This is part of the books I inherited from my grandmother after she died. As a teen she would lend me volumes of Harlequin novels--from the 70's/80's/90's--because they interested me. I remember reading this one around 14, when I first got into Asian cultures, and feeling really put off by some of the...impolite commentary I felt the author had been making.

As a premise its about as likely as any Harlequin title--British backpacker Clary calls a fellow traveler's older, well off stepbrother to help her out of jail in Thailand. Brother comes, meets Clary, sparks fly and somehow everyone learns their lesson. Seriously while the author attempted to put a realistic edge to the young girl--Nina's--sudden turn around, the entire set up was so artificial and obviously contrived it hurt my head.

Never mind the off the wall courtship Clary and Alistair go through. Or the overwhelming bad parenting in this book (except Pete who genuinely seemed to be a good father). The over-abundance of drinking (was that common in Harlequins? I forget!). The thinly veiled racist remarks about Asians. The 'oh I wish I could do more for these poor people!' remarks Clary said every single time they came across someone she felt was bedraggled in some way.

Quite honestly I didn't enjoy this book at all. I don't know what to say to an author who feels a need to make one parent resentful of her daughter's beauty and youth (to the point where she'd knowingly leave her teen daughter in jail in Thailand to keep her out of the way), another set of parents condescending happy for their only daughter (a great disappointment to them both in almost every way) marrying a rich powerful business man and the main characters drinking alcohol with every meal. ( )