Preowned hardcover novel
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By LaVyrle Spencer
Shipping included.
On the inside cover:
“The twentieth century is young as free-thinking Boston divorcée Roberta Jewett returns with her three daughters to Camden, Maine, the seaside village where she was born and raised. Modern times have come to Camden in the form of the motorcar, but Roberta quickly discovers that a divorced woman is still considered little better than a prostitute. Condemned by her mother, harassed by her lecherous brother-in-law, and scorned by the townsfolk, she nonetheless perseveres in her struggle to forge a good life for her girls and herself. Behaving as no "respectable" woman would, Roberta gets a job as a county nurse, learns to drive, and buys herself a Model T. Embittered by her painful and humiliating marriage to an outrageous philanderer, Roberta has no intention of being any man's victim again. So when widowed contractor Gabriel Farley begins work renovating her house, Roberta's first response to him is blatant resentment. Yet Gabriel's gentle ways, his concern for his own teenage daughter, and his vibrant masculinity become more and more apparent, and Roberta finds herself slowly warming to his presence. Soon their mutual regard becomes undeniable, along with the many problems they face together- his obsessive devotion to his late wife, her reluctance to begin a relationship because of her failed marriage, and her own terrible vulnerability to Camden gossip. When Roberta is brutalized on a lonely country road, and the abysmal hypocrisy of Camden's solid citizens threatens to exonerate the aggressor at the expense of her and her family, the sweethearts are forced to make their romance public as they fight for justice. In the ultimate test of will and devotion, Roberta must summon the courage to stand up to an entire town.”