Indulgence
Anthology by Connie Bennett, Thea Devine, Evelyn Rogers,
and Olivia Rupprecht

Overall rating 4.0
ISBN# 0-8439-4289-4
Copyright 1997
Reviewed 7/29/97 by Kathy

Charlotte Nolan won a masquerade cruise. She is shy, plain and just an all around nice girl. She has decided to go as Charlotte Vale, a Bette Davis character from the movie Now, Voyager. The first night she is sitting at the table with two dear little old ladies who are posing as Jane Marple and Lauren Bacall. She is talking with the two little ladies when the most handsome man comes into the room and makes his way to the empty chair beside her. He looks just like Dallas Kincaid, the famous movie star. He and Charlotte, otherwise known as Charlye, get to know each other and by the end of the cruise become very close. Then Charlye discovers his secret and runs away. She goes back to her safe world where she works for a health-care group and tries to forget about Dallas and her broken heart.

But things have a way of working out in the end. This is a wonderful story. Connie Bennett created some great characters and a fantastic scenario for this story to unfold. I really enjoyed it!

Bobby, Nick's brother, calls and invites him to his engagement party. Nick asks who the lucky girl is and Bobby admits that it is Francesca, the same woman Nick was engaged to two years before and left after a big argument.

Francesca wanted to pursue her interest in music and Nick wanted her to keep working for his company because she was very good at what she did. Nick would not listen to her arguments as to why she felt she had to do this and he ran away to Chicago.

Nick is very upset by Bobby's call and realizes that he's still in love with Francesca. He decides to go to the engagement party and see for himself if this is really true and see that Francesca doesn't love him anymore.

Needless to say, Nick doesn't know this is a set up and Francesca is doing this to lure Nick back to New York. She's made a success with her music and has started a recording company and has quite a following of fans. She's still in love with Nick and will do just about anything to get him to see the error of his ways and admit that he still loves her.

It was very interesting to read how Mrs. Devine's characters play off of each other. Bobby enjoys tormenting his older brother and you can just see Nick's teeth grind when he sees Bobby and Francesca together.

Susan Ballinger has had two disastrous engagements, both to rich men who decided they wanted to marry rich women instead of her. She has decided to try once again to marry for money. She's tired of being poor. Her latest job is to appraise an art collection for Bradford Horatio Kitchener. She decides on the way to the job that this is the man she is going to marry.

She finally arrives at Mr. Kitchener's house and on the way to the front door, a large dog races up to her and it seems like the dog is trying to get Susan to follow her. Susan follows the dog to the barn and just as she gets to the door, the dog suddenly turns around and jumps up on Susan.

Susan sits down on the ground, right in a pile of horse manure. Just at that time a gorgeous man comes out of the barn. Susan asks him if he's Brad Kitchener as he is helping her up and he asks her if she wants him to be. She tells him no and he introduces himself as Sonny, the hired help.

Looks can be deceiving, as you will soon discover in this story. It was a delightful story and Susan and Brad don't have a chance with the scheming of his Aunt Bernie and her friend from work, Alice. Needless to say, neither one of them know that Aunt Bernie and Alice know each other. Evelyn Rogers wrote a great story about how things have a way of working themselves out.

Valerie Smith decides to give up her job and move in with her sister to become a writer. Her sister is trying to become an actress. Valerie decides if she can just sell a short story of erotica to Fantasies magazine, she can at least pay the rent.

She is getting very discouraged because she's also written a novel but she doesn't have the courage to send it to a publisher. She just knows it will be rejected. Deciding to take a walk, she discovers a little curio shop called Kismet. She goes in and finds a beautiful cupid statue with a chipped wing and an arrow in his bow. She decides she just has to have it for good luck. The proprietor of the shop tells her it's hers for free.

That night she has a very strange dream and the next morning gets up and whips off an erotic story and sends it to Fantasies magazine. She is very surprised when she gets a letter and a check from the editor. The letter says he wants to see more of her work.

She goes to the Laundromat to do her laundry and on the way home she bumps into a man who she recognizes as her fantasy man. He helps her get her laundry home and asks her out. She finds out his name is Jake Larson and he used to be an editor in New York. He offers to help her with her book. She doesn't realize he's also the editor of Fantasies magazine. He doesn't know who she is at first but figures it out very soon.

They have several major disagreements about her book. She thinks he's criticizing her baby and he feels he's only trying to help. He doesn't tell her what he does for a living and when she finds out, she's very upset.

This was a very complex story and things finally turned out all right in the end. All in all, it was a good story.