Sin of Ambition by Mary McNaughton

By Debi Lantzer @debiL1611

Sin of Ambition by Mary McNaughton
Published by Author Solutions on June 18, 2018
Genres: Literature & Fiction
Pages: 304
Format: Paperback
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Meg Newport plays to win. She’s beautiful but disfigured from burns sustained as a child. Her family life is a confusion of bitterness and denial. She wants love, but wealth and power seem more reliable in the man-powered great hotel business of the 1960’s.

While still at university, Meg takes a part-time job at a Holt hotel. Billionaire owners Steve and Nell Holt see the fire in Meg, much like their elder son, now dead. They pay for reconstructive surgery for Meg and offer her a job upon graduation-with strings attached, most notably their younger son Blaine, who needs a hardheaded wife.

Even when her goals begin to destroy the trust of marriage, family, and friends, Meg continues to build her empire. When her singleness of purpose is blasted by loss and alienation, Meg discovers a new world to explore, one where love equals gain, not loss, and the power to build serves an entirely new purpose.

Quite sometime ago, I was contacted to read and review Sin of Ambition by Mary McNaughton.  The book’s description sounded intriguing, so I accepted the offer. When the book arrived I added it to my “TBR” (to be read) stack of books. Recently, I have gone through all of the “TBR” books I have received, and I realized that I had never posted about this one. 

“She had begun the hard work of undoing the wrong turnings in her life. She couldn’t go back, but she could go on. And that meant dealing with her emotional issues, even if it cost her all her successes.”

As a child, Meg Newport suffered severe burns on her neck and shoulder and she dreams of the chance to have reconstructive surgery.  She feels that the scarring holds her back from pursuing her life goal of overcoming her difficult childhood and getting out of her middle-class lifestyle and life the life of luxury in high society.  She yearns for a life better than she has, but unfortunately her greed changes her into a calculating woman who will do whatever it takes to pursue her ambitions.

Meg works out a deal with Steve Holt, the billionaire owner of a hotel chain to pay for her surgery and hire her after she receives her MBA. She marries Blaine Holt, the “younger son”.  Blaine drinks too much and is a womanizer as an act of defiance toward his wife because he feels that Meg works long hours and he feels that she neglects their child and him.

When Steve Holt discovers that Meg is putting money into building her own hotel, he demotes her from CEO of the Holt hotel chain and she becomes a maid. Then, he has a heart attack and is forced to promote her to CEO once again.

Sin of Ambition is an easy read, a shorter book than I usually read, but the characters seem real and the plot seemed to flow very well.  The descriptions seemed very powerful and clear which helped readers stay involved in the whole story.


Mary M. McNaughton, a Canada native, is a nurse practitioner, writer, and speaker on health issues. She has spent considerable time in Central America providing health care to help fight poverty and disease. In addition to her nurse practitioner certification, McNaughton had degrees in public health nursing and education.

Her other interests include watercolor painting, drawing and golfing. Mary McNaughton has one son, and a grandson. She lives in Eugene, Oregon, with two beautiful Bengal cats.


I received a complimentary copy of this book from Author Solutions 2 in exchange for this post.  A positive review was not required.

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