Reluctant Captive Helen Bianchin has another entry for sitelinkA Year Down Under series with this one,
We start with theyr old h having to return to Sydney and her adulterous husband or her spoiled slime pustule of a brat sister will wind up in juvvie jail.
The backstory on this is that the h's weak, parasitic mother conspired with her BFF to marry the h off the to the woman's son, Ostensibly so that her daughter's would have a means of support, because apparently borrowing some money and sending her daughter's to uni for a career or training is too low class or something.
So the H and h marry, The h is in love or at least serious infatuation, but the H is too busy with the wife of his BFF, escorting her about town and social functions that he does NOT bring his wife to, to notice.
Eventually the rumors reach the h, there is a confrontation and the H denies any wrong doing and the h takes her sister and takes off for the bush.
She has now spent three years building a life and supporting herself via trading labor etc, but her pus blob sister doesn't like to work or scrimp and save, so she runs back to the big city.
Where the pus blob went to a big hotel, ran up a ton of bills and then tried to sneak off, The hotel wants to press charges and since the H is ready for his heir and has been secretly financing the h anyway, he figures the time is ripe to drag his wife back.
The H will only intervene for the sister if the h returns to him as his devoted sex toy and broodmare, With a sense of doom that she can't let her little sister go to jail and a moment of regret that she never got any calcium as a child to develop a bone structure, the h agrees.
We get the usual HB high society witchy OW and clothesfest with endless charity events scenarios, The h and H fight, she slaps him and he hauls her off to bed, The HB trademark witchy OW make comments, the H orders the h about and she soon learns to ask permission to breathe,
Wash, Rinse, Repeat
We also get the typical HB trademark ladies room meeting but this time it is the first OW, who is now divorced, who wants to patronize the h during lunch and issues an invitation.
Instead of telling the woman that she loses her appetite when she is expected to dine with adulterous tarts, the h goes to lunch with her,
We get this truly pathetic spiel about how the OW's husband became seriously ill and his company was going to lose share value if it became known.
So the husband was the H's BFF and he stepped in to help out and take the OW out and about to dispel any hint that there was a problem and hide the BFF's illness.
These society events apparently precluded bringing the h, his wife, along to socialize too and of course the OW couldn't introduce herself and explain the situation to the h because it would have been too hurtful, as the h was much too young to understand how consoling the H was being and how she would just have to tolerate it.
The OW's husband divorced her and then he died and the OW just wants to express her gratitude that the h is now returned to her duties as the H's brood mare.
The h meekly agrees with the OW's patronizing summation and damn near apologizes for being an inconvenience and making the OW and the H look bad because she ran off.
Then the sister's court date arrives and the pus blob brat is swelling with sewage slime pride because she is back in her high living life style at an exclusive boarding school, has gotten a divine shopping spree and gotten off on the criminal charges all without any effort on her part.
Next comes the h's big pregger acknowledgement moment, but the H is too busy doing something or someone else to come home for the dinner the h cooked.
So the h writes the H a letter with a copy of the positive pregnancy slip and leaves it in an envelope on his desk,
The dramatic conclusion is the H sitting at his desk staring at the letter and refusing to open it because he thinks the h left again.
Then we get a lukewarm admission of love, the H vowing that if she leaves he will drag her back and then the H drags her off to do her sex toy duty for the HEA.
As you can probably guess, I have absolutely NO respect or tolerance for this book, The slime pustule sister is horrible and her hiney should have been locked up, But what really irritates me is that for some reason, HB thinks it is a good idea to have the h essentially condone her husband's infidelity and become BFF with woman he cheated with.
That is an absolute deal breaker in this type of book, Only one author Lynne Graham sitelinkThe Greek's Chosen Wife has EVER pulled that one off, tho some readers debate that, and the h was the one doing the patronizing in it during a hilariously funny scene so it worked out it helped a lot that the h totally did not care that the H was sleeping around either.
It is just absolutely too tacky to have the tart the H cheated with 'kindly' explain why the h had to be publicly humiliated and how it was all for her own good.
It Doesn't Work because all that kind of scene does is drive it in that h is a doormat and has to drink the koolaid and would be better of with a merciful killing toilet seat to the head.
Plus let's face it, the H cheated with his best friend's wife and then lied to the h about it, No matter what the H or the OW say about the BFF being mentally off or whatever from his illness The BFF DIVORCED THE OW and disassociated himself from the H which meant that he had grounds and it was infidelity the h should have followed up on that.
What on earth HB was thinking I don't know,
This H was a bullying, cheating sub sewer coprophagic slime gulper and there is just no recovery from that kinda low life non redemption or from inflicting that type of OW scene on the h and expecting the reader to believe it.
This one is just poor plotting, poor writing with a pathetic resolution and it makes for an extremely disappointing outing in HPlandia, Read this if you must, but know that you have been warned head banging and copious amounts of adult beverages will be consumed and HPlandia is not responsible for any resulting headaches or hangovers.
Decent enough. I'm partial to Helen Bianchin so I'm easy to please, The heroine was a bit too combative I can't believe any hero would put up with this much verbal and at times, physical abuse, The heroine left because she believed in the
gossip that the hero was having an affair with a married friend of his, If he had really loved her, as he claimed in the end, why didn't he try harder to make her believe in his innocence, Also, he claims he was taking the other lady out sometimes since she was going through a bad time with her husband, I find it so naive of them to think that this action wouldn't naturally result in gossip! Alternatively, he could have taken his wife along and both of them could have 'comforted' his friend if necessary.
But then we wouldn't have had a story, Oh well . Just read if you have nothing else, A little communication at the start of their marriage may have saved a ton of ridiculous drama, . . and the obnoxious little sister is too much, Aunque es una autora que me gusta, es un libro que no voy a leer otra vez, El argumento es coherente, pero hay una violencia en la relación de ellos que a mi me parece innecesaria, El conflicto que la alejó de él es bueno, está de acuerdo con el caracter de la chica, pero "Kate había crecido y madurado" es una gran mentira, sigue la misma tonta hasta el final.
La hermana menor de Kate, Rebecca, no logra convencer como inocente y arrepentida, .