There is a special skill in writing a Harlequin Presents novel. I’ve read enough bad ones to know when there is a diamond in the rough, and everything by Caitlin Crews is exactly that. So soapy it’ll slide off your Kindle, but never tipping into eye-rolling ridiculousness, and boasting grounded characters with depth. I dip in and out of this line, but a book by Ms. Crews always makes its way onto the TBR pile.

In this particular romp, Atlas Chariton is about to be released from prison. He’s been serving eleven years in a Massachusetts prison for the murder of British heiress Philippa Worth - a crime he did not commit. Now exonerated, he is ready to enact his elaborate revenge upon the Worth family. You see, before his jail time, he was the CEO of Worth Industries and had transformed their crumbling pile of an English estate from near ruins to an international tourist destination and his plan will catapult him right back into that seat. It will also ensure the total destruction of the family who put him away.

Orphan Lexi Haring, niece of Richard Worth - the current owner of the estate - was instrumental in Atlas’ conviction, having testified that she saw him at the scene of the crime all those years ago. Then a scared eighteen-year-old, Lexi now lives in a carriage house on the edge of the Worth estate and works for the family holdings. Her mother died of a drug overdose many moons ago, and when we meet Lexi she is grateful for her uncle’s largesse. Upon Atlas’ arrival, that’s the first thing to change. A final detail about Lexi that’s important before we get going: she’s been in love with Atlas for most of her life, but kind of hates that she still is. She’s also, as it happens, a virgin. Trope alert!

It turns out that Lexi’s uncle has been keeping all sorts of secrets from her, including that her mother’s death did not disinherit her from the family fortune the way she has been led to believe. Once that lie is revealed, other pieces of the house of cards come tumbling down. Lexi agrees to marry Atlas - I’d lean more towards coerced, but she does consent - to cement a final piece of both his revenge plot and her move to gain her inheritance, and the rest of the book is taken up in the process of moving them from pawns in Atlas’ game to a bona fide HEA.

This thing could have slid off the rails at about fourteen different points, but Ms. Crews keeps it tightly in line. The revelation of Lexi’s virginity is exactly in line with the characters she’s introduced us to - Atlas can’t fathom that Lexi is still a virgin and Lexi doesn’t want Atlas to know the strength of her attraction to him. The precipitating event of the main climax is soapy but believable, and how they hash out the Big Argument that is required in a Presents book fits completely. I bought into this world and enjoyed every minute of my time here.

The next time you’re looking for a read of this nature, I recommend you pick up Imprisoned by the Greek’s Ring. I think you’ll have as much fun as I did.

Buy it at: Amazon/Barnes & Noble/iBooks/Kobo

Atlas Chariton has had ten years to plot his revenge on the Worth family, starting with Lexi Haring. It was her testimony, after all, that sealed his fate, sending him to prison for a crime he didn't commit. She is the lynchpin in his plan and she has no idea how much she has to lose.

Lexi has felt guilty for ten years, ever since her testimony was twisted to make Atlas look guilty of the murder of her cousin. She fell in love with him from afar as a naive 18 year old, and now, she can't believe he would come back to the family who didn't stand by him so long ago. When she learns of his revenge plot, she can't see any way out except to marry him as he demands. When she learns from him that she's been an heiress all along, even though her uncle and cousins have always treated her as the unwanted poor relation, she feels justified going along for the ride.
Can love grow from such a beginning, or will hate continue to fester as Atlas single-mindedly pursues his revenge plot?
This Cinderella story was filled with angst. Atlas was a very strong character, but it felt like Lexi was too mousy to be a match for him, at least for most of the book. Readers who enjoy the Harlequin Presents line will definitely love this one. It's one of the best I've read recently.

Good book like all in this publication. Great escapist read and one a reader can definitely fall into when they need a quick romantic pick me up,.

This is the first time I've read Caitlin Crews under this pseudonym in Harlequin Presents, an imprint I've tended to avoid since I remember it as being rather bland and tame, but it is bland and tame no longer, and I found this novel to be wonderfully intense and complex, and it gets a 5-star rating from this reader.

Lexi Haring, the heroine, is a Cinderella-like character, one who was brought to the impressive Worth estate by her Uncle Richard when she was just 8 years old, the daughter of her disowned and disgraced, drug-addicted mother, and her equally addicted father. Now, 20 years later, after having been treated by her uncle and the rest of the Worth family as a simple drone of a secretary, kowtowing to their needs when they aren't ignoring her existence, maintaining their business records, living off the grounds of the wealthy family estate like a pauper, in a tiny hovel of an apartment and thrilled to have it, while always remaining almost invisible to the family, meek and mild, accepting of any crumbs they throw her way, and grateful for those crumbs, but that's all about to change in a way neither she nor the Worth family ever anticipated.

The reason why everything is about to change is that Atlas Chariton is being released from what was to have been a life sentence for murdering Phillipa Worth, Lexi's cousin, and the only true friend she's ever had. It was 18-year-old Lexi's testimony on the witness stand at Atlas' trial, that she'd overheard an argument between Atlas and Phillipa the night before Phillipa's dead body was found strangled and floating in the swimming pool. He's spent the last decade imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit, but has just been released after DNA evidence brought up as his appeal, proved, without question, that he was completely innocent of the crime--and now he's back, with only one thing on his mind--revenge. He burns with it, and has spent the entire time of his incarceration planning and plotting precisely how he will exact that revenge on Lexi and the rest of the Worth family, and while her uncle and relatives assume he'll merely want monetary compensation, they are in for a rude awakening, and so is Lexi, now 28, who has been feeling guilty about her honest testimony for the past decade, quiet, mousy and alone, and doing her best to stay invisible and not make any waves. It was impossible not to equate her with Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre.

And if Lexi was Jane Eyre, then Atlas was most definitely Heathcliff, from Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights. Tall, darkly handsome, imposing, snide, controlling, and seething with anger and resentment at having spent the past 10 years of his life in a prison cell for a crime he didn't commit. I'll stop storytelling at this point because from here on out, the way Atlas slowly unveils his plans for retribution, and the way Lexi fits into his plan, you are not going to want to put this book down, I know I didn't, and I'd hate to spoil it for you. I must, however, mention the level of heat in this novel, something I've never encountered before in this imprint. It was graphic, hot and steamy, and a welcome addition to the emotional narrative. To top off this incredible novel there's also the whodunit. If Atlas didn't murder Phillipa, who did? The answer to this question, will surprise you, just as it surprised me.

What I can tell you is that this novel was far better than any Harlequin Presents novel I've ever read, and the skillful way Ms. Crews, wove two of my favorite novels of all time into this tale of love, regrets, retribution, and redemption was nothing less than masterful. It was a beautifully written tale, filled with angst and emotion--I absolutely loved it, and highly recommend it.

I voluntarily read an advance reader copy of this novel. The opinions expressed are my own.

Caitlin Crews’s Imprisoned By the Greek’s Ring is a cautionary tale about revenge, a redemptive story of two broken people learning to love, and a sly meta-romance. It is outlandish, exaggerated, high strung, and over-the-top. Its premise is unlikely; its romance, hyperbolic; its hero and heroine, made of clichés and uberness. In a nutshell, it’s an HP romance and delivered exactly what I sought: an immersive id-reading experience. It is apropos that it kept me up till the wee hours and I crawled into work (looking quite deceptively crisp and business-like, with a string of meetings to plan for and endure) with major bleary-eyed book hangover. (And to whomever left espressos and stickie buns in the common room, you have my eternal gratitude.) Crews is one of the masters of the genre and she drew me in (it took some work) and left me on the bank and shoal of time, happy to have spent a few hours with her visceral characters and plot.

Imprisoned By the Greek’s Ring is typical HP stuff, made of a Minotaur-invaded narrative maze of improbability and dark, rich emotion. Atlas Chariton is released from prison ten years after serving time for murdering the Worth heiress. Except he didn’t kill Phillipa Worth. The prosecution’s star witness, Phillipa’s Cinderella cousin, Lexi Haring, testified otherwise. Atlas is out and out for revenge against the Worths, against Lexi, who is stowed away in a shabby office on the Worth estate, taking care of family business drudge-work, barely scraping by. Atlas has a nefarious plan: he discovered that Lexi is as much an heiress as Phillipa. He will force/blackmail/coerce Lexi to marry him, and reveal the fortune the Worths have thus far hidden from her: this way, he can destroy the Worths and make Lexi miserable. Win-win! Maybe he’ll finally have some relief from the rage that consumes his every waking moment.

Atlas and Lexi have the usual misery-fest backstories. Lexi’s parents were drug addicts who left her ” … to raise herself while her parents chased dragons … “. Atlas’s parents were abusive, but he worked and worked and worked until he was running the Worths’ business, which is how he found himself accused of the daughter’s murder. Imprisoned is more Atlas’s story, which Crews unfolds as a cautionary tale against the emotional ravages of seeking revenge. Atlas is driven by, understandably, anger: “Atlas was used to fury. He was used to rage. That black, choking spiral that had threatened to drag him under again and again … ” And my favourite: “… furious was who he was and ever would be. Atlas was fine with that.” We’re fine with it too. Atlas’s anger is righteous and driven by injustice and a deep injury to his worth. He doesn’t care that Lexi is a pawn in his destruction of the Worths and he especially doesn’t care because she allowed them to use her to destroy him. His rage against her is bitter and sexy: ” ‘You have no idea how angry I am, little girl … But you will. Believe me, you will.’ ”

In the meanwhile, Lexi loved Atlas then and loves him yet. Their confrontations are made of Atlas’s fury and Lexi’s apologies. After a while, however, she stops apologizing for speaking what she believed, at the time, was the truth. If Atlas is innocent, so is Lexi, even if her suffering cannot reach the depths and heights of his. It was, I admit, hard to buy Atlas’s response to his experiences. His business success, out of prison no less, his sangfroid, and his sheer handling of life cannot be possible given the trauma he endured. And this is the problem with the smorgasbord of trauma that romance imposes on its protagonists. Atlas’s anger is believable; his coping is not. This took me out of the romance.

What kept me IN was Crew’s writing and being swept away by Atlas and Lexi’s antagonistic, glorious marriage of convenience. They were intelligent equals, able to speak truth and hold their own. Their marriage bed said what they couldn’t in Atlas’s case and wouldn’t in Lexi’s. Crews makes their relationship so emotionally rich that I was able to overlook the overblown premise. Crews also brought Atlas back from the brink in a clever, interesting way. She made Atlas grapple with feelings he couldn’t name as a way of showing the road to his healing. When he was hurtful towards Lexi, for example, he pushed his emotional engagement away, not looking at it, not identifying it: ” … something in the way she looked at him made a most unpleasant sensation unwind, deep inside him, almost as if – But no. Atlas didn’t do shame.”

Lexi and Atlas took on flesh and I cared about them and wanted them to be together. I also couldn’t resist Crews’s ironic meta-romance commentary: ” ‘You ought to write for Mills and Boon.’ ‘My understanding is that romance novels come with a happy ending.’ Atlas had replied smoothly. Horribly. ‘This, Lexi, is life. Not a romance novel … ‘ ” Even though it was late and I was super-tired, exchanges like this elicited a sly smile. In the end, while Miss Austen may be scandalized by the visceral love scenes, I loved Imprisoned and would say that it shows “a mind lively and at ease,” Emma.

Caitlin Crews’s Imprisoned By the Greek’s Ring is published by Harlequin Books. It was released on March 20th and may be found at your preferred vendors. I received an e-ARC from Harlequin, via Netgalley.

Insecurity, heartbreak, and revenge... This book is packed full of anger, animosity, confusion and pain and all the while the undercurrent of longing and love is so strong you are unable to put it down. The story line is wonderfully written and the characters, (flaws and all), are so easy to love. That being said I must also say that this is not an easy read. It is gritty and dark and sinister in some places but leads to an absolutely wonderful HEA. I received this ARC via NetGalley and I voluntarily write the review for this book. All opinions are honest and only my own. Regards: Anna

Alex Chariton went to prison for a murder he didn't commit. Lexi Haring feels vaguely guilty that it was her testimony that sealed the jury verdict. When new evidence comes to light and Alex is released from prison he's determined to get his pound of flesh.

The story moves at a great clip as Alex forces Lexi to become his new accomplice in threatening her uncle and said uncle's family. As it turns out Lexi has been lied to all her life. She's not the charity case she's believed herself to be and instead now she's become the wedge that will allow Alex to get his just dues from the Haring family.

The truth is even stranger than fiction as the story evolves that the truth behind that long ago night when Lexi's cousin's was killed is finally revealed. This turned out to be an unexpectedly interesting action suspense story that I enjoyed very much.

A book full of way more intrigue than I am used to from Harlequin Presents. I really liked it and Caitlin Crews continues to be a favorite.

When you spent 90-95% of the book having one character constantly spew hateful things to the other character, you can't expect a reader to a) enjoy it and b/ to believe in the HEA. I'm sorry - but this didn't work for me because the Hero was just so full of anger throughout the book that didn't buy into the "love" at the end. A good romance read should start with angst but slowly BUILD on the connection, bond and love....

This is Atlas and Lexi’s story. He spent 11 years in prison until he was proven innocent. He wanted revenge. Lexi would marry him. He would take back everything he had and punish the Worth family as well as Lexi. Things don’t always turn out the way you plan. It was fast moving. I loved it.

An angst filled contemporary romance featuring an alpha Greek male and a virginal heroine. Lots of misunderstandings and miscommunication leading to a happy ending. Loved the epilogue.

This is a story full of anguish for those romance readers that love to suffer because they know that the ending is sweeter that way. The ending is indeed sweet, but I would have liked to have seen more emotional development in the relationship between the hero (Atlas) and heroine (Lexi). Atlas was sent to prison wrongfully accused and Lexi has not had an easy life either. I can understand his rage, but I wished Lexi had been a bit stronger and not let him walk all over her; she was in a way also a victim. Towards the end, Atlas and Lexi seemed to get to an understanding and made a commitment to try and work things out. Then, the story jumps to years later and we are told that they have grown as individuals and as a couple. It is a beautiful story, but I would have liked to have seen a glimpse of the years in between. Nonetheless, this is a story that deserves to be read, and romance readers can always fill in the blanks. I received a free copy via NetGalley

Atlas was rich, good looking and sexy but I hated him from the start and my opinion didn't change at the end of the book either. I read a similar story last year but that hero was perfect. He was out of control in love unlike this guy who had no idea what love was. The whole book was about his hate and revenge on the entire Worth family and especially on Lexi who he married just to torture. It had a really good ending that's the reason I gave it three stars. Even though the hero is a jerk, I think the author could have started off with him being a jerk but slowly have him fall in love with Lexi. There was no romance in this book, just anger and angry sex.

I've never read anything from this author before but I must say this was a very good read. Eleven years ago, Atlas (loved that name!) was imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit. Lexi helped to put him in jail. Now he's out and he wants revenge!

Lots of steamy orgasms, in depth soul ripping dialogue and a hero who you love to hate. This one checked off all the boxes!

Rating 3.75

Atlas is released from prison after ten years, he was wrongly accused of murder.
Lexi was eighteen at the time of her beloved cousins murder and her testimony was what put the murder, Atlas in prison. It also put the man she loved away for life.

Ten years later, Atlas is released from prison as evidence was presented that exonerated him from the murder. He has only one mission, revenge. The Worth family and Lexi will feel Atlas revenge. Ten years of pent-up furry and anger, all directed at the family and Lexi.


We open with Lexi listening to the news in her small and humble office on the Worth estate. Breaking news that Atlas has be exonerated for the murder of her dear cousin, Philippa murder and released from prison. News that she received that he was her on the Worth estate. An estate he help run/finance and brink back from the brink of financial ruin. Lexi's Uncle Richard was the one who ran things and she was beholden to him for saving her from a terrible childhood and bringing her to live with his family. She was okay if she was an after thought and was made to feel like she wasn't really part of the family. She tried to show her gratefulness but working hard in running the estate and keeping in the shadows.

But now Atlas is back and walks right into her office and announces that it's pretty much payback time. As he confronts Lexi and let's her know how it was her testimony that pretty much put him in prison and now he was going to make her and the entire Worth family pay. He continues to reveal to Lexi how he's garnered some information about her and her worth, and how she been lied to and overlooked. Atlas lets it be know she is a major part of his plan for revenge.

Atlas struggles with the feelings he had/has for Lexi and how she's transformed into a beautiful and strong woman her intelligence that she tries to hide from others. Lexi followed Atlas around when she was eighteen and he worked for the Worth family. She emanated strength and sweetness that he found endearing, as well as respected. He doesn't want to feel anything now but revenge for her and her relatives.

Atlas has been planing revenge for ten years and puts them into motion. First is marriage to Lexi and from there everything will begin to unfold to pay each and everyone back for his incarceration for ten long years.

The depth Atlas has gone to bury his feelings and protect himself becomes evident as the story progress. He struggles with what Lexi brings to the surface, emotions that are not acceptable. And Lexi, who has always loved Atlas and struggled for decades with what she believes she overheard. Not knowing what to believe anymore, she comes to hope for something more with Atlas as she agrees to the marriage arrangement.

A lot of emotion and feeling take place between the two as they struggle each with their own demons. But finding a pull that neither can deny. Wrestling with the past and present, trying to come to some understanding of what's developing or not developing with them. Wondering who that actual murdered is and then dealing with all the dysfunctional family members on top of everything else makes their marriage and life very complicated, to say the least.

But something about Lexi's changes during their marriage, she become's confident and strong in who and what she is. She has to believe that she/they can make something of their marriage and the Atlas she glimpsed from the past is still there. An event/happening transpires between the two that changes everything. A crescendo to the story unfolds in a well deserved manner/ending that leaves you very satisfied that it was given such detail and well deserved time. And the epilogue is absolutely beautiful and icing on the cake for sure.

Now this Author does have a tendency with inter dialogue, still felt it needed some work in areas in the story but I do see improvement.