A World of Difference

Indeed there is a world of difference between this deliciously satisfying family saga set in New York, London and France during the early decades of the 20th century, and the dreary sameness of most of its genre. Blair follows her bestseller Privilege with a clever portrait of the wealthy Brandon family, headed by Rhys, a charming, supremely selfish industrialist with a yen for ripe women and rotten politics. Lionhearted Connor MacKenzie, the six-year-old son of a blustering labor leader, is plucked from poverty when Rhys hires his mother as a wet nurse for his infant daughter Georgia. Long before the tight bond between the two youngsters burgeons into love, Rhys betrays the trust of the young man he once treated as his own son, ever after trying to crush Connor. Georgia is married off to a French marquis in a bid to keep her from Connor and stifle her unladylike business savvy. As Blair marches briskly through World War I, the fast-buck '20s, desperate '30s and patriotic '40s, her sharp, poignant and romantic rags-to-riches tale will delight fans and win new readers. 75,000 first printing; $75,000 ad/promo. (Sept.)