Finding Camille by C.L. Donley 💕 Book Tour and $10 Gift Card Giveaway 💕 (Vintage Romance)

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The ghosts from the past suddenly come back to haunt her, putting her hard-won successful career in jeopardy.

It's ten years after the end of WWII when Camille Winters accepts a position as the only colored secretary in the office at Hargrove and Chase, an advertising agency on Madison Avenue in the mid-1950's. When the owner and senior partner Kenneth Hargrove takes a professional liking to Camille after seeing her potential, Camille thinks she's finally found her niche, vindicated after pursuing her career rather than settling down. Mr. Hargrove uses his influence to find an old acquaintance from the war as a favor to Camille. But instead of the gesture bringing closure, the ghosts from the past suddenly come back to haunt her, putting her hard-won successful career in jeopardy.

“You never answered my earlier question,” Mr. McCain startled her as he sat back down in the large Chesterfield leather booth.

“Which question was that, Mr. McCain?”

“What do women want?” he repeated, offering a cigarette with his case open. She refused. Mr. McCain smoked menthols.

“Difficult to say. Not all of us want the same things.”

“Of course you do.”

“Oh, I see. You already know the answer, is that it?”

Mr. Hargrove re-joined them in the booth.

“You want more. More of everything. And all without feeling guilty.”

“Miss Winter’s isn’t your typical housewife, Drew,” Mr. Hargrove insisted, reaching for his own cigarette.

“I think surveying a colored woman about this may skew your research,” Camille said, still dutifully holding onto the purse in her lap.

Mr. McCain tilted his head as he took a drag, intrigued. He decided he was in the mood to learn something. “You’re saying colored women don’t want more?”

“Colored women are still trying to get the full portion of whatever it is white women want more of. And you’d be hard-pressed to make us feel guilt about any of it.”

“Colored women have families, keep houses,” he argued.

“They also keep other families and houses.”

“Is that what your mother did?”

“Not a day in her life. She met my father practically the minute she set foot in America and that was that.”

Mr. McCain blew out a cloud of smoke. “So it’s really your mother I should be talking to.”

“Perhaps. But my mother has plenty and doesn’t want anymore.”

“She envies you, I bet.”

“She doesn’t understand the impulse to work. Because my grandmother worked in the rice fields in Guyana and raised her to make marriage her only goal, which she did. My grandmother hates the fact that I work. I’m the only one of my sisters not married. She says my mother didn’t marry a light-skinned man just to see her daughter not snag a husband.”

Dinner arrived all soups and salads. Upon realizing she hadn’t ordered like a person with money, she felt a bit embarrassed.

“Well, you may have dodged a bullet, Miss Winters. The data is in. Housewives are bored. Unfulfilled. Their work is monotonous.”

“Most hard work is. The only reason modern women love the workplace over the home is the reward system goes from long term to short term. With motherhood, the only job well done is the 20-year fruit of a functioning adult, added to society. Between the money, promotions, pats on the back, a job is a constant validation drip compared to keeping a house.”

“Holy shit. Ken, you writing this down?”

“I’m paying you for the ideas, Mr. McCain.”

“You’re saying colored women don’t have this same desire for constant validation?”

“No. I’m saying the grass is always greener. Find me a time period, Mr. McCain, where colored women weren’t acquainted with work.”

“But how long have they been paid for said work?” he pointed with his cigarette between his fingers.

“Jesus, Drew,” Mr. Hargrove cringed.

“It’s a valid notion,” Mr. McCain defended.

“Be that as it may, the working world is not some promised land to us. Nor is the need to be taken seriously, to be honest. We know what it is, and we know what it isn’t. Middle-class white women, less so. Our priorities are exactly opposite, nor will they ever be the same.”

“Your theory is good,” Mr. McCain exhaled a cloud of smoke, grinding his cigarette into the crystal ashtray, “but it certainly doesn’t explain you.”

Camille took another measured spoonful of soup to her mouth. “No, I suppose it doesn’t,” she agreed.

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C.L. Donley is a future New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author of multicultural and interracial romance, who believes romance novels that are impossible to put down are the only kind that should exist! Armed with a B.A. in English and M.A. in Writing, she is new to the romance game, having written her first novel, Amara's Calling, after discovering the romance genre in September 2017. Donley writes in a style she calls "romantic realism" that is sophisticated yet simple, grounded yet unaplogetically escapist, and character-driven rather than plot-driven. This style creates a unique, modern reading experience ideal for book club discussions, personal epiphanies, satisfying re-reads, and the occasional spiraling reviewer! Love it or hate it, fans and critics alike can't deny her talent, and always find themselves coming back for more!