For Ever and Ever

by Mary Burchell

1 POCKET-SIZE SOFTCOVER BOOK

Genres: Romance, Harlequin, Harlequin Romance

Paperback

First published January 1, 1956

About the author

Ida Cook was born on 1904 at 37 Croft Avenue, Sunderland, England. With her eldest sister Mary Louise Cook (1901), 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 helped 29 jews to escape from the Nazis, funded mainly by Ida's writing. In 1965, 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 than 125 romance novels by Mills & Boon since 1936. She also wrote some western novels as James Keene in collaboration with the author Will Cook (aka Frank Peace). In 1950, Ida Cook wrote her autobiography: "We followed our stars". She helped to found the Romantic Novelists' Association, and was its president from 1966 to her death on December 22, 1986.

Reviews

[Linda (NOT RECEIVING NOTIFICATIONS) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somewhere in the distant past and on a planet far, far away Mr. Ed I. Tor planned a meeting between his old friend, Betty, and his client, Miss Ida Mary. When they came together, the conversation went something like this:

Ed: Good morning, ladies. Betty, dear, I would like to introduce you to the wonderful author, Miss Cook-Burchell. Miss Ida Mary, this is my close friend, Mrs. Neels. She has been writing for a few years now and our publisher would like to make both of you a challenge.

I.M. Well, this sounds most interesting. What do you think, Mrs. Neels?

B.N. Oh, please call me Betty. I am receptive to a new idea, thank you. Ed, my dear man, what are you considering?

Ed I would like to see each of you write a shipboard romance. Be sure and keep the age spread between the hero and heroine that you both favor. Please use a doctor/nurse relationship. Hrumph! Betty, dear, quit laughing and take this seriously, please. And use the ‘other man’ sub-plot to cause jealousy and some insecurities with your hero. The storyline can take place entirely on the ship or you can have the characters eventually dock and the romance may continue on land. It is entirely up to you.

I.M. Splendid! I already have thought of a name for my ship. The liner will be called Capricorna. Betty, don’t you think astrology and the stars when you hear the name? I do love the stars. It is so romantic.

B.N. Why, yes, it is wonderful name though I think I will name my cruise liner, Socrates. From what I have read, the name means whole, unwounded and safe. I always try to remember that when I write the last pages of my romances.

Ed Well, ladies, I believe both of you are off to a wonderful start. The only other item I need to mention are the titles of your romances. For whatever reason, my bosses at the established and respectable Mills & Boon-Harlequin love ‘For Ever & Ever’ and ‘Never While The Grass Grows’. It must have a special meaning to them. Please make sure you include your title on the last page. Well, let’s go ahead and toss a coin to choose the title you prefer. Here goes, make your call. Heads up, For Ever and Ever Heads down, Never While the Grass Grows.

3.5 stars for the oh-so-vintage For Ever and Ever and
3 stars for the maddeningly sweet Never While the Grass Grows

[bookjunkie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another nurse-and-doctor story, but I liked this one much better. This time they're on a cruise ship, and there's some intrigue going on. Our heroine only has the best of intentions despite carrying on some deceptions. She's trying to keep her innocent young companion from being courted by a gold-digger, and while this is going on she's also falling in love with the Hero who's suspicious of her and keeps catching her in compromising positions with the gold-digging guy.

The ending scene was very enjoyable in that his intense feelings were laid out pretty openly.

"Don't cry like that. What is it you want? You shall have it- anything in the world, if it's humanly possible to get it for you. What do you want, Leonie?"

This, from Mr. Scornful-High-and-Mighty-Doctor-Surgeon. And even before all the deceptions were revealed, too. He plain ol' loved her, and confessed even before he knew all the truth. Can't ask for more than that!

[Margo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very sweet! The h is a good-hearted, highly admirable girl and the H has a very good love declaration (in the sense that he clarifies his strong feelings and says lots of nice things). He also is the take-charge, "I'll look out for you from now on" type, which this h really needs because she is almost terminally helpful and exactly the type who would allow too many people to lean on her.

An honorable guy who adores her, admires her character, respects her professional skills, and is protective and a bit bossy is exactly what this h needs. (Frankly that sounds like what I need right now.)

[Leona · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy Mary Burchell's work and this one was no exception.

A young woman is hired to chaperone her boss's daughter on a cruise liner headed to Australia. Given her prior nurses training and strong commonsense, she is the perfect candidate to ensure that the daughter does not fall into the clutches of a certain "fortune hunter". As it happens, the "fortune hunter" has conveniently placed himself on board as the second ship doctor conveniently giving him access to the heiress without interference from any family members.

It was fun to watch the heroine try to keep these two apart, especially as her machinations put her in the direct path of the senior doctor. These two strike some sparks together when he seriously misinterprets her actions as a mechanism to get the "bounder" to fall in love with her instead.

There were a few things that I found unrealistic which is why I gave it 4 rather than 5 stars. But in the end, it was an entertaining and light-hearted read that I would strongly recommend to Burchell fans.

[Fiona Marsden · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just love anything by Mary Burchell. This is a cruise story with the hard working secretary, Leonie, bumped up to companion to her bosses spoilt daughter, Claire. Of course the voyage is fraught with difficulties when the girl's not so eligible boyfriend turns out to be on board.

There is also a senior surgeon who Leonie knew in a past life when she was training to be a nurse before family difficulties meant a change of career. Simon Pembridge thought she was frivolous back then and watching her attempts to distract Claire from the fortune-hunting Kingsley doesn't change his opinion.

This is overall a very sweet and innocuous tale with the prerequisite HEA. It's nothing special but if I can read it several times and still enjoy it I think it deserves 4 stars.

[JR · Rating 4 out of 5]

This certainly ranks as one of the better ship-board vintage romance titles I've read. The story features a heroine engaged by her employer to keep a fortune hunter away from his daughter onboard a lengthy cruise from Britain to Australia. The heroine and hero are engaging and pretty well drawn characters and the secondary romance is well woven into the plot. The pace of the story is neat and it's written well enough to get through in a single sitting/lazy afternoon.

[Last Chance Saloon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a mostly well written and enjoyable story set on a luxury cruise to Australia between a former nurse and a surgeon.
The heroine (22) had spent 2 years training to be a nurse, but then became a secretary when her father died and her mother and sister needed her to earn a bigger wage. Back when she was 18, she had been reprimanded by the hero at the hospital they both worked in, for flirting with a trainee doctor. She spent the next two years avoiding him.
Now back at age 22, she is asked by the owner of the company she works for to accompany his daughter on a cruise she is taking to recuperate and visit her Australian relatives. He asks that she keep an eye on her medically and also because the daughter has been seeing a cad. Of course the said cad is also onboard - junior doctor no less! The heroine meets the hero again and as the days progress she is torn as she has to intervene between the secret lovers and she is also falling for the hero. Personally I did not like the gap of 4 years and then they fall in love. His fiancée (who he was engaged to for quite a while it seems) died a year before and he left the hospital to get over it. He also thinks that the heroine has fallen for the junior doctor and after one attempt to take her ashore, does nothing to show any interest in her.
I think the ending, his declaration, came a bit out of nowhere. Even the heroine was astonished. It was, however, a rather splendid ILY. Yet, I wish the author had given them some time together on ship to fall in love, rather than have everything about the daughter of the heroine’s boss. Although she is cute and I am glad she gets an HEA, too.
I would have rated it higher if there had been some connection earlier in the book. Both main characters were lovely people and you can imagine their being sublimely happy together (preferably in Australia).

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am reviewing the box of romance books I've kept from a time when I used to read a lot of romances. Mary Burchell was my favorite author. This is not one of her best, but it's a pleasant read. There is no real chemistry between the two main characters, and the amount of eavesdropping and misunderstanding is very high, but it's set aboard a long ocean voyage between England and Australia and that was fun.

I found one thing amusing that certainly dates the book. One of the ship nurses injures herself. The heroine was a nurse years before, but she had to quit due to family circumstances and is now a secretary. The ship surgeon asks her to assume the nursing duties until they can get a replacement. Ha! Talk about a lawsuit waiting to happen these days.

[Reading with Cats · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eh, I think I would’ve left the dippy Claire to her idiot fate.

[Andi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sweet story about a sweet but quite often naive (read nitwit) heroine trying to save her friend/charge from a golddigger. The H is clearly besotted, but I wish Mary Burchell hadn’t (once again) insisted on making him so much older than the h, and I don’t just mean in years. Whenever a H refers to a h as ‘child’, I cringe. It always leaves a niggling (or sometimes full out) disquiet.

[Karen-Leigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

When Leonie Creighton was chosen as Claire Elstone's companion on a voyage to Australia, she knew that the whole purpose of the journey was to separate Claire from a young man of whom her father disapproved. So it was a considerable shock to her to find, the first night out, that this very young man was aboard too in the capacity of Assistant Surgeon - and that he didn't seem to be quite the villain that Sir James had pictured.

Leonie was extremely worried as to what to do; and she had troubles of her own as well, connected with the Senior Surgeon, who had, it seemed, thought her a silly little flirt in her hospital days and did not seem prepared to revise his opinion now.

But when an emergency arose on board, it was to Leonie that he turned for extra help in the ship's hospital, and so began for her a happiness that was not to end with the voyage but to last "for ever and ever".

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars in the context of this being a Mary Burchell/vintage Harlequin romance. I don't know if it holds up outside of that context. But it was cute. This was very much a Mary Burchell novel. You have the rather naive and helpful heroine, a competent and domineering hero, and a weird power imbalance that kind of works because he is a former boss and not her current one.
I enjoyed the cruise-ship dynamic.
This was actually very fun and pretty clean. I'd re-read it.

[MB (What she read) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. There's something so relaxing about reading these old romances. Many written before I was born. They're so unrealistic; dated, and optimistic--with all life's problems solved by marriage. I don't know why, but I find them relaxing in their anachronism.

[SS · Rating 4 out of 5]

nice sweet story

[Ellyn (Mrs. Darcy in my Dreams) · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️I wish there had been more romance between the MCs. The vintage cruise was really interesting!

[Victoria Paige]

Another good one! Someone needs to rescue me from my clean-romance bingeing. LoL!

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good, interesting-I liked the nursing aspects.

[Megan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Liked the setting and general plot, but was frustrated by the lack of real communication between the MCs until the very end.

[Anuradha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good engaging story line. Heroine is out to keep her boss's daughter out of harm's way during a voyage to Australia.

Harm here refers to the girl's dalliance with a charming gold digger , assistant surgeon on board the ship. Daddy sends her on the voyage thinking he has cleverly separated the love birds, but they conspire to spend the entire voyage together !

So , our heroine , Leonie , chaperone cum friend to the rich girl , tries hard to keep the love birds apart. She comes up with a brilliant plan. Divert the gold digger's attention from the rich girl, on to herself !

So where is the actual love story here , you might wonder ! Every time the heroine is pretend-flirting with the bad boy, the hero sneaks up on her. Who is the hero now ??

Our hero is the hapless chief surgeon on the ship, the bad boy's boss. And also Leonie's boss a few years earlier in a London hospital. He frets and fumes at being a sad witness to every kiss between the heroine and the bad boy.

Then a crisis erupts, which the heroine manages admirably. In the process she manages to expose the gold digger for what he is.

Finally she is distraught about ending the voyage and never getting to see the hero, our pensive, sweet senior surgeon again. But he breaks his silence over his feelings for her in a simple, heartfelt plea. I liked his confession, sincere, passionate, and quite desperate, in fact.

4 stars mainly because of a grand heroine !! And an heart warming confession at the end.

[Rongbu]

light-hearted and fun.