Long Time Coming: A Novel

Sandra Brown is one of my favorite authors. Her books never disappoint!!

The book made me laugh and cry. It was so sweet. The build up to how much she Endured to have happily ever after is truly wonderful! Great book!!!!

Long Time Coming is a good summer read. Whoever proof read before final printing should have corrected misspelled words. I lost count at eleven.

Sandra Brown always delivers the best story. I enjoy all her books . This is a great read. Great love story

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,' calling it 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" (these women 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 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 sluts and virgins was universally unforgiving.

Came in a timely manner and in good condition.

Laziness or neglect?Not sure but This one would have been better if it had been updated from the 80's.....

Good Sandra Brown story.

Enjoyable read

Book arrived in mint condition.story was a typical romance .relaxing to read

Very quick interesting read. More the size of a novella than a novel. Story was rather predictable. Not the best of here written works.

Liked it a lot She writes very interesting books

"Long time coming" ist schon etwas älter und meiner Ansicht nach nicht gerade eine Meisterleistung. Der Roman fällt, wenn man Mrs. Browns Talent besser kennt, eher in die Kategorie "Aufwärmübung", ganz so als hätte sie damit ein paar Charaktere ausprobieren wollen, aber dann doch nicht so recht Gefallen an ihnen gefunden. Law und Marnie sind die beiden Hauptdarsteller und bleiben verglichen mit anderen Werken von Sandra Brown erstaunlich farblos und oberflächlich. Auch die Idee hinter der Geschichte, dass Marnie ganze 17 Jahre auf Law wartet und in unerfüllter Liebe vor sich hindarbt, obwohl er ihr schon damals als Teenager keinen Anlass für irgendwelche Hoffnungen gegeben hat, erscheint etwas weit hergeholt. Ist man allerdings bereit über diese Unzulänglichkeiten hinweg zu sehen, findet man in "Long time coming" eine kurzweilige Ablenkung für einen Nachmittag (so lange man auf die nächste Amazonlieferung mit den richtig guten Büchern wartet!).