No Nice Girl

by Perry Lindsay

When a thoroughly "nice" girl is clever as well, let her less strongly armed sisters beware.

Phyllis Gordon was completely honest and very intelligent. Terry McLean was her first and only lover, and he really loved her. But Phyllis cared too much for him to marry him until she had rid herself of her unrequited passion for her millionaire employer, Kenyon Rutledge. Kenyon's fiancée, Letty Lawrence, was also well equipped with beauty and brains, and she had money besides.

Yet the arrival in town of Phyllis's little country cousin, Anice Mayhew, spelled danger for both Phyllis and Letty. For Anice was dewy-eyed, supersweet and diabolically innocent.

Genres: Fiction, Romance, Novels, Noir, Mystery

192 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1949

Reviews

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perry Lindsay was a pseudo of Peggy Gaddis. When this novel was reprinted in paperback in 1946, it was one of the first of a bewildering array of Gaddis paperback reprints that began appearing along with her paperback originals in the late 1940s and 1950s. By that time Peggy Gaddis had already published more than 100 novels in hardcover. All told, she wrote nearly 300 novels under a variety of pseudonyms. No Nice Girl starts right off with Anice spying through the drapes and catching a businessman having an affair with a neighbor and then blackmailing him into buying her house for $5,000, which in 1946 would have been a considerable amount for an 18-year old to play around with. Where things go next is a bit surprising and never completely given motivation: Anice goes to New York City and moves in with her cousin Phyllis. (What does she do with the $5,000? Spends it mostly on clothes.) Over the course of the novel Anice worms her way into Phyllis's life, angling for her boyfriends and her job. With a little more edge and darkness this could have been really creepy. It's like one of those horror movies (Rock the Cradle?) where the seemingly nice girl invades the family and yet we know she has evil intent. Here, though, the others see what she is up to right away but inexplicably let it happen. Before the happy ending - this is ultimately a romance novel, after all - Phyllis nearly losses everything to her not so nice cousin.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anice Mayhew is a manipulative little rat and a great villain. She moves to New York and conquers Manhattan with her devious machinations. She gets everything she wants, but we all know that she'll never be happy. Great fun!

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such a brilliant period piece, showing the bitchiness of a woman out to get everything she can out of life, if only to spite her cousin. I wish there had been even more to this story!

[Freya · Rating 4 out of 5]

How fun to read a vintage story! Their idea of scandalous behavior is a little different from now. It was more of a mystery with characters than romance scenes.

[Abhinandan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Villain is a malicious little thing. Third act is a trainwreck.

[Su · Rating 1 out of 5]

Although technically a romance between Phyllis and Terry, this is mostly 185 pages of pure, unadulterated cattiness and devious bitchiness from her cousin Anice. The romance, such as it is, plays very much a second fiddle to the machinations of the lovely viper as she sinks her poisonous fangs into everyone around her in her amoral quest for wealth and power, leaving me cursing and flipping pages impatiently until I reached the unsatisfactory end.

While realistic I guess, this wasn't what I was hoping for, leaving me with a really sour taste afterwards - I had to immediately dive into another superromance to try and wipe out the unpleasantness left by this. Title is entirely appropriate.

[Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

From the way these vintage Harlequins were promoted I was expecting a crime novel, which this one is not. Started slow but turned into an over-the-top melodrama and was pretty good. But the not so nice "Nice Girl" did not get her come-uppance at the end which made it feel like the last chapter was missing or a sequel was being set up(and if there is a sequel I'd read it too).

[Mallory · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this in lieu of a chick lit novel. Served the same purpose - love interest, strong female lead character(s), and a good ending! It is definitely more a romance novel then a mystery or crime novel.

This was a very quick read. Nothing amazing, but good little story.

[Starfish · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is incredible. It's utterly unbelievable, and manages to be entertaining despite there only being one sympathetic character in the entire book and the plot just going from bad to worse. Thoroughly recommended.

[David · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is not a faithful reprint of the original novel but a bowdlerization. You should boycott this book.

[Greg · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a pretty weak offering in the series of harlequin reprints.