Come Back to Me by Catherine George

Come Back to Me Reviews

• 
  boogenhagen

  RE Come Back To Me - Catherine George is getting icky with it in this tale of completely Not Happening revenge. We love revenge in HPlandia, H's doing mean things in revenge are the stuff of HPlandia true love HEA's and when an h decides to go the revenge route, the drama and emo angst is usually epic - just read Sally Wentworth.
  
  Somehow CG manages to totally miss all that and we just get a deranged h, lots of boring secretarial notes, little kid measles and some rather lukewarm boss/secretary romance. To top it all off - and this may be the deal breaker- the H sleeps with both the h AND is the father of her dead sister's child. You have been warned, so stay tuned for further details and get your cookie stash and adult beverages ready.
  
  The book starts with the widowed h interviewing for a job with the H as his personal secretary. The h has been plotting and planning her grand plan o'vengeance for three years. She used to be a kindergarten teacher but when her sister died, she became a single parent and decided that confrontation was needed. Not that we learn that bit of info right away, CG manages to drag out the grand plan for five chapters and then only to let us know the h has a change of heart.
  
  In fact we don't even know why the h wants vengeance so badly. We can kinda guess because the H's brother is mentioned frequently and the h is now the guardian of a two year old, but the full details are held in abeyance as the h ruthlessly, (well she makes a new friend and then frets that she can't invite her home because it might give too much personal detail out,) plots and interviews and uses mad dictation skillz and word processing to make her way onto the H's payroll.
  
  Not to worry - the new friend, who is a typist at the H's firm and a conduit for job opening information, isn't dropped like a hot potato when the h passes two grueling interviews. The h still has lunch with her and listens to her boyfriend stories, the h doesn't want to be seen as a callous user in her quest for vengeance. (Frankly that was probably the most interesting dilemma for the first half of the book.) So the h gets the job and work for the H and his meticulous standards begins. The h's biggest problem is a power cut that kills half of her Very Important Computer Report because she forgot to save to the floppy.
  
  OH NOES! There is just too much drama here! I went and had a triple fudge cookie and a consult with the Captain.
  
  We also meet the staff of the H's firm and that includes the H's brother - the h wants to hate him - but he is so nice and displays the photos of his perfect wife and children so lovingly, that the h just can't bring herself to do it. The long, dry courtship of the slow simmering H starts when the H asks the h to hostess a few business dinners for him and he even dictates where the h is to buy her clothes for these events. Clothes that he pays for and are very pricey, which of course the h dutifully resents and tries to figure out how to reject.
  
  Finally we get the big invite for the company Christmas party, which is to be held at the H's brother's farm, and the H picks up the h and gives her a string of pearls and a roofie kiss. The h is uncomfortable, because this is her chosen time for the Grand Denouement. But seeing the H's brother and his wife passionately kissing changes her mind and tho she has told the H she has a big announcement, she slinks off with just a "happy to be working with you" and wanders back home. The H knows something is up, but the h is mute and offers her resignation at work.
  
  The H doesn't want to take it, but the h is insistent and then her adopted son gets sick. He has measles and we get some play by play measles action. The h decides not to return to work and the H shows up at her house while the measles drama is running rampant and the whole story comes out. The h explains her quest of retribution and that she wanted to denounce the H's brother for impregnating her sister - who isn't biologically her sister cause the h is adopted- but since he was so nice and charming and his wife was nice and charming too, she couldn't bring herself to wreck a family like that.
  
  (Never mind that this 'Nice and Charming' man cheated on his wife and fathered a child with a girl little more than a teenager, they were all just too kind and nice to call out. I honestly couldn't see why the h needed three years and a career change for all that, why not just go to court and file a child support suit. Why not just walk up to the guy and tell him off? Tho the h claims she had thought about sabotaging the H's company, she obviously missed a lot of calcium as a child, cause she had no spine at all and descends into jelly blob inconsistency at the first opportunity.)
  
  
  The H then explains that it was a good thing she did not follow through on her plans, cause the H was the one who shucked the sister's cornflower and he was drunk and fighting with his wife when he did it.
  
  He thought the h's lil sis was his wife returning to him, they had argued and she wanted a divorce to pursue another man. He passed out in a hotel room and the lil sis snuck in wearing his wife's perfume and wrapped her sweet little arms right around him. One thing led to another and by the time his pike had broken the drawbridge, the damage done and then his wife walked in. (So the H is the cheatin' slime slurper and the father of the sister's child to boot.) The H got a divorce, cause his wife had cause, and the sister disappeared from the H's purview tho he tried to track her down.
  
  The h explains that her sister died from brain aneurysm after giving birth, but not before telling the h that "Mr. Lang" was the father of the baby. Since the sister had been mooning about the H's brother for yonks, the h assumed she meant he was the father of her son. The h decided in her grief and fury that Brother Mr. Lang should pay for his sins - but we all see where that ended up.
  
  The H doesn't care tho, he roofie kisses an exhausted and mentally whacked h and the h kicks him out, measles nursing duties call. Later the H sends over a toy for his son and flowers for the h with a note saying 'Come back to me.' The h resists and more homebody kid duties ensue, as does a visit from the H's sister in law, who of course has to meddle in a situation that the h doesn't want to acknowledge.
  
  The H convinces the h to have dinner with him in order to 'discuss' things. The h refuses to return to work, so the H proposes marriage. That isn't an acceptable solution for the h, she feels resentment that her sister is dead and she mentions moving away to start afresh and maybe teach kindergarten again. The H and h wind up getting caught in a big snow storm on the way home and have to stay at a hotel for the night. The inevitable lurve club moment happens when the h and H wind up in the same bed and get cold and refuse to turn on the electric blanket.
  
  However a night of love doesn't a good morning glow make when the H's Ferrari gets a dent in the roof from all the snow and the H is distinctly put out over it. The h is offended at the H's lack of loverly regard and tells the H that they should consider the night past a one off. Then she and the H go home in a farmer's Land Rover, as the Ferrari isn't driveable.
  
  We then have the inevitable meddling secondary character telling the h that she should just go ahead and marry her sister's lover. The h decides against that option and has mopey moments instead - then for some reason she tries to get a part time secretarial job, (so much for teaching kindergarten and a fresh start,) and finds out that the H won't give her a reference. She wants to confront him, cause she did not get the job, but finds out the H's flight is in danger as there is heavy fog and it can't land.
  
  So she frets about for a bit until the H's sister in law shows up to meddle some more and sends the h to the H's house. The H arrives and the h is angry about the reference and the H says he will continue not to help her get another job because he wants her to come back to him - as his wife. Then the H has his own little ranty moment when the h claims she though he did not care because he threw a wobbly about his car and that is why she dismissed their night together as a one off.
  
  The H protests that his own ego was badly damaged because of his first wife and the h made him feel horrible and useless when she dissed him AND his wonderful lurve mojo as nothing. (Apparently lurve clubbing random young unicorn petting girls doesn't have that same effect on his ego, the sister isn't mentioned.)
  
  So of course the h confesses she was worried about his flight crashing and they both declare their love and decide to honeymoon in the Alps, since snow seems to have an invigorating effect on both of their libido's for the big HEA.
  
  Essentially this book was tacky and a letdown cause we got NO angsty drama vengeance or epic h smackdown of dubious and slightly immoral characters. The h was a wimp who dismissed three years as a mental aberration and justified shacking up with her sister's lover as okay cause they weren't biologically related anyways.
  
  Like biology has anything to do with hooking up with the father of your sister's son who barely acknowledges the girl existed and drunkenly cheated on his wife cause his ego hurt.
  
  The secondary characters were blandly perfect and meddlesome, while the H's half hearted attempts at seduction were just plain boring. Between tackiness and boring, this one was not an HPlandia winner - but it could be a great way to get a little extra caloric intake via comforting cookie inhalation or just have a mind erasing drink or five to make it to the end of this one and then wipe it from memory as a rather dreary HP outing.
• 
  StMargarets

  A revenge story that never goes anywhere. Those are the worst kind!
  
  Widowed heroine spends three years training to be a secretary so she can be hired by the hero's company. She wants to work at this company so she can hurt the hero's married brother who fathered her deceased sister's child after a one night stand. Why she had to change careers from nursery school teacher to secretary to achieve this is a puzzle. She lives in the same community and could have confronted the brother at anytime, but . . . no story, I guess. The sister worked for the company as a secretary so maybe that's how she got noticed. Who knows. Lots of plot holes here.
  
  So the revenge portion of the story consists of:
  
  **Heroine's training with the hero's retiring secretary. (Floppy disks! Word processors! It's the 80's)
  ** The hero's attraction to the heroine and their slow burn. (Too slow, imo)
  ** Dinner party where the heroine wears the pink dress shown on the cover. She meets the hero's brother and his wife and is starting to have doubts about her revenge.
  ** A whole summer, fall, and Christmas season of working and caring for her sister's child.
  ** Not going through with exposing the brother at the office Christmas party.
  
  From there. Well, it gets a little silly.
  **The child contracts measles. So the h misses work.
  **The H tracks down the h and realizes he has a son. Yes, he is the father.
  **Backstory: Heroine's sister had a crush on hero's brother and went to hero's hotel room after the office party thinking it was the brother's room. She climbed into bed with hero. Hero thought it was his estranged wife coming to make up (same perfume) and they had sex until he realized he was with a virgin. The sister ran off that night, quit her job and swore her roommates to secrecy. Hero tried to find her, but became embroiled in his own divorce nightmare.
  ** Heroine refuses to come back to work. Blames the hero for her's sister's death in childbirth.
  **Hero sends toys to the boy and sends multiple notes that say "come back to me."
  **H/h go out to dinner and get stranded at an inn in a snowstorm. The have sex, but the morning after is ruined when a snowfall dents the roof of hero's Ferrari and diverts his attention from the h. Heroine tells him to leave her alone.
  **Hero refuses to give h a reference when she has a job offer.
  ** Hero's plane is late getting in and heroine realizes she doesn't want anything to happen to him. She goes to his house for a confrontation. HEA.
  
  It seems like there was a lot going on, but I find that this author can bleed the drama dry from most any scene. Even the OTT revenge that the heroine spent 3 years preparing for is reduced to wrestling with floppy disks and then wishing everyone a Happy Christmas when it comes time for the big reveal.
  
  The hero was okay - he clearly liked the heroine and had his rejection issues because of his first wife. Heroine was obviously sleep-deprived coming up with such a half-cocked plan. The hero having sex with the two sisters is also kinda squiky - but the heroine was adopted so new DNA mingling? I don't know. This isn't my favorite scenario.
• 
  Naksed

  Heroine is a tragic young widow taking care of her deceased little sister’s son since his birth two years ago. All the while she is coddling her nephew, changing his nappies, and singing him lullabies, she is seething with rage and engaging mentally in elaborate revenge fantasies against her sister’s former boss, the Evil Seducer who pumped and dumped her sister, caused her death, and subsequently ignored their son, only to resume his happily married life with his devoted wife and two legitimate sons.
  
  She decides she is going to worm her way into Evil Seducer’s life, somehow sabotage his business and expose his lying cheating ways to his wife and two children so as to ruin his life the way he ruined her sister’s. Where she finds the time and wherewithal to concoct and execute this scheme while being a destitute single mom to a demanding infant, I’ll never know, but she does! She made me think of Rebecca de Mornay in that classic thriller “The Hand That Rocks The Cradle.” Looks quite attractive, serene and sane on the surface, but underneath is a boiling volcano of doom ready to explode at any minute!
  
  Well, it turns out she had the wrong guy all along! It wasn’t her sister’s former boss, it was the boss’ brother, also an executive at the company and none other than the man who hired her as his personal assistant and for whom she was starting to feel a wild attraction, much reciprocated. When she comes clean about her scheme, he confesses that he, not his brother, was the one who pumped and dumped her sister years ago. His justification is that he was dead drunk after a wild office Christmas party, she slithered into his hotel room bed, and in the dark and with a fuzzy brain, he thought he was making love to his wife. Poor sister thought she was making love to her boss, who she had a crush on for ages. When they were done and he switched the light on, she was horrified and ran crying from the hotel. After he sobered up, he made some half-hearted inquiries to find out who she was and where she lived, but when they didn’t pan out, he simply went on with his life, without any idea that she became pregnant and died in childbirth. His wife divorced him and he vowed never to marry again…until he met the heroine and now despite everything, including the fact that she is a psycho liar who almost ruined his innocent brother’s marriage, he wants to be with her anyway.
  
  Horrified by all these revelations, and with her revenge scheme completely shattered, the heroine quits her job and rejects his numerous advances only to have him stalk her at every turn with the constant refrain “Come back to me” hence the title of this tacky tale.
  
  Despite her efforts to resist him, these two eventually do fall in bed together and decide that getting married is the perfect solution! He gets to have sex with a psycho and raise his own biological son, while she gets to have sex with the man who took her little sister’s virginity, impregnated her, and caused her to die in childbirth. Their in-laws, the perfectly nice family that she was going to ruin due to baseless accusations, are all on board too. It’s less a romance than an episode of the twilight zone 🤡
• 
  Kiki

  Another $12 wasted. If anyone wants a paper copy to shred let me know!
• 
  Wendy, Lady Evelyn Quince

  For me, Catherine George is a category romance author who rarely disappoints. Sadly, Come Back to Me is one of those rare occasions.
  
  Big old spoiler here: Marcus Lang, the hero of this book had sex with the heroine's sister, not knowing she was a virgin-- heck he didn't even know who she was--and a baby resulted from that night.
  
  The sister dies and then Julia, our heroine, is forced to care for the baby. She mistakenly believes it's Marcus's happily married brother who slept with and then abandoned her sister.
  
  So Julia plots the lamest revenge ever conceived. Oh, she'll get back at him for his evil deeds. How? By putting herself through school and learning to be the most efficient secretary ever hired by a corporation. She'll deal with the hero's clients, organize his social calendar, and capably smooth over his troubles until he becomes so reliant on her, then she'll somehow inveigle her way into his family and ruin the brother.
  
  How's that supposed to work? Will she quit, forcing Marcus to run after her, offer her a raise, and declare that he's never had an assistant as competent as she and damn his brother to hell on top of that?
  
  Or will Julia just let her bizarre revenge plot disintegrate as she falls in love with the actual man who fathered her dead sister's child after a drunken night of misplaced passion? Yup, that's more like it. Yuck.
  
  Worst revenge plan ever!
  
  I agree with
  boogenhagen's great detailed review that if you're looking for an angsty revenge story, just read Sally Wentworth.
  
  Oh, and that cover is terrible. That hot-pink dress with off-the-shoulder ruffles screams 1983 prom night.
  
  1 1/2 stars
• 
  Mel

  Went on holiday withOUT internet but WITH a well-stocked second hand bookstore, pt 2:
  
  Plot-heavy romance, heroine-seeks-revenge (on hero’s brother!) romance! The mystery of why exactly she was seeking revenge was kept alive longer than usual. And don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the shenanigans, but it’s also a pity because I really liked the hero and would have loved to have had more of him <3
  The sex scene near the end was really good and the love confession at the end was A+++. There’s just something about old-school mills and boon that just can’t be replicated!