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To Fill A Silence
Had he married her on impulse?
Nick Rosney, celebrated television reporter, had acted as if his marriage to eighteen-year-old Belle Tyler were some sort of joke, a stunt to shock his friends.
Belle's feelings for Nick had always been more than infatuation. For her his casual indifference had been no laughing matter, and she had left him after six months. Now, five years later in bustling Taipei, they'd met again on business.
Belle, a free-lance radio reporter, was older and wiser. She could see Nick had lost none of his charm--and he was just as impulsive as ever!
Nick Rosney, celebrated television reporter, had acted as if his marriage to eighteen-year-old Belle Tyler were some sort of joke, a stunt to shock his friends.
Belle's feelings for Nick had always been more than infatuation. For her his casual indifference had been no laughing matter, and she had left him after six months. Now, five years later in bustling Taipei, they'd met again on business.
Belle, a free-lance radio reporter, was older and wiser. She could see Nick had lost none of his charm--and he was just as impulsive as ever!
192 pages, Paperback
Published August 1, 1986
1 person is currently reading
53 people want to read
About the author
Jayne Bauling
58 books71 followersJayne was born in England but grew up in South Africa. After many years in Johannesburg and 17 women's fiction novels published in the UK, a move to White River, Mbombela in Mpumalanga, coincided with an exploration of new writing directions - youth fiction, short stories and poetry. Her YA novel E Eights won the 2009 Macmillan Writer's Prize for Africa, Stepping Solo was awarded the 2011 Maskew Miller Longman literature award for novels in English, and Dreaming of Light won the 2012 Gold Sanlam Prize for Youth Literature and was chosen for the 2014 IBBY Honour List. Her youth short story Dineo 658 MP won the 2009 MML silver medal, while This Ubuntu Thing was shortlisted for the inaugural Golden Baobab award and The Saturday Dress was shortlisted for the same award in 2014. In 2011 she also won the inaugural African Writing flash fiction prize for Settling. She has twice been shortlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize. Another youth novel Our Side of the Wall was shortlisted for the Sanlam Prize. Her adult short stories have appeared in The Bed Book of Short Stories (Modjaji Books), The Edge of Things (Dye Hard Press), African Pens 2011 (Jacana), Feast, Famine & Potluck (Short Story Day Africa), the e-anthology Behind the Shadows, and (the stories An Inappropriate Woman and Witch and Bitch)in the People Opposing Women Abuse Breaking the Silence annual anthologies (Jacana). Rage and Misfortune, her retelling of the OT Samson story was published online by Ludic Press. Poetry: Symbiosis won SAFM's Express Yourself prize, Fist was placed 3rd in the 2008 POWA Women's Writing Project and published in Murmurs of the Girl in Me, while Unschooled was published in POWA's 2010 anthology Stories of the Othere(ed) Woman and The Ladies Take Tea in POWA's 2012 anthology Sisterhood. More poetry in ouroboros review, Markings, poetandgeek, Ons Klyntji, Litnet and the Lowvelder.
Her latest novel is Soccer Secrets (Cover2Cover Books).
Visit her Facebook page Jayne Bauling Writer or follow her on Twitter @JayneBauling
Her latest novel is Soccer Secrets (Cover2Cover Books).
Visit her Facebook page Jayne Bauling Writer or follow her on Twitter @JayneBauling
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
April 10, 2016
Re To Fill A Silence - This is probably one of the most aptly named HP's in all of HPLandia. In Rage to Possess, JB brought us the physically violent dark side of uncontrolled passion between an H who is far more emotive and expressive than his more shy and reserved h.
TFAS is the opposite side of the dark passion coin. It has an H who is so controlled he appears indifferent, and his seeming indifference holds just as much angst filled trauma for his very emotional and giving h as the h in RTP experienced.
The story starts with the 24 yr old freelance radio reporter h coming home exhausted from a long day in her Taiwanese office only to be greeted by her fellow flat mates and the sardonic smile of her ex-husband. She is shattered by his appearance in her life after six years, but is unable to show it.
She had married the H at 18, wildly romantic and in love, only to be continually rejected in multiple ways by him, and the rejections were interspersed with continual worries about his safety as he was a roving war reporter and frequently got into very hazardous situations on his numerous overseas jaunts.
The h originally met the H when she was sent to interview him as a junior staffer for a women's magazine. Her boss got a sudden attack of appendicitis, and not wanting to lose the interview with such a preeminent war reporter, she sent the h in her place. The H took a liking to her and asked her out, she figures it was because she was 18, innocent and still carrying some teenage pudginess. She was completely different from his multiple women and she fell head over heels in just one interview. They date continuously for a week with nothing more than some nice kisses exchanged.
The h is ready to drag the H off to bed, but he proposes instead. He makes the proposal and marriage seem like a fun lark or adventure, and the h is so stuck on him, she says yes in a haze of loving delirium. Slowly over the next six months the infatuation fades, reality turns cruel and the h and H's relationship deteriorates.
She loves him madly and is wildly physically passionate about him, but when she tries to express that, the H cuts her off or changes the subject. He becomes very impersonal and mechanical during physical intimacy and when the h tearfully demands explanations, he pushes her away - to the point where he is sleeping in another room to be alone when she wants to be ravished. The h is ashamed about her emotional outbursts and demands, but she is only 18, insecure and can't seem to help the emotionalism.
The H's deliberate and continual rejections lead the h to assume that he married her for an amusing moment to shock his sophisticated friends because he was bored. She feels a huge sense of shame that she wants him so badly and he is merely tolerating her. She assumes his indifference comes from being raised by his parents.
The h only meets them once but the H's parents are uninterested and very distant to people. There are numerous hints that the H was frequently rebuffed by them when he was younger, as they did not want him interfering with their own lives and this lead to him being a completely emotionally vacant person. It seems he just doesn't feel love or affection for anyone really.
The h begins to notice that the H has two very different personas. On one hand he is an ardent journalistic chronicler of the abused and dispossessed. He frequently reports on populations that are being suppressed and exposed to authoritative violence and does big exposes on atrocities.
On the other hand, he can never sit still, he is always restless when not on assignment and frequently bored. He always surrounds himself with sophisticated, witty, emotionally empty people and the h concludes that he gives so much to his occupation, he just doesn't have anything left for a personal relationship.
When the H takes an assignment overseas after promising her he will spend her 19th birthday with only her and not her and a crowd of other people, the h gives him an ultimatum. He either keeps his promise to her and stays for her birthday or she will leave him. The H walks out and the h finally realizes that the H was waiting for her to acknowledge his indifference and boredom with her and leave him - it makes her the bad guy for giving up and leaves his conscience in the clear.
The h does leave and the H arranges for a rapid divorce. The h refuses any type of financial settlement and then she gives up her magazine job in favor of freelance reporting all over the world. She becomes a lot more sophisticated and mature, but she carries a huge sense of failure and guilt from not being able to succeed at her marriage and continually blames herself for being such a bad wife.
When she sees the H again and he wants her help to meet story sources in Taipei, she feels the same love all over again, and though she tries to avoid it, she can't help getting involved with the H again. They wind up spending a lot time on his story research, and the h is put through all kinds of jealous torment, (even tho she tells herself she has no right to be,) seeing the H with his former lovers, two of which are on assignment with him.
The H makes no bones about wanting to sleep with her again, but the h just can't handle it and refuses. They come close a few times, but a phone call for the H to go and do a story interrupt them. The H also apologizes for marrying her once or twice, he seems to think she just had some youthful infatuation for him and dumped him like rotten fruit after she got over the hero-worship, and he is sorry for taking advantage of it.
She tells him a few times about how she resented and still resents him for his treatment of her and his reinserting himself into her life. The H never seems to get that he really broke her heart and is still breaking it now.
This time it is the h who keeps rejecting the H and she does her best to keep her six yr old unrequited love under control. Then the H goes out to do a sad story about boat refugees being turned away from asylum and sent back to a miserable existence in a camp. He is gone several days and upon his return he shows up at a big party full of the ex-pat news people and the h realizes he is about to go into meltdown. (It seems the H also carries around a bit of PTSD when he returns from his assignments and needs some quiet time to re-assimilate, but he hates being alone at these times.)
She steps in while his former lover's get into a verbal fight, and takes him away from the party. They go to a small but very beautiful Taiwanese retreat and they stay at a resort hotel. The H is nervous and jumpy and he and the h wind up in bed.
He is wildly passionate and responsive like he never was except on the original wedding night, and after the big physical reunion, the H confesses that he is obsessively in love with her and has been since he met her. She was really young tho, and he figured her feelings were more lust and infatuation and hero worship rather than true love. So he rejected her to protect his feelings, just as he did with his parents when they rebuffed him as a child and he has been desperately missing her for all this time. He deliberately sought her out just to be with her again.
The h cries and explains that she is in the same situation as she loves him and has for all this time, but he can't say the words " I love you." This time around he has no problems showing it tho, more passion ensues and the H finally tells her he loves her and then can't stop saying it.
They decide to remarry, report the news all over the world together and maybe have a kid or three. The angst is forgotten as the sun shines and rainbows sparkle over HPLandia once again, cause now the H and h are actually communicating with each other instead of hiding or making general conversation to fill the silence to protect their feelings and pride.
If you read this one, I recommend that Rage To Possess and TFAS be read back to back to get the full effect of JB's remarkable ability to draw out dramatic conflict. One book is the extreme of violent passion expressed and the other is it's opposite - violent passion suppressed. But both stories are masterworks of drawing out the emotional tension of tormented love affairs, (and the wrecky angst that is what we REALLY visit HPLandia for.)
RTP is much, much more violent in its story line conflict, but TFAS is really the more angst inducing of the two. TFAS is also probably the better written drama, as this H is never, not once violent or rapey or physically abusive. He is the master of self-controlled indifference and the effect it has on the h makes for a more emotionally wrought story as his seeming ennui makes the h's feelings even more desperate.
JB has no H pov in this one, and I think that was a wise choice, it heightens the conflict and drama and so the HEA has a lot more impact. However, once again JB manages to SHOW why the H is the way he is, and she has a talent for complete characterizations in just a few descriptive sentences and actions.
I vacillate between love and hate with TFAS just as much as I do with RTP. The h's anguish and pain is drawn out for a really long time and I wanted to yell at her to move on, all while feeling incredibly sad for her too.
However JB manages to convince me of the H's feelings in the end, much like RTP, and so while I hate and get frustrated with the h's endless longing and pain, the HEA is a huge payoff that I actually believe and so this joins RTP as a permanent keeper for many return voyages to HPlandia.
TFAS is the opposite side of the dark passion coin. It has an H who is so controlled he appears indifferent, and his seeming indifference holds just as much angst filled trauma for his very emotional and giving h as the h in RTP experienced.
The story starts with the 24 yr old freelance radio reporter h coming home exhausted from a long day in her Taiwanese office only to be greeted by her fellow flat mates and the sardonic smile of her ex-husband. She is shattered by his appearance in her life after six years, but is unable to show it.
She had married the H at 18, wildly romantic and in love, only to be continually rejected in multiple ways by him, and the rejections were interspersed with continual worries about his safety as he was a roving war reporter and frequently got into very hazardous situations on his numerous overseas jaunts.
The h originally met the H when she was sent to interview him as a junior staffer for a women's magazine. Her boss got a sudden attack of appendicitis, and not wanting to lose the interview with such a preeminent war reporter, she sent the h in her place. The H took a liking to her and asked her out, she figures it was because she was 18, innocent and still carrying some teenage pudginess. She was completely different from his multiple women and she fell head over heels in just one interview. They date continuously for a week with nothing more than some nice kisses exchanged.
The h is ready to drag the H off to bed, but he proposes instead. He makes the proposal and marriage seem like a fun lark or adventure, and the h is so stuck on him, she says yes in a haze of loving delirium. Slowly over the next six months the infatuation fades, reality turns cruel and the h and H's relationship deteriorates.
She loves him madly and is wildly physically passionate about him, but when she tries to express that, the H cuts her off or changes the subject. He becomes very impersonal and mechanical during physical intimacy and when the h tearfully demands explanations, he pushes her away - to the point where he is sleeping in another room to be alone when she wants to be ravished. The h is ashamed about her emotional outbursts and demands, but she is only 18, insecure and can't seem to help the emotionalism.
The H's deliberate and continual rejections lead the h to assume that he married her for an amusing moment to shock his sophisticated friends because he was bored. She feels a huge sense of shame that she wants him so badly and he is merely tolerating her. She assumes his indifference comes from being raised by his parents.
The h only meets them once but the H's parents are uninterested and very distant to people. There are numerous hints that the H was frequently rebuffed by them when he was younger, as they did not want him interfering with their own lives and this lead to him being a completely emotionally vacant person. It seems he just doesn't feel love or affection for anyone really.
The h begins to notice that the H has two very different personas. On one hand he is an ardent journalistic chronicler of the abused and dispossessed. He frequently reports on populations that are being suppressed and exposed to authoritative violence and does big exposes on atrocities.
On the other hand, he can never sit still, he is always restless when not on assignment and frequently bored. He always surrounds himself with sophisticated, witty, emotionally empty people and the h concludes that he gives so much to his occupation, he just doesn't have anything left for a personal relationship.
When the H takes an assignment overseas after promising her he will spend her 19th birthday with only her and not her and a crowd of other people, the h gives him an ultimatum. He either keeps his promise to her and stays for her birthday or she will leave him. The H walks out and the h finally realizes that the H was waiting for her to acknowledge his indifference and boredom with her and leave him - it makes her the bad guy for giving up and leaves his conscience in the clear.
The h does leave and the H arranges for a rapid divorce. The h refuses any type of financial settlement and then she gives up her magazine job in favor of freelance reporting all over the world. She becomes a lot more sophisticated and mature, but she carries a huge sense of failure and guilt from not being able to succeed at her marriage and continually blames herself for being such a bad wife.
When she sees the H again and he wants her help to meet story sources in Taipei, she feels the same love all over again, and though she tries to avoid it, she can't help getting involved with the H again. They wind up spending a lot time on his story research, and the h is put through all kinds of jealous torment, (even tho she tells herself she has no right to be,) seeing the H with his former lovers, two of which are on assignment with him.
The H makes no bones about wanting to sleep with her again, but the h just can't handle it and refuses. They come close a few times, but a phone call for the H to go and do a story interrupt them. The H also apologizes for marrying her once or twice, he seems to think she just had some youthful infatuation for him and dumped him like rotten fruit after she got over the hero-worship, and he is sorry for taking advantage of it.
She tells him a few times about how she resented and still resents him for his treatment of her and his reinserting himself into her life. The H never seems to get that he really broke her heart and is still breaking it now.
This time it is the h who keeps rejecting the H and she does her best to keep her six yr old unrequited love under control. Then the H goes out to do a sad story about boat refugees being turned away from asylum and sent back to a miserable existence in a camp. He is gone several days and upon his return he shows up at a big party full of the ex-pat news people and the h realizes he is about to go into meltdown. (It seems the H also carries around a bit of PTSD when he returns from his assignments and needs some quiet time to re-assimilate, but he hates being alone at these times.)
She steps in while his former lover's get into a verbal fight, and takes him away from the party. They go to a small but very beautiful Taiwanese retreat and they stay at a resort hotel. The H is nervous and jumpy and he and the h wind up in bed.
He is wildly passionate and responsive like he never was except on the original wedding night, and after the big physical reunion, the H confesses that he is obsessively in love with her and has been since he met her. She was really young tho, and he figured her feelings were more lust and infatuation and hero worship rather than true love. So he rejected her to protect his feelings, just as he did with his parents when they rebuffed him as a child and he has been desperately missing her for all this time. He deliberately sought her out just to be with her again.
The h cries and explains that she is in the same situation as she loves him and has for all this time, but he can't say the words " I love you." This time around he has no problems showing it tho, more passion ensues and the H finally tells her he loves her and then can't stop saying it.
They decide to remarry, report the news all over the world together and maybe have a kid or three. The angst is forgotten as the sun shines and rainbows sparkle over HPLandia once again, cause now the H and h are actually communicating with each other instead of hiding or making general conversation to fill the silence to protect their feelings and pride.
If you read this one, I recommend that Rage To Possess and TFAS be read back to back to get the full effect of JB's remarkable ability to draw out dramatic conflict. One book is the extreme of violent passion expressed and the other is it's opposite - violent passion suppressed. But both stories are masterworks of drawing out the emotional tension of tormented love affairs, (and the wrecky angst that is what we REALLY visit HPLandia for.)
RTP is much, much more violent in its story line conflict, but TFAS is really the more angst inducing of the two. TFAS is also probably the better written drama, as this H is never, not once violent or rapey or physically abusive. He is the master of self-controlled indifference and the effect it has on the h makes for a more emotionally wrought story as his seeming ennui makes the h's feelings even more desperate.
JB has no H pov in this one, and I think that was a wise choice, it heightens the conflict and drama and so the HEA has a lot more impact. However, once again JB manages to SHOW why the H is the way he is, and she has a talent for complete characterizations in just a few descriptive sentences and actions.
I vacillate between love and hate with TFAS just as much as I do with RTP. The h's anguish and pain is drawn out for a really long time and I wanted to yell at her to move on, all while feeling incredibly sad for her too.
However JB manages to convince me of the H's feelings in the end, much like RTP, and so while I hate and get frustrated with the h's endless longing and pain, the HEA is a huge payoff that I actually believe and so this joins RTP as a permanent keeper for many return voyages to HPlandia.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 26, 2016
A second chance story, set in Taiwan. I know. I know. What does the setting have to do with the central conflict? Not much, overtly - but there is a lot of travelogue filler about Taiwan and its history with mainland China. This uneasy relationship between the countries could be symbolic of the H/h - (the h is Taiwan, a young country asserting its independence, etc . . . )but it's a stretch.
So central conflict - the journalists H/h married when h was 18 after a whirlwind courtship. H is a front lines war correspondent. Heroine was writing features for a woman's magazine when she was sent to interview him. She was smitten from the start and has never gotten over him. Hero was cold emotionally and in flashbacks we see how he entertained the notion that the heroine was just infatuated with him and that it would soon end.
It did on the h's 19th birthday. Now the h is living in Taiwan as a "stringer" - she finds stories and writes copy for clients all over the world. The H wants her to help him with his research for a new story and we're off to the reconciliation races. There's jealousy of all of the OWs. There's some PTSD on the H's part. There's the h finally realizing how much he loves her behind the mask.
The H is a complex character, which I appreciated seeing in an HP. But I still don't feel like I knew him or his motivations very well. I think the h is more clear-headed. She's been on her own a long time and now can make a better decision if she is going to put up with the H's moodiness and personality quirks. By the end of the story she has convinced herself that she will be happy with her man-baby hero and maybe a few more of the smaller variety. Good luck to both of them.
So central conflict - the journalists H/h married when h was 18 after a whirlwind courtship. H is a front lines war correspondent. Heroine was writing features for a woman's magazine when she was sent to interview him. She was smitten from the start and has never gotten over him. Hero was cold emotionally and in flashbacks we see how he entertained the notion that the heroine was just infatuated with him and that it would soon end.
It did on the h's 19th birthday. Now the h is living in Taiwan as a "stringer" - she finds stories and writes copy for clients all over the world. The H wants her to help him with his research for a new story and we're off to the reconciliation races. There's jealousy of all of the OWs. There's some PTSD on the H's part. There's the h finally realizing how much he loves her behind the mask.
The H is a complex character, which I appreciated seeing in an HP. But I still don't feel like I knew him or his motivations very well. I think the h is more clear-headed. She's been on her own a long time and now can make a better decision if she is going to put up with the H's moodiness and personality quirks. By the end of the story she has convinced herself that she will be happy with her man-baby hero and maybe a few more of the smaller variety. Good luck to both of them.
September 28, 2020
"To Fill A Silence" is the story of Belle and Nick.
Oh god! This book will make you feel horrible.
Honestly, I really wanted to shake the heroine for not moving on! The hero was a callous asshole and an adrenaline junkie, who treated everything like a joke and was addicted to notoriety.
Let's recap. The hero treated the heroine like shit during their brief marriage. Her, a barely legal teen he had married to bed and then accused her of being clinging and immature, ignoring her emotional needs otherwise. The heroine leaves after six months of heartbreak, and now works as a successful reporter and radio presenter.
The hero re-enters her life, still being flighty, witty and barely showing any emotion, while the heroine has never recovered from the disaster that was their marriage. After the divorce, he has slept with x number of women, and she has worked hard keeping a lock on her not to maiden chambers. The plot is an angst filled journey of the heroine taking 100% of the blame and crying, while the hero maintains a poker face, making a joke about everything. I genuinely think the hero loved his job- Which I do admit was stressful- and that would always come before the heroine, who was like a lovestruck dog taking all the dismissals and blaming herself for their shortcomings. The ending was rushed and I had difficulty in believing his excuses and ofcourse, the heroine immediately gave in.
NOPE.
Unsafe
1.5/5 (5 stars for the angst, -100 stars for the hero who most likely had an STD)
Oh god! This book will make you feel horrible.
Honestly, I really wanted to shake the heroine for not moving on! The hero was a callous asshole and an adrenaline junkie, who treated everything like a joke and was addicted to notoriety.
Let's recap. The hero treated the heroine like shit during their brief marriage. Her, a barely legal teen he had married to bed and then accused her of being clinging and immature, ignoring her emotional needs otherwise. The heroine leaves after six months of heartbreak, and now works as a successful reporter and radio presenter.
The hero re-enters her life, still being flighty, witty and barely showing any emotion, while the heroine has never recovered from the disaster that was their marriage. After the divorce, he has slept with x number of women, and she has worked hard keeping a lock on her not to maiden chambers. The plot is an angst filled journey of the heroine taking 100% of the blame and crying, while the hero maintains a poker face, making a joke about everything. I genuinely think the hero loved his job- Which I do admit was stressful- and that would always come before the heroine, who was like a lovestruck dog taking all the dismissals and blaming herself for their shortcomings. The ending was rushed and I had difficulty in believing his excuses and ofcourse, the heroine immediately gave in.
NOPE.
Unsafe
1.5/5 (5 stars for the angst, -100 stars for the hero who most likely had an STD)
March 18, 2021
My advice to h is: Men are babies but we don't have to raise them with patience and limitless love because we are not their mothers!
February 28, 2017
It's weird because I want to be angrier than I actually am. Fact is, it's all about Nick and his feelings and tippy-toeing around him and cosseting his mental state and fulfilling his needs because he's a big bad daredevil war-zone reporter and is all volatile and temperamental and needs a special woman who can perfectly understand him... oh piss off! He marries Belle, a shy, loving 18-year-old baby who obviously isn't mature enough to realize she has to be his Madonna mother/lover/wife/listener/comforter/safe haven in one glorious uncomplaining package.
Anyway so yeah everything is about how to make Nick happy and Belle's guilt about not knowing exactly how to suit him. So I feel I ought to be angrier but, well, mental shrug. It's well-written and they seem to be happy with their understanding in the end. I'm left with a curious lack of the usual righteous indignation that I have when a heroine hasn't been properly groveled to. He's emotionally high-maintenance, and she seems panting to give him all the special attention he needs, and in the end it comes out that he's really loved her obsessively all along (so he says), so good for them.
(btw he does have casual lovers during the 5 years after their divorce, and 2 of those women are very present in the book and work closely with him and throw their affairs in the heroine's face. She's jealous but doesn't seem overly bothered since they're not on-going. I tend to get overly hung up on these kinds of things, unfortunately)
Anyway so yeah everything is about how to make Nick happy and Belle's guilt about not knowing exactly how to suit him. So I feel I ought to be angrier but, well, mental shrug. It's well-written and they seem to be happy with their understanding in the end. I'm left with a curious lack of the usual righteous indignation that I have when a heroine hasn't been properly groveled to. He's emotionally high-maintenance, and she seems panting to give him all the special attention he needs, and in the end it comes out that he's really loved her obsessively all along (so he says), so good for them.
(btw he does have casual lovers during the 5 years after their divorce, and 2 of those women are very present in the book and work closely with him and throw their affairs in the heroine's face. She's jealous but doesn't seem overly bothered since they're not on-going. I tend to get overly hung up on these kinds of things, unfortunately)
March 9, 2013
This is a great reunion story about a couple who married when she was too young to deal with the strains of marriage to a reporter who dealt with danger on a daily basis.
His uncertainty about her maturity and love led to both of them making mistakes and parting.
I would have given this a higher score but it annoyed me that he was with other women while they were apart though at least they were divorced.
His uncertainty about her maturity and love led to both of them making mistakes and parting.
I would have given this a higher score but it annoyed me that he was with other women while they were apart though at least they were divorced.
May 22, 2016
Nick Rosney and Belle Tyler met when Belle was only eighteen, in a quick bout of impulse and passion they married. Only that marriage took a toll on both of them, leaving them damaged in ways one couldn't describe. With Belle's immaturity and Nick's job, stresses were high and eventually the pain unbearable, so they divorced.
Now almost six years later, they are meeting again. Belle has changed in so many ways that Nick finds it hard to see the other her. When Nick asks for her help for his job, even though Belle doesn't want to she decides to help him. Which leads them down the same path five and a half years earlier. Now that Nick and Belle have grown with time of them being separated will this impossible relationship be possible once again?
I was annoyed with this book, Belle puts all the blame on herself. It drove me up the wall! I hate submissive women like that, it almost reminds me of abuse. I know it's not physical abuse but in the book she was emotionally and verbally abused by Nick. It was disastrous and I felt that she was so emotionally brainwashed from Nick that she was still broken when they met. I know you can't help who you love but sheesh, if this was real life, I'd suggest a psychiatrist! The ending was cute, how they let everything go but I just can't get over what a doormat Belle was. Bend over while I kick you, please!
Now almost six years later, they are meeting again. Belle has changed in so many ways that Nick finds it hard to see the other her. When Nick asks for her help for his job, even though Belle doesn't want to she decides to help him. Which leads them down the same path five and a half years earlier. Now that Nick and Belle have grown with time of them being separated will this impossible relationship be possible once again?
I was annoyed with this book, Belle puts all the blame on herself. It drove me up the wall! I hate submissive women like that, it almost reminds me of abuse. I know it's not physical abuse but in the book she was emotionally and verbally abused by Nick. It was disastrous and I felt that she was so emotionally brainwashed from Nick that she was still broken when they met. I know you can't help who you love but sheesh, if this was real life, I'd suggest a psychiatrist! The ending was cute, how they let everything go but I just can't get over what a doormat Belle was. Bend over while I kick you, please!
February 8, 2018
I don't believe it - the H treated her so shabbily the when they were married! When he would turn away from her after making love, how could he not think she would feel rejected. Then in the end to confess that he loved her all along the didn't make any sense. So he thought she was just infatuated, then why didn't he try harder?
March 20, 2012
I liked this one fairly well, though I am biased toward reunion stories. I also like it when the hero also loved a more babyish version of the heroine, immature and with some puppy fat. I did think the heroine had to give in to the hero's needs a little too much, and I'm not sure how they resolved to deal with the burden of his career. It also made no sense if he truly loved her that he would always pretend to be so casual about everything, but that did provide some of the emotional tension -- wondering whether he did love her. So, overall, a decent read.
pback-to-read
February 12, 2019Had he married her on impulse?
Nick Rosney, celebrated television reporter, had acted as if his marriage to eighteen-year-old Belle Tyler were some sort of joke, a stunt to shock his friends.
Belle's feelings for Nick had always been more than infatuation. For her his casual indifference had been no laughing matter, and she had left him after six months. Now, five years later in bustling Taipei, they'd met again on business.
Belle, a free-lance radio reporter, was older and wiser. She could see Nick had lost none of his charm--and he was just as impulsive as ever!
Nick Rosney, celebrated television reporter, had acted as if his marriage to eighteen-year-old Belle Tyler were some sort of joke, a stunt to shock his friends.
Belle's feelings for Nick had always been more than infatuation. For her his casual indifference had been no laughing matter, and she had left him after six months. Now, five years later in bustling Taipei, they'd met again on business.
Belle, a free-lance radio reporter, was older and wiser. She could see Nick had lost none of his charm--and he was just as impulsive as ever!
September 8, 2024
DNF. Not very interesting. I don’t know why the author thought we care to know that much about Taiwan. Hero and heroine was just talking Taiwan for sometime. The opening scene with the heroine demanding the group, including one hero and a couple co-workers/friends, for a drink was absurd! How about you get yourself your own drink, lady!!! Story might improve later but since I couldn’t get passed all that, one simply didn’t stay long enough.
October 30, 2023
I really enjoyed the book, but it would have been more interesting if they didn't end up together. I was frustrated with the FMC for not moving on, and I thought the MMC was kind of a jerk, a callous individual who was into adrenaline rushes.
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