Kyla Vernon runs her own shop in northern New Zealand, but the new owner of her building complex, Marc Nathan, is trying to persuade her to allow them to buy out her lease. She's against the idea as her clients are on strict budgets and might be put off if she finds a nicer location (although she acknowledges she might make more money that way). She feels bullied and a bit intimidated by Marc although she doesn't let it show, but when three young men way lay her in the parking lot one day her fear shows through and after Marc rescues her she reluctantly accepts his dinner invitation to be polite.
Marc originally dislikes Kyla as much as he dislikes her (maybe) because he thinks she's just holding out for more money to leave the lease, but they work out that if he can find her a new location equally suitable she will leave. Marc also convinces Kyla to come to his sister's wedding anniversary and eventually pops the question. Kyla says yes but it's now become clear to the reader that she's keeping a secret from him that might have something to do with the way she claims not to like to dance, won't wear her hair down, and turns away many of Marc's kisses...They do marry but on the honeymoon Marc's futile attempts to seduce Kyla are beginning to wear on both of their nerves...Can they resolve their problems?
One of the things I think everyone has to respect Daphne Clair for is that she's never afraid to tackle hard issues. In this book, I don't think it's spoiling anything to say, Kyla is dealing with issues from past sexual violence – as a young girl, a virgin, she was gang raped by three men some of whom she knew from her high school in her small home town. Subsequently she was rejected by prospective suitors or else people seemed to think this would make her easy... I found Kyla pretty sympathetic – it's easy to see how she was young (and still is relatively speaking) and confused and doesn't really know how to act in the dating world. Marc is also sympathetic and is very patient with her.
What didn't work so well for me is that in the early part of the dating experiences I thought it seemed like Marc was getting a clue that something must be going on with Kyla but once they are married he must've thrown his intuition out the window. And rather than enlighten him, Kyla subjects herself to the increasing outbursts of Marc's sexual frustration, ultimately leading to a separate with intent to divorce... But as dumb as I found both of their actions, in the broader human landscape I can definitely imagine people acting that way, and you've got to give the book credit for handling this sort of thing as well as it does and in 1980 no less. Now if only you could say the same thing about the back cover copy which just talks about the conflict over the store!
