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Chills and Fever

Lovely Lady Chloe Maitland was caught on the horns of a dilemma. As a proper young country miss in the London Marriage Mart, she was duty-bound to agree to obey her dragon of a grandmama and give her hand to the age Lord Twisdale, who had buried one young wife and now lusted to take an even younger one. But if Twisdale sent shivers down Chloe's spine, Julian St Aubyn made her strike as from a flame. St Aubyn was the most wicked rake in the realm, and Chloe's innocence would be no match for his infamous expertise. Should Chloe sacrifice her happiness on the altar of duty - or her virtue in the arms of a man who mocked all decency? She heard the response of her heart - and knew how wrong it could be...

Original Publisher: Signet
Original Year of Publication: 1994
Page Count: 222

The November 2024 #TBRChallenge is "It Came from the 1990s!" Believe it or not, I have a dearth of 90s books on Mount TBR. The vast majority or either older or were published in the 2000s. I went looking through my Signets, hoping against hope that there was at least one not published in 198-, and lucked upon this one.

Lady Chloe Maitland has been left to her grandmother’s care during the Season, as her own mother has just married (for the second time) and is off to the Continent for her honeymoon. Unfortunately, Chloe’s grandmother is a well-known dragon of a dowager, and she has her heart set on betrothing her granddaughter to Lord Twisdale. Twisdale is more of age with the grandmother than young Chloe, and she not only finds him repulsive as a human being, she is also deathly allergic to whatever scent he wears – anytime he comes near, she sneezes quite violently.

She is at the Purcell ball when she first notices Lord St Aubyn (Julian to his friends), a notorious rake and scoundrel. He happens to be talking to Chloe’s aunt, Elinor Hadlow, herself a young widow on the prowl for a rich second husband. She’s set her sites on St Aubyn, and has gone so far as to buy the townhouse opposite the street from his in an exclusive neighborhood.

St Aubyn has no desire to wed the delectable Elinor. He is getting pressure from his father to marry someone respectable and set up his nursery, but like many rakes before and after him, he just Doesn’t Want To. Still sowing his wild oats, to a degree. He’s intrigued by the widow Hadlow, but not enough to make her his mistress, much less his wife.

Lady Chloe escapes from the ballroom after a particularly odious encounter with her elders, and runs smack into St Aubyn. She’s flustered to be face to face with such a notorious man, but because she knows she hasn’t chance of impressing him, talks rather frankly to him. They exchange dilemmas and realize that they might just be able to help each other out. Grandmama has clothed Lily basically in dowdy half-mourning, but St Aubyn is willing to feign some interest in her to stir up the interest of other, more eligible, bachelors, in hopes of thwarting Twisdale’s suit. Spending time with her will also deter Elinor, or so St Aubyn hopes.

They don’t quite realize what they’ve gotten themselves into, and just what formidable forces they are up against. Grandmama is unyielding; Twisdale and Elinor begin plotting together to separate their quarry and trap them if necessary.

Chloe releases some of her pent-up frustration in the form of wicked caricatures of the ton’s elite, drawing certain people as the animals that best suit them. Grandmama is a dragon; Twisdale is a serpent; St Aubyn, a lion rampart. Elinor steals Chloe’s drawings and has them displayed at a ton party, much to Chloe’s humiliation, but St Aubyn swoops in and lavishes his approval on them. He also happens to be friends with Beau Brommel, and gets the Beau on his side of matters. Chloe becomes a minor sensation for her drawings, much to Elinor’s irritation.

Chloe has basically one friend in Town, Laura Spayne, who is quite eager to help her avoid the noose Twisdale is dangling. St Aubyn and Theo Purcell (son of the original party hostess) also team up to assist the girls, and it seems to be working – until one fateful evening, when a trap goes utterly wrong: instead of compromising her hated niece with Twisdale, Elinor storms into the library to find Chloe and St Aubyn together in a passionate embrace! St Aubyn immediately asks Grandmama for Chloe’s hand.

So far, so good: a fairly traditional Regency romance setup, and our hero and heroine are ‘compromised’ into a convenient marriage. They independently decide that they love each other, too. Chloe, however, harkens back to her very first conversation with him and is convinced that St Aubyn doesn’t want to marry anyone, let alone her, and suddenly the clever girl lauded for her caricatures becomes the living embodiment of TSTL. She is so bound and determined to find a way to “free” Julian from this unwanted obligation, apparently so obtuse that she is unaware that he is not exactly fighting this twist of fate.

She comes up with a hairbrained idea of how they can go through with their marriage and yet have it annulled later; Julian humors her for about a split second before reminding her that an annulment will socially ruin her, a consequence that of course she gave no thought to. She’s so headstrong and heartstricken, however, that she continues to search for a way to break their marital bond.

Meanwhile, now that Chloe is off the market, Twisdale has turns his sights to Laura. He’s desperate for a spirited young wife because he relishes the idea of breaking her like a wild animal. His first wife died under mysterious circumstances, and Chloe decides that if she can just prove that Twisdale murdered wife #1, he will be ostracized from Society and Laura will be safe from him.

So Chloe and St Aubyn spend their honeymoon at St Aubyn’s country estate, located conveniently next door to Twisdale’s estate, and decide to go detecting. The resolution of this last-minute third act mystery is laughably simple and easily solved, especially once revealed that Julian is Lord Lieutenant of the shire and thus, can bring private justice against Twisdale if necessary.

Chloe runs away in the final chapter and of course St Aubyn chases her, and they have a Huge Romance Moment at the end where they finally consummate their relationship. Because TSTL wins out in the end, I suppose.

I really enjoyed the first third to half of this book. The writing is smooth and adroit, the characters are fun, the antagonists scheming each in their own way. I started having reservations shortly before the big Compromising Scene at the ball, and Chloe’s 180 degree shift in personality just threw me completely. Shove in an unnecessary mystery and a really stupid ending, and this book just sorta came to a whimpering end, to me. Still, I enjoyed this author enough that I will read more of her work, which is a good thing, considering I already have several books (including the second in this duet) on Mount TBR.

⭐⭐1/2

A time of sorcery, romance...and the magic that is love

All Hallow's Eve...a night when the impossible happens...when Regency castles are filled with mystery and intrigue...when costume balls in elegant mansions may lead to passionate surprises...and when ladies and gentlemen of the ton find themselves falling under a spell that may be other-worldly. Or as close as their own hearts...in these three delightfully mysterious tales...

Teresa DesJardien's The Haunted Bride is the second Lady Healey who has just wed a nobleman whose first marriage ended in tragedy...and whose seductive embrace could bring danger - or the love of a lifetime. In Cindy Holbrook's Love's Magic, a young sorceress meets her destiny in a handsome highborn Duke who is promised to another...a union only the powers of true love can prevent. Valerie King's The Vampire Rogue pairs a charming rake with an heiress, whose newly acquired castle is the setting for a masquerade ball...and where the resident vampire has his own plans for eternally joining these unlikely lovers.

Let this trio of romances be your Halloween treat - wonderful stories set in elegant Regency England, where lords and ladies are truly bewitched by love!

Original Publisher: Zebra
Original Year of Publication: 1996
Page Count: 380

The Haunted Bride - Teresa DesJardien (148 pages)
On the occasion of her cousin's wedding, Etta Carson quite literally meets the man of her dreams. He introduces himself as Lord Healey, and demands to know why she possesses a dozen sketches of him, when they've never before met and he's never been to London. She rather reluctantly admits its because this is a man she has seen regularly in her dreams. His response is equally curious: does she believe in things beyond the reach of the physical senses?

Etta is reluctant to admit it to him, but yes, it's true. Sketching the images she sees in her dreams helps her make sense of them. She has dreamed of certain events which later actually occurred, and she is both uneasy about and confident in this ability to make sense of her dreams by sketching them out. She had no idea who this man was, but now that she sees him in the flesh, she realizes that it is, indeed, him.

Lord Healey (Daniel), is a friend of the husband of her cousin, who has arrived for the wedding and intends to return to his home in Bath the same day. But after meeting Etta, he decides to stick around, and for the rest of the week his earnestly courts her. He proposes seven days after they originally meet, and Etta accepts. Within the month, they are married, and they return to his property in Bath.

Etta immediately has an uneasy feeling about the house. Negativity seems to abound, and only 4 servants remain. The rest of them have been scared off by ghostly encounters. Daniel admits to Etta that he didn't tell her all of his background, wanting her to have a 'fresh' eye on the house and her own impression of it first. But with Daniel's sullen brother Sean lurking about, he has to tell her everything. Daniel's first wife, Aileen, died in the house after a horrific asthma attack, locked in her dressing room with no one knowing that she was suffering. Daniel himself was downstairs, asleep in his study, and was the first one to find her. Ever since her death, the servants reported seeing Aileen's ghost quite frequently, and some of them were so scared that they left, even without receiving their full wages.

Sean was injured during his time in the military and now basically lurks about Daniel's house, drinking himself to death. He seems to take keen and cruel interest in telling Etta the wild stories about Aileen's last days, and how Daniel reacted in the wake of her death. It becomes obvious that Sean was in love with Aileen, too; with it not being entirely clear that Aileen's death was indeed a natural one, Etta begins to wonder if she was murdered - and if so, by whom.

This story has a nice little gothic/Rebecca-esque feel (and, indeed, the housekeeper is a crazy woman, though her motives are more twisted that Mrs Danvers'). I enjoyed the flow and pace of this, and found it the most believable of the bunch, even with Etta's perhaps supernatural intuitions. She is a character who is strong and sure of herself, and even though the stories of her new home upset her, she isn't running around like a chicken with its head cut off, spooking at every shadow. At 148 pages, it is the longest novella of the collection and definitely has the most complete character and story arc.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Love's Magic - Cindy Holbrook (125 pages)
The first chapter sets the plot up quite nicely. In the village of Chancellorville, there exist both good and evil witches. The good witches are Bathsheba and Dorinda Goodfellow, a pair of elderly spinster sisters who are bumbling but well-meaning. They care for their (non-sorceress) niece, Sarabeth, whom they love to post is the most beautiful girl in the village. The evil witch is Dame Maudar Tureen, a woman obsessed with black magic and power, and the continual gain of both, at whatever cost. She is quite proud of her beautiful, raven-haired daughter, Gertrude, who is indeed beautiful but is also a complete moron.

The long-absent Duke of Tor, Damian, is returning to Chancellorville because his castle has been partially burned, and there is a suspicion of arson. Damian's family has long had the ability of wizardry, and Dame Tureen is determined to marry her daughter to Damian and gain control of his powers. When the Goodfellow sisters proudly boast that if anyone can catch the Duke's eye, it will be their niece Sarabeth, Maudar is furious. She will not let anything stand in the way of her kingmaking, and casts a spell to turn Sarabeth invisible, right before Damian's eyes.

Damian and Sarabeth meet briefly, so briefly that he thinks its a dream. He's wary of returning to the superstitious village, and has no belief in the stories about the men of his family being powerful wizards. He basically wants to restore his castle and get the hell out of town. He's relieved to meet Dame Tureen and Gertrude, as they claim to be among the few who also don't believe in the superstitious nonsense of the villagers. Plus, Gertrude is beautiful.

Sarabeth returns to her aunts, who try their hardest to make her visible again, but have several hilarious results instead: turning her into their cat, then a parrot, and finally a mouse. The Goodfellow family learns that Maudar has cast a spell on Damian to make him marry Gertrude because she believes that the consummation of their marriage will bring him into his latent abilities and that she can take control of him. So now its a race against time to return Sarabeth to her original form and stop Damian from making a terrible mistake that he'll never be able to undo.

This reads like a straight-up fairytale, a mixture of the Disney versions of Sleeping Beauty (the aunts are the good fairies) and Cinderella. It is also very...juvenile? Like, I'd expect to find this in a YA collection. It is very straightforward, with magic dictating the plot. There is no depth of emotion in any of the characters, beyond some wallowing in Maudar's evil villainess status. The happily ever after is literally the end of the story - I can't imagine any of these characters actually having sex, LOL.

⭐⭐

The Vampire Rogue - Valerie King (87 pages)
Emma Keverne, the newest heiress of Castle Breage, has decided to throw a huge Halloween masquerade at the spooky Cornwall estate. She invites many people, including Lord Chace, whom she has been in love with for the last 3 years. They met at Emma's coming out party and have been dancing around each other ever since. They start to do more than dance at this ball, however, and both notice a rather sinister figure hanging around, whom no one really knows. Only - Emma recognizes him. She drags Chace down to the picture gallery and points out a long ago ancestor, Count Lansallos. Chace agrees that he does indeed look like this unknown man, albeit in clothes a few centuries out of date. Emma tells him that while she was reading the papers associated with the castle, she came across some very disturbing stories and warnings, including the disappearance of her cousins the St Austells. One day they were there, the next they were missing, and no one had seen hide nor hair of them since. Edward St Austell left a warning to never fill in the moat around the castle, but without an explicit explanation as to why, Emma ignores the directive and fills it in for the party. Now Count Lansallos has shown up again, and Emma fears that he means to turn her into an immortal vampire.

She believes this because she has seen the youngest St Austell in the castle's secret passages, and introduces Chace to him when he pops out again. He's the one who tells them that Lansallos is a vampire, that he turned the St Austells into vampires nearly a century ago, and that filling the moat was his invitation back. He has his sights set on the beautiful Emma, and the only way they can protect themselves is with silver crosses and daylight. Emma and Chace spend the next few evenings battling with Lansallos and trying to help the St Austells, who were also drawn back because of the filled moat and who want to assist in defeating the man who ruined their lives all that time ago.

You basically have to roll with this premise, because things happen so fast you don't really have time to question them. There is so much historical handwaving going on that I'm a bit wary of trying this author's full-length work (I have several of her novels in my collection). The action is fast-paced and interesting enough to see through to the end, and there is a surprisingly gruesome climax (basically, vampire meets sunlight is a really awful way to go, like burning alive). Backstory for Emma and Chace is sprinkled in, but it doesn't really feel like much except setup for their own silly misunderstandings. There is an aunt to provide comic relief, but Emma and Chace drug her so she sleeps through most of the fighting. This story really needed some more page length to really flesh everything out, characters and plot alike.

⭐⭐ 1/2

"Ye have been here before, child. Ye cannot deny it."

As an infant, she was left in a basket on the steps of a simple cottage in the South of Wales. Now, the kindly couple who raised her have died; Gwynneth Morys is an orphan once again, totally alone in the world with only her odd, recurring dreams - dreams of a towering mansion on the moors...a beautiful lady in a pale green gown...a tall man whose dark eyes speak of passion.

Bereft of funds and family, Gwynneth has no choice but to accept the only offer of work to come her way - a position as companion to an elderly woman in the North of Wales. And as Gwynneth approaches the many-turreted manor house rising out of the mist, close by the fog-enshrouded moors and still closer to the roiling sea, she knows that this is the place she has dreamed of all her life. And the handsome, dark-eyed Owen Price-Jones, who steps forward to greet her, can be none other than her destined lover...

But not even in her dreams had Gwynneth learned of the tragic death of Lady Jane's only daughter, or the dark desire for vengeance that still burns in the old woman's heart. Nor does she guess that an enemy - her enemy - lurks among the shadowy towers, waiting for her to climb a certain flight of stairs to the one turret from which there could be no escape...and no one to hear her plea for mercy.

Original Publisher: Zebra
Original Year of Publication: 1991
Page Count: 304

The October 2024 #TBRChallenge is "Spooky (Gothic)," and I knew exactly where I wanted to go: my tiny collection of Zebra Gothics, all of which have amazing covers and intriguing blurbs. I definitely got into my feels with this, and whilst in the mood for Gothic romance, sought out as many of the Zebra titles as I could find. What I found was that they are extremely rare on the secondhand market - I added books to my PBS wishlist that haven't been posted in 17 years 😲😲😲 Some were available for more than $20 at other known sources of secondhand books, which is way too rich for my blood. Plus I learned that Harlequin had its own Gothic line at some point, so now I only want to find these elusive books even more, LOL.

But I digress...

This was an interesting read, because the blurb up there is only half-right. 17-year-old Gwynneth Morys has known for all of her life that she was adopted by the couple that raised her, but she's never known anything about her family of origin. So when her father dies and leaves her alone in the world, she has very few choices. There's no one to help her work her hardscrabble farm, and no marriage prospects on the horizon. So it seems like the hand of God intervening in her life when her priest, Rev Jenkins, receives a request for an intelligent, hard-working young lady for a position in a grand house in the north of the country. She is being asked to be an assistant aide/companion to the sickly lady of the house, Lady Glendower. Jenkins and Gwynneth feel she has no choice but to accept the position, so she does.

She arrives at Glendower Hall and is struck by its unusual appearance. She has an innate sense of having been there before, though she knows logically that she has never been beyond the village where she was raised. She meets the woman who sent for her, Mrs Hoskins (aka Nanny), a fiercely loyal woman who serves as companion and nurse to Lady Glendower. Gwynneth is surprised that her duties as a servant are extremely light, and that she's invited to dine with Nanny Hoskins instead of with the other servants. Nanny practically commands Gwynneth to tour the huge pile on her own time. Gwynneth is confused (she's a little dim) and scared, because she has strange visions of scenes from the past, all centering around a beautiful young woman dressed in shades of green. She sees things and hears things that others can't, but tries to convince herself that she doesn't because she had been shamed and taunted for this gift as a child.

So Gwynneth is wandering around the house, confused and curious about why she's really there. She has a deep sense of foreboding and a sudden desire to learn more about her family of origin. In the midst of all this, she she meets Charles Price-Jones and his nephew, Owen. The Price-Jones men are neighbors and welcome, regular visitors to Glendower Hall and dear friends of Lady Glendower. Gwynneth learns that Lady Jane is the last of her family, long widowed and with a munch-hinted tragic loss of her child in the past.

Unlike what the blurb implies, Lady Jane is basically a non-entity in this novel. Gwynneth sometimes spots Nanny Hoskins and Lady Jane whispering about her, but she's so afraid of losing her position in their service that she doesn't question it. Owen Price-Jones is also an extremely minor character in this drama. He's only lived with his Uncle Charles for the last two years, and knows very little about the deep, dark secrets of Glendower Hall. He's the first person Gwynneth trusts of the lot of them, but that's about it. If you're looking for romance, you're going to have to look elsewhere.

The story of the tragic Lady Anne, the beloved daughter of Lord and Lady Glendower, comes in dribs and drabs from various members of the household. Indeed, the romance of this romance novel is squarely centered on Lady Anne. Apparently she was extremely sheltered as a child, and never allowed to know disappointment or failure; when she began to exhibit talents for the arts, a special tutor was sought and hired to develop these talents. Lady Anne was all of about 15, and her tutor scarcely older than her, so they fall in love with each other, though they are careful to keep their feelings secret from the household.

This is problem enough, but as Lady Anne grows up, she has several admirers who are far better placed to pay suit to her - including Charles Price-Jones, who returns from a long time abroad to find Anne has grown up before his eyes. He is quite a bit older than her, and though he dances with her at her coming-out ball, he decides to wait until she is a bit older to press his suit.

Unfortunately, he doesn't bother to let Anne know that he's fallen head over heels for her; instead, he goes straight to Lord Glendower to ask for her hand in marriage. Anne has no idea that her father has agreed and betrothed her to Charles; when she's told, she has a rather typical lovesick teenage reaction. Her feelings for her tutor are laid bare, and that man is summarily dismissed from the household, but Anne runs off with him and elopes before her family can stop her. Nanny Hoskins is sent after the young couple, and Anne only agrees to return to Glendower Hall if her new husband accompanies her. Lord Glendower will not yield; he's determined to send the man away and have the marriage annulled. Only...oopsie doodle, Anne is pregnant and is adamant that her husband will return for her, no matter what her father says.

I think we all know where this is going. Gwynneth is obviously Anne's illicit love child (though she doesn't figure this out until the end of the book, and doesn't believe Nanny when she tells her). But Anne is dead - Gwynneth has nearly daily visions of her jumping from the turret of the chapel, though she is too fearful to tell anyone - and what of her long-lost husband? Why does no one recognize her (other than her copper-colored hair, which neither parent possessed)?

Nanny Hoskins is the one who holds the hatred and vengeance here. Lady Glendower has some awful, grasping relatives who show up during the winter holiday season, basically to remind everyone that they're waiting for the old lady to die so they can swoop in, take over the estate, and help themselves out of/further into debt. Nanny is practically gleeful when these relatives show up this year, and the male half of this duo serves as a red herring for the "enemy" from the blurb. Gwynneth has had no real fear of anyone in the household until these people show up; so why not? She finds herself drawn to the tower where Anne killed herself and she doesn't really understand why, until she goes up there one day and realizes that someone is following her.

The novel moves at an almost excruciatingly slow pace until the last three chapters, when the action really ramps up. Gwynneth finally tells someone about all the things she's seeing and hearing; Nanny convinces her that she has 'the gift' of clairvoyance/mediumship; her unusual appearance is explained (she looks like her great aunt, natch); the fate of her birth parents is revealed; Gwynneth is stalked to the tower by a mad man who is determined to be reunited with his life-long unrequited love.

The ending is really rather bittersweet, considering all the characters and how their roles ultimately played out. Lady Jane makes a full recovery; Gwynneth takes her place has the true heir to Glendower Hall; she visits her adoptive parents' graves one last time. You really have to suspend disbelief during the climax of the plot, because the author really leans hard into the supernatural elements, even throwing in a bit of reincarnation just for good measure. It was about two twists too many for me, personally, but hey.

And yes, the stones of Glendower Hall do indeed shimmer in the light, as there is mica embedded in said stones, which were quarried locally. There is a big to-do about the shimmering in the winter light at the end that I didn't 100% understand, but hey. It's a nice visual no matter how you slice it!

This is definitely the best of the Zebra Gothics I have read thus far, and will stay in my tiny collection. If you don't mind a Gothic that's not really all that dark, lacks present-day danger and romance, and leans hard into the supernatural, I'd say give this one a shot.

⭐⭐⭐

"He needs a wife - someone like me!"

Meg Collins was an old-fashioned country girl facing an uncertain future. Now that the family house was being sold, Meg had to find a job. But where? Her skills were in cooking and gardening - not shorthand and typing.

Professor Ralph Culver offered a solution. The eminent doctor needed a "sensible, domestic person" to work in his London office. Someone like Meg.

But it wasn't very sensible to fall in love with the professor. Or to hope that he would fall in love with her, too...

Original Publisher: Harlequin
Original Year of Publication: 1987
Page Count: 187

This is my first foray into the world of Betty Neels, an extremely profile Harlequin author who had a few interesting writing quirks: her books feature doctors and/or nurses, at least one of them is Dutch, and at least part of the story takes place somewhere in Holland. I am faintly amused by this (there's nothing better than a category writer who knows her strengths, after all) and curious, because I studied in the Netherlands for grad school. I've picked up quite a few vintage Neels novels from my last few thrift store trips, and this one seemed like a good one to start with.

Meg Collins is a mousy little woman, the mostly-forgotten middle child who stayed at her home with her mother in Hertfordshire and nursed said parent at the end of her life. As the book opens, Meg and her sisters are talking about selling the home and how they are going to use their shares of the money. Cora, older sister, is married with kids; Doreen, younger sister, is a vivacious nurse at a London hospital. Both sisters have always run roughshod over Meg, telling her what to do for her entire life, and now is no different. They each encourage her to move to London and find a secretary job, even though she has no secretarial skills and London is extremely expensive, even in the post-war era.

Meg had some ideas of her own for her future. As much as she doesn't want to leave her childhood home, she grudgingly accepts it, and considers hiring herself out as a housekeeper on a similar country estate. After all, those *are* the skills she has: managing a household. She has a vague notion of marrying and having kids someday, and running her own household, but more important right now is to find a roof and a situation that pays wages.

Several people come tour the home when it's put on the market, including a very arrogant man who says nothing and displays even less. Meg takes an instant dislike to him, but manages to forget him when a real potential buyer arrives: the elegant, elderly Mrs Culver, freshly arrived back in England after her husband's death. Meg takes a shine to her, especially after she graciously agrees to let Meg and the cook, Betsy, stay on for awhile while her own housekeeper recovers. The only fly in the ointment? That arrogant man is nice Mrs Culver's son, Ralph, who came to inspect the home because he knew his mother was interested in it.

Once Mrs Culver's housekeeper arrives, Meg is persuaded to go to London to check out a flat her sister Doreen found for her, which she can afford with her share of the money. It's a horrible little place behind an underground station, and Meg is in tears at the idea of leaving her beautiful home for such a place. Mercifully, Ralph Culver swoops to her rescue, assuring her that she shouldn't live in the rundown little hovel because it was structurally unsound. On the way back to Mrs Culver's house, he casually mentions that he can help her out: he has a private practice in London where he sees patients between his rounds at various hospitals around the city. It's a receptionist job, and it comes with a flat because she has to take off-hours calls for him. It also comes with the chance to visit his own country estate, with a little gardener's cottage Meg can make her own on the weekends. Meg jumps at the chance for at least partial country life, and finds herself intrigued by the man. He is a physician, a Professor of Radiology, and once she takes the job in his office, she truly takes interest in his work, as part of her job is to chat with his patients, especially the nervous ones.

Meg is quite happy with her state of affairs, all told; she has a lovely flat in the nice part of town, a little weekend lodge, and enough facetime with Professor Culver that she falls in love with him fairly quickly. She also takes in stray animals, including a one-eyed stray cat in London whom she names Nelson. (My heart melted at this, especially when she insists on taking Nelson with her to the country!)

Meg's grand idea to get the Professor to notice her is basically to fade into the background: being perfectly polite and professional, but otherwise having no personality at all. This is a change for her, and it is indeed one he notices, but it does not seem to have the desired effect. He goes out with glamorous women all the time and invites them for weekends at his estate, especially one particularly stunning blonde. Meg keeps in touch with Betsy and Mrs Culver, and learns that his mother thinks it unlikely her handsome son will settle down with the types of women he dates, but Meg is unsure.

We're nearly 70% into the book before the inevitable trip to Holland arrives. As it turns out, Mrs Culver is Dutch and her mother still lives in Amsterdam. When the Professor takes a week-long trip to visit his grandmother, he invites Meg along - because his grandmother's housekeeper is going on holiday, and the Culvers want Meg along to fill her place. I mean, you just have to laugh, really. Meg is excited, because again, being a housekeeper is her dream in life, and she loves the Culver family, so why not?

Ralph does the same things in the Netherlands that he does in England: teaching, rounds, and dates with beautiful women. He does go out of his way to spend time with Meg, including the scene featured on the cover where they spend an afternoon taking in the sights around Amsterdam. Meg's love just continues to grow, and she continues to suffer in silence. Even the intriguing looks Ralph gives her are only stings, nothing to really hang her dreams on.

They return to England and life carries on. One weekend at Ralph's country home, Meg rushes up to his house to fetch him because a young couple have broken down at her garden gate; the woman is in labor and the man is trying to get her to hospital. Ralph, despite not having delivered a baby since he was a resident, of course handles everything with aplomb, and sends the young couple on to hospital in the aftermath, checking up on them, etc. Meg learns that the man is an out of work farm laborer, and then - to her surprise - that Ralph has offered him the position of gardener at his estate, which means the couple with the baby will be moving into her beloved little cottage! Meg is devastated at losing this place, and decides that she needs to move on with her life. She's just another one of Ralph's success stories; he finds people in need and sets them onto a better path in life; this accounts for basically everyone who works for him, in the country and in the city.

Meg starts looking for a new job in London and a new place to live. Ralph runs hot and cold around her; seeking out her company one moment (and even kissing her, though he confesses he doesn't know why) and ignoring her the next. She calls around to find him one night because of an urgent call from the hospital and finds him at the blonde's apartment, and that's just about the final straw.

One day she goes down to the offices and everyone is acting extremely polite and professional, without the warmth she's become accustomed to. She's called into Ralph's office, knowing that he's going to sack her, which he does. She's incredibly upset until he basically says, "You know why I hired another receptionist? Because I want you as my wife!"

I had to laugh, honestly. It's like everyone in the world knew what was going on, except Meg. How was she the last one to know he was in love with her and wanted to marry her? It's a mystery to me. The story is told nearly 100% from Meg's POV (with just a few scenes from Ralph's POV), and since she is pretty clueless, so are we, the readers. Ralph claims that he fell in love with her right from the start, basically because she was not like other girls he knew. We don't really see this on the page, so it was a bit of hard sell for me. I mean, yay that Meg got her happy ending, but also a little WTF??

I enjoyed this for the most part (and the shout-out to my city, Leiden, during the trip to Holland!), just was amused by that ending. Ms Neels writes a compelling story, and this was a quick read. I look forward to the next!

⭐⭐⭐

Anna and Rick had become engaged "for mutual protection," not intending to marry. Then, in his beautiful Cornish home, she learned to love him...but would he ever be free of Alix, his cousin and first love, who, with his family's approval, had every intention of recapturing him?

Original Publisher: Mills & Boon
Original Year of Publication: 1957 [1967 reprint]
Page Count: 192

The book blurb, short as it is, is indeed accurate. This is a fake engagement story set in my most favorite part of England, so of course it was the first book I chose from my latest thrift store treasure hunt. This sounded like 1000% my catnip!

Upon first opening the tattered cover, and upon registering this on Goodreads, I was rather impressed that I was holding at least the third edition of this book. It must've been very popular when it was first released to earn so many print runs, so my hopes were already raised. The opening scene from the hero's POV? They got even higher.

Rick Peveril is brooding away at a London convalescent home. He's both ready to get back to his life, and dreading it. His cousin Alix's husband recently died, so they all expect him to return to Cornwall and marry her. That had been the plan all their lives; practically from childhood, it was just anticipated that they would marry and take on the run of Trevallion, the family estate. Only, Alix dumped Rick in a huff one day and ran off with another man. Rick washed his hands of her then, and has no intention of taking her back, no matter what his family says. But it would be much easier if he returned home with a new fiancée on his arm.

He spots a young girl running out into the courtyard in tears. He recognizes her as a regular visitor to another patient, a young military officer recovering from an injury. He's surprised to see her crying as she looks up into the sky and watches the planes go by.

He approaches her and learns her sad tale: she arrived at the home that morning to find a Dear John letter from her man, ending their hasty engagement. Unfortunately, she's already planned her life around being able to escape her terrible current situation, and has gone as far as to quit her job and give notice to her boardinghouse. She's an orphan, and incredibly poor, and too proud to slink back to her job or ask for an extension on her room. Now what's she going to do?

Even though Rick perceives her as a child (and learns during the course of their conversation that she is, indeed, only 19), he also sees her as the means to his end. She is unlike anyone else in his life and will do nicely as his means of sabotaging his family's expectations of him. Given her circumstances, she seems likely to agree to his deal, so he asks her.

Anna Crewe is taken aback at his offer. She doesn't know him at all, and he's much older than her (36, he confirms). On the other hand, she has nothing to go back to in London. Homeless, jobless, without family, what does she have to lose? He offers to bring her to his estate in Cornwall for the summer, where she can rest, lick her wounds, and plan her next move. After some thoughtful consideration, she agrees to accompany him home.

They arrive in Cornwall a few days later, and Rick basically dumps her at Trevallion with his sister and his grandmother, and returns to his daily grind at the nearby mine. Neither woman is welcoming to Anna, whom they perceive as an interloper; they even tell her that they believe she won't last very long as Rick's fiancée, because guess who is also lurking about? Alix!

Rick is furious that his grandmother let out a cottage on the estate to Alix without telling him. She's there for the summer, and she makes it quite clear that she is still very much in the hunt for him. His domineering grandmother, old Mrs Peveril, sees in Alix someone who can rise into her place as lady of the house; his sister, Ruth, absolutely worships the ground she walks on. Anna begins having second thoughts about the whole thing.

We haven't had a scene from Rick's POV since the first one, and we continue with Anna as she struggles with life at Trevallion. Rick is of absolutely no help; he spends long days at the mine and doesn't return until dinner usually. Ruth is sullen all the time, Mrs Peveril spends her days holding court from her bedroom, and Alix taunts Anna. Even the Peveril poor relation, Birdie, shies away from Anna; he keeps to his garden and his piggeries and fades into the background during the family meals.

Ruth eventually starts to open up the tiniest bit to Anna, especially when the latter realizes that Ruth is head over heels for the local veterinarian, David Evans. He comes out to the house rather often to check on the animals. The Peveril family doesn't approve of him because he is Welsh and new to the village, and Ruth has been beaten down her entire life to the point where she has no spine whatsoever. She bends to the will of her grandmother and her cousin early and often, but Anna encourages her to keep seeing David if she wants to. Ruth still brushes her off most of the time.

Anna continues to have a hard time. She is not athletic like the other members of the family, so she can't join them when they swim in the sea off their bit of coast. Rick continues to be of no help whatsoever; he told her back in London that "anyone would do" for his predicament, so Anna doesn't believe Rick will keep his end of the bargain. She's waiting for the other shoe to drop - for him to realize that he still loves Alix and wants to be with her. God knows no one misses the chance to tell her that.

Anna does the best she can while she waits out the summer, and the inevitable. Somehow she manages to fall for her fake fiancé, though I'm not sure how or why. He's indifferent to her most of the time, mocks her when they do talk and calls her a child on more than one occasion. The family seems to take some grim joy in constantly tearing strips off each other, so its a pretty miserable place. Between him, Alix, and old Mrs Peveril, Anna is about ready to give up entirely.

But Ruth is determined to have her romance with David; Anna learns that her last boyfriend was run out of town by her grandmother, also for the crime of not being "good enough" for a Peveril. Anna encourages Ruth to stand up for herself: she's 30 years old and no one can tell her what to do. If she wants to get married and leave Trevallion, she should do it! Her grandmother can go kick rocks, and Rick doesn't care either way. So what's stopping her?

As Ruth starts to pull away, Alix begins to realize her power over her cousins is waning. Rick is still spending time with her (why??) but refuses to return to their past relationship, and she's near the end of her rope. She does some especially cruel things to Anna at the end, but gets her just desserts when old Mrs Peveril learns of the incident and drags Rick along with her to confront Alix.

We have our requisite happy ending, with Rick professing his love to Anna and Mrs Peveril directing her to call her Gran as the rest of the family does. Ruth is allowed to marry her vet, Alix is kicked out of the cottage, and they all live happily ever after.

Considering this novel was originally released in 1957, it's not a half-bad book; it's a bit more like proto-women's fiction than actual romance, considering how much time Rick spends off page, and how much time Anna is interacting with the other Peveril women. By today's standards, there are plenty of problematic elements. Anna is a pretty weak heroine. Rick is cold and aloof, when he's around.

I didn't love it, but I don't hate it, either. It's firmly in the "meh" category for me, probably because of my love for Cornwall. I'll keep it, but I won't exactly be rushing out for the rest of this author's backlist.

⭐⭐

The Vintage Romance Reader

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