Reviews for The Trusting Heart

The average rating for The Trusting Heart based on 2 reviews is 2.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-11-10 00:00:00 Elaine C. Lueras Re The Trusting Heart - CG brings us an African holiday story with a single mum h who has struggled for a long time for success and independence and an H who is very interested, but only for the short term. Grab your pith hat and your khakis cause we are going on Safari. The 28 yr old h has finally made it to the vacation of her dreams when she and her son arrive at the African game preserve resort. The h has struggled financially for 10 years as a single mum. With a recent promotion as the marketing coordinator for the big London department store she works for, she and her son are ready to relive her summer girlhood memories and also see a lot of animals. The h's parents were divorced, but her father had her out to Africa every summer and took her all over the savanna and various other parts of Africa in his job as an engineer. The h loved these trips and really related to the African way of living and exulted in the vastness and peace of landscape far more than she did her crowded, busy life in London. When she turned 17, her father was supposed to take her on a big African tour, but he got married instead and moved to Malaysia and the h never saw him again. Since she had really hoped to make a life in Africa, the h did not apply to university. Instead, after her father's disappearance, she got engaged to a suitable neighbor boy that her mother and friends approved of. She and her fiance tried the lurve club mojo out right before the marriage. When the h turned up preggers from the one time expedition, the fiance ran off to the Middle East and the only thing the h heard of him was five years later when he sent a drunken whiny letter and offered the h some cash to rub it in her face how successful he was. The ex fiance made no mention of his son or any attempt to acknowledge him. In the finest HP h traditions, the h tossed his letter into the fire and did not even bother to write back. She continued on in her grotty flat and the worked really hard to get a management position in the store she worked at. Eventually her hard work paid off and she finally has the financial independence to go back to Africa and introduce her son to the wonder and beauty of the plains. The h has also had a few relationships over the ten years since her son's birth. Unfortunately one of them turned out to be married and the h had no clue, but when she found out she ended it and the other ran out on her after spending a weekend with her and her son. Since every man in her life has pretty much ran out on her, the h has forsworn getting involved with men and in fact is fairly bitter about them. The h and her son are the first of the season's guests at the resort the h chose to vacation at. There aren't very many other people around, the heavy travel season will start in a few weeks after the h goes back to England. The H and h meet when the h is standing on her balcony wrapped in a sheet. The H makes some pushy and provocative comments and the h shuts him down fast. The H is persistent tho, and has a knack for delivering some stinging remarks about bitter women who become bitter old ladies that get under the h's shields and cause her to rethink some things. The h gives back as good as she gets, and since she is very attractive, she figures the H is on the make and does her best to deter him. The H is a foreign correspondent, former game ranger, who is writing a book about his experiences before he retires to his African farm. The h initially thought he was a game ranger as he was the one who motor toured the h and son around. (There is a lot of interesting travelogue with giraffes, lions, elephants, hippos and rhino's and lots of Africa stuff intermixed with the plot throughout the book.) The h and H banter and develop but deny the pull of stronger physical tension as we get the tour of the savanna and various little walkabouts. When the H saves her son from being caught between a herd of elephants and a charging rhino, the h radically changes her opinion of the H and decides to give into their underlying attraction. Except the H now goes ice cold where he had been pushily red hot and persistent in his passionate kissing before. He tells the h that she had correctly pegged him as a luv em' and leave kinda guy and that he is not going to follow through on the lurve club landing. The h has a little mini meltdown crying moment when she reflects about how she keeps getting caught up with unsuitable men after a fight with the H. She runs off into the wild but the H tracks her down and kissing ensues. The next day after they return the h meets the resort owners wife for lunch. The h feels bad about herself for trying to hold men off and thinks she should give the H more of a chance, but the wife of the resort owner delicately tries to point out that the H is a footloose player and not into ladies for keeps and there is a question of his fidelity too. The h initially tells herself that a few kisses don't mean anything, but when he son is off with some young friends on an overnight adventure, she and the H wind up rocking the cradle of love and the h decides that she will be happy with a one night fling. She sneaks out of the H's room before anyone can see then and then is totally devastated when her son tells her that he met the H's wife on his overnight jaunt. The h is humiliated and mortified that she got taken in again, and tho she quickly finds out the H is NOT married, it is clear he has some kind of serious commitment with the woman who lives in his house. The h tells the H off when he comes to find her and after a night of bitter reflection mixed with yearning and unrequited love, she goes to apologize to the H the next day and maybe make a true love confession. But the H has taken off and doesn't intent to return to the resort. The h and her son depart for London, but the h is seekritly hoping the H will show up and stop her and sweep her off her feet with a big love declaration and no OW. It doesn't happen, the h and her son go home and settle back into big city London life. Both of them are very unhappy and longing for the big savanna, the h feels a double dose of angst because she is missing the H too. The H shows up in London eventually and gives her grief about her sophisticated city appearance, but wants the h to go back to Africa for a few more days. The H gives her plane tickets to Africa after a few failed attempts at conversation, it doesn't go well cause the H really hates the city and is obviously uncomfortable while he is imploring her to go back to Africa and see him. The h rejects the H while he is visiting her - a few rushed meetings in between the H's London business meetings- but after her son starts seriously pining and the h is also having a mopey moment, the h decide's to take a few more days off and it is back to Africa we go. The H meets her and the son and the son goes to stay with the friends he made on vacation. The H takes the h to his new farm to show her around and after a lot of unnecessary and drawn out avoidance, where the h thinks the H just wants a few more club moments, the H finally explains himself when he can't get the h into a quick boudoir bounce. The H tells her the woman she thought he was married to is actually his widowed sister in law. After his brother died, she and the H decided to share a house to recover from their grief. The H DID have an intimate relationship with her at one point, but they couldn't make it work and dumped the coupledom for free ranging. When the H had left the h at the resort, he was going to explain to the sister in law that he needed his own house cause he found a woman he wanted to share it with. The H tried to catch the h at the airport before she left, but there was a big accident on the road and he did not make it time. When he saw her in London after tracking her down, she looked so different from how she looked in Africa, the H got cold feet. He tells the h that he loves her and wants to marry her and her son can do boarding school with his new friends during the week and come home to the farm on the weekends. The h can quit her job and run farm projects with the local African ladies. The h is delighted he loves her and since she has been in love back for weeks, she happily agrees to the H proposal and the two of them ride off into the savanna sunset for the HP HEA. This one was okay, the h and H's backstory are interspersed with the travelogue over the course of the book, so we don't get the full story all at once but in a very gradual process. The graduality of the backstory reveal, coupled with the continual delaying tactics of the H at the end in getting around to his big love confession, plus the fact that the H made her fly all the way back to Africa kinda hinder the full HEA effect. I did not like that a woman whom the H KNEW had been so badly betrayed by men that she had a hard time shedding her shields and trusting and that she also had a son who could be hurt too, was forced into chasing after the H halfway across the world to prove that she would trust him. The H did not do enough on his side to prove HE was trustworthy IMO and the story doesn't go so well because of it. On the other hand, the traveling through the savanna was nice, as was the travelogue and the romance was fairly okay. This one is great if you like Africa books and okay if you like a mild romance mixed with the lion and giraffe viewing expeditions. I wouldn't run right out and hunt this down, but it is a decent time filler if it drops into your lap and you need a little HPlandia fix.

Review # 2 was written on 2019-06-08 00:00:00 Todd Mccallum Why not marry a boss, instead of a boss's daughter?" Even as Jessica regretted blurting out her unorthodox proposal to Sam Ryder, she wondered amazedly at how circumstances had gotten so out of control. She'd set out to prove that even a former lingerie model could do a man's job. Now she'd blundered into using the very tactics everyone cynically expected to lure her Chief Engineer, Sam Ryder, back to McGill Construction. Surely Sam would see that her words were only a desperate expression for help to save McGill from ruin. Nothing more--nothing Jessica wanted to admit, that is.