What do you think?
Rate this book
Americana #7
Difficult Decision
Every novel in this collection is your passport to a romantic tour of the United States through time-honored favorites by America-s First Lady of romance fiction. Each of the fifty novels is set in a different state, researched by Janet and her husband,
128 pages, Paperback
First published September 12, 1980
About the author
Janet Dailey
411 books1,880 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.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
March 18, 2023
Ayyy how it pains me to rate a book by this author below 4 stars. I mean, having such a juicy plot it still felt so average to me. I don`t know. This is a boss-employee office romance but with the boss this time being a married man. I liked their slow-burn and how they really tried to ignore the blooming feelings between them, especially with how stone-faced Zane Wilding was and kept all his emotions inside him. One thing i absolutely detested was how disrespectful and snappy Deborah Holland was for no other reason than Zane being upfront,quick and professional. I mean he is your boss ,girl. You have none right whatsoever talking back like that and giving totally unnecesary comments. Quit your job if you dislike being treated like a robot!! He should have fired her on the spot according to me.
October 29, 2015
I have no respect for a woman who has no morals about being with a married man I know hero was no angel but I prefer my heroine's to have integrity and self respect, Deborah was dispicable and I thoroughly disliked her!
February 17, 2020
"Difficult Decision" is the story of Deborah and Zane.
In this sad tale of commitment and love, our h goes to work as the H's secretary. She soon realizes the insanity that comes with her job, where the driven H pushes her beyond the boundaries. With her growing feelings for him, and them being reciprocated too-things get complicated. But their love is forbidden as the H is married..
I found this a bitterweet read. It had a very Jane Eyre-ish twist with our MC relentlessly yearning for one another. I felt they really deserved each other, but the h's acceptance of the whole situation was kinda absurd to me. Ends on a hopeful note.
Safe for me/SWE for some
3/5
In this sad tale of commitment and love, our h goes to work as the H's secretary. She soon realizes the insanity that comes with her job, where the driven H pushes her beyond the boundaries. With her growing feelings for him, and them being reciprocated too-things get complicated. But their love is forbidden as the H is married..
I found this a bitterweet read. It had a very Jane Eyre-ish twist with our MC relentlessly yearning for one another. I felt they really deserved each other, but the h's acceptance of the whole situation was kinda absurd to me. Ends on a hopeful note.
Safe for me/SWE for some
3/5
April 6, 2023
Good grief, this was something else. I don’t even know what to say when a few pages before the end of the book, the heroine has offered to stay with the married H as his mistress and bear his illegitimate children. Then the happy ending is that he finally gets his wife committed to an institution and divorces her.
Suffice to say, the heroine is not going to win any sisterhood awards anytime soon.
Suffice to say, the heroine is not going to win any sisterhood awards anytime soon.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 14, 2015
Tries to justify adultery.
October 17, 2020
Janet Dailey is an outstanding writer, but in my opinion this is one of her worst books.
The H is married. Although his marriage is really bad, he is married. Their son died and his wife had never gotten over that tragedy.
He didn’t file for divorce. Only in the last pages of the book he said to the h he would file for divorce. So if the h wasn’t in his life, he would still have been married.
I just couldn’t get over the fact that he is married and she made out with him, although he promised her nothing. It seemed so cheap.
The H is married. Although his marriage is really bad, he is married. Their son died and his wife had never gotten over that tragedy.
He didn’t file for divorce. Only in the last pages of the book he said to the h he would file for divorce. So if the h wasn’t in his life, he would still have been married.
I just couldn’t get over the fact that he is married and she made out with him, although he promised her nothing. It seemed so cheap.
April 24, 2025
I've read maybe a handful of Janet Dailey's Americana HPs from the 70s and 80s. Often her heroes give me a seriously disturbing vibe (Fiesta San Antonio being the worst). This one, which is set in Connecticut, is another where the H makes me kind of worried. He has reasons for his ice king demeanor. But I could not find him attractive or likeable. I just didn't like how he was written, I guess. This was a little hard to make myself acknowledge because he does in my opinion (I know many may not agree) prove to be honorable and he has moral integrity. YMMV though.
So the story is that h goes to work for the H as his personal assistant. She's a no-nonsense, ambitious, level-headed woman. Like the H, she maybe runs a little cool although we see throughout the story that she interacts with people well enough. She's got family obligations, mainly financial assistance to her mother. Apart from this, she seems quite self-sufficient but also lonely, since no friends are in evidence and apart from a phone call or two with her mother, we don't see her interact much with her family. The H is in much the same situation, although as we find out later in the story, he is surrounded by people, most of whom are there to keep his wife in check.
Which leads us to the H's background. He too is no-nonsense and also quite brusque, and is also cold (not surface cool like the h) and seemingly unfeeling. He and the h work together for a time before each starts to develop feelings for the other. They are similar people who find each other terrifically attractive. But the H can't let it go too far. He's married to a wife who suffers from alcoholism and while not explicitly stated, probably also a few other psychiatric illnesses. She has a habit of getting drunk, wandering off despite the many family retainers kept to keep her corraled, finding her husband and showering him with verbal abuse and pathos. There is a great scene late in the book that really rings true. The live-in psychiatric nurse tells the H that his wife must be committed to receive appropriate care since the home is not a controlled environment and no matter what restrictions are put in place, the wife is going to find the alcohol, hurt herself or hurt someone else.
Everything comes to a head when the story moves to the H's country house for the duration of the Thanksgiving to Christmas holiday season. There is a heated pool where they swim in a snowstorm (I totally want to do that!!). There is Christmas tree decorating. And the H is very clear with the h why he can't abandon his wife. She is very ill and she can't take care of herself.
However, after a sexy night swim, watching the h interact with his friends during a holiday party like the sane and intelligent woman she is, and the aforementioned "tell it like it is" tirade from the nurse, the H decides to divorce his wife so he can honor his love for the h properly. The catch is that he will never stop taking care of his soon-to-be ex-wife since she has no one else.
I know that extenuating circumstances aside, the issue of adultery is a no-go for most people. This book tries to describe why this most difficult of situations could arise without attaching too much blame to anyone and a decision could be reached. The premise here is that the H feels an unbreakable commitment to the wife because of her illness (and the son they lost) and until he meets the h, he never has a reason strong enough to walk away.
So the story is that h goes to work for the H as his personal assistant. She's a no-nonsense, ambitious, level-headed woman. Like the H, she maybe runs a little cool although we see throughout the story that she interacts with people well enough. She's got family obligations, mainly financial assistance to her mother. Apart from this, she seems quite self-sufficient but also lonely, since no friends are in evidence and apart from a phone call or two with her mother, we don't see her interact much with her family. The H is in much the same situation, although as we find out later in the story, he is surrounded by people, most of whom are there to keep his wife in check.
Which leads us to the H's background. He too is no-nonsense and also quite brusque, and is also cold (not surface cool like the h) and seemingly unfeeling. He and the h work together for a time before each starts to develop feelings for the other. They are similar people who find each other terrifically attractive. But the H can't let it go too far. He's married to a wife who suffers from alcoholism and while not explicitly stated, probably also a few other psychiatric illnesses. She has a habit of getting drunk, wandering off despite the many family retainers kept to keep her corraled, finding her husband and showering him with verbal abuse and pathos. There is a great scene late in the book that really rings true. The live-in psychiatric nurse tells the H that his wife must be committed to receive appropriate care since the home is not a controlled environment and no matter what restrictions are put in place, the wife is going to find the alcohol, hurt herself or hurt someone else.
Everything comes to a head when the story moves to the H's country house for the duration of the Thanksgiving to Christmas holiday season. There is a heated pool where they swim in a snowstorm (I totally want to do that!!). There is Christmas tree decorating. And the H is very clear with the h why he can't abandon his wife. She is very ill and she can't take care of herself.
However, after a sexy night swim, watching the h interact with his friends during a holiday party like the sane and intelligent woman she is, and the aforementioned "tell it like it is" tirade from the nurse, the H decides to divorce his wife so he can honor his love for the h properly. The catch is that he will never stop taking care of his soon-to-be ex-wife since she has no one else.
I know that extenuating circumstances aside, the issue of adultery is a no-go for most people. This book tries to describe why this most difficult of situations could arise without attaching too much blame to anyone and a decision could be reached. The premise here is that the H feels an unbreakable commitment to the wife because of her illness (and the son they lost) and until he meets the h, he never has a reason strong enough to walk away.
August 23, 2026
There is no doubt that Janet Dailey is a compelling story teller (bypassing the plagiarism scandal that tarnished her reputation). I was gripped by this intense story of a man trapped into an icy, emotionless fortress that he has built around himself in order to survive the traumatic drowning death of his four year old son and the ensuing years of alcoholism of his already emotionally unstable wife. They have both suffered immensely for a decade and a half, with no light at the end of the tunnel, no help, no therapy, no coping skills. She found escape in the bottom of a bottle and he found it in becoming a workaholic. This was a sad story overall. The heroine's background is equally bleak. She has been working supporting her widowed mom and younger siblings since she was eleven. She is intent on climbing the corporate career ladder, fighting male chauvinism all the way, a true woman of the 1980s :)
The relationship between her and her boss, the aforementioned married man, is a slow burn. Starting out as antagonism and 100% professional, then a tentative friendship and thawing of relations because of their close proximity working together. I do believe they fell in love, not in lust. They understood each other, the kind of emotional synch that makes you finish each other's sentences, feel what the other is feeling through body language and an emotional connection on a different wavelength than other people. But why did it have to be such a tacky, bleak, and depressing solution to their unrequited love?
To have them consummate their extra-marital affair under the same roof as the poor wife who is locked upstairs with her round the clock psychiatrist nurse like the madwoman of Jane Eyre was absolutely disgusting to me. I don't know if the author realized how horrible it was to write the scene in a pool. As they are making love in the water, she tells him it feels so good she doesn't care if she drowns. This to the man whose son died in a drowning????!!!! Like, what the hell?????!!!!! So was the extremely abrupt conclusion where the "hero" decides to institutionalize his wife and start divorce proceedings so he can marry his mistress, telling her in the same breath that she will have to accept that he will always put his first wife and her needs ahead of theirs, he owes it to her. Boom, the end. I don't think a romance that hinges on the institutionalization of the hero's wife really works ugh :(
The relationship between her and her boss, the aforementioned married man, is a slow burn. Starting out as antagonism and 100% professional, then a tentative friendship and thawing of relations because of their close proximity working together. I do believe they fell in love, not in lust. They understood each other, the kind of emotional synch that makes you finish each other's sentences, feel what the other is feeling through body language and an emotional connection on a different wavelength than other people. But why did it have to be such a tacky, bleak, and depressing solution to their unrequited love?
To have them consummate their extra-marital affair under the same roof as the poor wife who is locked upstairs with her round the clock psychiatrist nurse like the madwoman of Jane Eyre was absolutely disgusting to me. I don't know if the author realized how horrible it was to write the scene in a pool. As they are making love in the water, she tells him it feels so good she doesn't care if she drowns. This to the man whose son died in a drowning????!!!! Like, what the hell?????!!!!! So was the extremely abrupt conclusion where the "hero" decides to institutionalize his wife and start divorce proceedings so he can marry his mistress, telling her in the same breath that she will have to accept that he will always put his first wife and her needs ahead of theirs, he owes it to her. Boom, the end. I don't think a romance that hinges on the institutionalization of the hero's wife really works ugh :(
January 29, 2023
As a melodrama I was really into this book. I thought it was well written and I really liked that the h was *absolutely not* one of those betraying body syndrome types. She was decorous and serious about her career as she had responsibilities outside of herself.
As a romance though... not so much. I'm sorry but I couldn't get myself behind our h not only being 'the other woman' but being *content* to be 'the other woman'. The wife being cheated on was a seriously tragic figure who had lost a child who was battling with alcoholism to dull her grief... not only that but she was torn to shreds at the very thought of her husband cheating. So to have our h and H do exactly that to her just really effing sad. We had scenes where the wife was being led out of room as she was swooning with misery and we're supposed to what... be glad she being cheated on too? No. Nope. NO.
As a romance though... not so much. I'm sorry but I couldn't get myself behind our h not only being 'the other woman' but being *content* to be 'the other woman'. The wife being cheated on was a seriously tragic figure who had lost a child who was battling with alcoholism to dull her grief... not only that but she was torn to shreds at the very thought of her husband cheating. So to have our h and H do exactly that to her just really effing sad. We had scenes where the wife was being led out of room as she was swooning with misery and we're supposed to what... be glad she being cheated on too? No. Nope. NO.
August 4, 2024
Zane Wilding was a very difficult boss....he hired Deborah as his personal assistant and she was very capable at her work.
Zane is married but is wife is mentally ill and has been for years but he has stayed dedicated to her. She has a psychiatric nurse with her all the time.
Deborah, unfortunately falls in love with him despite knowing the situation with his marriage. She still works for him and she can tell that he is interested in her but she realizes he is not free to be interested in him.
The difficult decision was to divorce her and set her up in a very comfortable nursing home with 24-hour care...the doctors claim she will never be better. When the decision is made, the divorce takes place, and he and Deborah plan to marry.
Zane is married but is wife is mentally ill and has been for years but he has stayed dedicated to her. She has a psychiatric nurse with her all the time.
Deborah, unfortunately falls in love with him despite knowing the situation with his marriage. She still works for him and she can tell that he is interested in her but she realizes he is not free to be interested in him.
The difficult decision was to divorce her and set her up in a very comfortable nursing home with 24-hour care...the doctors claim she will never be better. When the decision is made, the divorce takes place, and he and Deborah plan to marry.
abrierto-to-read-hr-other
November 12, 2022Zane Wilding is a man with a heart of marble. And, until the day of her job interview, Deborah hadn’t believed anyone could be as cold and hard as Zane Wilding. Now he is her boss; the most demanding boss she has ever had. His good looks don’t make up for the iciness with which he treats her, everyone, and even his wife. But soon Deborah learns the secret behind Zane’s behavior - a secret that will cause Deborah’s heart to discover her feelings for him.
February 17, 2026
Oddly I didn’t hate this book or the adultery. I’m not advocating for it however humans are complex and no one’s perfect. My irritation comes from the authors clear bias; in previous books she made her internalized misogyny blatant. Feminists, who are the only reason she was able to blaze the trail, are bad but somehow love even if it’s with a married man is ok? Seeing how Dailey was her husband’s receptionist I have a suspicion parts of this book were biographical.
August 6, 2019
Δύσκολη απόφαση....
September 13, 2021
I would give more stars but the whole story is about adultery.
May 7, 2024
Another dr.phil novel
October 12, 2015
At the time of reading I would have given this 5 stars so i have left it at that as this was my initial experience. As I became more discerning I think I would now give it a 3.5/4 star review. It still remains well written in its genre and I enjoyed the storyline and the lead characters.
Read
September 3, 2018the difficult decision is weather to read this book beyond page 68 :(
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews