Only Love Can Heal

Harris (Guarded Passions) first released this historical military romance as Officers’ Ladies in 1987, and ’80s romance novel mores—including double standards for men and women—are visibly at work in this story. In England during WWII, plucky aristocrat Lt. Kate Russell first meets working-class soldier Robert Campbell when he is playing chauffeur for her father, Gen. Sir Henry Russell. Robert and Kate soon fall into a serious relationship, but when Robert announces his plans to marry Kate, her father is apoplectic. While Kate and Robert are on their honeymoon, Kate’s mother has a heart attack and uses the illness to try to break the couple up. Kate goes home but Robert stays in Germany, and soon he has an affair. When Kate pays him a surprise visit, it is she who gets the surprise, but she somehow manages to turn the other cheek. The story then sweeps through several decades; characters get married with unlikely speed, unexpected pregnancies abound, and the plotting jumps around too quickly. The attraction between Kate and Robert has questionable chemistry, and the ending fails to uplift, ending this uneven effort with a whimper, not a bang. [em]Agent: Caroline Sheldon, Caroline Sheldon Literary. (May) [/em]