Patricia Wilson (1) (1929–)

This book is like Mary Poppins, practically perfect in every way. Full of drama and angst, misunderstandings, true love and noble sacrifice with an added dash of secret babies. I loved the melodrama of it all. The heroine Carrie left the hero Matt four years ago when he ran off to America to go to the side of his former lover. Now he has tracked her down and threatened to ruin her cousin Allan if she doesn't marry him.

One of the strong points of the book is that the secondary characters are so well done. Everyone, even if they are only on the page for a paragraph or two, is wonderfully realized. I loved that Allan was a good guy and not the typical wastrel whom the heroine shouldn't bother saving. Instead they were very close and Allan had made it his job for the last 4 years to take care of her and the twins because he loved them. His business was not failing by his own fault but was only suffering because Matt had made it his business to put its financing on shaky ground so he could get Carrie back. I loved the high class secretary Viviene who could have been used as a bitchy vampy stereotype but was instead funny and real. In fact I would like to see a book about her and Allan.

That makes it sound like Matt was an ass but he never really came across that way. You could tell through every thing he did that he had missed her, was crazy in love with her and doing everything he could to get her back while pretending to be nasty to her to protect himself.

To top the whole thing off, the end was great. It was nice and long with every little thing explained. There was a lot of heart felt sacrifice and yearning and begging and wonderful declarations of love. And they didn't just jump into happy teasing and total confidence in each other's feelings that always seems so oddly overly cheerful after all the angst to me. They instead seemed to keep questioning each other and reassuring each other. That seems more like real reunited lovers to me.… (mer)