and I adored the characters. It is Penny Jordan’s writing at it’s best. Definitely worth the read.
December 29, 2020
Even though It make cry a lot, I enjoyed it. I couldn't stop reading it from beginning to end. The only thing I would have liked to know was Marcus' POVs and more romantic moments between the main characters.
I'm not a fan of nieces and nephews in romance stories 😅, I try to avoid them, but I liked the girls, they were the bond between the MCs and thanks to them Maggie and Marcus reunited again.
P.S.: More tags when I visit the GRs website. I am using the app version.
I'm not a fan of nieces and nephews in romance stories 😅, I try to avoid them, but I liked the girls, they were the bond between the MCs and thanks to them Maggie and Marcus reunited again.
P.S.: More tags when I visit the GRs website. I am using the app version.
June 12, 2019
3.5 stars
Such an angsty read. An unrequited love story from heroine's POV.
She is obsessed by the H since her teenage years and causes trouble because of her possessiveness and jealousy.
A long separation and a reunion for family's sake that only causes further pain/angst/raging recriminations.
We understand from tiny details that the H was not indifferent to her but age difference was an issue.
Passion rekindles (there is a thin line between passion and violence...) but after so much torment.
I appreciated the author's insight on the "storm of feelings" in a lonely teenage girl and her slow coming of age thru understanding her real feelings.
Such an angsty read. An unrequited love story from heroine's POV.
She is obsessed by the H since her teenage years and causes trouble because of her possessiveness and jealousy.
A long separation and a reunion for family's sake that only causes further pain/angst/raging recriminations.
We understand from tiny details that the H was not indifferent to her but age difference was an issue.
Passion rekindles (there is a thin line between passion and violence...) but after so much torment.
I appreciated the author's insight on the "storm of feelings" in a lonely teenage girl and her slow coming of age thru understanding her real feelings.
January 17, 2022
A very emotionally charged, angsty read by PJ. Heavy plot and nice story and was hard for me to put down. There is a slow burn of sorts between the h and H and it takes a while for it to pick up. There is much monologue and pages of the h over-thinking the same worries in her head.
Maggie lives in London, a life of her own with no family or home to retreat to. That is what everyone thinks and Maggie prefers it this way. She doesn’t want anyone to creep on her past, a past she left behind more than a decade ago. A past that involves being irrevocably in love with a man and having his half sisters as cousins.
Now some twelve or so years later Maggie is summoned by her cousins to come save them from much ruin. She’s suddenly back home and extremely wary of making the same mistakes she made when she was there last time as a young foolish teen in love.
The girls’ half brother is Marcus, the man Maggie fell for hard but being so young, Marcus wasn’t sure about their relationship going forward and that makes Maggie save face and say some up-handed things that she regrets for the rest of her life. Like telling everyone that Marcus had already made love to her and claimed her as his woman. Sadly the H doesn’t reciprocate her feelings or help in any way to save face. And so Maggie makes a run, never to come back home to this mortifying reality.
A decade later, Maggie is home for her cousins. Marcus is engaged to OW who hates his half sisters and Maggie is left to pick up on life as a ward to these young teens. There is much angst but moreover I disliked Maggie’s physical and psychological temperament. She was forever physical shuddering or shaking and convulsing in various states of distress over just thinking over the past.
There really wasn’t that much of a life altering lie between them to cause this inhabitation in Maggie. The H had been in a rough accident and Maggie would look at him and go weepy worrying that he might’ve been killed and it causes her to pale and/or faint.
I disliked this malady that Maggie suffered from as a woman. It’s not like she’d been raped or savaged in any way to cause her repeat cycles of shudders and tremors. You’d think Maggie was some old lady harried by a spell of Parkinson’s. Sorry for being rude. But I couldn’t stand one more shuddering spasm from Maggie.
Eventually there’s a quick HEA with not much epilogue. There is much noise in the background with Maggie’s tremors and inner turmoil over the past. Also the two girls talk much and take from the already quiet couple. Wish it was more electrically charged.. there certainly was unfinished business between the h and H.
Maggie lives in London, a life of her own with no family or home to retreat to. That is what everyone thinks and Maggie prefers it this way. She doesn’t want anyone to creep on her past, a past she left behind more than a decade ago. A past that involves being irrevocably in love with a man and having his half sisters as cousins.
Now some twelve or so years later Maggie is summoned by her cousins to come save them from much ruin. She’s suddenly back home and extremely wary of making the same mistakes she made when she was there last time as a young foolish teen in love.
The girls’ half brother is Marcus, the man Maggie fell for hard but being so young, Marcus wasn’t sure about their relationship going forward and that makes Maggie save face and say some up-handed things that she regrets for the rest of her life. Like telling everyone that Marcus had already made love to her and claimed her as his woman. Sadly the H doesn’t reciprocate her feelings or help in any way to save face. And so Maggie makes a run, never to come back home to this mortifying reality.
A decade later, Maggie is home for her cousins. Marcus is engaged to OW who hates his half sisters and Maggie is left to pick up on life as a ward to these young teens. There is much angst but moreover I disliked Maggie’s physical and psychological temperament. She was forever physical shuddering or shaking and convulsing in various states of distress over just thinking over the past.
There really wasn’t that much of a life altering lie between them to cause this inhabitation in Maggie. The H had been in a rough accident and Maggie would look at him and go weepy worrying that he might’ve been killed and it causes her to pale and/or faint.
I disliked this malady that Maggie suffered from as a woman. It’s not like she’d been raped or savaged in any way to cause her repeat cycles of shudders and tremors. You’d think Maggie was some old lady harried by a spell of Parkinson’s. Sorry for being rude. But I couldn’t stand one more shuddering spasm from Maggie.
Eventually there’s a quick HEA with not much epilogue. There is much noise in the background with Maggie’s tremors and inner turmoil over the past. Also the two girls talk much and take from the already quiet couple. Wish it was more electrically charged.. there certainly was unfinished business between the h and H.
February 6, 2012
3.5 stars
Ok, first off I always enjoy a book were the H/h have history, which they have in this story and it is pretty good stuff...The h is filled with guilt and does not feel like she deserves to be happy. She comes home to help and thus the story revolves around her return. However, the H never makes any attempt to clarify the situation past or present and that never makes any sense to me. He claimed he has loved her all these years, but never made any attempt to find her, or fix the problems now that she is older. Compounded by the finacee from hell...and let me just say that issue never makes any sense even after the BIG reveal. Sigh...not P.Jordans best but a decent read for all that.
Ok, first off I always enjoy a book were the H/h have history, which they have in this story and it is pretty good stuff...The h is filled with guilt and does not feel like she deserves to be happy. She comes home to help and thus the story revolves around her return. However, the H never makes any attempt to clarify the situation past or present and that never makes any sense to me. He claimed he has loved her all these years, but never made any attempt to find her, or fix the problems now that she is older. Compounded by the finacee from hell...and let me just say that issue never makes any sense even after the BIG reveal. Sigh...not P.Jordans best but a decent read for all that.
October 17, 2019
I made it 2/3 through and then I had to drop it because I simply couldn't handle the heroine's self-flagellating martyrdom anymore. Her constant thoughts of how this or that was "her punishment" and how it was her fate to suffer.... Good God! At first, I did like that she could admit her own mistakes - her crazy fantasies and claims that the hero had a relationship with her when she was still underage could've utterly ruined him! - but the longer it went on and on and on... Jesus! The author tried to present the heroine as a strong woman but she was such a frail, wilting flower that it made my eye twitch. No, just no.
October 8, 2017
Wanted to like
I like stories where the H is obviously in love with h but has to send h away for awhile to grow up more . exact premise of this book. The scenes between the H and h were hot but it was literally 90% of the way through the book before that happened. The rest of the time was basically inner monologue of h repeating the same thing over and over. Disappointing.
I like stories where the H is obviously in love with h but has to send h away for awhile to grow up more . exact premise of this book. The scenes between the H and h were hot but it was literally 90% of the way through the book before that happened. The rest of the time was basically inner monologue of h repeating the same thing over and over. Disappointing.
December 13, 2018
Too much head talking.
July 27, 2021
Penny Jordan at her best. She is one of the authors along with Charlotte Lamb and Anne Mather that immediately bring me back to my teen years. This was a great story about 2 people who spent far too many years apart.
Heroine: Maggie, 27, virgin: She fled her home at the tender age of 17 after lying about her step cousin(H) to her grandfather. She had a strong, crushing love for the step cousin and was ashamed of her own actions, but also told to leave by the H and never come back. Basically, she is befriended in the big city of London, where she is able to disappear. Unfortunately, even though she is successfully making it on her own, she is also still that same 17 year old who cannot form any meaningful attachments with men. She goes back to her family home after one of her teenage bio cousins contacts her and says she is needed right away.
Hero: Marcus, 37, : He is surprised to see that the heroine is back in his life. After 12 years of celibacy, he is engaged to marry. A serious horse riding incident has left his leg and arm in a cast(2 appendages he was actually using on a regular basis). He accepts the heroine back at the house without a problem, but does insist that if she means to be part of her young cousins lives(his step sisters) then she should commit herself to a minimum of 4 years.(this doesn’t sound much like a guy eager to get rid of a woman)
OW-Isobel is the fiancé of the H. She is bitchy as a good OW should be. She was all set to send the 2 teenage girls off to boarding school.
Susie and Sara(16, 14 years old)- I can’t help but think these 2 are adorable like Haley Mills in the original Parent Trap(one of the girls was Susan and the mom was Maggie 🤔)
This story is told basically front the h’s point of view. The hero gives us facial expressions, touching moments, and at times words that could have another meaning. The h believes she is immune to the H and that she is over her childish infatuation. Now is the time to make amends to him for costing him his 1st engagement and to give her young cousins insight into the mom they barely remembered(the h’s step aunt, and H’s bio mom). She basically takes over the duties of a much needed housekeeper, and everyone falls into a calm routine. In the meantime we get lots of inner dialogue from the h(it can be monotonous at times, but totally in keeping with the older books). I really liked how PJ showed the inner workings of the h’s teenage and adult mind. Her fantasies as a young teen were imo spot on. I especially could relate to the comment of wanting to escape to her bedroom to retreat from the real world and indulge in fantasy land. (I’m pretty sure Rick Springfield and I were married with a couple of kids with me playing backup tambourine/triangle when he went on tour…ahh the memories!)
Eventually our 2 unrequited lovers hash out all the sexual frustration in the H’s study (was it on the desk? Against the wall? I am not sure, but probably a pretty rough way to lose ones virginity. Yet, who can blame the 37 year old hero who’s last time in the sexual ring was in his early/mid 20s!!!)
Unfortunately the h believes this was revenge sex and it takes a couple more pages before we get to the HEA. Misunderstandings are cleared up, and its an HEA for everyone!
The angst in this is strong which makes it a page turner.
My review is pretty skimpy, For more details on the story check out Stmargarets review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Or Naksed’s: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Or Boogenhagen’s
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Heroine: Maggie, 27, virgin: She fled her home at the tender age of 17 after lying about her step cousin(H) to her grandfather. She had a strong, crushing love for the step cousin and was ashamed of her own actions, but also told to leave by the H and never come back. Basically, she is befriended in the big city of London, where she is able to disappear. Unfortunately, even though she is successfully making it on her own, she is also still that same 17 year old who cannot form any meaningful attachments with men. She goes back to her family home after one of her teenage bio cousins contacts her and says she is needed right away.
Hero: Marcus, 37, : He is surprised to see that the heroine is back in his life. After 12 years of celibacy, he is engaged to marry. A serious horse riding incident has left his leg and arm in a cast(2 appendages he was actually using on a regular basis). He accepts the heroine back at the house without a problem, but does insist that if she means to be part of her young cousins lives(his step sisters) then she should commit herself to a minimum of 4 years.(this doesn’t sound much like a guy eager to get rid of a woman)
OW-Isobel is the fiancé of the H. She is bitchy as a good OW should be. She was all set to send the 2 teenage girls off to boarding school.
Susie and Sara(16, 14 years old)- I can’t help but think these 2 are adorable like Haley Mills in the original Parent Trap(one of the girls was Susan and the mom was Maggie 🤔)
This story is told basically front the h’s point of view. The hero gives us facial expressions, touching moments, and at times words that could have another meaning. The h believes she is immune to the H and that she is over her childish infatuation. Now is the time to make amends to him for costing him his 1st engagement and to give her young cousins insight into the mom they barely remembered(the h’s step aunt, and H’s bio mom). She basically takes over the duties of a much needed housekeeper, and everyone falls into a calm routine. In the meantime we get lots of inner dialogue from the h(it can be monotonous at times, but totally in keeping with the older books). I really liked how PJ showed the inner workings of the h’s teenage and adult mind. Her fantasies as a young teen were imo spot on. I especially could relate to the comment of wanting to escape to her bedroom to retreat from the real world and indulge in fantasy land. (I’m pretty sure Rick Springfield and I were married with a couple of kids with me playing backup tambourine/triangle when he went on tour…ahh the memories!)
Eventually our 2 unrequited lovers hash out all the sexual frustration in the H’s study (was it on the desk? Against the wall? I am not sure, but probably a pretty rough way to lose ones virginity. Yet, who can blame the 37 year old hero who’s last time in the sexual ring was in his early/mid 20s!!!)
Unfortunately the h believes this was revenge sex and it takes a couple more pages before we get to the HEA. Misunderstandings are cleared up, and its an HEA for everyone!
The angst in this is strong which makes it a page turner.
My review is pretty skimpy, For more details on the story check out Stmargarets review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Or Naksed’s: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Or Boogenhagen’s
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
June 5, 2025
This was too much to fit in a Harlequin novel. I wish it had been longer. I really wanted to see more of the main couple.
Heroine goes back home ten years after she fucked up as a seventeen year old. She receives a frosty reception from her “victim” aka the hero.
Beautiful imagery.
Heroine goes back home ten years after she fucked up as a seventeen year old. She receives a frosty reception from her “victim” aka the hero.
Beautiful imagery.
November 27, 2017
3.5 stars
May 5, 2018
Not a very convincing tale. Though the premise has lot of scope for thwarted passions and suppressed emotions.
At 17 years of age, the heroine lusts after her distantly related cousin, 10 years older than her. Apparently, he does too. But never gets around to showing it. Then with some crazy notion of her welfare in mind, he announces to her that he is engaged.
All hell breaks loose, she accuses him of molesting her. Her grandfather comes to mediate, and figures out that she is lying. She leaves home out of shame in the middle of the night.
Then she miraculously finds a benevolent friend and her dad helps her in big bad London. She becomes the quintessential ice queen, keeping men at bay.
Cut to 10 years later. All of a sudden the hero's teen sister finds out about the our run-away heroine and manages to get her back home. This time the hero is staging another engagement ! But he is also running around with a heavy cast on his foot. Courtesy the accident, everyone believes he is sexually frustrated as he is not able to DO IT with his fiancee.
The truth is he hasn't been DOING IT for 12 years !!! He's been waiting for the run away darling to return all along. Not that he puts in too much effort to find her though. She just happens to get back.
Then things progress pretty fast. She takes over duties of housekeeper, cook, surrogate mummy for the guy's sisters. And part time, gets sexual lessons from the hero every time she enters his study with a cup of coffee.
One day when the author decides both have been celibate for long enough, they just get on with finally DOING IT. And realize this was what they were destined for all along.
TA DA, the smart sisters already knew this. And so contrived to bring the pair of them together !!
The hero doesn't do much to keep the readers attention in the story. The heroine is rather too self pitying, for my liking.
Average fare. Could have been a good emotional roller coaster, but flounders in execution. 2 stars.
At 17 years of age, the heroine lusts after her distantly related cousin, 10 years older than her. Apparently, he does too. But never gets around to showing it. Then with some crazy notion of her welfare in mind, he announces to her that he is engaged.
All hell breaks loose, she accuses him of molesting her. Her grandfather comes to mediate, and figures out that she is lying. She leaves home out of shame in the middle of the night.
Then she miraculously finds a benevolent friend and her dad helps her in big bad London. She becomes the quintessential ice queen, keeping men at bay.
Cut to 10 years later. All of a sudden the hero's teen sister finds out about the our run-away heroine and manages to get her back home. This time the hero is staging another engagement ! But he is also running around with a heavy cast on his foot. Courtesy the accident, everyone believes he is sexually frustrated as he is not able to DO IT with his fiancee.
The truth is he hasn't been DOING IT for 12 years !!! He's been waiting for the run away darling to return all along. Not that he puts in too much effort to find her though. She just happens to get back.
Then things progress pretty fast. She takes over duties of housekeeper, cook, surrogate mummy for the guy's sisters. And part time, gets sexual lessons from the hero every time she enters his study with a cup of coffee.
One day when the author decides both have been celibate for long enough, they just get on with finally DOING IT. And realize this was what they were destined for all along.
TA DA, the smart sisters already knew this. And so contrived to bring the pair of them together !!
The hero doesn't do much to keep the readers attention in the story. The heroine is rather too self pitying, for my liking.
Average fare. Could have been a good emotional roller coaster, but flounders in execution. 2 stars.
April 2, 2019
Cute, but VERY dated, romance...
The heroine was a bit too annoying with the self-punishing and guilt, and the guy was overly brooding... I feel like they wasted half their lives (well - 10 years!) over a stupid misunderstanding...
The heroine was a bit too annoying with the self-punishing and guilt, and the guy was overly brooding... I feel like they wasted half their lives (well - 10 years!) over a stupid misunderstanding...
April 3, 2021
Return of the runaway
Ten years ago teenage Maggie fled her home, driven away by her step-cousin Marcus Landersby's cruel rejection after her foolish advances backfired.
Now Maggie returns, reluctantly drawn back by an urgent letter from Marcus's half-sisters who desperately need her help. She's unsure proud tycoon Marcus will tolerate her presence. But even if he does, can Maggie live side by side with a man who inspires such an inconvenient longing?
Ten years ago teenage Maggie fled her home, driven away by her step-cousin Marcus Landersby's cruel rejection after her foolish advances backfired.
Now Maggie returns, reluctantly drawn back by an urgent letter from Marcus's half-sisters who desperately need her help. She's unsure proud tycoon Marcus will tolerate her presence. But even if he does, can Maggie live side by side with a man who inspires such an inconvenient longing?
September 5, 2010
I just find it hard to believe that a man could go 12 years without sex for love. I'm not being cynical and my DH agrees it's not plausible. Suspending belief on that premise, it was a pretty good read.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 9, 2024
Ten years ago teenage Maggie fled her home, driven away by her step-cousin Marcus Landersby's cruel rejection after her foolish advances backfired.
This was a favourite of mine when I read it way back in my teenage years!!
This was a favourite of mine when I read it way back in my teenage years!!
February 7, 2021
It’s a nice read, but the h likes to endulge herself into self-punishment too much. There was too much guilt for a lie that she told 10 years ago when she was 17 and which made the H so angry at her that she ran away from home.
In those 10 years that she was away from home, she did see the messages from the H in newspapers begging her to come back home. She felt ashamed for her lie, so she stayed away despite seeing those messages. This h is a martyr.
The H remained celibate for 12 freaking years because he only wanted the h. But he only told her that at the end of the book.
I like a H who is open about his feelings for the h and about his need to be with the h and who always finds excuses to be near the h. This H is the silent, mysterious type who locks himself up in his room, even though the h lives in his house.
Penny Jordan is a good HP writer, but she should have included more romantic/erotic scenes in the novel with chemistry between them.
There was so much headtalk in the book from the h beating herself up for telling a lie 10 years ago. And her nieces and the OW played too big a part in the book.
It should have been more about the man and the woman. I wanted more romancing, more chemistry, between the man and woman. Only one romantic/erotic scene in the book - and that’s only near the end of the book.
And wasting 10 years from your life because you are afraid to man up (or woman up) and just come back home and apologize for your lie, that is way too long. Life is too short for that.
Her guilt for telling a lie 10 years ago didn’t change her though. She keeps telling lies. To the people in London she lied that she has no family. And more lies from her. Big lies, little lies. She lies so easily. Poor man. He needs to watch out for her lies.
In those 10 years that she was away from home, she did see the messages from the H in newspapers begging her to come back home. She felt ashamed for her lie, so she stayed away despite seeing those messages. This h is a martyr.
The H remained celibate for 12 freaking years because he only wanted the h. But he only told her that at the end of the book.
I like a H who is open about his feelings for the h and about his need to be with the h and who always finds excuses to be near the h. This H is the silent, mysterious type who locks himself up in his room, even though the h lives in his house.
Penny Jordan is a good HP writer, but she should have included more romantic/erotic scenes in the novel with chemistry between them.
There was so much headtalk in the book from the h beating herself up for telling a lie 10 years ago. And her nieces and the OW played too big a part in the book.
It should have been more about the man and the woman. I wanted more romancing, more chemistry, between the man and woman. Only one romantic/erotic scene in the book - and that’s only near the end of the book.
And wasting 10 years from your life because you are afraid to man up (or woman up) and just come back home and apologize for your lie, that is way too long. Life is too short for that.
Her guilt for telling a lie 10 years ago didn’t change her though. She keeps telling lies. To the people in London she lied that she has no family. And more lies from her. Big lies, little lies. She lies so easily. Poor man. He needs to watch out for her lies.
September 17, 2021
The plotting was fine but repetitive. The heroine had NO IDEA that the hero 'loved her forever' because he never gave her a second look in her memory. I don't mind either that the heroine does want to atone for her behavior when she was younger. That might have been a good message to the children she was caring for 'I once tried to take another person's choice away...that isn't love' or something. But she seemed to have no joy. None in her life, like for 12 years she was on pause. Hero claimed the same thing, buuuut I don't know, he was busy living where she grew up taking care of her family because she was too embarrassed to return. And when she comes back boom hero is engaged. Oh and the first engagement she wreck not real...how the heck would she know that? And yes she was obsessed and in love but why not have the grandfather step in 'I know you love each other but I forbid marriage until after college and 2 years' or something. The story seemed convenient, and not really possible, cause humans can speak to each other. And the other woman just a bitch that did very little to the couple. Eh, still a fun read though. Read it but know it's got some problems.
February 9, 2022
She had a huge crush on him years ago. But a devious cousin placed her in a very embarrassing position where she declared her love on the night he was to be engaged to another woman. Now ten years have passed and she finds herself in his presence once again. He has revenge on his mind. She ruined his hope on a marriage of convenience. And he had to struggle to get where he is today. But what happened to her? Will her misdeeds be a constant strain on not just her but will he ever forgive??? This is a cringe worthy read of great proportions. She was too young for him in the beginning and her cousin was not a very good person to use her in the way that she did. This story did have an HEA ending but the way it went about was not a way I enjoyed reading.
January 22, 2023
This one was really fun. I loved the surprise V scene! So so good. The angst didn’t hit me as hard as I wanted it to because it was easy to see that the OW and the H weren’t into each other and that the H was majorly into the h. It was not boring though that’s for sure.
July 31, 2019
Λόγος ύπαρξης...
Want to read
March 7, 2021Λόγος ύπαρξης - Penny Jordan, Συλλογή, 1003
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