Customer Reviews

Sinful Truths Passion (Harlequin Presents)

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

 

 

I have been reading HPs for the last 30 years. During that time I read many of Anne's books and thoroughly enjoyed them. However, this book made me very angry. (I might have accepted it if it had been written in the 70's.)

Because of misconceptions the hero would not accept that the child his wife bore was his. The child is now around 11 and he is still denying paternity. They never divorced -- the hero carried on with other women, and was currently living with one and contemplating marriage.

In today's day and age with DNA tests it is totally unacceptable to put the child through this type of anguish. The daughter knew that the father did not accept her, never visited her, etc... Yet, once he got to know her, there were many similarities between the two of them.

Once he slept with his wife again, he decided he wanted her back even though he still thought the child was not his.

Quite frankly I was shocked that Harlequin would publish this type of story line. Do not waste your money on this title. There many better books out there, including some written by Anne in the past.

This is the worst Harlequin Presents I have ever read. I was angry and disgusted after the first few chapters but did read it through to see if it got better. It didn't. The "hero" was unbelievably cruel to his daughter and made her life a misery then suddenly everything is forgiven. Are you kidding??? No child after being treated like that would forgive her parent in 2 pages. He also cheated on his wife the entire time they were separated and she takes him back????? I truly HATED this book, enough that I wrote this review since I usually never do.

I totally agree with the other reviewer who said that she couldn't believe Harlequin published this. The hero of this story never believed that his daughter was his and still refused to accept it right up until he was hit in the face with the fact that his wife had not cheated on him. Sure he apologized in the end of the book but by that point who cared? I couldn't believe the heroine took him back. Someone needs to show me the romance in this story because I sure couldn't find it!! I used to love Anne Mather's books but lately they all seem to be like this. I probably won't buy anymore books that she writes.

This book is a horrible horrible book.

After finding his wife in bed with another man, she claimed to be drunk and he wasn't in her bed by her choice, the hero leaves his wife, but doesn't divorce her. She winds up pregnant but he's sure it's not his kid.

So sure that he spends the next 11 years sleeping with anything that moves, fairly openly, and also openly and to her face stating that his wife's daughter is NOT his child. When in the last 1/8th of the book, the hero contemplates getting a DNA test for the sole reason of proving to the girl that her mommy is a liar and he isn't her father, can you really like him for any reason? I think not. And the fact that the heroine would put her daughter through all of that with forcing her into a relationship with a man who continually tells her she's not his kid, who at one point calls her a little b itch for saying that the kids at school make fun of her because her father is such a player and doesn't like her or her mom. Yeah.

But the real problem with this book is the fact that everyone has a lot to pay for, and no one pays for anything. The heroine's mother manipulated and used her all for the benefit of a house, even at the end, even at the very end, but that's all happy and good with forgiveness. The hero spends the entire book treating his daughter like crap because he's too stupid to think that there's even a possibility that he might be the father of this girl, and he chucks all the blame on the heroine for telling the girl that he's her father. If she hadn't said that, he might have gotten along with the girl. But oh well, because the daughter's just happy he acknowledges her and wants to be a family. The wife allowed her daughter to be treated like garbage by the hero and doesn't care as long as she gets her man. Let's drown them all in a lake. The only person who I'm okay with in this book is the daughter. She obviously has tons and tons of issues if she wants to have a relationship with the thing that now calls himself her dad, but all those issues were not of her own making, so that's her free pass.

Honestly, there is NOTHING good about this book. Just avoid it. Don't even read it out of curiosity, it's that bad.

I totally agree with the other reviewers. I couldn't believe that the fool hero couldn't get a darn DNA test instead of being hateful to the little girl! WOW!! Some of the things that authors write thinking that their readers are ssssoooo stupid!!! Another thing I wouldn't have forgiven the old woman either. She not only messed up the H/h lives she messed up the little girl's life too! Frankly couldn't believe that the h would forgive the H either. Why didn't she offer a DNA test either????

Here is the story, young couple in love and the mother of the bride does not like the groom. She hatches a plan that has her daughter drunk and unknowingly in bed with another man. The husband walks in and walks out, not bothering to get her side of the story. The hero was looking for an excuse to walk out and he got it. The best thing that happened to the 11 year old was that she did not have to be raised by a self-centered jerk like him too bad she had to be raised by a spineless mother instead. In the end when the truth comes out the heroine runs of like a total coward and the 'hero' has to actually spend some time raising his child. That had to hurt. He was being forced to deal with a problem he largely contributed too and even with them having more children he will always have an 11 year gap in his life when it comes to his child. He was punished brutally, more then any of the reviewers give credit for. Not only did he lose that time with the child but he also has to explain his lack of integrity to those he encounters and live with a permanent blight. Deadbeat Dad's never truly recover from that label and this was no unknown baby, he knew about her existence from birth. Furthermore the interfering mother and the jerk husband have to live with the guilt for the rest of their lives and no amount of forgiveness will ever erase it. They made an innocent child suffer and her mother was a single parent for no good reason.Oh yeah, they are paying in spades and the heroine is a little martyr even though she is not exactly guilt free either. She should have insisted on blood tests and because she did not she contributed to the appalling behavior. So basically I think that all the adults in this book got what they deserved. If you act spineless and get treated badly then shame on you. If you interfere in your daughters life and end up ruining your grandchild's life as well then shame on you. If you leave your pregnant wife and don't bother to find out for sure if the child you are leaving is yours then doubly shame on you. Poor kid, too bad they did not put her up for adoption.

Sinful Truths (Passion)I'm giving this book three stars--though I can see why other reviewers gave it one and one of the reviewers gave it five. This book left me conflicted. This writer, however, knows how to make her men attractive to the reader (those of you who used to read Mills and Boons in the old days know she was the craze back then)...but like the others I found that the treatment of the child crossed boundaries that disqualified the hero from being a "hero". I also thought the heroine did not protect her daughter and I was almost in tears for the little girl. That said, the writer captures the passion between the two characters and manages to create a compelling emotional story line of passion, betrayal and love. This is the key to an unforgetable HP in my opinion: if the writer can somehow get us to find the hero attractive...and see ourselves in the shoes of the heroine. It's difficult to pull off and she did--which is why that one reviewer gave it five. I still can't give a five though because of my aforementioned reasons.

I have read Sinful Truths 3 times so far. One of those 3 times was just to try to figure out why I liked it so much. I think of Anne Mather as a writer of life as well as Romance and I admire her courage in taking on a topic that might offend some readers. In real life there are children who are in traumatic situations and most of the time it IS because of mistakes made by parents. I also have been reading Harlequin Romance for 30 years and I consider this book a literary feast due to Anne Mather's attention to detail, character development, dialogue, raw emotion,--I felt as if her goal while wrirting it was to expose her characters very soul to the reader.-- it was great. I plan to read it again.