Price of Surrender (Silhouette Desire)

This romance is set in the 1980s hi-tech business community of Southern California but it is completely nerd-free. You think Holt is one big chauvinist, a trait which used to be known as 'being masterful', until you come to the incident of THE WATCH. That's when this superb romance really comes to life. It's hilarious. And Adena knows just how to walk him up to the altar. It's also a story about integrity, honesty and the strength of weak ties. Which is something poor ol' Adena just can't get her head around. Strong successful man meets even stronger woman and happily falls hook, line and sinker. Be aware the couple meet and get married within the space of 3 weeks, and there's lashings of PMS. Well written novel with NO SEQUEL. A thousand times better than the modern para-normal romantic drek I am currently reading.

Adena West is an 80s heroine who believes in truth, justice and integrity. Standing up for her values leads her to tell Holt Sinclair, a corporate competitor, that she has discovered that her company has bribed one of his employees. Holt had already discovered the bribery and is more interested in finding out Adena's price for an affair. The ensuing relationship is fairly amusing. Adena struggles to teach Holt that important things like love and trust cannot be bought, but only given freely. Holt is trying to sweep her away in a domineering way, but keeps checking to see if she is OK with the little gestures while he keeps making mistakes in big ones. I found the turnabout over 'buying affection' fairly amusing and thought it worked a lot better than many contrived how-to-get-them-engaged scenarios. Holt and Adena seem like two likeable people who deserve happiness, although they're less than completely rounded. It eve took me a while after finishing the book to wonder just why Adena, queen of integrity, had had a relationship with her supervisor to break up in the first place. Surely in the 80s people already realized that this did not work? Tsk tsk, Adena. A nice entertaining read.