So... Added Blurb(s) From Amazon

You say you like Judith McNaught's Paradise? Weeeeeeelllll... I found a book in JoAnn Ross's backlist that reminds me of that. It's phenomenal! The title is Private Pleasures. It was published in 1992, but I got it from my library and it was fan-freaking-tastic! It's one of those books that you just don't want to put down, and if you end up having to, you want to hiss and growl. Yeah, that good.

I picked this one up by chance from the library as the storyline looked good. Holy crap! This book rocked my socks off! It isn't a suspense, but rather a contemporary, one that spans about 15-20 years, but dude, it's awesome. My Grade: A+. It's a keeper for me. It'll go right next to Sandra Brown's Mirror Image and Judith McNaught's Paradise. (NOTE: I'm not sure if this part of a trilogy or connecting stories or not, but I will be looking Ms. Ross's earlier books for sure!)

Blurbs from Amazon...
From Publishers Weekly
The struggles of a driven, appealing heroine shape this readable but formulaic novel. When young Cassie McBride begins working for the powerful Gallagher family, she hopes for a path away from her alcoholic mother and their poverty in Gallagher City, Okla. Miss Lillian Gallagher takes Cassie under her wing, teaching her about the art world and bringing her to auctions in Manhattan. But Cassie falls in love with the black sheep of the family, Roarke, and becomes pregnant with his baby. Thrown out of Gallagher City, Cassie escapes to New York, where she is rescued by Nina Grace, head of a modeling agency. Cassie becomes Jade, a famous model, but, fearing the wrath of the Gallagher clan, manages to hide her deaf daughter, Amy, from the world. Circumstances conspire to keep her and Roarke apart for 10 years, by which point she is a grieving widow and the wealthy owner of a San Francisco auction house specializing in Asian art. Despite an often predictable narrative, murky logic and a didactic approach to its art subplots, Ross's ( Secret Sins ) latest entertains, and her heroine invites the reader's empathy.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Pregnant, teenage Cassie finds herself destitute when her lover Roarke's father forces him to abandon her. She uses her beauty and a driving ambition to pull herself out of poverty and support her deaf daughter. When Roarke reenters her life several years later, she has been transformed into Jade, a top model. After his father manages to part them again, each marries someone else, but in spite of these unions, Jade's closely guarded secret, and even a murder, the lovers are eventually reunited. Although the final scenes seem a bit rushed, Ross competently handles the romance of lovers kept apart by misunderstandings and a vindictive family. Her second novel (after Secret Sins , St. Martin's, 1990) makes for light, enjoyable summer reading.
- Barbara E. Kemp, formerly with Columbia Univ. Lib.