Customer Reviews

Phantom Lover (Thorndike Large Print Harlequin Series)

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

 

 

I truly enjoy reading books by Susan Napier because she is more apt to write more realisticly. Her heroes and heroines are'nt always perfect in looks or personality. She will likely surprise you with some little quirky detail which to me are sometimes hilarious.
Adam and Honor are corresponding due to a strange mistaken identity problem. When they finally meet face to face, neither of them are impressed with the other. In fact, they really are almost enemies at first. True to form, Susan Napier has you waiting as you turn each page to come to the wonderful conclusion. The heroine of this novel is not exactly a waiflike model figure and the hero turns out to be a very honest and true person, who is not at all phased by this, which in this world of anorexic phrenia is a pleasure to read about. I enjoyed this book immensely.

This is another fun romp by Ms. Napier. The heroine, Honor, believes she's been getting secret admirer letters and she's been writing right back to her Romeo with some steamy prose of her own. Imagine her surprise when this innocent pseudo-relationship opens a Pandora's box that frightens, angers and frustrates her.

Adam is a handsome, rich man used to having his own way, so he's taken aback when Helen, whom he originally characterizes as a "dumpling," stands right up to him. Adam has a sweet, meddling Mom who would like nothing better than for Honor and Adam to settle down and create more little dumplings for her to enjoy. Adam's young daughter Sarah becomes a fan of Honor as well, so it should all be smooth-sailing, right?

Uh, not so much. Adam's sister-in-law is a witchy woman with a proprietal air towards Honor's love interest. Honor's sister Helen, a slim, blonde model, also stirs this pot. Funniest scene of the book: when Honor warns Helen off Adam. Cracked me up and I had to re-read that scene several times it was so good. Other good Napier books: Counterfeit Secretary, Secret Admirer, Honeymoon Baby, or The Cruellest Lie.

Honor Sheldon has been receiving letters from Adam Blake . . . letters that seemed to get steamier as time went on and the correspondence continued. Honor honestly thought all the letters were meant for her, but the last one mentions her sister, Helen - the beautiful model, by name! Honor feels "honor bound" to advise Adam of his mistake in person. She goes to his house and through a series of events she is taken for someone who is blackmailing the Blake family. She is promptly accosted by Adam Blake, taken to the police station for a shake down, and soon released after explaining some very embarrassing things. Then of course Mr. Blake is B&E her home! Adam "kidnaps" Honor and admits that it helps to have a higher standing in the community because for some reason he is above the law. He tells Honor that she needs to stay w/ his family as the blackmailer may go after her.

Adam really wanted Helen as the last letter specifically mentions her by name. So it is completely understandable what Honor thinks later and a litter dirty of Adam to do what he did.

They snarl and snap at each other throughout the story, and it is rather amusing. However, that cat, Monty, adds so much to this story. He is freaking hilarious!!

Honor had foolishly fallen in love w/ her Phantom lover via letters and the real flesh and blood man isn't like that . . . so far. Eventually Adam wants Honor to speak of her feelings first. He appeared to be unsure of himself even though Honor thought of him as being arrogant. Perhaps he was in some things, but not as far as body image as he is sensitive in some areas in that regard. So he had to be reassured and secure in her feelings for him first. I didn't understand that at first, but once pieces were put together (i.e. woman from his past, and his body issue) it became apparent.

Honor has been writing letters to someone she met at a Valentine's day ball the only thing is she doesn't remember meeting him, she just knows his name it Adam. But since the letters are platonic she doesn't think much of it, that is until she starts getting letters of a completely different nature, love letters, and finally she gets one calling her "Helen". The envelopes were all addressed to H. Sheldon and apparently the man writing to her though her super model sister Helen lived there. As she she goes over to try to break it to him gently she gets handcuffed, and dragged away by policed for being part of a embezzlement scheme, but not before getting verbally abused by Adam the sweet man she had been corresponding with for months. After she is finally let out of the police station and makes it home Adam shows up again, this time to threaten her, go through her things, do anything he can to get his letters back. When he doesn't believe that she has handed them all back to him he practically kidnaps her so he can "keep an eye on her."

That basic set up takes just about half the book, that's half the book where they can't stand each other. The pacing is way off. They spend far too much time fighting with each other and I honestly see no real scenes where they fell in love. Plus, Adam goes out on a date with Helen, very close to the books end. He claims he did it to get her to show that she really cared, but you don't fawn all over your lady love's sister, go on a five hour date with her and then expect she is going to want to have too much to do with you afterward. It was a really stupid plot device that made him seem really insensitive. He also calls her fat and ugly in the beginning of the book, which seems really judgmental of him being his first wife wasn't supposed to be, well fat and ugly. I liked this book at it's heart but it seems like the author was more willing to come up with hurtful plot devices rather than work to show the characters actually falling in love.

But I have to say I truly did love the ending. But my love was a little bit dimmed by the fact he had dated her sister the night before. But it really was very very sweet and in my opinion it's worth the read just for the sweetness of the ending.

3 stars.

This is the first Susan Napier book I have read and I loved it. Unlike new romances, it has a story line. The dialogues were well written and witty. Worth reading.

I had read this book when I was about 15 years old and thought the hero gallant and the heroine innocent and romantic. Lord spare the naive and innocents of the world. Reading this book for the second time around at the age of 28 pissed me off. I thought the heroine if you could stretch to call her that "Honor" was a whimp who had low self-esteem issuses. And thought her self ready for a rocking chair, shawl and one foot already in the grave at the age of 25. I was disgusted when she called one character who was a policewoman who by the author's description was perhaps 3 or 4 years younger than "Honor" herself "a young whipper snapper" as if she herself was 85yrs old instead of 25. If being in your mid to late 20's is over the hill by Ms. Napier's standards I guess I have only mashed up peas and a hot water bottle to look forward to in my 30's!!!! And it seemed that Honor prized everyone appearance and physical attributes above her own as if she wasn't worthy of having someone like "Adam" love her, and he was no better. Showing two faces on one hand he was Sir Ghalahand and the next he was a complete jerk because Honor didnt turn out to be her beauteous, fabulous sister. In hindsight I'm glad that I found this book at my local library before I decided to purchase a used copy online talk about divine intervention. I had to suffer through making myself read through to the very end and skipping pages at that in order get to the end. Now all that being said there are others of Susan Napier's books that I like but on REVISITING this book I wouldn't recommend buying it as a keeper, borrow it from your local library and save your pennies.