A Secret Splendor

 

SANDRA BROWN

Stats for my copy: Mass market paperback, Mira, 1983. Previously published under the pseudonym Erin St. Claire.

How acquired: Received from a BookCrossing member.

My thoughts: First off, this review will be full of spoilers.

Second, I generally love everything Sandra Brown writes, though I am partial to her mystery/thrillers. Of all her books I’ve read since being on Goodreads, I’ve given them either four or five stars, with the exception of STING, which I disliked so much I only gave it one star. So this is my first time giving her three stars.

Third, I work in the adoption and surrogacy fields. I’m always a little leery of reading a book with an adoption plotline, for fear it will be shown in a negative or unrealistic way. But A SECRET SPLENDOR is the first book I’ve come across with a surrogacy plotline. And that’s where all my issues lie.

Arden was in a bad marriage to an OB/GYN. After running his practice into the ground and going into debt, her husband agreed to find a woman to be a surrogate for a rich couple, who were paying him $100,000.00. The woman he finds? His wife, Arden. She’s reluctant, but then agrees on the condition that after the baby is born, she gets half the money, a divorce, and custody of their son, Joey, who was ill. I can’t for the life of me remember what was wrong with him, cancer or something. So her husband takes her to his clinic and inseminates her with the client’s sperm.

Arden would be what is now referred to as a traditional surrogate, in that she is the biological mother of the child. Traditional surrogacy is not practiced very often these days. In fact, in the state where I live, traditional surrogacy is not legally recognized, and is treated by the court as an adoption. But at the time this book was written, there probably weren’t many laws regarding surrogacy. Although even if there were laws, the way Arden’s husband handled this situation was probably illegal anyway. My state did not have any laws on the books until 2019.

Fast forward to after the divorce, and Joey dies. Distraught, Arden begins thinking about the other child she gave birth to, and decides she needs to find him or her. She never met the rich couple, and did not see the baby after it was born. She doesn’t even know if it’s a boy or girl. Well, by chance she sees a famous tennis player on TV who looks familiar, and then suddenly remembers a couple she saw when leaving the hospital, who were surrounded by paparazzi, and she realizes that the tennis player is the father. I kept hoping that when she got to know him she would learn that he was not in fact the father, but no, her instincts are correct. He’s now a widower, and the child, a boy, is 22 months old. Every time Arden thought about needing to see her child, I wanted to say he’s not your child, he’s their child.

Anyway, she finally manages to meet the tennis player, Drew, and starts dating him. And of course they fall in love with each other. Pretty soon she’s married to him and “step-mother” to the child, Matt. And she keeps thinking she needs to come clean and tell Drew who she is, but she puts it off because she doesn’t want him to think she only married him to be with the child. Also because she’s a cowardly liar.

And then the ex shows up, and blackmails her, and at first she gives him money, but then she finally gets a backbone and tells him she’s not paying anymore and she’s going to tell Drew the truth, but she goes shopping first, which gives the ex time to go to Drew and spill the beans himself. And of course Drew is furious, and storms out to go do his tennis stuff, and Arden gets angry that Drew is angry, even though he has every right to be angry, and just before he comes home a week later she packs up and leaves.

Of course, in the end, Drew tracks her down and they talk it out and profess their love and get their happy ever after, while I’m just frustrated, because the synopsis doesn’t say anything about surrogacy, just that there are “half-truths, secrets and unspeakable lies” surrounding Matt’s birth, so when I started this book I had no idea what I was in for.

To her credit, I really liked Drew. Sandra Brown has an uncanny ability to write wonderful heroes and I always fall in love with them (except the hero of STING, who I just could not feel any sympathy or empathy for). And I do like her writing. So the book still gets three stars from me.

Beyond the Tides (Prince Edward Island Shores, Book 1)

 LIZ JOHNSON

Stats for my copy: Trade paperback, Revell, 2021.

How acquired: Revell Reads Blogger Program.

First lines: Morning had a terrible habit of arriving too early, at least as far as Meg Whitaker was concerned.

(For Goodreads synopsis, scroll down.)

My thoughts: My first time reading Liz Johnson, and I’m so glad I “discovered” her! I love the enemies to lovers trope, and forced proximity. This is from Revell, a Christian publishing house, so there’s not actually any lovemaking, other than some kissing (which actually got a little steamy), but it still qualifies.

Meg is a schoolteacher, but when her father announces he’s selling his lobster-fishing business to Oliver, she basically has a little fit and tells her father she wants the business. Even though she’s never had any interest in the business before. But Oliver is her sworn enemy, ever since he destroyed her science fair project back when they were in high school, ruining her chance at a scholarship. She insists the business is her legacy and should stay in the family, but more than that, she doesn’t want Oliver to have it. So dad’s idea – they can work the business together while he takes the season off to care for Meg’s ailing mother, and then at the end of the season he’ll decide who gets it.

I can honestly tell you that if I were in Meg’s place, I think I would gladly let Oliver have the business rather than try to work it myself. But she is determined, no matter how hard it is, how early she has to get up, or how exhausted and sore she is at the end of the day. Despite not being able to relate to Meg and her drive to keep Oliver from buying the business, I really liked her. She’s strong, resilient, not to mention good at holding a grudge! And I loved Oliver. He’s worked so hard to overcome his absent father’s reputation as a thief, which some of the other lobstermen are quick to remind him of. Despite his actions as a teen and Meg’s subsequent hatred of him, Meg’s parents were always good to him, and Whitaker, as he calls her father, pretty much took Oliver under his wing, teaching him the lobster business.

Emotions and tempers run high as Meg and Oliver squabble, and learn to work together, and slowly, reluctantly, come to respect each other and form the beginnings of friendship. Oliver is more responsible for that than Meg, making the greater effort in his desire to make her forgive him and like him.

Meanwhile, Meg and her father are also dealing with her mother’s declining health, as they desperately search for a diagnosis and the hope of a cure. And here is one of the places where Oliver shone. He’s fond of Meg’s mother, and becomes instrumental in helping Meg cope, and helping her see the path she needs to take with her mother. While Meg and Oliver struggle to keep the business going on their own (with help from Kyle, the deckhand, who’d I like to know more about), they deal with some sabotage, such as lines being cut and traps lost. The resolution to that plotline, the culprit, was quite a surprise, that actually made me laugh when they finally figured it out.

The author’s descriptions of the boat and being on the water and toiling long days with the traps and the lobsters were vivid. I learned more about lobster fishing than I ever thought I’d want to know. I actually got curious about the traps and had to google lobster traps to see what they look like and learn more about how they work.

All in all, this is a delightful story about perseverance, forgiveness, family and friendship, and of course, lobsters.

Goodreads synopsis: When Meg Whitaker's father decides to sell the family's lobster-fishing business to her high school nemesis, she sets out to prove she should inherit it instead. Though she's never had any interest in running the small fleet--or even getting on a boat due to her persistent seasickness--she can't stand to see Oliver Ross take over. Not when he ruined her dreams for a science scholarship and an Ivy League education ten years ago.

Oliver isn't proud of what he did back then. Angry and broken by his father walking out on his family, he lashed out at Meg--an innocent bystander. But owning a respected fishing fleet on Prince Edward Island is the opportunity of a lifetime, and he's not about to walk away just because Meg wants him to.

Meg's father has the perfect solution: Oliver and Meg must work the business together, and at the end of the season, he'll decide who gets it. Along the way, they may discover that their stories are more similar than they thought . . . and their dreams aren't what they expected.