Tender Triumph (Sonnet Books) (Mass Market Paperback)

by Judith McNaught (Author) "STANDING IN BROODING SILENCE at the windows of the elegant penthouse apartment, the tall dark man gazed at the panorama of twinkling lights fanning out..." (more)
Key Phrases: tender triumph, produce truck, Padre Gregorio, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rican (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
This is a particular favorite. Distrustful of men, Kate Connelly has buried herself in her career, shutting out all chance of romance. Then a handsome Spaniard, Ramon Galverra, walks into her life. He is different than other men she has known, full of pride and passion, and he treats her with respect. But it's his intimate touches that make Kate realize that she could easily lose her heart to this wonderful man. But pride can be a mighty barrier in relationships, and both Ramon and Kate must learn to trust before they can love. You will want to read this love story time and time again.

Review
"Delightful".

-- Birmingham Post-Herald (AL)

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Pocket (February 15, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671742566
• ISBN-13: 978-0671742560
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (60 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #119,621 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Please don't let this turn you off to other great JM books, January 4, 2000

By	Jessica (North Carolina) - See all my reviews

I am an avid reader of Judith McNaught and greatly admire allof her other books. However, "Tender Triumph" made me closeit several times just the check the cover and make sure JM had really written it. From the first 15 pages, it was easy to see the book would be a failure. Katie proved to be not only racist but very shallow and self-involved. She automatically assumes that because Ramon has a Spanish accent that he is poor, uneducated, and not worth her consideration. Judith tries to make her character redeemable by having Katie apologize after each and every one of her numerous catty and sometimes vicious remarks but I just don't buy it. Katie remarks that many of her well-to-do friends are 'shallow' when she is the very embodiment of the word. Finally, when explanations are made as to why Katie is so very unaccepting of Ramon's love, it seems to be too late and still doesn't excuse her racist and classist remarks.

Ramon is also a total flop of a character. He falls in love with her on the first day because he sees her 'inner light' that sets her apart from her friends'? Please. All she has done is insult and degrade him. I wanted to shake him at one point and say, "Can you really be this pathetic?"

Throughout the entire book I kept waiting for the characters to become more real, more believable, and more loveable. In JM's other works, you come to love her characters and live the love story with them but no connections were made between the reader and these characters.

All I can ask is, "What happened, Ms. McNaught?"

Please, if you had the misfortune to read this book first, don't get the wrong impression. JM is a fabulous writer. I suggest starting out with "Kingdom of Dreams" and if you aren't just clutching your sides with laughter at the line 'Forty is *this* many' and then sighing at the love between Royce and Jenny a few chapters later, I shall say no more to convince you. And if you are into more contemporary works, I *highly* recommend "Paradise". Read them. I promise you it will be worth the time, effort, and money.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars just bad..., November 28, 1999

By	[e-mail] "addictedtotravel" (USA) - See all my reviews

I was really surprised with this one. I love McNaught and have read a few of her historicals. Whitney My Love and Almost Heaven are my all-time favorite books... you fall in love with the characters - truly get to know them inside and out and you get 100% emotionally involved. (at one point while reading Whitney, My Love, I just had to put the book down, and find my husband in the other room and ask him to "just hold me". I am NOT an emotional person but this book just... touched me... when she was heartbroken, I was heartbroken, completely crushed.... Poor guy (my hubby) was so confused.... he was like "Honey, is everything alright?"! How foolish I felt when I had to tell him that I was heartbroken over the characters (Whitney and Clayton)! But that is why I loved that book.......... I laughed... cried..... ENOUGH OF THAT! I'm supposed to be reviewing Tender Triumph!)

I liked the idea of the story but found it a little hard to believe that they could feel for each other after only 1-2 days....... The ache that was there in my chest for Whitney and Elizabeth (Heaven) was not there for these characters. I picked up this one and expected to get into another really great book... I even saved it for a beach vacation, because I hate to rush her books- I enjoy them that much! Well, what a let down... character development was non-existent... they meet and a day later are in love... he's losing his multi-million dollar business, coping with major changes in his life (makes a career change--- a farmer? ) and decides at this point in his life to go to a bar and find a wife? I just don't get it. I had absolutely no feelings for these characters, just didn't care one way or the other what happened to them... But please.... if you read this book and hate it too <g>- do not let it turn you off to McNaught. What a shame it would be to miss out on her finer works... Read Almost Heaven and Whitney, My Love. You won't regret it. I have also heard that Something Wonderful and Once and Always are just as great... hope so :) Also just read a GREAT book Wicked Angel by Julia London- truly heartwrenching, but with a happy ending (my favorite kind of book)! HAPPY READING EVERYONE!

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars not as bad as reviews make it seem, December 13, 2003

By	S. Lin "SL" (Wellesley, MA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I was very afraid to read this book because of the horrible reviews that it received. BUT, while it was not her best work, I felt that it did not deserve such a scathing review.

Katie, daughter of an owner of a supermarket chain and Ramon, ex-one of the most powerful men on earth...meet as he saves her from a gropping ex. He asks for a date and Katie agrees...only to be surprised by the force of the emotions that this one man can evoke in her, when so many others have failed.

As Ramon is ashamed that he is now a failure since his business is filing for bankruptcy (because his father is a jealous and evil man), he lets Katie believe that he is only an ordinary farmer with a cottage in Puerto Rico and not a man who had once owned an island, several mansions and villas, and one of the most successful conglomerates in the world.

Katie, who has been married before to a man who she sensed was not himself, is afraid to trust Ramon as she senses that he also is not revealing the whole truth. Because of this, she tries to stall marriage to him, by paying for half of his expenses, making the cottage look like a bachelor pad, and unintentionally demeaning him by asking if he could swim or dance and giving him a $5 bill in compensation for him driving her home.

Not until the truth is discovered, does she realize the depth of Ramon's love for her and how much she wants that in her previously empty life.

He is not chauvinistic and if anyone had read the book closely enough, it is even explained in the end when Katie asks Ramon if he really thinks that a wife's "place" is at home. And Ramon responded by saying that the only reason he said that in the beginning was because he was trying to make her "settle of rless than she has a right to expect" since he barely had anything to offer and desperately didn't want to lose her. I felt that he had a right to be angry with her for spending money on their cottage because 1) he was already seen as a failure by the villagers for losing his company and now it seems as if he has a sugarmama paying his bills and 2) his entire house had not one drop of her personality to make it her space...meaning that she didn't plan to stay.

All in all, my problem was not Ramon's supposed chauvinism, but rather with the palpable hurriedness of the book. Though Matt and Meredith fell in love in a week in Paradise, this time, the length of their acquaintance was stressed a lot more, making it hard to ignore that they had only known each other for less than a week. Also, the ending felt too hurried as all of a sudden, everything was right again. Not enough detail was made to secondary characters, making them seem flat. These reasons made me want to flip through many of the pages so that I could get to the crucial moment when Ramon would reveal who he really is.

It's a fast read, but there is no chauvinist pig in Ramon, so if you were deterred by that, don't be. Not as enjoyable as many of her others, but still a decent read.