Yvonne Whittal writes romances with deliciously awful heroes we love to hate, plus a few good guys to leaven the mix. Handful of Stardust disappoints with a hero who alternates between blah, bland, bossy and icky. Quick synopsis of the plot first, then let’s look at why this left me cold.
Plot Synopsis – Click to Skip Spoilers
Samantha is 20 years old, quite lovely, lives with her widowed father and works as a typist. She is in love with Clive Wilmot, a very good looking, smooth talking charmer who wants two things: Sex and money. He’s not fussy, since Samantha has no money then she’s the target for an affair. Neither Sam’s dad nor her friend Gillian can stand Clive, they see he is using Sam and has no intention to marry her, and if they were to marry he would make her miserable with infidelity.
One evening Clive is being particularly importunate, wanting Sam to move in with him (he can’t afford a wife just now you see (which makes no sense)) and she excuses herself from the group to walk around the garden grounds of the posh hotel where they are eating. She runs into Brett who chats with her for a few minutes, wants her to go out with him the next evening. Sam is not thrilled with the invitation and declines. Brett is rich, much older and he definitely does not like Clive. She goes out anyway when Brett shows up at the door. Brett is manipulative.
They have a lovely evening and several more. Brett and Sam’s father spend quite a bit of time together and her dad approves of him. He proposes but Sam won’t even listen.
Clive has to go out of town for a few weeks and Sam wants to meet him at the airport when he returns. Brett offers to take her. They get to the airport quite early and Brett offers to take Sam up in his plane, promises to have her back in time to meet Clive, but he does not follow through. Instead Brett takes her to his somewhat remote farm, informs her that he and her father agreed that Sam should stay there until she can see reason about Clive and once more Brett proposes and once more Sam refuses.
Sam gets along with Aunt Emma and with Brett despite being furious with him for virtually kidnapping her. She attempts to escape twice and twice Brett forces her back to his home. Finally he makes a deal with her. If Brett can bring her proof that Clive is seeing another lady then she will marry him, if he cannot find proof then he will let her go. Foolishly Sam agrees. Of course Brett gets photographs of Clive with another lady, an apartment rented in the names of Mr. and Mrs. Wilmot and Sam marries him as promised.
Sam dreads the honeymoon but in fact they have a lovely time after Brett tells her he will wait for her. They get along once back home too, and although he makes it clear he wants more from her he does not push and Sam is reluctant to allow any intimacy. She’s got an idea that once she sleeps with Brett she won’t be able to not love him.
After two months Brett has a 2 week trip and gives Sam an ultimatum. He wants the complete marriage package and he expects her to reconcile herself to a sexual relationship on his return. Sam uses the two weeks to think carefully and clearly about him, about herself, about the future, about their marriage. She’s still not thrilled with being Brett’s wife but she knows she can fall in love with him if she lets herself. Once he gets home they do sleep together and Sam realizes she does in fact love Brett, that he’s pretty wonderful.
However, Sam does not know whether Brett loves her. He’s somewhat distant and once she gets pregnant doesn’t seem to find her enticing. Clive makes trouble, writes to Sam that Brett only married her because he needed an heir before 40 to keep his inheritance. Sam doesn’t tell Brett about the letter, makes herself miserable thinking about it. When she’s in the city by herself to shop for the baby’s nursery Clive shows up, tries to strong arm her into bed, Sam shoves him out.
When she gets home she finally asks Brett about Clive’s insinuations. They are partly true. If Brett does not have a child then his cousin’s son inherits, but only upon Brett’s death. Oh joy, kisses and HEA.
Why Doesn’t Handful of Stardust Work?
Brett is obnoxious, bossy, full of himself, not loving or warm towards Sam. He treats her more as a possession than as a beloved wife, a person. “Allow me to know what’s best for you.” is a typical Brett comment. (Time to get the big skillet out to smack him with!) There is no evidence that he cares for Sam. Wants to get her into his bed, yes. Wants to derail Clive, yes. Love? Honor? Trust? Respect? Not sure. Cherish, yes, but on his terms.
We learn at the end that Clive had chased Brett’s younger sister, got her pregnant, dumped her once he learned that Brett had zero intention to allow him to touch his sister’s money. Little sister deliberately ran her car off a cliff and Brett has a very good reason to hate Clive and to want to keep him from hurting another young girl.
Most of Whittal’s heroes are either deliciously awful (the yo-yo-ing hero in House of Mirrors), or just plain awful (The Devil’s Pawn) and a few are pretty nice (Where Seagulls Cry). This fellow in Stardust lacks any appeal.
Samantha seems colorless. She has enough spirit to attempt escape but she is easy for Brett to manipulate. She doesn’t have the common sense to see that Clive is a waste of air nor does she challenge Brett to explain why he obviously hates him. Sam isn’t a doormat, she is simply there, a body to push and pull and do things in the plot. Even her two weeks of self-examination seem disconnected from the character, it is simply something she does, not something she feels.
When she does decide she loves Brett she goes overboard, tells Aunt Emma that Brett has no flaws, lets herself be miserable because he doesn’t seem to love her, won’t ask him how he feels. She is more a nonentity than a lively character.
Clive is just a jerk. Aunt Emma is under Brett’s thumb and Sam’s father is a plot device.
There is a very big age gap; Sam is 20 and Brett is almost 40. Normally I read these and the age difference either doesn’t strike me as important or it is something that causes conflict. Handful of Stardust left me feeling eeewww. Brett calls Sam “child” especially before they marry, comments how small she is, how she is so beautiful, how she belongs to him. It made me feel as though he is attracted to young girls, knows that’s wrong, so sought out a lady who appears and is very young. Ick.
The book is boring with a doubtful romance and cheesy characters. The cover shows a very young girl smiling in front of a dark-haired man who looks like a smarmy casino operator. (I really did NOT LIKE this book!)
Overall
I had Handful of Stardust sitting around for months, read a page or two at a time, did not enjoy it.
2 Stars
I got my paperback copy from Thriftbooks. Amazon has it too here at this link.
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