Customer Reviews

The Judas Kiss (#480)

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

 

 

I read this book over 20 years ago but could not remember the author or the title only the plot which is quite disturbingly dark. The heroine is unquestionably sadistic and cold blooded and really puts the hero through hell. Yet despite the fact that I loathed her, this book is incredibly compelling and unforgettable which makes it one of the best Harlequin Presents I ever read.

Cheesy 1980s crack.

It's like mixing any number of the 80s plastic surgery-revenge films like Return to Eden [VHS] or The Promise with the Airport trend of the 1970s which resulted in such campfests as Flying High with Connie Selleca and View from the Top.

It starts with 19 year old stewardess Lyn in love with 30 year old pilot Beric. Lyn thinks Beric framed her with drug trafficing which lands her three years hard time in prison. After she gets out, she gets some magic plastic surgery which makes her drop-dead gorgeous instead of the catwoman (Jocelyn Wilderstein) and a new ID. She tracks Beric in Singapore and gets him to fall in love with her by being a total "The Rules" girl. She gets him to marry her and disappears on their wedding night, making him think she was kidnapped/killed. All the little touches she uses to twist the knife in as he searches frantically for her - as she watches in sadistic glee - is Teh Awesome.

The resolution of the ending is not totally satisfying, emotionally, but still, well-written.

Stewardess Lynette Maxwell spent three years in prison after being wrongly accused of drug trafficking.She mistakenly believes her pilot boyfriend Beric Dane had set her up.So begins a complicated plot to revenge herself on him.She enters his life after her release from prison and puts her plan in motion but she hadn't counted on him falling in love with her.

No schitt! And that is the only reason I am reviewing this piece of g.a.h.b.a.g.e. The insurmountable problem is that the of course completely innocent heroine, Netta, turns out to be the most gobsmackingly evil p.s.y.c.h.o-b.e.e.t.c.h ever to appear in a romance. Her true nature is only revealed during her stay in jail where she happily bonds with fellow fish and is given up as unreformable by the jail director. A perfectly nice looking girl she undergoes extensive facial reconstruction with the purpose of getting revenge...ON ANOTHER COMPLETELY INNOCENT PERSON! Her former boyfriend, the hero of this story. I felt so sorry for the poor guy. She goes after him and reels him in with all the instinct of a stone k.i.l.l.e.r. The schtupid author makes him fall in love with the heroine all over again. And how is Netta going to get her revenge? Why, by committing the very crime of which she was innocent of in the first place!!! Argh!!! But she changes her mind in favor of torturing the poor guy even more nastily. The victimised sap is doomed to spend the rest of his life with the twisted harpy. I just hope he discovers the divorce laws. This story is so poorly written that even the first time I read it, about 20 years ago, I felt very little sympathy for the female. Basically its a trainwreck. End of.

The story is about love, self-preservation and revenge. A unique and poignant story.