✰ Bianca & Janeane ✰
AINSLIE PATON - DETAINED
• release date - 1 September - 2013
• Escape Publishing - Harlequin Australia
★★★★★
5 big + fat Stars
From one of Australia's hottest new authors comes a story about an international scandal, a billionaire, and a fearless reporter who might just save the day...
Confined in a cold, dull room in the depths of a Shanghai airport, a journalist chasing a career break and a businessman with a shadowy past play a game of truth or dare — deliberately not exchanging names.
They tell each other their most painful secrets and burning desires. One dare leads to a kiss and a wild night of illicit passion, setting off a dangerous sequence of events, bringing exposure and disgrace.
Only the brutal truth can save them. But it will also rip them apart. And it will take more than daring before they can build a new truth together.
OMG - can a book be any better than this one???
I started reading with not very high hopes - I read the blurb and thought - hm yeah well - this book will probably have 150 pages and the whole book will be in that airport-room and they will have sex and then there will be a happy end!
I WAS SOOO WRONG!
Yes - we start out in that cold airport room - well no - we don't actually.
Darcy is on her way from Sydney to Shanghai for an interview that will either make or break her career as a Journalist for the Sydney Herald. She is supposed to get an exclusive - never been there - interview with reclusive Billionaire Businessman Will Parker from Parker Corporation. But the Shangai immigration people won't let her leave the airport because something is wrong with her Visa. They detain her in a little cold room until the Visa-problem can be cleared.
After she's been freezing her butt off in there for a little while - she gets company - another poor guy with Visa difficulties.
They don't exchange names - but they exchange so much more. They play a game of truth or dare and they end up telling each other their life stories. Lots of sparks are flying between Darcy and the good-looking stranger. Before they're released from the room 5 hours later, they end up on the little couch doing some erotic things ☺ But I'm not telling you what! ☺
When Darcy arrives at the Peninsula Hotel she finds herself in one of those horribly expensive suites
- curtesy of her stranger - who she calls Tara - because that's the town he grew up in.
They then spend a very sexy weekend together ☺
She wasn't sure she could undo the other buttons without needing help. She wasn't sure of anything except being with him was inevitable, and delicious, and stupid. His look burned her skin, made it zing like the first rush of a too hot shower. She fumbled the remaining buttons undone, let the dress fall to her feet and stood there in her mismatched underwear.
"I want you naked." She couldn't do it. She knew her body wasn't fashionable. She had hips and a backside. And despite the yoga she wasn't toned to magazine image perfection. The family joke was tables had better legs. And his body was incredible, even with the scars that marked him. And the room was too bright. She went to turn off the light nearest her. "Leave it." Hand on the switch, their eyes met. He repeated, "Leave it." She turned it off. "Fine then--but the bra goes." "So you do know how to compromise." "I know how to win. Do you want me to do it for you?" She did. She didn't. She saw nothing in him to suggest he didn't like what he saw. She unhooked her bra, let it slide down her arms and watched his eyes flare with satisfaction. Then she leant across and switched on the light. "You win."
And I don't think I'm spoiling too much when I say that our stranger is - of course - the reason Darcy is in Shanghai in the first place: Will Parker. She's extremely angry when she finds out - and once she's back in Sydney she writes an article. An article that could destroy Wills life and business. And it kind of does. LOTS of horrible and suspensy and heartstopping and moving things happen because of that article! But I'm not telling you any more! ☺
WILL THERE BE A HAPPY END??? ☺
I'M NOT TELLING! GO AND BUY THE BOOK!
As I said before - I wasn't expecting all that much - and that's the best way to start reading a new book. I was totally surprised. I don't even know what kind of genre this book is! It's not a Thriller - not Erotica - not Romance - but it's all those things and so much more!!! I couldn't put the book down! I was completely hooked from the first pages! I was even crying!!!
I loved Will and his sad past and the way he made himself into what he is today. And I felt sooo sad for him when things went horribly wrong. And Darcy - she's a sweet girl - falling in love with this stranger. And then making this one mistake and then trying to make everything right again. There are only 2 things that I didn't like - first - the sex scenes felt a bit cut-off at the end... They start out really sexy and romantic and erotic but then it's like the author was too embarrassed to be a bit more sexually explicit! It wouldn't have hurt the book at all to make those scenes a bit longer ☺ Just my opinion ☺
And then the Cover-picture! The models - especially the girl - both look like cold and ruthless KGB Spies! And that's not what Will and Darcy are!!! Should this book ever come out in print - and I really hope it will - please change the cover!
↑↑ UPDATE - THE COVER HAS BEEN CHANGED ↑↑
THANK YOU - whoever's responsible for doing that... this is the old version:
And that's all I didn't like! Amazing, huh? Normally I have LOTS to complain about - even when it's 5-star book ☺ I think I want to go visit Shanghai now!!! ☺
Please go and buy this wonderful non-genre book ;) Let's just call it a Heartbreaking Erotic Thriller! ___________________________________________________
I didn't know what to expect when I picked up this book - which I think is a good thing anyway.
After reading the blurb, it sounded like everything would happen while being detained in an interview room at an airport. So wrong - the story begins after they leave the airport!
Darcy Campbell is an ambitious reporter for a Sydney newspaper. She gets flown to Shanghai for the career break she needs - an exclusive interview with reclusive Australian billionaire, Will Parker.
Arriving in China, she is stopped at immigration for irregularlities with her visa, and is detained in a freezing room at Pudong Airport.
After a while, she has a fellow detainee. A sexy fellow Aussie. Darcy feels an instant attraction to the handsome stranger, and it seems the attraction is mutual.
To fill in the time, Darcy and the stranger start a game of Truth or Dare.
With no names given, Darcy and handsome stranger realise that they can be more truthful with each other than they have ever been before. Things get quite personal, and their attraction and bond gets stronger. There may even be a little bit of this involved....
After finally being released, handsome stranger, whom she has nicknamed Tara after the town he grew up in, drops her off at her hotel and seemingly drives out of her life.
But they can't keep away from each other, and they spend a wonderful weekend together, enjoying the anonymity of the situation.
On Monday, Darcy goes to interview Will Parker - only to find out that the interview is cancelled, and that Tara is Mr Will Parker himself.
Darcy is furious, hurt and humiliated by Will. She also knows that his cancelling the interview has destroyed her career.
On returning to Sydney, Darcy runs a story with information she gathered in Shanghai, something that garners worldwide attention, and could ruin Will personally and professionally.
The article leads to things occurring to Will that he had dreaded all his life. But can things be fixed? For that, you are going to have to go buy Detained and find out!
Ainslie Paton had me run through a whole range of emotions - I laughed, I cried, I was afraid for the characters. This line particularly made me laugh (the Aussies amongst us will laugh with me).
"Darcy didn't do pretty. Pretty took time and consideration and while she was no bush pig Andy's favourite description of an unattractive woman, she'd rather be acknowledged for her thought patterns than her eye make up."
I loved Will - the way he walked away from his traumatic past to make himself into the man he is today -both the good and the bad. His love and the things he has done for his "brother" Pete - the only real family he has ever had - pulls at the heartstrings.
Darcy has a father and a brother who are more like colleagues or acquaintances. I for one think she would be better off without them at all. She has a heart of gold and works hard to correct the mistakes she makes in her life.
The interactions between Darcy and Will are sexy, sweet, funny, heartbreaking... their relationship is the epitome of the
I could not put this book down once I started reading, and was up till all hours of the morning finishing it!
I thoroughly enjoyed the ride Ainslie Paton took me on, and I am definitely going to read more of her work!
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