Yikes, 600 pages of young people being dis-satisfied with their lives and always looking for more. Actually only 580 pages of unhappiness until things started to turn around. I didn't miss the underlying morale but it was a lot of slogging to get there. It must have been a really depressing book to write. I gave it 3 stars only because there is nothing in between I didn't like it and I did. We need another star for it was just okay. ( )

Enlightening story about the very rich and their lives. Valerie Sterling, who has always been wealthy, and Sybille Engerby, who was always a wanna-be, tangle their lives together ( )

Pampered socialite Valerie Sterling is shattered by her husband's death and the mysterious loss of her wealth. But she somehow finds within herself the will to build a new life, and rekindles a romance with television network head Nicholas Fielding - an old college flame. Valerie is totally unaware of the dangerous passions she is stirring up in Sybille Enderby, her childhood friend and the daughter of a seamstress on one of Valerie's estates.

Clawing her way up in the television industry, Sybille has always coveted all that Valerie has. Yet success, marriage, and the glittering whirl of society cannot quench Sybille's envy of her friend...an envy that grows into one blinding obsession: to destroy Valerie Sterling.

I liked this book very much. The characters were sympathetically drawn - even though they were wealthy, and moved within elite social circles, they ultimately faced the exact same personal problems and struggles as everyone else in the world. I give this book an A+! and I am eagerly trying to locate A Ruling Passion: Volume 2 by Judith Michael to see how the rest of the story turns out. ( )

Mine is the pocket edition with the same cover. From one of the book boxes that Moem sent to me, this book is now looking for a new home.