An Unusual Affair Lindsay Armstrong makes an interesting study of how deceiving appearances can be or how misogynistically nasty minded some men really are, in this most bantering tale of a agronomist h and an orthopedic surgeon.
The h is an orphan in her late twenties and finishing up her Doctorate in agricultural economics, Her parents were globetrotting roamers and she has more than a bit of wanderlust and ambition herself, Her aunt, who is a lady who kept her eye on the main chance and married an older, sick wealthy man and is now widowed, offers the h her love nest town home and her wardrobe for the duration of the h's stay, as the aunt has foreign travel plans herself.
When the aunt demands the h accompany her to a high society charity event before she takes off, the h and H have an eye catching glance across a crowded room.
It doesn't lead to a true love at first site moment, The H assumes the h is a high class hooker/mistress and avoids the aunt's table, even tho the aunt is one of the sponsors,
Things get even more fraught when the H turns out to be the h's new neighbor, The gossipy elderly lady across the street has a cat that wanders into the H's new home, The H chases it over to the h's house and after one look around and at the h, the H is verbally blasting the h for being a kept tart.
His opinion of her morals doesn't stop him from putting the lurve mojo gropey hands on the h tho, As the h immediately takes serious offence at his assumptions, she doesn't bother to correct the H and in fact, decides to encourage his error and remarks that her protector is named Joe.
There is an unfortunate accident with a table where the h hurts her ankle and the H's friend, who is much more perceptive than the H, does NOT assume the h is any kind of tart or high class call girl whatsoever.
He does notice that the h drives the H nuts tho and he isn't sure if that is a good thing or not, but he appreciates the h's challenge for his friend.
The next bits are the h and H verbally battling it out, as the H continuously trespasses through the h's back yard to enter her house and harass her, kidnaps her for forced outings to continue the sexual harassment and then takes the h to his high society friend's house party weekend and introduces her to his cast iron witch mother as his fiancee.
The H's mother is pretty nasty at first, as is the wanna be OW the mother brings along as a suitable wife for her only son, the H.
The h is more than capable of putting both in their place and soon does so, just by relaying the totally true and accurate details of her life, It was pretty funny.
We also find out that the H's mother feels that the H's wife needs to be either totally devoted to him and willing to worship at his feet, or completely indifferent to him and willing to marry for social position and children and money.
The h doesn't disagree with her assessment and she does explain that with her aspirations, she and the H won't be making a match of it,
Eventually all that roofie lurve mojo tension explodes and after several attempts to get the h to accept a tower of power ride, including an attempt at seduction by a leech infested creek where they were attacked by bugs, the frustrated H publicly insults her in front of his friends.
The h is fine with it, she has explained that she can't meet his low minded requirements as either a mistress or a wife and that he is a very far cry from any ideals she has about what makes a man acceptable.
Unfortunately the h's firm resolution and feisty hold off of the H doesn't last, mainly because LA couldn't figure out how to carry a self confident h off and still stay in HPlandia, I think.
The h soon devolves into an unconfident emotional wreck filled with treacherous body longing for the H and bitterly regretting her deception,
Then the h's aunt comes back and the H learns of his errors, It isn't a humbling moment for him or his misogyny at all, as the h decides to start sleeping with him, tho she is soon almost crippled by inner insecurity.
They become lovers and the h gets her doctoral thesis finished while the H continues his genius skills at surgery,
Then the H reluctantly and angrily proposes and the h leaves mainly because she is now so hooked on the H that she is becoming addicted, But after the H and h have a final lurve club moment before parting, the H manages to get some more tart shaming name calling in telling her she must subconsciously want to be a whore, she certainly exercises lurve clubs like she does anyways.
Fortunately, the h realizes that her own goal and ambitions are in danger of being sacrificed to the overwhelming pomposity of the H's overbearing ego, Because the h loves the H, she is more willing to compromise on her standards, but her career involves third world countries and the H's career is in an entirely different realm.
So it is off to Asia we go and the h has a huge mopey moment,
The H eventually tracks her down, and after a pretty smug, egocentric speech about how hot he is, how all the women want him and how great he was at loving up the h, he has decided to be a volunteer doctor and work in the field with the h for one whole year so they can get married and he supposedly loves her and this way they can get it out of his system.
The h is so befuddled by the lurve mojo force that she agrees, after getting a few pretty decent verbal digs in, and we leave the two of them contemplating marriage and the plains of Africa for the big HP HEA.
I wasn't a fan of the H in this, everything just seemed to be him bullying and berating everyone even his so called philanthropy towards helping hurt children was more about his surgical expression of his ego rather than any true concern for another person.
His judgments and assumptions were just plain nasty and pretty hard to understand, especially since he has six sisters and he definitely wasn't missing out on the high society lady buffet.
Unfortunately, the H never has any character growth or a more mindful awareness expansion at any point as this plot plays out,
This H despises women, but he is challenged by the h and he just can't resist trying to break the h down, which he succeeds at to a certain extent.
HPlandia h requirements being what they are, the h had to devolve to get to the HEA unfortunately and I wasn't liking that, I liked the h for the most part, but her characterization was too uneven to be a good foil for the H's lack of growth in the book,
Overall this book was okay for a regular day at the HP office, There were some extremely funny bits that were just hilarious, When the h was on her A game she was exceedingly great and at the end we can be happy the h is happy for another interesting LA HP outing.
/Stars! Rachel Wright has returned to Sydney after fact gathering and working in missions in Africa, Shes working on her doctorate in agricultural economics, and now shes under the gun to write her thesis, She needs peace and quiet and her Aunt Sam, offers Rachel her cottage while she is away for a few months, Rachel cant refuse, although the cottage is really Sams former love nest and the furnishings are rather risqué, Mel Carlisle is a brilliant orthopedic surgeon, and hes bought the house next door to Sams, When a stray cat wanders onto his property, he hopes it belongs to Rachel, One look at the interior of the cottage, and Mel jumps to the conclusion that Rachel is a kept woman, This assumption infuriates Rachel, and she decides to teach Mel a lesson by playing out the part to the hilt, Mel doesnt hide the fact that he desires Rachel and as they get to know each other, Rachel begins to fear the responses he invokes in her, So every time he gets close she rejects him, which only makes him want her more,
I really like the lively banter in this one, Rachel fears relationships, as she knows shes not one to settle in one place, Mel constantly teases her and riles her to anger, and the more spark she gives off the more he wants her, Mels a bit of an arrogant SOB but when it comes to his work hes filled with compassion and dedication, Both characters are strong willed and a perfect match for the other, This was a fun read, sitelinkNaksed's
My Comment
Reason I love Pride amp Prejudice: Darcy's "swoonworthy" speech was received EXACTLY as it should have been by Lizzy, as an insult.
And she didn't accept the proposal despite him being the richest man she has ever known or despite having no positive future,
Reason I love this book: None,
Reason I'm going to probably give this bookstars: she DID leave him, HE did have to go after her, when she really didn't give an inch to be honest, even though she felt miserable without him and considered being a trophy wife for aboutsentences altogether, she did choose the career over him.
She also flipped the other women metaphorically speaking, and told the monster in law that she is a tyrant who spoilt her son and her son is a first grade bastard.
However, apart from giving up his fancy career for something less fancy in name which would still look even fancier on his resume at a later date job, hero did nothing!
So this book was ALL heroine! So now that I think about it, might even round down to two.
I need to consult my neighbor's cat! He gives great advices!
Naksed's Reply
"I agree wholeheartedly with you Kiki, This book was all about the heroine, She had some great lines in it and pulverized hero, tyrant mother, and tantrumy OW with style and grace, Which makes the ending, when her legs turn to jelly and he spoonfeeds her his bullcrap in between sips of brandy all the more disappointing :"
Conclusion:
Hero is an irredeemable bust! An a grade SOB.
A whore. A scum. And not worthy of respect or a wife, He should be kept as a boytoy or a sidepiece by a woman to abuse, Preferably someone like Irene Adler,
Why:
, I haven't even gotten around to REACTING to him assuming heroine was a mistress material the next day of their meeting, He automatically assumed heroine was a high class hooker the night before because, . . I have NO clue. may be she dressed well May be she was bold enough to eye him directly just like he unashamedly eyefucked her HE, ASSUMED. SHE. WAS. A. HOOKER. WITHOUT ANY FUCKING. VALID REASON!!!!!!!!!!!!! WITHOUT EVEN EXCHANGING A SINGLE WORD WITH HER!!!
'it crossed my mind last night that you might be a highclass hooker
THE FUCK
.
he NEVER actually apologised for his sorry ass presumption, I am not even talking about grovelling anymore, I am too tired screaming throughout the whole book!!!
, HE. WAS. ANGRY. ABOUT. HER. NOT. CORRECTING. HIS. VILE. ALLEGATIONS! SOMEBODY put some cyanide in my patron!
, He made those sick assumptions, yet he had the gall to make remark about Marty's character that he might make snap judgement pot calling kettle black
So at the end of the day
I have broken every fingers of this hero, stuck pins in his eyes, broke couple of ribs and kneecaps, and left him to bleed to death in a dumpster!
However, secondary character: Marty!
Excellent character.
Why couldn't HE be the hero
, He did NOT make snap judgement,
. Came back to ASK what's going on, and hey if thinks are EXACTLY what it looks like, no judgement lady, can we still be friends
, He gave the background story of Mel to the heroine, as exactly that, background story, NOT an excuse and agreed that he is a SOB, did not make excuse for him,
. he wholeheartedly agreed that just because Mel is a genius he doesn't have ANY right to look down at anyone, and if he made snap judgement at heroine just by looking at the house, that makes him not so genius anymore.
. He saw EXACTLY what Mel saw, at NO point did he even think hooker, whore or mistress! so tell me, how am I to find Mel redeemable Rating,stars This was a lot of fun, Heroine has just returned from Africa and is working on her thesis at her aunt's "love nest, " She doesn't have a lot of clothes, so she wears the sexy stuff in the wardrobe and generally just enjoys having a hot shower and good food again, Surgeon hero has just bought the townhouse next door and meets the heroine when he pursues a cat that's been in his house, He takes one look at the interior and what the heroine is wearing and deduces that she's a kept woman, Heroine is angry and decides to let him think the worst, The problem is the hero is very attracted to her and doesn't really believe her story and begins the pursuit,
I really liked how strong the heroine was in this one and the hero knew he needed her in his life, The role model for surgeon's wife never appealed to him and now he finally knew why, I liked how the heroine didn't see him for three days because he was so busy with work and how she used that time to write her thesis instead of moping.
That is what ambitious busy people do when in a relationship, I think these two will be great together, .