Valerie was beautiful, rich and intelligent. She had no goals in live other than travelling to places she had not been, flying all over the world to attend parties, indulging in pleasures in life. She got bored and restless easily but generally she was kind and had a great human touch. It was easy to be jealous with someone like Valerie, who appeared to have everything without any effort. So Sybille was extremely jealous of Valerie. Sybille grew up with Valerie and strived to outdo everything about Valerie, going to the same school, getting the same men, gaining the same wealth and living in the same estate. Nick was Valerie's boyfriend till his proposal frightened Valerie away and Sybille found her ways to marry him. Thankfully, Nick finally waked up and divorced Sybille.

The story fascinated me right from the beginning and the plot was pretty good. It had very good character development, which often reflected how people around us probably reacted or felt the some way in different degree. For example, Sybille never really lived life at present but waiting for her life to begin after a future milestone, like after she left college, after she got a job at a TV station, after she moved to New York City, after her marriage, after her husband's death, after moving to the exclusive estate etc. She was often resenting her present life. She was unable to love and always lonely and angry. Don't we often find ourselves wishing that something is over or something would happen so that our life would really begin? Too often people spend the best time of their life waiting for the best time of their life. The story also told Valerie's and Nick's fair share of weaknesses and how they overcame it.

All in all, an engaging read.


A Ruling Passion   January 26, 2000
Danelle Nix (Weems, Virginia)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful

I am a huge fan of Judith Michael. This husband/wife team has brought a great deal of style, mystery, romance and intrigue to the genre which I appreciate and eagerly await...most of the time! With A Ruling Passion, however, I am terribly dissapointed. It had the great "long book" look I love (which usually means wonderful depth and detail) but is completely disappointing from the start. I kept reading, thinking..surely it would get to their usual style...but, alas, no. This is a wholely disappointing novel. The characters lack depth, the plot is thin and the devlopment is vague and repetitive with one boring scenario emphasizing the same facet of character or plot over and over and over. I surely hope the dynamic team of Judith Michael will be back up to speed soon! I need summer reading!


You can't put this book down, you gotta keep reading.   September 10, 1999
1 out of 3 found this review helpful

Since the first page this book makes it very interesting, at about the first pages you want to keep reading more. You can't put this book down, you gotta keep reading. The characters each are very different, yet, they are the same in some ways. Sometimes it makes you want to be like them.


entertaining   June 27, 1996
5 out of 5 found this review helpful

Always a pleasure to read a Judith Michael book. I like the fact that it's written by a couple; you get both a woman and a man's perspective. The Sybille character is evil but the other two, Valerie and Nick, aren't perfect either. It gives the reader the opportunity to make it's own mind on wether they will like these people or not. This option is not dictated to us by the authors.