What do you think?
Rate this book
Devil in Disguise
Could she convince him of the truth?
Clare Harper arrived in Greece to find Lazar Vardakas accusing her brother of seducing Lazar's young sister. Clare knew it couldn't be true.
Even worse, she learned that to appease his great family pride, Lazar intended to exact like payment from Clare for his sister's seduction.
Fate, however, decreed differently. Strangely, slowly, out of the bizarre situation a new Clare Harper emerged -- a young woman ready to love and be loved....
Clare Harper arrived in Greece to find Lazar Vardakas accusing her brother of seducing Lazar's young sister. Clare knew it couldn't be true.
Even worse, she learned that to appease his great family pride, Lazar intended to exact like payment from Clare for his sister's seduction.
Fate, however, decreed differently. Strangely, slowly, out of the bizarre situation a new Clare Harper emerged -- a young woman ready to love and be loved....
192 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1980
12 people are currently reading
312 people want to read
About the author
Jessica Steele
339 books113 followersJessica Steele was born on May 9, 1933 in the elegant Warwickshire town of Royal Leamington Spa. She has two super brothers, Colin and George, and a lovely sister, Elizabeth. She was a delicate child and missed a lot of school. In fact, she left school at aged 14, when she was diagnosed as having tuberculosis. At 16, she started work as a junior clerk. In 1967, Jessica married with her husband, Peter and within a very short space of time they had moved from her hometown to the lovely area where they now live. Their house is built into the side of a hill, and has beautiful views over more hills and valleys. Her brothers and her sister are very close and she has plenty of nephews and nieces to make up for the fact that she and her husband have no children of their own. Both she and her husband are more than a little dog-oriented, and their current dog is a Staffordshire bull terrier named Florence. Florence is gorgeous. She loves everybody but, since she is 40 pounds of dynamite and would hurl her boisterous self at everyone she meets - given half a chance - she has to be restrained (as much as possible). She is fun.
Her husband spurred Jessica on to her writing career, giving her every support while she did what she considers her five-year apprenticeship (the rejection years) while learning how to write. She published her first books in 1979. Jessica has tried using a typewriter, but it just doesn't work for her. She is much happier writing in longhand, and in actual fact has a dozen or so fountain pens filled and ready to go at the start of any one session. A friend has a secretarial agency and, after deciphering Jessica's writing, returns an immaculately typed manuscript. To gain authentic background for her books, she has travelled and researched in Greece, Russia, Egypt, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Hong Kong, China and Japan.
Her husband spurred Jessica on to her writing career, giving her every support while she did what she considers her five-year apprenticeship (the rejection years) while learning how to write. She published her first books in 1979. Jessica has tried using a typewriter, but it just doesn't work for her. She is much happier writing in longhand, and in actual fact has a dozen or so fountain pens filled and ready to go at the start of any one session. A friend has a secretarial agency and, after deciphering Jessica's writing, returns an immaculately typed manuscript. To gain authentic background for her books, she has travelled and researched in Greece, Russia, Egypt, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Hong Kong, China and Japan.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews
November 23, 2018
Greek hero Lazar Vardakas wants revenge because he believes his sister Sophronia was seduced by Kit Harper and now her reputation is ruined. Lazar is looking to get even by seducing heroine Clare Harper, Kit's sister. (Lazar really wants Clare to willingly come to his bed and seduce him or her brother will suffer the consequences and get hurt.)
Clare can't believe this is happening. Lazar brought her to Greece because he told her that Kit had an accident. Clare was worried out of her mind and she thought Lazar was being kind by offering to take her to Greece. Now he wants revenge...
This was a very enjoyable and entertaining read. Young nineteen-year-old Clare has had a rough past. She was attacked when she was fourteen and this traumatized her so much that she couldn't speak for a year after the attack and she is never left alone at night after dark. Clare was finally trying to become a bit independent by persuading both of her brothers to take a holiday and leave her at home alone (but neither of them knew this or they would never leave her). Clare was a very sweet and lovely heroine. I liked how she finally started to come out of her shell, she even surprised herself at times. She noticed she had a temper, she liked Greece, she wanted to make her own decisions...
Lazar wasn't that nice towards the beginning of the book but he seemed captivated by Clare and started softening his attitude towards her and he eventually started falling for her. He completely changed his attitude towards her when he found out about the attack she suffered when she was fourteen and he was ashamed over how he had acted towards Clare.
A wonderful read with a great Greek setting.
Clare can't believe this is happening. Lazar brought her to Greece because he told her that Kit had an accident. Clare was worried out of her mind and she thought Lazar was being kind by offering to take her to Greece. Now he wants revenge...
This was a very enjoyable and entertaining read. Young nineteen-year-old Clare has had a rough past. She was attacked when she was fourteen and this traumatized her so much that she couldn't speak for a year after the attack and she is never left alone at night after dark. Clare was finally trying to become a bit independent by persuading both of her brothers to take a holiday and leave her at home alone (but neither of them knew this or they would never leave her). Clare was a very sweet and lovely heroine. I liked how she finally started to come out of her shell, she even surprised herself at times. She noticed she had a temper, she liked Greece, she wanted to make her own decisions...
Lazar wasn't that nice towards the beginning of the book but he seemed captivated by Clare and started softening his attitude towards her and he eventually started falling for her. He completely changed his attitude towards her when he found out about the attack she suffered when she was fourteen and he was ashamed over how he had acted towards Clare.
A wonderful read with a great Greek setting.
March 26, 2016
Oh, this was sweet for a revenge story. Heroine was a trembling wreck at the beginning of the story and hero was one at the end. Lovely symmetry!
The story opens with the nineteen year-old heroine urging both of her brothers to go on holiday - one potholing and one to Greece. Her parents are on holiday, too and this is the first time she's going to stay alone. She survives a few nights alone but then comes a knock on the door. A very handsome Greek, the hero, is there to take her to her brother who has had an accident on his island. Heroine is alarmed, but goes along with him only to find when they arrive at his villa that her brother has not had an accident, rather he's being held on the island as revenge for seducing the hero's innocent sister. If heroine doesn't seduce him in a week, her brother will be 'maimed.'
I was a little wary of the heroine's anxiety at the beginning, but she grew on me as her courage grew and then I understood once I got her whole backstory. The hero was the typical alpha until the end when he showed his softer, anxious side. His declaration was very sweet and very romantic. The threats to her brother and the sister's duplicity were firmly swept under the rug at the 2/3 mark, so the ending wasn't hard to buy.
The story opens with the nineteen year-old heroine urging both of her brothers to go on holiday - one potholing and one to Greece. Her parents are on holiday, too and this is the first time she's going to stay alone. She survives a few nights alone but then comes a knock on the door. A very handsome Greek, the hero, is there to take her to her brother who has had an accident on his island. Heroine is alarmed, but goes along with him only to find when they arrive at his villa that her brother has not had an accident, rather he's being held on the island as revenge for seducing the hero's innocent sister. If heroine doesn't seduce him in a week, her brother will be 'maimed.'
I was a little wary of the heroine's anxiety at the beginning, but she grew on me as her courage grew and then I understood once I got her whole backstory. The hero was the typical alpha until the end when he showed his softer, anxious side. His declaration was very sweet and very romantic. The threats to her brother and the sister's duplicity were firmly swept under the rug at the 2/3 mark, so the ending wasn't hard to buy.
August 13, 2023
This makes the third in a trifecta of Harlequins, along with Penny Jordan's Response and Robyn Donald's Wife in Exchange, where the Greek "hero" decides to take revenge on the English man who has supposedly seduced his innocent Greek virgin sister, by in turn seducing that Englishman's sister.
To be honest, all three of the books were pretty cheesy and forgettable. Yes, yes, I know, the cheese is part of the appeal of these deliciously trashy books, but I don't know, this particular trope, in an ocean of stupid tropes, is so very stupid, it does nothing for me *sigh*
What saves this story from being a complete turkey is the fact that the author has managed to create a pretty wonderful, appealing, resilient and dignified character in the person of her female protagonist. I did like her backstory as well as her relationship with her brothers and parents. For once, the heroine is not coming from some broken, tragic family, or from a nest of vipers who abuse her. Heroine's backstory is that she was attacked at the age of fourteen, which traumatized her so much that she lost the power of speech for a year, and even after that, she has lived like an agoraphobe inside the warm, safe cocoon of her home, coddled by her protective parents and siblings. Therefore, when she now is placed in a situation where she has to martyrize herself to save her brother, you can actually empathize with her.
The villainous "hero" lures the naive heroine to his private island under the false pretext that her brother is badly hurt and she needs to tend him. Because she is forced out of her safe place, she slowly realizes that she is stronger than she has given herself credit for, and as a result, she stands up to the zero-hero quite nicely.
And to give credit to the hero, as stupid and despicable as he is, he actually on the whole ends up treating her with kid gloves then is suitably remorseful when the truth comes out (his horrible sister is a lying succubus, the heroine's brother a good samaritan caught at the wrong place, wrong time, and the heroine is way too good for the likes of this idiot). I still don't like that these two ended up together. She is way too nice, he is still dumb as a post, and the vile sister-in-law gives me the feeling that our poor heroine is in for a lifetime of misery at her hands.
To be honest, all three of the books were pretty cheesy and forgettable. Yes, yes, I know, the cheese is part of the appeal of these deliciously trashy books, but I don't know, this particular trope, in an ocean of stupid tropes, is so very stupid, it does nothing for me *sigh*
What saves this story from being a complete turkey is the fact that the author has managed to create a pretty wonderful, appealing, resilient and dignified character in the person of her female protagonist. I did like her backstory as well as her relationship with her brothers and parents. For once, the heroine is not coming from some broken, tragic family, or from a nest of vipers who abuse her. Heroine's backstory is that she was attacked at the age of fourteen, which traumatized her so much that she lost the power of speech for a year, and even after that, she has lived like an agoraphobe inside the warm, safe cocoon of her home, coddled by her protective parents and siblings. Therefore, when she now is placed in a situation where she has to martyrize herself to save her brother, you can actually empathize with her.
The villainous "hero" lures the naive heroine to his private island under the false pretext that her brother is badly hurt and she needs to tend him. Because she is forced out of her safe place, she slowly realizes that she is stronger than she has given herself credit for, and as a result, she stands up to the zero-hero quite nicely.
And to give credit to the hero, as stupid and despicable as he is, he actually on the whole ends up treating her with kid gloves then is suitably remorseful when the truth comes out (his horrible sister is a lying succubus, the heroine's brother a good samaritan caught at the wrong place, wrong time, and the heroine is way too good for the likes of this idiot). I still don't like that these two ended up together. She is way too nice, he is still dumb as a post, and the vile sister-in-law gives me the feeling that our poor heroine is in for a lifetime of misery at her hands.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 18, 2012
I am truly enjoying this author's work. I have to agree with Wilaful, this is one of those books that you are embarrassed to admit that you like.
The storyline and premise are so far-fetched that most people, wouldn't bother to go beyond the back cover. Let's see, you are kidnapped because your brother gets a woman drunk. You are threatened to "perform", or they will beat and maim your brother, yet you still end up loving the guy...Really?
Normally, this type of book would end up a wall banger for me, but somehow it just all really worked. I recommend for those of you that like that angst, and enjoy Jessica Steele's work.
The storyline and premise are so far-fetched that most people, wouldn't bother to go beyond the back cover. Let's see, you are kidnapped because your brother gets a woman drunk. You are threatened to "perform", or they will beat and maim your brother, yet you still end up loving the guy...Really?
Normally, this type of book would end up a wall banger for me, but somehow it just all really worked. I recommend for those of you that like that angst, and enjoy Jessica Steele's work.
August 13, 2023
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ four stars -
I just loved this book. Let’s set aside the fact that this is an older (originally published by Mills and Boon in 1980) book, and focus on the fact that Steele pulled off a well-written story with an emotional punch; all produced within the page restriction count of a severely disciplined, old-school mass market romance.
This story tugged on my heartstrings, and I just adored that aspect. The heroine is sweet, heartfelt, and she’s a victim of a violent crime. Her emotions translated well into print; via Steele’s storytelling skill, and I just loved this heartwarming touch. Sometimes you just need a good cry, and this story delivered it for me. As someone who has an overabundance of sensitivity, I appreciated the heroine’s background story centered around her attack.
Trigger warning: anyone that is affected by emotions concerning assault, sexual assault (implied, but not realized), and the emotions of victims, should approach this story with caution. The author writes a limited description of the attack, but the warning comes more from the intense emotion this reader felt; which I’m attributing to Steele’s skill as an author conveying the display of emotion.
While the bulk of the story is old-fashioned (long-lost cultural mores abound of females as helpless persons), I, for one, appreciated that aspect. Especially since the plot is focused on our heroine’s recovery from a traumatic event in her life. Maybe it’s old-fashioned to want to be taken care of, I don’t know, but I love it when our heroines feel cared for, cherished, and loved. This is what I want to read in romance, and it’s all here in this short, little book; page after page of old-fashioned, old-school romantic drama, and I just devoured it.
I especially loved the scene where our heroine goes to a library to research what our Hero had told her at their parting. He, being overcome with emotion (yes!!), spoke to her in Greek. She’s heartbroken, and all alone back in England, and she must know what he said to her! Her pulling out volumes and working out translations just tickled me pink. I’m such a little library nerd 🤓. I loved her whole literary sleuthing! More of that, please.
The meat of the story is centered around out of date courting customs, and our mc’s do not physically consummate their love. The enjoyment of this story is more for the sheer romantic aspect of the whole thing, at least for this reader. The payoff at the grand finale comes in the form of the entrance of our Hero’s parents (off page), with the explanation from our H that the whole entourage will be taking off from Greece for England, where our Hero can meet with the h’s father to ask for her hand in marriage. Just - *sigh - this is what I live for - LOVE!! There will then be an engagement party and a wedding within the next week! The romance just gets me! I was so thrilled with the whole thing.
This book is the catalyst for my new “HQ-M-and-B-keeper-shelf”, and gets the honor of shelf creation; I just loved it that much.
Highly recommend for my fellow old-school HQ romance (and M&B) readers. This is a good one you’ll want to pick up when you’re in the mood for easy-to-read, well-written, emotional romance. 💗💗
Four solid stars (one star left off due to the inherent publishing constraints - some will say it’s not fair to do this, but it’s my rating scale 💁♀️).
I just loved this book. Let’s set aside the fact that this is an older (originally published by Mills and Boon in 1980) book, and focus on the fact that Steele pulled off a well-written story with an emotional punch; all produced within the page restriction count of a severely disciplined, old-school mass market romance.
This story tugged on my heartstrings, and I just adored that aspect. The heroine is sweet, heartfelt, and she’s a victim of a violent crime. Her emotions translated well into print; via Steele’s storytelling skill, and I just loved this heartwarming touch. Sometimes you just need a good cry, and this story delivered it for me. As someone who has an overabundance of sensitivity, I appreciated the heroine’s background story centered around her attack.
Trigger warning: anyone that is affected by emotions concerning assault, sexual assault (implied, but not realized), and the emotions of victims, should approach this story with caution. The author writes a limited description of the attack, but the warning comes more from the intense emotion this reader felt; which I’m attributing to Steele’s skill as an author conveying the display of emotion.
While the bulk of the story is old-fashioned (long-lost cultural mores abound of females as helpless persons), I, for one, appreciated that aspect. Especially since the plot is focused on our heroine’s recovery from a traumatic event in her life. Maybe it’s old-fashioned to want to be taken care of, I don’t know, but I love it when our heroines feel cared for, cherished, and loved. This is what I want to read in romance, and it’s all here in this short, little book; page after page of old-fashioned, old-school romantic drama, and I just devoured it.
I especially loved the scene where our heroine goes to a library to research what our Hero had told her at their parting. He, being overcome with emotion (yes!!), spoke to her in Greek. She’s heartbroken, and all alone back in England, and she must know what he said to her! Her pulling out volumes and working out translations just tickled me pink. I’m such a little library nerd 🤓. I loved her whole literary sleuthing! More of that, please.
The meat of the story is centered around out of date courting customs, and our mc’s do not physically consummate their love. The enjoyment of this story is more for the sheer romantic aspect of the whole thing, at least for this reader. The payoff at the grand finale comes in the form of the entrance of our Hero’s parents (off page), with the explanation from our H that the whole entourage will be taking off from Greece for England, where our Hero can meet with the h’s father to ask for her hand in marriage. Just - *sigh - this is what I live for - LOVE!! There will then be an engagement party and a wedding within the next week! The romance just gets me! I was so thrilled with the whole thing.
This book is the catalyst for my new “HQ-M-and-B-keeper-shelf”, and gets the honor of shelf creation; I just loved it that much.
Highly recommend for my fellow old-school HQ romance (and M&B) readers. This is a good one you’ll want to pick up when you’re in the mood for easy-to-read, well-written, emotional romance. 💗💗
Four solid stars (one star left off due to the inherent publishing constraints - some will say it’s not fair to do this, but it’s my rating scale 💁♀️).
December 1, 2019
"Devil In Disguise" is the story of Clare and Lazar.
In a sweet tale of vengeance, our sheltered and traumatized h is kidnapped by the H for the purpose of consensual retribution. However, as secrets are revealed, sweet love blooms in a secluded island of Greece..
I really enjoyed the dark yet caring nature of the H, and even though he wanted to exact revenge, it was not at the cost of his morals and the h's permission. The h was this cute, scared, adorably naive belle, who needed to be protected at all cost.
One extra star for a courteous hero who completely respected the heroine's decision to say NO.
Safe
4/5
In a sweet tale of vengeance, our sheltered and traumatized h is kidnapped by the H for the purpose of consensual retribution. However, as secrets are revealed, sweet love blooms in a secluded island of Greece..
I really enjoyed the dark yet caring nature of the H, and even though he wanted to exact revenge, it was not at the cost of his morals and the h's permission. The h was this cute, scared, adorably naive belle, who needed to be protected at all cost.
One extra star for a courteous hero who completely respected the heroine's decision to say NO.
Safe
4/5
July 15, 2016
This book was amazing. ♥️♥️♥️ Cannot describe how much I loved it.
So deliciously full of angst and pain and agony ♥️
The H was so horribly cruel, and then so tender and gentle and sacrificing, and the h was just perfect, with her shyness.
So deliciously full of angst and pain and agony ♥️
The H was so horribly cruel, and then so tender and gentle and sacrificing, and the h was just perfect, with her shyness.
December 11, 2013
This was a wtf/trainwreck rec. But actually in the world of HP Greek tycoons, this guy was fairly tame. well written and fairly engaging, but not too memorable or a OTT wtf fest (which I wanted).
October 10, 2015
Aww sweet, angsty, old-fashioned romance with an alpha but kind hero and a shy heroine who is so cute, i want to put her in my pocket!
July 19, 2017
A typical Jessica Steele with an approximate ability to rouse your emotions to an angsty weepy pitch but still having an almost underdeveloped feel to it which you easily ignore as you are having too much fun shedding few tears with clockwork precision as and when the author finagles you to! Ms Steele is one of those authors I just can’t not read and so love her innocent-abroad hs!
*Spoilers Ahead*
The plot/trope is typical fun one- one of my favorite ones- an innocent virginal h tricked into going to Greece with the hero where he intends to extract revenge on her brother by seducing her as he believes the brother had tricked and seduced the H’s sister- all Greek honor/vendetta shindig. So it’s one of those you hafta-do-me-or-else with the else translating into I-will-break-all-of-your-brother’s-useless-bones but with a caveat that you have to come to my room and do the honors! Now the poor girl is suitably horrified but for more reasons than one as she has had a traumatic experience as a schoolgirl and so had been protected and cosseted by her family since.
After initial growling and ominous threatenings of things to come, the H inadvertently becomes a catalyst for her healing and coming to terms with her past. And also as sometime along he realizes the truth behind her petrified reactions, he becomes very gentle and caring. So it was all sweet and poignant and awwwish thereon…and you feel sweetly blissful and at the same time quietly had as the writing contrives to heighten the angst level here and there but you play along as it is sweetly blissful as I just said! Lol!
Thankfully there were no great forced seduction/oh-I’m-so-irresistible grabbing scenes. The threats were more verbal than physical so no big grovelling was required from him (for me as the reader!) and the ending was very satisfyingly sweet and not as protracted as in some JS books.
*Spoilers Ahead*
The plot/trope is typical fun one- one of my favorite ones- an innocent virginal h tricked into going to Greece with the hero where he intends to extract revenge on her brother by seducing her as he believes the brother had tricked and seduced the H’s sister- all Greek honor/vendetta shindig. So it’s one of those you hafta-do-me-or-else with the else translating into I-will-break-all-of-your-brother’s-useless-bones but with a caveat that you have to come to my room and do the honors! Now the poor girl is suitably horrified but for more reasons than one as she has had a traumatic experience as a schoolgirl and so had been protected and cosseted by her family since.
After initial growling and ominous threatenings of things to come, the H inadvertently becomes a catalyst for her healing and coming to terms with her past. And also as sometime along he realizes the truth behind her petrified reactions, he becomes very gentle and caring. So it was all sweet and poignant and awwwish thereon…and you feel sweetly blissful and at the same time quietly had as the writing contrives to heighten the angst level here and there but you play along as it is sweetly blissful as I just said! Lol!
Thankfully there were no great forced seduction/oh-I’m-so-irresistible grabbing scenes. The threats were more verbal than physical so no big grovelling was required from him (for me as the reader!) and the ending was very satisfyingly sweet and not as protracted as in some JS books.
April 14, 2010
One of those romances it's embarrassing to admit you enjoyed. Delicate flower Clare is abducted by a vengeful Greek, but he feels differently when he discovers she's been traumatized in the past. Not the best writing, but an entertaining story, with lots of passion and emotion. Just park your feminist sensibilities and reasoning ability at the door.
July 20, 2015
I love how British author Jessica Steele creates conflict in her heroes, who can be ruthless. Then they end up loving the very one they despised and distrusted. Sometimes they even grovel a little -- as does the devil in this very book.
I tagged this book "holiday" because the ending takes place over the Christmas holiday. However, the seasonal festivities play only a minor (but critical) role.
As the cover depicts, Devil in Disguise is set mainly in Greece, even though it begins in England. Wealthy Lazar Vardakis came knocking on Clare's middle-class English door, begging her to come quickly to Greece to tend to her suffering (perhaps dying) brother. She came willingly, but once on Greek soil, behind closed and locked doors, Lazar showed his true intention. It's pretty ugly, too.
Claire is terrified of Lazar -- of all men, due to getting attacked and nearly molested when she was 14 -- but she found the courage to do what was necessary to save her brother. She agreed to the unthinkable. (Steele did a decent job portraying her fear. I felt for Claire.)
All kinds of tension came to a simmer until everything exploded and all hell broke lose for poor Lazar. The saving grace was that he'd been kind and teasing with Claire during her stay (kind but threatening, oddly enough).
Maybe being forced to leave her safe home had a silver lining, because Claire found her feet, her spine, and even her heart, blossoming into a passionate and courageous young woman, overcoming the blight of that childhood monster.
Loved the scene at the end, on Christmas Day, where they kiss and make up.
Other books by Steele with grovel scenes:
Intimate Enemies
Devil in disguise (this book)
Tethered Liberty
Pride's Master
Innocent Abroad
Jessica Steele writes Harlequin Romances and some Hqn Presents. She is now about 85 years old, sad to say. Her sentence construction is sometimes ... unusual. But IMO, she is among the best at Hqn in terms of storytelling, dialogue, and sexual tension. Her heroines are virgins, of course, and the wanting drives the heroes nuts.
I tagged this book "holiday" because the ending takes place over the Christmas holiday. However, the seasonal festivities play only a minor (but critical) role.
As the cover depicts, Devil in Disguise is set mainly in Greece, even though it begins in England. Wealthy Lazar Vardakis came knocking on Clare's middle-class English door, begging her to come quickly to Greece to tend to her suffering (perhaps dying) brother. She came willingly, but once on Greek soil, behind closed and locked doors, Lazar showed his true intention. It's pretty ugly, too.
Claire is terrified of Lazar -- of all men, due to getting attacked and nearly molested when she was 14 -- but she found the courage to do what was necessary to save her brother. She agreed to the unthinkable. (Steele did a decent job portraying her fear. I felt for Claire.)
All kinds of tension came to a simmer until everything exploded and all hell broke lose for poor Lazar. The saving grace was that he'd been kind and teasing with Claire during her stay (kind but threatening, oddly enough).
Maybe being forced to leave her safe home had a silver lining, because Claire found her feet, her spine, and even her heart, blossoming into a passionate and courageous young woman, overcoming the blight of that childhood monster.
Loved the scene at the end, on Christmas Day, where they kiss and make up.
Other books by Steele with grovel scenes:
Intimate Enemies
Devil in disguise (this book)
Tethered Liberty
Pride's Master
Innocent Abroad
Jessica Steele writes Harlequin Romances and some Hqn Presents. She is now about 85 years old, sad to say. Her sentence construction is sometimes ... unusual. But IMO, she is among the best at Hqn in terms of storytelling, dialogue, and sexual tension. Her heroines are virgins, of course, and the wanting drives the heroes nuts.
July 14, 2018
Seems I like this one better the second time around. Upping my rating to 4.5 stars.
August 17, 2017
If you can get past the badly-written first couple chapters of the book, you may enjoy this one.
Clare our young heroine, was attacked viciously (not sexual) when she was 14 that has left her traumatised. She lives with her parents and two older brothers and at 19, she feels guilty of being a burden and is also a little tired of their over-protectiveness. Her parents are away on vacation and with one brother, Kit holidaying in Athens (hint on what’s coming), she manages to convince her last remaining keeper, the other brother, to take off on his much-needed getaway and leave her home alone.
A handsome, sexy, smooth-talking Greek businessman, Lazar, comes a-knocking and informs her that her brother was injured while on his island and needs her help. This part I had trouble with: that a girl who has been attacked would go off with a stranger to a foreign country without checking his dubious story. It was far-fetched even for HP Land. She had no more sense than a child being offered candy before being pulled into a van.
Later she is told the “truth”. Her brother Kit had taken advantage of Lazar’s sister after intoxicating her with drinks. In keeping with the rules of HP Greek mythology, this is a huge no-no and the sister is now ruined for marriage so Lazar must seek revenge in a similar vein. Kit will know what it’s like to have his sister “ruined” by another man but with a little twist. Clare has to be the one to seduce Lazar of her own accord within a week or Kit will be maimed. Clare is in a completer flounder. She’s no seductress, has zero ideas on how to make a man sexually happy and has her past trauma to contend with where she stutters and freezes in terror if a man gets within inches of her.
It has been a while since I put a hero in my needs-blowjob-from-a-shark category and I thought surely Lazar was going to be placed ahead of the queue but I was wrong. Once he finds out with some gentle coaxing of her traumatic attack, he does a complete turnaround from dipshit to tender-hearted gentleman. He is protective and starts looking after her while teasingly expecting her to seduce him. Their first time kiss scene was just too cute.
Clare grew on me after a while so I enjoyed how they fell in love. Her growing independence and courage to face her past and how she had to be in charge of her HEA was an interesting read. Though it did feel a little like a teenage sweetheart romance novel interspersed with a Bollywood style older brother yelling don’t-touch-my-sister.
I was looking for more sex so I was disappointed when there was none. (Only in a book review can you get away with saying that) It would have been nice to see some descriptions of Clare’s first sexual experience. But still, not a bad read, quite nice.
Clare our young heroine, was attacked viciously (not sexual) when she was 14 that has left her traumatised. She lives with her parents and two older brothers and at 19, she feels guilty of being a burden and is also a little tired of their over-protectiveness. Her parents are away on vacation and with one brother, Kit holidaying in Athens (hint on what’s coming), she manages to convince her last remaining keeper, the other brother, to take off on his much-needed getaway and leave her home alone.
A handsome, sexy, smooth-talking Greek businessman, Lazar, comes a-knocking and informs her that her brother was injured while on his island and needs her help. This part I had trouble with: that a girl who has been attacked would go off with a stranger to a foreign country without checking his dubious story. It was far-fetched even for HP Land. She had no more sense than a child being offered candy before being pulled into a van.
Later she is told the “truth”. Her brother Kit had taken advantage of Lazar’s sister after intoxicating her with drinks. In keeping with the rules of HP Greek mythology, this is a huge no-no and the sister is now ruined for marriage so Lazar must seek revenge in a similar vein. Kit will know what it’s like to have his sister “ruined” by another man but with a little twist. Clare has to be the one to seduce Lazar of her own accord within a week or Kit will be maimed. Clare is in a completer flounder. She’s no seductress, has zero ideas on how to make a man sexually happy and has her past trauma to contend with where she stutters and freezes in terror if a man gets within inches of her.
It has been a while since I put a hero in my needs-blowjob-from-a-shark category and I thought surely Lazar was going to be placed ahead of the queue but I was wrong. Once he finds out with some gentle coaxing of her traumatic attack, he does a complete turnaround from dipshit to tender-hearted gentleman. He is protective and starts looking after her while teasingly expecting her to seduce him. Their first time kiss scene was just too cute.
Clare grew on me after a while so I enjoyed how they fell in love. Her growing independence and courage to face her past and how she had to be in charge of her HEA was an interesting read. Though it did feel a little like a teenage sweetheart romance novel interspersed with a Bollywood style older brother yelling don’t-touch-my-sister.
I was looking for more sex so I was disappointed when there was none. (Only in a book review can you get away with saying that) It would have been nice to see some descriptions of Clare’s first sexual experience. But still, not a bad read, quite nice.
January 15, 2021
Re-read today because the last time (in recent times) I was too zoned out to make it to the end.
Clare lives a sheltered life with her family and doesn’t even attend school or keep a job. She instead helps her mother around the house with chores and keeps busy that way.
One weekend Clare is left alone to tend to herself in circumstances she manipulates herself. Clare feels guilty that her family must arrange their social life around a babysitting schedule dedicated to her. Clare can’t be left alone ever. I didn’t realize where this was headed at that point.
Incidentally there’s a mishap and Clare meets the H who takes her to Greece where Clare‘s brother has gotten into a tough spot with the H. The H thinks Clare’s brother seduced the H’s virginal sister and so now sheltered little miss Clare must pay back the same dues.
As expected, the H is gentlemanly and kind. Clare is a shrieking miss who faints if a man touches her. You can put two and two together now.. but I wasn’t convinced. Clare was a little too sickly for my liking her. The H, Lazar was nice and the book picked up nice with him telling Clare to make the move on him but Clare was like a wet paper towel all the time. Sickly, prone to fainting, crying, shrieking, childish and lost and confused and etc.
The monologues were suicidal. No repeat tries from this author atm.
Clare lives a sheltered life with her family and doesn’t even attend school or keep a job. She instead helps her mother around the house with chores and keeps busy that way.
One weekend Clare is left alone to tend to herself in circumstances she manipulates herself. Clare feels guilty that her family must arrange their social life around a babysitting schedule dedicated to her. Clare can’t be left alone ever. I didn’t realize where this was headed at that point.
Incidentally there’s a mishap and Clare meets the H who takes her to Greece where Clare‘s brother has gotten into a tough spot with the H. The H thinks Clare’s brother seduced the H’s virginal sister and so now sheltered little miss Clare must pay back the same dues.
As expected, the H is gentlemanly and kind. Clare is a shrieking miss who faints if a man touches her. You can put two and two together now.. but I wasn’t convinced. Clare was a little too sickly for my liking her. The H, Lazar was nice and the book picked up nice with him telling Clare to make the move on him but Clare was like a wet paper towel all the time. Sickly, prone to fainting, crying, shrieking, childish and lost and confused and etc.
The monologues were suicidal. No repeat tries from this author atm.
January 3, 2023
cw: kidnapping, trauma from attempted sexual assault
This one is pretty good! I love revenge stories and this one is pretty much on the safe side of the spectrum. The hero plans to “ravish” the heroine after he is led to believe that her brother took advantage of his own sister. He takes her, but is surprisingly respectful of her boundaries given that this is a vintage Harlequin Presents. He makes it clear that he will NOT be raping her, and that she is going to be the one to come to him willingly. The heroine was a victim of an attempted rape and we see her growing more comfortable with the hero. After the assault she became terrified of men so she was more introverted and wore her clothes more conservatively. Her time with the hero is a time in which she starts coming out of her shell. It’s a great story, with kissing lessons and a heartfelt reunion… I definitely enjoyed it!
This one is pretty good! I love revenge stories and this one is pretty much on the safe side of the spectrum. The hero plans to “ravish” the heroine after he is led to believe that her brother took advantage of his own sister. He takes her, but is surprisingly respectful of her boundaries given that this is a vintage Harlequin Presents. He makes it clear that he will NOT be raping her, and that she is going to be the one to come to him willingly. The heroine was a victim of an attempted rape and we see her growing more comfortable with the hero. After the assault she became terrified of men so she was more introverted and wore her clothes more conservatively. Her time with the hero is a time in which she starts coming out of her shell. It’s a great story, with kissing lessons and a heartfelt reunion… I definitely enjoyed it!
December 23, 2019
Oh, Jessica Steele. How I've missed you. This h is the equivalent of a wounded, trusting little kitten who has fallen into the hands of a vivisectionist. She is completely outmatched, except for the fact that the H is completely thwarted by how sweet and vulnerable this h is, and all his plans change.
I'd give this 2.5 stars, but it could be a good comfort read for someone who likes damsel-in-distress h's.
I'd give this 2.5 stars, but it could be a good comfort read for someone who likes damsel-in-distress h's.
October 30, 2024
If you get over the silly premise / ridiculous hero's plan it a fun read. I like the authors way of writing its easy to read, fast and flows. The characters are likeable.
On another note: How did 70s authors go about adding foreign languages to their books? As usual 90% of words -even names- used are wrong but here we had novel pleasure of our Greek Hero referring to the heroine using male adjectives. Our hero addressing the heroine as if she is a man just adds to that romance!
On another note: How did 70s authors go about adding foreign languages to their books? As usual 90% of words -even names- used are wrong but here we had novel pleasure of our Greek Hero referring to the heroine using male adjectives. Our hero addressing the heroine as if she is a man just adds to that romance!
March 3, 2023
Good hp very vintage with a ptsd.
The heroine suffers from ptsd since she was attacked by a stranger when she was 13. She’s been very protected and sheltered by all her relatives and at 19 she’s got the experience of a 13 yo, and she’s still afraid of men and people.
She really needs therapy.
The hero kidnaps her brother because his niece told everyone that he seduces her and since they’re are Greek and it’s 50 years ago, they seek revenge and he wants her virtue in exchange for her brother’s freedom.
Either she has sex with him or the Greek relatives will beat the shit out of her brother.
So he takes her to a Greek island where he threatens to seduce her but soon he realizes there’s something wrong with her. She’s too afraid of him.
This is one of the few JS where the hero actually is able to add two and two and to realize she’s had a bad experience with men so he makes a turnover and decides not to go on with his vengeance plan, before knowing that her brother is really innocent and didn’t seduce his niece.
And he falls in love with the heroine knowing that she’s damaged- psychologically and emotionally.
The heroine will be the one to go back to him and to tell him she trust him and she’s not afraid of men anymore.
So magic pen of our hero will heal all her trauma - I wish.
Anyway it’s a good story with a not so cruel hero and a virginal - almost ghostly- heroine.
Many prejudices aside - against those poor Greek people, against women who have sex before marriage and whatever- I enjoyed the book.
The heroine suffers from ptsd since she was attacked by a stranger when she was 13. She’s been very protected and sheltered by all her relatives and at 19 she’s got the experience of a 13 yo, and she’s still afraid of men and people.
She really needs therapy.
The hero kidnaps her brother because his niece told everyone that he seduces her and since they’re are Greek and it’s 50 years ago, they seek revenge and he wants her virtue in exchange for her brother’s freedom.
Either she has sex with him or the Greek relatives will beat the shit out of her brother.
So he takes her to a Greek island where he threatens to seduce her but soon he realizes there’s something wrong with her. She’s too afraid of him.
This is one of the few JS where the hero actually is able to add two and two and to realize she’s had a bad experience with men so he makes a turnover and decides not to go on with his vengeance plan, before knowing that her brother is really innocent and didn’t seduce his niece.
And he falls in love with the heroine knowing that she’s damaged- psychologically and emotionally.
The heroine will be the one to go back to him and to tell him she trust him and she’s not afraid of men anymore.
So magic pen of our hero will heal all her trauma - I wish.
Anyway it’s a good story with a not so cruel hero and a virginal - almost ghostly- heroine.
Many prejudices aside - against those poor Greek people, against women who have sex before marriage and whatever- I enjoyed the book.
August 18, 2021
I do adore a good vintage avenging hero who loses his way because the h gets under his skin with her innocent ways.
Hero- (Lazar, mid/late 30’s)His sister has been wronged and sullied. They have the man who has wronged her(the h’s brother). It’s eye for an eye time. The hero brings the h to Greece under false pretenses(so basically kidnaps her) and once there tells her if she doesn’t want her brother physically maimed for his effrontery to his sister then she will need to succumb to him. He won’t force her, but she has a week to make it to his bedroom to prevent the maiming. Basically, he picked the absolute worse person to do this to, because our heroine has brought along a bag of trauma with her.
Heroine-(Clare, 19) She is pure innocence. Her family consisting of parents and 2 brothers, have wrapped her up snuggly in a bubble wrap of love.
There is good reason for her being so protected. She is afraid of the dark and has nightmares of being attacked. Basically, since our h has been cosseted since the tender age of 14, she is kind of stuck in that age as far as life experiences go.
Her parents go away for the first holiday in years and her older brothers are there to keep eye on her. Our h is starting to feel like it may be time to address her demons and branch out. So essentially she misleads the brothers so that they will go on their holiday. The brothers each believe that 1 of them is there to watch over her so each go their own way. She spends 2 nights alone in the house and then there is a knocking at the door. Our hero has come to talk to her brother, because Kit her other brother has had an accident in Greece. Since her brother isn’t there, she goes with the hero, on his plane to Greece to see her brother and tend to him. Once in Greece, the hero tells her the truth that they have the brother, and she needs to pay the price. She tells him that there is no way her brother harmed his sister, but that just makes him angrier because his sister would not lie.
So as the romance unfolds, we see not only a young woman who has to face her past trauma, but also that of a 14 year old scared girl who has the body of and the new unfamiliar yearnings of a young woman.
Our H picks up pretty quickly that our h doesn’t want and is scared of male attention. She shows it in the way she dresses(described as shapeless tents) and her wild reactions to any touch. When he finds she didn’t bring a swimsuit, he bought her 2(a bikini and conservative 1 piece). Plus he bought her lipstick to keep her lips from drying out. They begin to have some shared moments of conversation and he handles her with kid gloves. When she finally decides to don the 1 piece, she looks at her body for the first time. When she goes to the beach and sees the H she covertly looks at him as well.
They have a couple of incidences at the beach. The first one that happens has the h screaming and clawing wildly, reliving trauma. This was early on. The 2nd time, the h is relaxed with and curious about the hero. She asks the hero to kiss her. He refuses. He insists that all interactions need to be started by her. So she kisses him, and he teaches her how to kiss then things ramp up to some touching. When he touches her breast she runs away from him. Yet this time her reasoning has more to do with the unknown feelings she is experiencing. She ends up having one of her hellacious nightmares and finally tells the hero her past trauma. The hero is enraged for her. This officially ends his quest for retribution(although I think he was already against it).
Brother and sister get reunited. The matters get cleared up with the H’s sister. The H meets with the brother privately. Then leaves. The h and her brother go to the airport and the H catches up to her. He talks to her fervently in Greek looking torn up. She gets on the plane and wonders what it was all about.
Life resumes in England. She isn’t having nightmares. She closes her door at night. She even went on a few dates but it didn’t feel right because it wasn’t the H. She looks up the words the H said to her when she was in Greece which loosely translate to my heart, but then she finds out even more about the meeting the brother and the H had in Greece.
Once the h hears what her brother has to say, she writes to the H. She doesn’t hear from him(it has been months since she was in Greece) Then, right before Christmas Eve he calls her and asks her to fly to him and spend Christmas with him. He will have a car pick her up at her home. Our little h is all grown up now. She throws caution to the wind, tells her mom she is going to Greece. Once in Greece we see an H who is a shadow of his former self. He can’t believe she actually came and that she loves him. He invited his parents over(just in case) to meet her. He then said they will fly to England the next day so he can ask for her hand properly, and that they will be married before the New Year.
I know that this hero will be very good to the h. He definitely would never let an ow or evil in-laws mess with her. She fell in love with Greece when she was there and she and the H got along well together touring the ruins etc…, Her family will have a great place to visit! I believe the H will be a good lover and teacher to the h showing her the wonders of the world and leaving those bad memories far far behind.
Hero- (Lazar, mid/late 30’s)His sister has been wronged and sullied. They have the man who has wronged her(the h’s brother). It’s eye for an eye time. The hero brings the h to Greece under false pretenses(so basically kidnaps her) and once there tells her if she doesn’t want her brother physically maimed for his effrontery to his sister then she will need to succumb to him. He won’t force her, but she has a week to make it to his bedroom to prevent the maiming. Basically, he picked the absolute worse person to do this to, because our heroine has brought along a bag of trauma with her.
Heroine-(Clare, 19) She is pure innocence. Her family consisting of parents and 2 brothers, have wrapped her up snuggly in a bubble wrap of love.
There is good reason for her being so protected. She is afraid of the dark and has nightmares of being attacked. Basically, since our h has been cosseted since the tender age of 14, she is kind of stuck in that age as far as life experiences go.
Her parents go away for the first holiday in years and her older brothers are there to keep eye on her. Our h is starting to feel like it may be time to address her demons and branch out. So essentially she misleads the brothers so that they will go on their holiday. The brothers each believe that 1 of them is there to watch over her so each go their own way. She spends 2 nights alone in the house and then there is a knocking at the door. Our hero has come to talk to her brother, because Kit her other brother has had an accident in Greece. Since her brother isn’t there, she goes with the hero, on his plane to Greece to see her brother and tend to him. Once in Greece, the hero tells her the truth that they have the brother, and she needs to pay the price. She tells him that there is no way her brother harmed his sister, but that just makes him angrier because his sister would not lie.
So as the romance unfolds, we see not only a young woman who has to face her past trauma, but also that of a 14 year old scared girl who has the body of and the new unfamiliar yearnings of a young woman.
Our H picks up pretty quickly that our h doesn’t want and is scared of male attention. She shows it in the way she dresses(described as shapeless tents) and her wild reactions to any touch. When he finds she didn’t bring a swimsuit, he bought her 2(a bikini and conservative 1 piece). Plus he bought her lipstick to keep her lips from drying out. They begin to have some shared moments of conversation and he handles her with kid gloves. When she finally decides to don the 1 piece, she looks at her body for the first time. When she goes to the beach and sees the H she covertly looks at him as well.
They have a couple of incidences at the beach. The first one that happens has the h screaming and clawing wildly, reliving trauma. This was early on. The 2nd time, the h is relaxed with and curious about the hero. She asks the hero to kiss her. He refuses. He insists that all interactions need to be started by her. So she kisses him, and he teaches her how to kiss then things ramp up to some touching. When he touches her breast she runs away from him. Yet this time her reasoning has more to do with the unknown feelings she is experiencing. She ends up having one of her hellacious nightmares and finally tells the hero her past trauma. The hero is enraged for her. This officially ends his quest for retribution(although I think he was already against it).
Brother and sister get reunited. The matters get cleared up with the H’s sister. The H meets with the brother privately. Then leaves. The h and her brother go to the airport and the H catches up to her. He talks to her fervently in Greek looking torn up. She gets on the plane and wonders what it was all about.
Life resumes in England. She isn’t having nightmares. She closes her door at night. She even went on a few dates but it didn’t feel right because it wasn’t the H. She looks up the words the H said to her when she was in Greece which loosely translate to my heart, but then she finds out even more about the meeting the brother and the H had in Greece.
Once the h hears what her brother has to say, she writes to the H. She doesn’t hear from him(it has been months since she was in Greece) Then, right before Christmas Eve he calls her and asks her to fly to him and spend Christmas with him. He will have a car pick her up at her home. Our little h is all grown up now. She throws caution to the wind, tells her mom she is going to Greece. Once in Greece we see an H who is a shadow of his former self. He can’t believe she actually came and that she loves him. He invited his parents over(just in case) to meet her. He then said they will fly to England the next day so he can ask for her hand properly, and that they will be married before the New Year.
I know that this hero will be very good to the h. He definitely would never let an ow or evil in-laws mess with her. She fell in love with Greece when she was there and she and the H got along well together touring the ruins etc…, Her family will have a great place to visit! I believe the H will be a good lover and teacher to the h showing her the wonders of the world and leaving those bad memories far far behind.
August 18, 2023
I'd say a 3.5 because it's a sweet, well written story in which protected, ptsd suffering, innocent h, Clare, overcomes her trauma through the love of a diabolically handsome, properly moral Greek tycoon, Lazar. She's kidnapped in revenge for the supposed sexual dalliance of her beloved, protective brother Kit with Lazar's little sister. I mean, totally daft really but has some lovely moments eg when he teaches her to swim and to kiss. If you like an innocent virginal h and a no sex before marriage HP then there's a lot to like in this.
April 19, 2016
4 Stars ~ Clare's 19 years old and finally recovering emotionally from a brutal attack when she was 14. It's her growing self-confidence that finds her totally alone in her home for the first time. When the tall dark Greek comes to the door looking for her father with news that her brother, Kit has had an accident, Clare hesitates only briefly before letting him into their home. She's astounded when next she finds herself pleading with the Greek, to take her to Kit. Little does she know she's fallen into Lazar's plan to reap some feudal justice for a wrong Clare's brother has done to his sister. Arriving at his Villa, Clare quickly learns the truth, that Kit hasn't been in an accident and that Lazar intends to have from her what Kit seduced from his sister. Clare has one week only to come willing to Lazar's bed, or Kit will be beaten, probably left maimed for life.
I had to remember that this book was published in 1981 while reading the over-the-top scenario Ms. Steeles created. Clare struggles to strengthen her self-confidence and she's amazed with her own reactions to Lazar, a virile man who doesn't hide he desires her. She should be cowering and fearful of attack, and yet, something about Lazar tells her that she's safe with him. Lazar is furious and outraged that Clare's brother had drunkenly seduced his sister, and he means to have revenge for her dishonour. His anger at first blinds him, and he believes Clare to be as permissive as other English girls her age. Only Clare doesn't act like a modern girl, dressing in clothes three times too large to hide her feminine curves, and is obviously nervous whenever he comes near her. Clare's not afraid but she is tremendously shy, and Lazar makes her feel alive and when he kisses her she craves for more. She reacts to her own desires with shock and Lazar misreads it that she's terrified of him. It's then that he insists she tell him why she's afraid of men, and Clare finds herself for the first time able to tell what had happened to her. Though not raped, her beating was severe, the shock of it had stolen her voice for over a year. And when Clare has a nightmare that night of her attack, Lazar fully comes to understand how deep Clare's fears may be. He also realizes that the way her family had protected her all these years, there was something wrong with his sister's accusations on Clare's brother. Kit's released after Sophronia admitted she lied, and he and Clare return to England. It's only later that Clare learns that Lazar had told Kit he wanted to marry her, but Kit had told him that he need not feel honour bound to do so, and that the doctor had told their family years ago that Clare would probably never be able to marry, let alone have a real relationship with a man
This is an angsty read with some rather interesting twists and turns. We have Clare the jittering nervous heroine at the beginning evolving into a more confident and assured young woman by the end. And our virile arrogant Greek gets knocked down a few pegs and he becomes the nervous hero uncertain how to approach the woman he loves. The HEA ending was very sweet.
I had to remember that this book was published in 1981 while reading the over-the-top scenario Ms. Steeles created. Clare struggles to strengthen her self-confidence and she's amazed with her own reactions to Lazar, a virile man who doesn't hide he desires her. She should be cowering and fearful of attack, and yet, something about Lazar tells her that she's safe with him. Lazar is furious and outraged that Clare's brother had drunkenly seduced his sister, and he means to have revenge for her dishonour. His anger at first blinds him, and he believes Clare to be as permissive as other English girls her age. Only Clare doesn't act like a modern girl, dressing in clothes three times too large to hide her feminine curves, and is obviously nervous whenever he comes near her. Clare's not afraid but she is tremendously shy, and Lazar makes her feel alive and when he kisses her she craves for more. She reacts to her own desires with shock and Lazar misreads it that she's terrified of him. It's then that he insists she tell him why she's afraid of men, and Clare finds herself for the first time able to tell what had happened to her. Though not raped, her beating was severe, the shock of it had stolen her voice for over a year. And when Clare has a nightmare that night of her attack, Lazar fully comes to understand how deep Clare's fears may be. He also realizes that the way her family had protected her all these years, there was something wrong with his sister's accusations on Clare's brother. Kit's released after Sophronia admitted she lied, and he and Clare return to England. It's only later that Clare learns that Lazar had told Kit he wanted to marry her, but Kit had told him that he need not feel honour bound to do so, and that the doctor had told their family years ago that Clare would probably never be able to marry, let alone have a real relationship with a man
This is an angsty read with some rather interesting twists and turns. We have Clare the jittering nervous heroine at the beginning evolving into a more confident and assured young woman by the end. And our virile arrogant Greek gets knocked down a few pegs and he becomes the nervous hero uncertain how to approach the woman he loves. The HEA ending was very sweet.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 20, 2019
I first read this book about thirty years ago or more, and although I read it again, that was probably about twenty years ago. Some readers may think I shouldn't review a book without having read it more recently, but there are certain things I remember clearly about the book because they bothered me so strongly, which was why I didn't keep my copy and why I feel impelled to leave this review now.
No one else reviewing the book here seems to have noticed that the purported "hero" is such an overbearing scumbag that his sister actually accused an innocent man of seducing and ruining her as a bid to get more freedom in her own life. Some of you might not see what she did as such a big deal, but what her brother tried to do in response could have had life-altering consequences to entirely innocent parties. She couldn't have been that ignorant of what kind of man her brother was, the brother that she herself was trying to escape. She had to have suspected what her brother might do if he got his hands on the innocent man she accused. Why are all the fans of this book ignoring what that says about her level of desperation and what a horrible person Lazar is? Why do they only blame his sister for that?
But even if you can ignore the implications of what Lazar's sister did, what he did on his own was simply unforgivable.
1. Lazar kidnaps an innocent man, holds him prisoner, kidnaps an innocent girl, plans to ruin and shame her, uses threats of violence against her brother to try to force her into having sex with him, and plans to maim the innocent man if the girl doesn't submit to being ruined under those conditions. Lazar does all this on nothing more than the word of a woman who is not only lying to him but who lied in the first place because he's such an overbearing creep she's utterly desperate to get out from under his control. Lazar implicitly believed the sister for whom he clearly has little respect or regard and who clearly does not consider him deserving of the truth, which just goes to show how much of a xenophobe he is. He continues to believe his sister without question until he becomes sweet on the heroine. This is the kind of guy who automatically believes his own kind against the word of the outsider. In other words, he's about as racist as you can get, and if he hadn't started looking on Clare as his or at least as a woman he wanted to be his instead of one of the despised outsiders, her brother would have paid for Lazar's bigotry and prejudice for the rest of his life. This is exactly why vigilante justice is illegal. When people are allowed to dispense what they think is justice in the heat of anger and prejudice, all kinds of horrible, life-altering or life-ending things can happen to entirely innocent people. What you don't get is justice. I don't know how many Greek and international laws Lazar broke with his actions, but that certainly wasn't ethical behavior on his part.
2. No matter what reasons Lazar thought he had to hate Clare's brother, he knew full well that Clare hadn't done anything wrong, and he still kidnapped her and tried to force her to have sex with him by threatening to harm her brother. Even when he was merely planning to seduce Clare, it was with the deliberate intent of ruining her marital prospects and shaming her before the world. That's a pretty nasty thing to try to do to someone who hasn't done a blessed thing wrong to anyone. This is the very definition of injustice: to take revenge by deliberately causing direct harm to an innocent. Any time you punish someone for what someone else did, you are being fundamentally unjust.
3. Lazar tried to rape Clare. He might not have held a gun on her or held her down by physical force, but trying to make someone have sex with you by threatening to maim her brother is rape too. Even Lazar's claim that he planned to seduce Clare rather than rape her is a blatant lie. He told her exactly why he had brought her to Greece long before making a move to seduce her. Clearly, what he called "seduction" was always going to take place under threat of violence against her brother. Even if Lazar didn't explicitly state the threat, it was painfully clear.
4. Lazar's such an arrogant scumbag, he never admits anything he did wrong.
4.1 He never admits that he was wrong to kidnap Clare's brother, kidnap Clare, plan to ruin Clare, threaten to maim Clare's brother if she didn't submit to being raped, and plan to maim Clare's brother if she didn't submit, all on nothing more than the word of a girl who hated and despised him enough to lie to him in order to escape his control. He admits that his sister's lied, but he never examines why she lied to him in the first place. How many innocent lives would he have ruined if he hadn't learned the truth in time? But at no point does he give any indication that he has learned to eschew vigilante "justice", and at no point does he give any indication that he won't be so quick to condemn the next outsider on nothing more than the word of one of his own people.
4.2 He never admits how unjust it was of him to try to punish Clare for what he believed someone else had done. At no point does he give any indication that he has learned not to punish people who didn't actually do anything wrong for someone else's crimes.
4.3 He comes close when he tells his sister that she almost ruined the life of a girl who had already learned that men could be beasts, but he never acknowledges explicitly that he is every bit as much of an attempted rapist as the guy who first attacked Clare. Indeed, he makes it plain that he is pinning all the blame for what he tried to do on his sister's lies.
4.4 A guy who never acknowledges what he did wrong, let alone expresses genuine remorse for his actions, is not going to behave better in the future. Lazar never admits to anything except being mistaken in believing his sister's lies. We know he's sorry for distressing Clare, but that's not the same as admitting that he was in the wrong. Which means that at the end of the book, all indications are that Lazar is still every bit as much of an arrogant, racist, unjust bastard as he was at the beginning and that he would still rape an innocent woman in order to punish her brother without taking the time first to be sure her brother was even guilty.
This book is the only romance novel I can remember reading that showed how traumatic an attack by a rapist can be. Clare was actually saved before she was violated, but even though she was saved, the episode was portrayed as so traumatic that she was still emotionally crippled years later.
Then the same book that shows how emotionally damaging a rape attempt can be follows that up by having the heroine fall for the next guy who tries to rape her. Lazar is every bit as much of a rapist as the guy who hits his victims in the head with a brick first.
Lazar should be no one's idea of a hero, and this story has an abuser's version of romance. It disturbs me that there are so many people who seem unable to recognize this.
No one else reviewing the book here seems to have noticed that the purported "hero" is such an overbearing scumbag that his sister actually accused an innocent man of seducing and ruining her as a bid to get more freedom in her own life. Some of you might not see what she did as such a big deal, but what her brother tried to do in response could have had life-altering consequences to entirely innocent parties. She couldn't have been that ignorant of what kind of man her brother was, the brother that she herself was trying to escape. She had to have suspected what her brother might do if he got his hands on the innocent man she accused. Why are all the fans of this book ignoring what that says about her level of desperation and what a horrible person Lazar is? Why do they only blame his sister for that?
But even if you can ignore the implications of what Lazar's sister did, what he did on his own was simply unforgivable.
1. Lazar kidnaps an innocent man, holds him prisoner, kidnaps an innocent girl, plans to ruin and shame her, uses threats of violence against her brother to try to force her into having sex with him, and plans to maim the innocent man if the girl doesn't submit to being ruined under those conditions. Lazar does all this on nothing more than the word of a woman who is not only lying to him but who lied in the first place because he's such an overbearing creep she's utterly desperate to get out from under his control. Lazar implicitly believed the sister for whom he clearly has little respect or regard and who clearly does not consider him deserving of the truth, which just goes to show how much of a xenophobe he is. He continues to believe his sister without question until he becomes sweet on the heroine. This is the kind of guy who automatically believes his own kind against the word of the outsider. In other words, he's about as racist as you can get, and if he hadn't started looking on Clare as his or at least as a woman he wanted to be his instead of one of the despised outsiders, her brother would have paid for Lazar's bigotry and prejudice for the rest of his life. This is exactly why vigilante justice is illegal. When people are allowed to dispense what they think is justice in the heat of anger and prejudice, all kinds of horrible, life-altering or life-ending things can happen to entirely innocent people. What you don't get is justice. I don't know how many Greek and international laws Lazar broke with his actions, but that certainly wasn't ethical behavior on his part.
2. No matter what reasons Lazar thought he had to hate Clare's brother, he knew full well that Clare hadn't done anything wrong, and he still kidnapped her and tried to force her to have sex with him by threatening to harm her brother. Even when he was merely planning to seduce Clare, it was with the deliberate intent of ruining her marital prospects and shaming her before the world. That's a pretty nasty thing to try to do to someone who hasn't done a blessed thing wrong to anyone. This is the very definition of injustice: to take revenge by deliberately causing direct harm to an innocent. Any time you punish someone for what someone else did, you are being fundamentally unjust.
3. Lazar tried to rape Clare. He might not have held a gun on her or held her down by physical force, but trying to make someone have sex with you by threatening to maim her brother is rape too. Even Lazar's claim that he planned to seduce Clare rather than rape her is a blatant lie. He told her exactly why he had brought her to Greece long before making a move to seduce her. Clearly, what he called "seduction" was always going to take place under threat of violence against her brother. Even if Lazar didn't explicitly state the threat, it was painfully clear.
4. Lazar's such an arrogant scumbag, he never admits anything he did wrong.
4.1 He never admits that he was wrong to kidnap Clare's brother, kidnap Clare, plan to ruin Clare, threaten to maim Clare's brother if she didn't submit to being raped, and plan to maim Clare's brother if she didn't submit, all on nothing more than the word of a girl who hated and despised him enough to lie to him in order to escape his control. He admits that his sister's lied, but he never examines why she lied to him in the first place. How many innocent lives would he have ruined if he hadn't learned the truth in time? But at no point does he give any indication that he has learned to eschew vigilante "justice", and at no point does he give any indication that he won't be so quick to condemn the next outsider on nothing more than the word of one of his own people.
4.2 He never admits how unjust it was of him to try to punish Clare for what he believed someone else had done. At no point does he give any indication that he has learned not to punish people who didn't actually do anything wrong for someone else's crimes.
4.3 He comes close when he tells his sister that she almost ruined the life of a girl who had already learned that men could be beasts, but he never acknowledges explicitly that he is every bit as much of an attempted rapist as the guy who first attacked Clare. Indeed, he makes it plain that he is pinning all the blame for what he tried to do on his sister's lies.
4.4 A guy who never acknowledges what he did wrong, let alone expresses genuine remorse for his actions, is not going to behave better in the future. Lazar never admits to anything except being mistaken in believing his sister's lies. We know he's sorry for distressing Clare, but that's not the same as admitting that he was in the wrong. Which means that at the end of the book, all indications are that Lazar is still every bit as much of an arrogant, racist, unjust bastard as he was at the beginning and that he would still rape an innocent woman in order to punish her brother without taking the time first to be sure her brother was even guilty.
This book is the only romance novel I can remember reading that showed how traumatic an attack by a rapist can be. Clare was actually saved before she was violated, but even though she was saved, the episode was portrayed as so traumatic that she was still emotionally crippled years later.
Then the same book that shows how emotionally damaging a rape attempt can be follows that up by having the heroine fall for the next guy who tries to rape her. Lazar is every bit as much of a rapist as the guy who hits his victims in the head with a brick first.
Lazar should be no one's idea of a hero, and this story has an abuser's version of romance. It disturbs me that there are so many people who seem unable to recognize this.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 13, 2025
A great book.
Tried reviewing on Kindle but keep getting a message that could not post…
This was a typical HQN written many years ago. But typical in a great way having all the elements that call to us to read a vintage Harlequin novel.
Tried reviewing on Kindle but keep getting a message that could not post…
This was a typical HQN written many years ago. But typical in a great way having all the elements that call to us to read a vintage Harlequin novel.
October 18, 2012
Good, older story. Loved the way the hero alternated between claiming he would take revenge on the heroine and taking care of her/being gentle with her.
March 25, 2025
Harmless tale of an anxious heroine (19) who was physically assaulted at 14 and the hero (36ish) she falls for when he carries out a ‘revenge’ plot.
The heroine is lovely and the hero soon falls in love, which improves him.
I quite enjoy the revenge plots in foreign places - no need to worry about reality, it’s just cute. He’s quite hot, too.
4 stars from me.
The heroine is lovely and the hero soon falls in love, which improves him.
I quite enjoy the revenge plots in foreign places - no need to worry about reality, it’s just cute. He’s quite hot, too.
4 stars from me.
August 17, 2020
If you can swallow the basic premise of the story then the rest becomes easy to like.
The heroine is a young 19 year old virgin. Deeply protected by parents and brothers because she suffered a near rape attempt when she was a kid and was traumatized by the experience.
Hero is a Greek tycoon who kidnaps the heroine for a direct tit for tat revenge. He believes the heroine's brother seduced his sister. And the Greek model code of conduct prescribes brothers to avenge their sister's virtue by repeating the crime with the sister of the accused. If you are still reading past this stage, then you might even come to like the story eventually !?!??!
In the process of exacting revenge, the hero brings her to Greece. Nope, not a word of protest from the so called 'fiercely guarded' heroine. He cons her by spinning a tale about her brother meeting with an accident in Greece.
Now, the shy scared virgin starts to get her sexual confidence back under the careful tutelage of the hero. See, being kidnapped by insanely rich tycoons has its benefits !!!!!
A little bit of flirting and fondling on couches and beaches and you are cured of your fears !! And as a package deal, you earn the everlasting love of a gorgeous Greek tycoon !!! Cool outcome after all ....
The heroine is a young 19 year old virgin. Deeply protected by parents and brothers because she suffered a near rape attempt when she was a kid and was traumatized by the experience.
Hero is a Greek tycoon who kidnaps the heroine for a direct tit for tat revenge. He believes the heroine's brother seduced his sister. And the Greek model code of conduct prescribes brothers to avenge their sister's virtue by repeating the crime with the sister of the accused. If you are still reading past this stage, then you might even come to like the story eventually !?!??!
In the process of exacting revenge, the hero brings her to Greece. Nope, not a word of protest from the so called 'fiercely guarded' heroine. He cons her by spinning a tale about her brother meeting with an accident in Greece.
Now, the shy scared virgin starts to get her sexual confidence back under the careful tutelage of the hero. See, being kidnapped by insanely rich tycoons has its benefits !!!!!
A little bit of flirting and fondling on couches and beaches and you are cured of your fears !! And as a package deal, you earn the everlasting love of a gorgeous Greek tycoon !!! Cool outcome after all ....
September 27, 2021
It’s a cute, vintage story.
The H goes from ruthless to being very nice. He is a mega rich, handsome man who seeks revenge for what he thinks the h’s brother has done to his sister.
The h is an innocent 19-year old who is totally dependent on her family. When she was 14 years old, she was attacked by a stranger, but then her father rescued her.
She doesn’t work, she doesn’t go to school. She helps her mother with the household chores. She has two older brothers. Lucky for her she is beautiful and she comes across the rich H who falls for her so she can go on spending the rest of her life doing nothing.
Anyway, I liked the scene in which she learns from the H how to kiss. It shows just how awkward that first kiss is.
In modern HP’s I read about innocent virgin h’s who suddenly become sexually agressive with the H.
In a Lynne Graham HP (I forgot the name of that book) the innocent virgin h got her first kiss and then suddenly she drops on her knees, unzips his trousers and gives him a blow job, lol. He didn’t even ask her. That is so ridiculous and off-putting.
The h in this book is really an innocent h who doesn’t even know to kiss.
The H goes from ruthless to being very nice. He is a mega rich, handsome man who seeks revenge for what he thinks the h’s brother has done to his sister.
The h is an innocent 19-year old who is totally dependent on her family. When she was 14 years old, she was attacked by a stranger, but then her father rescued her.
She doesn’t work, she doesn’t go to school. She helps her mother with the household chores. She has two older brothers. Lucky for her she is beautiful and she comes across the rich H who falls for her so she can go on spending the rest of her life doing nothing.
Anyway, I liked the scene in which she learns from the H how to kiss. It shows just how awkward that first kiss is.
In modern HP’s I read about innocent virgin h’s who suddenly become sexually agressive with the H.
In a Lynne Graham HP (I forgot the name of that book) the innocent virgin h got her first kiss and then suddenly she drops on her knees, unzips his trousers and gives him a blow job, lol. He didn’t even ask her. That is so ridiculous and off-putting.
The h in this book is really an innocent h who doesn’t even know to kiss.
May 10, 2018
EL DIABLO SE DISFRAZA (Spanish Version)
El honor de la familia exigía vengar la afrenta recibida, aunque la víctima fuera una inocente.
Sofía, la hermana de Lazar Vardakas, había sido seducida por el hermano de Clara Harper. Al menos eso pensaba él y, en consecuencia, para vengar el honor de la familia, Lazar debía, a su vez, seducir a Clara. Pero el destino les jugó una mala pasada. Por extraño que pareciera, una nueva Clara Harper surgió de aquella situación: una mujer dispuesta a amar... y ser amada.
(...) (...) (...) (...) (...)
Le tengo especial cariño a este libro por diferentes motivos... Que me guardo :P
Por otro lado, si no lo le doy 5 estrellas es solamente porque me habría gustado leer que consumaran su amoooor. Pero aquí no pasa. Termina el libro sin haber estado íntimamente juntos. Si hay algunos besos y ciertas caricias leves, si no me falla la memoria. Pero poco más.
El honor de la familia exigía vengar la afrenta recibida, aunque la víctima fuera una inocente.
Sofía, la hermana de Lazar Vardakas, había sido seducida por el hermano de Clara Harper. Al menos eso pensaba él y, en consecuencia, para vengar el honor de la familia, Lazar debía, a su vez, seducir a Clara. Pero el destino les jugó una mala pasada. Por extraño que pareciera, una nueva Clara Harper surgió de aquella situación: una mujer dispuesta a amar... y ser amada.
(...) (...) (...) (...) (...)
Le tengo especial cariño a este libro por diferentes motivos... Que me guardo :P
Por otro lado, si no lo le doy 5 estrellas es solamente porque me habría gustado leer que consumaran su amoooor. Pero aquí no pasa. Termina el libro sin haber estado íntimamente juntos. Si hay algunos besos y ciertas caricias leves, si no me falla la memoria. Pero poco más.
February 7, 2019
Could she convince him of the truth?
Clare Harper arrived in Greece to find Lazar Vardakas accusing her brother of seducing Lazar's young sister. Clare knew it couldn't be true.
Even worse, she learned that to appease his great family pride, Lazar intended to exact like payment from Clare for his sister's seduction.
Fate, however, decreed differently. Strangely, slowly, out of the bizarre situation a new Clare Harper emerged -- a young woman ready to love and be loved.
Clare Harper arrived in Greece to find Lazar Vardakas accusing her brother of seducing Lazar's young sister. Clare knew it couldn't be true.
Even worse, she learned that to appease his great family pride, Lazar intended to exact like payment from Clare for his sister's seduction.
Fate, however, decreed differently. Strangely, slowly, out of the bizarre situation a new Clare Harper emerged -- a young woman ready to love and be loved.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews