From Library Journal
With eight million copies of her books in print, life must be a bed of roses for romance author Stone. But not for her heroine, who lies in intensive care, her fate dependent upon the man she (inexplicably) jilted.Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Stone, best-selling romance author, has written another light drama that is sure to prove popular with her fans. It tells the story of a beautiful actress, Cassandra Winter, and the true love of her life, the fabulously wealthy (and also handsome and moody) Napa Valley wine wizard Chase Tessier. Due to a series of tragic misunderstandings, Cassandra and Chase separate. When Cassandra is viciously attacked and hovers near death, Chase spends a lot of time in her hospital room reflecting, foiling further attacks on her life, and helping the addled detectives solve the crime and find the attacker. Despite being formulaic and contrived, Stone's latest work does its job--it's an easy read about an unrealistic, fantasy-based relationship that tidily resolves all the issues by its happy ending. Kathleen Hughes


From Kirkus Reviews
The latest romantic mystery from Stone (Imagine Love, 1996; Pearl Moon, 1995, etc.) offers a variation on genre themes. The actress Cassandra Winter is badly injured by an unknown assailant. The assault stirs up a variety of previously concealed secrets, and spurs Cass to reconsider her life, including a long-ago romance with the handsome Chase Tessier. As Cass and Chase warily attempt to rebuild their relationship, the figure stalking Cass shows no signs of giving up. All of this is played out against the appropriately privileged background of the Napa Valley. Competent storytelling with few surprises. (First printing of 75,000) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Download Description
Rainbows and roses . . . danger and love . . . amid the lush, sunlit splendor of California's Napa Valley. It is here, from the bestselling pen of Katherine Stone, that this enthralling story unfolds. He had never been in love--until her. . . .He is the stunning and powerful Chase Tessier, the gray-eyed maestro who creates the poetry that is Tessier wine. And she had never been loved at all--until him. . . .She is Cassandra Winter, the fierce yet fragile waif who joyfully gave him her heart during an enchanted summer of newborn grapes and moonlit roses. But she left him. Cold. And now . . . Cassandra lies in the ICU. Ravaged. Broken. And needing Chase. Yet there is such danger on this journey to rainbows and love. For the perilous secrets of the past beckon and haunt--as does the vicious assailant who vows to destroy Cassandra still.

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
Katherine Stone's 12th novel, Bed of Roses, is a romantic saga for those who love Stone's lush prose and compulsive readability, or for those readers who enjoy big sprawling novels of the very rich, the nearly famous, and their outrageous fortunes.

Stone, herself a physician, sets the foreground of the novel in a hospital milieu that opens as Cassandra Winter, a world famous movie actress, is deep in a coma after an attack by a mystery man. Another man of mystery arrives at the hospital to claim his rightful place beside her. This is Chase Tessier, who claims to be Cassandra's husband. The only problem is that none of Cassandra's Hollywood crowd know that she was married. Instead, they assume her lover, Robert Forrest, is her closest friend. Even Cassandra's agent, the glitzy and judgmental Natalie Gold, is not sure that Chase Tessier is the kind and concerned husband he claims to be. Natalie believes that Chase may in fact be the person who nearly killed Cassandra in the first place.

Stone uses this hospital setting, with its tense hours of waiting as Cassandra's life hangs in the balance, as the place where Chase Tessier's memories of Cassandra will reveal the truth about both of their lives. Chase was 12 years old when he inherited his grandfather's vineyards, called Domaine Tessier. His adoptive parents, Victor and Frances, were cold and distant figures to him. Chase was raised by servants as he learned to run the vineyard while his father, a brilliant musician, and his mother, a bestselling novelist, raised Chase's little sister Hope. Chase grew up to be asavvy businessman, a true connoisseur of wines and an expert on the grape harvest. He built the business up further, until, still in his 20s, he became one of the wealthiest and most successful wine growers in the Napa Valley.

His little sister Hope, meanwhile, was raised in the cold shadow of her mother, who sent her from one boarding school to another in Connecticut and Paris. Hope grew up a defeated, sad young woman, but with a determination to become a lawyer. It is at this point that the novel's story-within-a-story begins. When Chase hears that she's coming to Domaine Tessier for a summer break from college, he is thrilled to see her again.

Accompanying Hope Tessier is the fascinating and alluring Cassandra Winter. Cassandra is no ordinary beauty, for half her face has nerve damage and droops slightly. Nonetheless, Chase is enraptured with her from their first meeting. Deep within, Cassandra is insecure and unsure of herself. She plays parts even before she knows she will become a famous actress. She is a chameleon to those around her, all because of her need to belong. But when she meets Chase, and sees the vineyard, she opens like a blossoming flower.

But as their lives further intertwine, and mysteries of their pasts and hints of their futures become evident, the love story of Chase and Cassandra darkens like a wine-stain. As Cassandra becomes internationally famous, a secret haunts her, a mystery out of the past, and only Chase, perhaps, can save her from it.

Katherine Stone writes with the wit and aplomb of Jackie Collins, the storytelling acumen of Sidney Sheldon, and the tenderness of Judith McNaught. Her depiction of both the hospital ward and all the attendant security guards around a victim of an attacker is realistically drawn as is her sweeping portrait of the Napa Valley and its wine industry. She does tend to get a bit flowery in descriptions, and might consider cutting a few adjectives now and then, but that is a minor quibble.

Bed of Roses is an engrossing tale of Hollywood, the Napa Valley, and family loyalties and love beyond reason. Katherine Stone has written an engaging and scintillating tale.—Jessi Rose Lucas

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Actress Cassandra Winter lies in intensive care, following a merciless attack by an unknown assailant. Now a man appears, a stunning stranger, demanding to see the ravaged actress, claiming that she is his wife. Today Cassandra is famous and celebrated. Eight years ago she had been, simply, a woman in love. The man she adored was Chase Tessier, the genius behind Domaine Tessier, the gray-eyed maestro who created the poetry that was Tessier wine. Chase and Cassandra met during an enchanted summer, when the air was sweet with newborn grapes and moonlit roses. Chase had never been in love...until her. And Cassandra had never been loved at all...until him. Yet it was she who left their love. She who vanished with the secret she must never reveal. Years later, Chase is back to help her, if he can...to love her, if she will permit it. Hope Tessier, too, is at Cassandra's side. Chase's little sister - and Cassandra's college friend - has become a star prosecutor, clinging to her work as she once clung to her dreams...as she once clung to a man named Nick. But the mysterious Nicholas Wolfe soon returns to Hope's life, and she dares to dream anew. Danger awaits them all on their journeys toward rainbows, toward roses, toward love. For the perilous secrets of the past will not be silent, and the assailant who left Cassandra for dead lusts, still, for her death.

SYNOPSIS

Rainbows and roses . . . danger and love . . . amid the lush, sunlit splendor of California's Napa Valley. It is here, from the bestselling pen of Katherine Stone, that this enthralling story unfolds. He had never been in love--until her. . . .He is the stunning and powerful Chase Tessier, the gray-eyed maestro who creates the poetry that is Tessier wine. And she had never been loved at all--until him. . . .She is Cassandra Winter, the fierce yet fragile waif who joyfully gave him her heart during an enchanted summer of newborn grapes and moonlit roses. But she left him. Cold. And now . . . Cassandra lies in the ICU. Ravaged. Broken. And needing Chase. Yet there is such danger on this journey to rainbows and love. For the perilous secrets of the past beckon and haunt--as does the vicious assailant who vows to destroy Cassandra still.

FROM THE CRITICS

Kirkus Reviews

The latest romantic mystery from Stone (Imagine Love, 1996; Pearl Moon, 1995, etc.) offers a variation on genre themes. The actress Cassandra Winter is badly injured by an unknown assailant. The assault stirs up a variety of previously concealed secrets, and spurs Cass to reconsider her life, including a long-ago romance with the handsome Chase Tessier. As Cass and Chase warily attempt to rebuild their relationship, the figure stalking Cass shows no signs of giving up. All of this is played out against the appropriately privileged background of the Napa Valley. Competent storytelling with few surprises.