With her brother Danny missing after a mysterious plane crash, Annie is struggling to protect his hot electronics company from the sharks who think he's not coming back. But fanciful, ethical Annie -- who usually runs a bizarre bric-a-brac shop knows Danny's alive, and she's determined to keep his company safe by putting his biggest investor at the helm. When Oliver actually says yes to the marriage of convenience, Annie dreamily envisions a few platonic weeks of helping him become a sensitive New Age guy. Oliver has a different plan; his cold, gorgeous eyes have been watching Annie, and he sees his chance to seduce the beautiful schemer. Love is the wild card destined to teach these two strong-willed opposites a lesson: icy control might run the business world, but all hell is about to break loose in the passionate territory of the heart.
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This month's TBR Challenge is to read a book from before 2000. This one is from 1993.
I really enjoyed this book. I admit to the reservations about a hero named Oliver, but the stereotype was turned on its head. Oliver was a man who, left to his own devices, likely would have fit his name's stereotype, but instead was a strong man and a ruthless businessman.
I loved the time period of this book. In 1993, I was in my late 20s, living the time period in the same way that the characters were. No cell phones. People couldn't get a hold of someone at the touch of a button - you had to wait until you were where the phone was. CDs were still new enough to be spelled out in capital letters and full words: Compact Disc. People still had diskettes on their computers and wireless was sure to be the next big technology. Awesome.
I loved how Annie manipulated Oliver. Subtly, and sometimes not so subtly, lol. Although I called who the villain was pretty quickly after it was clear there was a suspense plot, it didn't really undermine my enjoyment. Since I began reading romance in the early to mid 80s, the book didn't feel anachronistic to me. Things that would likely bother younger readers used to more modern times didn't bother me. I especially like that in a time when it didn't happen frequently, the book was written from both Annie & Oliver's POVs equally.
I was challenged to read this, then gifted the book when I told HelenKay Dimon I wasn't a fan of Krentz (or either of her alter egos). So, big thanks go to HelenKay. I definitely liked this one. While I still wouldn't call myself a Krentz fan, I still got a lot of enjoyment out of my Sunday morning read
I've read some of Nora Roberts' older contemporaries and like you it's fun to visit a time when there was no Internet and no one had cell phones. Maybe they had pagers. This one sounds fun.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, NR doesn't do it for me. I find her very meh. But I would agree that this reads much like those. No telling why I liked this one and not NR. I'm weird like that.
DeleteOh man, fun times. Did either of the characters use a pay phone?
ReplyDelete(And neither here nor there - I found the Large Print copy of this one mis-shelved at my library this week. Has gone out A TON, but still in good condition *g*)
LOL - no payphone that I recall. But I could have forgotten it. But yeah. As an old fogey, I liked the trip down memory lane when my life wasn't controlled by my smartphone.
DeleteI think I've read this one when I binged on Ms Krentz books a couple of years ago. However, I read so many in such a short time, that they kind of blurr into one another ^_^; However, if it's the one I think I read, I liked it :)
ReplyDeleteIt's really fun to revisit and I didn't have any problem either. I have to say too, I love Ms Krentz' ruthless businessmen heroes. Not enough of them nowadays!