On the eve of World War II, two people are brought together by fate and discover an unexpected passion.
Will drifts into Whitney, Georgia, one lazy afternoon in the summer of 1941, dragging his lonely past behind him. All he asks is for a chance to love. Then he sees Elly's classified ad for a husband, and when he steps across Elly's cluttered yard, Will knows he has come home at last.
February 1, 1989
Fans of Spencer's bestselling paperback historical novels ( Vows ; The Gamble ) will be pleased by her hardcover debut, again demonstrating her gift for telling a satisfyingly conventional romantic tale in fresh, sprightly prose. Tall, dark and handsome Will Parker has served time for the killing of a Texas prostitute, but keeps losing jobs as his reputation becomes known. In the small town of Whitney, Ga., at the beginning of WW II, he answers the advertisement of a pregnant widow and mother of two, the abused and reclusive Eleanor Dinsmore, who is looking for a husband. Soon in love with ostensibly plain, bedraggled Ellie, Parker dotes on her two boys, and works to support the family. Fittingly for this sort of bucolic idyll, Will and Ellie, despite their rudimentary educations, love books and develop a special friendship with wise old Miss Beasley, the local librarian. Alas, brazen and rapacious Lula Peak, the town floozie, sets her sights on Will, waylaying him in the library; meantimes, Lula is blackmailing her lover, the cowardly Harley Overmire, who is no friend of Will. The clearly drawn characters fulfill their imperativesincluding Will, who becomes a war heroand all is neatly and pleasingly resolved. Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club alternates.
January 1, 1990
Set in small-town Georgia at the dawn of WW II, handsome ex-con Will Parker answers the advertisement of a pregnant widow and mother of two, who is looking for a husband. ``Fans will be pleased by Spencer's hardcover debut, again demonstrating her gift for telling a satisfyingly conventional romantic tale in fresh, sprightly prose,'' wrote PW .