My Dearest Enemy [Mass Market Paperback]

Connie Brockway (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 6, 1998

Breathtakingly romantic, startlingly original, Connie Brockway's novels have captured the hearts of readers and the raves of critics everywhere.  Now she brings you a unique and unforgettable love story that begins with a series of letters between a world-weary adventurer and the woman whose love brings him home.

Dear Mr.  Thorne,

        I give you fair warning.  I intend to do whatever I must to abide by your late uncle's will and win Mill House.  Though I know he never expected me to succeed, and for whatever reasons is using me to shame you, I accept his challenge.  For the next five years, I will profitably manage this estate.  I will deliver to you an allowance and I will prove that women are just as capable as men.  And at the end, I shall accept Mill House as my reward.

Sincerely,
Lillian Bede

My Dear Miss Bede,

        Forgive me if I fail to shudder.  Pray, do whatever you bloody well want, can, or must.  I shall look forward to making your acquaintance in my lawyer's office five years hence, when I take possession of Mill House.

Avery Thorne

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The terms of an irascible uncle's will robs Avery Thorne of the home he loves, and throws him into contact with the new owner, an argumentative suffragette named Lily Bede, whose letters follow Avery on his adventures around the globe. Now Avery is returning home, hoping that Lily will have failed to make the manor house profitable, thereby ensuring that it reverts to him. When they finally meet, she finds him just as arrogant and domineering as in his letters. He finds her just as tart-tongued and provoking. They're each beset by an attraction that leaves them sleepless, restless, and burning with desire. Avery, who considers himself a gentleman above all else, finds the self-control required to resist Lily increasingly hard to come by, while Lily chaffs under a self-imposed restriction against marriage, which she deems "legalized slavery." In showing how these two come to terms with their hopes for the future--and their feelings for each other--Connie Brockway amply displays her well-known wit, charm, and humor. --Ellen Edwards

Review

Love was the last thing on his mind, until her letters brought him home. . . .

"Romance with strength, wit and intelligence. Connie Brockway delivers!"
--Tami Hoag

"Connie Brockway's work brims with warmth, wit, sensuality and intelligence."

--Amanda Quick

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Dell (July 6, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 044022375X
• ISBN-13: 978-0440223757
• Product Dimensions: 3.9 x 1 x 6.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #84,745 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

New York Times and USA Today best-selling author Connie Brockway has received starred reviews from both Publishers Weekly and the Library Journal which named My Seduction as one of 2004's top ten romances.

An eight time finalist for Romance Writers of America prestigious RITA award, Brockway has twice been its recipient, for My Dearest Enemy and The Bridal Season. In 2006 Connie wrote her first women's contemporary HOT DISH, which won critical raves.

Today Brockway lives in Minnesota with her husband, a family physician, and two spoiled mutts.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Witty & unputtdownable! I loved it, September 11, 1998

By 

BarkLessWagMore (USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: My Dearest Enemy (Mass Market Paperback)

I loved both of these characters but the hero especially. He thinks he's a gentleman (and trust me he's the only one who thinks this <g>) he's blunt, and loud and pretty much knows nothing about being a boring old gentleman. Thank goodness! He's also charmingly imperfect, physically flawed by asthma, amazingly shy despite his loud mouth and sexually inexperienced. An irresistible combination, he was. The letters the two exchange during his travels cracked me up and touched me. A wonderful book that I can't recommend highly enough.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Another winner by Connie!, June 12, 2000

By 

pontmarie (SF Bay Area) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: My Dearest Enemy (Mass Market Paperback)

This is such a great book, the luscious kind that just completely sinks you into the story.

Avery Thorne, his sickly, asthmatic past behind him, finds that his uncle Horatio has died and left Mill House, Avery's inheritance, to outspoken woman's rights champion Lily Bede. If Lily can run Mill House for five years and show a profit for it, the place is hers. If not, it goes to Avery.

A disillusioned Avery travels the world for most of those five years, and as Lily must get to him a quarterly allowance, they begin corresponding, most of their letters filled with barely filled insults, which amuse Avery's fellow adventurers and Lily's friends in Mill House.

Avery eventually comes home, only to find that the spinster he expected to find is a beautiful woman, who nonetheless, suffers the shame of not being accepted in society because of her illegitimacy. Their first meeting is filled with tension and eventually they give in to the attraction they feel for each other, but Avery will not have Lily without marriage, and Lily fears her rights as a mother would be gone if she married Avery.

Connie Brockway writes wonderfully lush books that don't go into purple prose territory - her characters (main or secondary) are always fully drawn and interesting, and My Dearest Enemy was a delight to read.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful, Truly Wonderful, July 22, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: My Dearest Enemy (Mass Market Paperback)

I'm slightly disappointed with this book. I loved All Through The Night and As You Desire, rereading them often, and I waited every week in bated breath when this book came out. Then when I read it at first, I groaned. "This isn't as good as the others!" I exclaimed.

But I was wrong. This book is not like the others, because it is different. Each Brockway book tells its own story, and this one tells of a love so quaint and sweet I couldn't help but to love the characters.

Avery Thorne was my kind of guy. Sensitive, intelligent, shy, yet so dependent on, he is such a wonderful character. His letters and Lily Bede's make me chuckle aloud, and when they finally meet face to face, sparks really fly.

This book lacks the sensuality of love scenes typical of Brockway's books, but the tenderness and warmth are intact. The characters are vivid and fully drawn. Lily and Avery are so funny, so happy, so alive together it is hard not to succumb to smile and laug! hter seeing them fall in love.

My only complain is that Lily took too long to realise who she was in love with, but all in all, with beautiful prose, wonderful characters, humour, and love - this book is a keeper.