Customer Reviews
Much Better Than Potato Pudding - By: Elina H., 08 Sep 2007 
Baxter St.Ives is the least hero-like male lead that I hitherto encounteredin Ms. Quick's works of literature. He is not dashing nor handsome, he isin his own & his relatives' opinion dull, bland as a potato pudding,in fact. These are characteristics that Charlotte Arkendale wants to havein her man-of-business, but which she does not seein Baxter, although everybody else does. For her, he is interesting. For me, too.
Charlotte is your Ms. Quick heroine, energetic, self-assured, matter-of-fact, independent. One tends to like her kind of ladiesin Ms.Quick's books. Her interaction with Baxter is believable. Baxter may seem dull on the surface for people that admire dashing people; it is explained why Baxter wants to avoid expressing his temper or moodsin public. It doesn't follow that he is without feelings. I like Charlotte for detecting this. Baxter is a person who has not had very many chances for being the subjectin his own life, because there have always been characters much more dominant than he on the same stage. He is not bitter for this, it just is a fact. He has made for himself a life that he likes, although it might not seem so interesting for others. His feelings he keeps hidden. It is very typical of Baxter that when Charlotte for the first time sees him without his shirt, he apologizes for the unsightly acid-burn scars that he has on his upper body, & offers to turn off the light. There is no self-pityin this, it just is a fact that the scars turn people off. Charlotte's reaction to this is the same as mine, & that is why I like her as a person.
The suspense-subplotin this book includes Baxter's half-brother & helps them to build a relationship with each other. In some of Ms.Quick's books the suspense-plot grows so important at the end-third of the book that it lessens the strength of the bookin other respects. That is not the case here, which mainly depends on the hilarious scene at the end where every person of the play flocks into Baxter's chemistry laboratory & Baxter wants to propose to Charlotte. Baxter's relationship to his half-brother is very life-like, with both of them wistful or downright envious of things that the other one has & both of them taking for granted the things that they themselves have & that the other envies.
There is also, as one of Amazon's reader critics aptly said, great sex.
This is one of the A. Quick books that have kept me awake at nights, not only when I read it for the first time.
The book has great......... - By: , 28 Nov 1997 
The book has great sex ... plain & simple! Ruark! Ruark! Ahoy there, Captain Ruark!!
Very bland compared to other Quick books - By: , 28 Nov 1997 It was okay, but it wasn't as compelling as the other books. It's kind of a disappointment for a long time fan, but I would reccomend it for new readers.
