A Ruling Passion
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4.5 • 11 Ratings
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- $15.99
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
Judith Michael creates unforgettable characters and a vivid, richly textured world—where passions can be stronger than love—in this splendid bestseller.
Pampered socialite Valerie Sterling is shattered by her husband’s death and the mysterious loss of her wealth. But she finds within herself the will to build a new life, and rekindles a romance with television network head Nicholas Fielding. Valerie is utterly unaware of the dangerous passions she is stirring up in Sybille Enderby, her childhood friend and daughter of a seamstress on one of Valerie’s estates. Clawing her way up in the television industry, Sybille has always longed to possess 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 a powerful obsession: to destroy Valerie.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This plodding riches-to-rags and rags-to-riches tale is likely to disappoint fans of Michael's glittering bestseller Inheritance . Privileged and beautiful Valerie Sterling arrives at Stanford, and ignores fellow student Sybille, daughter of her mother's dressmaker, to dabble in acting and dally with Nick, an impoverished student who loves her. Two bad marriages later, Valerie loses a cheating husband and a fortune in a mysterious plane crash, but finds her courage. Sybille, meantime, marries and divorces Nick, then scrambles to the top of the heap in network news. Her envy and hatred of Valerie snowball when Valerie becomes an investigative reporter at the cable network Nick owns and digs up dirt on a televangelist show Sybille has launched. A one-dimensional cast brings little sparkle to the predictable plot. Only in the final quarter is there excitement enough to carry the heavily padded prose to a spirited conclusion. Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club main selections.
