The harlequin presents book is white, it has a circle on the front cover with the picture

of  a doll inside of it.  The book's main character is a widow.  She goes home with someone

after a party and accidently calls him by her dead husband's name.  He gets angry and leaves.

The next day she suddenly finds herself promoted to his secretary.  His name is Jake, he is

a tyrant to the people who work for him.  They all come in and cry on her shoulder and then

go out to work again.  Jake breaks a china doll she gets from her boyfriend when he comes

back from a trip.  She has a bossy sister with two small boys.  Jakes father raises

roses and his mother is disabled.  Jakes goes between wanting her, and hating her.

Does this book sounds familiar to anyone??  Thank you for your help.

Frustration by Charlotte Lamb.  A keeper for me.

Thank you so very very much!!!!!    I have been wanting to get a copy of this book for years.

I really can't thank you enough!

Rebecca

how much of an a$$ is the guy in this? sounds like it might be borderline for me, esp breaking a doll! sometimes they do this theme pretty well though...tempting...

It's definitely borderline, Susanna... he keeps telling her "I like hurting you" if that gives you a clue. :-\ But also enjoyable in that over the top way. I vaccilated about it and then kept it.  Just read another Lamb, _The Devil's Arms_, which was REALLY over the top. Hero=total asshat, heroine=total doormat. In this one, she does stand up for herself some.

wish i kept my copies of Frustration and DEVIL'S ARMS. DEVIL'S ARMS especially.

They are so wonderfully OTT

ok well I requested it to see. I have plenty of non-pc books that I still like so maybe this will be one of them!

Sounds like your typical Harlequin Presents.  Most of them are like that.  I do enjoy reading them though!

I've been wondering if the Devil's Arms was the inspiration for Kleypas' Someone to Watch Over Me. Not that it's all that original a plot idea. Of the two, I probably enjoyed TDA more. :-)

Susanna, it's a fascinating mystery why one book with a truly horrible hero will offend me and another will entertain me.  I have a few beloved books with pretty much no redeeming features whatsoever - Dark Fire by Robyn Donald comes immediately to mind. The hero is unutterably awful and there's no payback of any kind - he gets away with it completely. And yet somehow I can't resist it.

the Kleypas was obviously her shot at Martin Guerre.

Now I really want DEVIL'S ARMS back. I do have about 10 Charlotte Lambs on my keeper shelf and even got rid of one recently because I was only rereading one of them. the CLs of the late 70s is one of my favorite versions of crack

I think the Martin Guerre one is Stranger in My Arms.

Oh duh! My dyslexia is acting up again. Yeah, DEVIL'S ARMS is way better than SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME. Daphne Clair's WIFE TO A STRANGER also has this twist and DEVIL'S ARM was way better.

what's Devil's Arms?

I know what you mean..some heroes by all rights (aka Jayne Ann Krentz's Uneasy Alliance) but I'm just drooling for that arrogant non-pc hunk..and others totally turn me off. I had an older harlequin and started reading it and the woman cut the guy's face with a whip..I skimmeda  few pages more and that was it..threw it in the trash ..became a censor 'cause I couldn't bear for another woman to read that stuff! I look back over some ofmy older keepers like barbara cartland and wonder how I ever found some of this stuff sexy (bodice rippers? some of johanna lindsey's stuff..tried to re-read The Pirate and just about gagged...used to really turn me on though!)

I love this thread..LOL...my favorite CL's are the Sins series....so much angst, so little time.  :  )

Book 1: Secret Obsession
Book 2: Deadly Rivals
Book 3: Haunted Dreams
Book 4: Wild Hunger
Book 5: Dark Fever
Book 6: Angry Desire
Book 7: Hot Blood

Someone has posted at Romantic Times on the Spoiler thread asking if Nerissa ever slept with Philip before she married Ben in Secret Obsession.  No one had replied the last time I looked.  Does anyone here know?  I always thought that she did, but reread it last year when someone said that she didn't.  Now I can't remember what I decided and why. 

Any input on this weighty subject?  (To refresh the memory, Nerissa and Philip were raised together, always loved each other, decided that they really LOVED each other and announced their engagement only to be told that they had the same father.  They still aren't over it when the book opens and the h has married a man who attracts her sexually but she doesn't love to try to get on with her life.    The husband knows this and is supposed to be okay with it.  Then Phillip is in a terrible accident and is in a coma and she drops everything and goes to him.)

It was on the ambiguous side... I remember thinking that I would really have liked it spelled out more that she didn't, because incest themes really squick me out.  I *think* that there was some mention that she didn't, but that may be wishful thinking on my part. :-\