Before the first word of this story, there are voluminous resources as to how and when and where to get help for eating disorders. There’s encouragement. There’s potentially life-saving information.

This is one thing that I love about Caitlyn Duffy’s novels: her protagonists have big-time problems, but she always provides resources as to how to deal with them (one character ran away; Ms Duffy provided numerous hotlines to  help runaways).

Another thing I adore about the Treadwell Novels is the interlinking characters and plots. Think of the Olympic rings. You get the picture. A character barely mentioned in book #1 may be the protagonist in book 2. You never know who will relate to whom. Better yet, she doesn’t make a big deal out of it.

Treadwell Academy is the link. It’s the glue that binds all these stories together.

In “The Tycoon’s Daughter,” a clothing impresario’s daughter, Emma, ends up on the Christmas catalog one year. The next year, the clothes don’t fit, and she hears catty comments. She goes on a massive starving binge. The skinnier she got, the more successful her modeling career became. To a point.

I’ve known two women with anorexia, and it’s frightening. My problem was always with grain-based liquid substances, but they kept seeing themselves as too fat. Why??

So many models look like pipe cleaner figures–boobless bamboo stalks. Real women have curves. Real women eat. Real women are comfortable being themselves. It’s such a pity Emma–despite all her success–can’t…yet.