LynneC’s review of Ruthless Tycoon, Innocent Wife by Helen Brooks
Contemporary romance released by Harlequin Presents (#2781) 1 Dec 08
Marianne Carr inherits a large house in Cornwall from her parents, only to discover that her father had put it in jeopardy by mortgaging it against his failing boatyard business. Enter Rafe Steed and his father, who run a chain of hotels, interested in turning the house into a hotel. Marianne, who had feared losing the house, accept the offer, but Rafe’s father and her mother were once involved, and Rafe has issues about that, and about a bad first marriage.
Okay, I read this book without reading the synopsis which clearly says that Marianne wants to wait until her wedding night. So I should have been warned, but I would still have read it, just to see how the author handled it. Interesting conflict in this day and age, I thought. The heroine is 27 and a virgin, although I can’t recall that word being used. Gone are the days when unmarried women were automatically virgins, and no amount of saying so will make it true, and yet this book seems to assume that this was normal. So did the heroine have a reason for keeping herself back until marriage? Was there an interestingly angsty reason why she wouldn’t, as it is quaintly phrased, “go all the way”?
Nope. Nor did the hero seem to expect it. He’s the usual wealthy, ruthless “tycoon” type (and who uses that word anymore?) and he’s had tons of girlfriends. But he doesn’t push her, and he doesn’t ask. He takes her so far and no further. During the later part of the book, when he’s dating her in earnest, and they both understand that, Brooks says that their lovemaking was wonderful.
Hang on, did I miss something? I went back, I checked the line, I checked the year of publication. Modern/Presents, 2008. Brooks was using “lovemaking” in the old sense, the way Barbara Cartland and the queens of romance in the sixties did. Kissing, cuddling, maybe a bit of petting, but not lovemaking as we know it.
I suspect that either this book is a reprint, or has been at the back of Brooks’s drawer for a few years because if it is set in the present day, this is not normal, and it should have been explained. Why she wouldn’t. No religious issues, no deliberate holding back, just that she hadn’t met a man she wanted to go all the way with. So if she’s 27, she would have grown up with the Spice Girls and Girl Power, where taking control of your own life and doing what you want was the creed. If she’d made a conscious decision, that would have made for a great conflict, but she didn’t, and the story was more about him overcoming his commitment issues.
The book read like something that would have been released in the seventies, not now, with old-fashioned language and old-fashioned attitudes. And so sweet it made my teeth ache. What sex there was in the book was right at the end and was of the flowery variety “when he made her his,” that kind of thing.
Well written, smoothly progressed, but I didn’t believe it for a minute. I hate doing this, but I have to give this one a D. I was toying with C-, but as soon as I hit the virgin roadblock, I started to wonder. If it had been published in the 70’s, it would have been a solid B.
Grade: D
Summary:
Marianne Carr will do anything to save her home, and ruthless businessman Rafe Steed knows it! He has a score to settle with the Carr family, and after one meeting with this delicate beauty he decides he will have the house…and the girl!
Against her better judgment, Marianne is attracted to Rafe’s powerful sensuality. But she is saving herself for her wedding night, and Rafe is definitely not the marrying kind! Yet what this tycoon wants, he usually gets….
Read an excerpt (scroll down).
Usually I enjoy Brooks much more than I did this one. I expect her books to have little-to-no sex in them, with heroines who wait and never hop into bed with their heroes … but you are right in that the attitude just felt off in this one (also, the heroine’s near-lecture about how the hero sees women and relationships felt almost identical to a conversation between the hero/heroine in THE BILLIONAIRE BOSS’S SECRETARY BRIDE.) With Brooks’s other books, it worked for me; this one felt like a throwback.
Oiii, thanks for the review Lynne. From time to time I like a good HP, but it’s quite difficult to find them. I either try Miranda Lee, Emma Darcy, Susan Napier or Helen Brooks, but it seems I will miss out on this one. You know, I don’t even mind virgin heroines in HPs, I think they are still quite frequent in this line, it’s more a matter of how the author dealt with the circumstances. And although I haven’t read too many romances from the 60s and 70s, I will heed your warning *g*.
It really pained me to write the review, because I usually like Helen Brooks, so I couldn’t work out what she was doing in this one. I think it’s likely that this is some kind of unannounced reprint, or maybe something she sent in a long time ago, because the attitudes were so off the mark for today’s market.
However, I’m still reading, and hopefully I’ll come across a goodie in the Christmas releases!
I think, at least I hope, authors understand and appreciate reviews with an honest crit from ‘fans’ vs this shit sucks. To use Meljean, cuz I can ;), I ADORE her books. She is by far one of my faves and prolly one of the few that could pull off her world and make it work for me.
I know I will hit a wall with her at some point. I don’t like every book by every author. And that will PAIN me because I adore meljean but I think it wrong of me – for any author I “like” to lie and say oh yeah loved it when I didn’t. I just don’t period, to anyone.
Of course I am coming from a reader stand point vs author so I could be all sorts of shades of wrong regarding what you guys would think. hmmm I shall put up a pondering…. I am so sure you have missed my rambling aimlessly *g*
I can’t speak for other authors, but I definitely don’t expect even fans of my work to love every book I write, and I’d hope they wouldn’t feel obligated to say they loved it if they didn’t.
I’m still a huge fan of Helen Brooks, for example, even though this one didn’t hit it out of the park (and that said, it is still MUCH better, just in terms of technical skill and pacing and character, than quite a few other HPs I’ve picked up in the last couple of months). So I’ll be reading her again.
I’m so surprised to see these pro-Brooks comments. I don’t think I’ve ever read one by her that I liked. But I suppose if everyone felt that way, she wouldn’t keep getting published.
I actually snagged an older one by her at a library sale today and it looks intriguing. (A Very Private Revenge.) So I’ll give her another shot.
I read the last few novels by Helen Brooks and, in general, I liked them, enough at least to order this one in advance. I know about the virgin thing in her stories, so it’s (usually) not something that bothers me a lot. I’ll see how it goes with this one. Thanks for the review and the “warning.” *g*
Edit: Ups, I screwed up. My name is missing. Sorry, Taja