Margaret Pargeter

Library thing is skewed towards the books I like... because I don't keep or catalogue the books that I don't like. I did not like this book. The power differential was too extreme and the man is too harsh and emotionally distant. While these are critical elements in Harlequin Presents, "Substitute Bride" is exaggerated and somewhat squicky.

Alana Hurst is travelling by train to London where she is going to look for a job as a singer. While on the train two rude young men start coming on to her and pestering her. Guy Mason shows up and helps her out. After becoming acquainted with each other Guy discovers Alana is looking for a job. Guy, (never really telling Alana his full name or occupation) tells her that the exclusive Hotel Remax in London is always looking for new talent and that they may be interested in a new singer. show more Alana eventually auditions at the hotel and is offered a job to sing at the hotel's nightclub. She desperately needs the money to send home to her parents who are in debt. She begins to fall for Guy but then they argue when she finds out he's been lying to her and he's actually the owner of the hotel. She gets mad, then he gets mad.

This is where the book started to go downhill for me. I don't mind an angry alpha male, sometimes I enjoy them, but Guy stayed angry and cranky way too long. Too bad because the beginning of the book was really good. show less

Maxine Martin was an orphan who worked for a Mrs. Martin (no relation) in England. When Mrs. Martin's son, Colin, ran off with Kurt d'Estier's fiancée, Maxine was sent to Morocco to apologize to Kurt because she so happens to look like Mrs. Martin's daughter; they coincidentally share the same name, and because ten years ago Kurt and Mrs. Martin's daughter—who shall now be known as Max—had an almost history together. Maxine was told to pretend to be Max, never thinking Kurt would whisk show more her off to the desert for revenge. When they found out that Colin and Kurt's fiancée had perished in a plane accident, Kurt forced Maxine into marriage because with Colin dead, Max stand in line to inherit Mrs. Martin's money.

On their wedding night, Kurt discovered the deception and he was very angry because he has been made a fool again, but he won't divorce her for a while to save face. Then Max arrived and Kurt spent a lot of time with her (or it's implied he had) while Maxine was the neglected wife.

Nothing new, but what I found different was that towards the end Kurt never revealed what he was doing all those weeks he was neglecting Maxine. Was he really spending all that time with Max? Did he had an affair with her? I suppose Maxine was so happy with Kurt's love that she didn't care what he was doing in the earlier parts of their marriage now that he belongs to her. show less

Whoops! just bought a second copy of this. I need to take a list to the everything is 10 cents store.