Maggy pulled herself out of the gutter and secured a future for herself and her unborn son by marrying Lyle, the golden boy of local society. After ten years, Maggy wishes to leave Lyle, who has tarnished his private image with physical and emotional cruelty, but Lyle refuses to let anyone know that Maggy's child, David, is not his natural son and threatens to take David from Maggy if she leaves him or tells anyone the truth about David's father. While at a nightclub, Maggy encounters her former love and David's father, Nick. Nick's renewed pursuit of Maggy topples her shaky world and shatters Lyle's precarious grip on sanity and his fragile hold on his family. Maggy must make a final decision: will she stay and suffer with Lyle, or will she trust Nick to protect herself and David? Robards' many fans will be delighted with this suspenseful tale of obsession and passion. ~--Melanie Duncan

More paint-by-numbers romance for hard-core genre fans--the latest from the author of One Summer (1992) and Nobody's Angel (1992). Magdalena (aka Maggy) Garcia, a half-Mexican with unaccountably ``lily-white'' skin and red hair, has been trapped for over a decade in an abusive marriage (she stays, she insists, for the sake of son David). Then her gorgeous girlhood boyfriend, Nick, shows up in town. Maggy tries to fend him off, fearing the reprisals of psychotic--but rich--husband Lyle. But Nick soon realizes that Maggy is being abused, abducts her, and breaks down her defenses. After lots of formulaic sex (``He played her like a virtuoso with a prized violin''), Nick restores Maggy's old ``spitfire'' spirit. She responds by informing him that David is his son--a heavily foreshadowed disclosure. Nick stalks off, Lyle promptly steals Maggy back, and Nick saves her all over again. Meanwhile, Lyle drives a car over a cliff and tries to take Maggy with him. She survives to experience a brief idyll with David and Nick--until Lyle turns up, like the psycho killer in a B-movie, to kill Maggy and Nick and abduct David. The three survive eerily intact (Maggy sends David to a psychologist, who ``after one session...pronounced David a `remarkably resilient child'''), and unite for the happy end. A heavy-breathing, often redundant, one-note soaper.

Uneven handling prevents a good premise from reaching its full potential in this novel by the author of One Summer ( LJ 2/1/93). Magdalena Garcia married wealthy Lyle Forrest so that she could escape the harsh life of the projects in Louisville, Kentucky. Twelve years later, Maggy suffers physical abuse at the hands of her blue-blood husband, who emotionally manipulates her 11-year-old son, David, as the means of keeping her in the marriage. Then Nick King reappears. Nick, Maggy's childhood protector and later her lover, swears he never stopped loving her, which elicits dangerous reactions from Lyle and leaves Maggy torn between the love of her life and her son. The last 12 years of Nick's mysterious past are kept hidden too long, while several chapters contain unnecessary hints about Maggy's obvious ``secret.'' And if evil Lyle can so easily manipulate David, using his affections against her, how can David quickly accept Nick as his biological father? Recommended only for larger romance collections.-- Kimberly Martin, Washington Univ. Law Lib., St. Louis (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

In her fourth romance, Robards ( This Side of Heaven ) combines elements of wife abuse, sexual secrets and mother love. Lyle and Maggy Forrest and their son David, 11, seem to be a stable, wealthy Kentucky family, but Lyle is physically abusive and Maggy is trapped by a web of secrets and by her love for her son. Then after 12 years, Nick King, Maggy's protector when they were children in the Louisville projects and David's real father, reappears as a prosperous nightclub owner. Although unaware of David's patrimony, King wants Maggy back and to do so he is ``looking for dirt'' about Lyle. There turns out to be plenty. Blackmail, the DEA and other elements follow along with a large cast of secondary characters like Tia Gloria who thinks she's psychic; Nick's half-brother Link, who has a shady past; and a huge, nasty parrot named Horatio who plays a vital (though incredible) role in the denouement. After Maggy is freed from a horrible memory, love scenes (with Nick) are frequent and explicit. Robards's language is often mundane: ``You take my breath away,'' says Nick, looking at the ``strawberry-tipped bounty of her breasts.'' Nor is the author's treatment of the crucial issue of wife abuse exactly profound or realistic. Love does conquer all, though, as formula dictates. Author tour. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved