Midnight in Brussels
by Rebecca Randolph Buckley
MIDNIGHT IN BRUSSELS is the third novel in Rebecca Buckley's "Midnight" contemporary romance series. Each novel is a stand alone in that it captures the exotic and romantic essence of New Year's Eve celebrations in major cities around the world, and each novel introduces a new ensemble of characters whose lives intermingle with that of "Rachel O'Neill" (the one major character who appears in all twelve novels), an American writer living in Cornwall, England. In this captivating story of Amanda Conroy Malone - a naive, inexperienced, young woman - whose husband of seven years disappears on Christmas Day, is left alone and penniless in the Nevada desert outside of Las Vegas in a house trailer without a car and no means to support herself. Amanda's married sister comes to the rescue, whisking her away to California to live in a sprawling riverside home in the San Joaquin Valley - a far cry from the poor existence both girls experienced in the Arkansas hill country as they were growing up in their grandmother's care. Amanda's one dream is to someday go to Bruges, Belgium - where lacemaking and medieval quaintness and beauty abound according to the travel magazines she reads. The time comes when she must decide what she wants most: an independent life in Belgium or a life with the man she loves.