Good Condition and found at Half Price bookstore in Alamo Heights, San Antonio, TX on 22Aug22.

The Hollis trope just goes on too long...he remains such a jerk-hole that it becomes
predictable and boring...
though readers may be impressed that NOTHING gets past him.

With March overcoming her descent into oblivious and blinding,obsession,
the plot should have been so much better!

Ending was goofy. ( )

I'm giving this book a 4 because even though I just liked it - it has stuck with me. I'm so glad to learn about Alice Hoffman and I am excited to read more from her. I almost stopped reading this book from some of the other Goodreads comments but I think the haters misunderstood what the book was about. More than affairs of the heart and adultery I think this book was about abuse and regrets. I think there are many more instances of real abuse where the abuser has unseemly power over the victim where everything ends badly. The ending of this story was perfect and just.
( )

One of the better books from Oprah's book club. ( )

Beautiful treatment of some familiar themes: "coming home" and "abusive relationships".

March Murray returns to her childhood home when the woman who was her caretaker - nanny, housekeeper, cook - dies. Judith Dale took over when March's mother died when March was very young, and stayed in the family house after the Murray family had all left it, by permission. March is here in Jenkintown, on the east coast, with her teenage daughter Gwen, to attend the funeral and to attend to Judith's remaining possessions.

March's husband Richard did not come along. He has many classes and field trips to manage. He did, however, grow up here too, and has reason to be concerned about Marsh's trip.

When March was small, her father arrived one day with a boy a few years older than she, Hollis, who had apparently been scraping out a living on his own. He was in pretty bad shape and had little experience with a normal life. March's father simply announced that Hollis was one of the family now. Unfortunately, not everyone in the family was happy to include him. March's older brother Alan feels a great deal of resentment at this intruder and never fails to find ways to remind Hollis that he is not really a member of the family. March, on the other hand, becomes quite fond of Hollis.

As she grows older, she becomes more than fond. There is a quality about Hollis that draws her irresistibly, and he is similarly drawn to her. Their relationship becomes so intense that March manages to miss a lot of the rest of her life. She spends her time either with Hollis or thinking about him.

But it isn't all happy sailing. There comes a time when Hollis demands March's attention in a way that irritates her and she tells him to go away. He does. And he does not come back. Eventually March goes on with her life but she secretly carries around her love for Hollis and knows she can never love anyone else the same way.

Now it is nineteen years since she has set foot in this town and she knows Hollis is here, living here, still. She tells herself she will not see him but others know better. Hollis himself waits, knowing she will come to him.

By this time Hollis has become a rich man and owns half the town. He has been married once, but that wife died. He lives with Alan's son, whom he has "adopted" after Alan took to drink and failed to care for the boy. Hollis may be able to buy out anyone else in the town but he's not well liked, except by the women he lets in from time to time.

What happens when March and Hollis finally meet? Where does it lead? The romance of the century turns out to be different "here on earth" than it was in fantasy. ( )