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Trust
They were complete strangers searching for the same thing-- solitude. But thanks to a matchmaking friend, Deirdre Joyce and Neil Hersey found themselves stranded on an island off the coast of Maine. Forced to coexist, they discovered there was no escaping the inevitable--irresistible attraction. The idea of living alone again was unimaginable, and so a marriage of "convenience" seemed like the perfect solution--he would run her family's company and she would pursue her career. But could their feelings survive the forces of the outside world?
Paige Mattheson is reputed to be as beautiful as the alabaster sculptures she creates--and just as cold. An intensely private person, she is perfectly happy living by herself, until Jesse Dallas walks into her life. Paige's fierce desire for Jesse both exhilarates and terrifies her. And after spending six glorious weeks with him at her isolated beachfront home, she is a woman passionately in love. But can she trust this loner not to walk out of her life as easily as he has entered it?
Paige Mattheson is reputed to be as beautiful as the alabaster sculptures she creates--and just as cold. An intensely private person, she is perfectly happy living by herself, until Jesse Dallas walks into her life. Paige's fierce desire for Jesse both exhilarates and terrifies her. And after spending six glorious weeks with him at her isolated beachfront home, she is a woman passionately in love. But can she trust this loner not to walk out of her life as easily as he has entered it?
416 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2008
4 people are currently reading
179 people want to read
About the author
Barbara Delinsky
307 books4,356 followersI was born and raised in suburban Boston. My mother’s death, when I was eight, was the defining event of a childhood that was otherwise ordinary. I took piano lessons and flute lessons. I took ballroom dancing lessons. I went to summer camp through my fifteenth year (in Maine, which explains the setting of so many of my stories), then spent my sixteenth summer learning to type and to drive (two skills that have served me better than all of my other high school courses combined). I earned a B.A. in Psychology at Tufts University and an M.A. in Sociology at Boston College. The motivation behind the M.A. was sheer greed. My husband was just starting law school. We needed the money.
Following graduate school, I worked as a researcher with the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, and as a photographer and reporter for the Belmont Herald. I did the newspaper work after my first son was born. Since I was heavily into taking pictures of him, I worked for the paper to support that habit. Initially, I wrote only in a secondary capacity, to provide copy for the pictures I took. In time, I realized that I was better at writing than photography. I used both skills doing volunteer work for hospital groups, and have served on the Board of Directors of the Friends of the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center and on the MGH’s Women’s Cancer Advisory Board.
I became an actual writer by fluke. My twins were four when, by chance, I happened on a newspaper article profiling three female writers. Intrigued, I spent three months researching, plotting, and writing my own book - and it sold.
My niche? I write about the emotional crises that we face in our lives. Readers identify with my characters. They know them. They are them. I'm an everyday woman writing about everyday people facing not-so-everyday challenges.
My novels are character-driven studies of marriage, parenthood, sibling rivalry, and friendship, and I’ve been blessed in having readers who buy them eagerly enough to put them on the major bestseller lists. One of my latest, Sweet Salt Air, came out in 2013. Blueprints, my second novel with St. Martin’s Press, became my 22nd New York Times bestselling novel soon after its release in June 2015. Making Up, my work in progress, will be published in 2018.
2018? Yikes. I didn’t think I’d live that long. I thought I’d die of breast cancer back in the 1900's, like my mom. But I didn’t. I was diagnosed nearly twenty years ago, had surgery and treatment, and here I am, stronger than ever and loving having authored yet another book, this one the non-fiction Uplift: Secrets From the Sisterhood of Breast Cancer Survivors. First published in 2001, Uplift is a handbook of practical tips and upbeat anecdotes that I compiled with the help of 350 breast cancer survivors, their families and friends. These survivors just ... blew me away! They gave me the book that I wish I’d had way back when I was diagnosed. There is no medical information here, nothing frightening, simply practical advice from friends who’ve had breast cancer. The 10th Anniversary Volume of Uplift is now in print. And the money I’ve made on the book? Every cent has gone to my charitable foundation, which funds an ongoing research fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Connect with me on Facebook: facebook.com/bdelinsky
Look for my photos on Instagram: instagram.com/barbaradelinsky
Following graduate school, I worked as a researcher with the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, and as a photographer and reporter for the Belmont Herald. I did the newspaper work after my first son was born. Since I was heavily into taking pictures of him, I worked for the paper to support that habit. Initially, I wrote only in a secondary capacity, to provide copy for the pictures I took. In time, I realized that I was better at writing than photography. I used both skills doing volunteer work for hospital groups, and have served on the Board of Directors of the Friends of the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center and on the MGH’s Women’s Cancer Advisory Board.
I became an actual writer by fluke. My twins were four when, by chance, I happened on a newspaper article profiling three female writers. Intrigued, I spent three months researching, plotting, and writing my own book - and it sold.
My niche? I write about the emotional crises that we face in our lives. Readers identify with my characters. They know them. They are them. I'm an everyday woman writing about everyday people facing not-so-everyday challenges.
My novels are character-driven studies of marriage, parenthood, sibling rivalry, and friendship, and I’ve been blessed in having readers who buy them eagerly enough to put them on the major bestseller lists. One of my latest, Sweet Salt Air, came out in 2013. Blueprints, my second novel with St. Martin’s Press, became my 22nd New York Times bestselling novel soon after its release in June 2015. Making Up, my work in progress, will be published in 2018.
2018? Yikes. I didn’t think I’d live that long. I thought I’d die of breast cancer back in the 1900's, like my mom. But I didn’t. I was diagnosed nearly twenty years ago, had surgery and treatment, and here I am, stronger than ever and loving having authored yet another book, this one the non-fiction Uplift: Secrets From the Sisterhood of Breast Cancer Survivors. First published in 2001, Uplift is a handbook of practical tips and upbeat anecdotes that I compiled with the help of 350 breast cancer survivors, their families and friends. These survivors just ... blew me away! They gave me the book that I wish I’d had way back when I was diagnosed. There is no medical information here, nothing frightening, simply practical advice from friends who’ve had breast cancer. The 10th Anniversary Volume of Uplift is now in print. And the money I’ve made on the book? Every cent has gone to my charitable foundation, which funds an ongoing research fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Connect with me on Facebook: facebook.com/bdelinsky
Look for my photos on Instagram: instagram.com/barbaradelinsky
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
December 18, 2020
It was very hard to get into these stories. I would leave my book for days without picking it up which isn’t me. I felt both stories were predictable in what was gonna happen. Both of the stories in this book are short stories where I prefer series or a novel.
May 22, 2017
Slow pace... pretty predictable.
April 13, 2019
Sweet romance that leaves you with a happy feeling.
November 5, 2012
Trust by Barbara Delinsky
Two books by the same author:
The Real Thing
Deidre a dancer.
Neil a lawyer.
Both need time alone as work has gotten to them. They each contact Victoria and she tells them separately that they can use the Maine island for a week.
They both arrive and meet up with the boat captain who will take them to the island. He leaves them at the dock with food. They have nothing in common
and don't get along. Because of her broken leg and his extra long body they both must sleep in the largest bed in the cabin and do.
As time goes on they do talk to one another, likes, dislikes, wants and needs...
They are each able to talk about their real problems and they come to a mutual conclusion...
Her mother interfers a lot...
.
Secret of the Stone by Barbara Delinsky
Paige Matheson, Ice maiden is the stone artist that others want to penetrate her hard shell.
Jessie Dallas and his friend Ben have a bet he can break her, in a weeks time. A set of Knicks final game is on the line.
She's not a city girl and loves the ocean and her house right on the shore. It's calming and it's where she can do her work.
She's in the city visiting the galleries that carry her work.
Her agents think she should have a fling while in the city. Her regular limo driver, Felix is on another case and she has Dallas for the day. He's to take her around to all the galleries.
He drives her to hidden places to spend lunch time with as none of the gallery owners has thought she needed to eat. She studies his features and likes what she sees and touches.
He uses his coat on the ground so she can sit on it. He's got a quality of good foods for them to sample while talking about one another life's.
After her grueling day in the city, they spend a heated sensual night, her last night in the city.
She opens up to her about her sex life when he drives her back from the city to her home in Marblehead, MA.
She finds just the perfect stone on the beach. He's driven her back home and left to return to the city. He's not content there and drives back to her house, arriving on her back porch where they take up where their bodies have left off.
He tells her the truth as to why he is there and hates himself as he's not good enough and they hadn't used protection.
He is a documentary film editor and he just needed a break from it all.
She talks him into being a handyman while he's on vacation and she can go back to her wood and sculpting.
Love detailed descriptions of her tools. She had seen the vision of his hand and put it into the stone she had found along with other corresponding images.
After he must leave she struggles and uses her work to get her through the emptiness. She travels home to attend family obligations. She shares with her mother about her pregnancy.
When Jessie learns of her pregnancy he's very angry. He wants to give the child everything he's never had in his life.
Love multiple meanings of the 'secret of the stone'.
Two books by the same author:
The Real Thing
Deidre a dancer.
Neil a lawyer.
Both need time alone as work has gotten to them. They each contact Victoria and she tells them separately that they can use the Maine island for a week.
They both arrive and meet up with the boat captain who will take them to the island. He leaves them at the dock with food. They have nothing in common
and don't get along. Because of her broken leg and his extra long body they both must sleep in the largest bed in the cabin and do.
As time goes on they do talk to one another, likes, dislikes, wants and needs...
They are each able to talk about their real problems and they come to a mutual conclusion...
Her mother interfers a lot...
.
Secret of the Stone by Barbara Delinsky
Paige Matheson, Ice maiden is the stone artist that others want to penetrate her hard shell.
Jessie Dallas and his friend Ben have a bet he can break her, in a weeks time. A set of Knicks final game is on the line.
She's not a city girl and loves the ocean and her house right on the shore. It's calming and it's where she can do her work.
She's in the city visiting the galleries that carry her work.
Her agents think she should have a fling while in the city. Her regular limo driver, Felix is on another case and she has Dallas for the day. He's to take her around to all the galleries.
He drives her to hidden places to spend lunch time with as none of the gallery owners has thought she needed to eat. She studies his features and likes what she sees and touches.
He uses his coat on the ground so she can sit on it. He's got a quality of good foods for them to sample while talking about one another life's.
After her grueling day in the city, they spend a heated sensual night, her last night in the city.
She opens up to her about her sex life when he drives her back from the city to her home in Marblehead, MA.
She finds just the perfect stone on the beach. He's driven her back home and left to return to the city. He's not content there and drives back to her house, arriving on her back porch where they take up where their bodies have left off.
He tells her the truth as to why he is there and hates himself as he's not good enough and they hadn't used protection.
He is a documentary film editor and he just needed a break from it all.
She talks him into being a handyman while he's on vacation and she can go back to her wood and sculpting.
Love detailed descriptions of her tools. She had seen the vision of his hand and put it into the stone she had found along with other corresponding images.
After he must leave she struggles and uses her work to get her through the emptiness. She travels home to attend family obligations. She shares with her mother about her pregnancy.
When Jessie learns of her pregnancy he's very angry. He wants to give the child everything he's never had in his life.
Love multiple meanings of the 'secret of the stone'.
October 5, 2014
Reviews weren't great on this book, so I went into it with low expectations. I enjoyed the stories more than I thought I would. Unlike most people, I was enjoying the 2nd story, "Secret of the Stone" more than the first book, "The Real Thing" but then there were several things that didn't set well with me.
SPOILER ALERT!! Stop Reading Now! SPOILER ALERT!!
First, I liked that Jesse came clean with how and why he had met Paige instead of pretending it was all a random act left to chance. Two things in the last 1/3 of the story really bothered me though. First, Paige's insistence that she can have a child on her own, be a single mom, and the child would not miss a father because she had enough love for both parents. Not only do I find that naive, but I also didn't like the general mantra that the father wasn't needed at all. I found it degrading to men and fatherhood. Second, I didn't like Jesse's treatment of Paige after he discovered she was pregnant. She was reduced to a shell of the woman she was and I found his cold behavior bordering on abusive. When you really love someone (and have a healthy relationship), you don't keep behaving in a way that strips the other person of all confidence and happiness. Marrying him because "she loved him" wasn't a good enough reason for me. Regardless of whether you love someone or not, don't marry someone who treats you like crap. That would be a better message than the one told in "Secret of the Stone".
I like to finish romance novels with happy thoughts of the couple and their future happiness. I wasn't at all confident in Jesse and Paige's chances.
SPOILER ALERT!! Stop Reading Now! SPOILER ALERT!!
First, I liked that Jesse came clean with how and why he had met Paige instead of pretending it was all a random act left to chance. Two things in the last 1/3 of the story really bothered me though. First, Paige's insistence that she can have a child on her own, be a single mom, and the child would not miss a father because she had enough love for both parents. Not only do I find that naive, but I also didn't like the general mantra that the father wasn't needed at all. I found it degrading to men and fatherhood. Second, I didn't like Jesse's treatment of Paige after he discovered she was pregnant. She was reduced to a shell of the woman she was and I found his cold behavior bordering on abusive. When you really love someone (and have a healthy relationship), you don't keep behaving in a way that strips the other person of all confidence and happiness. Marrying him because "she loved him" wasn't a good enough reason for me. Regardless of whether you love someone or not, don't marry someone who treats you like crap. That would be a better message than the one told in "Secret of the Stone".
I like to finish romance novels with happy thoughts of the couple and their future happiness. I wasn't at all confident in Jesse and Paige's chances.
October 23, 2008
This is a reissue of two early Delinsky romances in one volume. I like Delinsky's books--some of her older ones and most all of her newer ones. These two--they were pretty good, but they were slow-paced, and those of you who have read a lot of my reviewlets know that's one of the things I don't like much. The first book, THE REAL THING, had a device Delinsky has used better--the hero and heroine are trapped together in a remote place by a meddling friend who thinks they'll click. There was some nice bickering dialog and a good declaration of truce. Then they got off the island--that went pretty well too. This was the better of the two stories, IMO. I think, perhaps because it had more fun dialogue. The second book, hero sees heroine at a gallery opening (she's an artist), and bets a friend he can break through her "ice." He does, and winds up going up to stay with her in her Cape-Cod-ish retreat. (I don't think it was actual CC, but somewhere like that.) It's very lyrical, lots of going places for dinner and wandering the beach. Then he panics and leaves, then they get back together. Some other stuff happens in here, but it's spoilery, so I won't share it. This was the slower paced of the two stories, and I had a bit of a hard time getting through it because Nothing Happened, mostly. But it's short, and it was a pretty nice romance and overall, this two-fer was worth reading.
May 5, 2009
I didn't enjoy these 2 stories as much as I like her other good books. Good beach reading though.
Read
May 2, 2011Too slow.
February 23, 2013
Nice quick reads. Great for a beach, but not much depth.
October 12, 2014
A friend gave me this to read. The Island with only 2 people on it was a good book.
December 8, 2015
Love the story, read the book twice;
March 31, 2016
Two strangers find themselves stranded on an island in Maine and you can guess the rest. I decided not to even read the second story in the book.
October 16, 2016
Don't care for two stories in one book. Not her best.
March 11, 2009
The Real Thing was good. Loved the characters. Then, Secret of The Stone was also okay.
March 26, 2017
Library Request, it was a typical chick lit, it was entertaining but predictable in the outcome, well written and plot was ok, it is what it is a chick lit, doesn't take much to figure out the outcome. Which is why it was a mindless read.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews