Journey's End

Evacuated to Wales during the London blitz of WWII, young Rose Forster further endures the death of her parents in the bombing and the loss of her older sister, Gracie, who sails to the States with her husband, a Yank soldier. Years later, Gracie fulfills her promise to bring her sister, now 18, ""across the pond."" Rose arrives in L.A. as a strikingly pretty virgin with a British accent and a dream of becoming a starlet. Saunders's (To Love and Honour) depiction of Hollywood is as stereotypical as everything else in this rickety romance. Everywhere Rose turns, men are grabbing her, trying to kiss her, even attempting to lure her into pornographic films. After she lands a job as a secretary, her boss, who seems at first a decent sort, turns out to be a sexual pervert, leaving Welshman Evan Pritchard as the true object of the young woman's affection. Rose is an unsympathetic heroine, whiny and indecisive, and her big romance with Evan occurs in large part over the phone--one of the few modern notes in a novel that otherwise suffers from a sensibility so dated that it borders on camp. (Jan.)