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Call and I'll Come
Anna was sure she'd made a mistake in marrying Tony Roone. Not that she didn't love him, but she felt she had nothing to give him.
As a compensation, she had made a career for herself as a singer--but found success wasn't satisfying. Only when things went wrong did they begin to really find each other!
As a compensation, she had made a career for herself as a singer--but found success wasn't satisfying. Only when things went wrong did they begin to really find each other!
189 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1970
3 people are currently reading
65 people want to read
About the author
Mary Burchell
162 books84 followersIda 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
April 28, 2018
There was a lot of angst for the h, but what makes this a really enjoyable book is how good-hearted both characters are. Also, Mary Burchell has a way of inserting these moments of sweetness that are so charming and heartwarming. The only other HP/M&B authors I know who can do this are Essie Summers and occasionally Betty Neels (there is one book where Neels' h rhapsodizes about her dream of having a donkey and lots of cats and dogs and it is just darling).
August 10, 2016
My first book by Mary Burchell. I only hope her other stories are better.....I felt like I was rolling in glass.
What did I just read? Frustrating schmaltz with plenty of misunderstandings, pining, and theatrics. I think I need a cigarette but I don't smoke!
What did I just read? Frustrating schmaltz with plenty of misunderstandings, pining, and theatrics. I think I need a cigarette but I don't smoke!
October 25, 2012
I read a lot of genre romances as a teenager and I'm going through my box of them and rating them. Mary Burchell was my favorite author, and this was one of my favorites. I did not like it as much on rereading, although I still enjoy her language and unusual plots.
A man stranded on the moor seeks a meal and shelter at a lonely house where he is "bewitched" by a young girl. When her abusive stepfather comes home and beats her, her mother drops dead and the man sees to it that she finds a place where she will be taken care of. He returns to check on her, realizes he has fallen in love, and proposes. Although romance often happens quickly in genre romance novels, I swear this couple has spent about a week together in total by the end.
The hero is quite ridiculously blind to his horrible family, and this is one of Burchell's more melodramatic offerings. He is always giving and she is always taking, but of course the tables have to turn before the end.
This book was published in 1970 but feels like it was written much earlier. For example, he's quite shocked when she suggests that it's more important that he love her than that he marry her!
A man stranded on the moor seeks a meal and shelter at a lonely house where he is "bewitched" by a young girl. When her abusive stepfather comes home and beats her, her mother drops dead and the man sees to it that she finds a place where she will be taken care of. He returns to check on her, realizes he has fallen in love, and proposes. Although romance often happens quickly in genre romance novels, I swear this couple has spent about a week together in total by the end.
The hero is quite ridiculously blind to his horrible family, and this is one of Burchell's more melodramatic offerings. He is always giving and she is always taking, but of course the tables have to turn before the end.
This book was published in 1970 but feels like it was written much earlier. For example, he's quite shocked when she suggests that it's more important that he love her than that he marry her!
November 26, 2022
This book was excellent not so much for the main couple, who are terrible - his name could be "Mr. Boring McBritishPants" and you'd get the gist, while she's a twenty-year-old wild child who grew up in abusive poverty but is spectacularly beautiful and instantly devoted to Mr. BMBP when he gets stranded at her house in a snowstorm - but for the famous conductor and his not-wife Manora, who are clearly the precursors for Burchell's famous Oscar Warrender - and whose love affair has survived for decades despite the fact that it can't involve marriage (his wife won't divorce him) and thus won't result in children. Burchell clearly wanted to be writing about them instead, but couldn't; but the sections involving their relationship and Manora's thoughts on love are really wonderful (and wildly progressive given when this was written).
June 1, 2023
Not sure how I feel about this. V interesting. It was published in 1970, but I wonder if this may be a reissue of an older work under a new name because it definitely feels older. There's a stray reference to the heroine's father having been killed when she was 13 (which would be about 7-8 years before the story takes place) with no further context, which could be explained as related to World War II if my theory is correct. (There are also some cringeworthy bits like the hero calling the heroine "child," but that was still a thing in 70s romance novels -- and tbf it is balanced out by her thinking about how boyish he is.)
There's a lot of melodrama and I approached it sort of like listening to an opera (obv appropriate for Burchell!); everyone is going to have their big moment and feel their big feelings (but no one gets a big death scene). The basic theme is equality in relationships. The main characters have a large class/wealth/power gap when they get together -- the heroine is very poor and, until the beginning, has been living with her horrible abusive stepfather, while the hero is the wealthy, coddled son of a stuffy conventional family. She's uncomfortable with the disparity because she feels like she's always taking from the hero but has nothing to give him. The whole first section of their courtship and wedding is told from his perspective and it works very well imo because it's clear that he loves her but also doesn't understand her, partially because of their very different backgrounds, and because his own privileged life has allowed him to just assume that anything he does will go well and be approved of. Their mindsets are totally different.
After some horrible treatment by his family, she decides that she's ruining his life and leaves him, which was painful to read because he clearly does love her and want to be with her. (Her actions are understandable in context, though.) She makes some friends in the opera world and starts establishing a career for herself as a singer. I really liked the portrayal of Manora and Schreiner, an opera singer and conductor who are in a long-term relationship but unable to marry because his wife won't give him a divorce. The heroine gains a new perspective on love and marriage through her friendship with them and there also some really cute moments between them in the background.
When the h/h finally reunite, their changed fortunes have brought them to a more even standing. They come to realize that they both have things to give each other, and they can also receive without feeling ashamed. There's a long section from the heroine's POV when she isn't in contact with the hero at all, but as we find out, he's had to learn more about "human nature" and is able to understand what went wrong in their relationship at the beginning. Without the obstacles of his cluelessness and her shame, they can communicate openly. Overall, I really liked the characterization of them both, as well as the side characters. So far I've found that Burchell tends to write very likeable OM -- I'm a bit sad there isn't a sequel about this one.
There's a lot of melodrama and I approached it sort of like listening to an opera (obv appropriate for Burchell!); everyone is going to have their big moment and feel their big feelings (but no one gets a big death scene). The basic theme is equality in relationships. The main characters have a large class/wealth/power gap when they get together -- the heroine is very poor and, until the beginning, has been living with her horrible abusive stepfather, while the hero is the wealthy, coddled son of a stuffy conventional family. She's uncomfortable with the disparity because she feels like she's always taking from the hero but has nothing to give him. The whole first section of their courtship and wedding is told from his perspective and it works very well imo because it's clear that he loves her but also doesn't understand her, partially because of their very different backgrounds, and because his own privileged life has allowed him to just assume that anything he does will go well and be approved of. Their mindsets are totally different.
After some horrible treatment by his family, she decides that she's ruining his life and leaves him, which was painful to read because he clearly does love her and want to be with her. (Her actions are understandable in context, though.) She makes some friends in the opera world and starts establishing a career for herself as a singer. I really liked the portrayal of Manora and Schreiner, an opera singer and conductor who are in a long-term relationship but unable to marry because his wife won't give him a divorce. The heroine gains a new perspective on love and marriage through her friendship with them and there also some really cute moments between them in the background.
When the h/h finally reunite, their changed fortunes have brought them to a more even standing. They come to realize that they both have things to give each other, and they can also receive without feeling ashamed. There's a long section from the heroine's POV when she isn't in contact with the hero at all, but as we find out, he's had to learn more about "human nature" and is able to understand what went wrong in their relationship at the beginning. Without the obstacles of his cluelessness and her shame, they can communicate openly. Overall, I really liked the characterization of them both, as well as the side characters. So far I've found that Burchell tends to write very likeable OM -- I'm a bit sad there isn't a sequel about this one.
February 10, 2025
3.5 stars ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️⭐️🎉 This started out shaky for my taste. I wish we had seen more of their relationship developed before they got to London and his family interfered. The side characters were interesting and I would have liked to see a happy ending come to them since the book focuses a lot of time of their backstory.
April 9, 2025
Such a sweet story. I loved this couple. Mary Burchell mines the hearts of her characters, so their personalities and convictions shine.
At first, Anna is a tragic young woman, living under the thumb of her abusive step-father. Tony is a great blessing to her, especially since she has just lost her mother. His family makes no effort to accept her, which leaves her feeling less than worthless, with nothing to give to her husband. She feels that all she does is take from him.
However, Anna has a hidden talent--she can sing very well. She leaves him and forges a career for herself in an effort to be able to have something to give to him, to be a worthwhile wife he can be proud of.
This story is from 1970, which is late in her career. She wrote two more books before concentrating on completing the Warrender saga.
One thing I enjoy about her writing is that her heroes are never sappy men who think pathetic and weak things such as, "She is my heart, and how can I live without my heart?" She does not write for for her male characters as many authors do today, which sounds like a woman writing for a man as she thinks a man should think. MB writes for men in an authentic way that doesn't make me cringe.
This is the 60th book by Mary Burchell that I have read. There is only one more available for me to online to read for free, One Man's Heart (1971). [This book is available at freenovelread.com, as are other books by MB.]
Grey eyes: Tony and his sister Kate
At first, Anna is a tragic young woman, living under the thumb of her abusive step-father. Tony is a great blessing to her, especially since she has just lost her mother. His family makes no effort to accept her, which leaves her feeling less than worthless, with nothing to give to her husband. She feels that all she does is take from him.
However, Anna has a hidden talent--she can sing very well. She leaves him and forges a career for herself in an effort to be able to have something to give to him, to be a worthwhile wife he can be proud of.
This story is from 1970, which is late in her career. She wrote two more books before concentrating on completing the Warrender saga.
One thing I enjoy about her writing is that her heroes are never sappy men who think pathetic and weak things such as, "She is my heart, and how can I live without my heart?" She does not write for for her male characters as many authors do today, which sounds like a woman writing for a man as she thinks a man should think. MB writes for men in an authentic way that doesn't make me cringe.
This is the 60th book by Mary Burchell that I have read. There is only one more available for me to online to read for free, One Man's Heart (1971). [This book is available at freenovelread.com, as are other books by MB.]
Grey eyes: Tony and his sister Kate
pback-to-read
April 2, 2023Anna was sure she'd made a mistake in marrying Tony Roone. Not that she didn't love him, but she felt she had nothing to give him.
As a compensation, she had made a career for herself as a singer--but found success wasn't satisfying. Only when things went wrong did they begin to really find each other!
As a compensation, she had made a career for herself as a singer--but found success wasn't satisfying. Only when things went wrong did they begin to really find each other!
December 9, 2022
When Anna married Hamilton Roone she felt that she was receiving everything from him and giving nothing in exchange. She tried, as a compensation, to make a career for herself as a singer - but it was only when things went wrong that they really began to find each other.
A new hero type, a bit clueless but so nice that he fell so much in love right from the start and we KNOW he loves her. Family can be hell and influential. Misunderstandings but love finds a way and this story has them come together long before the very last page which is also a nice change.
A new hero type, a bit clueless but so nice that he fell so much in love right from the start and we KNOW he loves her. Family can be hell and influential. Misunderstandings but love finds a way and this story has them come together long before the very last page which is also a nice change.
Read
August 9, 2016Enjoyed the book. Love yourself first and became strong before you could feel free to love other people.
July 16, 2016
Not one of her best. Seems more dated than some from the 50s! And the heroine is just odd.
I really like Burchell (Ida Cook) and will keep going in my attempt to read all her books though.
I really like Burchell (Ida Cook) and will keep going in my attempt to read all her books though.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews