365 books in 365 days Challenge ... book #140

A Kind of Madness - Penny Jordan
Penny Jordan: Collector's Edition #26
Harlequin Mills and Boon, 1998
ISBN: 9780263808575





My rating




From the back cover:

"Carter Macdonald oozed sex appeal. He was the sort of man women dreamed about. But he wasn't Elspeth's type. She preferred an orderly life, with no highs or lows, no chaotic emotions. And that was exactly what safe and reliable Peter was offering her.
Carter had other ideas. He knew that underneath Ms Turner's cool exterior was a possionate woman waiting to be released - and he was the man to do it! But would he be able to handle her when she finally let herself go?"

I'm sticking with my current trend of reading older books. Once again the image above is an edited photograph of my copy of the book as I could not find an image of this edition on the internet, apologies for the quality. I read the re-issued Collector's Edition of this book, but the book was originally published in 1990 so it's fairly old. Since Penny Jordan is somewhat of a legend in Mills and Boon books I was looking forward to reading this, I have read a LOT of her newer ones but not many older ones, so...

The heroine Elspeth is a conservative merchant banker and bona-fide career woman, she is currently in a relationship with the even more conservative Peter. She is about to go and spend a couple of weeks looking after her parent's small holding. Her parents are the opposite to her life, they are relaxed and rather liberal in their country way of life. The hero Carter is currently staying with her parents helping out their business and Elspeth, spurred on by Peter, seems to think he is trying to sabotage her parents business. She travels up to her parents home with the intention of confronting him, but nothing goes as planned. Carter seems to be very close to her parents and works very hard for them, he is also very charming and Elspeth feels out of her depth. She begins to realise that she isn't as happy with her 'city life' as she thought and that her relationship with Peter is not what she wants. And, despite her opinion of him, she is very drawn to Cater.

I enjoyed this book but found it a little frustrating at times. There is no doubt that Penny Jordan's writing is fantastic, but the story itself could have been made so much better. The heroine is written as ridiculously uptight, and I mean ridiculously! It was so apparent that it actually became humorous after a while, and not in a good way. The hero however is brilliant and I think this book would have benefited hugely from including his point of view. The ending also felt a little rushed.

But, this is an enjoyable and quick read.

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