Customer Reviews

A Certain Crossroad

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For many years, Emilie Loring wrote sweet (albeit a bit drippy) romances, usually mingled with a bit of a crime thriller woven in to keep things interesting. "A Certain Crossroad," first published in the 1920s, is a slightly less-than-prime example of her writing.

No sooner has heiress Judith Halliday arrived in a small New England town than she is shoved out of a tree. And by coincidence, the doctor who treats her is Neil Peyton, whom she broke up with months ago. The former lovers are still sore, and make great displays of attention to (respectively) a pretty young widow named Diane, and sexy local "loafer" Boris.

Judith's trip gets even nastier when her cousin informs her that her uncle has squandered her fortune, and she's now penniless. Even worse, she's soon enmeshed in Boris' smuggling schemes, along with Diane's two children. Now Neil must find a way to thwart Boris, and save Judith from both the smugglers -- and the police.

"A Certain Crossroad" is a sort of charming, old-style romance where the sexiest thing that happens is a rough kiss, and the heroes devote themselves to upright morals from beginning to end. It sounds rather sappy, but if you can put cynicism on hold, it's a sweet little book with some exciting parts.

As this was one of her early books, there are some flaws: the romantic problems gets old quick, and Loring seems to be straining to make her prose suitably poetic ("crystal tide-pools strung like huge beads on a rope of sand"). For many pages, this is more or less what the book consists of, until the smuggling subplot kicks into gear.

At that point, the seemingly ordinary romance takes a sharp upturn.. Loring's writing is quick and sharp when it's kept simple, and she has a knack for action scenes as well as romantic problems. What's more, there's an unusual twist in the final pages, when we find out exactly what kind of relationship Neil and Judith had.

Though it suffers from some purple prose, "A Certain Crossroad" is a charming, quaint little romance for a rainy afternoon. Just don't expect anything hotter than a few kisses.