Second Love by Judith Gould, Judith Gould (Preface by)

From the Publisher

Dorothy Anne Hale-Cantwell has risen to the challenges of the legendary heritage that is her birthright and that no one can take away. Tonight is her crowning moment: The beautiful businesswoman has just unveiled the San Francisco Palace, the fabulous new luxury hotel that towers over the neon-bright city like a giant, glittering jewel. But as the star-studded grand opening festivities gather momentum several stories below, Dorothy Anne stands alone on the hotel's penthouse balcony, anxiously scanning the skies for a glimpse of her husband Freddy's private helicopter. It never arrives, and soon her most dreaded fears come true. As Dorothy Anne tries to cope with the devastating loss of the man who was her friend, her lover, and her whole life, a mysterious group of powerful businessmen plot a ruthless takeover of her hard-won international empire. With dizzying speed, Dorothy Anne's world spins wildly out of control, plunging her into a nightmare of scandal, deception, and cold-blooded murder. Then she meets charismatic Hunt Winslow, a decorated war hero and rising political star on a clear career path to the White House - if his domineering mother has her way. Trapped in a loveless marriage, Hunt offers Dorothy Anne something as unexpected as it is miraculous: a second chance at love. But their illicit passion will place both their lives in grave danger and could destroy everything they have worked so hard to attainall they hold most precious.

Library Journal

Can Dorothy-Anne Hale-Cantwell find happiness with the governor of California while fighting a hostile bid for her fancy hotel chain and grieving over her husband's sudden death?

Kirkus Reviews

Gould continues in the Sidney Sheldon tradition, this time with echoes of Windmills of the Gods: a widowed heroine, a hit- woman, and a group of ominously foreign bad guys.

Dorothy-Anne Hale-Cantwell (from Love-Makers, not reviewed) is a 31-year-old billionairess who owns and oversees the Hale hotel and travel empire—with hypersumptuous hotels all over the world and a fantasy island being built south of Puerto Rico. Dorothy-Anne is so rich, thin, gorgeous, and successful that, perhaps to win the sympathies of readers, Gould makes her a really nice person to boot—and visits upon her the sufferings of a female Job. The story begins with this heroine losing her husband in a plane crash, her baby through a miscarriage, and her entire set of reproductive organs to cancer. Meanwhile, a coven of Asian gangsters (Honorable Ox, Honorable Rooster, Honorable Dragon, et al.) schemes to take over her business in order to launder their drug money. And so, to sabotage her, they plant Legionnaires' disease in one Hale hotel and salmonella bacteria in another. Having damaged the sources of Dorothy-Anne's income, they plan to call in her outstanding loans, which they've purchased, and commandeer her empire. Help comes from: her own smarts; the support of her extended family, including three children; p.r. chief and best friend Venetia; and new, eponymous "second love," none other than Mr. Huntington Netherland Winslow III, a movie-star handsome, fabulously wealthy California state senator. One complication, though, is Hunt's alcoholic wife, who takes up with a sexy con-man and plans to kill off both her hubby and his domineering mother.

Gould's fourth hardcover (Too Damn Rich, 1992, etc.) is one of her sillier offerings, with lots of explicit sex mixing pain with pleasure, and orgasms with visions of flower gardens, like clichés in ecstasy.

Product Details

• Table of Contents

Table of Contents