From Publishers Weekly
Set against the backdrop of the Chicago World's Fair, this genteel romance sets prissy Rowena Belle Monroe on a collision course with Yankee photographer Win Asher. Forced by financial circumstances to earn her living as a nanny, Belle is compelled to leave Georgia and come to New York. On a trip to the fair with her employers and two charges, Belle is spotted by Win, the fair's photographer. Stunned and inspired by Belle's beauty, Win tries to persuade her to model for a series of photographs, but she's none too eager to fall in line with his plans. To Belle, Win embodies all the traits she abhors in Yankees, but after many encounters set against the carefully painted portrait of the fair, she surrenders to him both emotionally and physically. Duncan (Coming Up Roses) plays on the cultural differences between the North and South, contrasting Belle's impeccable manners and genteel ideals with Win's assertiveness and ambition. Although Belle will annoy readers at first with her old-fashioned ideals she finds photography "morally repugnant" and thinks only loose women wear makeup she slowly and believably evolves into an empathetic heroine. Unlike many of the highly sensual romances that are available today, this comic confection is light on physical fireworks but heavy on heated banter.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
In order to help her family out of genteel poverty, Belle takes a job as a nanny far away from her hometown of Blissborough, Georgia. While the rest of her family spends their time bemoaning their fate of 30 years ago when the North defeated the South, Belle is instilling proper Southern manners into two Yankee children in New York. When her employers decide to take a trip to Chicago to see the World's Fair, she comes along to help with the children. As she passes the booth of the Official Photographer of the Exposition, Win Asher takes note. Although he is the "official photographer," Win is also an artist with the camera, and, having spotted the perfect model of an American female, he'll do anything to get her to pose for him. Duncan's brash Yankee and Southern Belle with a spine of steel seem worlds apart yet sparks do fly between them, and passion is ignited in this detailed, lively, and entertaining escapade.
Maria HattonCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved