Under Kalinda Brady's cool silk surface was a smoldering heart waiting to be set afire. But she hadn't expected the sparks to fly with Rand Alastair, artist and fisherman, the stranger whose caresses left her yearning for more. Kalinda had come to Colorado determined to avenge a lost love. She had arranged the set up, and her ex-fiance had taken the bait. But she was shaken by Rand's powerful embrace, torn between her passion for revenge and hunger for this lover who conquered her heart, stole into her world and proceeded to make it his own.

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Two years ago, Kalinda Brady's father died, leaving her CEO of his data processing firm. Engaged to be married, her fiancee dumps her when he finds out the company is heavily in debt and possibly in danger of being liquidated. Not long after the split, Kalinda gets word her ex-fella has run off and married another business woman with quite a bit more wealth than Kalinda's family ever had. Kalinda then spends the next two years working her tail off to get the company back in the black.

Now that the company is doing quite well again, Kalinda has a chance to carry out her revenge plot. She reaches out to her ex, luring him into agreeing to a romantic mountain getaway weekend. Only, romance is the furthest thing from what she's after. She knows this guy hates to be humilated so that's exactly what she sets out to do. But until that meetup time, she's got a couple extra days in the small resort town outside of Denver where they agreed to meet up. It's there that she meets Rand Alaistair --- potter, art gallery owner, fisherman, maybe local lothario?

He's certainly handsome enough to be a nice distraction but the last thing Kalinda is looking for is to be someone's weekend fling. But once Rand sets eyes on something he wants, his determination is unwavering. He gets Kalinda to agree to dinner with him one night, which --- no surprise --- turns rather hands on once the plates are cleared. The deal isn't entirely sealed though. Kalinda, though she might feel a "passionate curiosity" towards Rand, isn't interested in casual, easily dismissed hookups, so she distances herself for the rest of the evening. But Rand won't be deterred. He gets her to agree to a picnic the next day, where she tells him of her revenge plans against her ex. Rand quickly calls the idea stupid and dangerous and does everything in his power to stop her from following through. She eventually agrees with his logic, decides not to go through with the plan. But when she gets back to town, who's ready with news of a merger attempt on her company ... but her ex!

Just when she's at her wit's end, fearing she's about to lose her father's company and there's nothing she can do to stop it, good ol' Mr. Persistent, Rand, shows up at her door with a plan to save the day. Turns out he's no country bumpkin fisherman but actually a cutthroat businessman well versed in company takeovers, and he's pretty sure he knows exactly how to save the company and win Kalinda's heart for good.

This story isn't going to be the most popular read with much of today's female audience, I'd wager. Rand is pretty persistent, borderline too forceful in his attentions toward Kalinda. Even though she herself admits behaving in a "my mind says no, my body says YES" manner, she vocalizes no a lot, which Rand tends to push through til she says yes... which these days could spark quite the discussion on date rape / rape culture... but let me clarify here and now that Rand never takes it that far. When it seems like Kalinda is being coy, he continues to push. When she without hesitation firmly says no, he backs off and calmly gives her a ride home... which I think makes all the difference in whether one can like this character or not. 

There's still the dated, sometimes cringe-inducing dialogue / interaction between these two (this story was originally published in the 1980s) but honestly, I find that's part of the fun of reading these more vintage stories... being able to step back and laugh and praise the advancements we've made. 

Taming the Beastly M.D. (Silhouette Desi...

Well, that wasn't painful at all. I couldn't tell if it was supposed to be sweet, cute, or what. I got that it was supposed to be a beauty and the beast story, sort of. What it was, was almost 200 pages of awkwardness and misunderstandings.

You see, our H, from an old Boston family (family came on the Mayflower, etc), while a child, was attacked by a lion, and he's had a crappy life as a result. He was thrown out of various schools for fighting, he's been made the butt of jokes... Ok, there are assholes out there, but most of the time, you make your own hell. So what - he caught someone staring and sucker-punched them?

So...he's attracted to the h, and he doesn't think her cheerful self would ever want anything to do with a beast like him (well, no, not when you do things like tell her to leave and call her a taxi after taking her V card, but that comes later), so he starts leaving her anonymous gifts, which scare her actually. She doesn't connect the dots, because she has little reason to. Her sister corners him into escorting her to a family function, where afterward, they almost do the deed in the back of the limo, but manage to regain at least a little awareness so go to his place. After they do the deed, he asks her why, and takes offense at her answer (because he overthought it apparently - she just hadn't gotten around to dating anyone), and does the whole "get out" thing.

Strangely enough, while she's upset at this, she doesn't seem to have any issue going about her business - no hiding in her apartment and having a meltdown, nothing. She tries to avoid him, sure, but starts pondering that she's in luv with him. He does corner her and apologize, but then says he thinks they should keep their relationship strictly professional...did I mention she's a cardiology nurse and he's a heart surgeon?

2 weeks later, a blizzard comes through and she spends the weekend with him. Monday, he sends her a note telling her to meet him at a certain restaurant and they needed to talk. They meet, her sporting an LBD that was more L than D (because people regularly do that 2 days after a blizzard), and he a) admits he's her stalker and b) proposes...

Of course, that weekend could have had a lot of talking involved, but I wasn't given that impression. Seems like what they really needed was time getting to know each other. They actually did go out on a date - something conspicuously absent in a lot of contemporary romances - but what did they talk about? I don't want details, mind you, but even a discussion of the weather beats the awkward silence, or miscommunication.

This is part of a publisher series, meaning that more than one author contributes. I don't know that I'd hunt any of the others down, because I really don't care enough to bother, and I likely only got this one because I'd read the author. Also probably found it in one of those bargain piles.

And it's pushing it to get 3.

I have a small assortment of harlequins and silhouettes, many bought because they were discussed in a reading group (hate feeling left out), a small bunch inherited when a relative died, and a group that represent backlists of authors who've written something I liked. This one is from that latter group - Justine Davis also wrote the futuristics, Sky Pirate and Lord of the Storm.

Obviously, I liked those two books better.

It has everything - celebrity H, separation, heroine with tragic past, secret baby (who acts 3 years older than she is)...

There's a saying that you bring about that which you fear the most. The H apparently feared becoming his mother, and the h feared abandonment. In the beginning of the book, she's reluctantly leaving her 2 year old with a sitter for 2 weeks to discuss a documentary. She goes to the meeting and finds herself face to face with the H. Then we get the flashback which is half the book and honestly, if it had stuck in that time frame and worked out the bugs, I'd have liked it a lot better. The H had become essentially his mother - a shallow, self-absorbed jerk. He threw a tantrum on-set, flew to his home town just ahead of a hurricane, and took his speed boat out in it. Stupid, yes, and he very nearly won a Darwin award. The h wasn't much brighter - taking pictures of the approaching hurricane for a book. She rescued him. Later, he rescued her. As they were cowering under the covers when the hurricane made landfall, they distracted themselves. The next day, the rescue team showed up and she bolted.

Abruptly, it's 3 years later. She agrees to spend 4 weeks with him (remember, the two-year-old is with a sitter), he's so afraid of scaring her off, he practically tiptoes around her. She assumes he doesn't want her anymore. Then, when she figures it out, they have a big night (where protection is not mentioned). The next day, his brother shows up and informs him he's going to be an uncle, something is said questioning bro being the dad, something else was said about some groupie who apparently tried to be a celebrity baby mama... Heroine bolts.

Last couple of chapters are after he tracks her down 3 weeks later. He's pissed. She's all snotty. He finds out about kid, they have a brief discussion whereupon he pretty much agrees with everything she says. The end.

Irritants -

the tragic past being constantly in her mind. I would guess the h was a child of the '60s. Free love might have been the theme but consequences still were frowned upon. She's constantly thinking about the unknown woman who abandoned her as an infant, but it apparently never crosses her mind that the unknown woman may have been a teen herself and struggling to survive. She often thinks of this in reference to her child but she left the child for *2* weeks (and was going to extend it a month) and was working on an itinerary for a book tour in Australia for an unknown amount of time - leaving the kid with a sitter. If she was doing so well she could retire (seriously, she was contemplating living off her investments at the end), she could also afford to take a nanny with her.

The whole hidden baby thing. Her reasoning was that a) he'd think she did it deliberately (under the circumstances? Right) and b) she didn't want to be a charity case. Lousy reasons to deny your kid a father.

The end has him insisting on a wedding and planning to go to Australia with her and taking the kid. Can't say as I blame him - hanging onto the kid is probably the only way to keep her from bolting. OTOH, do you really want to saddle yourself with a woman who's constantly looking for an excuse to run out on you?