Long Time Coming. Finished 6-1-20, 1.5/5 stars, romance, pub. 1988

Unabridged audio

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 Goodreads

My teen years, such as the year this was written, were filled with romances.  I loved those short teen romances, then the romantic suspense, and finally the historical romance.  I remember reading Sandra Brown’s romances and liking them even though she wasn’t a favorite.  So, what’s changed?  We have.  As a society we’ve largely moved from accepting these sexist relationship views.  Trust me, I still see plenty of it, but there’s no denying that things that changed for the better.  I can still read an 80’s romance and enjoy it, but this is not one of them.  The two main characters are weak and reprehensible.  I’m considering trying some of my old 80’s faves (McNaught, Deveraux, Joyce) to see what I think now.  Hopefully they will fare better than this one.