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A Simon & Schuster eBook
Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1983
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About the author
Janet Dailey
393 books1,843 followersJanet Anne Haradon Dailey was an American author of numerous romance novels as Janet Dailey (her married name). Her novels have been translated into nineteen languages and have sold over 300 million copies worldwide.
Born in 1944 in Storm Lake, Iowa, she attended secretarial school in Omaha, Nebraska before meeting her husband, Bill. Bill and Janet worked together in construction and land development until they "retired" to travel throughout the United States, inspiring Janet to write the Americana series of romances, where she set a novel in every state of the Union. In 1974, Janet Dailey was the first American author to write for Harlequin. Her first novel was NO QUARTER ASKED.
She had since gone on to write approximately 90 novels, 21 of which have appeared on the New York Times Bestseller List. She won many awards and accolades for her work, appearing widely on Radio and Television. Today, there are over three hundred million Janet Dailey books in print in 19 different languages, making her one of the most popular novelists in the world.
Janet Dailey passed away peacefully in her home in Branson on Saturday, December 14, 2013. She was 69.
Born in 1944 in Storm Lake, Iowa, she attended secretarial school in Omaha, Nebraska before meeting her husband, Bill. Bill and Janet worked together in construction and land development until they "retired" to travel throughout the United States, inspiring Janet to write the Americana series of romances, where she set a novel in every state of the Union. In 1974, Janet Dailey was the first American author to write for Harlequin. Her first novel was NO QUARTER ASKED.
She had since gone on to write approximately 90 novels, 21 of which have appeared on the New York Times Bestseller List. She won many awards and accolades for her work, appearing widely on Radio and Television. Today, there are over three hundred million Janet Dailey books in print in 19 different languages, making her one of the most popular novelists in the world.
Janet Dailey passed away peacefully in her home in Branson on Saturday, December 14, 2013. She was 69.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 30, 2020
This is a light hearted romance by Janet Dailey originally published back in the early 1980s - 1981/82.
There was a movie made from this book as well, released in 1982, starring Faye Grant, Barry Van Dyke, Leslie Neilsen and Tippi Hedren.
I saw this movie back in the early 1980s (probably in 1983/84) and it became one of my favourite movies, mostly because I loved Faye Grant from the Series V and also for Barry Van Dyke whom I had a huge crush on. I was 18 and 19 at the time!!
Anyway, I have not seen the movie for well over 30 years and this month (August 2020) someone finally uploaded it to Youtube so I could finally watch it again. It was almost as good as the first time I saw it. Except that I am now seeing it through the eyes of an adult who has also had deal with an emotionally abusive mother.
So I was inspired to purchase the book yesterday and I have just finished reading it. Remember I was also comparing the book to the movie. Most of the main story from the book is in the movie - with some exceptions.
This is a romance whereby a sophisticaled 1980s California girl named Joanna, who has just graduated from college. Joanna is packing to get away from it all. Why? Because her manipulative mother Elizabeth has been setting up interviews for big businesses for Joanna to step into, without having to start at the bottom. Joanna feels that at age 21, she should be able to run her own life and not still be doing everything her mother asks (demands?) of her. So she flies to the Ozarks in Missouri to stay with her Uncle Reece, and find herself.
There Joanna meets a local rancher named Linc and the sparks fly. At the same time, Joanna's Uncle Reece is also wooing a local widow and their romance also heats up.
Joanna's mother Elizabeth, has been chasing her brother in law (Reece) for many years and after she learns that Reece is finally getting married, she makes one last effort to catch him. So she rushes to the Ozarks to stop the wedding, because she doesn't think that Reece needs to marry a country yokel who is not in any way "sophisticated" like she is.
At the country BBQ party to celebrate Reece and Rachels engagement, Reece tells Elizabeth in no uncertain terms that he is not interested in her, and he would have told her to get lost a long time ago, except that Joanna is his brothers daughter and therefore part of his family. Reece also tells Elizabeth that she must go back to the airport and get on a plane back to L.A. today!!
Elizabeth starts up with the crocodile tears and manipulates Joanna into flying back to California as well. One week later, both Joanna and Linc are miserable. Linc is encouraged by an old friend named Jesse, to fly out to California to get "his girl". Rachel and Reece have gotten married and are now living in Los Angeles. Linc flies to LA to talk to Joanna. When he arrives at the house, Joanna is explaining to Reece why she left the Ozarks. Linc finally understands why she left and accepts her reasons. So when he speaks up, Joanna is shocked. They finally talk things through, and Linc proposes. Joanna accepts, and alls well that ends well.
My reading of this book was of course coloured by the movie. There were two major changes from the book to the movie. One was the addition of a "country yokel" male character who decides to go after Joanna, and of course the ending.
I beleive the "country yokel" character was added to emphasise the differences between the sophisticated Joanna from California and this "country yokel" attitude that most americans seem to have of people from the Ozarks and the Appalachians as well - at least in the 1980s. This is kind of racist or bigoted and I don't think it was necessary. There was more than enough bigotry coming from Elizabeth in the nasty comments she had to make about Reece marrying Rachel.
As for the ending, the movie more or less ended at the airport when Elizabeth left and Joanna stayed. Her explanation was "Could you believe that my mother told me to stay?" No, I cannot believe that. It did not fit with the emotionally abusive and manipulative mother that Elizabeth was portrayed to be.
I read the 2011 E-book version and I must admit that the formatting and editing of this book for the E-book format was very poorly done. I don't know if the original hard back or paperbacks were as poorly edited as this e-book, was, but I hope they weren't.
The biggest issue I had was the spelling of the name Jesse. Jesse was another character in this book and he was a local old man who loved to tell stories from the Ozarks. Being a male his name would be spelled as JESSE, right? In this e-book, without fail, every time his name was mentioned, it was spelled the female way - JESSIE. That was really annoying!! There were other editing errors, but they were smaller. This one was consistent and most annoying.
I enjoyed the story, especially since the movie did stay quite close to the original storyline except for the 2 things I have already mentioned. I gave it four stars for the poor editing job from the e-book format.
There was a movie made from this book as well, released in 1982, starring Faye Grant, Barry Van Dyke, Leslie Neilsen and Tippi Hedren.
I saw this movie back in the early 1980s (probably in 1983/84) and it became one of my favourite movies, mostly because I loved Faye Grant from the Series V and also for Barry Van Dyke whom I had a huge crush on. I was 18 and 19 at the time!!
Anyway, I have not seen the movie for well over 30 years and this month (August 2020) someone finally uploaded it to Youtube so I could finally watch it again. It was almost as good as the first time I saw it. Except that I am now seeing it through the eyes of an adult who has also had deal with an emotionally abusive mother.
So I was inspired to purchase the book yesterday and I have just finished reading it. Remember I was also comparing the book to the movie. Most of the main story from the book is in the movie - with some exceptions.
This is a romance whereby a sophisticaled 1980s California girl named Joanna, who has just graduated from college. Joanna is packing to get away from it all. Why? Because her manipulative mother Elizabeth has been setting up interviews for big businesses for Joanna to step into, without having to start at the bottom. Joanna feels that at age 21, she should be able to run her own life and not still be doing everything her mother asks (demands?) of her. So she flies to the Ozarks in Missouri to stay with her Uncle Reece, and find herself.
There Joanna meets a local rancher named Linc and the sparks fly. At the same time, Joanna's Uncle Reece is also wooing a local widow and their romance also heats up.
Joanna's mother Elizabeth, has been chasing her brother in law (Reece) for many years and after she learns that Reece is finally getting married, she makes one last effort to catch him. So she rushes to the Ozarks to stop the wedding, because she doesn't think that Reece needs to marry a country yokel who is not in any way "sophisticated" like she is.
At the country BBQ party to celebrate Reece and Rachels engagement, Reece tells Elizabeth in no uncertain terms that he is not interested in her, and he would have told her to get lost a long time ago, except that Joanna is his brothers daughter and therefore part of his family. Reece also tells Elizabeth that she must go back to the airport and get on a plane back to L.A. today!!
Elizabeth starts up with the crocodile tears and manipulates Joanna into flying back to California as well. One week later, both Joanna and Linc are miserable. Linc is encouraged by an old friend named Jesse, to fly out to California to get "his girl". Rachel and Reece have gotten married and are now living in Los Angeles. Linc flies to LA to talk to Joanna. When he arrives at the house, Joanna is explaining to Reece why she left the Ozarks. Linc finally understands why she left and accepts her reasons. So when he speaks up, Joanna is shocked. They finally talk things through, and Linc proposes. Joanna accepts, and alls well that ends well.
My reading of this book was of course coloured by the movie. There were two major changes from the book to the movie. One was the addition of a "country yokel" male character who decides to go after Joanna, and of course the ending.
I beleive the "country yokel" character was added to emphasise the differences between the sophisticated Joanna from California and this "country yokel" attitude that most americans seem to have of people from the Ozarks and the Appalachians as well - at least in the 1980s. This is kind of racist or bigoted and I don't think it was necessary. There was more than enough bigotry coming from Elizabeth in the nasty comments she had to make about Reece marrying Rachel.
As for the ending, the movie more or less ended at the airport when Elizabeth left and Joanna stayed. Her explanation was "Could you believe that my mother told me to stay?" No, I cannot believe that. It did not fit with the emotionally abusive and manipulative mother that Elizabeth was portrayed to be.
I read the 2011 E-book version and I must admit that the formatting and editing of this book for the E-book format was very poorly done. I don't know if the original hard back or paperbacks were as poorly edited as this e-book, was, but I hope they weren't.
The biggest issue I had was the spelling of the name Jesse. Jesse was another character in this book and he was a local old man who loved to tell stories from the Ozarks. Being a male his name would be spelled as JESSE, right? In this e-book, without fail, every time his name was mentioned, it was spelled the female way - JESSIE. That was really annoying!! There were other editing errors, but they were smaller. This one was consistent and most annoying.
I enjoyed the story, especially since the movie did stay quite close to the original storyline except for the 2 things I have already mentioned. I gave it four stars for the poor editing job from the e-book format.
November 14, 2014
I could not find the exact issue that I read. Mine was published by Silhouette Books, a Simon & Schuster Division of Gulf & Western Corporation in July, 1982. ISBN: 0-671-53536-6.
In the Ozark hills Joanna met her uncles friend Linc Wilder. Sometimes love happens when a rich, self-confident females meets a handsome, down-to-earth country boy, while on vacation and out of her domineering mothers sight. A good little story!
In the Ozark hills Joanna met her uncles friend Linc Wilder. Sometimes love happens when a rich, self-confident females meets a handsome, down-to-earth country boy, while on vacation and out of her domineering mothers sight. A good little story!
September 6, 2025
Feisty heroine (21) from California goes to visit her uncle who is spending a month in his cabin in the Ozarks and meets the hero (32) a neighbour. They bicker/but the attraction is there and she wants to sleep with him, but he wants a relationship - a forever. The uncle also gets together with the woman he has wanted for years (it's cute!). The heroine's spoilt mother comes along to cause problems, but the hero realises he needs to sweep the heroine off her feet.
It's a charming story low on angst. 4 stars.
It's a charming story low on angst. 4 stars.
July 8, 2012
The actual story is fairly typical, although there was a secondary romance that was enjoyable. The problems with some of these older romances, especially by certain authors (Dailey included) is that they really seem dated. And the characters always seem to fall in love in what seems like the blink of an eye. Not much depth here, but a quick read.
there's more on my blog http://stacybuckeye.wordpress.com/201...
there's more on my blog http://stacybuckeye.wordpress.com/201...
January 1, 2016
She is a good writer even if it is Harlequin
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews