Хиляда рози

by Bethany Campbell

Пердита Нордстранд е самоуверена и смела жена. Тя е убедена, че може да се справи с всяка ситуация. Но животът е пълен с изненади и когато се запознава с обаятелния Ебенизър Скуайърс, Пердита неочаквано се оказва в безизходица. Не защото Ебенизър идва от чужд за нея свят на блясък, власт и разкош, а заради непреодолимото и трудно обяснимо привличане помежду им…

Genres: Romance, Harlequin Romance, Harlequin

Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Sally McCluskey (aka Bethany Campbell) was born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska, as an only child. She attended college beginning as a chemistry major, after quickly switching her major to English. She obtainded a B.A. from Wayne State Teachers College, and an M.A. in English from the University of Arkansas. She met her husband, Dan Borengasser, while both were graduate students at Northern Illinois University, where she obtained a Ph.D. in English.

Sally taught and in her spare time wrote, but after marriage, the couple moved to an area where teaching jobs were scarce, and she turned to writing full time. She wrote poetry, articles, short stories, and contributed to textbooks, but finally decided to try a romance novel at the urging of her mom and aunt, both avid romance fans. To Sally’s amazement, Harlequin bought her story After the Stars Fall and published it in 1985 under the pseudonym Bethany Campbell. She has also written as Lisa Harris. She has won three Romance Writers of America (RWA) RITA Awards, three Romantic Times Reviewer Awards, a Maggie Award, and the Daphne du Maurier Award of Excellence.

She lived with her husband in northwest Arkansas. Her husband, who serves as Vice President of Ozark Film & Video Productions, also writes, and has had several short films and plays produced.

Reviews

[Trenchologist · Rating 3 out of 5]

September Readathon

The heroine is great. The hero is a bore.

But he's also suddenly, incredibly likable and redeemed in the final chapter, and unlikable until then. And that's part of the point, and Campbell obviously wrote it that way.

I'm not quite sure he's fully redeemed; at least in their HEA he'll have time and resources to pull that off and give the heroine everything she deserves.

Very interesting and uncommon background for the heroine. At all, and definitely for a romance novel. I appreciated that; her dreaming heart and how she was both capable and not a pushover but just didn't know all the ways of things a hard-bitten businessman would.

Good sense of humor and actual repartee in the dialogue.

What bothered me most about the hero isn't him being brusque or meddling, or even detached/appreciative of the heroine, but rather his sexually pestering her. If we view backwards through the lens of his trauma and closed heart, you can imagine he wants to install her as a mistress because he's in deep and can't admit it, but this would be a way to hold onto her. As it stands, he hasn't done enough on page to earn that benefit. Even for a category pubbed in '86.

I'm not fully sure why the heroine falls for him, other than it's made so clear how she loves the unlovable and has no self consciousness or worry in doing so. He's among the unlovable, until he sheds his hard shell and the past that created it. She's said to be somewhat prescient, and learned lessons from her nontraditional family, so we'll chalk it up to her simply understanding who he should be (glimpsed in their quiet moments) and not what he showed.

He still has some making up to do, and the only one good to him (his little sister) is the only one who'll be good to her after they're married, but they'll make it work. At least they already have a rangy, dubious mutt who's ready to be loyal to them.

[Phylisha Stone · Rating 4 out of 5]

An older harlequin romance, but a good one. Perdita Nordstrom is alone in the world and looking for a place to call home. Ben Squires has family but is also alone because of the betrayal by his older brother and Ben's fiancé who are both dead after a secret tryst. Throw in a semi-wild dog whom they save from drowning and you have a really good story that actually doesn't sound sound to dated. I liked it.

[Max C. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This gets five stars simply because I read it as a teenager and it left enough of an impression that I still remember it about a decade later. So glad I could find it. It's a harlequin/mills&book romance with all the tropes, but I know I loved it.

[Miki · Rating 2 out of 5]

Liked Perdita - she was strong, and funny. Ben was a spoiled brat with a bad temper. He didn't deserve her.

[Valary · Rating 3 out of 5]

creative background for feminine protagonist, some humor and fun