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Title: LA Otra
Harlequin Enterprises
Item Number: 9780373334551
Number: 1
Product Description: LA Otra
Universal Product Code (UPC): 9780373334551
WonderClub Stock Keeping Unit (WSKU): 9780373334551
Rating: 5/5 based on 2 Reviews
Image Location: https://wonderclub.com/images/covers/45/51/9780373334551.jpg
Weight: 0.200 kg (0.44 lbs)
Width: 0.000 cm (0.00 inches)
Heigh : 0.000 cm (0.00 inches)
Depth: 0.000 cm (0.00 inches)
Date Added: August 25, 2020, Added By: Ross
Date Last Edited: August 25, 2020, Edited By: Ross
Price | Condition | Delivery | Seller | Action |
$99.99 | Digital |
| WonderClub (9294 total ratings) |
Michael Dittenhoefer
reviewed LA Otra on December 16, 2018Re Marriage Meltdown - Brace yourself HP Voyagers, we are going again to the Trainwrecky Dark Side of HPlandia, in a full blown examination of the Darker Side of a May-December HPlandia HEA.
This one is about marital infidelity, so jump off now if you aren't up for the ride.
We start with 28 yr old Gina, nice Italian Catholic girl and mother of three after six years of marriage. Gina is married to Reid, a 39 yr old smug, patriarchal Captain of Industry. It is Gina's one and only marriage and Reid's second.
The book starts with Gina contemplating Reid over the dinner table, while he ignores her diligent efforts to make him a nice home life, and realizing that if this how an HEA is supposed to work out, she isn't down for it.
Gina is lonely, Reid seems to firmly categorize her as a mother and housekeeper and the fizzles that she felt when she first met him have just gone by the wayside. Gina decides something needs to change.
So when she questions Reid about an upcoming business trip where he will be staying in a suite apartment hotel setup with his beautiful assistant, instead of his usual London hotel, alarm bells start clanging.
Especially when Reid mockingly insists that nothing is going to change for Gina, her cozy, well-heeled set up is guaranteed for life, as Gina is the mother of his children. Gina is hurt by this accusation, she didn't get married for some 'cozy set up and cushy life', she married Reid because she fell head over heels in love with a handsome prince.
But as the years pass, the handsome prince withdraws into a total toad and Gina feels smacked in the face with a fish when Reid very crudely indicates that she is a total zero in bed. Reid is resentful that he feels he does all the work and Gina barely responds to any of it.
Gina is confused. Her background was an Old Skool Italian Catholic Mum and an education by nuns. As with most backgrounds of this type, sex and sexuality was NEVER discussed and in a misguided attempt to keep girls safe, Gina was taught that men chased, women were demure and shyly hinted yes or no. Gina was also taught that unless you were in a lawful marital relationship, it had better ALWAYS be NO and even then you shouldn't be too enthusiastic.
So Gina has no clue as to how to help Reid find more fulfillment. This is the 90's and there is always Masters and Johnson, but Gina was taught from a young age that 'nice girls and good wives and mothers don't sully themselves with that sort of thing.'
Plus Gina has been preggers for most of the six years of the marriage, so her body image hasn't been the best, as it seemed to her she was constantly distended by pregnancy and so much of what is considered attractive femininity is rail thin model types with cheekbones to die for.
Not that Gina is unattractive, she is actually beautiful. But again her upbringing and even Reid's mother, are all of the school that a true lady doesn't flaunt her assets. Reid agrees with this to a certain extent, he married a mum this time around, not a high flyer piece of arm candy.
But Reid believes the downside to natural mum's seems to be that they have no excitement to bring to the lurve club event required for a stork visit. Or if they do manage to fake some passion, it is probably to manipulate a guy who is quite happy to take his needs to a leggy blonde with some spark, who won't interfere with his home life.
Gina puts 28 yrs of inhibitions and body issues aside and takes a chance on seducing Reid in the shower. Reid is actually angered by the attempt and Gina's insistence that there needs to be a change in their relationship leads to very angry, but passionate boudoir moments.
Gina finds the entire night with its heated events a complete revelation, she had no clue as to what she had been missing. Tho she is a bit disheartened over her son's childish repeating that Daddy said, in a very cranky manner, about Gina's mental state 'Sick and sore and sorry for herself, most likely. But not to worry, Patrick. Your mother will be back to her normal self in no time flat.'
Gina rightly surmises that Reid's cynicism about her manipulating him hasn't been abated by the big Passion Mojo moment, even tho Gina is entirely sincere on her part. So Gina sends Reid a basket of roses, much like he did in the early days of their marriage to thank her from some thoughtful thing or upon the birth of their daughter, thanking him for the night of her life.
There is a lovely scene where Reid is getting the flowers and the delivery lady is making a big deal about a guy getting roses. Reid's potential affair partner, his assistant Paige, is glaring daggers and then Gina shows up.
She thought she might take Reid to lunch and then to a hotel for some afternoon deelites. Reid comes across as an utter nematode slime swiller as he once again degenerate's Gina's sexuality and her new found passion for the bedroom. He goes a bit too far when tells her she doesn't have to tart herself out to keep her lifestyle and Gina is very hurt.
That hurt turns to fury when Gina finds out that it is Reid's assistant that is going on the all-so-important lunch date with Reid. Reid explains that it is his assistant's birthday and that he made plans to take her out a long time ago.
(Reid conveniently fails to mention that he had been planning to put the initial seduction moves to start an affair with the woman into play over lunch, but Gina's next moves pretty much push his lecherous intent to the back of his mind.)
Gina has a major shout down about Reid putting his assistant before his wife and pretty much tells him if he goes the infidelity route his hiney will be getting a big surprise. Gina shouts that she has been sweet and accommodating and trying hard to make their marriage work, but if Reid can't do better than this, well she wants more in her life than that and she will work to get it.
Then she asks for the business card of Reid's travel agent, since Reid told her to make her own plans if she wants to go to Europe, Gina intends to do just that. Reid gets a phone call later that afternoon and Gina has indeed booked herself onto Reid's trip, including sharing the suspicious hotel suite.
Reid once again threatens Gina that she better not mess up his business trip. Gina is terrified, this is a huge risk for a woman who is basically an introvert, but she is determined to save her marriage if she can.
Gina gets to the airport and she isn't wearing a bra, because Reid was all about liking the jiggle when an unfettered woman walks around. Heads are turning right and left, cause an unbound Gina really makes an impact.
The assistant, Paige, and Reid are waiting at the gate. There is a big kerfuffle as Paige tries to make Gina seem like an imposition taking up Reid's business time when Paige offers to switch seats. Gina feels belittled, cause she earnestly promised Reid she would NOT interfere with the serious business he was going to conduct. (Little knowing that his 'serious' business was monkey business.)
Gina firmly declines to sit next to Reid and is perfectly happy with the caviar and vodka and her seating companion offered on the flight. Reid starts to get the hint that he is an utter idiot and he also starts to miss just how much fun Gina is to be with. He regrets that he made such a big deal about business, cause now he wants to sit with Gina.
Things take a definitive dive when we get to London and the suite hotel. Paige swans around naked under a towel robe while in full battle makeup and after some verbal sparing with the woman, Gina realizes that Reid is probably already involved in an affair with her.
Even if Reid isn't shagging her silly every chance he gets, he and Paige were certainly planning on it based on the suite setup and Gina knows that she isn't going to live like that.
Gina finally uses that spine of steel she has been growing for the last nine chapters. She looks at Reid and sees a lying toad snot snarfer, who has the extremely bad taste to put his mistress and his wife under the same roof and she wants no part of it.
She waits until a distinctly disturbed Reid and Paige are gone for the day and she gets herself into another hotel. She leaves Reid a note explaining that she is done and not to be bothered and Reid is pretty much beside himself.
The situation when he left Gina alone in the suite hotel bothers him greatly, Gina is avoiding him like he is some loathsome piece of slime that will contaminate her and when he asks Paige about it, her very sly insinuations set off his inner alarm bells.
Reid leaves a note of his own with a basket of roses for Gina, he tells her he loves her and wants to talk, but Gina is walking out the door of the hotel while the roses are being carried in and she never gets them.
We get a little time jump here. Gina has been having a great time touring London for the past five days, while firmly rebuffing any attempts by Reid to contact her. Gina is done, she has agreed to meet Reid at Rules, the oldest Restaurant in London in Convent Garden on Maiden Lane, and Gina intends this dinner to be a discussion about separation and divorce.
Reid is there being anxious, he really starts to wonder if Gina is going to show up and when she does, he is even more scared. Gina is all about how SHE was working towards making a better marriage and HE was all about screwing around.
Gina hammers it home that she accommodates and tries to please him because that is her idear of a loving marriage and he just doesn't give a damn about what she needs or wants. He put her in a box and told her to like it and when she tries to break out, she finds out he had the audacity to book her into the same suite as his tart.
Reid is very quick to reassure Gina that Paige is history, it seems she has a long past of seducing and then blackmailing employers and he paid her off and locked her out and sent her on her way the same day that Gina left him.
Gina is not about to be cozened by that line of mushroom fertilizer, Paige may have been predatory and out to create some drama, but Reid is the one who went there and it was his decision to cheat.
Reid is pretty convincing in his assertions that he never slept with Paige and to be fair, ED does give us a lot of his POV and we see him thinking about it, but there are NO scenes where he and Paige interact in that way.
Then Gina asks about Reid's first wife, because it seems that Reid is making assumptions and blaming her for behaviors that he attributed to his first marriage. Reid doesn't want to talk about it, but Gina doesn't back down. Gina knows she is carrying the baggage for another woman's actions and she wants this resolved if the marriage is going to continue.
Reid explains that his first wife was a manipulative gold digger who wanted the high life and only put out when she could gain something. It all fell apart when Reid finally realized her game and they divorced. Then he met Gina and she was sweet and selling children's books and she looked like a very nice girl who would never dream of using her body to get a new Ferrari.
This revelation leads to Reid's unhappiness in the bedroom, cause he never realized that not using sex as a weapon or as a bribe also meant that he wouldn't be getting any purple passion either. Gina again takes him to task, she reminds him of his age, her background and her upbringing and reminds him that she was all about grooming unicorns when they met.
She also explains about how pregnancy made her feel undesirable and Reid hastens to assure her that pregnancy made her bloom and he was criminal for not telling her that. But Gina isn't done, she has more to say and this time Reid is going to be able to repeat it. In a lovely smackdown for Reid's smug complacency about passion moments, Gina hits the hard notes.
She flat out asks Reid where was she supposed to learn about sex if not from him - he was the older and experienced one. Her mother was very strict about morality and while she liked being intimate, everything she learned in life was to be lady like and restrained - he even reinforced that by his behavior that she was too 'fragile' to hear that he was disappointed in bed.
The light finally dawns in Reid's head that HE is the biggest problem denominator in this situation. His adamant determination to categorize and patronize women has led to his own downfall, tho he blames it all on the OW.
He does apologize very sincerely and Gina wants her marriage to work enough that she will allow Reid to believe that she believes it really was both the OW's fault that Reid is a snot snarfing complacent patriarchal nematode.
Gina and Reid have a grand and glorious passionate reunion and Reid is now determined to always treat Gina as the Queen of His Heart. Gina is satisfied that Reid is well aware of what he will lose if he continues to withdraw or thinks of infidelity again, so her happiness is now supreme.
After a happy family reunion with all the ladies in Reid's life coming out of their boxes, Reid reassures us that he is a nematode in reformation.
He understands that there are a lot of things he doesn't know and that categorizing his ladies will lead to big problems in his happy home life, so he will always be the most caring and supportive husband he can, with no more other women. Gina is the owner of his heart and can happily meet all of his demands for the ED Rosy Glow HPlandia HEA.
I like this one a lot, tho Reid should have been kicked to the curb for year on his own in a grotty flat with beans on crumbs. Gina is what totally makes this book work. She starts out the typical HP h and she grows on every single page. If Reid had put even a fourth of the effort Gina put into saving her marriage, this would have been a much shorter book.
I also thought it was well played on how Gina let Reid off the hook about his actions and his continual blaming of the OW for making him think about straying.
Yes, Gina was right and she could have hammered it home that it was HIS behavior that got them all into this mess, but she wanted her marriage and she wanted to keep her family together for her children and she really did love Reid. So she let him have his denial of culpability get-out clause and agreed to blame the Evil OW Paige for their drama.
Sometimes if you want to win a negotiation, you have to let the other side save face and I thought that was the biggest test of Gina's maturity in this.
Gina was convinced that Reid did not cheat in physical deed, so her choice was to let his bad behavior go. Tho she was very clear about how much she despised his actions and she was also clear about repercussions in the future if that sort of behavior occurred again.
Gina choosing to let Reid off the hook for actions and his very ugly words in beginning show a grace and maturity that will have many a reader screaming for a skillet. But I got her decision, and it really WAS a conscious decision on her part.
That puts this book on the HP required reading list. It isn't often that an HP h will take such a decisive stand and it is even rarer that an HP H will sincerely apologize for his bad behavior and more importantly, cognitively UNDERSTAND why what he did was wrong and then proceed to live that new awareness.
ED shows all of that with this one, it is a very well done angstfest of trainwrecky EPIC proportions. It is a groundbreaker in terms of defining boundaries in a marriage and a relationship and a must read for an excellent HPlandia outing.
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