*In connection with my YT playlist of the same name, a series of videos where me & Mr. EFR get into the hilarious absurdity of romance novels.
It was a chance for a fresh start. And in her new job as a helicopter pilot at a skiing lodge in the Canadian Rockies, Charlie felt she could put the past behind her. Too bad, though, that her employer, Gallagher Cole, didn't seem to share her view. "I'm not quitting before I've started," Charlie told him stubbornly. "If you don't want me here, you should have the guts to fire me!" Nevertheless, Charlie gradually found herself drawn to this complex man. Only what hope could there be for her when they each had commitments to somebody else...?
★★★1/2
Charlie James gets hired on as a helicopter pilot for the High Heaven Heli-Ski Company, a flight transport service for the local ski resort in the small town of Revelstoke, just outside Calgary, Canada. Her boss, Gallagher Cole, signs her on sight unseen after numerous rave recommendations from friends and colleagues, not knowing Charlie is a female. In retrospect, he realizes that in all his conversations regarding Charlie's skill, somehow pronouns got left off.
Cole is not a pilot himself, he just owns the helicopter and the business. When he meets her in person, he's not too comfortable having a woman on staff holding a position that carries so much inherent risk. But Charlie, though still young, is all too familiar with facing challenges head on and conquering them. Not only does she brave flights through the Canadian Rockies, when not in the air she is the guardian / caretaker for her 22 year old mentally handicapped cousin, Kenny.
When Charlie asks Gallagher to sit in on one of her flights and see her skill for himself, he can't deny it --- she is undoubtedly qualified for the position. Still, it takes time for Charlie to break Gallagher of his inherent sexist thinking. But once she does, she finds there is actually a kind, solidly good guy who feels compelled to keep her safe.
"What else does my face tell you?"
"That you carry bitter burdens, and that you often question the path of your life. You see the lives of others unfolding without the tragedy and the troubles you have seen, and it angers you that life is so easy for some, but not for you. And life has made you incredibly strong. Strong enough that one day you will quit complaining that life's lessons are too hard, and instead you will ask, 'What am I to learn from this?' And you will find that all along you learned. That you grew stronger. By stronger, I mean you learned to love, to be gentle, accepting, compassionate. When you are old, and you will grow very old, you will have that look in your eyes --- that wondrous look of laughter and wisdom. That look that means you have seen the worst of life, and reckoned with it, allowed it to teach instead of destroy. You think your suffering has been without reason? No, Charlie, no. You were chosen because you are one of the few. The very few.""The very few who what?""One of the very few who will know heaven on this earth."
The plot here has a nice, breezy entertainment value to it, even when the writing structure itself suffers in places (ex. there's a few jerky scene transitions where mid-paragraph a scene can switch from office to car with little to no indication that characters have moved). If you're intrigued by the helicopter pilot premise, let me just warn you now, Charlie doesn't actually get a lot of flight time in this short story. Most of her work hours seem to be spent in the hangar bickering with Gallagher. It would've been nice if more of the resort scene element could have been incorporated.
The romance is fun and light, nothing amazing, but the friendship that builds between Charlie and Gallagher is charming, particularly when Gallagher goes the extra mile to bond with Kenny. There's also the topic of sexual discrimination that comes up quite a bit. While the early scenes with Gallagher can be grating to read (with his chauvinism in full force), Charlie does slowly soften him and the discussions his behavior stirs up are actually more thought provoking than one might expect from a book like this, not to mention some of the comedy it inspires when things slam back in Gallagher's face!
Under Kalinda Brady's cool silk surface was a smoldering heart waiting to be set afire. But she hadn't expected the sparks to fly with Rand Alastair, artist and fisherman, the stranger whose caresses left her yearning for more. Kalinda had come to Colorado determined to avenge a lost love. She had arranged the set up, and her ex-fiance had taken the bait. But she was shaken by Rand's powerful embrace, torn between her passion for revenge and hunger for this lover who conquered her heart, stole into her world and proceeded to make it his own.
★★★★☆
Two years ago, Kalinda Brady's father died, leaving her CEO of his data processing firm. Engaged to be married, her fiancee dumps her when he finds out the company is heavily in debt and possibly in danger of being liquidated. Not long after the split, Kalinda gets word her ex-fella has run off and married another business woman with quite a bit more wealth than Kalinda's family ever had. Kalinda then spends the next two years working her tail off to get the company back in the black.
Now that the company is doing quite well again, Kalinda has a chance to carry out her revenge plot. She reaches out to her ex, luring him into agreeing to a romantic mountain getaway weekend. Only, romance is the furthest thing from what she's after. She knows this guy hates to be humilated so that's exactly what she sets out to do. But until that meetup time, she's got a couple extra days in the small resort town outside of Denver where they agreed to meet up. It's there that she meets Rand Alaistair --- potter, art gallery owner, fisherman, maybe local lothario?
He's certainly handsome enough to be a nice distraction but the last thing Kalinda is looking for is to be someone's weekend fling. But once Rand sets eyes on something he wants, his determination is unwavering. He gets Kalinda to agree to dinner with him one night, which --- no surprise --- turns rather hands on once the plates are cleared. The deal isn't entirely sealed though. Kalinda, though she might feel a "passionate curiosity" towards Rand, isn't interested in casual, easily dismissed hookups, so she distances herself for the rest of the evening. But Rand won't be deterred. He gets her to agree to a picnic the next day, where she tells him of her revenge plans against her ex. Rand quickly calls the idea stupid and dangerous and does everything in his power to stop her from following through. She eventually agrees with his logic, decides not to go through with the plan. But when she gets back to town, who's ready with news of a merger attempt on her company ... but her ex!
Just when she's at her wit's end, fearing she's about to lose her father's company and there's nothing she can do to stop it, good ol' Mr. Persistent, Rand, shows up at her door with a plan to save the day. Turns out he's no country bumpkin fisherman but actually a cutthroat businessman well versed in company takeovers, and he's pretty sure he knows exactly how to save the company and win Kalinda's heart for good.
This story isn't going to be the most popular read with much of today's female audience, I'd wager. Rand is pretty persistent, borderline too forceful in his attentions toward Kalinda. Even though she herself admits behaving in a "my mind says no, my body says YES" manner, she vocalizes no a lot, which Rand tends to push through til she says yes... which these days could spark quite the discussion on date rape / rape culture... but let me clarify here and now that Rand never takes it that far. When it seems like Kalinda is being coy, he continues to push. When she without hesitation firmly says no, he backs off and calmly gives her a ride home... which I think makes all the difference in whether one can like this character or not.
There's still the dated, sometimes cringe-inducing dialogue / interaction between these two (this story was originally published in the 1980s) but honestly, I find that's part of the fun of reading these more vintage stories... being able to step back and laugh and praise the advancements we've made.
Check out our video discussion on these books HERE.
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