Disturbing Stranger By Charlotte Lamb
I've no real choice, have I? Laura asked.
As long as she could remember, Laura had loved Dr. Tom Nicol, a gentle, self-sacrificing man, dedicated to serving the needy.
Unlike him in every way was Randal Mercier--wealthy, powerful, taking what he wanted. And he wanted Laura.
Her father's embezzlement of funds from Randal's company made it impossible for Laura to refuse his marriage proposal! She knew she must marry him but she didn't have to love him.
She couldn't foresee her change of heart or the despair of knowing he was indifferent to it. Disturbing Stranger
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I liked this one overall, but it was missing the charm of other CL books.
The H is crazy-town. Obviously obsessed with the h. He seems to have multiple personalities, swinging wildly between besotted simp and rapacious jealous monster. He blackmails her into a marriage despite believing that she loves someone else. 👀😈 I didn’t hate him. 🤷🏼♀️
The h wasn’t much better. She was an outraged virgin handing out come hither glances from under her eyelashes. Driving the men in her life out of their minds. 🤡
This includes loads of jealous rages and dubious-to-nonexistent consent. Although sometimes I was confused why she was choosing to fight… her thoughts didn’t always match up with her reactions.
I think this book could have just as easily been called “Mixed Signals”. 🤷🏼♀️
Bottom Line? It was a solid j/p read, I just missed the subtle humor that I’m used to seeing from Ms Lamb. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
⚠️SAFETY SQUAD SPOILERS⚠️
- no cheating or sharing
- OW drama - the h thinks a woman at a party is the H’s ex lover - he deliberately lets her believe that, hoping she’ll show some jealousy
- OM drama - the h has a crush on OM when book opens - this relationship is the source of lots of jealous rages and Torrid Embraces - the h flirts and dances with other men at a party
- dubcon and noncon
- h is a 20 yr old virgin
- H is 38 and experienced
- the H slaps the h once during a heated argument
Charlotte Lamb It's Whitney, My Love but Harlequin Presents style. He loves her, but she thinks she loves someone else. Classic Charlotte Lamb including a slap and shake. He mentions several times wanting/loving her so much he felt he could kill her. Stalkerific and angsty drama. The ending was a bit abrupt, but that is not uncommon in the older HPs. I like the old school books, so a solid 4 star read. Charlotte Lamb this was a re-read for me from november 2012 and i dunt think i wud maintain the 5 star this time around. i wud rather go for a 4 star bcoz i had dat horrible feeling dat the hero was a rapist ! which he was, as a matter of fact !lol. randal was an absolute beast to laura ! he cud not accept dat she loved the doctor and not him. as it's an HP, ofc she fell for him later on, but i was not convinced. the hero was a wannabe wife beater ! he had serious potential in this category. however, this is still a must read. it was highly charged, very emotional, and contained lots of angst as hero's jealousy knew no bounds ! Charlotte Lamb I feel like such a horrible feminist for loving this book. Hero has forced seduction, hero slaps woman.
*shakes head*
The hero Laura is out on night with a social worker as a way to see what her love, Dr. Tom Nicol's life is like. Well the social worker is cool towards her and makes no bones about the fact that she does not want her there. So as the two are going about the social workers rounds a car full of drunken young men swerve in front of them. Out pops our hero Randal who decides that he wants to swipe a kiss and a glove from our heroine, Laura, for some juvenile game the guys are playing. Laura was appalled when the hero's lips touched her own but oddly, aroused at the same time.
That kiss knocked Randall for one, and he makes it his business to make Laura his. With the help of the social worker, Randall is able to track down Laura. Laura happens to run into Randall while out walking one day. Randall asks for a date and of course, Laura turns him down. Well this only makes Randall want her more and it works to his advantage when he discovers that Laura's farther is his employee. What's more, Laura farther has been stealing money from the company for some time. I don't want to give anything else away because this book is very good book so please read it.
I give this book 4.5 stars
You may not like this book if:
1 very jealous heroes bother you
2. the hero slaps the heroine once.
Charlotte Lamb Hero is crazy about heroine. He will get her by hook or by crook. He blackmails her father who has embezzled hero’s money. Heroine has no option but to marry him.
Till the end she is hankering after her second cousin , a dedicated doctor who puts his vocation before his own love life.
The latter half was a bit strange with the hero going over the brink and being violently enraged and jealous.
Descriptions of life in the seventies. Very well done. A slower time. There is beauty in just reading about their simple lives. And sadness. For how it’s all gone.
The heroine seems young which she is and as the hero accuses her, a born coquette.
One never knows if this girl will be steady or not. They both are quite real. In that sense. Human.
I had read it years ago. The party scene in Venice reminded me.
Liked it more this time around.
Classic vintage harlequin presents.
Reviewers are shocked that her mother is an invalid at fifty. What they don’t realise is that there was very little treatment for a severe heart condition in those times. It isn’t fantasy. But very real for those times.
Also it does tire a person out and weaken them. Even now.
Charlotte Lamb
He definitely needed therapy!!!! And, I loved it. (Hangs head in shame)
This is exactly why we never publicly admit to reading HP's and hid in our closets while reading them when we were 13.
Quintessential Lamb, an absolute master of the genre. Charlotte Lamb I previously rated this a 4 star, but in all fairness I have to rate it a 3 star.
I hate to admit this, but I really enjoyed this trophy,old school, un-PC book.
The hero is bowled over by the heroine who is seriously unimpressed due to her lukewarm love for a boyhood friend.
Due the actions of one of the most annoying parents ever- her father, a part usually reserved for the mothers, the heroine ends up in a MOC.
The passion between the H and the h is pretty hot for 1979 which helped bump it up a star. There heroine is quite something. She blows hot and cold over both men to an amazing extent.
Sad to say not only does the hero slap her but has rough sex with her. What's worse is I am not taking a star off for it. He really adores her.Or so he says. By the way, the other guy is a wimp.
Interesting element: For those reader that are in the 40s or 50s you may either be amused or dismayed by the decrepit description of the elder, white haired parents. Pretty much every other essential secondary character has a heart condition or is confined to a wheelchair. They sound like they are in the 80s when, nope, their 50s. Hmmmm. Charlotte Lamb Wow these two were hot for each other. It just took the heroine a hundred pages to catch up. Is there such a thing as a dark romp? Because if there is, this is one.
The opening takes place in the dark, on the East End of London where the naive gazelle of a heroine is out trying to understand the man she loves, a do-gooder doctor. The hero is babysitting his drunken nephew, but forgets everything when he sees the heroine. He kisses her against her will, she responds, he takes her glove only to return it tenfold the next day with gloves in every color.
I think that sets the tone for the rest of the story. It's lighthearted on the surface -but menacing -yet there is an extravagance of feeling between the H/h that can't be dismissed.
The secondary characters are interesting. The heroine's mother can't be out of bed for more than 6 hours at a time because she has a heart condition. (She's 50) The heroine's father is an extrovert accountant (oxymoron?) who does a bit of light embezzlement from the hero's company to keep the family coffers brimming. It's the father who is the key for the hero to push marriage on to the heroine. But it's their epic sexual attraction that makes it all seem inevitable and right.
The hero's family isn't as interesting. Dad's a dour French executive. Mom's also bedridden after a car accident. Their scenes with the heroine in the last third of the story slow down the narrative and ended up knocking a star from my rating. (Funny - the 4:00 AM rape that the heroine didn't consider a rape didn't do that - just the boring scenes with the in-laws)
The ending was kind of perfect for a dark romp. The heroine tells the hero she's pregnant (after he punches do-gooder doctor) and the laments she's soon going to look like a pumpkin. Hero assures her he's hot for pumpkins.
If you love stalker alphas, this one is for you. Just be warned - it's a dark romp with consent issues and rape triggers. Charlotte Lamb **Spoiler Alert**
This stranger certainly sets out to disturb from the word go. He sees, he grabs, he kisses the rattled h who feels obliged to show some indignation (especially as she enjoyed the kiss) and slaps him back drawing blood. But the undaunted H just grins back saying he likes it as she has marked him. And I was hooked with this ‘were’ analogy.. Ah-woooooo ;))
No but seriously for a vintage, these two had serious chemistry…and especially as the h was ‘in love’ with a pious goody good doctor. Every time the H grabs n gropes her, she grabs n gropes back! Lovely harly heaven!! *happy sigh*
The H sulks temporarily when told of her devotion for the om but then he shrugs n comes back full throttle aiming to get her body if not her heart. And thanks to an embezzling father he gets to do the usual blackmail routine. They get married and off to Venice it is for the honeymoon… so all is well as well it can be. Translated - they can’t keep their hands off each other.
The H gets what he wants but yeah he soon realizes he wants more so some more sulking follows…the h meanwhile discovers what real passionate love is all about n she wants more from the H too. So in true harly tradition they want the same thing but are too blind to realise that they already have it.
As it is a vintage n a CL to boot, so a slap n a rape is de rigueur. The rape was a bit weird if I may say so and it was rape, no forced seduction poseur. They have a good sex life but then things sour n they keep to their sides of bed. One morning they wake at 4 am n the H just like that rapes her. A 4 am rape, for god’s sake! Maybe she is not a morning person?
But I really loved the chemistry between the two. They have their cute moments. And an H who falls real bad from the word go. In fact he’s stumped she doesn’t feel the same. The ending was aww so sweet n very satisfying.
Charlotte Lamb The theme in this one is a love triangle. We get the crazed, almost psychotic, obsessive lust/love that a much older and world weary, reformed rake has for a much younger, virginal, naive and sheltered woman who, unfortunately for him, is caught up in a romantic infatuation with another man, who, in turn, is unable to return her affections. The story was adequate but CL executed this theme in a much, much more effective way with her Savage Surrender.
WARNING: Old Skool...ahem...forced seductions abound and those scenes are truly brutal. This is CL. No holds barred. Charlotte Lamb
