Will You Surrender?

by Joyce Dingwell

Geraldine was the Professor's daughter. She looked forward to being the Headmaster's daughter. So when Damien Manning got the appointment that she felt was her father's due, her reception of him was less than friendly.

The setting of this lively story is a boys' school in Australia, perched on a cliff above the blue Pacific.

Genres: Harlequin Romance, Harlequin

Paperback

First published January 1, 1957

About the author

Enid Joyce Owen Dingwell, née Starr, was born on 1908 in Ryde, New South Wales, Australia. She wrote, as Joyce Dingwell and Kate Starr, 80 romance novels for Mills & Boon from 1931 to 1986. She was the first Australian writer living in Australia to be published by Mills & Boon. Her novel The House in the Timberwood (1959), was made into a motion picture, The Winds of Jarrah (1983). Her work was particularly notable for its use of the Australian land, culture, and people. She passed away on 2 August 1997 in Kincumber, New South Wales.

Reviews

[Fiona Marsden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Geraldine is the daughter of the most senior professor at Galdang academy, a private boys boarding school not far from Sydney along the coast. She is a little obsessed with the school and can hardly wait to take over the Headmasters house when the previous headmaster retires.

Unfortunately her father has chosen not to take the position because of his health but doesn't want his daughter to know how ill he is and Geraldine has a run in with the new headmaster when she sneaks into the house to measure it for curtains. This is the major source of the conflict through most of the book, Geraldine resenting the new headmaster usurping her father's place.

Damien Manning is a young man for the position but well qualified. He is quicker to recognise the potential in Geraldine than she is but her stubborness and immaturity lead her into a number of scrapes. There is an Other Woman with the usual misleading speculation that influences our youthful heroine.

Over all this is standard fair for this author and enjoyable if you like a youthful immature heroine who has to grow up to be able to find true love.

[Megzy · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Another book about a young, fairly immature girl on the cusp of her adulthood. This one is about her love for a house.

As a little happy girl in the Meadow House, as a bigger girl in the Cliff House where soon after moving in she lost her mom, Geraldine had known only one burning ambition...to reside in Galdang proper, the house, as she had always thought of it, with the saint on the door. The house that required her father to become the ultra exclusive boy's boarding school headmaster. She even bought the material for the curtains because the previous headmaster was retiring and the position was always given based on seniority so this ambitious young girl with her own teacher training had every reason to believe she was getting her wish. She was in shock after meeting the new headmaster and realizing not only her father was not promoted by demoted by becoming a part time junior teacher and they had to move back to the Meadow House.

The book didn't grab my attention right away, it was a slow read. It did pick up 1/3 into the book but slowed again and that is why I am giving it 3.5 stars. It was Thomas' story that piqued my curiosity and interest.

If you are uncomfortable with physical punishment in schools, you might want to pass this book. Just remember this book was first published in 1957.

[Last Chance Saloon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rather a lovely story of a 19 year old daughter of a math professor and the new Headmaster at a private boy's school outside Sydney. They have a mutual look quite early on, but she thinks he is serious about the OW who is staying at the Headmaster's house. There's some unhappiness, but it's very enjoyable overall, and there's a sweet, but brief HEA.

[Melinda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of misunderstandings, immature heroine, typical OW who causes trouble. I did feel very sorry for the heroine when her dad died. It was such a shock to her because her dad had swore others to secrecy about his health. So she had no warning and I thought that was unkind.