It is TBR Challenge time again and I am only a week late. This month’s theme is Change of Plans. My choice this month was to read an early 21st century Sarah Morgan novel. She has been a favourite author who used to be an auto-read for me until she moved away from romance fiction to women’s fiction. Sarah Morgan wrote one of my favourite ever Harlequin/Mills & Boon novels Playing by the Greek’s Rules so I was interested to read an earlier iteration of its theme: a gazillionaire power-broking Greek male protagonist, a much poorer though determined (feisty???) English female protagonist, settings that go between an Anglosphere country and a (sometimes made-up) Greek island, dysfunctional family backstories, and the power of lurrrrrve to overcome all the money-mongering, maniacal, master-manipulated machinations by the mercurial and macho main-man (I am LOLing at my stupid alliteration).

Did I approach this novel with a jaded, exhausted soul? Yes, I did. Did the storytelling carry me away, wiping the cynicism far from my heart? Wellll…read on, my friends. You will find out. And turn away if you don’t want any spoilers (seriously, it is a 20 year old book – it’s perfectly fine to reveal all at this point).

Sarah Morgan’s The Greek’s Blackmailed Wife

“Zander Volakis is a ruthless tycoon who’s used to getting all he desires. Now, in order to secure the Greek island resort he’s always wanted, he needs an image change—fast!

The only person who can help him is the woman who betrayed him five years ago: his wife, Lauranne O’Neill. But Lauranne refuses to work with Zander again. He ruined her life once and he has the power to do it again. The sexual chemistry between them might be sizzling, but Lauranne knows that to play with Zander is to play with fire. As for Zander, her refusal to help leaves him with only one option…”

Zander Volakis is equal parts “tycoon” as he is tyrant. He is separated from his wife Lauranne, he has an active dating and sex life while working hard as a wheeler-dealer business man to buy out other companies with the aim to be the king of his own turd-island. His man-whore reputation (which I will point out is not merited – the man was officially separated and can sleep around if he wants to) is fucking with his attempt to buy a “family-friendly” mythical Greeklandia island. So Zander’s staff arrange for him to meet with a PR company which specialises in “softening” people’s media image. And he walks in the door and surprise! discovers the “softening” expert is non-other but his ex-wife, Lauranne.

So after some top-shelf blackmailing and lots of torrid feels and accusations, Lauranne (who sadly had not fucked around during their separation) is forced to work as the PR agent to make Zander relatable and loveable. And she works all this magic in just 2 weeks. LOL x LOL. Because TWO weeks is all that you need for reputation change. Once her task is completed, Lauranne tries to escape from the hawt power of Zander but he has A CHANGE OF PLAN (TBR approved!) and Lauranne finds herself kidnapped onto a plane to Greece without a packed bag. But never fear because Zander has a full wardrobe for her. (aside: I was watching an interview with Rod Stewart’s wife Penny Lancaster and she says that Rod surprised her with a wardrobe full of designer clothes when she visited him in the Bahamas and I had this delighted laugh because, of course Rod did this! This isn’t just a fanciful idea from genre romance)

After lots of arguments, pushbacks, arguments, Greek muttering, evil-other-woman, evil-other-man, benevolent Greek elder and hawt exotic island sex, the two fall in love, reconcile and Zander gets to buy the unattainable island. Successful in love. Successful in business.

The Greek’s Blackmailed Wife is a 2004 publication which is very much of its time. A pre-Dear Author/social media consent-in-romance publication, a pre-#MeToo publication, full of blackmail, anger, slutshaming, tension, pushback, questionable consent, hate and a whole lot of stereotypes edging on racism.

A note on stereotypes and Greekness: Romance fiction has for a long time romanticised and exoticised Greeklandia in a way that rarely aligns with the country of Greece or people who are Greek. In this book, the way that Greeks are portrayed just grated. Here are some examples:

“He was just so Greek, she reflected helplessly, his otherwise razor-sharp intellect neutralised by his driving need for revenge” p. 24
“She’d just forgotten what it was like to deal with an elemental Greek male. All the other men she knew were civilised and mild manned. Not Zander. He was shockingly primitive, his emotions so hazardous and unpredictable that he should have had ‘handle with care’ printed on his back” p. 26
“Zander was Greek to the very backbone.” p. 27
“She was the antithesis of the woman he’d been brought up to value, so far removed from the obedient Greek woman that it was laughable.” p. 55
“What exactly had she mean about that comment that he was ‘so Greek’? Of course he was Greek!“
“He was too self-absorbed, too stupidly jealous, too-too-Greek!” p. 176
“I’m Greek, remember? Behaving like a caveman is what I do best” p. 187

This neanderthal depiction of being Greek plays into the whole Harlequin Mills & Boon exotic locations, exotic characters but depicting Greek men with caveman tendencies that overcome their intellect, and Greek women as demure and obedient (hahahahhahaha, I think Sarah Morgan had not met a single Greek when she wrote this) in contrast to the feisty English rose, is no longer acceptable. I deeply dislike the othering of Greek men and Greek women in romance fiction. It is poorly informed, it lacks insight, and it is offensive.

This novel is Morgan’s 14th romance, and 10 years later, her writing has become so honed and delightful that her 56th romance novel, which also depicts a Greek male protagonist, is light years ahead of this earlier attempt. A quarter of the way into this 21st century, the writing and publishing landscape is drastically changed along with so many other societal perceptions and my own reading and understanding has changed. In 2004, I would not have questioned these stereotypes. But I do now.

Many years ago, an author friend told me about another author who has now written over 100 novels, and she says that she wishes that her first ten novels would disappear as they no longer represent her writing ideas. I am going to be charitable on this topic of Greek stereotypes and I will concede that possibly, for an author’s first few books, within a very tight genre that is steeped with stereotypes, this may have just been part of their early writing trajectory.

As for the reading of the novel, it wasn’t all bad. It certainly had all the high-drama of soap opera reading that I relish. Despite the above-mentioned problematic depictions, I still managed to get carried away by the story to finish reading it in just three hours. Would I recommend it to others? Not really. There are so many other wonderful Sarah Morgan titles that are a lot more fun to read. However, if you are interested in seeing how a writer’s style and understanding within a specific genre changes over time, I think examining this novel as part of Sarah Morgan’s oeuvre would certainly be valuable.