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These Golden Pleasures
They called her That Barrington Woman. She was beautiful - and notorious. But beneath the silks and diamonds, within the supple body so many men had embraced, was the heart of a girl who yearned still for love. At fifteen she had learned her beauty was both a charm and a curse. It had sent her fleeing from Kansas, had been her downfall in Baltimore and Georgia, yet had kept her alive in the Klondike and the South Seas.
Now on this fateful night in 1906, here in San Francisco's most glittering atmosphere, will she at last be able to reveal her secret longing? Will she be able to call love by name - and claim it?
Now on this fateful night in 1906, here in San Francisco's most glittering atmosphere, will she at last be able to reveal her secret longing? Will she be able to call love by name - and claim it?
512 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 1977
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
June 24, 2017
This 512 page epic starts out wonderfully, but then falters in the middle and is rushed at the end. Roxanne is in San Francisco on the eve of the great earthquake of 1906. She has to choose between the two men who will decide her fate, one of them her true love.
The story goes back to when Roxanne was a 15 year old girl in Kansas, and the drama of her life unfolds. As is usual in a Valerie Sherwood, the heroine's first sexual experience is not with the hero. She has a fling with Buck, her best friend's fiance. Circumstances force her out of Kansas and Roxanne goes to Maryland, where she finds work as a maid for the wealthy Coulter family. She is romanced by two brothers: cynical, business-minded Gavin and handsome, carefree Rhodes who sails ships. This is where the book gets cooking! The tension is hot...and then a stupid misunderstanding leads to a long separation. I lament the fact that Sherwood didn't do more with the brothers. She had a great set up and just let it fizzle.
After they both betray her, Roxanne marries sad, pathetic Denby. This is where the book draaagggsss. She spends about 150 pages married to him, moving from Georgia to Washington to Alaska as they run out of money and opportunities. She has a brief affair with Case, a dark, mysterious gambler, and then has a common-law marriage with dull, boring Leighton, whom the author constantly calls a golden giant. I kept picturing him as a hulking Brock Lesnar type and that's not sexy to me. We're told that Leighton is a real nice guy, but he leaves Roxanne stranded in Asia and returns to his ailing wife in the States!
Then Roxanne has four or five other lovers because she has to support herself somehow. But Rhodes some back for revenge and you think...ok, now it's on, but they're quickly separated and it's back to Gavin in San Francisco.
I don't mind romances where the heroine has more than one lover, as long as the love story between the H/h is well developed, or the other men in the book are exciting. While the scenes with Rhodes and Roxanne are hot, they're all too brief. There was very little true romance, but the history is wonderfully detailed, as one would expect in a Valerie Sherwood novel. There is one scene in particular, where Denby, a glove-maker/salesman, puts leather gloves on Roxanne that is written so beautifully. But good/authentic history was not enough for me in this one.
This was a rare deviation for Sherwood from her Cavalier/Georgian era books, so perhaps that's why I didn't like it as much as her other works.
Roxanne is a strong, unique heroine and the book is at its best whenever she's with the brothers. It's unfortunate that it's not front and center in this epic saga.
I'd give this book three stars and a half or C+. Oh well, they can't all be keepers!
The story goes back to when Roxanne was a 15 year old girl in Kansas, and the drama of her life unfolds. As is usual in a Valerie Sherwood, the heroine's first sexual experience is not with the hero. She has a fling with Buck, her best friend's fiance. Circumstances force her out of Kansas and Roxanne goes to Maryland, where she finds work as a maid for the wealthy Coulter family. She is romanced by two brothers: cynical, business-minded Gavin and handsome, carefree Rhodes who sails ships. This is where the book gets cooking! The tension is hot...and then a stupid misunderstanding leads to a long separation. I lament the fact that Sherwood didn't do more with the brothers. She had a great set up and just let it fizzle.
After they both betray her, Roxanne marries sad, pathetic Denby. This is where the book draaagggsss. She spends about 150 pages married to him, moving from Georgia to Washington to Alaska as they run out of money and opportunities. She has a brief affair with Case, a dark, mysterious gambler, and then has a common-law marriage with dull, boring Leighton, whom the author constantly calls a golden giant. I kept picturing him as a hulking Brock Lesnar type and that's not sexy to me. We're told that Leighton is a real nice guy, but he leaves Roxanne stranded in Asia and returns to his ailing wife in the States!
Then Roxanne has four or five other lovers because she has to support herself somehow. But Rhodes some back for revenge and you think...ok, now it's on, but they're quickly separated and it's back to Gavin in San Francisco.
I don't mind romances where the heroine has more than one lover, as long as the love story between the H/h is well developed, or the other men in the book are exciting. While the scenes with Rhodes and Roxanne are hot, they're all too brief. There was very little true romance, but the history is wonderfully detailed, as one would expect in a Valerie Sherwood novel. There is one scene in particular, where Denby, a glove-maker/salesman, puts leather gloves on Roxanne that is written so beautifully. But good/authentic history was not enough for me in this one.
This was a rare deviation for Sherwood from her Cavalier/Georgian era books, so perhaps that's why I didn't like it as much as her other works.
Roxanne is a strong, unique heroine and the book is at its best whenever she's with the brothers. It's unfortunate that it's not front and center in this epic saga.
I'd give this book three stars and a half or C+. Oh well, they can't all be keepers!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 7, 2013
This is how smut was meant to be written. A heroine so beautiful every man wants to have her, admire her, seduce her; so dynamic she becomes legend. Locales that spread across the globe--Kansas, Maryland, California, Alaska, Singapore. Plot twists and class struggles--blackmail, servants seduced by the wealthy, women making a living in a man's world, reputations made and lost, old money versus new, duty to an unloved husband and the need to follow one's heart. No manners, society, or marriageable misses in this novel.
I read this as a wee lassie of 15 and the story always stuck with me. Imagine my delight when I found a copy while wandering tipsy through a thrift store on the 4th of July. These are the fireworks I was looking for.
Thirty--oh look a bird--something years later, I am glad to find it still holds up.
I read this as a wee lassie of 15 and the story always stuck with me. Imagine my delight when I found a copy while wandering tipsy through a thrift store on the 4th of July. These are the fireworks I was looking for.
Thirty--oh look a bird--something years later, I am glad to find it still holds up.
April 10, 2016
Valerie Sherwood offers up everything a reader could want in this epic historical romance: class warfare, Upstairs Downstairs drama, sensational coincidences, exotic locales, shipboard battles, and outrageous catastrophes. All with a beguiling heroine whose heart (and hormones) often over-rule her head. But not to worry; despite being buffeted by fate & circumstance she always manages to land on her...back.
July 12, 2020
Valerie Sherwood's second novel under that pen name, after turning from gothics to historical romances, is a big picaresque read in the spirit of her first book, "This Loving Torment": a spirited young woman, often misunderstood because of her zest for living and her beauty, is buffeted by the vagaries of fate--and the machinations of several men--across the globe. In this case, the action includes the Kansas prairies, Baltimore, Augusta, the Klondike, Singapore and ultimately San Francisco. "These Golden Pleasures" is unusual in Sherwood's oeuvre in that it is her only novel set in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, instead of her preferred 17th Century. Nevertheless, it is full of the same interest in interiors, fashions, historical setting and descriptions that fill all her novels. Heroine Roxanne Rossiter is also unusual in that she is the only one of Sherwood's heroines who seriously flirts with amorality, including a brief section in the book where she listlessly drifts into being a courtesan. After this novel, Sherwood would focus her writing on more remote historical periods and move into more traditional heroines--still misunderstood, but with stronger moral compasses--which is why "These Golden Pleasures" is an interesting moment in her work--and a fun read.
December 23, 2020
I've probably read this book a minimum of 20 times in my life. Its one of my favorite books, mostly for sentimental reasons. It was in a pile of books I inherited from my grandmother, so I have some special meaning for it. Its a romance book, yes, but its not as vulgar as other romance novels. Its more of a historical fiction with romance as a main plot point.
January 31, 2023
Not enough action between the main characters . was promising . then just went on and on . Maybe if a chapter was hacked off here and there? surprised I finished - but thought she'd end up w/ the other guy, or the other guy...
January 3, 2019
It's a good book and my only complaint is that she and the hero are separated for most of the book. Also, I had this strange sort of attraction to Gavin, but I love the villain.
June 29, 2021
What a trashy delight! How delightfully trashy!
September 1, 2022
Wow, I liked this book more than I thought I would. I finished it in 2 days!!
Valerie Sherwood is one of my favourite authors and I love her books. Recently read “to love a rogue” and was slightly disappointed but this book was just fantastic. You could really feel the emotion of the characters, especially all of the tension.
There was such a sense of adventure to the book as it took the main character to many places across the globe. We meet her at 15 years old and you really get a sense of her changing and maturing throughout the plot.
I would highly recommend this book! It has you rooting for characters then booing them when you find out their true intentions.
Enjoy!!
Valerie Sherwood is one of my favourite authors and I love her books. Recently read “to love a rogue” and was slightly disappointed but this book was just fantastic. You could really feel the emotion of the characters, especially all of the tension.
There was such a sense of adventure to the book as it took the main character to many places across the globe. We meet her at 15 years old and you really get a sense of her changing and maturing throughout the plot.
I would highly recommend this book! It has you rooting for characters then booing them when you find out their true intentions.
Enjoy!!
July 6, 2009
This is not a romance novel per say, its more of a romantic/fiction saga. A very good one. Heroine is raped a few times, marries someone she doesnt love...at the end of the book, she ends up with the love of her life but of course its a journey getting there. You won't be bored reading this. Highly recommend it.
Steam: very steamy. Rated R
Steam: very steamy. Rated R
July 29, 2014
This is the first book of this kind that I had ever read. I think I was 18 or 19 and I'm 59 now. I just remember reading it over and over and kept it for years after. I'd like to find it again now to read. Seams like they don't write them like this anymore!!
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews