The Stepdaughters

Mr. Waleman's deft characterizations of the three passionate females, and of the smoothly functioning Mark, places his book far above the ordinary novel. His characters speak and move with authenticity and realism, and the action is so fast-paced that it is difficult to lay the book down once one has begun reading it. When we first meet Valerie Walker, we cannot help but feel her love, her trust, and a little of her incredulity that such a wonderfully virile man as Mark would be attracted to a widow with two daughters. We watch as she succumbs completely to his forceful personality and his animal vitality in bed. Then, coldly, Mark puts into operation his plan for complete domination of the household. The willowy, headstrong Ethel--at first teasingly and then with deadly seriousness--plays with Mark's proffered forbidden fire; instead of being burnt, she discovers she has received new and frighteningly potent powers. The trusting, affectionate Penny is the next to find herself caught in Mark's web of sensual intrigue, and it is not until her childlike body is joyfully screaming out its ecstatic defiance to morality that she discovers she has become a woman.