Header PromotionPassionate Impostor by Elizabeth Graham (HP 493)
Natalie Forman has had enough of the big city. She's been working in Vancouver and had gotten promoted from secretary to junior partner, but it was just because of her looks and now she's been fired for not sleeping with clients to land accounts. She heads back home to the Valley and her father's ranch, only she arrives to learn that her father died the week before. He had been ill but didn't bother her with the details so she didn't realize how serious it was or come to see him. Her father's new foreman, Cal Hendricks, looks down on her for having neglected her father, and for being a big city businesswoman, supposedly with all the loose morals that implies. Natalie doesn't improve his opinion of her when she starts mooning over her high school boyfriend, Murray, who threw her over to marry her best friend since kindergarten, Jan... But for some reason Cal still wants to marry her. Is he telling the truth when he claims to be the mysterious party who's buying the ranch, or is he just after her money?
Although the writing here is fine, there are a lot of things that bother me, and most of them pretty common in early HP's. For one, Natalie is blamed for not visiting her father. Although she's only 22 it's considered her fault, as if there was no way her father could've visited her in the past three years...For another, this is one of those books where the hero and heroine fall in love because they're who's available. What if it wasn't Cal who was running the ranch? What if Natalie wasn't her father's daughter? I get the feeling the message of some early HP's was to say to young girls: don't worry, just be in the right place at the right time and someone will be your right man!
All that aside, the worst thing was the inconsistent characterization of Natalie. She essentially quits her job over not being able to bring herself to sleep with clients, and is disgusted by all the married men in the city who want her to be their good time girl, but she throws herself at married Murray and doesn't mind who knows, with no thought to the feelings of her good friend, Jan. And then when she thinks Cal might be marrying her for her money she sort of mentally shrugs it off figuring he can have it. The only way I can reconcile all this is if I think Natalie is going through some sort of emotional crisis, say major depression, and might need some professional intervention to cut out her risky behaviour. But the book doesn't see it that way at all and wants me to be thrilled with the happily ever after in the valley future Natalie has coming up. I wish Natalie good luck, I fear she might need it!
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