Stranded with the Tycoon Review

Title: Stranded with the Tycoon

Author: Sophie Pembroke

Line: Harlequin Romance

Publisher: Harlequin

ISBN: 9780373742592

Website: http://www.harlequin.com

My Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Here is the plot in a nutshell: Hero recognizes heroine from university.  Wants to sleep with heroine and makes his move.  Heroine knows his game and says no.  But she wants to sleep with him one time though.  Makes her move.  Being noble, hero says no.  This was to prove he does not have an agenda but he still secretly wants to sleep with her.  Because of a snowstorm, they got stranded in his cabin in the woods.  You know what happens.  Then misunderstandings and finally, happily ever after.

I think I’m becoming jaded with the Harlequin Romance series.  I usually expect a plot that focused on the character development and romance and not on their need to jump into bed all the time.  This was unfortunately the latter.  Sadly, this was a pretty shallow read.  It was not the story itself.  I don’t mind the cliché plot.  A good cliché romance is my bread and butter.  What I mind is the lack of story and character development.  The majority of the story was pretty much them trying to help each other mentally but came off as selfish since their main objective was to justify sleeping together.  I didn’t like the hero.  The author tried really hard to make you feel sorry for him but failed.  Ben Hampton was just a playboy, no matter how you read it.  He was trying to be noble but felt more like condescension.  He was trying to prove to the heroine he had no agenda, but he did.  And the Luce Myles was okay.  She was supposed to be Cinderella-type but she can’t rescue herself at all.  Someone was always there to force her to change.  I understand her personality though.  What I didn’t like was her sudden 180 to get with the hero.  My respect became dust.

 

In the end, this didn’t work for me.  The plot moved too fast to really develop properly.  I couldn’t care less about the characters.  All of them were just annoying and self-centered.  The plot was okay.  The ending was good but didn’t match the overall tone of the story.  I would recommend passing on this one.