Forbidden Fantasy by Cheryl Holt
Forbidden Fantasy picks up six months after Complete Abandon ends. Ian Clayton and Lady Caroline Foster were two secondary character in Complete Abandon. And well I liked them! Ian was a bastard, in more way than one and Caro was in a really hard spot that could bring out the bitch in anyone.
So when I saw the summary for this book I got all happy, happy, joy, joy. I tossed out my ‘read no more Holt’ rule and WANTED this book.
And I couldn’t have been more disappointed. It is like Cheryl Holt is channeling really bad Thea Devine historicals (Gwen said to explain… Devine has a gift for icky, soapy, sordid family secrets) Where did Ian and Caro go? Who were these people?
Every character… felt like a paper character, they never get a pulse or become more than words on a page. It is like you are reading a very badly thrown together play. Ian, who I loved before when I met him, even if he was a sneaky, bastard who was lying to everyone was suddenly an icky bastard. Caro was something out of a bad book. She is showing up unannounced at a man’s home, staying out all night, asking to be ruined, than saying no to Ian and her family was so bad Thea Devine. And I am not even talking about the father telling the mother he was divorcing her so he can marry his mistress. Hell I don’t know if there was a sane person in the bunch.
I didn’t care if they got their HEA. In fact I rather didn’t want them too. And these are people who I had wondered about for years. So really the only person at fault here is me because I soooooooo should have known better. I keep saying no more Cheryl Holt so I will not have to be disappointed again. But I never ever learn my lesson.
It could be St Martin’s is evol and has me sooooooooo pegged (because it is of course all about me) and they know just the cover and blub to throw at me to make me toss out my promises to myself. Or Cheryl Holt has such yummy summaries but her writing no longer work for me. Or her writing has changed. Maybe it is a ‘it’s not you it’s me’ (tm kristiej). I think this is a good possiblity because Mrs G made the Devine comment with the first book and I liked it! Or maybe it was just a bad book.
Anyone read it yet? I saw it is already out at walmart. I really think this book and the four new reissues are going to do well. So what gives. Why don’t I like her anymore?
Grade: F
SHE SOUGHT LESSONS IN DESIRE…
From girlhood, Lady Caroline Foster knew what her future held: marriage to an esteemed viscount, followed by a dignified high-society life. A sedate existence perhaps, but certainly preferable to her current state – jilted, humiliated, and then hastily bartered off to a man old enough to be her grandfather. Dreading the marriage, Caroline seeks advice from her ex-finance’s illegitimate brother, whose potent sexuality has always intrigued her…
AND HE WAS THE CONSUMMATE TEACHER
Ian Clayton can scarcely believe that the woman he’s coveted from afar is boldly seeking sexual instruction. A true gentleman would turn her away, but the yearning he feels for Caroline surpasses anything he’s ever known. Soon their encounters become more heated, more daring… and more dangerous. For someone will stop at nothing to end their illicit affair and destroy a fantasy that is coming blissfully, brazenly to life…
oh but saying all that…. I sort of want this which is a reissue of an old holt
Allison Masters is depressed. All she ever wanted to do with her life was please her father. As the only child of a wealthy hotel magnate, she’s spent years learning the business and trying to succeed at his side so that she could one day take over at the helm of the massive international corporation. So desperate was she to win his approval that she even became engaged to the man he thought she should marry.
But, after catching her fiancee in bed with her secretary, her life is in a shambles. She raised such a ruckus over the discovery that her father decided she needed some time to cool down. He’s banished her to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, to run the family’s exclusive mountain resort for six months.
She hates everything about the famous cowboy community, especially country western singer, Harley “Beau” Beaudine, who has come out of retirement to play nightly shows at their small inn. To Allison’s ultimate dismay, he’s the most handsome, most sexy man she’s ever encountered, but he’s also the most rude, egotistical, obnoxious, and overbearing. And a disgusting womanizer to boot — one who hits on every female he sees.
I think Holt’s writing is very lazy. She rehashes the same plot in every book she writes.
Heroine seeking sexual instruction
Secondary characters getting it on
Evil bint hellbent on destroying the H&H’s relationship
Some smattering of pedophilia, usually involving a spoilt brat
The End
Over, and over, and over, and over again…
Oh yeah, and not forgetting the heroes with constant raging boners.
I live in an all female house, and don’t have any male friends nearby that I can ask this question without totally embarrassing the hell out of myself. And the thought of asking my brothers is just OOGIE.
So I ask you fellow commenters, if you would, can you ask your significant others if this is even in the realm of possibility? The constant raging boner, I mean.
I realize men think about sex a LOT – it’s just who they are – and I know that their “joint” does the semi-rise-and-fall thing several times a day, sometimes for no more reason than they accidentally brushed up against it.
But if a man is in that first blush of relationship madness, the total infatuation thing, do they actually walk around with a stiffy all day? If they do, is it strictly a young man thing? Is this possible for a guy in his 40’s, 50’s without chemical support?
Inquiring minds and all that. And I know – I’m letting reality impinge on my fantasy life, but I’m curious.
LOL so you reading this now gwen 🙂
Karens… you think? I never really noticed a pattern. But I read like two really liked them and than kept buying them. NEW! Then dislike one I picked up and after the next two was gonna not read her again. But yeah…
They sound good damn it! And she is really a very nice person. I WANT to like her books. le sigh… I am just too nice I can’t help it. But it is good cuz gwen needs to be balanced out.
Well dang! I read Complete Abandon and although it had its skanky eeeww moments (like the heroine watching the hero and his mistress enjoying themselves in the biblical sense) I did find Ian intriguing. But it sounds like he’s best left in my imagination rather than reading this book.
I haven’t read many of her books and I’m thinking I’ll keep it that way.
I realized that I had bought the last 6 CH books new and they were gathering dust on my TBR pile. I put them all up on PBS.com and luckily someone wanted them. I think I skimmed Complete Abandon 2 weeks ago before I mailed it out but I cant remember a thing about it because they were all the same by that pt. It’s like CH found her perfect recipe with Love Lessons and she’s been making copies of it ever since. And I dont think she makes it a secret that she has a formula. When CH was the Guest Author at the RT BB a while back, she mentioned that she makes sure to have a sex scene every 20 pages. Every. Twenty. Pages.
::::::head desk:::::
first thing first… karens you win cuz kristej this book opens with a scene where Caro walks in on Ian and his mistress naked in bed. And of course asks him to kiss her like mins later. eeewwwwww
And seton that is just too funny. I am shocked she would admit that and at the same time almost oddly impressed she had the balls to admit to it. Hope your PBS peeps are happy with their new books.
No Syb – I don’t think I want to read this. I’m pissed off enough at Jacquelyn Frank that I don’t want to inflict another predictable author on myself right now. I think that may be why I’m digging Eve Kenin’s DRIVEN so much – waaaaay different.
Ha! I picked this up and looked at it the other day at Borders. I was tempted, really I was. But then I remembered the three other times I gave into that temptation only to get the same plot served up with three different sets of h/h’s. So it went back on the shelf and I got the new Jo Goodman instead. You’re making me feel really good about my decision. lol.
Driven fucking rocks. I am shocked you are only just now reading it as I said it rocked months and months ago. tsk tsk…
Sula! Wasn’t Goodman grand! loved loved loved it!
Oh yeah, the Goodman book was very good. I was happily surprised because I wasn’t all that fond of the last one (One Forbidden Evening, I think). But this one really worked for me. I liked the 400+ pages of witty dialogue, complex characters, intricate relationships not to mention the real sense of place and time she always seems to give her stories. And I really REALLY liked Restell. *sigh*
I promised myself no more CH too but bought FF anyway! I can’t seem to resist CH and I know her recent books have been like torture to finish!
I haven’t read FF yet but I bet I’ll agree with your review 🙁
The plot of every Cheryl
Holt book is the same:
Heroine “What’s that long snake lookin thing on you?”
Hero “It is a penis, that will give you pleasure you never felt before!” **wink wink**
Heroine “Can I touch it? Will it like me?” *she stares at it while licking her lips**
Hero “Of course you can touch it, give it a little kiss while you’re at it too!”
*THE END*
Cheryl Holt is one of the authors I buy consistantly and really don’t particularly like. 1. Karen’s right, it’s basically the same story over and over. 2. Her story line concepts are great. I love that blurb, but for me the execution is always left wanting really wanting and yet I still find myself tempted over and over to buy her books.
Honestly, I’m an idiot because I still may buy this one. Someone smack me 🙂
To Gwen,
Yes, yes, and yes… I have been with men in their 40’s and 50’s all my life and yes they do/can keep a boner on and off all day when in the first “blush” of a relationship. My husband told me in the beginning that he was wearing three pair of tight underwear because of this… LOL Poor guy… Of course, that is no longer true…*sigh* LOL
Also, older men can have exceptional control and can stay hard for hours if they choose. 🙂
I have limited experience with younger men, but the same holds true for the beginning of the relationship part anyway.
So what I need to be doing is sneaking glances at the crotches of men I know are in new relationships. Who knows… I might get a new respect for some guys if I see a particularly large, ahem, wrinkle in their trousers.
An all day stiffy. What a mental image!
I’ve never read Cheryl Holt but pt this on my wishlist at RA, b/c the blurb suckered me in. Do you think I’ll like it any better b/c I’m a Holt virgin, or should I not even bother? Are there any good Holts?
errr I would honestly say no Devon but one never knows… you might like it.
I would read Complete Abandon over this. Of course I say this having read many of her books. Buying her new repeatedly and it taking like three releases in a row to go WTF.
And upon rereading I have gotten rid of most. I think I still have four and one I haven’t read. So hey you could pick it up and love, love, love it for all I know.