Pictorial Romances #14

Raised in a tenement and hardened by years of street hustle, Linda uses her wits as the "decoy girl" for a petty theft gang—until she catches the eye of Dink Williams, a smooth operator who brings her into his world of easy money and bar schemes. When a genuine soldier named Steve Brant walks through the bar door, Linda finds herself unexpectedly drawn to him, only to discover that Dink has a far darker plan in mind: using her newfound feelings to pull off a con that will test everything she thought she believed about survival and ambition.

After a painful breakup leaves Alice bitter about love itself, she pushes away a kindhearted man named Gil—only to learn he's enlisted in the Army before she can tell him how she truly feels. When an unexpected visitor arrives at her door, Alice discovers whether a second chance at love might still be possible, even after she's tried so hard to keep her heart locked away.

A small-town beauty queen arrives in the big city confident that her looks alone will carry her to stardom, but when she fails to win the national contest, she takes a brutal lesson in what the world actually values. Desperate to claw her way up the theatrical ladder, she'll stop at nothing—including betraying the one person who believed in her—to get what she wants.

A young woman named Peggy meets Grant Richards at the racetrack and falls head over heels, marrying him after he leaves the Army—but she soon discovers her new husband's life revolves entirely around gambling on horses. As Grant chases bigger and bigger wins, Peggy watches their fortunes rise spectacularly, then plummet just as fast, leaving her to grapple with the reality of being tied to a man whose promises mean nothing when the next race is on the horizon.

Mary Danforth's high school sweetheart Lenny Winters, now a trumpet player in Greg Morris's famous band, invites her to sing as an emergency replacement at a Lake Casino performance—a thrilling opportunity that leads Greg to offer her a permanent spot and a chance at stardom. As Mary's career soars over the following weeks, the constant publicity tours and late nights with Greg begin to strain her relationship with Lenny, who grows increasingly convinced that the charismatic bandleader is deliberately keeping them apart. When tensions explode into a confrontation, Mary must choose between the glittering world of fame and the man she's loved since high school.