Header PromotionShadow of Desire by Sara Craven (HP 398)
Ginny Clayton is having a rough time of it. She's just 18 and her parents have just died, leaving her responsible for her 11yo brother and her elderly aunt. Fortunately she's completed school and gotten some secretarial training, but finding a job that pays enough to support her ready made family isn't easy considering how in debt her father was when he died. Her older sister Barbie, a flighty actress, is no help either, so Ginny considers herself lucky when a housekeeping position promising a living space for the family is made known to her, even though the wages are very poor and the boss very difficult. She's to take care of Monk's Dower and the tenant there – a Mr. Hendrick.
Only Ginny doesn't realize that the first Mr. Hendrick, Toby, is actually only cousin to the real tenant, and ends up chucking a casserole at Max Hendrick when he shows up unexpectedly. Complicating matters, Ginny has developed a major crush on Toby whereas Max wants nothing to do with him... Ginny swears she hates Max who wants to have her let go until he finds out her tight circumstances and then practically blackmails her into taking a job as his typist – and then Barbie shows up, wanting to woo Max into giving her a part in his latest screenplay...
I've got mixed feelings about this book – on the one hand, it was very moving, I really felt for Ginny and when the dog Muffin got killed I was sobbing, but on the other hand, Ginny is 18 and just coming off believing herself in love with Toby... I really appreciate Max and his wanting to make everything ok for Ginny, but I find it difficult to suspend my disbelief about grown men falling in love with teenagers even though this really does take place in a different place and time. I suppose I should say this was good enough while I was reading it but maybe not enough to make me want to reread it.
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