This anthology is Rated R. There is no graphic sex, but adult situations.

 

In a garden overlooking the Hudson River Valley four close friends meet for lunch. Each is requested by the hostess, the youngest of the four, to compose a toast that epitomizes or symbolizes their search for fulfillment and happiness. As each of the four women compose their toast, their stories unfold.

 

The Sparrow and the Blue Jay - Cybelle, feisty, petite, (sort of a combination Sandra Bullock/Molly Ringwald) popcorn character, in love with an older man, who will not admit his feelings, because Mark loves her too much to ignore the age difference.

Driscoll's Lady - Leatrice, elegance, finesse, classic beauty, intelligence, wealth and popularity, all rolled into one, in love with a Montanan horse rancher of moderate means, a man of the land, who has achieved his present status through long years of conscientious, hard-riding, backbreaking work. Although initially attracted to Leatrice, Seth Driscoll's conception of eastern women is stereotyped, especially regarding wealthy idle women. Not at all what he is looking for in a wife. Give him a woman of the land, Montanan bred.

Adventure in Panama - While visiting Panama, Doreen, wealthy and refined, herself, hailing from a distinguished family in the Hudson River Valley succumbed to the charms of a Latin lover, Esteban. They married and for a short time she was ecstatically happy living with him on his huge estate in Panama, along with his dowager grandmother, and sibling twins. As her efforts to conceive children met with failure she could no longer abide living in an old custom world environment that she felt was suffocating her, but her husband entrenched in old world pride and deeply in love with her refused to let her go. Not to mention the rumors about his involvement with the stripper he employed at his club.

Henderson Sands - Harriet - a New York waitress, remembered always fearing and disliking the opposite sex. Recurring nightmares haunted her anytime she came close to becoming involved with a man. With Val (Thorvald) the nightmares had not come, not yet, possibly because she found him the most intense, most handsome, vital man she had ever met. Strolling with Val the decks of the ocean liner cruising the Mediterranean, she accepted his smooth words with a grain of salt - a shipboard romance. She knew that once the ship docked in New York, she would never want to see him again. Then fate stepped in, and Harriet found herself stranded alone with Val on an exotic island in the Mediterranean, an island they christened Henderson Sands after their surnames. Harriet could not deny her attraction to Val, yet how could she permit herself to find him devastatingly appealing? Wasn't he like most men, fundamentally interested in -- she refused to think further. And then the nightmares returned…

Reviewed by Coffeetime Romances "4 Cups" out of "Five" - A Keeper.

Books by Paula Freda
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