Maggy's Child »

She was Mrs. Lyle Forrest now, the coolly elegant wife of Louisville's most prominent publisher, the slum girl whose dreams — and nightmares — came true the night she married the multimillionaire old enough to be her father. For twelve years Maggy played the role of beautiful, devoted wife, the burnished jewel in Lyle's crown, mother of the child he adored. She did it for David, the son who could never know the price she paid to protect him, would never see her scars...

Suddenly Maggy's hard-won control shattered when Nick King came back to claim her. It was twelve years since they'd parted, twelve years of fear and loathing at the hands of Lyle Forrest. She couldn't afford to remember the soul-searing passion she'd known so long ago in the arms of the only man she'd ever loved. She must think of David, her son, Lyle's most potent weapon, and not of the man she could never forget, Nick, who's returned to set her free...

A riveting novel of love, lust, and savagery in Kentucky's bluegrass country—a spellbinding story of a mother's sacrifice, a dynasty's power, and one man's passion to reclaim the woman who was born to be his.

Publishers Weekly

In her fourth romance, Robards ( This Side of Heaven ) combines elements of wife abuse, sexual secrets and mother love. Lyle and Maggy Forrest and their son David, 11, seem to be a stable, wealthy Kentucky family, but Lyle is physically abusive and Maggy is trapped by a web of secrets and by her love for her son. Then after 12 years, Nick King, Maggy's protector when they were children in the Louisville projects and David's real father, reappears as a prosperous nightclub owner. Although unaware of David's patrimony, King wants Maggy back and to do so he is ``looking for dirt'' about Lyle. There turns out to be plenty. Blackmail, the DEA and other elements follow along with a large cast of secondary characters like Tia Gloria who thinks she's psychic; Nick's half-brother Link, who has a shady past; and a huge, nasty parrot named Horatio who plays a vital (though incredible) role in the denouement. After Maggy is freed from a horrible memory, love scenes (with Nick) are frequent and explicit. Robards's language is often mundane: ``You take my breath away,'' says Nick, looking at the ``strawberry-tipped bounty of her breasts.'' Nor is the author's treatment of the crucial issue of wife abuse exactly profound or realistic. Love does conquer all, though, as formula dictates. Author tour. (Feb.)