Here are the notes I made as I was reading this romance. Not all of them turned out to be prescient but a lot did:
Tanya has wanted all her life to write the screen play of a major motion picture. Now that she has a great offer she feels she can't do it because it would mean leaving her family - they have always been her primary concern, not her writing. But Peter, her husband of 20 years, talks her into taking this great opportunity even though it will mean she will be away from her family for 9 months.
Much drama ensues concerning the separation - seems a little too much drama giving the separation a lot of us have to have in our lives.
Douglas is all about power and control and owning people. Tanya was very clear on that. Douglas had bought her services, but he didn't own her.
Something ominous is going on here. Is Tanya going to end up having an affair with Douglas. Not sure I will keep reading if she really does betray her family. Megan has already decided she was betrayed but Peter, Jason and the other daughter have been very encouraging.
Douglas is compared to the serpent in the garden of Eden. He is tempting Tanya telling her that once she has had a taste of life in Hollywood she will not be able to go back to the wife/mother role in Marin. Is this book about temptation and good vs evil?
There is something about Douglas that frightens Tanya and attracts her at the same time but she is certain that Douglas will never control her. But this seems to be leading to just that kind of control or at least the threat of it...
Max is the Director. He treats his actors as if they were his children and they respond as if they were his children. Tanya is impressed with his warmth and charm - beware!
Alice, Tanya's best friend who she helped through the tough time after her husband's death, is now helping Peter and the girls, making meals for them and taking the girls to their soccer events, etc. Is Alice going to have an affair with Peter and ruin the Marin good thing? Maybe it is Peter who is going to be tempted and not Tanya after all?
Both Tanya and Peter are getting insecure about their relationship and suspicious about losing to another lover. Maybe nothing has happened yet but we still have about 6 months to go.
Turns out Peter is the one to have an affair with Alice, but what about Tanya, is she going to have one with Douglas now?
I can't believe it! I so wanted Tanya and Peter to be able to work it out and get their marriage back on track and now he has decided that Alice needs him and he loves her and wants to marry her. He is divorcing Tanya. What a shit book!
Are the girls going to blame Tanya for causing this divorce by running off the LA to do the film script? That would be very unfair!
Now Tanya is dating Douglas. Who would have thought that would every happen?
Okay... He loves Tanya and Tanya probably loves him though she is not sure (but we readers are). So now are they going to get married and go off into the sunset or will there be other surprises. My guess is that there is yet more to come.
I can't believe how contrary Megan is being - so hateful toward her mother. Do you think she will change in the end?
Tanya loves her kids. Douglas hates all kids. Disaster on the yacht in St. Barts probably is going to end Tanya and Douglas's relationship.
I was really hoping she was done with Hollywood and now here she goes again; back to Bungalow 2 to write the screen play for another movie.
Can you believe it? She's now having an affair with Gordon Hawkins, a young comedian.
Didn't work with Gordon. He always sleeps with his co-star and catching him in bed with the new one ended it for Tanya. But is she now going to finally stay in Marin and resume a "real" life?
Here she is falling in love again. Will this Englishman be "the one"?
This romance between Tanya and Phillip feels different and better - his two and her three children are involved the whole way. I think this one is going to stick.
Tanya finally checked out of Bungalow 2. For a while there at the end I was fearful that this romance would end badly when they were forced to stay in Bungalow 2 while attending the Golden Globes Awards Ceremony. After all she had romances with three other men end really tragically in Bungalow 2 so it seemed only consistent that this one would end there too. But paradoxically it is having its beginning in Bungalow 2.
Well, as you can see from my notes this story certainly had me involved. Though there were many times I did not like the way the story was going and wanted to stop reading and throw the book down I kept on with it to the end. It is the kind of book you love to hate or hate to love or something like that. Another fine Romance story by a master of Romance I give this one a 7 of 10 on the Weaver meter.
