story with likable people, Brother is a bit dim and auntie smug in her petty realm, Just once I wish one of these heroines was like, “You know, my life kind of fucking sucks right now and Im gonna grab this chance to make it better.
” Instead we have to have the excuse of a Dubious Male Relative to justify the behavior of our Martyr Mary Sue heroine, Blerg. Also, we have anyear old heroine with ayear old man and shudder cousins marrying, And yet it was batshit crazy fun, A pretty boring Mary Burchell I'm not sure how it ended up in my box of romances to keep from my teenaged years, Part of the problem is that it was written inand published inas a Harlequin Romance, and the scandal about the good girl who is going to throw away her reputation in exchange for money to help her brother by helping a stranger get a divorce doesn't seem very scandalous for.
The plot and characters weren't up to Mary Burchell's usual standards, For Burchell diehards only. May/December romance where Jason is the extremely sophisticated, cynical and married H that runs intoyo Virginias house, or to be more accurate her pennypinching Aunts house,
Jasons wife slithers in and happily drops the bombshell that he may be paralyzed for life so its not a huge surprise when Jason confesses he wants a divorce.
He offer V,pounds, which todays value is approximately,, to move in and play his mistress so he and his wife will have some grounds to get divorced, Turns out this was written inwell before the divorce statutes that exist now,
With the money V can escape her big bummer of an Aunt as well as support her dubious and pretty wimpy brother in his art efforts, V makes it to the house of sin where it turns out sin pays as she buys some new clothes, and the servants are actually decent to her,
When she tells her little brother that she has the means to help him with his art, its no longer necessary, Little brother has found a mentor that he will live with and get art lessons from, Honestly, between the h running to big bad London to be a pretend mistress, and the little brother going to live with a mature artist for “training” I fear for these two.
Without a punishing kiss, a slut shame, or a grabbed arm things implode between the H and h when he tells her his wife is coming back to him.
V walks out and finally gets her own life as a secretary, Shes courted by Clive, a really nice guy, that she keeps on a string, I mean, the name Clivetells you he will be dust,
Her brothers “mentor” paints a picture of her that is snatched up by the H, She sees him at a play where she is contemplating accepting Clives unspoken offer and, well, at least poor Clive has Virginias awesome friend to fall back on,
The h and H meet and its a pretty cool HEA although I suspect fireworks off page, Turns out he pushed her away so she could have a chance of a real life after the emotional deprivation with her aunt,
This was enjoyable as I love the incredibly British feel to it, dahling, Given that it was published in, you would think you might get a hint of the era, but surprisingly no, I dont even think they take tea, Another book that would have been more fun as a murder mystery, The shiny exwife or the disapproving Aunt would have made excellent victims,
I have a
feeling the author was more interesting than any of her characters as here part of her bio,
Ida Cook was born onatCroft Avenue, Sunderland, England, With her eldest sister Mary Louise Cook, she attending the Duchess' School in Alnwick, Later the sisters took civil service jobs in London, and developed a passionate interest in opera, The sisters helpedjews to escape from the Nazis, funded mainly by Ida's writing, In, the Cook sisters were honored as Righteous Gentiles by the Yad Vashem Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Authority in Israel,
As Mary Burchell, she published more thanromance novels by Mills amp Boon since, She also wrote some western novels as James Keene in collaboration with the author Will Cook aka Frank Peace, In, Ida Cook wrote her autobiography: "We followed our", She helped to found the Romantic Novelists' Association, and was its president fromto her death on December,, The age gap thing kind of, rubs me the wrong way, but I like the purity of the story and its straight to the point quality, Mary Buchell has officially shot to the top of my favorite authors list along side Anne Weale, Sara Seale and Anne Mather, Old school Harlequins are my absolute favorite and as long as a book fulfill my simple requirements I couldn't be happier:
, Rich older handsome Hero
, Younger agreeable heroine
. interesting plot
. HEA which leaves me in a state of whimsey This was very sweet, but it didnt have enough angst! The scheme would be of mutual benefit
When Jason Kent literally crashed into Virginia's life, he turned her whole world upside down.
In return for a large sum of money, he asked her to pose as his mistress so that his wife would divorce him,
Virginia agreed because it meant she could finance her younger brother's artistic career,
But would she have been so willing if she had known the full impact Jason Kent would have on her life You can't go wrong with Mary Burchell.
Mary Burchell does it again, I really enjoy her work because in spite of the fact that most of her books are overyears old, she writes wonderfully strong heroines who grasp at life and make the best of it.
I believe her trademark is writing about young strong heroines who have great depth of character, That's not surprising, given Mary Burchell was an incredibly strong woman ahead of her time,
I like that her books are full of sexual tension, but not sexual content, It puts more emphasis on the power of delivery,
Our hero is a wealthy older man who comes crashing literally into her gates, She nurses him back to health for weeks, but he ends up crippled from the accident, His road to recovery will be a long one, and there is question about whether he will walk again, He is married to the wife from hell, who seems only interested in his money, He concocts a scheme where our heroine will come live with him and pose as his mistress inorder to force his wife to finally file for divorce,
This is certainly a pretty risky move for a young beautifulyear old, Given the time, this marks her as a "fallen" woman and she will lose any chance of ever making a decent match, So right out the gate we know this hero is insensitive and self serving, He offers herK pounds to act out the part, which will ultimately ruin her, but will help her put her brother through art school,
I don't want to go into the rest of the story, but there are some interesting twists and turns that made this story unique and a very enjoyable read.
In typical Burchell fashion, by the end of the book I had fallen hard for that nasty callous hero,
The H was an admitted jerk, but the h wanted him anyway, She was way, way too good for him so much so that he was correct in knowing he should stay far, far away from him, She gets her way, and he does love her, so I'm guessing it's considered a HEA, However, the bottom line for me is that s book with as plot, Once I got past the rather dated premise, it wasn't entirely awful, But I couldn't help agreeing with the hero that the heroine needed a chance to see a little more of the world before they did something about their instalove.
Ms. Burchell clearly liked those teenage girl/thirtysomething man romances, Doesn't bear thinking about in real life, but she could make it work, Usually The scheme would be of mutual benefit
When Jason Kent literally crashed into Virginia's life, he turned her whole world upside down, In return for a large sum of money, he asked her to pose as his mistress so that his wife would divorce him,
Virginia agreed because it meant she could finance her younger brother's artistic career,
But would she have been so willing if she had known the full impact Jason Kent would have on her life sitelink Ida Cook was born onatCroft Avenue, Sunderland, England.
With her eldest sister Mary Louise Cook, she attending the Duchess School in Alnwick, Later the sisters took civil service jobs in London, and developed a passionate interest in opera, The sisters helpedjews to escape from the Nazis, funded mainly by Idas writing, In, the Cook sisters were honored as Righteous Gentiles by the Yad Vashem Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Authority in Israel, As Mary Burchell, she published thanromance novels by Mills Boon since, She also wrote some western novels as James Keene in collaboration with the author Will Cook aka Frank Peace, In, Ida Cook wrote her autobiography: We followed our, She he sitelink Ida Cook was born onatCroft Avenue, Sunderland, England, With her eldest sister Mary Louise Cook, she attending the Duchess' School in Alnwick, Later the sisters took civil service jobs in London, and developed a passionate interest in opera, The sisters helpedjews to escape from the Nazis, funded mainly by Ida's writing, In, the Cook sisters were honored as Righteous Gentiles by the Yad Vashem Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Authority in Israel, As Mary Burchell, she published thanromance novels by Mills Boon since, She also wrote some western novels as James Keene in collaboration with the author Will Cook aka Frank Peace, In, Ida Cook wrote her autobiography: "We followed our", She helped to found the Romantic Novelists' Association, and was its president fromto her death on December,, sitelink.
Fetch Yours With Love Illustrated By Mary Burchell Distributed As Publication
Mary Burchell