Belonging

by Dixie Browning

Saxon Evanshaw had buried his past -- until his sickly father and greedy stepmother dragged him back to his North Carolina home. There he was greeted by sinfully beautiful Gale Chandler, his stepbrother's widow, who held the entire estate in her hot little hands.

Gale cheered the return of the handsome prodigal son. After her loveless marriage, she and Saxon had something in common: they were both victims of the same ruthless family. Here, finally, was a kindred spirit, someone who might understand. So she welcomed him home -- with open arms and a very trusting heart....

Genres: Romance

253 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published October 1, 1987

About the author

Dixie Burrus was born on September 09, 1930 in North Carolina's Outer Banks, U.S.A, where her family had lived for generations, to sea captain Dozier Burrus and Achsah Williams. Her father was the professional baseball player Maurice Lennon "Dick" Burrus, she has two sisters, Mary and Sarah Burrus.

Dixie is an artist and romance writer. She began writting contemporany romance novels as Zoe Dozier, now she writes her contemporary romances with her married name, Dixie Browning, and historical romances with her sister, Mary Burrus Williams as Bronwyn Williams, one combination of their married names. She has been awarded a Romance Writers of America RITA Award, and been a five-time RITA finalist. She has also won three Maggies, and numerous awards from the National Federation of Press Women and the NC Press Club.

Reviews

[Adrianna · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 for me not quite 3. I really enjoyed the setting of this book-small, town, old creaky house in the fall. I think the writing was decent and the premise interesting; the hero returns when his estranged father has a stroke and falls in love with his brother's widow. Of course, she doesn't disclose any financial details to him (they can't afford the house and she's secretly selling heirlooms) which she should have done immediately. However, he immediately assumed that the recently widowed woman caring for his ramshackle house and his father was a thief and couldn't just have a conversation with her. I liked some the the incidents of the car getting stuck, the funny little anecdotes, their date, her writing aspirations. The strain of caring for an ailing relative is accurately portrayed and moving at times. Needless extra drama comes when an ex girlfriend returns, which was not necessary.

[Mimi · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was pretty terrible in my opinion. The plot was obvious from the beginning, the female lead was obnoxiously stupid the entire book (up until the very last page) and it fell so far from being slightly erotic or romantic I was just wishing it was over the entire time. It's very rare that I do not finish a book so I trudged through this one since it was relatively short.

The only redeeming quality was the characters had depth. I did feel for them (except the female lead) and this is why I gave two stars instead of one.

The story was left incomplete, but it didn't seem intentional. It seemed to me that the author just got tired of making Gale a pathetic whiny being and made her give up on the last page and suddenly all of her "issues" she had carried through the entire book disappeared. It was highly dissatisfying.

I will never read this book again, that much I can say right now. I might give Dixie Browning another chance though, as I see potential in her character plots and she seems to have written many books.