Nora Roberts – Blithe Images

A stand alone novel, published in 1982. I have the December 1993 edition of Silhouette Language of Love series. With a lovely white flower on the cover, but I cannot find a picture of that one.



Model Hillary Baxter was every photographer’s delight! In front of the camera, her perfected loveliness allowed her to be anyone she wanted to be. Yet behind the high-fashion trappings, she was simply a small-town-girl – and certainly no match for her new boss, Bret Bardoff! Could he learn to love the woman whose face had captured his imagination … and haunted his dreams?


Hillary is a young girl from the Kansas wheat fields, making a career as a model in New York City. She is good, and on the verge of really breaking through. When the famous and seriously rich Bret Bardoff offers her an exclusive contract for a half year, and a great photoshoot of women in all their variations, she accepts. He includes her favourite photographer in the deal, and she knows they work very well together. What she does not count on, is Bret being present for almost all of the shoots, and most often with a gorgeous and jealous woman on his arm. Bret makes no secret of the fact that he wants Hillary in his bed, and he even visits her at her place on some flimsy excuse. When he finds out that she is still a virgin, which is extremely rare in those days, he backs of a bit. But he won’t give it up. And Hillary is falling for him, for those rare glimpses of the man behind the façade he shows the world. But every time they start getting closer, something interferes. And when Hillary goes back home for the holiday, she is totally confused. She can have the career she has always dreamed off, but is that what she wants? She loves the land, she wants babies of her own. What is she to do? Does Bret just want her face, her body, or does he really see the vulnerable young woman inside?

I have read this book in the bathtub during the last week or so, easy to stop reading, easy to pick it back up. Ofcourse, it is a very old story, and the characters reflect that in their behaviour. As I have mentioned in other reviews, I absolutely loathe a hero who keeps grabbing the heroine, making her do things she doesn’t want and just not taking no for an answer. He doesn’t force sex on her, but it gets close. I so hated Bret grabbing Hilliary’s chin every time, to look in her face, when she looks away. That is no way to treat a girl.
Yes, I really loathed his high handed ness, especially on the last pages. Totally not romantic at all.

6 stars.