Long Time Coming 
asked by speed5599 on November 4, 2006 11:14 PM
In more than fifty New York Times bestselling novels, Sandra Brown has captivated her millions of readers with stories of charismatic love and tantalizing twists of fate. In this classic tale, a woman is reunited with the man she has loved for years—and must reveal the secret that will jeopardize her chance for happiness at last.
He arrived out of the blue—a flesh-and-blood phantom from the past in a sports car as sleek and sexy as Law Kincaid himself. The world-famous astronaut was as devastatingly attractive as the first time Marnie Hibbs had laid eyes on him, seventeen years before. But she well knew the perils of falling for a ladies’ man like Law. And this time she had someone besides herself to protect. Law is determined to discover who is sending him anonymous letters claiming he’d fathered a son he knows nothing about. Showing up at the Hibbs’s return address from the letters seemed like a step in the right direction. Marnie swears she isn’t the guilty party, but when Law meets her son, it’s like a one-two punch to his solar plexus. The boy is nearly the spitting image of Law. Law can’t remember sleeping with Marnie—then again, he can’t remember much about his crazy past. But there’s more to it than that: Marnie claims the boy isn’t biologically hers.
As the tension between them becomes unbearable and the attraction undeniable, Marnie is forced to reveal a long-held secret...one that might cause her to lose both the boy she loves more than anyone—and the man she desires more than anything.
From the Hardcover edition.
He arrived out of the blue—a flesh-and-blood phantom from the past in a sports car as sleek and sexy as Law Kincaid himself. The world-famous astronaut was as devastatingly attractive as the first time Marnie Hibbs had laid eyes on him, seventeen years before. But she well knew the perils of falling for a ladies’ man like Law. And this time she had someone besides herself to protect. Law is determined to discover who is sending him anonymous letters claiming he’d fathered a son he knows nothing about. Showing up at the Hibbs’s return address from the letters seemed like a step in the right direction. Marnie swears she isn’t the guilty party, but when Law meets her son, it’s like a one-two punch to his solar plexus. The boy is nearly the spitting image of Law. Law can’t remember sleeping with Marnie—then again, he can’t remember much about his crazy past. But there’s more to it than that: Marnie claims the boy isn’t biologically hers.
As the tension between them becomes unbearable and the attraction undeniable, Marnie is forced to reveal a long-held secret...one that might cause her to lose both the boy she loves more than anyone—and the man she desires more than anything.
From the Hardcover edition.
Reviews
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Long Time Coming gave me about 3 hours worth of entertainment, then I promptly forgot anything about the book, the plot, or the characters. None of it stayed with me, unlike other books where I think about the plot and the characters for days afterwards, and sometimes consider them to be "friends."
Long Time Coming is a typical romance novel. Predictable, but entertaining at the time nonetheless.
Long Time Coming is a typical romance novel. Predictable, but entertaining at the time nonetheless.
reviewed by stonefox on November 26, 2006 6:50 AM
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After nearly 16 years of single handedly raising her sister's child, Marnie gets a surprise visit from the unknowing birth father, a famous astronaut who bedded down her then 16 year old sister Sharon (he was 23) and produced David. Sharon died when David was 4. Apparently someone has been sending letters about David to Law, and he is there to put a stop to the potential career-ending rumors. His first reaction upon meeting Marnie? He does not recall sleeping with her.
When confronted with David, the similarity between the two is striking; David is the spitting image of Law. Law insists on a blood test, but already has lost his heart to his son and his adoptive mother. Unknown to him, she has carried a torch for him since she was 14. He tries to worm his way into her heart (okay, really just her bed), while she tries to hold him at arm's length. Marnie allows David to move in with Law temporarily to allow them to get to know each other. But will he choose all the gadgets and possessions Law can provide verses the love he has had the last 16 years?
The fact that Law constantly pressures Marnie into an intimate relationship is somewhat comical. He refers to the birth mother of his child as a slut (Sharon was a 16 year old virgin when he met her, fed her alcohol, skinny dipped with her, then deflowered her), yet Marnie is matronly because she will not engage in the same reckless behavior... Take this for what it is - a very dated melodramatic romance novel with a very alpha male that does not really translate well in this decade, but was interesting nonetheless. I really liked the relationship between Marnie and David.
When confronted with David, the similarity between the two is striking; David is the spitting image of Law. Law insists on a blood test, but already has lost his heart to his son and his adoptive mother. Unknown to him, she has carried a torch for him since she was 14. He tries to worm his way into her heart (okay, really just her bed), while she tries to hold him at arm's length. Marnie allows David to move in with Law temporarily to allow them to get to know each other. But will he choose all the gadgets and possessions Law can provide verses the love he has had the last 16 years?
The fact that Law constantly pressures Marnie into an intimate relationship is somewhat comical. He refers to the birth mother of his child as a slut (Sharon was a 16 year old virgin when he met her, fed her alcohol, skinny dipped with her, then deflowered her), yet Marnie is matronly because she will not engage in the same reckless behavior... Take this for what it is - a very dated melodramatic romance novel with a very alpha male that does not really translate well in this decade, but was interesting nonetheless. I really liked the relationship between Marnie and David.
reviewed by runabout on November 27, 2006 11:23 PM
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I know, I know. We don't read romance novels to be politically correct. Sexy Cads are expected to cling to a sexual double standard. ("Good girls don't put out. Ergo, my dozens of lovers deserve my contempt.")
That goes double for vintage reprints set in the 70's and 80's. So I shrugged off the reviews that panned 'Long Time Coming' as sexist...
Whoa, Nellie! Sexist isn't even the word for it.
Get this: our 'hero,' upon learning that he fathered a son 15 years ago during a forgotten fling with a 16-year-old virgin, refers to the girl as a "slut." He goes on to explain, "I did what any young man would do when a girl is giving it away."
It's bad enough that he says this to her sister, during the same conversation where he has just learned that the slut died four years after giving birth to his son. What's worse is that the sister - sweet, self-sacrificing Marnie - agrees with him, if not in so many words.
"It wasn't your fault," she says, as if the male half of the team that caused Sharon's pregnancy had expressed some remorse. "Sharon was wild and rebellious."
Later, recalling that ill-fated summer interlude with nostalgia, hero Law Kinkaid scornfully refers to Marnie - who was 14 at the time - as a "Goody Two-Shoes" who refused to go along when he talked rebellious Sharon into drinking beer and skinny-dipping.
We're told that Sharon died in a car wreck she caused while driving drunk - but there's no acknowledgement of any complicity on the part of the older lover who talked an underage minister's daughter into drinking for the first time.
It's as if the author, having had the hero come across as a total jerk in the opening chapter, has decided that the best way to make readers forgive him is to keep reminding us that he's a victim. He, his son, and the girl he now remembers as "twice the woman Sharon was" (they were 14 and 16 at the time) are all victims of Sharon's virginal machinations.
Just in case the reader has any remaining sympathy for Sharon, we learn that she - sit down for this part - didn't want Law's baby! Fortunately, Sharon confided in her younger sister, who immediately told their father.
Dad, who was a minister, not only stopped Sharon from terminating the pregnancy - he also insisted that she raise the baby herself instead of offering it for adoption. Why? To teach her a lesson about accountability, that's why! Thank heaven for the good sister, Marnie; without her, the baby would have been held accountable, too - by being left in the care of a resentful, irresponsible teenaged mother.
But that's just the backstory. What's important to us romance readers is that Law begins to fall in love with Marnie, who has secretly loved him since that long-ago summer.
As Law soon learns, however, the a problem with good girls is that they refuse to behave like sluts even when they should.
For example:
* Marnie refuses to have sex with Law on the floor of her living room - despite having known him for several days. He tells her she needs to "grow up."
* Marnie refuses to swim naked in Law's pool - even though his kid is walking the dog and will probably be gone for several minutes. This time, he calls her a 'dried-up prune of a woman.'
So let's see...We have an underage virgin who had too much to drink, got pregnant, as was entirely to blame. Then we have her sister, who resists repeated attempts at seduction by the same man, and is accused of being 'unnatural.' If this had been written with a sense of irony, it would be a great comedic romance; sort of a "Taming of the He-Shew." Delivered with a straight face, it has some value as a cautionary tale for readers too young to remember when Law Kinkaid's attitude wasn't far outside the norm.
I'm so grateful that Sandra Brown's modern-day heroines have developed the capacity to deliver a verbal smack-down when a man deserves it. I'm even more grateful to have outlived the era when the line between slus and virgins was universally unforgiving.
That goes double for vintage reprints set in the 70's and 80's. So I shrugged off the reviews that panned 'Long Time Coming' as sexist...
Whoa, Nellie! Sexist isn't even the word for it.
Get this: our 'hero,' upon learning that he fathered a son 15 years ago during a forgotten fling with a 16-year-old virgin, refers to the girl as a "slut." He goes on to explain, "I did what any young man would do when a girl is giving it away."
It's bad enough that he says this to her sister, during the same conversation where he has just learned that the slut died four years after giving birth to his son. What's worse is that the sister - sweet, self-sacrificing Marnie - agrees with him, if not in so many words.
"It wasn't your fault," she says, as if the male half of the team that caused Sharon's pregnancy had expressed some remorse. "Sharon was wild and rebellious."
Later, recalling that ill-fated summer interlude with nostalgia, hero Law Kinkaid scornfully refers to Marnie - who was 14 at the time - as a "Goody Two-Shoes" who refused to go along when he talked rebellious Sharon into drinking beer and skinny-dipping.
We're told that Sharon died in a car wreck she caused while driving drunk - but there's no acknowledgement of any complicity on the part of the older lover who talked an underage minister's daughter into drinking for the first time.
It's as if the author, having had the hero come across as a total jerk in the opening chapter, has decided that the best way to make readers forgive him is to keep reminding us that he's a victim. He, his son, and the girl he now remembers as "twice the woman Sharon was" (they were 14 and 16 at the time) are all victims of Sharon's virginal machinations.
Just in case the reader has any remaining sympathy for Sharon, we learn that she - sit down for this part - didn't want Law's baby! Fortunately, Sharon confided in her younger sister, who immediately told their father.
Dad, who was a minister, not only stopped Sharon from terminating the pregnancy - he also insisted that she raise the baby herself instead of offering it for adoption. Why? To teach her a lesson about accountability, that's why! Thank heaven for the good sister, Marnie; without her, the baby would have been held accountable, too - by being left in the care of a resentful, irresponsible teenaged mother.
But that's just the backstory. What's important to us romance readers is that Law begins to fall in love with Marnie, who has secretly loved him since that long-ago summer.
As Law soon learns, however, the a problem with good girls is that they refuse to behave like sluts even when they should.
For example:
* Marnie refuses to have sex with Law on the floor of her living room - despite having known him for several days. He tells her she needs to "grow up."
* Marnie refuses to swim naked in Law's pool - even though his kid is walking the dog and will probably be gone for several minutes. This time, he calls her a 'dried-up prune of a woman.'
So let's see...We have an underage virgin who had too much to drink, got pregnant, as was entirely to blame. Then we have her sister, who resists repeated attempts at seduction by the same man, and is accused of being 'unnatural.' If this had been written with a sense of irony, it would be a great comedic romance; sort of a "Taming of the He-Shew." Delivered with a straight face, it has some value as a cautionary tale for readers too young to remember when Law Kinkaid's attitude wasn't far outside the norm.
I'm so grateful that Sandra Brown's modern-day heroines have developed the capacity to deliver a verbal smack-down when a man deserves it. I'm even more grateful to have outlived the era when the line between slus and virgins was universally unforgiving.
reviewed by radar on November 28, 2006 8:07 AM
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This was an excellent Sandra Brown novel. It has everything suspense and interesting characters and great storyline. The ending was predictable but nevertheless very good. I would recommended this novel to anyone.
reviewed by janmueller on November 29, 2006 4:18 AM