An Unforgettable Man by Penny Jordan

An Unforgettable Man Reviews

• 
  Sandra

  Courage Bingham gets a job with Gideon Reynolds a millionaire businessman Courage needs the job to pay for her beloved Grandmother's heart operation Gideon offers Courage a loan for the expensive operation but in return he wants her to be his lover Courage finds that there is something familiar about Gideon like she has met him before Courage eventually realizes that they did meet many years ago in a dark summerhouse I liked the heroine Courage and I felt bad for her at times Her family was terrible especially her stepfather and her stepsister Laney And the hero treated her badly for most of the book believing she was a different promiscuous kind of woman It was sad to see Courage's romantic daydreams from years ago in the summerhouse crushed view spoilerI just wish Gideon could have realized his mistakes over Courage sooner in the book In the last chapter he was still mad and getting his revenge till Courage's friend Jenny had to tell him some truths about innocent Courage Then Gideon finally saw the light He didn't grovel enough either hide spoiler
• 
  boogenhagen

  Re An Unforgettable Man Penny Jordan's editor called again It seems Roberta Leigh is on her way out and there just isn't any of the old guard left to write your ultimate Nematode Slime Pustule Hero or submit a fifth entry in the Dangerous Liaisons seriesRobyn Donald was involved in her next three book miniseries Sara Craven had semi retired to one book a year at this point and Carole Mortimer gave up mostly nematode H's when culottes went out of fashion Plus in order for the Sexual Blackmail by Nematode Slime Pustule Hero trope to work the h has to be a certain type An RD h won't cut it cause her h's would knee the H in the dangly bits and spit in their face before they would actually allow themselves to be used as a sex slave than once Sara Craven's h might make the attempt but ultimately SC h's prefer actual rape scenarios to coercion which would not engender the suitable amount of Stockholm Lurve Force Mojo to get us to a believable SC HEA Plus an SC h does tend to be rather pragmatic and wouldn't have the necessary mental fragility to invoke true horror in the coercion scenario A Charlotte Lamb h would probably wind up chaining the H to the bed and then parading him around in a collar and a leash after appropriate food porn amounts of Dover Sole Spanish Paella and a dollop of cherry preserves So that leaves PJ with her chaste and sensitive pristine h's Really an PJ h is ideal for plumbing the depths of this trope because no other HP author's heroine's so strongly euivocate sex and love as being virtually inseparable Sex IS love to a PJ heroine and there is not one ounce of practicality or a lessening of idealism in a PJ h So when coercive sex is introduced that has nothing to do with any type of love or affection the mental torture and agony is multiplied by a factor of a gadzillion and we get ourselves a HUGE trainwrecky angstfest PJ HP outing Buckle up your seat belts get appropriate wall padding ready for banging and pull out your Captain and your Tim Tams we are going into the dark side of PJ's Province of HPlandiaThis one has our h newly back in England from a well liked job in Hong Kong and looking for work locally The h's beloved granny needs a major heart operation but the waiting list is two years granny is really ill and mostly the h is told just to enjoy what time granny has leftSince granny rescued the h as a teenager from an incredibly perverted and sick pedophile stepfather and an eually corrupted stepsister our h would do practically anything to be able to afford the private operation to get granny's heart fixed To the h's great relief she soon gets a decent paying job as the comptroller for a millionaire businessman's corporate estate complete with private golf course Even better our millionaire businessman is uite happy to lend the h the necessary funds to get granny her private operationThings are burbling along and there is an occasion for a magic roofie kiss All of the sudden our unicorn grooming h is hurled back to when she was 16 and kissed her stepfather's garden boy and the magic burst all around her just like nowUnfortunately the aftereffects of that magic first kiss was the firing of the garden boy after he and the h were discovered and the tart shaming of the h by the step father The h belatedly realizes that all of that was a set up by her stepsister to discredit the h with stepdaddy dearest who wants to keep his sweet little peaches all to himself and doesn't like to shareApparently things went bad for a while with the garden boy after the firing incident But that tough time hardened him enough to go after what he wanted and lo he is now our millionaire businessman with a private golf course owner that the h is working for today Since the h has conveniently and easily put herself within his all powerful grasp Welp revenge is a dish best served cold but if you can it get hotted up with some genuine PJ HP Lurve Force Mojo Purple Passion that is even betterThe H forces the h into becoming his on call blow up doll for multiple rounds of the lurve club boudoir bouncing The h who had fallen in love with the H from one kiss at 16 and then again when she started working for him recently is horrified Mostly because she is rapidly coming to hate the H and his treatment of her Which includes flaunting the typical vain OW Princess and possibly having lurve club moments with the OW too In one memorable scene the OW stays at the H's estate and the h goes to strip the OW's bed the next day and the H accuses the h of trying to steal the OW's used underwear But even as the h cringes and shrinks from the H's verbally abusive and bullying tart shaming treatment she just cannot help her Treacherous Body Syndrome This is the source of the overwhelming angst and sheer stomach turning misery that is this book PJ vividly describes having a very very unwanted pleasurable physical reaction while mentally loathing every second of the experience and it is enough to almost drive this h and the reader to a nervous breakdown The H doesn't let up either He pushes and prods and the tart shaming verbosity is constant as are the boudoir purple passion moments Eventually the estate's cook gets the whole story out of the h when she hears her repeated nights of anguished sobbing and since the cook is only working for something to do so she doesn't drive her kid's nuts she offers the h the money to repay the H The H refuses to accept it at first and tries coercive moves on the h But then the cook steps in and in one of the few HP instances of a secondary female character standing up to defend the heroine she lets the H have it He is a sadist and a bully and a rapist and he should be in prison making intimate friends with a guy named Killer for his sinsThe h escapes and the cook is right behind her The h can go back to her old job in Hong Kong and the cook will look after granny once she recovers from her successful surgery The H is left to stew in the HP mists for a few weeks until the h has had enough PJ mopey moment time and then the big explanations can beginThe H seeks out the h and apologizes for his actions He went and talked to the h's granny and she explained the whole step family situation and the perversions that went on there The H also admits that he was willing to try it on with stepsister anyways he was lookin' for a little piking action himself and so he probably would have been fired even if it hadn't been a set up The H tries to apologize as he tells the h that the loan is completely written off and he hopes that makes up for what he did The h lets him know that there is nothing he can say or do to make up for what he did to her He turned an innocent unicorn groomer into a tawdry and mentally diseased tramp and now the h can never have a decent marriage or a date because he has corrupted her forever The h rants on that even tho it is fine for men to feel lust for a woman to have that experience is the ultimate in tawdry trampy behavior Now the h is besmirched for life because how can any decent man love her after what the H made her? The H objects to the word lust and goes on to describe feelings of longing comfort and adoration and wanting to cuddle up with the other person then he tells the h that he is describing his feelings not hers It seems our nematode H has been haunted by the h's sweet kiss for years and years too So when he found it again he kinda lost his mind for a while cause his independent Manly HP Mojo fiercely resented the h's hold on part of him and he had to punish her for that Now tho if she will forgive him he would like to marry her and lurve her up and have a houseful of plot moppets to adore along with their mother Since this is a PJ h and the H had her at cuddles the h rapidly agrees to whatever the H wants and we leave the two of them lurving up in a pinkly sparkly unicorn dancing PJ HP HEAOn the surface of it this book is nothing really unusual for HPlandia We have had H and h uid pro uo arrangements before and there are literally thousands awaiting HP voyagers in the future What sets this one apart from all the others is that PJ was exuisitely detailed and convincing in conveying the h's horrific mental anguish over the H's coerced seduction This book gets so many varied ratings because the descriptions of the h's experiences are so evocative of what it might actually feel like to be put into a situation like that The h's pain and torment is palpable the reader is drawn into the maelstrom right along with the h and the lead up to the big denouement is extremely intenseThere are not too many writers that can provoke the visceral response that this book generates PJ does it with a style and flair that will leave you breathless with a true muscle clenching anticipation that guarantees you an unforgettable outing to the whacktastic trainwrecky side of HPlandia if you are brave enough to travel there
• 
  KatieV

  Wow This one is intense Penny Jordan knew how to keep you reading even when you were furious Willaful termed this a fabulous wallbanger and that's a pretty darn accurate tag if there ever was oneTrigger warnings galore just read the tagsI think other reviewers have done a fabulous job of illustrating what a raging bastard the hero was so I won't belabor the pointWhat earned it a four and what kept it from getting that 5 star ratingThe hero sucked period Issues issues issues However he was so cruel and devious that you just had to keep reading for the train wreck factor of itThe heroine was placed in a really bad situation with truly no way out This wasn't one of those where you're screaming just leave you damn idiot your half brother's cousin's girlfriend can find a new damn job Stop being such a pathetic martyr She couldn't leave He'd sewn her up tight and the only way she could leave until the end was to feed her beloved grandmother to the big bad wolf that passed for a hero Trope city? Heck yeah but Penny knew how to bring on the angst none the less There have been books where horrific things have happened to the heroine and I've been cruel enough to giggle because the author conveyed the emotional depth of a mud puddle I simply couldn't have cared less what happened to anyone in the story no matter how horrible it was Some of these older romances are like an unintentional black comedyIn this I did feel the heroine's pain The 'traitorous body' trope was handled in a realisticsensitive way It dealt with the real emotional traumashame of finding your own body respond to something against your will That happens to some rape victims We're animals our bodies were designed to respond in a certain way to certain stimuli We can't always control it and that DOES NOT eual consent Regardless of what some dbag may say One character even went so far as to call the heroine a rape victim However the heroine denied that was true because she was drinking the respone consent kool aid and it made her hate herself I cried a bit and that is RARE for an HP or anything really I'm not a big crierThis would have been the 5 star fabulous wallbanger if it weren't for the ending I realize the series novels are short and the author must work within those constraints However IMHO at least 10 20 pages could have been cut from the first half in order to make the hero suffer I'd have liked to have seen her send him away a few times and make him work for it A LITTLE BIT I am tired of the trope of the hero showing up looking older and skinnier and that passing for his penance I want to see some blood
• 
  Julz

  35 stars rounded upSpoilerfest to followThis bad boy has got uite a reputation of having a cruel and heartless hero Yes and no This is a sort of reunion story in that the heroine Courage got an earth shattering kiss from mysterious strangerhero Gideon when she was a virginal and tender 16 years old The whole kissing scenario was a set up put into action by a jealous step sister who didn't like the attention her incestuous father was paying to Courage Creeptastic eh? Anyway the outcome was supposedly really horrible for the H whose path took him onto success and riches It was always in my mind that if that hadn't happened to him he would be just a gardener instead of Mr Money Bags But hey it's the principle of the matter right?The two meet up years later when he hires her to run his mansion and loans her £10000 for her poor old grandmother's operation At this point the h has no clue who he is because the previously mentioned earth shattering kiss happened in the dark However she did notice his excited evil glint when she signs on the dotted line Much of the story then drags on with her doing such a fine job while he goes out of town a lot to Kuwait to do landscaping We eventually get to the good stuff about three forths of the way into the book It starts with that first kiss Or second actually yes? Let's be clear that first kiss from the faceless but awesome smelling stanger was enough to ruin her for any other men forever and ever It was also why she was still a virgin into her 20s because how could she consider anyone else when they could never make her feel the same? But you can guess what happens when she gets another taste Yes She recognizes him by his lips though he's much skilled now and the little flutters he gives her in her tummy InterestingThen he goes all big alpha on her and bullies his way in the sack with her while criticizing her for doing such a bang up job pretending to be a virgin Humph All that blood and injury can't fool me lady Despite his asshatness she is in eternal bliss and knows it is love He leaves for Kuwait bright and early the next morning before she wakes and she spends days anxiously daydreaming about their new relationship and how she's going to tell him about their real first meeting However when he finally comes home instead of the lover's welcome and the anticipated heart to heart he brings home a hot widow whom he wines and dines the rest of the night Coooold When they finally get a chance to talk it's revealed that he actually does remember her and his whole plan was to get his revengeby forcing her to be his sex slave But don't despair she get's off every time This supposedly goes on for uite a while even while he continues to take off on little trips to meet with the widow The h finally breaks down and spills her guts to the cook she hired who happens to have huge nest egg She loans her the money to repay the H so she can hightail it out of there Two or three weeks pass and the H appears uninvited in her living room We get the big grovel scene where we learn that he only did what he did because his powerful love for her made him insanely jealous causing him to lose his mind and coerce her to repeatedly have sex with him He begs her back and promises to take it slow but she suggests they jump straight into bed to make new memories How sweet So really how can we stay mad at the guy? Yes he trapped her into being his personal whore Yes he used her poor sick granny as a means to do it Yes he took her virginity while accusing her of being a slut in mid thrust Yes he would have happily continued to do so for years and years if she didn't coincidentally have a generous friend to loan her the money to get out of her contract But it wasn't really who he was the h indirectly said so herself early in the story And the stepfather told him she was a conniving slut forgot to mention that so he just knew she used her blossoming flower to set him up which gave him the right to retaliate But after granny set him straight about about the h he admitted how wrong he was and was willing to beg forgiveness So again how can we stay mad?
• 
  Sapheron

  This is either a one star or five star rating; it's obvious which I chose He is probably the CRUELEST hero I have ever come across no lie I think he was even slightly insane made so by what had happened between them years before Other heroes have blackmailed heroines into their beds before hell the story line might even be the same she accepts a business loan which he paid for from his personal expenses?WHAT? to pay for her grandma's heart surgery It is a loan she can only pay back by working for him for the next two years So when she realizes he blames her for what had happened to him and their relationship is hopeless and thus tries to renegotiate the debt he refuses all her ideas and threatens to claim it from her recovering grandma if she doesn't become his sex slaveWhat the fcking fck right?Then when they're having sex and her inexperience begins to show he's like; stop acting like a virgin we both know what a big fat slut you are Normally as seasoned HP readers we're used to just such a scenario but this dude has got the be the WORST judge of character or as I suspect completely crazy bat sht like to miss what he's doing to herThe chick comes out of it so messed up and this is why it earned five stars Penny Jordan can make you empathize in the most embarrassing way that she begins to feel because she still loves him though she hates herself for it that she isn't worthy of being loved by anybody decent I mean after years of holding on to a dream of her one special love and finding what was behind door number two insteadI have the worst case of heartburn now because of this book It is 1644 and I haven't eaten yet and my bladder is SO full tmi right? but I had to get this off my chest Any book that gets this type of rise out of me deserves a full set of stars regardless of how much I think the hero didn't deserve his HEAPS why is it that authors women authors in particular Penny Jordan especially think it's ok to cancel out 99% of emotional torture and physical abuse of a purely sexual nature of course with5% of an apology from the hero25% groveling and25% a proposal of marriage and future promises he should be too ashamed to even think about asking for?
• 
  willaful

  Yes this made the coveted fabulous wallbanger shelf This may even be the best Penny Jordan book I've ever read or maybe best isn't the right word here More like most exciting angstiest most fabulous wallbangerThe basic premise is similar to one Jordan had used before in books like Injured Innocent our heroine Courage yes that is her name has never been in a relationship because of a youthful sexual trauma involving our herobastard Gideon although she doesn't at first recognize him when they meet again What makes this story different is partially that Jordan builds up suspense about Gideon's actions and motivations rather than just having him snipe nastily at Courage for the entire book as her heroes often do and partially that Courage's feelings about the incident have a positive side She's carrying a lot of shame but she's also been fantasizing about that dream lover for years And when she realizes Gideon is him and thinks he feels the same way about her that's when the fun really beginsGideon is horrific that pretty much goes without saying What makes it work for me is that he obviously has intensely strong feelings about Courage even against his will We don't see his point of view but the lovehate comes through clearly And the payoff works he's horrible she suffers he realizes what's he done and then he suffers Just the way I like 'emNot for the weak of heart or stomach but a great read if you like this sort of thing
• 
  Vintage

  Unforgettable is correcto mundoWell I can't say I wasn't warned The H is everything that the other reviewers said he was rudecruel vengeful and crazy I think what is most disturbing than his cruelty is what a blithering idiot the heroine is falling so desperately in love with someone so horrible I actually got a stomach ache reading this No not one of those stupid flutters that the heroine's get but out and out nauseaOnce again the magic penis strikes againThe only good thing was her name Courage Not a very appropriate name in this case Spineless or Pushover would have been better but very coolI need a funny Harleuin a palate cleanser Maybe Cathy Williams
• 
  KC

  According to Babynamewizardcom the name Gideon is derived from the Hebrew gidh`ōn hewer one who cuts down And boy is that accurate Gideon certainly crushed poor sweet Courage's teenage dreams of love and happy ever afters I found An Unforgettable Man riveting for the high drama than the romance or even the unforgettable hero Maybe my expectations were excessively high because of the hype or I'm just too jaded but I didn't think Gideon was as cruel as I thought he would be Read a vintage Charlotte Lamb or Robyn Donald and then get back with me Both authors had the asshat hero down to a fine art The fact that Gideon did not premeditate his sexual blackmail of Courage improved my opinion of him for the better Gideon seemed motivated by jealousy than any desire for revenge being caught up in a crime of passion so to speak view spoilerHe did grab the opportunity to have Courage work for him but he didn't actively seek her out and thus revenge Eight to nine years had passed He loaned her money with the ulterior motive of controlling her yes but his reuest that she pay the money back for her grandmother's surgery seemed fair and doable As an employer he was tough but not cruel hide spoiler
• 
  StMargarets

  Re read July 2018Still intense Still held me enthralled Still can't believe she didn't recognize him earlier Original Review A revenge story that reuires the reader to believe that h wouldn't immediately recognize the only man she ever had a sexual encounter with and that the hero wouldn't have figured out that the girl he was messing around with was only 16 and not at all experienced But that is the premise and once you go with that you can see the heroine walking into disaster from the moment she signs her employment contract with the now rich heroWhat PJ does best here is to surround the heroine with menace and uncertainty even her memories with her step family are horrifying The stepfather was some sort of sexual predator who may or may not have abused his daughter The stepsister was horrible the heroine's mother useless But she escaped only to enter a new landscape of sexual humiliations and entrapment Her grandmother is in precarious health as are the heroine's finances She takes a job as housekeeper to the hero and falls in love with him even after he treats her with contempt He thinks she got him fired long ago and bedding her and having her under his control is his revenge view spoiler He does get her into bed but she hardly hears his cruel taunts It's only in the morning that she realizes what a cruel trap he had placed her in This trap is only sprung after the h breaks down and the the cook offers to lend her money so she can get away from himI liked that the hero got told off from the cook and that he learned the truth of the heroine's childhood from the grandmother I'm glad the heroine left his sorry self and that he had to go back and grovel PJ tied up the plot nice and tight hide spoiler
• 
  Jenny

  I don't mind cruel alpha heroes In fact I love them But this one was pure evil and a sadist He was just too much even for me Poor heroine she suffered so much abuse and pain This book was definitely not a romance or a love story