TEST
A Retro Review
originally published on November 26, 2000
Are you looking for some cozy, feel-good holiday reading? Johanna Lindsey’s latest book, Home for the Holidays is a pocket-size hard cover with a Currier and Ives-esque cover that just might tempt you to give yourself an early Christmas present. But beware: the hero is worse than Ebenezer Scrooge and the Grinch put together, and the heroine needs to spend a week reading Codependent No More.
The “hero” (really, I hesitate to call him that) is Vincent Everett, Baron of Windsmoor. His brother leaves him a letter telling him that a man named George Ascot has ruined his shipping business, and that he is planning to kill himself. Although Vincent has never been close to his brother, he can’t let this insult to the family name pass by unnoticed, so he sets out to ruin George and his family. Conveniently, George is out of the country, and his son and daughter are living on their own in London. First he purchases the mortgage on the home that Ascot has very nearly paid off, and buys up all other debts besides. He starts rumors that George has left the country for good, which makes all the local tradesmen demand immediate payment of all debts. As the coup de grace, he sends his secretary to throw Ascot’s children out of their home shortly before Christmas. After the secretary does the foul deed, he resigns. Vincent is completely puzzled! Why would anyone balk at throwing people from their home? He goes to the door and immediately sees why – Larissa Ascot is heart-stoppingly lovely.
At this point, Vincent gets a great idea for furthering his revenge; he decides to seduce Ascot’s beautiful daughter. That will be even better than throwing her out into the snow. Since she now has nowhere else to stay, he “kindly” offers his home. Larissa doesn’t really want to be indebted to this man who is responsible for evicting her, but he explains to her that it is a simple “business decision.” After he has her installed in his home, he seizes her jewelry and furniture, just in case she might want to sell them (and thus obtain funds which would enable her to move out). He tells her he will keep them safe, but if she asks for them he is fully prepared to lie and tell her they were stolen.
His plans for seduction go off without a hitch. Larissa quickly hops into bed with Vincent, figuring that since he knows she is a respectable woman, he must have marriage in mind. He doesn’t, and eventually Larissa figures this out. Does she get mad? No – she just makes excuses for him and forgives him. Then Larissa’s father comes home, so she discovers the truth and the predictable separation occurs. But nagging questions remain, both for Vincent and Larissa. Things eventually are wrapped up – far too neatly and tidily, if you ask me. Those looking for it will not find any “good grovel” here, just an unbelievable happily ever after.
Mostly, I think the hero’s behavior speaks for itself. He acted as the villain throughout most of the story, setting out for revenge upon an entire family without even bothering to check his facts. He lied to the heroine and seduced her with no intention of marrying her. What made his behavior so odious, however, was that the only reason Larissa and her sick brother weren’t immediately tossed out and forgotten was her beauty – Vincent wanted to debauch her first. Had she been unattractive, doubtless all revenge would have continued as planned. I like dark heroes as much as the next reader, but this went beyond the pale.
I felt sorry for Larissa at first; who wouldn’t? But when she repeatedly made excuses for Vincent’s horrible behavior, I lost all respect for her. At first I really did hope that she would just leave Vincent and find a decent hero (anyone would have been better) somewhere else. No such luck. The worst part came at the end when Larissa and her father read the original letter that set Vincent off on his path of revenge. They not only forgave him, they both decided that they would have done the same thing in his situation. The very idea of the too-forgiving Larissa evicting someone in an act of revenge was just laughable.
I have enjoyed several of Johanna Lindsey’s books in the past, most notably Gentle Rogue, which made my top 100 list. I have also read books with revenge plots that worked. But the hero of Home for the Holidays would be more appropriately called a villain. When I spend an entire book hoping against hope that the hero and heroine won’t get together, I know that that book has failed for me on the most basic, fundamental level.
Grade: F
Book Type: European Historical Romance
Sensuality: Subtle
Review Date: 28/11/20
Publication Date: 2001
Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.
I've been at AAR since dinosaurs roamed the Internet. I've been a Reviewer, Reviews Editor, Managing Editor, Publisher, and Blogger. Oh, and Advertising Corodinator. Right now I'm taking a step back to concentrate on kids, new husband, and new job in law...but I'll still keep my toe in the romance waters.
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I know I read several of the Malory series back in the mid-2000s when I began seriously reading romances, because she was so frequently mentioned as a powerhouse writer in the genre. I have only one entry – for the Malory series in general – as being “meh-ok”.
A quick perusal of AAR’s Lindsey reviews are pretty dismal. There aren’t many, and most seem to begin “I used to be a fan” or “You’ll be better off with one of the older titles”. Only Gentle Rogue, published in 1990, appears on any of AAR’s Top 100 lists (and only in 1998?). Gentle Rogue tied with other titles at #83 and has never been reviewed by anyone for AAR.
It would seem that Lindsey is one of those really well-marketed writers (Avon in the 80s and 90s) whose work really doesn’t stand the test of time (although she’s published 8 or 9 titles in the past decade by Gallery Books in NY?). Not surprisingly, my local public library has a lot of her oeuvre (112 items between all the various formats) in its collection. Lots of e-book, audio and Large Print copies.
Lindsay was a powerhouse all through the 80’s. Her and Woodiwiss are the ones that really defined and dominated that era of Romance novels. All her books had Fabio on the cover, in various haircolors and state of undress. She was kind of the gold standard of what a romance novelist was and the definition of successful in the genre.
I had a love hate relationship with her books. For years I would buy them, read them and be disgruntled by them wishing the stories were different and the people were nicer.
By the late 80’s early 90’s Julie Garwood and Jane Ann Krentz amongst others had taken off so I had really soured on Lindsay by then. Even people like Jude Devereaux had changed her heroes and started writing nicer guys and more than just “feisty” but ineffectual heroines.
It’s funny that someone like Jayne Ann Krentz has a career that started roughly the same time as Lindsay (if not exactly I’d have to check) but she manages to stay popular and relevant and actively publishes bestsellers in three genres.
As a teen I read Woodiwiss but never Lindsey. I don’t think I read a Lindsey until I, based on the AAR review, read Prisoner of My Desire. I liked that so I tried another and DNF’d it and the two others I tried. I read the bodice rippers that the houses I babysat at had and Lindsey must not have been the choice of moms in the 70s in the Bay Area!
One big difference being that Krentz’s writing has changed along with the times. I find most of her Stephanie James books are unreadable, as are some of her other early books, mainly because her heroes were so overbearing. They changed and developed over the years, as we readers did.
I find some of the old Stephanie James books to be unreadable and some are OK (at least as of my last reading). I agree that Krentz adapted over the years as Devereaux even did (and her old heroes were worse). Nora Roberts is another Romance author with a similarly long publishing span that managed to change with the times.
Lindsay never seemed able to break out of that same alphahole hero mold where the hero always had to have one up on the heroine as well as being a womanizing jerk.
So I’m guessing that the twist is that either his brother never killed himself or that he picked on the wrong George Ascot? Or the worst possible ending – the father really was the villain the whole time.
From the excerpt :
“Vincent feared that Albert had taken himself off to quietly kill himself somewhere where he wouldn’t be found, as he had threatened so many times. What else was he to think, when Albert’s letter had ended with, ‘This is the only way I can think of to no longer be an embarrassment or burden to you’?”
So I’m guessing the twist is that the brother vanished from society or left the country to make amends in some way, and the “hero” leaped to the conclusion of suicide, meaning he had to set out on a roaring rampage of revenge against women, children and servants.
But to be sure, I just borrowed the e-book from the library and checked. At the end, the brother is discovered to be alive and well in America. When the twist at the end is predictable after reading the first couple of pages, the story is a washout.
I remember when this review first came out. :) I was vicariously upset with the hero from reading it.
Worse, when the book first came out, it was one of those cute little hardcovers with a metallic cover. I wonder how many people bought it for mothers and aunts because they thought it would be a sweet Christmas story?
Yeah–this cover does not convey violence, sexual assault, and cruelty!
I guess we should be glad by this point that Lindsay’s heroes aren’t hitting the women anymore like they did in her early days?? I really thought by 2001 at least she was past this although I had long given her up. I guess not.
Good grief!! Johanna Lindsey never did it for me anyway but naming her “hero” Windsmoor was the final nail in the coffin. It was a UK line of clothing for ladies of a certain age, size and with deepish pockets. Afraid if I tried to read this tripe I would have a hard time getting past that!!
The love for Lindsey is interesting. I have to confess I like Prisoner of My Desire even though it’s got a terrible hero. At least his rage has a reasonable context. I often think that I was so imprinted by the romances of the 70s that I just can’t hate some of my favorite bodice rippers. It’s the same way I feel about Animal House. I can’t quit it despite my deep reservations about its young men.
Johanna Lindsey was always hit or miss. I enjoyed some of her Mallory books, including Gentle Rogue, because she injected humor into the story. There are parts of Gentle Rogue that are laugh out loud funny. But many of her characters were cartoonish or one dimensional and the plots were unbelievable or needlessly convoluted. Some of her books are downright terrible. I remember liking Prisoner of My Desire. I had stopped reading her books long before this clunker came out.
It’s funny you and the reviewer both mention ‘Gentle Rogue” as it’s the only Lindsay book I remember fondly and bothered to buy in ebook format. I think I’ve given away all my old Lindsay paperbacks over the years.
I think Gentle Rogue was an anomaly in her works as it actually was pretty gentle compared to her other books. I wish she had done more along that line of writing. I haven’t read it in so many years but I remember it being funny and that everyone was pretty pleasant and I liked Georgie the heroine. I also wasn’t excited about (James?) the eldest black sheep brother but I ended up liking him the best of all the Mallorys.
Isn’t it funny how there are names that are so specific to different countries? I used to read some mystery books by Antonia Fraser (best known for her historical biographies). She named her heroine “Jemima Shore” as she thought Jemima sounded like an old 17th century name combined with the last name of Jane Shore a famous Royal Mistress.
Of course here in the U.S. everyone thought of “Aunt Jemima” and all the baggage that comes with that name and it’s problematic past.
I’d never heard of “Windsmoor” before or the clothing line but if I ever do hear it now that’s all I will think of!
With a heroine named Jemima, I’m sorry to say my first thought would be Jemima Puddleduck.
I prefer that actually. Or Mrs. Tiggywinkle.
I read the excerpt on Amazon and here are some choice quotes :
“It wasn’t that this was another stepping-stone in his decision to evict the Ascot family, who lived there. It was more likely that he was simply bored and had had no other plans for the evening.”
He goes to watch a family being thrown out of their home because he’s bored. Talk about the banality of evil.
“It was amazing that Vincent had never hated his brother, but then you had to experience emotion to hate.”
I can’t decide whether this book is Home for the Holidays or I, Robot.
“This was who he had evicted into the snow-covered streets? This exquisitely beautiful, forlorn creature?”
I think she’d have been better off dying on the snow-covered streets like the little match girl than ending up with this sociopath. The story goes on to make it clear that thanks to him, most of the Ascots’ servants have lost their jobs too, just in time for Christmas, and since I doubt they’re exquisitely beautiful, they probably won’t even be mentioned again. I’m curious about what happens to the sick brother, but not curious enough to go within ten feet of this book.
I have the same problem with Linda Howard’s “After The Night” where the hero tosses the 14 year old heroine (and her little special needs brother) out of their home. Literally tosses them and their clothes out as I recall- because it’s rumored her mother ran off with his father. Clearly it’s all their fault!
I know a lot of people love that book but I hate it with a burning passion. Like heroine here Grey is also extremely good looking so I guess it makes up for him being horrible. The heroine in that one is also a forgiver when she’d be better off with almost anyone else.
I also enjoyed your reference to the Little Match Girl above- and I agree!
Thanks! And I checked out “After the Night” on Goodreads. Apparently the book starts with the hero, who’s twenty-four, evicting the fourteen-year-old heroine, and when they meet again many years later, he tells her, “You were only fourteen, but I wanted you.” At this point I had flashbacks to that show To Catch a Predator.
I enjoy Linda Howard and that book has a lot of fans but it’s a big “Ugh, nope” for me.
Hard hard pass.