Bellefleur

[vintageromancereader]

She'd have to share her house with him!

Autumn McBride had been delighted when an elderly lady she hardly knew left her a house in Louisiana. Later she discovered the conditions attached to Hattie Robichaux's legacy.

Autumn could not displace the two present occupants: Mrs. Guidry, the housekeeper, who was a dear; and handsome Dr. William Robichaux, Hattie's nephew, who was not.

He might be beloved Dr. Billy to the town - but he was trouble personified to Autumn!

Original Publisher: Harlequin
Original Year of Publication: 1980
Page Count: 188

The June 2021 #TBRChallenge theme is “Book with One Word Title.”

Autumn McBride, age 23, was born and bred in NYC. One day she sees an elderly lady being mugged on the street and intervenes. She accompanies the woman, a tourist named Hattie Robichaux, to the hospital and they become friendly, exchanging Christmas cards after Hattie returns to her native Louisiana.

Autumn had given up her job as a secretary and bookkeeper to become a model, and had fallen in with the glamorous crowd in New York. She started dating an up-and-coming Wall Street stockbroker named Don Prescott, and when she learned that her roommate had become engaged and was planning to move out, Don suggests that Autumn move in with him. Autumn is shocked and appalled when Don suggests that they live together instead of being married, “to find out if we’re really suited or not.” Considering they’d only been dating for 3 months, I hardly find Don’s suggestion offensive, especially in the swinging 70s, but Autumn has a complete come-apart at the very idea of living with a man without benefit of marriage!

How fortuitous then, that Hattie Robichaux dies and leaves her home in Louisiana to Autumn.

Autumn leaps at the chance to run away from her woes in New York. She has no family, her only friend (her roommate) is to be married soon, and her boyfriend has dumped her, so why not make a gigantic life decision like moving 1000 miles away? Autumn heads to the bayou and is shocked to learn that Miss Robichaux’s house is a plantation manor, and that it already has occupants: Bertha Guidry, the housekeeper, and Dr. Bill Robichaux, Miss Hattie’s nephew who not only lives at Bellefleur, but runs his medical practice there.

For a stuck-up prude like Autumn, this is her worst nightmare: sharing a house with a gorgeous man that she inadvertently insulted during their first meeting.

Everyone is completely mystified as to why Miss Hattie left her house to Autumn, but everything else to Bill. I’m not sure why, as the reason was crystal clear to me: Miss Hattie was very obviously playing matchmaker for her single, eligible doctor nephew.

Bill’s obviously Not Happy about Autumn moving into his childhood home, but when he learns of her secretarial background, he offers her a job as his receptionist and office manager for his medical practice, which Autumn reluctantly accepts. She’s appalled when she learns that he works 6 days a week – though I’m not sure why, considering he is the town’s only physician.

Of course, having one strange man invade her life isn't enough for our Autumn. Ellis Naquin, the younger partner in Naquin & Naquin (Miss Hattie’s attorneys), asks Autumn out about 3 seconds after meeting her. She’s still reeling from the Don Prescott fiasco, but she accepts because Ellis is so friendly. Ellis pursues Autumn relentlessly, declaring himself in love with her after 2 dates (and 0 kisses), and offers the first of many marriage proposals.

Autumn can’t accept Ellis, no matter how nice he is, because she’s decided that she’s in love with Bill. Again, I’m not sure why, considering he’s a massive jerk to her, but she feels the love in her heart and believes that Bill could care less about her, so she’s going to suffer in silence.

There is another woman, of course – Pauline Blanchard, Bill’s schoolboy sweetheart, who hates Autumn at first sight (of course) and is a complete asshole (of course). Pauline dumped Bill back in the day to marry an older, wealthy man. Her husband is conveniently dead (of course), so Pauline has the chance to hook her claws into Bill. Autumn is so blinded by her jealousy that she doesn’t realize Bill treats Pauline with the same indifference that he treats her.

Autumn spends most of the book fighting off Ellis with a stick, only to find Don Prescott back in the mix, too, when he shows up at Christmas, determined to marry Autumn and take her back to New York. Neither man will take ‘no’ for an answer, no matter how many times she tells them she won’t marry either of them, and of course both men are angry and offended that she’s living with yet another man (Bill) and each have their doubts about the arrangement. Autumn gets the flu, sends Don packing, and then feels guilty for not hearing him out (seriously??). She feels guilty every time she turns down Ellis’s proposals. She’s so miserable thinking her love for Bill is unrequited that she decides to run away again, back to New York (because it worked out so well the first time, obviously!).

The book is everything that is awful about vintage romantic novels. Every tired cliché you can think of is present. Autumn is a Mary Sue. The trio of eligible men are all alpha jackasses. Nobody bothers to open their mouths and communicate in a rational, or even friendly, way. The Grand Seduction Scene (that isn’t) is an awkward fishing trip in a rainstorm that strands Bill and Autumn at a cabin, where they have to share a bed (of course!) but they don’t actually manage to talk to each other, which was kind of amazing. There is no POV from Bill at all, so his character is completely opaque, and he expresses his emotions mostly in the form of brooding silences and sarcastic comments. Why, how, or when he fell in love with Autumn is a complete mystery, to both her and me.

It drives me batty when romances are built on jealousy (like that’s supposed to prove a person’s love instead of their possessiveness, earned or not), and that’s exactly what this was. Bill and Autumn spend long stretches of this book not talking to each other at all, and the rest of it being jealous and acting like juveniles. The author’s outline was showing in a big way (with no variations on the theme, although there was a cute secondary couple to break some of the tension), and this is a tired retread of very familiar territory.

I’m SO GLAD that romance, on the whole, has grown in the forty years since this book was published. This set-up is as old as the hills, and is still being used today – I’ve bought Harlequins published in 2021 with this sharing-a-legacy theme – but nowadays at least writers feel compelled to put in some work with their characters getting to know one another (Talking! What a concept!) instead of merely lusting after each other and being mad that the other characters can’t magically read their minds.

My advice is to give this one a pass.


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