From the inside jacket--
When young Katherine Ballard listens unseen to the final clash between her scholarly father and glamorous socialite mother, Syndey Benedict Ballard, she is crushed. Abandoned by her mother, isolated from the father who retreats into his work, Kate is left to put herself together piece by piece, constructing a facade that allows her to face the shame of her mother's notoriety. Only her best friend, the rebellious, determined Rebecca Salter, understands and loves Kate unconditionally.
And then, years later, powerful matriarch Polly Benedict reaches out to the granddaughter she has never acknowledged. Inviting Kate to live at Kel Regis, the opulent Benedict estate in South Carolina, Polly hopes to shape her granddaughter's life, to live out through Kate her own frustrated ambitions. But Kate is no easy conquest. Only gradually is she won over to the seductive Benedict way of life: the grandeur of Kel Regis; the influence wielded by Polly and her lusty husband, the Senator; the dreams Polly has for the brillant, beautiful, feisty, granddaughter who is already making a name for herself doing the work she loves.
Kate turns her back on it all with a wildly romantic gamble. She marries Win Talley, the American actor who is taking London by storm. And suddenly Kate is on a collision course with all the people she loves most- her deepest needs, her fiercest passions and ideals at stake.
Touching on many of the issues closest to women today, Leona Blair has created a deeply satisfying story of mothers and daughters, of men and women in love, that speaks to a woman's intellect and to her heart.
When young Katherine Ballard listens unseen to the final clash between her scholarly father and glamorous socialite mother, Syndey Benedict Ballard, she is crushed. Abandoned by her mother, isolated from the father who retreats into his work, Kate is left to put herself together piece by piece, constructing a facade that allows her to face the shame of her mother's notoriety. Only her best friend, the rebellious, determined Rebecca Salter, understands and loves Kate unconditionally.
And then, years later, powerful matriarch Polly Benedict reaches out to the granddaughter she has never acknowledged. Inviting Kate to live at Kel Regis, the opulent Benedict estate in South Carolina, Polly hopes to shape her granddaughter's life, to live out through Kate her own frustrated ambitions. But Kate is no easy conquest. Only gradually is she won over to the seductive Benedict way of life: the grandeur of Kel Regis; the influence wielded by Polly and her lusty husband, the Senator; the dreams Polly has for the brillant, beautiful, feisty, granddaughter who is already making a name for herself doing the work she loves.
Kate turns her back on it all with a wildly romantic gamble. She marries Win Talley, the American actor who is taking London by storm. And suddenly Kate is on a collision course with all the people she loves most- her deepest needs, her fiercest passions and ideals at stake.
Touching on many of the issues closest to women today, Leona Blair has created a deeply satisfying story of mothers and daughters, of men and women in love, that speaks to a woman's intellect and to her heart.
