What do you think?
Rate this book
An Unforgettable Man
How would he make her pay?
At sixteen, Courage Bingham had been innocent and unawakened, but her body had been passionately responsive when she felt strong, youthful hands caress her in the dark of her family's summerhouse. Shame and guilt had tormented her ever since, combined with an equally aching need for this unknown - unseen - stranger.
Now, Courage worried that her senses were playing tricks on her. Gideon Reynolds, her harsh-featured, merciless new boss, could arouse her as only one other man ever had. Could they be one and the same? And, if they were, how would Gideon exact payment for her past deception?
186 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 1995
30 people are currently reading
510 people want to read
About the author
Penny Jordan
1,125 books666 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.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 90 reviews
July 11, 2019
Courage Bingham gets a job with Gideon Reynolds, a millionaire businessman. Courage needs the job to pay for her beloved Grandmother's heart operation. Gideon offers Courage a loan for the expensive operation, but in return he wants her to be his lover. Courage finds that there is something familiar about Gideon, like she has met him before. Courage eventually realizes that they did meet, many years ago, in a dark summerhouse...
I liked the heroine Courage and I felt bad for her at times. Her family was terrible (especially her stepfather and her stepsister Laney). And the hero treated her badly for most of the book, believing she was a different (promiscuous) kind of woman. It was sad to see Courage's romantic daydreams (from years ago in the summerhouse) crushed. I did like Courage's friend Jenny, who was kind to her.
An intense read full of misunderstandings, jealousy, passion, and revenge.
I liked the heroine Courage and I felt bad for her at times. Her family was terrible (especially her stepfather and her stepsister Laney). And the hero treated her badly for most of the book, believing she was a different (promiscuous) kind of woman. It was sad to see Courage's romantic daydreams (from years ago in the summerhouse) crushed. I did like Courage's friend Jenny, who was kind to her.
An intense read full of misunderstandings, jealousy, passion, and revenge.
September 18, 2018
Re An Unforgettable Man - Penny Jordan's editor called again. It seems Roberta Leigh is on her way out and there just isn't any of the old guard left to write your ultimate Nematode Slime Pustule Hero or submit a fifth entry in the Dangerous Liaisons series.
Robyn Donald was involved in her next three book miniseries, Sara Craven had semi-retired to one book a year at this point and Carole Mortimer gave up mostly nematode H's when culottes went out of fashion.
Plus, in order for the Sexual Blackmail by Nematode Slime Pustule Hero trope to work, the h has to be a certain type.
An RD h won't cut it, cause her h's would knee the H in the dangly bits and spit in their face before they would actually allow themselves to be used as a sex slave more than once.
Sara Craven's h might make the attempt, but ultimately SC h's prefer actual rape scenarios to coercion, which would not engender the suitable amount of Stockholm Lurve Force Mojo to get us to a believable SC HEA. (Plus an SC h does tend to be rather pragmatic and wouldn't have the necessary mental fragility to invoke true horror in the coercion scenario.)
A Charlotte Lamb h would probably wind up chaining the H to the bed and then parading him around in a collar and a leash, after appropriate food porn amounts of Dover Sole, Spanish Paella and a dollop of cherry preserves.
So that leaves PJ with her chaste and sensitive, pristine h's. Really an PJ h is ideal for plumbing the depths of this trope, because no other HP author's heroine's so strongly equivocate sex and love as being virtually inseparable. Sex IS love to a PJ heroine and there is not one ounce of practicality or a lessening of idealism in a PJ h.
So when coercive sex is introduced that has nothing to do with any type of love or affection, the mental torture and agony is multiplied by a factor of a gadzillion and we get ourselves a HUGE trainwrecky angstfest PJ HP outing.
Buckle up your seat belts, get appropriate wall padding ready for banging and pull out your Captain and your Tim Tams, we are going into the dark side of PJ's Province of HPlandia.
This one has our h newly back in England from a well liked job in Hong Kong and looking for work locally. The h's beloved granny needs a major heart operation, but the waiting list is two years, granny is really ill and mostly the h is told just to enjoy what time granny has left.
Since granny rescued the h as a teenager from an incredibly perverted and sick pedophile stepfather and an equally corrupted stepsister, our h would do practically anything to be able to afford the private operation to get granny's heart fixed.
To the h's great relief, she soon gets a decent paying job as the comptroller for a millionaire businessman's corporate estate, complete with private golf course. Even better, our millionaire businessman is quite happy to lend the h the necessary funds to get granny her private operation.
Things are burbling along and there is an occasion for a magic roofie kiss. All of the sudden our unicorn grooming h is hurled back to when she was 16 and kissed her stepfather's garden boy and the magic burst all around her, just like now.
Unfortunately the aftereffects of that magic first kiss was the firing of the garden boy after he and the h were discovered and the tart shaming of the h by the step-father.
The h belatedly realizes that all of that was a set up by her stepsister to discredit the h with stepdaddy dearest, who wants to keep his sweet little peaches all to himself and doesn't like to share.
Apparently things went bad for a while with the garden boy after the firing incident. But that tough time hardened him enough to go after what he wanted and lo, he is now our millionaire businessman with a private golf course owner that the h is working for today.
Since the h has conveniently and easily put herself within his all powerful grasp.... Welp, revenge is a dish best served cold, but if you can it get hotted up with some genuine PJ HP Lurve Force Mojo Purple Passion, that is even better.
The H forces the h into becoming his on call blow up doll for multiple rounds of the lurve club boudoir bouncing. The h, who had fallen in love with the H from one kiss at 16 and then again when she started working for him recently, is horrified.
Mostly because she is rapidly coming to hate the H and his treatment of her. (Which includes flaunting the typical vain OW "Princess" and possibly having lurve club moments with the OW too. In one memorable scene the OW stays at the H's estate and the h goes to strip the OW's bed the next day and the H accuses the h of trying to steal the OW's used underwear. )
But even as the h cringes and shrinks from the H's verbally abusive and bullying tart shaming treatment, she just cannot help her Treacherous Body Syndrome. This is the source of the overwhelming angst and sheer stomach turning misery that is this book.
PJ vividly describes having a very, very unwanted pleasurable physical reaction while mentally loathing every second of the experience and it is enough to almost drive this h, (and the reader,) to a nervous breakdown.
The H doesn't let up either. He pushes and prods and the tart shaming verbosity is constant, as are the boudoir purple passion moments. Eventually the estate's cook gets the whole story out of the h when she hears her repeated nights of anguished sobbing and since the cook is only working for something to do so she doesn't drive her kid's nuts, she offers the h the money to repay the H.
The H refuses to accept it at first and tries more coercive moves on the h. But then the cook steps in and in one of the few HP instances of a secondary female character standing up to defend the heroine, she lets the H have it. He is a sadist and a bully and a rapist and he should be in prison making intimate friends with a guy named Killer for his sins.
The h escapes and the cook is right behind her. The h can go back to her old job in Hong Kong and the cook will look after granny once she recovers from her successful surgery. The H is left to stew in the HP mists for a few weeks, until the h has had enough PJ mopey moment time and then the big explanations can begin.
The H seeks out the h and apologizes for his actions. He went and talked to the h's granny and she explained the whole step family situation and the perversions that went on there. The H also admits that he was willing to try it on with stepsister anyways - he was lookin' for a little piking action himself and so he probably would have been fired even if it hadn't been a set up.
The H tries to apologize as he tells the h that the loan is completely written off and he hopes that makes up for what he did. The h lets him know that there is nothing he can say or do to make up for what he did to her.
He turned an innocent unicorn groomer into a tawdry and mentally diseased tramp and now the h can never have a decent marriage or a date because he has corrupted her forever.
The h rants on that even tho it is fine for men to feel lust, for a woman to have that experience is the ultimate in tawdry trampy behavior. Now the h is besmirched for life because how can any decent man love her after what the H made her?
The H objects to the word lust and goes on to describe feelings of longing, comfort and adoration and wanting to cuddle up with the other person, then he tells the h that he is describing his feelings, not hers.
It seems our nematode H has been haunted by the h's sweet kiss for years and years too. So when he found it again, he kinda lost his mind for a while, cause his independent Manly HP Mojo fiercely resented the h's hold on part of him and he had to punish her for that.
Now tho, if she will forgive him, he would like to marry her and lurve her up and have a houseful of plot moppets to adore along with their mother. Since this is a PJ h and the H had her at cuddles, the h rapidly agrees to whatever the H wants and we leave the two of them lurving up in a pinkly sparkly unicorn dancing PJ HP HEA.
On the surface of it, this book is nothing really unusual for HPlandia. We have had H and h quid pro quo arrangements before and there are literally thousands more awaiting HP voyagers in the future.
What sets this one apart from all the others is that PJ was exquisitely detailed and convincing in conveying the h's horrific mental anguish over the H's coerced seduction.
This book gets so many varied ratings because the descriptions of the h's experiences are so evocative of what it might actually feel like to be put into a situation like that.
The h's pain and torment is palpable, the reader is drawn into the maelstrom right along with the h and the lead up to the big denouement is extremely intense.
There are not too many writers that can provoke the visceral response that this book generates. PJ does it with a style and flair that will leave you breathless with a true muscle clenching anticipation that guarantees you an unforgettable outing to the more whacktastic trainwrecky side of HPlandia, if you are brave enough to travel there.
Robyn Donald was involved in her next three book miniseries, Sara Craven had semi-retired to one book a year at this point and Carole Mortimer gave up mostly nematode H's when culottes went out of fashion.
Plus, in order for the Sexual Blackmail by Nematode Slime Pustule Hero trope to work, the h has to be a certain type.
An RD h won't cut it, cause her h's would knee the H in the dangly bits and spit in their face before they would actually allow themselves to be used as a sex slave more than once.
Sara Craven's h might make the attempt, but ultimately SC h's prefer actual rape scenarios to coercion, which would not engender the suitable amount of Stockholm Lurve Force Mojo to get us to a believable SC HEA. (Plus an SC h does tend to be rather pragmatic and wouldn't have the necessary mental fragility to invoke true horror in the coercion scenario.)
A Charlotte Lamb h would probably wind up chaining the H to the bed and then parading him around in a collar and a leash, after appropriate food porn amounts of Dover Sole, Spanish Paella and a dollop of cherry preserves.
So that leaves PJ with her chaste and sensitive, pristine h's. Really an PJ h is ideal for plumbing the depths of this trope, because no other HP author's heroine's so strongly equivocate sex and love as being virtually inseparable. Sex IS love to a PJ heroine and there is not one ounce of practicality or a lessening of idealism in a PJ h.
So when coercive sex is introduced that has nothing to do with any type of love or affection, the mental torture and agony is multiplied by a factor of a gadzillion and we get ourselves a HUGE trainwrecky angstfest PJ HP outing.
Buckle up your seat belts, get appropriate wall padding ready for banging and pull out your Captain and your Tim Tams, we are going into the dark side of PJ's Province of HPlandia.
This one has our h newly back in England from a well liked job in Hong Kong and looking for work locally. The h's beloved granny needs a major heart operation, but the waiting list is two years, granny is really ill and mostly the h is told just to enjoy what time granny has left.
Since granny rescued the h as a teenager from an incredibly perverted and sick pedophile stepfather and an equally corrupted stepsister, our h would do practically anything to be able to afford the private operation to get granny's heart fixed.
To the h's great relief, she soon gets a decent paying job as the comptroller for a millionaire businessman's corporate estate, complete with private golf course. Even better, our millionaire businessman is quite happy to lend the h the necessary funds to get granny her private operation.
Things are burbling along and there is an occasion for a magic roofie kiss. All of the sudden our unicorn grooming h is hurled back to when she was 16 and kissed her stepfather's garden boy and the magic burst all around her, just like now.
Unfortunately the aftereffects of that magic first kiss was the firing of the garden boy after he and the h were discovered and the tart shaming of the h by the step-father.
The h belatedly realizes that all of that was a set up by her stepsister to discredit the h with stepdaddy dearest, who wants to keep his sweet little peaches all to himself and doesn't like to share.
Apparently things went bad for a while with the garden boy after the firing incident. But that tough time hardened him enough to go after what he wanted and lo, he is now our millionaire businessman with a private golf course owner that the h is working for today.
Since the h has conveniently and easily put herself within his all powerful grasp.... Welp, revenge is a dish best served cold, but if you can it get hotted up with some genuine PJ HP Lurve Force Mojo Purple Passion, that is even better.
The H forces the h into becoming his on call blow up doll for multiple rounds of the lurve club boudoir bouncing. The h, who had fallen in love with the H from one kiss at 16 and then again when she started working for him recently, is horrified.
Mostly because she is rapidly coming to hate the H and his treatment of her. (Which includes flaunting the typical vain OW "Princess" and possibly having lurve club moments with the OW too. In one memorable scene the OW stays at the H's estate and the h goes to strip the OW's bed the next day and the H accuses the h of trying to steal the OW's used underwear. )
But even as the h cringes and shrinks from the H's verbally abusive and bullying tart shaming treatment, she just cannot help her Treacherous Body Syndrome. This is the source of the overwhelming angst and sheer stomach turning misery that is this book.
PJ vividly describes having a very, very unwanted pleasurable physical reaction while mentally loathing every second of the experience and it is enough to almost drive this h, (and the reader,) to a nervous breakdown.
The H doesn't let up either. He pushes and prods and the tart shaming verbosity is constant, as are the boudoir purple passion moments. Eventually the estate's cook gets the whole story out of the h when she hears her repeated nights of anguished sobbing and since the cook is only working for something to do so she doesn't drive her kid's nuts, she offers the h the money to repay the H.
The H refuses to accept it at first and tries more coercive moves on the h. But then the cook steps in and in one of the few HP instances of a secondary female character standing up to defend the heroine, she lets the H have it. He is a sadist and a bully and a rapist and he should be in prison making intimate friends with a guy named Killer for his sins.
The h escapes and the cook is right behind her. The h can go back to her old job in Hong Kong and the cook will look after granny once she recovers from her successful surgery. The H is left to stew in the HP mists for a few weeks, until the h has had enough PJ mopey moment time and then the big explanations can begin.
The H seeks out the h and apologizes for his actions. He went and talked to the h's granny and she explained the whole step family situation and the perversions that went on there. The H also admits that he was willing to try it on with stepsister anyways - he was lookin' for a little piking action himself and so he probably would have been fired even if it hadn't been a set up.
The H tries to apologize as he tells the h that the loan is completely written off and he hopes that makes up for what he did. The h lets him know that there is nothing he can say or do to make up for what he did to her.
He turned an innocent unicorn groomer into a tawdry and mentally diseased tramp and now the h can never have a decent marriage or a date because he has corrupted her forever.
The h rants on that even tho it is fine for men to feel lust, for a woman to have that experience is the ultimate in tawdry trampy behavior. Now the h is besmirched for life because how can any decent man love her after what the H made her?
The H objects to the word lust and goes on to describe feelings of longing, comfort and adoration and wanting to cuddle up with the other person, then he tells the h that he is describing his feelings, not hers.
It seems our nematode H has been haunted by the h's sweet kiss for years and years too. So when he found it again, he kinda lost his mind for a while, cause his independent Manly HP Mojo fiercely resented the h's hold on part of him and he had to punish her for that.
Now tho, if she will forgive him, he would like to marry her and lurve her up and have a houseful of plot moppets to adore along with their mother. Since this is a PJ h and the H had her at cuddles, the h rapidly agrees to whatever the H wants and we leave the two of them lurving up in a pinkly sparkly unicorn dancing PJ HP HEA.
On the surface of it, this book is nothing really unusual for HPlandia. We have had H and h quid pro quo arrangements before and there are literally thousands more awaiting HP voyagers in the future.
What sets this one apart from all the others is that PJ was exquisitely detailed and convincing in conveying the h's horrific mental anguish over the H's coerced seduction.
This book gets so many varied ratings because the descriptions of the h's experiences are so evocative of what it might actually feel like to be put into a situation like that.
The h's pain and torment is palpable, the reader is drawn into the maelstrom right along with the h and the lead up to the big denouement is extremely intense.
There are not too many writers that can provoke the visceral response that this book generates. PJ does it with a style and flair that will leave you breathless with a true muscle clenching anticipation that guarantees you an unforgettable outing to the more whacktastic trainwrecky side of HPlandia, if you are brave enough to travel there.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 22, 2014
Wow. This one is intense. Penny Jordan knew how to keep you reading even when you were furious. Willaful termed this a "fabulous wallbanger" and that's a pretty darn accurate tag if there ever was one.
Trigger warnings galore (just read the tags).
I think other reviewers have done a fabulous job of illustrating what a raging bastard the hero was, so I won't belabor the point.
What earned it a four and what kept it from getting that 5 star rating:
The hero sucked, period. Issues, issues, issues. However, he was so cruel and devious that you just had to keep reading for the train wreck factor of it.
The heroine was placed in a really bad situation with truly no way out. This wasn't one of those where you're screaming "just leave, you damn idiot, your half-brother's cousin's girlfriend can find a new damn job! Stop being such a pathetic martyr!".
She couldn't leave. He'd sewn her up tight and the only way she could leave (until the end) was to feed her beloved grandmother to the big bad wolf that passed for a hero. Trope city? Heck yeah, but Penny knew how to bring on the angst none the less.
There have been books where horrific things have happened to the heroine and I've been cruel enough to giggle because the author conveyed the emotional depth of a mud puddle. I simply couldn't have cared less what happened to anyone in the story, no matter how horrible it was. Some of these older romances are like an unintentional black comedy.
In this I did feel the heroine's pain. The 'traitorous body' trope was handled in a more realistic/sensitive way. It dealt with the real emotional trauma/shame of finding your own body respond to something against your will. That happens to some rape victims. We're animals, our bodies were designed to respond in a certain way to certain stimuli. We can't always control it and that DOES NOT equal consent. Regardless of what some dbag may say. One character even went so far as to call the heroine a rape victim. However, the heroine denied that was true because she was drinking the respone = consent kool-aid and it made her hate herself. I cried a bit and that is RARE for an HP or anything, really. I'm not a big crier.
This would have been the 5 star "fabulous wallbanger" if it weren't for the ending. I realize the series novels are short and the author must work within those constraints. However, IMHO at least 10-20 pages could have been cut from the first half in order to make the hero suffer more. I'd have liked to have seen her send him away a few times and make him work for it A LITTLE BIT. I am tired of the trope of the hero showing up looking older and skinnier and that passing for his penance. I want to see some blood :)
Trigger warnings galore (just read the tags).
I think other reviewers have done a fabulous job of illustrating what a raging bastard the hero was, so I won't belabor the point.
What earned it a four and what kept it from getting that 5 star rating:
The hero sucked, period. Issues, issues, issues. However, he was so cruel and devious that you just had to keep reading for the train wreck factor of it.
The heroine was placed in a really bad situation with truly no way out. This wasn't one of those where you're screaming "just leave, you damn idiot, your half-brother's cousin's girlfriend can find a new damn job! Stop being such a pathetic martyr!".
She couldn't leave. He'd sewn her up tight and the only way she could leave (until the end) was to feed her beloved grandmother to the big bad wolf that passed for a hero. Trope city? Heck yeah, but Penny knew how to bring on the angst none the less.
There have been books where horrific things have happened to the heroine and I've been cruel enough to giggle because the author conveyed the emotional depth of a mud puddle. I simply couldn't have cared less what happened to anyone in the story, no matter how horrible it was. Some of these older romances are like an unintentional black comedy.
In this I did feel the heroine's pain. The 'traitorous body' trope was handled in a more realistic/sensitive way. It dealt with the real emotional trauma/shame of finding your own body respond to something against your will. That happens to some rape victims. We're animals, our bodies were designed to respond in a certain way to certain stimuli. We can't always control it and that DOES NOT equal consent. Regardless of what some dbag may say. One character even went so far as to call the heroine a rape victim. However, the heroine denied that was true because she was drinking the respone = consent kool-aid and it made her hate herself. I cried a bit and that is RARE for an HP or anything, really. I'm not a big crier.
This would have been the 5 star "fabulous wallbanger" if it weren't for the ending. I realize the series novels are short and the author must work within those constraints. However, IMHO at least 10-20 pages could have been cut from the first half in order to make the hero suffer more. I'd have liked to have seen her send him away a few times and make him work for it A LITTLE BIT. I am tired of the trope of the hero showing up looking older and skinnier and that passing for his penance. I want to see some blood :)
March 30, 2012
This is either a one star or five star rating; it's obvious which I chose. He is probably the CRUELEST hero I have ever come across - no lie. I think he was even slightly insane (made so by what had happened between them years before). Other heroes have blackmailed heroines into their beds before, hell, the story line might even be the same - she accepts a business loan (which he paid for from his personal expenses?WHAT?) to pay for her grandma's heart surgery. It is a loan she can only pay back by working for him for the next two years. So, when she realizes he blames her for what had happened to him and their relationship is hopeless and thus tries to renegotiate the debt, he refuses all her ideas and threatens to claim it from her recovering grandma if she doesn't become his sex slave.
What the f*cking f*ck right?
Then, when they're having sex and her inexperience begins to show he's like; "stop acting like a virgin, we both know what a big fat slut you are." Normally... as seasoned HP readers we're used to just such a scenario, but this dude has got the be the WORST judge of character or, as I suspect, completely crazy (bat-sh*t like) to miss what he's doing to her.
The chick comes out of it so messed up (and this is why it earned five stars - Penny Jordan can make you empathize in the most embarrassing way) that she begins to feel - because she still loves him though she hates herself for it - that she isn't worthy of being loved by anybody decent. I mean, after years of holding on to a dream of her one special love and finding what was behind door number two instead...
I have the worst case of heartburn now because of this book. It is 16:44 and I haven't eaten yet, and my bladder is SO full (tmi right?) but I had to get this off my chest. Any book that gets this type of rise out of me deserves a full set of stars, regardless of how much I think the hero didn't deserve his HEA.
P.S. why is it that authors (women authors in particular, Penny Jordan especially) think it's ok to cancel out 99% of emotional torture and physical abuse (of a purely sexual nature of course) with .5% of an apology from the hero, .25% groveling, and .25% a proposal of marriage and future promises he should be too ashamed to even think about asking for?
What the f*cking f*ck right?
Then, when they're having sex and her inexperience begins to show he's like; "stop acting like a virgin, we both know what a big fat slut you are." Normally... as seasoned HP readers we're used to just such a scenario, but this dude has got the be the WORST judge of character or, as I suspect, completely crazy (bat-sh*t like) to miss what he's doing to her.
The chick comes out of it so messed up (and this is why it earned five stars - Penny Jordan can make you empathize in the most embarrassing way) that she begins to feel - because she still loves him though she hates herself for it - that she isn't worthy of being loved by anybody decent. I mean, after years of holding on to a dream of her one special love and finding what was behind door number two instead...
I have the worst case of heartburn now because of this book. It is 16:44 and I haven't eaten yet, and my bladder is SO full (tmi right?) but I had to get this off my chest. Any book that gets this type of rise out of me deserves a full set of stars, regardless of how much I think the hero didn't deserve his HEA.
P.S. why is it that authors (women authors in particular, Penny Jordan especially) think it's ok to cancel out 99% of emotional torture and physical abuse (of a purely sexual nature of course) with .5% of an apology from the hero, .25% groveling, and .25% a proposal of marriage and future promises he should be too ashamed to even think about asking for?
July 31, 2016
Unforgettable is correcto-mundo.
Well, I can't say I wasn't warned.
The H is everything that the other reviewers said he was: rude,cruel, vengeful and crazy. I think what is most disturbing, more than his cruelty, is what a blithering idiot the heroine is falling so desperately in love with someone so horrible. I actually got a stomach ache reading this. No, not one of those stupid flutters that the heroine's get, but out and out nausea.
Once again, the magic penis strikes again.
The only good thing was her name, Courage. Not a very appropriate name in this case, Spineless or Pushover would have been better, but very cool.
I need a funny Harlequin, a palate cleanser. Maybe Cathy Williams.
Well, I can't say I wasn't warned.
The H is everything that the other reviewers said he was: rude,cruel, vengeful and crazy. I think what is most disturbing, more than his cruelty, is what a blithering idiot the heroine is falling so desperately in love with someone so horrible. I actually got a stomach ache reading this. No, not one of those stupid flutters that the heroine's get, but out and out nausea.
Once again, the magic penis strikes again.
The only good thing was her name, Courage. Not a very appropriate name in this case, Spineless or Pushover would have been better, but very cool.
I need a funny Harlequin, a palate cleanser. Maybe Cathy Williams.
October 29, 2012
3.5 stars rounded up
Spoilerfest to follow...
This bad boy has got quite a reputation of having a cruel and heartless hero. Yes and no.
This is a sort of reunion story in that the heroine, Courage, got an earth shattering kiss from mysterious stranger/hero, Gideon, when she was a virginal and tender 16 years old. The whole kissing scenario was a set-up put into action by a jealous step-sister who didn't like the attention her incestuous father was paying to Courage. Creeptastic, eh?
Anyway, the outcome was supposedly really horrible for the H whose path took him onto success and riches. (It was always in my mind that if that hadn't happened to him, he would be just a gardener instead of Mr. Money Bags. But, hey, it's the principle of the matter, right?)
The two meet up years later when he hires her to run his mansion, and loans her £10,000 for her poor old grandmother's operation. At this point, the h has no clue who he is because the previously mentioned earth shattering kiss happened in the dark. However, she did notice his excited evil glint when she signs on the dotted line.
Much of the story then drags on with her doing such a fine job while he goes out of town a lot to Kuwait to do landscaping. We eventually get to the good stuff about three-forths of the way into the book. It starts with that first kiss. Or second, actually, yes?
Let's be clear, that first kiss from the faceless but awesome smelling stanger was enough to ruin her for any other men forever and ever. It was also why she was still a virgin into her 20s, because how could she consider anyone else when they could never make her feel the same!?! But you can guess what happens when she gets another taste. Yes! She recognizes him by his lips (though he's much more skilled now ) and the little flutters he gives her in her tummy. Interesting.
Then he goes all big-alpha on her and bullies his way in the sack with her, while criticizing her for doing such a bang up job pretending to be a virgin. (Humph! All that blood and injury can't fool me lady!) Despite his asshatness, she is in eternal bliss and knows it is love. He leaves for Kuwait bright and early the next morning before she wakes and she spends days anxiously daydreaming about their new relationship and how she's going to tell him about their real first meeting. However, when he finally comes home, instead of the lover's welcome and the anticipated heart-to-heart, he brings home a hot widow whom he wines and dines the rest of the night. Coooold!
When they finally get a chance to talk, it's revealed that he actually does remember her and his whole plan was to get his revenge...by forcing her to be his sex slave!! But don't despair, she get's off every time. This supposedly goes on for quite a while, even while he continues to take off on little trips to meet with the widow.
The h finally breaks down and spills her guts to the cook she hired who happens to have huge nest egg. She loans her the money to repay the H so she can hightail it out of there. Two or three weeks pass and the H appears uninvited in her living room. We get the big grovel scene where we learn that he only did what he did because his powerful love for her made him insanely jealous, causing him to lose his mind, and coerce her to repeatedly have sex with him. He begs her back and promises to take it slow but she suggests they jump straight into bed to make new memories. How sweet.
So, really, how can we stay mad at the guy? Yes, he trapped her into being his personal whore. Yes, he used her poor sick granny as a means to do it. Yes, he took her virginity while accusing her of being a slut in mid thrust. Yes, he would have happily continued to do so for years and years if she didn't coincidentally have a generous friend to loan her the money to get out of her contract. But it wasn't really who he was (the h indirectly said so herself early in the story!) And the stepfather told him she was a conniving slut (forgot to mention that) so he just knew she used her blossoming flower to set him up, which gave him the right to retaliate. But after granny set him straight about about the h, he admitted how wrong he was and was willing to beg forgiveness. So, again, how can we stay mad?
Spoilerfest to follow...
This bad boy has got quite a reputation of having a cruel and heartless hero. Yes and no.
This is a sort of reunion story in that the heroine, Courage, got an earth shattering kiss from mysterious stranger/hero, Gideon, when she was a virginal and tender 16 years old. The whole kissing scenario was a set-up put into action by a jealous step-sister who didn't like the attention her incestuous father was paying to Courage. Creeptastic, eh?
Anyway, the outcome was supposedly really horrible for the H whose path took him onto success and riches. (It was always in my mind that if that hadn't happened to him, he would be just a gardener instead of Mr. Money Bags. But, hey, it's the principle of the matter, right?)
The two meet up years later when he hires her to run his mansion, and loans her £10,000 for her poor old grandmother's operation. At this point, the h has no clue who he is because the previously mentioned earth shattering kiss happened in the dark. However, she did notice his excited evil glint when she signs on the dotted line.
Much of the story then drags on with her doing such a fine job while he goes out of town a lot to Kuwait to do landscaping. We eventually get to the good stuff about three-forths of the way into the book. It starts with that first kiss. Or second, actually, yes?
Let's be clear, that first kiss from the faceless but awesome smelling stanger was enough to ruin her for any other men forever and ever. It was also why she was still a virgin into her 20s, because how could she consider anyone else when they could never make her feel the same!?! But you can guess what happens when she gets another taste. Yes! She recognizes him by his lips (though he's much more skilled now ) and the little flutters he gives her in her tummy. Interesting.
Then he goes all big-alpha on her and bullies his way in the sack with her, while criticizing her for doing such a bang up job pretending to be a virgin. (Humph! All that blood and injury can't fool me lady!) Despite his asshatness, she is in eternal bliss and knows it is love. He leaves for Kuwait bright and early the next morning before she wakes and she spends days anxiously daydreaming about their new relationship and how she's going to tell him about their real first meeting. However, when he finally comes home, instead of the lover's welcome and the anticipated heart-to-heart, he brings home a hot widow whom he wines and dines the rest of the night. Coooold!
When they finally get a chance to talk, it's revealed that he actually does remember her and his whole plan was to get his revenge...by forcing her to be his sex slave!! But don't despair, she get's off every time. This supposedly goes on for quite a while, even while he continues to take off on little trips to meet with the widow.
The h finally breaks down and spills her guts to the cook she hired who happens to have huge nest egg. She loans her the money to repay the H so she can hightail it out of there. Two or three weeks pass and the H appears uninvited in her living room. We get the big grovel scene where we learn that he only did what he did because his powerful love for her made him insanely jealous, causing him to lose his mind, and coerce her to repeatedly have sex with him. He begs her back and promises to take it slow but she suggests they jump straight into bed to make new memories. How sweet.
So, really, how can we stay mad at the guy? Yes, he trapped her into being his personal whore. Yes, he used her poor sick granny as a means to do it. Yes, he took her virginity while accusing her of being a slut in mid thrust. Yes, he would have happily continued to do so for years and years if she didn't coincidentally have a generous friend to loan her the money to get out of her contract. But it wasn't really who he was (the h indirectly said so herself early in the story!) And the stepfather told him she was a conniving slut (forgot to mention that) so he just knew she used her blossoming flower to set him up, which gave him the right to retaliate. But after granny set him straight about about the h, he admitted how wrong he was and was willing to beg forgiveness. So, again, how can we stay mad?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 25, 2018
Re-read. July 2018
Still intense. Still held me enthralled. Still can't believe she didn't recognize him earlier.
Original Review:
A revenge story that requires the reader to believe that h wouldn't immediately recognize the only man she ever had a sexual encounter with, and that the hero wouldn't have figured out that the girl he was messing around with was only 16 and not at all experienced. But that is the premise and once you go with that, you can see the heroine walking into disaster from the moment she signs her employment contract with the now-rich hero.
What PJ does best here is to surround the heroine with menace and uncertainty - even her memories with her step-family are horrifying. The stepfather was some sort of sexual predator (who may or may not have abused his daughter). The stepsister was horrible, the heroine's mother useless. But she escaped only to enter a new landscape of sexual humiliations and entrapment.
Her grandmother is in precarious health as are the heroine's finances. She takes a job as housekeeper to the hero and "falls in love" with him even after he treats her with contempt. He thinks she got him fired long ago and bedding her and having her under his control is his revenge.
This one had a lot of drama and angst and the hero was sufficiently cruel (with some wobbles to show his true feelings) all the way through until the grovel. No punches were pulled.
Still intense. Still held me enthralled. Still can't believe she didn't recognize him earlier.
Original Review:
A revenge story that requires the reader to believe that h wouldn't immediately recognize the only man she ever had a sexual encounter with, and that the hero wouldn't have figured out that the girl he was messing around with was only 16 and not at all experienced. But that is the premise and once you go with that, you can see the heroine walking into disaster from the moment she signs her employment contract with the now-rich hero.
What PJ does best here is to surround the heroine with menace and uncertainty - even her memories with her step-family are horrifying. The stepfather was some sort of sexual predator (who may or may not have abused his daughter). The stepsister was horrible, the heroine's mother useless. But she escaped only to enter a new landscape of sexual humiliations and entrapment.
Her grandmother is in precarious health as are the heroine's finances. She takes a job as housekeeper to the hero and "falls in love" with him even after he treats her with contempt. He thinks she got him fired long ago and bedding her and having her under his control is his revenge.
This one had a lot of drama and angst and the hero was sufficiently cruel (with some wobbles to show his true feelings) all the way through until the grovel. No punches were pulled.
October 28, 2012
Yes, this made the coveted "fabulous wallbanger" shelf! This may even be the best Penny Jordan book I've ever read... or maybe "best" isn't the right word here. More like "most exciting"... "angstiest"... "most fabulous wallbanger."
The basic premise is similar to one Jordan had used before, in books like Injured Innocent: our heroine Courage (yes, that is her name) has never been in a relationship because of a youthful sexual trauma involving our hero/bastard Gideon, although she doesn't at first recognize him when they meet again. What makes this story different is partially that Jordan builds up suspense about Gideon's actions and motivations (rather than just having him snipe nastily at Courage for the entire book, as her heroes often do) and partially that Courage's feelings about the incident have a positive side. She's carrying a lot of shame, but she's also been fantasizing about that dream lover for years. And when she realizes Gideon is him and thinks he feels the same way about her -- that's when the fun really begins.
Gideon is horrific, that pretty much goes without saying. What makes it work for me is that he obviously has intensely strong feelings about Courage, even against his will. We don't see his point of view, but the love/hate comes through clearly. And the payoff works: he's horrible, she suffers, he realizes what's he done and then he suffers. Just the way I like 'em.
Not for the weak of heart or stomach, but a great read if you like this sort of thing.
The basic premise is similar to one Jordan had used before, in books like Injured Innocent: our heroine Courage (yes, that is her name) has never been in a relationship because of a youthful sexual trauma involving our hero/bastard Gideon, although she doesn't at first recognize him when they meet again. What makes this story different is partially that Jordan builds up suspense about Gideon's actions and motivations (rather than just having him snipe nastily at Courage for the entire book, as her heroes often do) and partially that Courage's feelings about the incident have a positive side. She's carrying a lot of shame, but she's also been fantasizing about that dream lover for years. And when she realizes Gideon is him and thinks he feels the same way about her -- that's when the fun really begins.
Gideon is horrific, that pretty much goes without saying. What makes it work for me is that he obviously has intensely strong feelings about Courage, even against his will. We don't see his point of view, but the love/hate comes through clearly. And the payoff works: he's horrible, she suffers, he realizes what's he done and then he suffers. Just the way I like 'em.
Not for the weak of heart or stomach, but a great read if you like this sort of thing.
August 9, 2017
I'm a bit of a loss on how to rate this book.
I think Penny J was trying to make a statement and I would have liked to applaud it. She took on the subject of domestic sexual molestation of teenage girls and tried to work it into a HP book. Unfortunately, it just didn't gel for me. Though H had nothing to do with the abuse in the beginning, PJ wrote it so that he almost became the villain and the original perpetrators, the h's stepsister and stepfather were nowhere to be seen later in the book so justice was never served. It felt like PJ wanted to put a message out but it was vague and to me ended up being an uncomfortable farce.
Courage is the name of the heroine and I had to keep checking myself because Courage, the Cowardly Dog, from an animated show, kept coming to my mind.
Background story: h is having a pretty rotten life with her new stepfamily. Her stepsister appears to be having a incestuous relationship with her stepfather, and is jealous of her. Though the stepfather is not sexually abusive to the h, his inappropriate innuendos and attention is making her uncomfortable. Her stepsister also continually puts her down and taunts her. She manipulates the h into pretending to be her one night and go meet the H, who was then just a mere gardener boy, in the dark garden shed to break off the relationship.
H and h have their first intimate encounter a la PJ style. However H realises she's not her stepsister, puts a halt to their groping, shames her for making a fool of him and leaves. Stepfather catches wind of their little rendezvous and fires him. H holds a grudge as he has it rough for a long time and had to live on the streets. h also suffers the humiliation of being viewed as a slut by the step-family. Thankfully, her maternal grandmother rescues her from this situation and she leaves to live with her.
Years later, both H and h have made something of their lives and now meet up professionally. Without the aid of the dark shed and the inconvenience of broad daylight, neither appear to recognise each other. He is kind and generous enough to loan her money to pay for her grandmother's surgery to save her life. The book begins with their interview so for a good half of the book, it's a fabulous PJ read: H seems like the alpha male but with a heart of gold and h, though still haunted by fuzzy visions of garden boy, is falling in love with her boss.
Then H suddenly decides to call out on his favour for the loan and asks for sex. We find out he always knew she was that girl in the shed and was happy to be handed the opportunity for revenge. Well, what did she expect with an unusual name like Courage? Always name your kids sensibly, people. You never know when it may come back to bite you.
So now he blackmails her for sex using the threat of pulling back the loan. This bizarre twist for angst made no sense to me, as did the about-turn of making Cook, yes cook, the cook she hired to cook for him, suddenly stand up to the H and tell him off for his bad blackmail behaviour and threaten the police on him. Aparently Cook also has money so she helps h give him a cheque for the loan so she can say sayonara and leave him.
Then Cook seduces h, h realises she's a lesbian and they both live HEA.
No, I'm kidding but it might as well have gone that way for the bizarre way this was wriiten.
Not the best from PJ but it was ok.
I think Penny J was trying to make a statement and I would have liked to applaud it. She took on the subject of domestic sexual molestation of teenage girls and tried to work it into a HP book. Unfortunately, it just didn't gel for me. Though H had nothing to do with the abuse in the beginning, PJ wrote it so that he almost became the villain and the original perpetrators, the h's stepsister and stepfather were nowhere to be seen later in the book so justice was never served. It felt like PJ wanted to put a message out but it was vague and to me ended up being an uncomfortable farce.
Courage is the name of the heroine and I had to keep checking myself because Courage, the Cowardly Dog, from an animated show, kept coming to my mind.
Background story: h is having a pretty rotten life with her new stepfamily. Her stepsister appears to be having a incestuous relationship with her stepfather, and is jealous of her. Though the stepfather is not sexually abusive to the h, his inappropriate innuendos and attention is making her uncomfortable. Her stepsister also continually puts her down and taunts her. She manipulates the h into pretending to be her one night and go meet the H, who was then just a mere gardener boy, in the dark garden shed to break off the relationship.
H and h have their first intimate encounter a la PJ style. However H realises she's not her stepsister, puts a halt to their groping, shames her for making a fool of him and leaves. Stepfather catches wind of their little rendezvous and fires him. H holds a grudge as he has it rough for a long time and had to live on the streets. h also suffers the humiliation of being viewed as a slut by the step-family. Thankfully, her maternal grandmother rescues her from this situation and she leaves to live with her.
Years later, both H and h have made something of their lives and now meet up professionally. Without the aid of the dark shed and the inconvenience of broad daylight, neither appear to recognise each other. He is kind and generous enough to loan her money to pay for her grandmother's surgery to save her life. The book begins with their interview so for a good half of the book, it's a fabulous PJ read: H seems like the alpha male but with a heart of gold and h, though still haunted by fuzzy visions of garden boy, is falling in love with her boss.
Then H suddenly decides to call out on his favour for the loan and asks for sex. We find out he always knew she was that girl in the shed and was happy to be handed the opportunity for revenge. Well, what did she expect with an unusual name like Courage? Always name your kids sensibly, people. You never know when it may come back to bite you.
So now he blackmails her for sex using the threat of pulling back the loan. This bizarre twist for angst made no sense to me, as did the about-turn of making Cook, yes cook, the cook she hired to cook for him, suddenly stand up to the H and tell him off for his bad blackmail behaviour and threaten the police on him. Aparently Cook also has money so she helps h give him a cheque for the loan so she can say sayonara and leave him.
Then Cook seduces h, h realises she's a lesbian and they both live HEA.
No, I'm kidding but it might as well have gone that way for the bizarre way this was wriiten.
Not the best from PJ but it was ok.
August 3, 2017
According to Babynamewizard.com, the name Gideon is "derived from the Hebrew gidh`ōn (hewer, one who cuts down)". And boy, is that accurate! Gideon certainly crushed poor, sweet Courage's teenage dreams of love and happy ever afters. . . .
I found An Unforgettable Man riveting more for the high drama than the romance or even the "unforgettable" hero. Maybe my expectations were excessively high because of the hype or I'm just too jaded, but I didn't think Gideon was as cruel as I thought he would be. Read a vintage Charlotte Lamb or Robyn Donald and then get back with me. Both authors had the asshat hero down to a fine art.
The fact that Gideon did not premeditate his sexual blackmail of Courage improved my opinion of him for the better. Gideon seemed motivated more by jealousy than any desire for revenge, being caught up in a crime of passion so to speak. With all this said, Gideon was no saint. I'm happy he apologized, but his groveling didn't come anywhere near to being satisfying.
Courage (an ironic name) was a sensitive and romantic soul. Her anxious daydreams about Gideon after their first night together oozed so much sweetness my teeth ached. But I didn't need to worry about cavities or anything else—unlike Courage, who would need all the strength she could muster to deal with Gideon.
A dark, mesmerizing tale about love and hate!
I found An Unforgettable Man riveting more for the high drama than the romance or even the "unforgettable" hero. Maybe my expectations were excessively high because of the hype or I'm just too jaded, but I didn't think Gideon was as cruel as I thought he would be. Read a vintage Charlotte Lamb or Robyn Donald and then get back with me. Both authors had the asshat hero down to a fine art.
The fact that Gideon did not premeditate his sexual blackmail of Courage improved my opinion of him for the better. Gideon seemed motivated more by jealousy than any desire for revenge, being caught up in a crime of passion so to speak. With all this said, Gideon was no saint. I'm happy he apologized, but his groveling didn't come anywhere near to being satisfying.
Courage (an ironic name) was a sensitive and romantic soul. Her anxious daydreams about Gideon after their first night together oozed so much sweetness my teeth ached. But I didn't need to worry about cavities or anything else—unlike Courage, who would need all the strength she could muster to deal with Gideon.
A dark, mesmerizing tale about love and hate!
June 11, 2013
I don't mind cruel alpha heroes. In fact I love them. But this one was pure evil and a sadist. He was just too much even for me. Poor heroine she suffered so much abuse and pain. This book was definitely not a romance or a love story.
December 16, 2008
The hero in this book is a hard man and is on the cruel side to the heroine, blackmailing her for sex. But man was it a book that was hard to put down.
February 2, 2021
2/2/21 re-skimmed to compare PJ's signaling her disapproval of this H with H from The Hard Man
As others have said the male lead was a super jerk, though he doesn't have the knack of being the fun kind and by the end PJ made scant attempt to redeem him. Personally I need there to be a glimmer of something beneath the mean, amusement maybe? even helpless obsession works! but Gideon's basically unpleasant and there's relatively little relationship building between the main couple. Most of the scenes involve the emotionally naive Courage interacting with her grandmother and coworkers or spending time remembering and deluding herself that a single teenaged meeting with a guy who may or may not be her new boss, Gideon, was sweetness and kisses. Well it was not, it was a furtive grope in the dark with a stranger who initially thought she was someone else and though he was also young at the time his language was already steeped in misogyny.
I get the feeling that PJ didn't like Gideon much either though she papers over the problem of what sort of person acts this way by allowing Courage's wishful thinking—that however badly he had hurt her "he was not by nature either vindictive or cruel, and that she need have no fear that such behaviour would ever recur" to be the final say in the matter.
It was nice that for once a heroine was given a true female champion, one who empowered her to get away from a toxic situation, fiercely told Gideon off and didn't go behind Courage's back, for her own good of course, to help Gideon worm his way back into Courage'sbody good graces.
Even more surprising and comical: barging into the kitchen wearing nothing but silk boxers, rendering innocent Courage speechless, Gideon says: "Flattering but really rather overdone. I know that all men are supposedly over-vulnerable to their egos where their male attributes are concerned...But since I'm quite well aware that mine are relatively modestly average, you're rather wasting your time."
PJ throwing some shade!
As others have said the male lead was a super jerk, though he doesn't have the knack of being the fun kind and by the end PJ made scant attempt to redeem him. Personally I need there to be a glimmer of something beneath the mean, amusement maybe? even helpless obsession works! but Gideon's basically unpleasant and there's relatively little relationship building between the main couple. Most of the scenes involve the emotionally naive Courage interacting with her grandmother and coworkers or spending time remembering and deluding herself that a single teenaged meeting with a guy who may or may not be her new boss, Gideon, was sweetness and kisses. Well it was not, it was a furtive grope in the dark with a stranger who initially thought she was someone else and though he was also young at the time his language was already steeped in misogyny.
I get the feeling that PJ didn't like Gideon much either though she papers over the problem of what sort of person acts this way by allowing Courage's wishful thinking—that however badly he had hurt her "he was not by nature either vindictive or cruel, and that she need have no fear that such behaviour would ever recur" to be the final say in the matter.
It was nice that for once a heroine was given a true female champion, one who empowered her to get away from a toxic situation, fiercely told Gideon off and didn't go behind Courage's back, for her own good of course, to help Gideon worm his way back into Courage's
Even more surprising and comical: barging into the kitchen wearing nothing but silk boxers, rendering innocent Courage speechless, Gideon says: "Flattering but really rather overdone. I know that all men are supposedly over-vulnerable to their egos where their male attributes are concerned...But since I'm quite well aware that mine are relatively modestly average, you're rather wasting your time."
PJ throwing some shade!
August 18, 2021
“In my view you should be imprisoned and disgraced for what you’ve done to Courage. You’re a bully and a sadist”
Twenty stars for Jenny the cook, who helped the heroine and said those marvelous things to the hero.
Sadly PJ doesn’t describe his face and his reaction to those well said words.
This hero really deserved something very nasty. Just because he thought the heroine deceived him when she was 16 (yes, 16, not 26, a teenager) he planned a cruel revenge, lent her money for her grandmothers surgery and then blackmailed her to become his mistress. She was emotionally scarred and in a state of severe distress by his behavior.
Nevertheless he treated her as dirt and abused her and debased her using her attraction for him to have sex with her.
He verbally abused her, slut shaming her even if he didn’t know anything about her.
I wish he had an accident and become impotent. This is what men like him deserve, nothing less.
In the end he apologizes for his behavior and tells her he never forgot her and their first kiss and he loves her.
No, I don’t believe it for a second.
And she was in love with him, so she forgave him in a minute. What??? Really???
You cannot be serious!
Why does she love him?
A man who only abused her???
Another woman with battered wife syndrome!
Who loves being abused!
I don’t believe those two will have a hea, he is too mean and hurt her too much, I don’t believe he ever loved her. He is a small mean and coward man.
And she’s a dependent victim.
So why 4 stars?
Because of Jenny the cook, brave and generous woman.
And because of the angst. I literally cried all the second part of the book. The emotional distress of the heroine was really strong and well represented. The abuses she had to suffer were really heartbreaking.
So, be careful because this is not a sweet love story, but a dark and painful one.
Twenty stars for Jenny the cook, who helped the heroine and said those marvelous things to the hero.
Sadly PJ doesn’t describe his face and his reaction to those well said words.
This hero really deserved something very nasty. Just because he thought the heroine deceived him when she was 16 (yes, 16, not 26, a teenager) he planned a cruel revenge, lent her money for her grandmothers surgery and then blackmailed her to become his mistress. She was emotionally scarred and in a state of severe distress by his behavior.
Nevertheless he treated her as dirt and abused her and debased her using her attraction for him to have sex with her.
He verbally abused her, slut shaming her even if he didn’t know anything about her.
I wish he had an accident and become impotent. This is what men like him deserve, nothing less.
In the end he apologizes for his behavior and tells her he never forgot her and their first kiss and he loves her.
No, I don’t believe it for a second.
And she was in love with him, so she forgave him in a minute. What??? Really???
You cannot be serious!
Why does she love him?
A man who only abused her???
Another woman with battered wife syndrome!
Who loves being abused!
I don’t believe those two will have a hea, he is too mean and hurt her too much, I don’t believe he ever loved her. He is a small mean and coward man.
And she’s a dependent victim.
So why 4 stars?
Because of Jenny the cook, brave and generous woman.
And because of the angst. I literally cried all the second part of the book. The emotional distress of the heroine was really strong and well represented. The abuses she had to suffer were really heartbreaking.
So, be careful because this is not a sweet love story, but a dark and painful one.
June 11, 2021
Not any better on re-read. I can't believe what a jerk he was. Such a bad person. And the poor heroine was treated so badly by him. Just not good. I really hated this book.
September 20, 2018
Read this for third time now. First I read this I was shaking my head - how and why did this get passed of as romance novel. It was not one and if anything Gideon is an unforgettable man, seriously the whole episode of the revenege took part in the last bit of the book but you felt the coming from the very begining. He did nothing but abuse the girl, what made it more galling was she was so innocent of all the blame and denying her innocent in every sense of the word. It was gripping read and he was lucky to even get Courage. He was obsessed with her and you know he was it just dynamic of the whole thing and how he was so cruel makes you feel her pain. Penny Jordan always gets in the heart and this is one of those book.
Like her name she going to need all the courage to see it through their HEA. At least she at end he didn't get full forgiveness and he has to work to get it. This was book you can't put down, I was gripped til the end.
Like her name she going to need all the courage to see it through their HEA. At least she at end he didn't get full forgiveness and he has to work to get it. This was book you can't put down, I was gripped til the end.
May 31, 2013
I read this one a long time ago and while I was flipping through Jordan's list I spotted this book. This one is pretty "Unforgettable" for the fact the so-called hero treated the heroine despicably.
Years earlier Gideon was working for some rich guy landscaping and he had the hots for the daughter. The said daughter sent Courage (author's joke?) in her stead for a pre-arranged assignation with the hero. The young heroine had a crush and went to tell Gideon the hot chick wasn't coming. Somehow she winds up in his arms making out when suddenly he discovers he has the wrong gal and flips. Brutally making mincemeat and mentally traumatizing the heroine.
The truth was the gal setup Gideon and Courage and let's her father dump the so-called-hero. He's bitter and carries this with him and acts on it when the two meet again.
He hires her, trapping her because she's desperate, forces her to have sex with him and she's unable to flee because he paid for a relative's (grandmother I think) surgery. He demeans and acts crazy jealous. I remember thinking this guy has some kind of psychosis. Totally weird, controlling, physical behavior.
Courage finally breaks away and Gideon gets religion. He does grovel but it's has this icky overtone to it.
What happens if she does something he doesn't like in the future?
I still shiver thinking about this one.
My take.
Years earlier Gideon was working for some rich guy landscaping and he had the hots for the daughter. The said daughter sent Courage (author's joke?) in her stead for a pre-arranged assignation with the hero. The young heroine had a crush and went to tell Gideon the hot chick wasn't coming. Somehow she winds up in his arms making out when suddenly he discovers he has the wrong gal and flips. Brutally making mincemeat and mentally traumatizing the heroine.
The truth was the gal setup Gideon and Courage and let's her father dump the so-called-hero. He's bitter and carries this with him and acts on it when the two meet again.
He hires her, trapping her because she's desperate, forces her to have sex with him and she's unable to flee because he paid for a relative's (grandmother I think) surgery. He demeans and acts crazy jealous. I remember thinking this guy has some kind of psychosis. Totally weird, controlling, physical behavior.
Courage finally breaks away and Gideon gets religion. He does grovel but it's has this icky overtone to it.
What happens if she does something he doesn't like in the future?
I still shiver thinking about this one.
My take.
July 8, 2021
This book was my first angsty romance, read it at the age of 17. Nowadays, I would never recommend this book to a teenager.
Unforgettable Man is very good and very bad at the same time, and it really IS difficult to rate. The Hero is not mean, but his misjudgement years ago caused that he treats heroine very bad Throughout the years, Gideon worked himself up from a gardener to a millionaire. He never forgot his first love - Courage. When she comes to ask for a job as his assistant, he is not afraid to do anything to keep her for himself. Not even blackmail.
For long years, this book was my most favorite and even today it's a little bittersweet. Yes, the Hero is one of the worst, but he just takes the angst further than the others. IRL I would absolutely agree with him being sued for what he did - as suggested in the book by one of the characters. In the book and fantasy life, I cheer for the love and second chance for Courage and Gideon. Either way, I'm talking nostalgy, here...
did-not-finished-or-abandoned
November 10, 2015I started to read this book in 2011 and I haven't finished it yet XD I left the book in chapter 9! I have almost finished reading it, but I don't know... I didn't feel the romance in this story, the hero is SO CRUEL, I think is one of the cruelest heros I have ever found in romance book, trust me! I think that is the only reason the book is called AN UNFORGETTABLE MAN, He is REALLLY UNFORGETTABLE!
XX
Updated
(March/15/2015)
XX
Updated
(March/15/2015)
January 9, 2010
I read this book in college, which was some time ago but I distinctly recall that the hero was AWFUL to the heroine pretty much up to the last 10 pages or so. It wasn't until someone else told him what really happened that he was all sweetness and nice. In fact I'm not quite sure why I still own this one. Perhaps as a reminder of what not to write, if I ever did.
December 5, 2021
All Aboard for another train wreck from PJ! This is love at first dusk and unrequited for 8 years! Oh and the heroine doesn’t even know the name of her nighttime romancer. The hero does the know the name of his midnight tryster, and he is hopping mad about it 8 years later.
This is the story of Courage and Gideon….a romance in the making for 8 years. Of course, first we have to get through about 170 odd pages of the hero being one of the jerkiest, cruelest heroes out there.
The h was 16 when she met the H. It was dark. She was there to give him a message. He was expecting someone else. They kissed. Things really started to heat up. In fact names weren’t even exchanged and the h was ready to cash in her v-card right there under the moonlight. They were interrupted by the h’s stepfather and stepsister. She took off to live with her grandmother in England. He was fired from his job working the grounds for the step-father. He believes she(a pampered boarding school brat) set him, an orphaned boy from the streets, up as some sort of twisted game. He is ready to exact his revenge.
He hires the h to manage his home. She signs a 2 year contract(didn’t read the fine print). She is surprised because she is getting a little bit of a hate vibe from the H. Or is it sexual? She needed this job to give her grandma a life saving operation. But the H does her one better and writes in a 10,000 loan for her to repay out her checks the next 2 years. It seems too good to be true…and of course it is.
Grandmother ends up having to get her surgery right away. Then she needs to go to a care facility. The H is very supportive. He suggest the h move into the apartment above the garage to save time. NO need to be in cottage without grandmama.
It is shortly after this that the two end up sleeping together. She realizes that he is man from 8 years ago. He, while sexing her up in the bedroom, keeps making jabs about her other lovers. He doesn’t even recognize that she is not faking the pain when he takes her virginity. He ends up going out of town, while she stays back and waxes lyrical about him.
Then when he comes back to town, he berates her for the the flowers left in the entryway. It seems the ow(who is a princess)he is bringing to stay is allergic. The h has no idea why he is being so mean. She finds out after he takes the pretty princess to the airport.
She tells him she missed him, and then tells him they have met before. He is like, Yeah, I know. Then he tells her this is a set up. He knows that she and her sister set him up, and probably had a good laugh. He knows that she is a slut and sleeps around. He demands that if she wants grandma to keep getting the care she needs that she will now slut around with him.
Of course she is outraged. She tries not to respond. But her body deceives her every time. Off page, they are having sex on a regular basis. She returns to her room every morning and he mocks her for it. Our h is getting more and more miserable. She is losing weight and looking gaunt. The motherly cook she hired is noticing the h’s demeanor. The h spills the beans. (Oh wow, I can’t believe a secondary character is getting all the depraved details). Jenny is outraged, and gives the h 12,000 dollars to tell the H to go f___ himself!
The H doesn’t take this calmly. He insists that she obviously slept with the male friend that visited her. He says all sorts of things and then….Jenny Happens!(Jenny became my hero!!!)
Jenny gives the best smack down speech I have read in a very a long time. Oh, and then she quits.
The h moves out and poor little man baby is left without a lover or a cook.
Several weeks later, Courage comes back to the cottage to see a gaunt looking H waiting for her. He talked to the grandma about the h’s youth. He realizes that she is not the tart he thought her to be. These last few pages are pretty intense. Each of them giving Oscar worthy speeches.
She basically telling him that she feels unclean after what he did. He tells her all his feelings, which are the exact same as hers. They continue to talk through everything. The first night they met all those years ago have haunted them both. Although it is doubtful the H was celibate, there is a high indication that he wasn’t bedding every beauty available. The h had really messed up his head/heart all those years ago with the passionate kissing. The last chapter was really a showstopper.
So I have left many things out. There are some unsettling things about the stepfather and the stepsister and their hand in all that transpired. These two are only talked about in past tense. I didn’t go into the H’s backstory either. Although I liked the name Courage, when reading it over and over in the story it would trip me up sometimes, and I was like oh yeah, that is her name.
Is this the worlds greatest romance? NOT AT ALL….the hero’s rough treatment of the sweet heroine is hard to swallow. I believe in their HEA, but this is one h who will not be allowed male friends.
This is again, one of those stories that most will either hate or love.
This is the story of Courage and Gideon….a romance in the making for 8 years. Of course, first we have to get through about 170 odd pages of the hero being one of the jerkiest, cruelest heroes out there.
The h was 16 when she met the H. It was dark. She was there to give him a message. He was expecting someone else. They kissed. Things really started to heat up. In fact names weren’t even exchanged and the h was ready to cash in her v-card right there under the moonlight. They were interrupted by the h’s stepfather and stepsister. She took off to live with her grandmother in England. He was fired from his job working the grounds for the step-father. He believes she(a pampered boarding school brat) set him, an orphaned boy from the streets, up as some sort of twisted game. He is ready to exact his revenge.
He hires the h to manage his home. She signs a 2 year contract(didn’t read the fine print). She is surprised because she is getting a little bit of a hate vibe from the H. Or is it sexual? She needed this job to give her grandma a life saving operation. But the H does her one better and writes in a 10,000 loan for her to repay out her checks the next 2 years. It seems too good to be true…and of course it is.
Grandmother ends up having to get her surgery right away. Then she needs to go to a care facility. The H is very supportive. He suggest the h move into the apartment above the garage to save time. NO need to be in cottage without grandmama.
It is shortly after this that the two end up sleeping together. She realizes that he is man from 8 years ago. He, while sexing her up in the bedroom, keeps making jabs about her other lovers. He doesn’t even recognize that she is not faking the pain when he takes her virginity. He ends up going out of town, while she stays back and waxes lyrical about him.
Then when he comes back to town, he berates her for the the flowers left in the entryway. It seems the ow(who is a princess)he is bringing to stay is allergic. The h has no idea why he is being so mean. She finds out after he takes the pretty princess to the airport.
She tells him she missed him, and then tells him they have met before. He is like, Yeah, I know. Then he tells her this is a set up. He knows that she and her sister set him up, and probably had a good laugh. He knows that she is a slut and sleeps around. He demands that if she wants grandma to keep getting the care she needs that she will now slut around with him.
Of course she is outraged. She tries not to respond. But her body deceives her every time. Off page, they are having sex on a regular basis. She returns to her room every morning and he mocks her for it. Our h is getting more and more miserable. She is losing weight and looking gaunt. The motherly cook she hired is noticing the h’s demeanor. The h spills the beans. (Oh wow, I can’t believe a secondary character is getting all the depraved details). Jenny is outraged, and gives the h 12,000 dollars to tell the H to go f___ himself!
The H doesn’t take this calmly. He insists that she obviously slept with the male friend that visited her. He says all sorts of things and then….Jenny Happens!(Jenny became my hero!!!)
Jenny gives the best smack down speech I have read in a very a long time. Oh, and then she quits.
The h moves out and poor little man baby is left without a lover or a cook.
Several weeks later, Courage comes back to the cottage to see a gaunt looking H waiting for her. He talked to the grandma about the h’s youth. He realizes that she is not the tart he thought her to be. These last few pages are pretty intense. Each of them giving Oscar worthy speeches.
She basically telling him that she feels unclean after what he did. He tells her all his feelings, which are the exact same as hers. They continue to talk through everything. The first night they met all those years ago have haunted them both. Although it is doubtful the H was celibate, there is a high indication that he wasn’t bedding every beauty available. The h had really messed up his head/heart all those years ago with the passionate kissing. The last chapter was really a showstopper.
So I have left many things out. There are some unsettling things about the stepfather and the stepsister and their hand in all that transpired. These two are only talked about in past tense. I didn’t go into the H’s backstory either. Although I liked the name Courage, when reading it over and over in the story it would trip me up sometimes, and I was like oh yeah, that is her name.
Is this the worlds greatest romance? NOT AT ALL….the hero’s rough treatment of the sweet heroine is hard to swallow. I believe in their HEA, but this is one h who will not be allowed male friends.
This is again, one of those stories that most will either hate or love.
February 27, 2020
I am giving this three stars mostly for the angst. Oh, how I love angst! I will probably read more books by this author simply for the angst, because I've been deprived of it for so long.
The story itself, I will give it 1.5 stars.
This is a revenge story (which I do like to read)--the hero's revenge on the heroine for, what he believed, ruining his life when they were both teenagers. He is a huge jerk to the heroine now that he's her boss. After working with him for a few weeks or months, she's suddenly in love with him. Like, how can she be when he's done nothing except order her around and accuse her of being a whore??? He loans her $10,000 so she could pay for her grandmother's operation but then tells her to sleep with him (because he knows she wants him and he wants her, too) until he tires of her or until she can repay the loan. Her body betrays her each time and so she does. Not much groveling on the hero's part when he learns the truth about her character (that she's not a whore) and the heroine forgave him too easily. The love scenes are not that long nor descriptive, which was fine with me. Oh, and this all takes place in England, I think! lol I think this author sets all of her books in England.
The story itself, I will give it 1.5 stars.
This is a revenge story (which I do like to read)--the hero's revenge on the heroine for, what he believed, ruining his life when they were both teenagers. He is a huge jerk to the heroine now that he's her boss. After working with him for a few weeks or months, she's suddenly in love with him. Like, how can she be when he's done nothing except order her around and accuse her of being a whore??? He loans her $10,000 so she could pay for her grandmother's operation but then tells her to sleep with him (because he knows she wants him and he wants her, too) until he tires of her or until she can repay the loan. Her body betrays her each time and so she does. Not much groveling on the hero's part when he learns the truth about her character (that she's not a whore) and the heroine forgave him too easily. The love scenes are not that long nor descriptive, which was fine with me. Oh, and this all takes place in England, I think! lol I think this author sets all of her books in England.
February 26, 2022
Excellent writing, though I wanted to strangle heroine by the end. Too much angst (never ending). It was all about the heroine, reminded me of teenage years, does he love me, does he not, and on and on it goes.
I guess PJ is not my "cup of tea", I prefer Kay Thorpe/Robyn Donald/Yvonne Whittal.
I guess PJ is not my "cup of tea", I prefer Kay Thorpe/Robyn Donald/Yvonne Whittal.
February 5, 2023
Re-read and still 4 stars!
It can’t be more even if I loved the angst in it because H was exactly like Jenny the cook described him: you are a bully and a sadist, and even worse you’re apparently incapable of compassion or understanding…’
It can’t be more even if I loved the angst in it because H was exactly like Jenny the cook described him: you are a bully and a sadist, and even worse you’re apparently incapable of compassion or understanding…’
November 28, 2011
Yes, the hero was incredibly mean and there is absolutely no way the heroine should have fallen in love with him. Nonetheless, lots of emotional tension and angst, so still a compelling read, even if the hero isn't very likeable.
May 16, 2016
Love the drama and angst of an old skool HP!
Want to read
August 23, 2015*giggling* Wow, this H's got quite a reputation... *rubs hands*
February 2, 2021
3 Stars ~ I enjoy reading a romance written by Penny Jordan. Each book written, guarantees a roller coaster of a ride of intense emotion. From loathing and hate to passion and enduring love.
The book cover synopsis gives a pretty good background to Courage and Gideon's past. Their first encounter changed both of them, effecting their lives in often harsh and hurtful ways. It powered Gideon's determination to succeed and Courage's stand-offish relationships with men.
While at times Ms Jordan's story held me captive, there are definite moments where I wished she'd gone a different way. Upon meeting Gideon, Courage knows there is something about him that rings her alarm bells, but she doesn't truly recognize him for the boy in the summerhouse until he seduces her. But Gideon has always known who she is and has callously calculated an humiliating revenge for his own humiliating and brutal experience at what he had then thought was Courage's manipulation. He uses Courage's vulnerability to gain control and then bastardly blackmails her into his bed.
But Gideon has become obsessed with Courage and can't keep himself from torturing her. It's when a lifeline presents itself, and Courage manages to escape, that he is forced to face his brutal behavior. While Ms Jordan hints that he's been suffering too especially once he's seen how wrongful his beliefs had been, we didn't really see his suffering. After the brutality, this reader needed more comeuppance and a groveling that lasted more than a few paragraphs. I was disappointed in the HEA because it just seemed that Gideon got off too easy.
The book cover synopsis gives a pretty good background to Courage and Gideon's past. Their first encounter changed both of them, effecting their lives in often harsh and hurtful ways. It powered Gideon's determination to succeed and Courage's stand-offish relationships with men.
While at times Ms Jordan's story held me captive, there are definite moments where I wished she'd gone a different way. Upon meeting Gideon, Courage knows there is something about him that rings her alarm bells, but she doesn't truly recognize him for the boy in the summerhouse until he seduces her. But Gideon has always known who she is and has callously calculated an humiliating revenge for his own humiliating and brutal experience at what he had then thought was Courage's manipulation. He uses Courage's vulnerability to gain control and then bastardly blackmails her into his bed.
But Gideon has become obsessed with Courage and can't keep himself from torturing her. It's when a lifeline presents itself, and Courage manages to escape, that he is forced to face his brutal behavior. While Ms Jordan hints that he's been suffering too especially once he's seen how wrongful his beliefs had been, we didn't really see his suffering. After the brutality, this reader needed more comeuppance and a groveling that lasted more than a few paragraphs. I was disappointed in the HEA because it just seemed that Gideon got off too easy.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 19, 2021
Look, I don’t think anyone was surprised about who these two were to each other. 👀😅
You know what I WAS surprised about? After the H smexxes up the h for the 1st time (FINALLY), he abandons her the next day to go cavorting around with a beautiful rich widow for a few days, supposedly for business. 👀 No contact with the h. 😐 He brings said woman back to his house where the h works. He flirts with this woman and treats her very intimately in front of the h. 🤨 He even takes her out on dates, to dinner and to a nightclub, and stays out with her all night, staying in the city. 😐 The h is worried about this but keeps justifying the behavior. 🙄 Mind you, during this time, he has been completely cold and unfeeling toward the h, like their sexual encounter didn’t happen. Well, when the h and H finally talk out their relationship at the end, the h NEVER ASKS HIM ABOUT THAT WOMAN. 👀 Uh…
Girlfriend. 👀 You need an explanation from this jackass. 😐
I can overlook the coercive smexx 😈 and completely obtuse stubbornness of the H , but her lack of questions and his lack of explanations during his grovel, dropped this a star.
Bottom Line? ⭐️⭐️⭐️ interesting plot but I don’t like questions about OW unanswered. I’d even take an infuriating answer. But no questions or volunteered answers? Nah.
⚠️SAFETY SQUAD SPOILERS⚠️
- no on-page cheating, but there was implied cheating that was never explained
- no sharing
- dubcon - H blackmails her into sex, basically
- OW drama
- OM drama
- h is a virgin
You know what I WAS surprised about? After the H smexxes up the h for the 1st time (FINALLY), he abandons her the next day to go cavorting around with a beautiful rich widow for a few days, supposedly for business. 👀 No contact with the h. 😐 He brings said woman back to his house where the h works. He flirts with this woman and treats her very intimately in front of the h. 🤨 He even takes her out on dates, to dinner and to a nightclub, and stays out with her all night, staying in the city. 😐 The h is worried about this but keeps justifying the behavior. 🙄 Mind you, during this time, he has been completely cold and unfeeling toward the h, like their sexual encounter didn’t happen. Well, when the h and H finally talk out their relationship at the end, the h NEVER ASKS HIM ABOUT THAT WOMAN. 👀 Uh…
Girlfriend. 👀 You need an explanation from this jackass. 😐
I can overlook the coercive smexx 😈 and completely obtuse stubbornness of the H , but her lack of questions and his lack of explanations during his grovel, dropped this a star.
Bottom Line? ⭐️⭐️⭐️ interesting plot but I don’t like questions about OW unanswered. I’d even take an infuriating answer. But no questions or volunteered answers? Nah.
⚠️SAFETY SQUAD SPOILERS⚠️
- no on-page cheating, but there was implied cheating that was never explained
- no sharing
- dubcon - H blackmails her into sex, basically
- OW drama
- OM drama
- h is a virgin
June 18, 2015
I’ve read so many of Jordan’s novels now but this example from 1995 is Jordan at her very, very best. Be advised, however, this is not your traditional Mills and Boon and there are some distinctly uncomfortable scenes in this offering which stretched the experience of bricholet (the pleasure romance readers take in knowing exactly where they are and what is going to happen next) to breaking point.
So, the story is as follows: Courage (a misnomer if ever there was one) gives up her highly paid, high-flying job in the hotel industry to return home to Dorset to look after her ailing Gran. Needing money for her Gran’s operation, she accepts a job with Gideon Reynolds (a man she admits to being afraid of from the beginning) and also accepts a loan from him to pay for her Gran’s surgery. Now Courage, despite telling us that she’s very professional, is very romantic at heart and has secretly cherished a dream romance with a man she encountered almost accidentally in a summer house when she was 16. This man (the gardener’s assistant) had kissed her believing her to be someone else and she had immediately fallen in love with him (although he, unfortunately got the sack after their tryst was discovered).
A decade or so later and Courage thinks there might be something familiar about Gideon (hmm... what can it be?) Well, when he kisses her, she realises. When he gets a bit more familiar with her, she’s absolutely certain that the last time she didn’t see him was in a summer house in the pitch black, doing something very similar. Gideon, unfortunately, has realised who she is from the very beginning and is out to punish her (for getting him the sack). His mode of punishment is not nice at all and makes for some very uncomfortable reading.
There are a lot of things going on in this book – first of all, Jordan has all her usual knowledgeable information about the stately home Gideon is living in, tapping into popular (if slightly old-fashioned ideas) about how self-made millionaires attempt to buy their way into high society. Gideon might be rich, but he’s not quite there in terms of really being upper class (his Aubusson carpet wasn’t designed to match the room for instance). What Gideon needs is an impoverished upper-class lass to marry – a paragraph later, it is revealed that Courage is one such member of the aristocracy (and could be just what he is looking for – what luck!) Secondly, Jordan taps into the usual fashion mores and popular culture of the time – from talking about 1990s fashions in the black and white leggings and boxy top Courage wears to clean a room to referencing the Gulf War and its after-effects.
Jordan also does something which I’ve never noticed her do before – she puts herself in the novel. The novel features an older, much wiser woman (“Jenny”) who eventually saves Courage from Gideon’s machinations. Jenny gives Courage all kinds of advice and insight into how she feels as an older woman and I couldn’t help but compare it to the novels of Charlotte Turner Smith (18th Century Romance writer) who always placed herself in her novels in the role of giving advice to the benighted heroine. It just shows that there’s not that much of a gap between respected “Romance” of the 18th C, which academics are so keen to tell us are worth reading and “romance” with a small “r” which is just seen as trash. In addition to this, she also adds a really Gothic strain to the text – Gideon is a bad, bad man – capable of anything – and we’re aware of that from the very beginning. Jordan gives us a big clue in the following:
“For all she knew, Gideon Reynolds, too, could be like them. Outwardly lauded and respected but inwardly, secretly...
It was true there had been nothing in the financial press to suggest that his business success was based on anything other than flair and nerve; nothing to say that he had prospered through the same kind of fraudulent dishonesty as her stepfather. But there was still something about him that made her almost glad that she was not going to get the job. A sense of ... not fear, exactly... More... more apprehension... A feeling of being mentally circled by the mind of a predator.”
It might be true that there is nothing negative in the press about him, but as Jenny later observes, he should be “imprisoned and disgraced” for what he does to Courage.
The romance element of this novel is where it falls down. Courage has spent her life cherishing a romantic dream but the reality is Hell. Gideon is not at all the lover she has believed him to be – and it’s something that in the limited word count of a Mills and Boon, Gideon cannot come back from. He doesn’t deserve Courage and anyone sane would tell him to be taking a long walk off a short pier after what he’s done to her, instead of agreeing to marry him. But it’s a Mills and Boon – so Jordan has no choice but to end with the traditional “happy” ending. If this had been a longer novel, Jordan would have been able to effect a happy ending and dissipated the readers’ doubts; but in 50k of words, it can’t be done. However, this does astutely bare the device again, and illustrate the disparity between a fictional romance and reality, very nicely. This is an incredibly literary Mills and Boon with loads going on – Jordan at her best. But be warned! Gideon is not a nice man and you’re going to end up hating him and Courage for docilely agreeing to marry him at the end.
So, the story is as follows: Courage (a misnomer if ever there was one) gives up her highly paid, high-flying job in the hotel industry to return home to Dorset to look after her ailing Gran. Needing money for her Gran’s operation, she accepts a job with Gideon Reynolds (a man she admits to being afraid of from the beginning) and also accepts a loan from him to pay for her Gran’s surgery. Now Courage, despite telling us that she’s very professional, is very romantic at heart and has secretly cherished a dream romance with a man she encountered almost accidentally in a summer house when she was 16. This man (the gardener’s assistant) had kissed her believing her to be someone else and she had immediately fallen in love with him (although he, unfortunately got the sack after their tryst was discovered).
A decade or so later and Courage thinks there might be something familiar about Gideon (hmm... what can it be?) Well, when he kisses her, she realises. When he gets a bit more familiar with her, she’s absolutely certain that the last time she didn’t see him was in a summer house in the pitch black, doing something very similar. Gideon, unfortunately, has realised who she is from the very beginning and is out to punish her (for getting him the sack). His mode of punishment is not nice at all and makes for some very uncomfortable reading.
There are a lot of things going on in this book – first of all, Jordan has all her usual knowledgeable information about the stately home Gideon is living in, tapping into popular (if slightly old-fashioned ideas) about how self-made millionaires attempt to buy their way into high society. Gideon might be rich, but he’s not quite there in terms of really being upper class (his Aubusson carpet wasn’t designed to match the room for instance). What Gideon needs is an impoverished upper-class lass to marry – a paragraph later, it is revealed that Courage is one such member of the aristocracy (and could be just what he is looking for – what luck!) Secondly, Jordan taps into the usual fashion mores and popular culture of the time – from talking about 1990s fashions in the black and white leggings and boxy top Courage wears to clean a room to referencing the Gulf War and its after-effects.
Jordan also does something which I’ve never noticed her do before – she puts herself in the novel. The novel features an older, much wiser woman (“Jenny”) who eventually saves Courage from Gideon’s machinations. Jenny gives Courage all kinds of advice and insight into how she feels as an older woman and I couldn’t help but compare it to the novels of Charlotte Turner Smith (18th Century Romance writer) who always placed herself in her novels in the role of giving advice to the benighted heroine. It just shows that there’s not that much of a gap between respected “Romance” of the 18th C, which academics are so keen to tell us are worth reading and “romance” with a small “r” which is just seen as trash. In addition to this, she also adds a really Gothic strain to the text – Gideon is a bad, bad man – capable of anything – and we’re aware of that from the very beginning. Jordan gives us a big clue in the following:
“For all she knew, Gideon Reynolds, too, could be like them. Outwardly lauded and respected but inwardly, secretly...
It was true there had been nothing in the financial press to suggest that his business success was based on anything other than flair and nerve; nothing to say that he had prospered through the same kind of fraudulent dishonesty as her stepfather. But there was still something about him that made her almost glad that she was not going to get the job. A sense of ... not fear, exactly... More... more apprehension... A feeling of being mentally circled by the mind of a predator.”
It might be true that there is nothing negative in the press about him, but as Jenny later observes, he should be “imprisoned and disgraced” for what he does to Courage.
The romance element of this novel is where it falls down. Courage has spent her life cherishing a romantic dream but the reality is Hell. Gideon is not at all the lover she has believed him to be – and it’s something that in the limited word count of a Mills and Boon, Gideon cannot come back from. He doesn’t deserve Courage and anyone sane would tell him to be taking a long walk off a short pier after what he’s done to her, instead of agreeing to marry him. But it’s a Mills and Boon – so Jordan has no choice but to end with the traditional “happy” ending. If this had been a longer novel, Jordan would have been able to effect a happy ending and dissipated the readers’ doubts; but in 50k of words, it can’t be done. However, this does astutely bare the device again, and illustrate the disparity between a fictional romance and reality, very nicely. This is an incredibly literary Mills and Boon with loads going on – Jordan at her best. But be warned! Gideon is not a nice man and you’re going to end up hating him and Courage for docilely agreeing to marry him at the end.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 90 reviews