Rebecca Stratton (–1982)

Vastly disappointed with this one. The heroine takes off a few weeks before her marriage to the man her family has always assumed she would marry. She wants to think things over. But her fiancé follows her and just won't even give her any breathing room. He was pretty stalkerific and condescending and was always secretly or not so secretly laughing at her. All of which would have been acceptable if at the end he would have had a great declarative scene where he tells her he loves her and always has. But no, just a 'I'm glad you finally got your head screwed on straight.' Never even told her he loved her.… (meer)

Eighteen-year-old Bethany Meandis's stepfather (Pavlos) has recently died and now she and her younger brother Takis have a guardian, hero-Nikolas Meandis (who is in his 30's). Kind Pavlos adopted Bethany when she was young and she has been living happily on the tiny Greek island of Apolidus, which she adores.

{Bethany's mother left her and her father years ago (Bethany's parents were both artists, her father a painter, her mother a sculptor) and Bethany has moved from place to place with her father till he eventually left her in an artist commune when she was five. Her mother got married again (to Pavlos) and Pavlos adopted Bethany and she went to live with him and her mother on Apolidus. (After some years Bethany's mother left Pavlos and later on died in a car crash.)}

So Bethany finally had some stability in her life and now, with Pavlos's death, Nikolas (Pavlos's cousin) comes along as guardian and wants to change all that. He wants to take her to another island so she can visit Pavlos's family, whom Bethany never knew existed. Nikolas wants to send Takis to a school, make changes Bethany doesn't want...

This was an okay read. The back story of all the family members was very confusing. So many family members...wives leaving husbands, husbands leaving wives, parents reappearing and disappearing. It was hard to keep track of it all at times. The hero was alright, but I didn't like how he kept calling the heroine "child". She (Bethany) was young (18) and naïve, but hardly a child. I found it distracting at times and not very romantic.

This was an average read from the 80's.… (meer)