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Wheels of Conflict
Sherry was perfectly capable of running her uncle's car-hire firm while he was ill; she didn't want that interfering, bossy Dee Lawrence keeping an eye on her, thanks very much! But she was to come to depend on Dee rather more than she had expected to...
186 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1975
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 1, 2016
One of my favorites, liked the feisty little hot-tempered heroine and the tall good-looking hero.
August 12, 2023
It is 1975 now and suddenly women have careers!
That was fun to write, but you know what? It is absolutely not true. I feel like it's the popular understanding of Harlequin history, but actually there are Harlequins featuring women with careers -- not just jobs they give up when they're married, but actual careers they are talented at & passionate about & keep working at as part of their HEA -- going back into the 1950s. What is new in 1975 (and many of the Harlequins I've read going forward) is that the women with the careers have to be MUCH more insecure about them and MUCH meaner to the hero in countless petty ways to prove that they're tough businesswomen who are in charge of things, unlike the majority of the 1950s surgeons/nurses/designers/photographers/etc who were too busy excelling at their work to snipe at the guys all the time.
But on with the actual book! Sherry is barely out of her teens but she's running her uncle's car service business ('car service' meaning trucks and cars people rent, not like a mechanic) because he's in poor health and has gone off by himself to rest and recover. His honourable competitor Dee has been asked to help Sherry out as she needs it, but this being 1975 Sherry has to throw a lot of little temper tantrums. How dare anyone suggest that she needs help? How dare anyone suggest she has anything to learn? Clearly any attempt at kindness or assistance on Dee's part is just awful male condescension, and Sherry refuses to listen to anyone's suggestions, so then she makes bad decisions out of temper and Dee steps in and chastises her for taking dangerous risks, which of course makes her dislike him even more....
Sometimes the books with this dynamic make me so mad I give up on them, but this one worked just enough for me that I kept going through to the end. There were definite moments I liked -- Sherry has a great female BFF who plays the OW role (but very lightly and inadvertently), and there are some lovely scenes where Dee & Sherry are out in nature and he comes across as a very good egg and Sherry is like 'wait why do I hate him?'. Sadly, though, Sherry has almost no personality -- she has no interests or hobbies, she doesn't take herself seriously, she has no friends except for her BFF, and she doesn't seem to want anything except to not have to deal with Dee. I'm not sorry that I read it, but I really do hate this type of heroine and dynamic; it's so misogynistic to imagine a woman who has no personality except for throwing temper tantrums at the man!
The other thing that didn't work for me about this one is the writing style -- it felt like the description was not meant to describe particular specific things, but just to give an emotional impression. So, for instance, in one scene we hear about how Sherry is too upset to eat and she is only drinking coffee, and then later in the same scene she complains about 'the pretence of choking down food'. But -- she's not choking down food, she decided to not even try to eat, she's very specifically only drinking coffee! And yes I get that this is a weirdly specific writing tic to notice and complain about, but it bugs me; 'pretence of choking down food' is indeed emotional shorthand for 'I am too upset to eat' but it is not the same actual physical action as 'refusing to eat and only drinking coffee'. And there was a lot of that; Dee tells Sherry directly 'I want a home' and then a few pages later Sherry is like 'I wonder what Dee wants? I wonder how I would possibly know? I wonder if he wants a home?' Well, uh, he just told you USING HIS WORDS what he wants, so... why don't you know?
I will try more Peters as her books come my way but I will probably be grumpy about it until I find one by her I really love.
That was fun to write, but you know what? It is absolutely not true. I feel like it's the popular understanding of Harlequin history, but actually there are Harlequins featuring women with careers -- not just jobs they give up when they're married, but actual careers they are talented at & passionate about & keep working at as part of their HEA -- going back into the 1950s. What is new in 1975 (and many of the Harlequins I've read going forward) is that the women with the careers have to be MUCH more insecure about them and MUCH meaner to the hero in countless petty ways to prove that they're tough businesswomen who are in charge of things, unlike the majority of the 1950s surgeons/nurses/designers/photographers/etc who were too busy excelling at their work to snipe at the guys all the time.
But on with the actual book! Sherry is barely out of her teens but she's running her uncle's car service business ('car service' meaning trucks and cars people rent, not like a mechanic) because he's in poor health and has gone off by himself to rest and recover. His honourable competitor Dee has been asked to help Sherry out as she needs it, but this being 1975 Sherry has to throw a lot of little temper tantrums. How dare anyone suggest that she needs help? How dare anyone suggest she has anything to learn? Clearly any attempt at kindness or assistance on Dee's part is just awful male condescension, and Sherry refuses to listen to anyone's suggestions, so then she makes bad decisions out of temper and Dee steps in and chastises her for taking dangerous risks, which of course makes her dislike him even more....
Sometimes the books with this dynamic make me so mad I give up on them, but this one worked just enough for me that I kept going through to the end. There were definite moments I liked -- Sherry has a great female BFF who plays the OW role (but very lightly and inadvertently), and there are some lovely scenes where Dee & Sherry are out in nature and he comes across as a very good egg and Sherry is like 'wait why do I hate him?'. Sadly, though, Sherry has almost no personality -- she has no interests or hobbies, she doesn't take herself seriously, she has no friends except for her BFF, and she doesn't seem to want anything except to not have to deal with Dee. I'm not sorry that I read it, but I really do hate this type of heroine and dynamic; it's so misogynistic to imagine a woman who has no personality except for throwing temper tantrums at the man!
The other thing that didn't work for me about this one is the writing style -- it felt like the description was not meant to describe particular specific things, but just to give an emotional impression. So, for instance, in one scene we hear about how Sherry is too upset to eat and she is only drinking coffee, and then later in the same scene she complains about 'the pretence of choking down food'. But -- she's not choking down food, she decided to not even try to eat, she's very specifically only drinking coffee! And yes I get that this is a weirdly specific writing tic to notice and complain about, but it bugs me; 'pretence of choking down food' is indeed emotional shorthand for 'I am too upset to eat' but it is not the same actual physical action as 'refusing to eat and only drinking coffee'. And there was a lot of that; Dee tells Sherry directly 'I want a home' and then a few pages later Sherry is like 'I wonder what Dee wants? I wonder how I would possibly know? I wonder if he wants a home?' Well, uh, he just told you USING HIS WORDS what he wants, so... why don't you know?
I will try more Peters as her books come my way but I will probably be grumpy about it until I find one by her I really love.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews