Reviews for Dark Master

The average rating for Dark Master based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-02-09 00:00:00 Robert Barger Now THIS is an HP the way I remember them! Hero: Rich, titled (a Comte, no less!), urbane, sophisticated, alpha, alpha, alpha. Attracted to very young, sheltered, virginal, CLUELESS, timid orphan with no self-esteem to speak of and a level of gullibility I haven't seen in years. Heroine: Poor homeless orphan, on her own since she was a teenager, working and living in hotels. Engaged to the slick hotel manager, she meets (and detests) Philippe immediately. Plot: Heroine catches slick fiance with another hotel guest, Hero fabricates a compromising position so she can marry him instead and dump the hotel manager to save her pride. Conveniently enough, said Hero needs a wife himself - he says because the woman he loves is with another man and he needs to show her he doesn't care. (Savvy readers will recognize immediately that he uses this as an excuse; he really wants to get into her panties.) So the heroine exchanges one engagement ring for another, and trots off to France with her new husband. She is SHOCKED, APPALLED, and FURIOUS to discover that he's not just a successful businessman, he is a Comte, with a castle and a reticule of servants and assorted family members living there. She is to be a Comtesse - and is convinced she is completely unable to live there. "You tricked me!" she flung, flushing at his insult. Why weren't you honest about everything? You never mentioned the fact that you lived in a damned great castle..." "Sarconne is not a castle," he drawled coldly. It is a chateau, a fortified house, if you like." He slapped her suddenly, without violence, a friendly slap. "Stop quarrelling with me on your first day in Sarconne. Get changed and come and look at it with me. It is to be your home, after all." "You're joking," she said bitterly. "One look from your family and I knew I was an outsider." Assorted big misunderstandings occur, especially with the Comte's hopelessly sad brother and his bitch of a wife. Sister-in-law, it seems (because it doesn't occur to our clueless heroine to ask!), is the woman Philippe loved and she makes no bones about her displeasure with the new bride. Heroine spends lots of time navel-gazing and having ridiculously fabulous sex with her husband, but they just can't seem to get past that time-honoured obstacle to an HEA: THE NEED TO SPEAK TO EACH OTHER. Oh well, this is Harleyland circa 1983, after all, and all the misunderstandings and angst are wrapped up tidily in about 185 pages. I'm starting to understand the appeal these books had for my Grandma, who read 'em by the truckload. 4 stars. I'd actually read this one again without a gun being held to my head. :)

Review # 2 was written on 2018-06-15 00:00:00 Mike Johnston Set in France, our pursuing alpha has to get rid of the heroine's cheating fiance first and then his own brother who falls for the warmth of the heroine's personality. H/h are supposed to have a marriage of convenience but hero puts a stop to that from the beginning. It's their only "line of communication" at times. The heroine learns to run the chateau, ride a horse, and spar with her bitchy sister in law. It's all fun and games until the heroine falls down some stairs and is seriously injured. Our hero finally has to drop his pride - and even tries some noble self-sacrifice. Heroine is not impressed with that as much as his declaration of love for a very satisfying HEA. This is vintage goodness at its best.