About the Book
This is a present-day story with historical roots in the gold and silver found in the mountains and high deserts of the old west. Greta Sadler, an attractive woman in her early thirties, returns home to Reno, Nevada after ten adventuresome years on the east coast. On the way home, she encounters Alex Mackenzie, 34, a brainy but rugged, hi-tech geology professor at the University of Nevada, Reno. They become living-together lovers against her father's wishes. Greta is the only remaining child of the President of the Sadler Corporation, a 90-year old family company that is an icon in northern Nevada. As she tries to fit into the company, she is surprised to find that it is on the brink of bankruptcy. Greta ends up in a turn-the-company-around effort, a high-risk, professional gamble, but her own wealth is at stake as well as that of 23 other Sadlers involved in the company ownership.
Alex's younger brother, Quid, 27, shows up penniless and unexpectedly after years in the U.S. Navy and, recently, some time in jail. He finds a bowling alley job in Reno, learns to play blackjack, and eventually meets a wizened 5thgeneration gold prospector, Frank Adams, who believes he is close to locating the legendary Lost Pants Mine first reported in an 1879 San Francisco newspaper story. That story triggered forty years of searching for the mine by many people, but it remained lost. A hundred years later Alex, Frank, and Quid team up to complete the search, a high-risk professional gamble for Alex. He is surprised to learn, with Frank's help, that the lost mine is on High Sierra property owned by the Sadler Corporation.
Greta and Alex's separate stories become more and more interwoven as external events pull each of them into difficult, life-altering decisions and some unexpected consequences. Love, money, changing ambitions, two blackmail events, an earthquake, family frictions and betrayals and a Nevada "Good 'ol Boy" bankers network that looks down on wormen in high corporate positions add stresses to the load on the relationship of the couple. The story with its multitude of twists and turns does not conclude until late in the book.
Review :
Following is an excerpt from a 4 Star out of 4 Stars BOOK REVIEW
"I found Alex, 34, and the two supporting men, Quid, 27, and Frank, 65, to be well-developed characters. I could easily conjure images of Alex as a handsome, hi-tech geologist and professor as well as a romantic; Frank, a wizened but wise gold prospector with a big heart; and Quid, 27, Alex's reckless younger brother. I was less able to connect with wealthy Greta, 32, the main woman in the engaging story. While I appreciated Brandt's focus on portraying her as a knowledgeable, assertive businesswoman with political ambitions, I felt she lacked depth and warmth. Despite my feelings about Greta, I appreciated the book's pace, medley of related subjects, and realistic conclusion, which was satisfying and likely, given the lively story. Additionally, the book appears to have been professionally edited, as I only noted a few errors in Greta's fascinating, business-turnaround efforts with the family-owned SADLER CORPORATION and Alex, her lover's, high-risk gold seeking gamble. I recommend it to readers who enjoy romantic adventures and the relationship stresses and joys they can produce." -Cecilia L., a professional reviewer for the OnlineBookClub of over half-million active members. Nov 2018
"I had a gut reaction to A Woman's Prerogative as I read it. I felt an affinity with the main characters and their real-life experiences including falling in love and all its ramifications; having some ambitions fulfilled and others thwarted; being trapped; being blackmailed/threatened; living through a natural disaster like the earthquake in this story, and surviving sibling quarrels. In many novels I have read, I was merely an observer. In this story, I was a participant." -Sophia W., Actress, Hollywood
"Brandt has crafted a giant of a romantic thriller. It has unique characters, a stimulating plot, authenticity, and many twists and turns." -Thomas H. Neely, Wallace Stegner Fellow, Author: Ghost Horse
"Strong people drive a complex story that runs from California's Lake Tahoe and Deadman Pass to Reno's corporate boardrooms, casinos, and University. As each person pursues his or her destiny, the pages keep turning." -Eddy Starr Ancinas, Author: Tales of from Two Valleys -- Squaw Valley & Alpine Meadows
"This is a story for our political and social times. It's a thriller, for sure, for both women and men, but it has beautiful, lyrical prose here and there that gives the book wings. Amidst life and death risks confronting the characters and all manner of revealing dialog, there is melodious phrasing and verbal picturing. I liked it all, start to finish." -Nancy S., RN. Seattle
"It features two parallel plots working at once, so a fast pace is maintained. The characters all seem logical and remain consistent. They don't change their stripes. The plots are realistic and don't stretch the reader's credulity. No one is gunned down or beaten to death. The author's vocabulary is varied and concise." -Pat, L., Travel Agent, Chicago
"Reading through the 400+ pages from the Prologue and the Endnote, I was struck by the silent role the characters' DNAs (family backgrounds) played in the development of the characters. It added nicely to the novel and raised it another notch above excellent in my mind." -Dr. Jane R., M.D., Boston, MA
