Burning Passion (Promotional Presents)

Rating:
Summary: An Island Romance Rekindled
Review: After four years of university and of living with a shrew of an aunt, twenty-one-year-old Marie Stephens gets a job waitressing on the ocean liner "Greystone H". On her first voyage from England to Grenada she meets a passenger who is at first rude enough to her that would put me off enough so that I'd never speak to him again. Then after a day, he identifies himself as Holden Greystone, the owner of the liner and makes a date to meet her on deck after sundown, where he tells her," When I take you I want it to be memorable. I don't want you ever to forget, because I know I won't." That's a quote. She doesn't even know the guy and he tells her that. And she comes back for more. I don't get it, do you?

Of course she gives into him. After all, he is rude and crude and puts her down. So she goes to bed with him. Why not, it's what good girls do, isn't it? Go to bed with rotten men. Then she overhears him talking to his mother. Mommy dearest, a woman who would curdle anybody's stomach, tells Holden that Marie is nothing more that a gold digger, to which Holden tells her that he doesn't care, he's not going to marry her, after all. Then Holden tells Marie to her face that he thinks she's just after his money.

Marie does the smart thing and gets away froom Holden, however not before gettng pregnant. She has a child, Hanna, and decides to raise her herself, without involving the retched father. However, two years later Hanna develops leukemia and needs a bone marrow transplant and who do you think is her only hope? Yes, you guessed it. The rotten, son of a you know what who sired her. And he is still every bit as rude and arrogant as when we saw him last. So how do you think this one is going to end up? Do I have to go on.

But, I will say this, though our hero is a pretty lousy guy, one no real woman would want anything to do with, unless of course, she really was just after his money, at least he doesn't carry his horrid sense of humor or his put downs of Marie into abusive status. He comes close though. However in the end, he does redeem himself in an almost believable way, so this one gets three stars from me.

A Harlequin Dreamers Review by Vesta Irene