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Taming Jason
Elinor knew it would be difficult to stay professional while nursing Jason Tenby back to health: he was used to calling the shots. Also, she couldn't forget the time when Jason had kissed her passionately...She'd never forgiven Jason for the trouble that had caused. But now Jason was injured and temporarily blind. For his sake, she must keep her identity a secret. However, as she healed him, she fell for him. All too soon he would be able to see her again -- the woman he'd once considered unsuitable for marriage!
288 pages, Hardcover
Published July 1, 2000
4 people are currently reading
112 people want to read
About the author
Lucy Gordon
682 books90 followersChristine Sparks was born in England, UK. She wanted to be a writer all her life, and began by working on a British women's magazine. As a features writer, she gained a wide variety of experience. She interviewed some of the world's most attractive and interesting men, including Warren Beatty, Richard Chamberlain, Charlton Heston, Sir Roger Moore, Sir Alec Guiness.
Single life was so enjoyable that she put marriage, and even romance, on the back burner, while she went about the world having a great time. Then, while on vacation in Venice, she met a tall, dark handsome Venetian artist, who changed all her ideas in a moment, and proposed on the second day. Three months later they were married. Her friends said a whirlwind romance would never last, but they celebrated their 25 anniversary, they are still married, still happy and in love.
After 13 years on the magazine Christine decided that it was now or never if she was ever going to write that novel. So she wrote Legacy of Fire which became a Silhouette Special Edition, followed by another, Enchantment in Venice. Then she did something crazy gave up her job. Since then she has concentrated entirely on writing romances for Mills & Boon, Harlequin and Silhouette and has written over 75 books. Her settings have been European and her heroes mainly English or Italian. Christine now claims to be an expert on one particular subject. Italian men are the most romantic in the world. They are also the best cooks.
A few years ago she and her husband returned to Venice and lived there for a couple of years. This proved the perfect base for exploring the rest of Italy, and she has given many of her books Italian settings: Venice (of course), Rome, Florence, Milan, Sicily, Tuscany. She has also used the Rhine in Germany for Song of the Lorelei, for which she won her first RITA Award, in 1991. Her second RITA came in 1998, with His Brother's Child, set in Rome.
Eventually Christine Fiorotto and her husband returned to England, where they now live. She write and he paints, they have no children, but have a cat and a dog.
Single life was so enjoyable that she put marriage, and even romance, on the back burner, while she went about the world having a great time. Then, while on vacation in Venice, she met a tall, dark handsome Venetian artist, who changed all her ideas in a moment, and proposed on the second day. Three months later they were married. Her friends said a whirlwind romance would never last, but they celebrated their 25 anniversary, they are still married, still happy and in love.
After 13 years on the magazine Christine decided that it was now or never if she was ever going to write that novel. So she wrote Legacy of Fire which became a Silhouette Special Edition, followed by another, Enchantment in Venice. Then she did something crazy gave up her job. Since then she has concentrated entirely on writing romances for Mills & Boon, Harlequin and Silhouette and has written over 75 books. Her settings have been European and her heroes mainly English or Italian. Christine now claims to be an expert on one particular subject. Italian men are the most romantic in the world. They are also the best cooks.
A few years ago she and her husband returned to Venice and lived there for a couple of years. This proved the perfect base for exploring the rest of Italy, and she has given many of her books Italian settings: Venice (of course), Rome, Florence, Milan, Sicily, Tuscany. She has also used the Rhine in Germany for Song of the Lorelei, for which she won her first RITA Award, in 1991. Her second RITA came in 1998, with His Brother's Child, set in Rome.
Eventually Christine Fiorotto and her husband returned to England, where they now live. She write and he paints, they have no children, but have a cat and a dog.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
October 3, 2016
On the strength of Lucy Gordon's The Italian's Baby, which was awesome, I wanted to travel outside the HP universe and read another Lucy Gordon.
Okay after reading this, her hero's are still alpha and can still be high-handed jerks, but there is usually actually a reason, and it is relatively comprehensible.
Cindy aka Elinor is a naive, head-over-heels young girl when Simon brings her home to ye olde homestead. From the gitgo, Jason, older brother, tries to drive her away in simple and obvious ways. Her mother once worked for the family's company as a cleaner, and Cindy feels the social gap is the issue. Jason is everything Simon is not: not charming, direct, blunt, and no nonsense. Denouement comes at an engagement party where Jason sets Cindy up for a fall. Simon catches Jason and the h kissing, pitches a fit and leaves. Must have been really embarrassing as all the guests were right outside the library! She sobs as in SOBS as Jason takes her to the train. Pivotal moment for both.
Six years later, Cindy, now Elinor, is to be invalid Jason's nurse. He is blind AND can't walk. He's already run off at least two nurses. Elinor is now cold and emotionless due to her romantic trauma and sets out to rehab the H.
It's a slow burn for the two as he gets better, and they both thaw out. Throw in a faithful family retainer, a shallow fiancee with the right background and there you go. Simon even makes a return visit with his older, wealthy downtrodden little woman.
When the H finds out that little Cindy/Elinor is the one responsible for his newfound ability to see and walk he flips. With all the rational thinking of a Harlequin H, he thunders, This is your revenge!" Dude, she just rehabbed you, and you can see AND walk because of her. Think it through!
This was not awesome, but it is well written with more sexual tension rather than the more overt sex scenes we have now. It has an old school vibe with the emotional tension of the two main characters.
Okay after reading this, her hero's are still alpha and can still be high-handed jerks, but there is usually actually a reason, and it is relatively comprehensible.
Cindy aka Elinor is a naive, head-over-heels young girl when Simon brings her home to ye olde homestead. From the gitgo, Jason, older brother, tries to drive her away in simple and obvious ways. Her mother once worked for the family's company as a cleaner, and Cindy feels the social gap is the issue. Jason is everything Simon is not: not charming, direct, blunt, and no nonsense. Denouement comes at an engagement party where Jason sets Cindy up for a fall. Simon catches Jason and the h kissing, pitches a fit and leaves. Must have been really embarrassing as all the guests were right outside the library! She sobs as in SOBS as Jason takes her to the train. Pivotal moment for both.
Six years later, Cindy, now Elinor, is to be invalid Jason's nurse. He is blind AND can't walk. He's already run off at least two nurses. Elinor is now cold and emotionless due to her romantic trauma and sets out to rehab the H.
It's a slow burn for the two as he gets better, and they both thaw out. Throw in a faithful family retainer, a shallow fiancee with the right background and there you go. Simon even makes a return visit with his older, wealthy downtrodden little woman.
When the H finds out that little Cindy/Elinor is the one responsible for his newfound ability to see and walk he flips. With all the rational thinking of a Harlequin H, he thunders, This is your revenge!" Dude, she just rehabbed you, and you can see AND walk because of her. Think it through!
This was not awesome, but it is well written with more sexual tension rather than the more overt sex scenes we have now. It has an old school vibe with the emotional tension of the two main characters.
March 11, 2025
Not bad even if it’s not so original.
Heroine is 18 yo daughter of hero’s housemaid, his younger brother takes her home as his fiancee and the hero who’s 10years older, kisses her in front of his brother so he breaks up with her.
She thinks he’s a snob and a conceited man, and he thinks she’s not good enough for his brother.
Six years later she’s a nurse and the hero has had an accident and now is blind and hurt.
She nurses him to health and he falls in love with her.
Of course he doesn’t know who she is.
Heroine is very traumatized and still doesn’t trust anyone. So when he can finally see her and he recognizes her he accuses her of wanting revenge which was quite stupid since she made him walk again and helped him when he had nightmares.
The heroine is hurt again and no. She doesn’t take him back when he apologizes.
He begs, apologizes, tells her he loves her and that he didn’t want her to marry his brother because he’s a cruel and nasty man and was not worthy of her.
Not even when she sees with her own eyes the kind of man his brother is, the heroine changes her mind.
I appreciated it because she’s not a doormat and expects to be treated with respect.
I liked the angst, this one was very high on angst even if imo the heroines reaction to her break up with the hero’s brother was excessive.
It was not the love of her life and she was really a young and inexperienced teenager, so imo her freezing out and not being able to love anyone else for six years was really ott, but it was quite good.
And the hero is a cold grump, but after his accusations he immediately apologizes and it was quite satisfying that for weeks the heroine ignored him and basically told him that even if she had feelings for him she had no intention of ever being with him.
Of course in the end she changes her mind, but at least she wasn’t the usual doormat that immediately forgives and forget.
Heroine is 18 yo daughter of hero’s housemaid, his younger brother takes her home as his fiancee and the hero who’s 10years older, kisses her in front of his brother so he breaks up with her.
She thinks he’s a snob and a conceited man, and he thinks she’s not good enough for his brother.
Six years later she’s a nurse and the hero has had an accident and now is blind and hurt.
She nurses him to health and he falls in love with her.
Of course he doesn’t know who she is.
Heroine is very traumatized and still doesn’t trust anyone. So when he can finally see her and he recognizes her he accuses her of wanting revenge which was quite stupid since she made him walk again and helped him when he had nightmares.
The heroine is hurt again and no. She doesn’t take him back when he apologizes.
He begs, apologizes, tells her he loves her and that he didn’t want her to marry his brother because he’s a cruel and nasty man and was not worthy of her.
Not even when she sees with her own eyes the kind of man his brother is, the heroine changes her mind.
I appreciated it because she’s not a doormat and expects to be treated with respect.
I liked the angst, this one was very high on angst even if imo the heroines reaction to her break up with the hero’s brother was excessive.
It was not the love of her life and she was really a young and inexperienced teenager, so imo her freezing out and not being able to love anyone else for six years was really ott, but it was quite good.
And the hero is a cold grump, but after his accusations he immediately apologizes and it was quite satisfying that for weeks the heroine ignored him and basically told him that even if she had feelings for him she had no intention of ever being with him.
Of course in the end she changes her mind, but at least she wasn’t the usual doormat that immediately forgives and forget.
July 6, 2022
3.5 stars This is not one of those fast paced romances that will keep you on the edge of your seat. The romance takes time to unfold. LG does get some angst in this one but it isn’t off the chart. IF you dislike stories where the H and h share hardly any page time together, then you will like this one. These 2 are the primary focus. Vintage gives a great overview of the story here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Things touched upon in the story:
*Patient/nurse
*Class discrepancies
*Older disapproving brother hero
*Angry disabled hero
*orphaned heroine
*Interested om
*shallow ow
*Waste of space brother
Setting-England
Overview: The h Elinor was 18 when she fell in love with Simon. She comes from the wrong side of the tracks and has recently lost her mom(her father died years earlier in a drunken stupor). She has fallen under Simon’s spell(although not in the bedroom). He takes her home to meet his older brother Jason, the hero.
Jason is rude to the h and treats her like dog poo on a shoe. He accuses her of being a gold digger and then tries to pay her off. It looks like this h isn’t biting, so when he hears his brother Simon nearby, he grabs the h and embraces her in a passionate clinch. Simon hurls insults at the h. She pleads and cries and tries to get him to listen. He leaves. The H takes the h to the train station and tells her to stay away. She yells at him that one day she will be back.
6 years later the H has been hurt in a stable fire and can no longer walk or see. His personality has driven away a couple of nurses. It just so happens our h has taken the last 6 years to become a nurse. She is unable to get out of taking this job with the H, and then decides it is probably best to face her demons, or in this case the hero!
The years have changed both the h and H. She fears love and has never been involved with anyone since Simon. He regrets his treatment of the h years earlier and her cries still torment his dreams.
Now she has the upper hand as the H is blind and immobile. She could use this against the hero, but alas she isn’t one of those revenge seeking heroines. Instead she takes her job seriously. In the process the h and H start healing each other mentally and physically. Along the way we meet the ow who is engaged to the H but doesn’t touch his heart. It was going to be more a merger than a love match. She isn’t in the story much and definitely doesn’t want to play nursemaid, so she moves on. Then we have the addition of the bachelor Dr. Andrew who shows a strong interest in the h but also gets the vibe that her heart has been captured by another. He too, is not in the story much. Seriously, LG kept her focus on our 2 main characters and growing their love for each other.
So what happens when he regains his eyesight? Well as you may have guessed it does lead to our biggest black moment in the story and undos all of the closeness. The H after his initial shock and ill advised comments backtracks quickly and tells the h he loves her. The h starts to retreat. She reverts back to Nurse Smith and her interactions with the H go back to being clinical. She is too afraid to give herself up to love. The H tries to tell the h that she was not the problem 6 years earlier. He also tells her that the kiss they shared was powerful, and she admits that she felt it too and it gave her some guilt over Simon. The hero ends up inviting Simon and Simon’s wife to visit. The h realizes that any feelings she once harbored for Simon is long gone. She decides that although she loves the hero, and he will be the only one for her, that she just isn’t brave enough to chance the whole love thing.
He takes her to the train station. He begs her to stay. She gets on the train. He yells her name. She jumps off moving train. She runs to him. He drops his walking stick and runs to her.
Yes I know that GIF is from a ship, but basically this is how our story ends. It really felt like some sort of black and white melodrama. Plus, Sabrina(Audrey Hepburn)had a similar situation. She ends up with the older brother(Humphrey Bogart)who didn’t want her with the younger one.
I left a lot of details out about the story. The H does explain to the h why he didn’t want her to marry his brother.
Things touched upon in the story:
*Patient/nurse
*Class discrepancies
*Older disapproving brother hero
*Angry disabled hero
*orphaned heroine
*Interested om
*shallow ow
*Waste of space brother
Setting-England
Overview: The h Elinor was 18 when she fell in love with Simon. She comes from the wrong side of the tracks and has recently lost her mom(her father died years earlier in a drunken stupor). She has fallen under Simon’s spell(although not in the bedroom). He takes her home to meet his older brother Jason, the hero.
Jason is rude to the h and treats her like dog poo on a shoe. He accuses her of being a gold digger and then tries to pay her off. It looks like this h isn’t biting, so when he hears his brother Simon nearby, he grabs the h and embraces her in a passionate clinch. Simon hurls insults at the h. She pleads and cries and tries to get him to listen. He leaves. The H takes the h to the train station and tells her to stay away. She yells at him that one day she will be back.
6 years later the H has been hurt in a stable fire and can no longer walk or see. His personality has driven away a couple of nurses. It just so happens our h has taken the last 6 years to become a nurse. She is unable to get out of taking this job with the H, and then decides it is probably best to face her demons, or in this case the hero!
The years have changed both the h and H. She fears love and has never been involved with anyone since Simon. He regrets his treatment of the h years earlier and her cries still torment his dreams.
Now she has the upper hand as the H is blind and immobile. She could use this against the hero, but alas she isn’t one of those revenge seeking heroines. Instead she takes her job seriously. In the process the h and H start healing each other mentally and physically. Along the way we meet the ow who is engaged to the H but doesn’t touch his heart. It was going to be more a merger than a love match. She isn’t in the story much and definitely doesn’t want to play nursemaid, so she moves on. Then we have the addition of the bachelor Dr. Andrew who shows a strong interest in the h but also gets the vibe that her heart has been captured by another. He too, is not in the story much. Seriously, LG kept her focus on our 2 main characters and growing their love for each other.
So what happens when he regains his eyesight? Well as you may have guessed it does lead to our biggest black moment in the story and undos all of the closeness. The H after his initial shock and ill advised comments backtracks quickly and tells the h he loves her. The h starts to retreat. She reverts back to Nurse Smith and her interactions with the H go back to being clinical. She is too afraid to give herself up to love. The H tries to tell the h that she was not the problem 6 years earlier. He also tells her that the kiss they shared was powerful, and she admits that she felt it too and it gave her some guilt over Simon. The hero ends up inviting Simon and Simon’s wife to visit. The h realizes that any feelings she once harbored for Simon is long gone. She decides that although she loves the hero, and he will be the only one for her, that she just isn’t brave enough to chance the whole love thing.
He takes her to the train station. He begs her to stay. She gets on the train. He yells her name. She jumps off moving train. She runs to him. He drops his walking stick and runs to her.
Yes I know that GIF is from a ship, but basically this is how our story ends. It really felt like some sort of black and white melodrama. Plus, Sabrina(Audrey Hepburn)had a similar situation. She ends up with the older brother(Humphrey Bogart)who didn’t want her with the younger one.
I left a lot of details out about the story. The H does explain to the h why he didn’t want her to marry his brother.
July 8, 2022
4 Stars! ~ Having been trapped under a fallen beam, while saving his beloved horses from a stable fire, Jason Tenby struggles with the reality that he may never walk or see again. Injuries to his spine and to his optic nerves are slow healing, and he’s a bear of a patient scaring away the nurses the temp service had sent. Nurse Elinor Smith had refused the job, but the service had run out of nurses to send and it was up to her. Six years before, Elinor had been in love with Jason’s brother Simon, and Jason had opposed the relationship and he had made sure that Simon would never marry her. Elinor (then known as Cindy) had been sent away with a heart so broken that something had died inside. Jason is just a patient to her, and she recognized that revealing who she was would only add more stress to his recovery. Jason finds himself responding to her take charge and I’ll take no guff attitude, and Elinor finds her heart beginning to feel again. But what will happen when his eyes have healed and he sees again the face of the woman he had despised all those years before?
Ms. Gordon has a remarkable ability of creating characters that come to life. Though we rarely see inside Jason’s head, we get a very good sense of him through the dialogue and the actions and observations of others. Elinor is emotionally scarred and copes in the only way she knows, as cold and aloof. Jason, though still the hardheaded tyrant from years before, has learnt to take note of the feelings of others. Once again there’s a brilliant confrontational scene where Elinor gives Jason a verbal beating. I love it when the heroine stands up for herself! This is one of those stories that bring a smile and a sigh at the ending.
Ms. Gordon has a remarkable ability of creating characters that come to life. Though we rarely see inside Jason’s head, we get a very good sense of him through the dialogue and the actions and observations of others. Elinor is emotionally scarred and copes in the only way she knows, as cold and aloof. Jason, though still the hardheaded tyrant from years before, has learnt to take note of the feelings of others. Once again there’s a brilliant confrontational scene where Elinor gives Jason a verbal beating. I love it when the heroine stands up for herself! This is one of those stories that bring a smile and a sigh at the ending.
July 10, 2015
This reminded me a lot of Blind Promises by Diana Palmer and Of Vinegar and Honey by Catharina Shields. A great read nevertheless. :) .. Also read this in manga/ comic version, which is just as good!
July 10, 2022
The book was entertaining. There was some drama and heartache. The ending was slightly overdone and cheesy. It was a relief to know that Simon turned out such a parasite. But it didn’t change the fact that the heroine who was supposedly in love and planning to marry Simon was seduced by only one kiss from his brother.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 18, 2022
3.5 stars
Available on open library.
Available on open library.
September 28, 2023
A decent read but got slightly cheesy in the end, but still good.
I do hope the nasty simon gets what he deserves and praying that carol dumps him soon.
I do hope the nasty simon gets what he deserves and praying that carol dumps him soon.
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February 8, 2014ok
January 18, 2012
Read the manga version.
July 19, 2013
I read the Harlequin manga, which I liked, up until the ending. I didn't like the ending much.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews