Solitaire

by Lisa Gregory

From the author of the bestselling Before the Dawn comes a blockbuster story of a beautiful girl who makes it big in Hollywood but is haunted by the love she has left behind. Yet when her first love arrives in Hollywood to reclaim her, Jennifer wonders if it is too late.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary Romance

Mass Market Paperback

First published October 31, 1988

About the author

Pseudonym of Candace Camp

Candace Pauline Camp was born on May 23, 1949 in Amarillo, Texas, U.S.A.. The youngest of three children born into a newspaper family -- her mother, Lula Mae (Irons) Camp, had been a reporter and her father, Grady Camp, was the business manager of the Amarillo, Texas, newspaper -- some of Candace's earliest memories are of making up stories which she played out on the floor of their den with whatever objects were handy. She cannot remember a time when she was not interested in creating stories. She began writing down her stories when she was about 10, and from then on writing was her favorite form of relaxation. Explains Candace: "I was always very shy and did not talk much. However, in written form, I could express all my thoughts and feelings."

Writing remained only a hobby, though, as Candace attended college at the University of Texas at Austin and West Texas State University, then became a secondary teacher in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. She later moved to North Carolina, where she worked in the trust department of a bank. It was there that she discovered the romance novel in modern form and started to write her first romance. She also began law school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and while she was there, she finished her first novel, entitled Bonds of Love, that was published by Jove Publishing in 1978, under the pseudonym Lisa Gregory. Candace credits the rigorous training of law school with teaching her the discipline necessary to finish a book. She gave up the practice of law to devote her time to writing. Two pseudonyms later (Kristin James and Sharon Stephens), Candace writes under her own name Candace Camp-- and still loves creating stories.

Candace is married since 1980 with Pete Hopcus, and they had a daughter Anastasia Hopcus in 1982, who had started on her own career path in the field of acting and now also writes young adult novels.

Reviews

[Jena · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know what I just read here...but this is women's fiction and not a romance novel.

Soliatire is a story about a sweet girl from the wrong side of the tracks (she looks like Pam Anderson). Her family is poor-white-trash and life has always been hard on her family. Her father is an abusive alcoholic known to beat her, and people are starting to call her a slut because boys are making up stories about her.

She's innocent though and has secretly been in love with the wealthiest and the most popular boy in town. H's family owns basically everything.
These two fall in love, then they are separated by H's father.
The book is filled with secondary characters (2 other couples) which I didn't bother reading about, but the main story is about how Pam look-alike goes from nothing to a gorg movie star.

My problem with this book--
why did the first 150 pages read like a sweet 5-star worthy romance novel?! I absolutely loved the beginning, the story is well written and the h/H (15 + 17/18 yr olds) were the sweetest couple ever, their love pure and innocent! It read like one of Judith McNaught stories! It was INCREDIBLE!
Then the author proceeds to ruin their story by turning it into women's fiction! So this might be just MY misunderstanding, I read it expecting a romance novel but it ended up being a huge freakin letdown.

here are spoilers (FULL- caution! I'm spoiling EVERYTHING!), because there weren't any when I looked.

When they're together in high school, they never have intercourse(she's only 15).
There is no cheating or OW.
When the H's father split them up, H/h both leave town and they don't get back together for 17, SEVENTEEN, years! And the reunion is only talked about for the last 100 pages (the book is about 460pages)!!!
The conflict that broke them up: H's 3 best friends got together to tell him that they had all slept with the h, that she really was trash and that H was the only boy in town who's never had her. Since H's known his 3 BF's since they were kids, H believed them. The BF's told this lie to save the H from the h's influence. H was about to give up going away to college.
h lost her virginity to someone not the H but who looks like the H. She even marries this actor and has a kid with him (but the daughter died)!
She of course realizes her mistake and ends up divorcing him, h never loved anyone but the H. She's never felt anything in bed but with the H.
H's side of the history was NEVER talked about , WTF! We have no idea how many women he's been smashing, how he married his ex-wife, why the ex wife left the H, why he left town, if he's in touch with his father/mom, why he decided to become a doctor instead of a lawyer like his dad, which college did he end up going since this was a big issue in the beginning of the book, NOTHING, we know nothing except that he has 2 daughters when they meet again and he expects her to be their mom now because his wife left him. Its as if the author wanted to just finish the book. I would have liked to have known if the H ever loved another woman, did he love his ex-wife, did he pine for the h over the years. This book could've been amazingly angsty, but we're left to wonder.
Did the H/h get together and have HEA at the end, yes, marriage and everything, but i wasn't happy about how it ended. h has to raise H's 2 daughters when she's still grieving her child she's lost, H has the custody of them, and by the time we get to this part, I had lost all interest with these two! The book ended abruptly with too many questions left unanswered. We have no closure about his past at all. Its like someone else wrote the mid-end for her, the writing was different, even the characters became very 1 dimensional at the end.
Forgot to spoil- How did they get back together, 17 years later, the H see's his best friend and he admits to lying about sleeping with the h, so H seeks out h to apologize. Jeez...
This was a frustrating book to say the least.

2 Stars romance novel.
3-4 stars womens fiction.
I read this for free at the open library.

[Simone · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this in junior high (when I was most certainly too young to be reading trash), and recently ran across it at a thrift store.This is classic beach reading at its finest. It reads just like an epic 80's mini series.

[ANGELIA · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was really good, but also really sad, with the three women in the story leading glamorous lives in the world of Hollywood make-believe, yet each of them, for all they seemed to have, being alone, lonely and longing to fill the void in their lives, yet too frightened to really open up their hearts to do so.

I wish the author hadn't decided to have a baby die as part of the story, even though I can understand it, that didn't make it any less heartbreaking.

It's a long struggle for everyone to get to HEA, but it sure isn't dull getting there!

[Olnega · Rating 4 out of 5]

80s women fiction/romance, loved it.

[Melody Dixon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Back in the 1980's, I bought this book with my hard earned money from my newspaper route. I lost it.
It took me this long to find it again.
Jennifer and Matthew, Liz and Sloan, Brett and Joe.
Three couples with their own stories woven together. I loved it!

[BookwormWithGoggles]

Once In A Lifetime

She was born Jennifer Taylor in a small Arkansas town.

She was blonde, beautiful, and called "poor white I trash" by every man who wanted her. And every man did. But Jennifer was innocent as only a young girl with big dreams can be. Then she fell crazily, wonderfully in love with Matthew Ferris -- son of the richest man in town. It was a fairy-tale romance, filled with the sweetness of young passion...and the purity of first desire. And for once Jennifer dared to care for something, someone--more than her secret ambition to become a movie star.

All fairy tales end. But when Jennifer ran away to Hollywood to fight for stardom in a town pulsing with sex, power, and everything that glitters, she couldn't escape from her heart. Here she'd look for happiness, only to find the man who had left her long ago--and left her aching for his love.

[Jana · Rating 3 out of 5]

pretty good book, doesn't get into alot of detail which is usually good so that people who struggle with the same issues don't get triggered.

[Tracie Blumenthal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this story!