Reviews for Juego De Mentiras

The average rating for Juego De Mentiras based on 1 review is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-01-06 00:00:00 Roy Metcalf Re Element of Risk - Robyn Donald takes us on another Culticly Whacktastic HPlandia outing. In a role reversal of Smoke in the Wind, RD gives us an h who is the OW to her married cousin when she inadvertently gets lurved up by the cousin's husband H. So be warned, the premise of this book is based on the H's adultery with the h who is NOT his wife. The h is the daughter of a woman who had an affair with a married man and then raised the h by herself when the married man went back to his wife. Because the h's mother had to work a lot and resented the h's arrival, the h was a very lonely and forlorn child. Her older cousin eventually offered to have the h stay with her and her husband on the husband's Family Estate. The cousin was 24 yrs old to the H's 21 when they married and the H was about 24 when the mistaken identity boudoir bounce took place. The h had just turned 17 and was visiting the cousin and the H. The H was out of town, the cousin had an overnight errand to do and the cousin told the h to take a sleeping pill and sleep in the marital bed because there was a phone next to it while she was alone in the house. The h did as she was told and then the H came home unexpectedly, as he never got the message to stay at his hotel. Between the h's drugged awareness and the H's inability to tell the difference between his wife and a 17 yr old girl, unicorn grooming licenses are revoked without the h's full enjoyment of the process. When the mistake is discovered, the H immediately blames the h for being a tramp and banishes the h from his home. The h soon turns up preggers with twins, but tells no one and her angry mother puts the h into a nursing home for the duration. The h has to give her beloved babies up for adoption and soon gets herself a modeling contract out of the country. She spends the next ten years becoming a modeling superstar, feeling horribly guilty and writing letters to her beloved cousin, who seemed to be the only one who cared about her, but never getting an answer. When the book opens, the h has been out of New Zealand for eleven years. She is on the verge of modeling retirement and she has also hired an investigator to track down her adopted daughters. She wants to know that they are happy and cared for before she figures out if her passion for landscape design is going to be her next career. To her very great shock, the investigator calls her and explains that someone seriously tampered with the adoption records of her daughters. Then he shocks her further when he reveals that her beloved cousin is dead from cancer and has been for a year and half and that her cousin and the H were the twin's adoptive parents. The h realizes that there has been a HUGE betrayal. Here she has been feeling guilty and ashamed for years because the H kicked her out like she deliberately seduced him, when all the time it seems she was drugged and manipulated to provide a breeding womb for her cousin and the H. The h decides she is going to meet her children and see for herself that they are okay. So she writes the H a letter telling him she is the twin's mother and we all go off to confront the H. He is NOT happy to see the h, he thinks she is a Trampy Tart based on the beloved cousin's gossip column news over the years and the h is seriously angry herself. She is also becoming very aware that she has never gotten over crush or her physical attraction to the H. Even tho she was in a consummated relationship with another man until she broke it off cause she couldn't respond to him, the h has never found anyone else to be compatible with her chemistry except for the H. The H gets no pov in this, but in the initial confrontation, he throws the h's gossip column rumors and her supposedly homewrecking mother's behavior in the h's face and tries to tell her she can't see her daughters. (The mother was a homewrecker according to the beloved perfect cousin, the h has a differing opinion of the subject, but it is here that we start to see that maybe the beloved cousin wasn't so lovable after all.) The h keeps her calmness tho and after signing an agreement for limited visiting privileges with the H's lawyer, she finally meets her daughters. She also has to face the fact that the attraction hasn't died out for the H either. There is roofie kisses and a huge admission from the H that he wanted her at 17 and that when he started lurvin' her up all those years ago and realized his mistake, he did not stop because he did not want to. (Which given the h's drugged state, pretty much makes the initial encounter borderline rape - tho RD claims the h had a crush on him and so did not stop him.) After a few more heated conversations and the h wrecking her car in a ditch, the slightly injured h is living at the H's family homestead. Getting to know her girls and soon also having Purple Passion Moments with the H. The h is also more and more suspicious that the whole series of events 11 years earlier was a big set up. The h learns that the beloved cousin was unable to have children. So the h believes that the H, desperate to give the woman he loved so much a family that was actually related to her, set the whole drugged seduction up and then sent the cousin to the h's nursing home to visit her and then plotted to steal her babies. The H denies that he set her up, but he is strangely non believable when he denies that he knew she was the twins mother. When the h reasons out various coincidences that really weren't all those years ago, the H gives a weak denial and then pushes the h to marry him. The h refuses at first, she wants a marriage based on mutual love and not blazing lust, plus she doesn't want to live in the shadow of her 'perfect' cousin. But then the H almost gets shot by some pigeon poachers and the h changes her mind. Since the twins are happy to have her around and the h is shaping up to be a good mother, she and the H marry. The h believes she is doomed to sloppy seconds and to jealously bear unrequited love for the H, but then she finds a letter from the not so beloved cousin addressed to herself and hidden in a photo album and the fertilizer really hits the fan. The beloved cousin's sweet and kind exterior hid a cesspool sub sewer snarfing pit of slime snot personality behind it. The letter from the cousin to the h tells the h that the cousin plotted to have the H impregnate her and that was done with the H's full knowledge and cooperation. The letter goes on to tell the h that she was a nothing person until the cousin taught her how to be civilized and that the cousin hates that she got a modeling lifestyle and fiercely resents that the cousin is dying and the h will live and marry the H. The cousin further rubs it in about how she got the h's kids and that the cousin is the one who made them and shaped them and that the h will always be forever second best. The h is furious and even tho she loves the H, she cannot help but wonder just how complicit he was in all of this. There is a very tense confrontation and the h eventually chooses to believe the H. The H claims that the cousin was mentally ill, she had a deep seated need for perfection and she went to elaborate lengths to appear to be perfect at all times. Not being able to have children was huge for her, so she used her contacts to adopt the h's daughters, but the H is reasonably sure that the cousin was a good mother and probably forgot all that she did to be able to adopt them. The h, knowing that to disbelieve the H will end their marriage and her contact with the twins, accepts the H's denial of culpability and then the H tells her he will never lie to her again. Finally the H confesses that he is madly in love with her and has been attracted to her for eleven years. The h smacks him upside the head for not telling her sooner and confesses her love back. The h and H finally unite in happy wedded bliss and the H claims that the cousin only married him because he fit her profile for the 'perfect husband image' in her quest for a perfect life. The H claims he loved the cousin, but it was puppy love and that the h is the real love of his life. We get a little epilogue where the twins figure out the h is their mother and the h explains that it was all a big 'bed for the night' mistake and then we see the family four years later. The h has met her bio father and has a cordial relationship, he apologizes for abandoning her for the first part of her life. The h and H have had a set of male twins, the daughters are happy, the h is a popular landscape designer and everyone can see the deep love and commitment between the H and h. RD leaves us with the sun shinning down upon the happy family, banishing the sadly mentally ill cousin and her resulting shadows to the mists of HPlandia and very believable HEA. This book is extremely well done and RD's reveal of who is really the villain is magnificent. The build up to the cousin's denouement is subtly alluded to as the story builds, which makes the h more and more likable as it becomes clear that she was the victim of a very nefarious plot. The H's knowledge of events is somewhat more dubious. (I think he knew the h was the twin's mother, at least he did by the time the cousin died. I kinda think maybe even earlier, cause I totally saw him confessing his mistake to his wife after he banished the h.) But since this is ultimately a story about the h claiming her lost family and finding her place in it, RD turns that dubious motivation into a win and it is clear by the end that the H is mad about the h and they are truly in love and devoted. Plus there is also that sense of justice that for once a bovine gutter slob of a female villain got her just desserts with a long, slow, torturous death and that is enough to put this on the HP required reading list and guarantee a most unusual, but strangely satisfying HPlandia outing.