Customer Reviews

Long Time Coming (Thorndike Press Large Print Paperback Series)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Sandra Brown is one of my favorite authors. I'm sure the fact that this book is 20 years old explains some of the problems I had with it. I found Law arrogant, self-centered & thoughtless. He took over David's life without consulting Marnie on anything. He ignored the fact that she had spent 16 years being a wonderful mother to David and because of Law's lack of compassion he hurt her repeatedly & deeply. He also had a lot of nerve saying his lifestyle was "normal" when in fact, even though I am a liberal person, I thought it largely immoral & careless.
I found it unrealistic that everything turned a 180 in the last few pages & that Marnie forgave him, without hesitation, for all the pain he caused her. But as I said Sandra Brown is a favorite & one fair book doesn't change that.

After nearly 16 years of single handedly raising her sister's child, Marnie gets a surprise visit from the unknowing birth father, a famous astronaut who bedded down her then 16 year old sister Sharon (he was 23) and produced David. Sharon died when David was 4. Apparently someone has been sending letters about David to Law, and he is there to put a stop to the potential career-ending rumors. His first reaction upon meeting Marnie? He does not recall sleeping with her.

When confronted with David, the similarity between the two is striking; David is the spitting image of Law. Law insists on a blood test, but already has lost his heart to his son and his adoptive mother. Unknown to him, she has carried a torch for him since she was 14. He tries to worm his way into her heart (okay, really just her bed), while she tries to hold him at arm's length. Marnie allows David to move in with Law temporarily to allow them to get to know each other. But will he choose all the gadgets and possessions Law can provide verses the love he has had the last 16 years?

The fact that Law constantly pressures Marnie into an intimate relationship is somewhat comical. He refers to the birth mother of his child as a slut (Sharon was a 16 year old virgin when he met her, fed her alcohol, skinny dipped with her, then deflowered her), yet Marnie is matronly because she will not engage in the same reckless behavior... Take this for what it is - a very dated melodramatic romance novel with a very alpha male that does not really translate well in this decade, but was interesting nonetheless. I really liked the relationship between Marnie and David.

I picked this up one Saturday just to pass the time, I loved it at first, but that love dwindled as the book neared the end. I liked Laws character at first; it was his actions that miffed me. Like the birthday gift, and the living arrangements. It didn't appear as though he had any regard or respect for the woman who had rearranged her life to rear his child alone. Especially at such a young age. And as a single mother myself, I have to say, I kept waiting for David (her son) to choose Marnie over Law, to make it clear that she hadn't been replaced by this arrogant, famous, rich ....person. It burned me that he didn't. And as for Marnie, I wanted her to make Law beg a little more, she made it to easy for him. I wanted her to move away and make him chase her. Anyway, that's my two sense. Go ahead ...read it. A word of caution to single mothers: Be prepared.

As an avid Sandra Brown fan, I will first say of course I loved this book. But however, it is not one of her best. I struggled with the fact that Law comes into the life of David with no real regard to the woman that had been his mother for 16yrs. How like an irresponsible dad to just sail in and take over when it happens to be convenient. But like all romances there is a happy ending. Don't let this be your first Sandra Brown or it may be your last.

Long Time Coming gave me about 3 hours worth of entertainment, then I promptly forgot anything about the book, the plot, or the characters. None of it stayed with me, unlike other books where I think about the plot and the characters for days afterwards, and sometimes consider them to be "friends."

Long Time Coming is a typical romance novel. Predictable, but entertaining at the time nonetheless.

I read this book when it was first issued, have read it periodically through the years, and just seeing the title evokes for me all the emotions I felt the very first time. In other words, it's a keeper. It exemplifies series romance at its best, and showcases Ms. Brown at the top of her game. An emotionally honest and refreshing story, it undoubtedly broke new ground in the genre with flawed but sympathetic lead characters. Typical of a Sandra Brown book, the love scenes are highly sensual, even raw, but not gratuitously so. They make sense given the inevitable clash of the hero's celebrity-driven ego and the heroine's repressed emotions. A super-fast read, the ending is exceptionally satisfying in intensity and length, unlike many books today that seem to want to wrap everything up in one and a half pages, and leave you yearning for more. Kudos to a wonderfully written, timeless reissue.

You asked so here goes. I become very despondent when I order a book at full price only to find it was written in 1988 and I had already read it. It was good enough to read again because I was totally out of choices. Therefore I picked 3 stars instead of the 1 I wanted to give it. I could not fairly punish the book for my poor memory. BUT I do resent the practice of pawning off old material on unsuspecting readers. So there!!

Like most of Sandra Brown's novels, I couldn't put this one down. I instantly escaped into the world of the book. Sure, it's somewhat forgettable, but what romance novel isn't? It's a great story, and well worth the read.

I know, I know. We don't read romance novels to be politically correct. Sexy Cads are expected to cling to a sexual double standard. ("Good girls don't put out. Ergo, my dozens of lovers deserve my contempt.")

That goes double for vintage reprints set in the 70's and 80's. So I shrugged off the reviews that panned 'Long Time Coming,' calling it sexist...

Whoa, Nellie! Sexist isn't even the word for it.

Get this: our 'hero,' upon learning that he fathered a son 15 years ago during a forgotten fling with a 16-year-old virgin, refers to the girl as a "slut." He goes on to explain, "I did what any young man would do when a girl is giving it away."

It's bad enough that he says this to her sister, during the same conversation where he has just learned that the slut died four years after giving birth to his son. What's worse is that the sister - sweet, self-sacrificing Marnie - agrees with him, if not in so many words.

"It wasn't your fault," she says, as if the male half of the team that caused Sharon's pregnancy had expressed some remorse. "Sharon was wild and rebellious."

Later, recalling that ill-fated summer interlude with nostalgia, hero Law Kinkaid scornfully refers to Marnie - who was 14 at the time - as a "Goody Two-Shoes" who refused to go along when he talked rebellious Sharon into drinking beer and skinny-dipping.

We're told that Sharon died in a car wreck she caused while driving drunk - but there's no acknowledgement of any complicity on the part of the older lover who talked an underage minister's daughter into drinking for the first time.

It's as if the author, having had the hero come across as a total jerk in the opening chapter, has decided that the best way to make readers forgive him is to keep reminding us that he's a victim. He, his son, and the girl he now remembers as "twice the woman Sharon was" (these women were 14 and 16 at the time) are all victims of Sharon's virginal machinations.

Just in case the reader has any remaining sympathy for Sharon, we learn that she - sit down for this part - didn't want Law's baby! Fortunately, Sharon confided in her younger sister, who immediately told their father.

Dad, who was a minister, not only stopped Sharon from terminating the pregnancy - he also insisted that she raise the baby herself instead of offering it for adoption. Why? To teach her a lesson about accountability, that's why! Thank heaven for the good sister, Marnie; without her, the baby would have been held accountable, too - by being left in the care of a resentful, irresponsible teenaged mother.

But that's just the backstory. What's important to us romance readers is that Law begins to fall in love with Marnie, who has secretly loved him since that long-ago summer.

As Law soon learns, however, the a problem with good girls is that they refuse to behave like sluts even when they should.

For example:

* Marnie refuses to have sex with Law on the floor of her living room - despite having known him for several days. He tells her she needs to "grow up."

* Marnie refuses to swim naked in Law's pool - even though his kid is walking the dog and will probably be gone for several minutes. This time, he calls her a 'dried-up prune of a woman.'

So let's see...We have an underage virgin who had too much to drink, got pregnant, as was entirely to blame. Then we have her sister, who resists repeated attempts at seduction by the same man, and is accused of being 'unnatural.' If this had been written with a sense of irony, it would be a great comedic romance; sort of a "Taming of the He-Shew." Delivered with a straight face, it has some value as a cautionary tale for readers too young to remember when Law Kinkaid's attitude wasn't far outside the norm.

I'm grateful that Sandra Brown's modern-day heroines have developed the capacity to deliver a verbal smack-down when a man deserves it. I'm even more grateful to have outlived the era when the line between sluts and virgins was universally unforgiving.

For me, this is what Sandra Brown does best - a quick, fun contemporary romance. The story is sweet, the characters are engaging and the plot focuses almost exclusively on the relationship between the lead characters. I think an astronaut makes the perfect contemporary hero. This is a great one-sitting read.