Header PromotionSubstitute Lover by Penny Jordan (HP 1105)
She married the hero's cousin 10 years ago. She has been widowed for 9 1/2 of those years. Ever since the death of the cousin, she's been very close to the hero. He's been her friend and very supportive. The heroine had a nasty abusive relationship with her husband and lives a shell of a life: not getting involved with any other man. The hero mistakenly believes she's never gotten over her love for his cousin, and is still mourning him. The hero has loved her for 11 years, and has just been holding back because she doesn't want another relationship. He doesn't want to risk their friendship by telling her his feelings. Things start to come out though: he asks her to pretend to be his lover, saying that he's in love with his friend's wife and needs the diversion. He really doesn't love the other woman, but wants to keep the heroine close to him. The pretence goes farther than he expected: she actually responds to his passionate kisses, giving him some hope for them. It stirs him to question her relationship with his cousin, and he starts finding out the truth.
Loved the hero in this, he was a good loving man. I believed his feelings for the heroine, he was steady in his feelings for her. This is a very very well told story. Normally I feel a lot of distaste for stories about spousal abuse, but even though it touched on that, this story had very powerful characters built up and wonderful chemistry and deep love. Penny Jordan's a great writer, to tell such a story so thoroughly, showing the whole lives and motivations of her characters, taking a character with a sad past and bringing her out of her shell into a happy future.
Rating: 4/5 stars, well done story.
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