First off I want to say that this is fiction/fantasy and not real life so what I think of the H/h in this story has nothing to do with real life situations.This could have been a pretty good story,imo, had the author been a better writer. I'm not sure what the copyright date is and I hope for her sake this was a first attempt at writing. I have read a historical by her and enjoyed it so who knows. It felt like she had a check list of events that she wanted to have in her book and wrote scenes to match each one.Kate (h) had always wanted to work in her fathers company, since that company was blowing up or bringing down buildings with explosives her father said 'over his dead body'. In her father's eyes she was a pampered princess and needed to stay that way, the work he did was too dangerous for a woman,expecialy his daughter. It was a mans job and that was the way it was going to stay. One night, at a ball, her father tells her this and she walks out on him. Determined to walk home, she walks right past the parking valets.Donovan (H) was working as a valet to help cover the expence of college. When he sees a 17 year old girl walk past him obviously angry and going to walk home, he had to try and stop her. As he introduces himself and they get to know eachother he offers her a ride home. So with ball gown and all she hops on the back of his motorcycle and goes for a ride.As these two fall in love Donovan explanes a bit about his past, how his family died in a car crash and he lives with several different family members. Soon Kate's father Sam becomes like a father to Donovan, the two marry and Sam offers Donovan a job working with him. It doesn't take long for the marriage to go sour. It seems that Donovan had a horrible temper that he's not very good at controling. One thing or another would set him off and Kate always ended up with a fist to the face or some other injury that was his fault. Of course Donovan was always horrified at his behavoir, how could he hurt the one he loved the most?? After one perticular bad fight Kate leaves for good and files for divorce. Unable to face what her family would say about her being an abused wife she refuses to tell them why she left Donovan and moves to California and never returns until her father's death 10 years later.At the reading of the will Kate and Donovan learn that Sam had his own ideas about them and thier failed marriage. He leaves Kate an empressive amount of money and states that she can work for the company, wich is what she has wanted her entire life. The buisness Sam would leave to Donovan, however all of this was under one condition......they live together for a year.One of the many problems I had with this story was that although Kate constantly referd to herself as an abused wife, she never acted like one. She had way too much trust for him and the few times that Mary Jo Putney tried to show that Kate was acting like an abused wife would, fell way too flat. It just wasn't believable, one scene( in fact it's the first scene where she's afraid of him) Donovan saves her life by pulling her to safty after a fall and she flips out on him and acts "like a cornered animal". When this happens Donovan psyhcoanalyses her, admits that it's all his fault but there is no emotion to any of this. The fact that Donovan had been to therapy and had quit drinking should have talked about more in the book, there just needed to be more to his recovery so that the reader could believe that he was redeemable and that Kate should take him back. Also there was NO chemistry between these two at all. This book seems to be the first in a series but I won't be continuing with it.
This the is first Mary Jo Putney novel I've read that I didn't absolutely love, mainly because I adore her historical romances and, after mumblety-mumble years of reading in this genre, have yet to read a contemporary romance that didn't involve me yelling at the contemporary hero and heroine at some point during the novel to just think, for God's sake. Plot conventions I will forgive in a period piece are not only unforgiveable in a contemporary setting, they're downright jarring.Not that I intend this review to be a condemnation of the contemporary romance: lots of people out there like them; love them, in fact. I'm just disappointed that Ms Putney -- who is an excellent writer -- simply wrote a standard issue contemporary with a controversial plot point. I expected better.So, anyway, Kate and Donovan married young, and divorced quickly. They never discussed why they divorced with their families. This didn't sit too well with Kate's father, but he decided he'd get those two kids back together even if he had to die to do it. Ten years later, he did. Die, that is. Not on purpose, of course, but his will dictates that Kate and Donovan must live together for a calendar year if Kate is to inherit any of his money and Donovan is to inherit the family business.If such a thing ever happened to me, I'd hire the sharkiest of shark lawyers and go after that will with a serious vengeance, but does Kate do that? Or Donovan? Nope. They put up a token resistance, then meekly acquiesce to this outrageous demand from beyond the grave. Throw in the mysterious circumstances of Kate's daddy's death, the suspicion of murder, a history of alcoholism and spousal abuse, and stir.Ms. Putney can write, and there are a few genuinely touching, tear-inducing scenes here. Overall, though, there are no surprises. And even in a romance, when the reader knows going in everything will turn out all right, it's good to be surprised now and then.
What do You think about The Burning Point (2000)?
I'm seriously conflicted over this book. I think MJP is one of the best writers in the romance genre and Burning Point is well written. It makes its case convincingly. Unfortunately, that case is that an abused wife can go back to her abuser if he has Really Changed. Also, of course, it turns out -- that while domestic abuse is always, always, always wrong -- there are Circumstances. (Abuse, alcoholism, etc. -- everything you'd pretty much expect that might screw up a childhood such that the hero is a damaged and angry adult.) Based on the MJP canon (yes, I do use the word ironically), I think she's big on the theme of forgiveness (along with The Healing Power of Love, but then all romance writers are big on that). Forgiveness is good. I support forgiveness. And recognizing that the world isn't black and white. And all the other useful cliches for rationalizing what sounds on the surface like a really awful decision. But, but, but. It's still an abusee going back to her abuser and I am not happy. I think MJP probably worked really hard to make it OK -- to make her characters do the hard work such that the outcome isn't offensive. And it's not that I'm offended exactly -- I just think maybe this was an interesting intellectual exercise that shouldn't have made the leap from brain to paper. Going out on a limb a bit more here -- I think the genre works against her. Romance novels have a checkered reptation. Perhaps they are Not Good For Women. And because of that notion that the genre is retrograde and even damaging, it makes her project seem suspect. If it was straight up suspense, maybe I would be more open to the idea of a couple working through their terrible past. But because in romance the outcome is never in doubt, it makes even The Healing Power of Love seem like a subtle trap.
—Heather
This book, because of its very controversial subject matter, caused quite a stir amongst readers but it only left with me a very "lukewarm" feeling. It is chock full of "issues" and overcoming and/or dealing with those issues and it really was not a satisfying romance for me . But the bigger problem? It didn't involve me emotionally. Because of the subject matter and the many subplots there was little room for the typical romantic tension and enjoyable banter that so attracts me to the romance genre. Neither character truly came alive or "grabbed" me the way a memorable romance couple does and their past "episodes", scattered throughout the book as they were, weren't as effective as they should have been because the reader wasn't privy to much of what was going on in the characters heads at the time. The hero's attempts to control his anger were presented in a believable way but in the end I was left feeling very uneasy about the couple's future - and especially for their future children. For me "The Burning Point" was a disappointment and a mostly uncomfortable reading experience that I won't be repeating any time soon.
—Bark's Book Nonsense
Well, it's the first Mary Jo Putney book I read, and it got me hooked on this author.Yes, the hero of this novel once slapped the heroine and she stabbed him with a knife in response. Yes, he was bad and wrong, and, hell, that's why she divorced him. But I feel that if you're going to pull the feminist card (I am a feminist too, and a radical one at that) on that book, then so should you on every single romance novel, and please do tell me how many pass the test. Less than a few, I am afraid.Anyway, I happen to think that The Burning Point did a remarkable job at handling a very delicate topic. Just remember: this isn't a textbook on how to handle men slapping you. This is a work of fiction. A pretty good, sensitive, intelligent one.(For some reason, I always feel more incensed as a feminist when women are systematically excluded from shows of physical violence in popular fiction. So guys can beat each other up for revenge or out of intense anger, and it's morally acceptable, but women are poor little fragile things that cannot defend themselves and will only ever be victims?)
—Jeanne
