The White Oleander

by Lilian Warren, Kathryn Blair (Pseudonym)

Unexpectedly, Laurie Fielding was invited to the island of Mondego to look after the small son of her sister, Stella. But when she arrived Stella mysteriously denied any relationship between them, even calling her by the name of Laurie Bell.

Yet, in spite of her misgivings and Stella's devious ways, Laurie found romance and happiness.

Genres: Harlequin Romance, Harlequin, Portugal, Fiction

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1953

About the author

Lilian Warren aka Rosalind Brett, Kathryn Blair, Katrina Britt, and Celine Conway.

Lilian Warren was born in London, England, UK. She worked as secretary, when at 19, her first magazine story was accepted. She married and moved to South Africa, where she continued writing. In the 1950s, she started to write to Rich & Cowan, and later to Mills & Boon, under various pseudonyms Rosalind Brett, Celine Conway, and Kathryn Blair. She passed away on 1961 in South Africa. Some of her books were published posthumuously.

Reviews

[Margo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rosalind Brett/Kathryn Blair/Celine Conway had a real gift for extremely messed-up family dynamics. In this case, the h is working as a nanny to her sister, who is married to a wealthy Portuguese man who thinks that the sister is an orphan. In other words, she's just an employee as far as her sister's husband is concerned, and both the sister and the husband treat her like a servant in an environment where servants are really instructed to know their places (for example, at one point the sister's husband reprimands her for not calling her sister "senhora"). The h is a doormat and the sister is clearly a sociopath, and this situation would have continued indefinitely if it weren't for a wealthy friend of the sister, who falls in love with the h and won't stop trying to reconcile the contradictions surrounding the h's presence in Portugal.

This brings us to another specialty of Blair/Brett/Conway, the family confrontation. The H ruthlessly exposes the sister to her husband despite the h's protests. He is furious at how she has been treated, and rightly so. It heads to a happy ending, and that's when the H says one of the most romantic things I've ever read in an M&B:
--
" I had plans from the start. When Stella and Eduardo were going away I thought at once that I must have you at Villa Barreiro.”

A humorous shrug. “So I send the bailiff on leave, because his is one of the best houses. That
young man was amazed and gratified that I thought so well of him to give him two vacations in one year! Can you guess what I imagined then?”

Her eyes shone with love. “No,darling. Tell me.”

“I saw us very happy. I would teach you some Portuguese and we would have much fun over it. I
would also perhaps teach you some elementary love. We would explore each other till such simple
love was no longer enough, and the time would come when I would take you in my arms, like so...”
He laughed with a gentle passion as he drew her up with him. “You would cling to me—how you
comprehend, my pigeon!—and I would murmur, ‘ Meu amor, como tu es bela.’ And then I would
kiss you."
----
It's vulnerable and sweet and a tiny bit silly and terribly romantic, and it definitely leaves me with no doubt that these two lived happily ever after.

[April Brookshire · Rating 3 out of 5]

Super old school Harlequin.

My parents were in preschool when this was published.

But it was actually very good!

[Lynn Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first started to read these novels from when I was about 10 years old. They were my mum's which she had bought years before I was born and had kept. They are now tame by modern standards but some of the stories are still a good entertaining read. This author wrote under Celine Conway and Rosalind Brett. Some of her characters under which ever pseudonym she wrote could be quite bitter and tightly strung and others charming and likeable.

I loved this novel as a child and was one of my favourites for some years.

[RomLibrary]

Unexpectedly, Laurie Fielding was invited to the island of Mondego to look after the small son of her sister, Stella. But when she arrived Stella mysteriously denied any relationship between them, even calling her by the name of Laurie Bell.

Yet, in spite of her misgivings and Stella's devious ways, Laurie found romance and happiness.

[KSHG · Rating 3 out of 5]

6/10 This author usually writes a solid well-written story but this one failed on the "well-written" part. Instead of her usual smooth style, it was cumbersome. The plot was good enough but the execution of the heroine's introspection felt forced and amateur. Only my past experiences of better books by this author made me force myself to finish. Disappointing.

[Last Chance Saloon · Rating 4 out of 5]

The heroine (20) is a nurse, and the hero (32) is titled half-English/half-Portuguese and living in an island off East Africa. She comes to look after her nephew but her sister demands that she not acknowledge the relationship as she has lied to her husband about having g no family. This causes all the problems between the protagonists. The hero, at the end, brings this into the open and there is a lovely HEA.
4 stars as I would have liked more interaction between them, but it’s great that the sister gets some comeuppance!

[Alpha Fangirl · Rating 3 out of 5]