Foreword
It is rare that the public can read such a sensitive and realistic series of novels concerning the youth of our generation and the way they grow up. In this Three Volume Series, authoress Billie Monday depicts with vivid clarity the frustrating, turbulent years of a young girl as she seeks to discover the real truth surrounding the mystique of sex. It is even more topical today than it was several years ago since the women in this present-day society have demanded and received the acceptance that they, too, have physical needs as great, if not greater than those of men. However, each young girl is raised with the idea that she must be a virgin when she is married or pay the price for the rest of her life; yet the parents who advocate chastity in their children are often the ones who are guilty of adultery themselves.
Jennifer Rhodes is an excellent example of this mockery, and Mrs. Monday describes in poignant detail what goes through the mind of a young girl when she is forced to realize that life is not all she has been told it is. Her case is a special one in other ways, however, in that her father was a well-known, respected and famous actor and the subject for scandal as well as for favorable publicity.
She presents the problems that surround so many young girls, and that is, the hero worship of the father in a sibling relationship. It is not unnatural for a girl to love or even favor her father, but sometimes it can develop into a harmful and almost all-consuming attachment. She becomes jealous of her step-mother, her father's mistress and strikes back in the only way she thinks would hurt him . . . another man! She learns that she can use sex to accomplish many things and starts to use it as a weapon while she is still young, and eventually it appears as though it may become her way of life.
She no longer finds her school-mates interesting companions and searches out older, more mature relationships which could be her downfall.
This story is an interesting psychological study that every parent of a teen-age girl should read and contemplate. It happens every day, young girls experiment with a medium they cannot yet handle and it can twist their whole way of thinking. The author's analysis of the sharp and meaningful reactions that Jennifer experiences when she is forced into drastically changing circumstances is of great sociological value. It points out that all of us are prey to the outside influences no matter how strong our moral fiber may have been woven. Everyone is subject to falling backwards on the ladder when a situation appears hopeless and futile.
We, the Publishers, feel that this book is an important contribution to the literary as well as the psychological field. It proves that there is no instant cure-all for the sudden, dramatic changes that have occurred in our present day society, no pat formula to give our youth, but it does give us a much better insight on how to cope with the situation once it has arisen.
It is not necessarily a pretty story, but it is a meaningful one that should be read and remembered.
-The Publishers Sausalito, California September, 1974