September 28, 1992
The rough charm and heat that fueled Dance with the Devil are largely missing from Douglas's second novel, which reels through more melodramatic tragedies than the Book of Job. Softhearted, emotionally fragile Patricia Dennison, orphaned heiress to the Stoneham fortune, divides her life between trips to a Swiss sanitorium, where she is ensconced in the suicide ward, and the farm where she pensions off broken-down horses, cultivates a lush rose garden (with ladybugs, not pesticides) and moons after a handsome, seemingly heroic doctor. Enter arrogant Miguel Cardiga, a Portuguese bullfighter whose career is sidelined by a rogue bull's deadly horns. Son of a famed equestrian, Miguel schools Patricia in dressage and love's thrust and parry. Meantime, Stoneham Group trustees plot to declare Patricia incompetent and engineer a series of accidents designed to drive her over the edge. Although Douglas has proven himself a capable storyteller, he soaks this sticky-sweet romance in a rain of cliches and predictably cyclical lovers' spats. Flashes of wry humor can't salvage pasteboard characters and a creaky plot. Major ad/promo; author tour.
July 1, 1992
Such trite plot elements as a virile Latin bullfighter, a beautiful orphaned heiress, and Lusitano stallions pretty much explain this formulaic romance. Movie star-turned-novelist Douglas ( Dance with the Devil, Random, 1990) also throws in evil trustees, AIDS, Palestinian terrorists, glimpses of Lisbon and New York, amputees, and insanely jealous mistresses in this tale about a past murder that brings together the unlikely protagonists. Recommended for those readers not yet tired of the vicissitudes of the weird and wealthy. Literary Guild alternate; previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 6/1/92.-- Lynn Thompson, Ozark Regional Lib., Ironton, Mo.
Copyright 1992 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.