"Very dated treatment of females"

I utterly adore alpha males, and read this book when it came out 22 years ago. My how attitudes change! Strange, to think this was accepted male-female dynamics just two decades ago. I am sure the readers in their mid-twenties who did not grown up in the 70's and 80s, and are use to women being independent will wonder where Howard is coming from with this book. As a child who grew up with the "expected" house-mum, who stayed home to raise the kids and be a house maker, where a wife working was an INSULT to a man, I have seen women make great strides in being a strong figure that can take care of herself. So go into this book knowing that attitudes of the 80's were different.

If this had been any writer than the talented Linda Howard, I doubt most would finish it. But her writing kept me reading the end. Rereading a story and finding how dates, really tarnishes the memory.

Sallie Jerome is a hotshot reporter for a big NYC magazine. She loved the travel, loved the danger she often finds herself in, but now she has a more immediate danger: her estranged husband Rydon Baines. Rys married her almost 9 years ago -- out of pity, we learn. She was 18, he 28. He was the nephew of the woman next door. After her parents die, and then his aunt dies, too, Sarah (Sallie)is in a mental depression. Ry quickly courts her, marries her. Ry is a hotshot reporter, working for big news organization and he, too, was often sent into dangerous situations. An insecure Sarah did not like this and demanded he change his job to where he was home every night. Ry like dropping in between assignments, having his laundry done, and having a hot time in the sack before he cuts out again. When Sarah became pregnant, he accused her of trying to trap him into stay at home. He was not there when she went into early labor, he was not there when she delivered a still birth, he was not there when she buried their son. When he finally comes home, he offers her little support (though he now claims he wanted the son, too), and they get into a row over his leaving again, he departs with a final shot saying he was leaving permanently and when she decides she is "woman enough for him" look him up. He sends monthly support checks.

Sarah starts out using his money to educate herself. She gets a college education, and comes out of the shell of the shy retiring woman. She is now called Sallie, and she has taken that education and put it to good use. Once she got her first job, she sent Ry his checks back saying she no longer needed his support. So it has been seven years since she has seen the man face to face, though she has kept up with his fame on the evening news.

So Sallie is horrified to learn Ry is giving up investigative reporting and has bought the magazine where Sallie works. Ry shows up with a gorgeous model in tow. Sallie tries to hide out from Ry, but he finally forces a showdown. She presumes he will want a divorce, but Ry says there will be no divorce. He tells her she is trapped. He will fix it she cannot work anywhere else, that he wants her as his wife again and get used to it. Ry at times physically hurts Sallie -- nothing major, just pulling the braid, he left bruises on her wrists. Sorry, today he would be considered a bully. Worse, while claiming he wants his marriage, he still keeps his model around as a thorn to Sallie's side to make her jealous. Arrogant creep!

Sigh, it is just dated. Read it to see Howard's early talent, or don't read it at all because this type of brutishness just won't play for today's reader.

Reviewed by DeborahAnne MacGillivray
Posted November 15, 2004