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Title: Obsesion Secreta
Harlequin Enterprises
Item Number: 9780373333752
Publication Date: September 1996
Number: 1
Product Description: Obsesion Secreta
Universal Product Code (UPC): 9780373333752
WonderClub Stock Keeping Unit (WSKU): 9780373333752
Rating: 4/5 based on 2 Reviews
Image Location: https://wonderclub.com/images/covers/37/52/9780373333752.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 (9296 total ratings) |
Jacek Szajner
reviewed Obsesion Secreta on December 21, 2014Re Secret Obsession - Charlotte Lamb is back for another tour de force HPlandia mini-series.
This is book one of CL's Sins series. Each one of the seven books highlights a specific vice, in other words we are getting into an exploration of the Seven Deadly Sins.
Which probably makes a lot of people think "What the heck was CL thinkin'?" When I first read these many moons ago, I was thinking that myself. But interestingly there is a very big connection between love/romance and the seven mortal sins we are supposed to avoid at all cost.
Because originally, in at least two of the world's major theologies--Judaism and Christianity--people were taught the list of deadly sins and told that to give into them would lead to the gravest fate possible for a human soul.
Any practice of Pride, Greed, Lust, Envy, Gluttony, Wrath or Sloth would not only eventually cause them sorrow, tragedy and great pain, but be the ultimate rejection of Divine Love and would also permanently and ultimately exclude them from eternal life and acceptance.
The result of their rejection would lead to endless damnation, loneliness, isolation and a dark abyss of night that would forever separate the soul from the communion with the divine. It would literally be a fate worse than death - the fate of being consigned to nothingness and total personal nullification with no hope for salvation or light.
That is some serious stuff for HPlandia, in fact that is some serious stuff for anywhere. Mortal sins in their various forms have been explored in many famous areas of art and especially literature.
One of the most famous is Dante's The Divine Comedy. Three books dedicated to the exploration of the seven vices and their counterparts in virtue. In these stories, Dante associates each vice as a perverted twisting of the original pure Divinity of Love and through an epic voyage, vividly illustrates the consequences of their practice.
It is from Dante's definition of that Twisting of Love through Vice that leads us to the connection that CL considers worthy of exploration and gives her a path to test the theory that Love Can Conquer All.
Seasoned travelers through HPlandia know that those of us who wander here are all about the Love. We like our HEA's, we like our building of relationships and we are dedicated to the proposition that with enough True Lurve Force Mojo, any wall, mountain, deep dark hole or endless abyss can be breached and overcome.
Fortunately for us, CL believes that too and her mission is to show us, through the use of common HP standard plot points, that Love can indeed subsume and destroy the deadliest of vices.
CL is starts with what is considered the root of all sin and the father of all the others - Pride.
For most of us, Pride is not a vice or sin, it the sense of accomplishment we feel when we have finally achieved a long worked for goal.
But pride has a dark side and it was THE sin that led to all the others. Because when pride turns into vainglorious Hubris, or even worse, the self-idolation that every HP OW is familiar with - Vanity - then pride becomes a destructive and damaging force that Dante described as the "love of self perverted to hatred and contempt for one's neighbour".
It is the sin of Pride that caused Lucifer's fall and Pride again made an appearance later in the Garden of Eden. CL's take isn't quite so apocalyptic, but she writes to us about in her forward author's note:
'Dear Reader,
The Seven Deadly Sins are those sins which most of us are in danger of committing every day: very ordinary failings, very human weaknesses, but which can sometimes cause pain to both ourselves and others. Over the ages they have been defined as Anger, Covetousness, Envy, Greed, Lust, Pride and Sloth.
In this book I deal with the sin of Pride. In certain circumstances it can be deadly, particularly when family pride leads people to lie, to suppress the truth about the past, or when someone is too proud to admit their feelings.'
So with those words from CL in mind, we start with Nerissa, who is married to Ben, but really in love with Phillip. When the story opens, Ben is a tall, dark and very handsome prominent barrister who is on his way to the Hague in the Netherlands, he has an important case to argue before the High Court.
Nerissa is anxiously waiting for him to leave. She has a journey of her own to take and she knows that if she tells Ben about her trip, he will refuse to let her go.
It seems that young Nerissa, a very feminine and petite, fragile looking, dark haired, blue eyed nymph is going to Phillip and she knows that Ben will seriously not like that.
We learn that something happened over a year ago, Phillip and Nerissa were in love and then tragically parted. Nerissa's family are Northern Border farmers and their life on the bleak and windswept moors was very limited in both resources and outside connections.
Nerissa had lived there since she was three, when her mother died and her father could no longer take care of her. He took her to her aunt's home, before going to Australia and dying. There on the family sheep farm, she and her aunt's son Phillip grew up together, best friends and companions, together in heart and in spirit in all things.
But something happened that tore them apart and as Phillip was needed to stay and work the farm, Nerissa had to leave. She took herself off to London, unused to city ways and feeling an outcast from the very simple life and isolated from all that she had known.
She was lonely, shy and terribly alone. But then she met Ben at a party and they soon began talking to each other, she liked him and he had a lot of charm. Then Ben asked her out and hesitantly, Nerissa went.
Nerissa feels a physical chemical connection with Ben, he makes her knees weak and insides melt. So because of her heartbreak and her mourning of what she is sure is the only romantic love she will ever know and cannot have, she agrees to marry Ben in a semi-marriage of convenience and mutual passion.
Ben was married before and prior to meeting Nerissa he had planned to avoid any thought of marriage again. Ben married his sister's BFF and then came home one day to find her in bed with HIS BFF. This has soured Ben on love and his discreet divorce certainly did NOT help his career.
But Ben has needs and he and Nerissa generate a powerful amount of heat. Plus where his cheatin' tart harlot from before was a manipulative cat and greedy with it, Nerissa is sweet, gentle and completely in thrall to the mighty lance of Ben's Purple Passion Mojo.
Nerissa explained quite clearly that she can never love him and when Ben dragged her back home so he could meet her family, he quickly figured out why. But Ben wanted Nerissa. Casual affairs are not his thing and she does have a very domestic way about her, so he convinced her passion and a certain mutual compatibility will allow them to forge a good life together.
Except Ben never counted on the strength of Nerissa's obsession and he truly doesn't understand how she can tolerate even being around her family after she found out the full extent of their lies. Nerissa tries to explain that love doesn't work like that, it isn't turned off like a tap and time can heal many things.
But Ben has closed his heart to love. His wounded vanity will not allow him to accept that he could love another woman who might humiliate him and his hubris tells him that he has all the skillz he needs to happily conjoin with a woman who lights his fiery passion, whilst remaining immune to the tender emotions of the heart that passion might engender.
That doesn't stop him from wild outbursts of rage when Nerissa looks like she is thinking of her northern home or Phillip, Nerissa believes it is because he sees her as a possession and as his lust for her hasn't burnt out yet, he is not willing to let her go.
Nerissa has to go home tho, Phillip was driving recklessly, in great mental pain over their mutual tragedy, and he wrecked his car. He is unresponsive in a coma and her aunt and uncle are begging her to come. They hope that Nerissa's presence can bring Phillip back from the dark well of unconsciousness and so Nerissa packs a bag and as soon as Ben is off on his trip, Nerissa goes.
We get a lovely vision of the Northern moors and a glimpse of a very simple village life when Nerissa arrives. Her aunt is tearfully happy to see her, it is clear that she believes that the sound of Nerissa's voice will call Phillip back from his oblivion.
Nerissa is desperately frightened, Phillip was a huge part of her world for so long and he is so dear to her, she just can't stop fretting about what might mean a major loss for her entire family. Then Ben shows up and he is livid.
Even when Nerissa explains the situation with Phillip, Ben is in a stormy rage and determined to rip Nerissa away from the familiar world of her childhood. Finally we learn the awful truth from Ben's rantings.
Phillip and Nerissa were each other's constant companions growing up, there wasn't really anyone else in the farm's isolation to be with, so they were naturally paired together.
As young things tend to do when they reach a certain age, Phillip and Nerissa fell in love. When they went to tell the aunt and uncle that they wanted to marry, their whole world fell apart.
Because Phillip's father is Nerissa's father too.
When Nerissa's aunt was in hospital after a difficult birth with Phillip, her younger 17 yr old sister had a one night stand with her husband and the sister got pregnant with Nerissa. When Nerissa's mother realized she was pregnant, the uncle confessed what had happened to the aunt and then Nerissa's mother left the area.
Nerissa's mother went to London and met a guy and married him. He knew she was preggers, but he loved her and did not care. Then Nerissa's mother died of Leukemia three years later.
The stepfather couldn't care for a child and Nerissa's aunt and uncle had worked things out between them, so they took Nerissa in and loved her and raised her alongside their son. Never thinking that the children would eventually fall in love, but very quick to bury any hint of wrongness.
Ben figured out the truth based on his keen observations and Nerissa's inability to hide things for long. He feels that the uncle seduced his wife's little sister cause he was a lout, but Nerissa is quick to point out that it was probably her mother who did the seducing and her aunt agrees.
Nerissa's uncle is a fairly placid and uninspired man. He likes his farm and his sheep and his major anchor in life is Nerissa's aunt, who is the dominant partner in the relationship. In fact the aunt is the one who is the talker in the family and everyone else just listens.
Nerissa believes that her mother knew something was wrong with her and just grabbed at whatever joy in life she could find, never thinking of the consequences in her quest to find fulfillment. The uncle was traumatized and adrift and Nerissa is pretty sure he never knew what hit him.
Ben believes Nerissa's aunt is a living saint, she is very kind and obviously loves Nerissa. But in Ben's view of things, pride should keep a person from accepting a betrayer back and Nerissa's aunt believes that true pride means that you accept mistakes and apologies if the betrayer is genuinely contrite and resolute not to betray anyone again.
Ben doesn't quite get that, but it doesn't matter. He is more interested in forcing a physical connection with Nerissa in her childhood home and determined to get his way. He seduces Nerissa later that night after an argument, he is hoping the judicious application of the lurve club will break what he thinks is Nerissa's continuing obsession with Phillip.
He tries it on again out in the fields too, but they get interrupted by the pub owner's dog. After a few days of Nerissa fretting and Ben seething and angry mojo moments, Phillip wakes up to the care and charm of a very attractive nurse and it seems he is coming back to life again.
Nerissa has been vacillating all over the emotional spectrum during all of this and it finally hits her that she loves Ben. But she believes that Ben only wants a warm body filled with passion and that isn't enough for her. When Ben first showed up, Nerissa asked for a divorce. Ben angrily refused and that anger was fueling his desire to lurve it up all over hill and dale.
Now that Phillip is awake and Nerissa's aunt's peace of mind has been restored, Ben wants Nerissa to leave with him. There is no future for Nerissa on the farm and they need to move on with their separate lives. Nerissa isn't ready to go yet, she has to put the remnants of her childhood to rest.
But Ben doesn't get the deep and loving connection that Nerissa still has for her family. So he tells her she can stay, but he is done and their life together is over. Nerissa is upset, she is torn between her love for her family and her newfound love for Ben.
Then Nerissa's aunt comes home, happy that Phillip is recovering well and explains to Nerissa that she can go without guilt. Ben isn't like them at all, but Nerissa loves him and needs to let time and distance cure the lingering hurt over the lies that the aunt and uncle told.
Nerissa finally calls Phillip her brother out loud and her aunt realizes that the big break between Nerissa's childhood and her entry into full adulthood is complete. Nerissa's aunt also explains that it was her pride that made Nerissa and Phillip live a lie and she is sincerely sorry for it.
The aunt felt that it would be too humiliating to have everyone in the area know about what her sister and her husband did, so she made silence a term of taking her husband back. Now all these years later, she regrets putting conditions on love, especially since her sister running away made it easier to make the choice that she figured she would have made anyway.
The aunt explains she had great anger that took a few years to get over, she is not a saint. But she also had great love and she just kept on doing what had to be done, biting her tongue when she had to in her determination to make things work. She tells Nerissa that if she really loves Ben, she needs to put aside her own pride and go fight for the man she loves.
Nerissa packs up her things and leaves, but when she gets home, Ben isn't there. Nerissa starts calling around to find him and when she hears that both he and his wanna be OW secretary are out of the office together and the secretary has left several messages on their home answering machine, Nerissa starts to think the worst.
That worst is soon becoming a reality as Nerissa spies Ben and the wanna be OW secretary getting out his car and it looks like Ben has spent the night with the woman. Nerissa hides while the secretary is in the house, then she starts sobbing in a miserable mopey moment when she thinks they have left.
But Ben isn't gone, he wrecked his car while driving home in a fit of temper and he had an emergency client meeting in London. So he got his secretary to go pick him up on the motorway and bring him back in time to make it. The secretary drives a similar car to his, but he has never been interested in her except in her work role.
There is a few accusations of infidelity thrown about and Ben firmly denies them. Nerissa believes him, but she is still dubious about their marriage working out. So Ben finally admits how he really feels.
He is in love with Nerissa, he has been since he met her. But she was so obviously NOT in love with him and there was so much passion between them that he took a chance and conned her into marrying him with the promise of a passionate MOC, then found himself being torn apart by jealousy.
Ben believed that he really could lurve club Nerissa into falling in love with him, but she is still holding out, so he decides to throw away his pride and just tell that he loves her, he adores her and he always wants to be with her, she is the true beloved other half of his soul.
Nerissa breaths a big sigh of relief and avows her love back, she was fretting that Ben might love the secretary and then she would have to let him go be happy with someone else and she did not know if she could handle it, cause he is the other half of her soul too.
CL gives us a nice little epilogue with the birth of Nerissa's and Ben's son a year later. Ben and Nerissa are shown to be really happy and loving together and their son is pretty cute. They named him after Nerissa's uncle, now openly acknowledged to be her father and the whole family is reunited when her father, aunt and Phillip come to see the new addition.
Ben isn't angry or jealous of Nerissa's family, now that he is secure in her love and Phillip is healed too. He shows up with the nurse who cared for him in hospital and the big news is that the two of them will be marrying soon and living on the farm.
Nerissa acknowledges how love can mend all things, heal all hurts and overcome all obstacles and overcome the sins of hubris and vanity. Both she and we are basking in the glow of a sunshine filled HEA for a really intense and very riveting HPlandia outing.
The next book in the series will be Deadly Rivals - and we explore the sin of covetousness - or hankering after forbidden fruit, avariciously desiring what is not yours to have.
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