Grade: B+

The horror of reading Bedded, or Wedded? last week sent me running back to the safety of my keeper shelf and the first thing I reached for was an old beloved comfort read, Obsession, by my favourite ever Mills and Boon author, Charlotte Lamb. I fucking love this book. *Sighs happily*.

The Cover

The UK cover is one of the classic ‘black rose’ covers of the late 70s/early 80s. Love these black rose covers - so kitsch with their garish colours and the piss-poor paintings on the covers. Every time I look at one, I feel nostalgic fondness.

In 1980, when Obsession was first published, I was seven. My mum was a big Mills & Boon fan and she kept her stash hidden away in my wardrobe. Me and my friends used to get piles of them out and lay them out on my bedroom floor, trying to decide who was the prettiest heroine or the handsomest hero (and because I was seven, I always picked out a Violet Winspear one with a h/h that looked like Ken and Barbie).

The cover of Obsession has a perfect 1980 aesthetic. With that haircut and outfit and the very perky boobies, the heroine is totally channelling Jane Fonda in Nine to Five, which is kind of appropriate seeing as this is one of those boss/secretary romances. And can I just say that I love the title? I hate the long tabloidy headlines Mills & Boon use now. This is just one word, and it’s relevant to the story. Nice.

The Plot

Nicola Adney is Lang Hyland’s secretary. Lang runs his family’s property company with his brother Andrew as his right hand man. At the start of the book, Nicola has worked with Lang for two years - the longest he’s ever been able to keep a secretary. Although he made a pass at her when she first started working for him, she turned him down and sex hasn’t got in the way since.

However, a series of incidents blows their strictly professional relationship sky-high and over the course of the novel, Nicola and Lang play out a cat and mouse game whereby Lang wants to shag Nicola on his usual temporary terms but Nicola will only consider a permanent relationship.

‘You’ve got marriage or nothing written all over you’ Lang told her drily. A faint flush came into her cheeks. Lang watched, smiling. ‘I’m right, aren’t I?’

She looked into his wry eyes. ‘Yes.’

‘Pity’ he said, watching her colour deepen. He leaned back in his chair, his eyes on the table now. ‘Marriage as a social institution is all very well, but it’s only for men who’ve lost the energy to run.’

The question is, who will relent first?

The Hero

Lang Hyland. Tall. Dark. Gorgeous. Ignore the ghoul on the cover and think George Clooney instead. Lang is seriously charming. So far, so typical. But he’s also - and this is the kind of thing that I want to see more of in category romance - a little vain, a little petulant. And he behaves childishly when crossed. It’s the other - inevitable - side of being incredibly charming. Here’s a passage from chapter 2 that shows his petulance off to great effect. To set the scene, Lang is off work ill and Nicola has gone round to his flat to take the mail to him. Lois is the woman he’s recently dumped:

‘You may think this is funny but I damned well don’t. I can’t stand being ill.’

‘You’re not ill, Mr Hyland. You’ve just got a cold.’

‘I’ll say whether or not I’m ill,’ he said in that thickened voice. ‘My throat’s like a cheesegrater and my head keeps exploding when I sneeze. I think I’ve got a temperature.’

‘You look pale if anything’ she told him.

He didn’t like that. ‘Feel my forehead’ he demanded.

Nicola just looked at him.

‘Go on, feel it’ he insisted. ‘I’m burning with fever.’

Gingerly, she laid her hand on his forehead. It felt perfectly normal to her. ‘No, I’m sure you haven’t got a temperature.’

‘Damn you, I know I have!’ he exploded. ‘Get a thermometer.’

She had not believed he would become so childish in illness. She looked at him in sheer disbelief. ‘Oh well, if you want to have a temperature, have one.’

He regarded her as if he wanted to throttle her. ‘I tell you, I’m ill. Why are you pretending there’s nothing wrong with me?’ He lay back against the great pile of untidy pillows, glowering. ‘Why don’t you do something? You haven’t got a womanly bone in your body, have you? Lois would be making me hot lemon and whisky by now or soothing my fevered brow, not looking at me as though I were a mental case.’

‘Shall I ring her?’ Nicola suggested.

‘God no’ he said, revolted by the idea. ‘You think I want to give her a chance to get her foot over the threshold?’

It’s such a neat little bit of storytelling and described with fantastic economy. We get to see Lang’s flaws and we get to see that Nicola is fundamentally different from all the other women he’s ever known. She’s not going to pander to him.

The Heroine

Nicola Adney. She’s attractive but not beautiful. Cool and capable. And very determined in an understated way. She’s an old fashioned girl (her ‘marriage only’ rule is prehistoric even in 1980) but I like that she knows what she wants out of life and is in charge of her own destiny. And although she fancies Lang rotten, she sees exactly what he is, warts and all. She’s more than a match for him.

I love the chemistry between Lang and Nicola. Before anything really happens between them, we get to see their working relationship. Nicola has to intercept Lang’s exes’ calls and buy them parting gifts when he dumps them. That’s standard fare in the classic boss/secretary romance but unlike certain heroines, Nicola doesn’t get all upset or jealous about it. She’s philosophical:

Lois South was out… How long had she lasted?…It was Christmas when he picked her up. Nicola remembered because she had been ordered to send dark red roses to his previous girlfriend. What had her name been? She couldn’t remember, but the girl had been a blonde - a model, with a ravishing figure, and a vocabulary of about six words, all of them apparently indicating yes.

Lois was a blonde too. Nicola quite liked her, actually. Lois had rather more than six words but all the same her vocabulary also added up to yes.

I like Nicola’s style.

The Sexin’

To my knowledge, in 1980, Mills & Boon romances did not include a male POV. Although the hero would feel an overwhelming desire for the heroine, we wouldn’t discover this through his thoughts. Instead, we’d discover it through his actions. The hero would act and the heroine would respond to whatever he did to her. The heroines tended to be passive and reactive.

What is interesting about Obsession is that Nicola actively lusts after Lang, even when he’s not making any moves on her. Charlotte Lamb was one of the first writers for Mills & Boon to write frankly about female desire in this way. I love that even although Nicola’s got her principles, she’s so desperate to get her hands on Lang that she’s practically drooling (hence the title).

There’s no actual sex in the book but there’s no doubt that Nicola and Lang are just about to Do It at the end of the book. Lang has come to Nicola’s flat to give himself up and enter her ‘cage’. I love the fact that Lang finds it so difficult to give up his freedom - somehow the fact that he’s wrestled with that issue makes it more believable that he will give it up. As it happens though, Nicola has decided to abandon her principles and shag him. So in fact they each surrender to the other, as should happen in all good romances.

Some readers’ modern sensibilities may be offended by the inclusion of a scene in the final chapter in which Lang administers a spanking to Nicola (with the charming declaration ‘I’m going to give you the slapping of your life’). It’s - erm - pretty dated to say the least, but honestly it doesn’t bother me because at the end of the book, Nicola is definitely wearing the trousers. She warns Lang that if he marries her, she’ll never let him go. And despite being a classic alpha male he meekly accepts that.

The Verdict

This 1980 classic is curiously modern and old-fashioned all at once. For all her dated principles, the heroine has a strength and determination that is sadly lacking in many heroines in recent category romances I’ve read. (Let’s hear it for self respect ladies!) I’m also struck by the level of sexual tension generated in a story in which sex does not actually take place. I generally prefer love to be consummated in my romance so that I know that the hero and heroine are compatible but in this novel, thanks to the characterisation and the evocative love scenes, I have no doubt that Lang and Nicola are going to be ok.

A skilful, economic little book of great humour.

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This entry was posted on Friday, November 16th, 2007 at 10:24 am and is filed under Books, Grade: B, Romance: Contempo, Tumperkin's Reviews, Romance: Category. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.