Customer Reviews

A Heartless Marriage

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I read this book in one sitting. It was really good. It featured the kind of hero and heroine and setting that I may find in a Lynne Graham (my all-time favorite author) novel. The hero is Raoul de Chevnair, 32 years old French billionaire. He is super gorgeous (like Lynne Graham's heroes), with black hair and beautiful blue eyes. The heroine is Leigh, 25 years old and English. She is ordinary and poor (like a Lynne Graham's heroine). Because her husband is so wealthy and devastatingly good-looking, and because so many women are attracted to him, she felt very insecure. She often wondered why he is with her. But he finds her beautiful and is crazy about her. In fact the thing that stands out is that based on his actions and his behavior towards her, it is clear that he loves her so much, even though he does not tell her until the end of the novel. There are some poignant moments.

They first met on a beach when he was 25 and she 18. They fell for each other like mad and married soon after. For 18 months they lived in an idyllic world where he pampered her and devoted his full time to her. He took time off from his business and just spent all his time with her. Then when she found a naked woman on their bed and he coming out of the bathroom naked, she thought he had betrayed her so she left him. He tried to explain but she would not listen. He let her go because he felt she needed time to grow up away from him. For five years he kept an eye on her from afar. Then he felt it was time for them to be reunited so he came and demanded that she came back to be his wife. She agreed on a three months trial basis.

You can tell he loved her so much but because of her insecurities she could not see this. Through the five years they were apart, he remained faithful to her. She was one lucky woman!

I only wish the heroine was less resistant and that the love scenes were more elaborate.

This book was terrible, just plain awful, reading the reviews from other people it's hard to believe we are talking about the same book. The only reason I know it's the same book is because of the hero's name Raoul and heroine Leigh. Ok, So Raoul married Leigh and eighteen months later she runs away because she walks into her bedroom and finds some Marion person naked on the bed. Her husband comes out of the bathroom wearing a smile and not much else. He lets Leigh run away and stay away for like five years so she can grow up and see the situation for what it was. I'm no spring chicken and I was having a hard time seeing things for what they were- DULL. They are both a Bore, and she's an ass. I don't know, maybe it's because I'm from NYC and no Bitch is going to get naked in my house and on my bed to do MY man. Leigh should have grabbed Marion by her blonde dumbass, kicked her ass all over the bedroom and tossed her naked ass out of her bedroom. Now turn round and tell Raoul, "you got two minutes to explain or your ass is going out the window." This would have made an interesting read but this book. I gave it one star because zero was not an option. Can't recommend it at all.

Five years ago a young 20 year old Leigh walked into her bedroom to find a naked woman sprawled in her bed with a look of triumph on her face. Raoul, her husband, was coming from the en suite naked . . . He wasn't even allowed to explain. Leigh asks him if he had found her in bed with another man if he would have "sat down with us in a reasonable manner and asked politely for an explanation?" He proposes that Leigh return to being his wife for three months and after that time if she wants a divorce he will release her. But she has to say it and she has to mean it! Of course she can just get the divorce now but it sounds like he will fight her on that so she gives in to his proposal.

The woman, Marion, was his best friend's wife and he knew that she had been after him for weeks. Later Leigh remembers that Raoul had rebuffed Marion but she persisted. Leigh spends time with Raoul and realizes that she never stopped loving him. Raoul loves Leigh and there had never been another woman for him but her. He had let her go for the five years so that she could grow and find herself. He had been coddling her too much and realized after the Marion incident that Leigh was right he was treating her as a "doll" that he took out to play with. He needed to let her grow into her own person, trusting herself and developing her own self worth.

The book was very good and the romance between Raoul and Leigh was so sweet, but the whole Marion thing was a sticking point. Raoul who claimed Marion ruined a "beautiful friendship" as well as his marriage should NEVER have spoken to her again or at least not without someone else present in the room. But he did speak to Marion again and he allowed her to kiss him, which is what Leigh sees when she looks into his office. He claimed that Marion came back to apologize to Leigh and him about what she had done five years ago; she felt guilty for her part in the destruction of their marriage. However, not guilty enough that she tried to make amends sooner or even tried to rebuild her husband's relationship with Raoul. The book does not allow us to hear the conversation between Marion and Raoul though. Instead she hears from a mutual friend that Leigh is back with Raoul and she comes to "apologize" to them but especially to Leigh yet she is found in the room alone with Raoul not waiting in another room for Leigh. I would have liked a confrontation between Leigh and Marion that would have wrapped the story up nicely for me at least!!!

I enjoyed this book, I like all of Helen Brooks books, I also read Jessica Steele, even though the new book coming out sounds flat, I will get it anyway. I also read Susan Fox and Eva Rutland. I have over 7,000 old, old romance books from Jane Austin to Jean Webster.In this book Raoul de Chevnair is very much in love with his estranged wife Leigh ne Wilson, she found him in the buff with Marion a woman who made no secret that she would gladly leave her husband for Raoul. When Raoul goes to reclaim his wife he finds her at an art show, and he takes her home. After they have strong words, he leaves. He tries to call her several times, only she just lets the phone ring, then when she decides to work on some of her art, she takes the phone off the hook.
The next day at 8:00 Raoul pounds at her front door, when she lets him in, he looks for the other man, and he is so jealous he can't see straight. That's when I thought well, well well...so Leigh is supposed to know Raoel is the innocent party when a naked woman in their bed.For once the alpha female asked the question that is always hovering on my lips, what would you have done if you came in our bedroom and found a man in my bed, and me naked.
I yelled yesssss! The fact that he said he would have killed the men shows me he didn't really look at the situation from Leigh's point of view. Over and over he makes the scene sound as if the problem was the lack of faith Leigh has in him, and not what she saw with her own eyes.
One more point my husband wants to make, Ms Brooks must like lemony men's cologne, because it has been in ever book we have read so far.I never noticed this, until he pointed it out.
From the back of the book: 'Marriage on trail! From playboy lover...When gorgeous millionaire Raoul de Chevnair chose Leigh as his bride, it seemed he'd left his flirtatious bachelor days behind for good. But had he? Their marriage had scarcely begun before his playboy habits returned and Leigh found him in the arms of another woman...
...to faithful husband?
That was five years ago. Leigh is no longer a naive teenager, bowled over by Raoul's charm. So when he vows to win back her trust, Leigh is determined not to give in that easily! It's all very well for Raoul to sweep her off on an exotic second honeymoon, but Leigh needs a lot of convincing that Raoul has decided to take his marriage vows seriously after all!'

This book starts with the reunion of an estranged husband and wife. The h left the H after walking in to their bedroom and finding a naked woman sprawled on their bed and the H emerging from the shower. From the start, the book did not make sense to me. The h reaction to the first meeting goes as expected, she is still mad/hurt and he acts as though little time has passed between their estrangements, not 5 years. Somehow they end up agreeing to spend time together to finalize their divorce (again makes no sense since they have been apart for 5 years). What follows is a long argument about whether or not the h still wants the H. Yes you do, no I don't, Yes you do, well maybe a little...no, I mean no, I really don't. Pages upon pages of these arguments without them ever talking about the actual event that separated them. It made no sense for them to not even have a conversation about it, they just continued to have tedious argument. The H never explains anything, just whines about how she doesn't want to talk about it. By the time I was 80% in the book and they still had not talked about the bathroom incident I really didn't care anymore. I skimmed the rest of the book enough to know that it was all solved within a conversation which made me even more annoyed. The end was extremely anticlimactic and not worth the tedious pages and pages of repetitive dialogue that you had to suffer though to get to it.

This is one of Helen Brooks best works. I am a big Helen Brooks fan and have pretty much read all of her works. This book ranks with And The Bride Wore Black. Her older books are better than newer ones. The hero in this book is truly a hero who has married a young girl only to have the marriage destroyed by a misunderstanding. He lets her go for 5 years to spread her wings and then comes back to claim her. In the years while waiting for his wife he stays faithful to her during the entire time. He tries to explain the misunderstanding but she refuses to listen until she overhears a conversation at a party. The characters are well suited for each other and it is easy to see how much he loves her. Worth reading!

I really enjoyed reading this book. I am a great fan of the older romance books. And this one was mentioned to me a while back. As a older book it was harder to locate until I searched amazon.

This is the best story of helen brooks, I like the cruel male character and Leigh very much, if you are a romantic reader, you must not miss this story, and I am not a book publisher or any advertiser, I am only a big fan of helen brooks.