- Posted: Friday, August 24, 2012, by Toni Sweeney
Ten years ago, Olivia Crane broke Luc George’s heart when they were students at the University of Cincinnati. Now, he’s back in her life again, this time with a title, the Comte de Toulon-Chatel, and a degree in psychiatry, to spend six months at the University Hospital. Olivia doesn’t associate the name with her former lover and is looking forward to co-authoring an article with a man she expects to be elderly. Luc is anything but and he’s still in love with her, and there the problems begin.
Immediately, he’s insinuating himself into her life. Learning she has a teenage daughter and discovering Olivia has hid the child from her friends and colleagues and even himself while they were students, he discovers the reason: Melissa’s father is a borderline psychotic, a lovingperfson while things go his way but violent to the point of homicide when he’s crossed. Having lost his own son, Luc is sensitive to the love Olivia has for her child, and soon meets and enthralls not only Melissa but Olivia’s mother also. And then, he discovers that one of his first patients is to be Jeremy Rutherford, Melissa’s father, who is unaware he has a daughter.
Olivia’s attempts to keep Melissa from learning that the truth about her father is entirely different from the myth she has told the girl as well as keeping Jeremy from finding out about his daughter now through a stumbling block into her slowly dissolving resistence to Luc’s charms. Luc’s determination to convince Olivia to marry him so he can have the family and the woman he desires, make him an easy ally. But what will happen if Melissa can’t forgive Olivia for lying to her…or Jeremy discovers he has a child? And then there’s Jeremy’s grandfather, a dear old man the exact opposite of his grandson. Does he have a right to know of Melissa’s existence?
Questions and answers don’t seem to line up as Olivia tries to do what’s right without losing both Luc and her daughter, but the big question still remains…exactly what is the right thing to do?
MY OPINION: A good book and a very romantic love story. In describing Jeremy Rutherford, Ms. Risk give a chilling portrayal of a man who, right or wrong, has to have his way. Other reviewers have said the portrayal of Olivia’s reactions aren’t realistic. Let me tell you: They are. Having been in this same situation, I reacted the same way Olivia did, though in my case, I ran 1500 miles away from the source of the threat.
Characterizations are spot-in and Luc is a man we might all wish we could meet in real life. Though in the beginning, Olivia comes across as cruel in her treatment of him, once the cause is learned and the reason for her fear, her giving up everything, even the man she loves to protect her child doesn’t seem so cold after all.
It’s a good story, with a good hero and heroine and I recommend it.
RATING: *****
No More Lies is available from Kindle, http://tinyurl.com/79r88wp
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Mona Risk 