The year is 1985, and after bumming around Europe for a while, Bella Jane Hauteville, ex-model, has settled happily in London. She has an exciting job, a boyfriend she adores and forty-inch legs, Some might say she is blessed, but Bella knows better. Her life is not her own, only borrowed. And now they want it back . . .
Author's note # 1
If you have found your way here from my crime novels, which is quite likely, you are warned that Isabella is a very different kettle of fish, and you may not like it. It was begun way back in 1986 when I was but a stripling youth of 40, whereas all the crime novels are the product of my dotage. My writing style hasn't changed that much but it's all in the present tense, it's very very long, and the tale inhabits the fictional mind of someone who would nowadays be described as having 'mental health issues.' By the time you've finished the thing you may have some of your own!
Author’s note: # 2
Is your fantasy home a converted bus? Most of the characters in this novel are, in one way or another, free spirits. Physically, sexually or politically they live their rackety lives “off grid.” If that appeals to you, you will love it. If you prefer order and conformity you probably won’t. I have called it a romance (people meet and mate and suffer the pain of Cupid’s dart, so I guess it qualifies) but I like to think it’s more than that. When I wrote it, many years ago, it was a contemporary novel. Now it has become a historical one: a record of an age. Take away the Internet, though, and the vacuous babble of social media, and you will find that remarkably little has changed. R. A. B.
Genre: Romance
Author's note # 1
If you have found your way here from my crime novels, which is quite likely, you are warned that Isabella is a very different kettle of fish, and you may not like it. It was begun way back in 1986 when I was but a stripling youth of 40, whereas all the crime novels are the product of my dotage. My writing style hasn't changed that much but it's all in the present tense, it's very very long, and the tale inhabits the fictional mind of someone who would nowadays be described as having 'mental health issues.' By the time you've finished the thing you may have some of your own!
Author’s note: # 2
Is your fantasy home a converted bus? Most of the characters in this novel are, in one way or another, free spirits. Physically, sexually or politically they live their rackety lives “off grid.” If that appeals to you, you will love it. If you prefer order and conformity you probably won’t. I have called it a romance (people meet and mate and suffer the pain of Cupid’s dart, so I guess it qualifies) but I like to think it’s more than that. When I wrote it, many years ago, it was a contemporary novel. Now it has become a historical one: a record of an age. Take away the Internet, though, and the vacuous babble of social media, and you will find that remarkably little has changed. R. A. B.
Genre: Romance
Used availability for R A Bentley's Isabella: A sort of romance