(8/31/2021)
In the hands of a good writer this would have made interesting reading. Callahan just makes it ordinary in his melodramatic and overwrought telling. I can imagine this appealing to the romance novel crowd. The handsome boy/man, the beautiful and feisty, yet naive girl/woman falling “deeply” in love in record time. Griff’s turning virginal Betty into a raging hormonal furnace. Money seeming to be no object. Our heroine saved from rape by the intrepid hero who murders the rapist (perhaps because an episode of his schizophrenia has suddenly overtaken him.) Stock secondary characters that, I presume, are to give salt to the stew. And our heroine agonizing over her choices. One can envision her with hand on forehead saying, “what have I done?”, but being feisty and smart, albeit naive, she keeps calm and carries on. A waste of time.