Description

(from A. L. Burt dust jacket) Because Diana Witherbee had hair that curled in soft tendrils, eyes that were a wistful brown, and a smile that looked shy when it was really rather cynical, other people believed that her rather helpless exterior was a sign of a dependent nature. As a girl, she had started out wrong, following the line of least resistance and letting others make decisions for her when she was perfectly capable of making them for herself. So when the opportunity came for her to travel alone to Paris, where she intended to visit her conservative daughter and son-in-law, she gloried in even such a short period of independence, and went. After a short but busy holiday in Paris Diana was advised to do the fashionable thing and “take the cure” at Murat-les-Bains where she again encountered Bertram Colby, the middle-aged Englishman she had met on the train and her real adventures, gay, humorous and romantic, began in earnest.

Notes

Very lite fare, no pun intended. Interesting for its description of the mechanics of a bath cure. Actually pretty body-positive, despite premise of "reducing treatment" and nice to see older characters featured (she's 45 and he, nearing 50). Flag: scene in which US Marine uses n-word and attacks interracial couple in Paris nightclub.

Tags

1920s, American, English, Europe, France, beautiful/handsome, business person, curvy/stocky, f/m, female, middle-aged, robust, romance, second chance, third-person, widowed

Flags

insensitive or outdated language (race/ethnicity/disability/sexual orientation), racism