NORA
ROBERTS
Stats
for my copy:
Mass market paperback, Silhouette Books, 1982.
How
acquired:
Book Mooch
First
line:
The girl twisted and turned under the lights, her shining black hair
swirling around her as various expressions flitted across her
striking face.
(For
the Goodreads synopsis, scroll to the bottom of this post.)
My
thoughts:
In the beginning I thought standard (for the time it was published
in) category romance. Also, the heroine is a model, and
models/beautiful women who all the men are attracted to are not my
favorite heroines. But Hillary actually has two men in her life, the
photographer she works with and a friend she dates platonically, of
whom neither have any romantic designs on her, and it was refreshing.
The friend only makes one appearance, but the photographer gets a
little romance of his own with the hero's secretary.
There
was one scene that gave me pause, and I had to remind myself how old
the book is - Hillary and Bret are kissing and one thing starts to
lead to another before she stops him, and he gets angry. Really
angry, and accuses her of being a tease. Not a scene an author can
get away with writing today.
Of
course there are misunderstandings and Hillary and Bret are often at
odds with one another, as well as Hillary and the Other Woman, who
manages to keep driving a wedge between them. But it all comes out
right in the end, and I absolutely loved the way Bret finally
proposed marriage.
Goodreads synopsis: Beneath her sophisticated beauty, fashion model Hillary Baxter was still just a small-town girl from Kansas. How could she be expected to resist the devastating charm of her new employer, mesmerizing magazine mogul Bret Bardoff? Bret knew all the moves, all the right things to say to leave a woman defenseless. But as he discovered the alluring innocence behind Hillary's world famous face, it was Bret who was left defenseless...against the pull of his own heart.
