Spellbinder

by Bethany Campbell

Settling her uncle's estate was heart-wrenching for Kelly, but spending time at his home on a beautiful lake in Arkansas meant she'd have the peace and quiet she needed to work on her next book. She hadn't counted on the presence of her uncle's neighbor, Zane Graye. The man was rude, opinionated and worst of all, he liked 'trashy' novels. Hardly the sort of man to be giving advice to a woman who'd already published two children's stories. But despite a mutual dislike and distrust for each other, Kelly soon discovered there was more to Zane than she'd first realized. Zane Graye was a true spellbinder.

Genres: Romance, Harlequin

192 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1992

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

[EeeJay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Best part: The dog.

[Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

While staying at my Mom's, I came across this book and the back cover description intrigued me. I'm glad I picked it up, it was a lovely treat. Kelly and Zane are great together. I love how Kelly comes to realize that her preconceptions are judgmental and unfair. Zane is a fictional Stephen King sort, writing very popular thrillers that some turn their noses down at. Kelly had done that much to her regret once she actually read one of his books. A busybody neighbour proves to be a threat much to everyone's surprise. There are some fun scenes with a lovable pooch

[Annarose · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kelly had to sort out her beloved uncle Jemmie's things after his sudden death of a heart stroke. It's was heart wrecking for her to go to his house, clean it and put it for sale, but it was even more so because she discovered he had four stay cats, a watchdog that did nothing but be funny, and a daunting neighbour called Zane Graye. As her stay there extended to write her book for children, things got complicated and all because she insulted her uncle's books in front of Zane!

I'm always amazed by Bethany Campbell's books. They have depth and twist of events that never fail to grasp the attention of a reader to the extreme. Bravo!

[More Books Than Time · Rating 1 out of 5]

There is a nugget of plot here overwhelmed by zero character development and mediocre writing. Stuck with it for 60 pages, read end, tried to read again and dumped.

I’m on a streak of bad Harlequins sad to say and spending too much time rereading favorites.

[Elgyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

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