Rivals by Janet Daily (1989, Hardcover with DJ)

In Rivals, Janet Dailey has created the riveting story of a marvelously strong and passionate woman who is unexpectedly challenged by a mysterious inheritance and the bitter family legacy she must struggle to overcome - or the cost will be the man she loves. At the glittering opening of the San Francisco Opera, the lovely and accomplished Flame Morgan Bennett, an advertising executive, is immediately drawn to the rakishly handsome Chance Stuart, the dynamic, and reputedly ruth-less, international real-estate magnate. Their mutual attraction is transformed into a whirlwind love affair that crisscrosses the continent, climaxing in a romantic courtship in a beautiful Mexican villa. Flame's powerful mentor, department store czar Malcom Powell, and Chance's lover, Luci-anna Colton, the ravishing, world-renowned diva, are enraged by this unanticipated turn of events. However, unbeknownst to Flame, she and Chance are distantly related, each the descendant of two long-feuding American families. When Flame is bequeathed Morgan's Walk, the ancestral ranch for which Chance had been the only other heir, their family loyalties will demand an impossible choice. Here the dramatic past is inextricably tied to the present and will irrevocably determine Chance and Flame's future. COPYRIGHT © 1989 BY JANBILL LTD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. NO PART OF THIS BOOK MAY BE REPRODUCED IN ANY FORM OR BY ANY ELECTRONIC OR MECHANICAL MEANS, INCLUDING INFORMATION STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL SYSTEMS, WITHOUT PERMISS