Kiss a Stranger

by Glenna Finley

great book

Genres: Romance

256 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published September 1, 1972

About the author

Glenna Finley is a native of Washington State. She earned her degree from Stanford University in Russian Studies and in Speech and Dramatic Arts, with emphasis on radio.
After a stint in radio and publicity work in Seattle, she went to New York City to work for NBC as a producer in its international division. In addition, she worked with the "March of Time" and Life magazine.
As a producer, she had her own show about activities in Manhattan, a show that was broadcast to England. The programs were similar to those of the "Voice of America."
Though her life in New York was exciting, she eventually returned to the Northwest where she married. Currently residing in Seattle with her husband Donald Witte and their son, she loves to travel, and draws heavily on her travels and experiences for the novels that have been published. Her books for NAL have sold several million copies.

Reviews

[Vicki Parsons · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ran across a cache of old Glenna Finley romances recently and decided to give them a re-read since I was bored with everything on my TBR list.
Once I got into them my memory came back and I remembered what I liked about them when I first read them in the 70s-80s. These read rather like a poor man's Mary Stewart. They feature young, attractive, working women, usually off to an exotic locale on some sort of business. They inevitably run into trouble and handsome strangers who they aren't quite sure about, around the same time. These are some of the same elements that you would find in a Mary Stewart or Elsie Lee, unfortunately, the writing is a few steps below the quality of those classics.
That said, these aren't bad for a quick, entertaining read. In Kiss A Stranger, our heroine, spirited, headstrong, Carolyn Drummond is headed to Wales to check out a castle for sale for her godfather /employer who might want to buy it. Thanks to rain and a broken down rental car, she meets young, attractive Mike Evans, who, since he is killing time waiting for Wimbledon to start, offers to play driver for her and speeds her off to the castle. They run into some slightly dangerous situations on the way, and once there find the castle fairly dreary and possibly haunted. The upside is the young aristocrat who has inherited and has his beady eye on Caro.
Mysteries abound, slightly dangerous situations take place and eventually the criminals are uncovered, all is put right, and true love wins out. The writing is at times clever and humorous, although Caro can be a bit of a pain in the neck. Her headstrong qualities tend to win out over her common sense and it borders on annoying. That said, there's a good bit of travelogue type info on Wales and some lovely discussion of local foods and customs and some charming dialogue. So, if you have an hour or two to kill, and you're a fan of this romantic suspense formula, give it a try.

[Carolyn Jacobs · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not very good.

[Roseanne Wilkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a travelogue of Wales. The intrigue started pretty quick where Carolyn got hit by a cargo van. The chemistry between Caro and Mike was apparent immediately as well. Unfortunately, Mike claimed a non existent fiancee pretty quick, which left Caro feeling hopeless. She turned to the handsome Britain, Hugh. That was an unholy mess that left me super irritated. There were some nice lol moments, and the story wrapped up in a very satisfying bundle, even with the Hugh mess.