Games

An ice princess as far as most men are concerned, Julia Carey melts instantly on meeting Brad Bradford, a rich, jaded American visiting England on business. Though she initially receives his practiced advances with disdain, the two soon start a heated affair. Unbeknownst to Julia, however, Brad's tyrannical mother has already picked a wife for him, and she doesn't take kindly to this change in partners. When Brad installs his English bride at the family mansion in Boston, Lady Hester Bradford concocts an elaborate, expensive scheme to show her son that Julia cares more for a career and another man than she does for him. Brad obligingly beats Julia, divorces her and marries the woman his mother has chosen, while pregnant Julia flees to England to make a name for herself in interior design. Their inevitable reconciliation takes place five years later, after Julia's daughter has been kidnapped on Lady Hester's orders and a host of family skeletons have been rattled. Cowie has followed The Rich and the Mighty with an overwrought, predictable romance sorely lacking in fire and imagination. (April 4)