Customer Reviews

Past Loving (Harlequin Presents Plus, No 1756)

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

 

 

*spoilers throughout*

Robert broke Holly's heart. He was her first love and out of the blue he tells her he is going to America to study business and as she begs him to stay he tells her he never loved her, never cared about her and only was using her for sex. Fast forward 12 years and Robert is back, but this time Holly is a successful businesswoman and even though he gives her the shakes (literally) whenever he's around, Holly is never going to be stupid enough to fall for him again.

Compared to some of these older harlequins, this book means well. Holly is a rather modern gal, (even if the writing hasn't quite caught up), she runs her own very successful business, has her college degree, is hip about the environment and always has a man to take her out. The problem is the author seems to have forgotten that the sexual revolution happened. This takes place in the 90's and Robert thinks that in this very modern age women must surely be having sex willy nilly, as if they hadn't been for years. Because of Holly's love of the environment she is constantly talking about organic gardening, not testing on animals and saving the rain forest, along with finding rain forest plants to add as ingredients to her organic beauty products. Her love of all things organic is the only think I actually know about her, she is so boring and has no interests other other organic gardening and whenever people talk about her they have the ubiquitous environment reference. Robert is just as easily described and categorized, everyone who mets me thinks he's one sexy man and they talk about how sexy and handsome he is, both to themselves and to him, that's just about all we know about him, other than the fact he's a pathetic coward.

Even though Robert broke her heart all those years ago she has never been with another man, so that's almost 12 years and no sex. I was thinking that it is one of those ugg books where she is going to pine for him while he is making the beast with two backs with every girl around, but I was shocked. He also hasn't been with anyone since Holly. So, from 22 age to 34 he has no sex at all because he realizes too late that he can't be with anyone but Holly. He realizes almost as soon as he gets to the US he can't live without her but he is too much of a coward to call her, write her, make a grand gesture and ask her to come with him, send her a singing telegram, smoke signal . . . something. But he doesn't do anything, assuming she won't forgive him (even though he knows she is a very kind and forgiving person.

Anyway back in the present where both Robert and Holly are sex staved. He brings her home from dinner at her brother's house and she has had a bit too much to drink and passes out in the car. He carries her inside and then climbs into bed with her. This is after she has been hanging up on him every time he calls and avoiding him in the street, so he knows he is very much welcome (not). They end up having sex, (which Holly thinks means nothing to him, except for the fact he climbed uninvited into bed with you while you were passed out, why would a guy do that? Lust? Love? Seeking jail time? Who knows.) Holly beats him to the punch telling him it was just sex and it's not going to happen again, so after his guy has not had sex in 12 years, let me repeat TWELVE YEARS, he just walks out the door without even having the balls to tell her how he feels. Fast forward to the end and he still doesn't have the balls to tell her how he feels, so after he insulted and humiliated her when she was only 18, she then has to go and be the one to lay her heart on the line for the schmuck. If 12 years of celibacy isn't going to get a guy to admit he wants a woman it boggles my mind to think what could get this guy to open up.

1 star.

Robert returns after a ten year absence because he wants Holly, but it appears that he doesn't exactly like the way she is now. She has built up a hard shell and found success in her business life. There is no success with her personal life though. She had tied up her hopes and dreams with him, but he dumped her searching for greener pastures. He wants that girl that he had left behind. Is she there under the surface polish and hardness?

Robert pretty much forces himself into Holly's life and he seems a bit jealous of her male friend, but she doesn't understand why; after all he was the one that claimed he didn't love her and walked away from her all those years ago. Robert wants forgiveness for his past immature mistakes. He wants Holly back! He feels that he has grown up and realizes what he had left when he went in search of something else. But Holly will not just roll over and accept him back into her life he will have to work at it. In the beginning, after leaving Holly, he tried to drown out the memory of her with other women but eventually he realized that it wasn't working and instead became celibate. However, his friend Candace claimed later on that there wasn't anyone else in Robert's life. Robert and Holly do eventually sleep together again, you knew they would, however she misconstrues the situation and plays it off as just a physical thing a way to obtain closure so that she can move on to other men. This hurts Robert a lot because he thought it was a starting point for their new relationship. Overall it wasn't a bad story but it just wasn't as memorable as others.

Description from the book back cover:

"I have other needs, other plans ..." It was over ten years since Holly, a naive girl still in her teens, had fallen for Robert Graham and had assumed that his intentions were more long-term than just an affair. She had been bitterly disillusioned. Robert had no intention of marrying before he had made his way in life, and had callously abandoned Holly in search of pastures new. Now he was back in town apparently willing to pick up their relationship where he had left off. But Holly had other ideas ...