Slave to Love
A Novel
Description:... After graduating college with a biology degree, all brainy Alice Duclos really wants to do is continue her research into island biodiversity, preferably in some far-flung exotic place like Madagascar. But feeling duty-bound to her aging, and increasingly off-her-rocker mother, Alice takes a job in London and agrees to live at home. Alice's work in the Books Department of Enderby's, a down-in-the-heels London auction house, introduces her to a strange species indeed: bookish and ill-kempt, her co-workers function like any species fighting a Darwinian struggle, with the requisite feuds and petty jealousies. But there is one bright spot: her co-worker Andrew, a sweet-natured and brilliant book appraiser whose attraction to Alice is immediate and unsparing. But Andrew can never wholly capture Alice's attention, which always seems to be lost in the clouds. Complications ensue when Alice and Andrew travel to the country together to appraise a rare Audubon first edition, which promises to be one of the most expensive rare books in the world and whose sale could catapult sleepy Enderby's to the major leagues. But Alice becomes enamored with the book's owner, a wealthy and reclusive country gentleman, much to Andrew's chagrin. What follows is a delightful tale of a young woman who tests the romantic waters for the first time, and finds herself in over her head. Can Andrew win Alice's affection? Or will a broken heart make her flee London, to the safe, but romantically arid, tropical islands to study her beloved birds?
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