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Winter of Change
Mary Jane Pettigrew can look after herself, but it comes as a surprise to her when she inherits a large house and an income to go with it. But there's a catch--Fabian van der Blocq, who is appointed 21-year-old Mary Jane's guardian. She can't even marry without his consent! Mary Jane isn't going to let Fabian have it all his own way. But that is easier said than done.
216 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1973
About the author
Betty Neels
602 books424 followersEvelyn Jessy "Betty" Neels was born on September 15, 1910 in Devon to a family with firm roots in the civil service. She said she had a blissfully happy childhood and teenage years.(This stood her in good stead later for the tribulations to come with the Second World War). She was sent away to boarding school, and then went on to train as a nurse, gaining her SRN and SCM, that is, State Registered Nurse and State Certificate of Midwifery.
In 1939 she was called up to the Territorial Army Nursing Service, which later became the Queen Alexandra Reserves, and was sent to France with the Casualty Clearing Station. This comprised eight nursing sisters, including Betty, to 100 men! In other circumstances, she thought that might have been quite thrilling! When France was invaded in 1940, all the nursing sisters managed to escape in the charge of an army major, undertaking a lengthy and terrifying journey to Boulogne in an ambulance. They were incredibly fortunate to be put on the last hospital ship to be leaving the port of Boulogne. But Betty's war didn't end there, for she was posted to Scotland, and then on to Northern Ireland, where she met her Dutch husband. He was a seaman aboard a minesweeper, which was bombed. He survived and was sent to the south of Holland to guard the sluices. However, when they had to abandon their post, they were told to escape if they could, and along with a small number of other men, he marched into Belgium. They stole a ship and managed to get it across the Channel to Dover before being transferred to the Atlantic run on the convoys. Sadly he became ill, and that was when he was transferred to hospital in Northern Ireland, where he met Betty. They eventually married, and were blessed with a daughter. They were posted to London, but were bombed out. As with most of the population, they made the best of things.
When the war finally ended, she and her husband were repatriated to Holland. As his family had believed he had died when his ship went down, this was a very emotional homecoming. The small family lived in Holland for 13 years, and Betty resumed her nursing career there. When they decided to return to England, Betty continued her nursing and when she eventually retired she had reached the position of night superintendent.
Betty Neels began writing almost by accident. She had retired from nursing, but her inquiring mind had no intention of vegetating, and her new career was born when she heard a lady in her local library bemoaning the lack of good romance novels. There was little in Betty's background to suggest that she might eventually become a much-loved novelist.
Her first book, Sister Peters in Amsterdam, was published in 1969, and by dint of often writing four books a year, she eventually completed 134 books. She was always quite firm upon the point that the Dutch doctors who frequently appeared in her stories were *not* based upon her husband, but rather upon an amalgam of several of the doctors she met while nursing in Holland.
To her millions of fans around the world, Betty Neels epitomized romance. She was always amazed and touched that her books were so widely appreciated. She never sought plaudits and remained a very private person, but it made her very happy to know that she brought such pleasure to so many readers, while herself gaining a quiet joy from spinning her stories. It is perhaps a reflection of her upbringing in an earlier time that the men and women who peopled her stories have a kindliness and good manners, coupled to honesty and integrity, that is not always present in our modern world. Her myriad of fans found a warmth and a reassurance of a better world in her stories, along with characters who touched the heart, which is all and more than one could ask of a romance writer. She received a great deal of fan mail, and there was always a comment upon the fascinating places she visited in her stories. Quite often those of her fans fortunate enough to visit Ho
In 1939 she was called up to the Territorial Army Nursing Service, which later became the Queen Alexandra Reserves, and was sent to France with the Casualty Clearing Station. This comprised eight nursing sisters, including Betty, to 100 men! In other circumstances, she thought that might have been quite thrilling! When France was invaded in 1940, all the nursing sisters managed to escape in the charge of an army major, undertaking a lengthy and terrifying journey to Boulogne in an ambulance. They were incredibly fortunate to be put on the last hospital ship to be leaving the port of Boulogne. But Betty's war didn't end there, for she was posted to Scotland, and then on to Northern Ireland, where she met her Dutch husband. He was a seaman aboard a minesweeper, which was bombed. He survived and was sent to the south of Holland to guard the sluices. However, when they had to abandon their post, they were told to escape if they could, and along with a small number of other men, he marched into Belgium. They stole a ship and managed to get it across the Channel to Dover before being transferred to the Atlantic run on the convoys. Sadly he became ill, and that was when he was transferred to hospital in Northern Ireland, where he met Betty. They eventually married, and were blessed with a daughter. They were posted to London, but were bombed out. As with most of the population, they made the best of things.
When the war finally ended, she and her husband were repatriated to Holland. As his family had believed he had died when his ship went down, this was a very emotional homecoming. The small family lived in Holland for 13 years, and Betty resumed her nursing career there. When they decided to return to England, Betty continued her nursing and when she eventually retired she had reached the position of night superintendent.
Betty Neels began writing almost by accident. She had retired from nursing, but her inquiring mind had no intention of vegetating, and her new career was born when she heard a lady in her local library bemoaning the lack of good romance novels. There was little in Betty's background to suggest that she might eventually become a much-loved novelist.
Her first book, Sister Peters in Amsterdam, was published in 1969, and by dint of often writing four books a year, she eventually completed 134 books. She was always quite firm upon the point that the Dutch doctors who frequently appeared in her stories were *not* based upon her husband, but rather upon an amalgam of several of the doctors she met while nursing in Holland.
To her millions of fans around the world, Betty Neels epitomized romance. She was always amazed and touched that her books were so widely appreciated. She never sought plaudits and remained a very private person, but it made her very happy to know that she brought such pleasure to so many readers, while herself gaining a quiet joy from spinning her stories. It is perhaps a reflection of her upbringing in an earlier time that the men and women who peopled her stories have a kindliness and good manners, coupled to honesty and integrity, that is not always present in our modern world. Her myriad of fans found a warmth and a reassurance of a better world in her stories, along with characters who touched the heart, which is all and more than one could ask of a romance writer. She received a great deal of fan mail, and there was always a comment upon the fascinating places she visited in her stories. Quite often those of her fans fortunate enough to visit Ho
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 53 reviews
November 22, 2018
Ah, Betts, she was so clever. Here are two people who really spend most of the novel appearing to hate each other. Maybe it was my mood, maybe it was the Betty-magic, this should've been one of Neels's less stellar efforts. YET, I found myself totally drawn to Fabian and Mary Jane. Mary Jane's cowed plain-ness and yet how angry she is and how nasty with Fabian. When she realizes she loves him, I shouldn't have, but I totally believed her. Fabian wasn't as present, as aloof and superior as other Neels heroes. I could see through his aloofness to the vulnerability of falling in love with Mary Jane had rendered in him. Okay, yes, the premise is UTTERLY LUDICROUS. But I liked it.
December 17, 2020
Back to Betty... I don't have a lot to say about WoC. It was OK. Heroine Mary-Jane Pettygrew (she was petty; she did not grow) annoyed me. She reminded me a bit of Esmerelda in that eponymous Neels book in that she was bratty, spatty, and a little too hostile (although hero wasn't the warmest/fuzziest/most sympathetic guy in the circumstances). Hero Fabian was your standard Neels surgeon--much older (40 to MJ's 22), good-looking, often cold and uncommunicative, but occasionally showed his kinder side.
Nothing really super memorable about this one except that Fabian (not one of BN"s better hero names) is made MJ's guardian when her Colonel grandfather dies, mainly to oversee her finances and vet any potential husbands until she is 30. (Betty's books would work so much better if they were set at least a hundred years before they really are.) A gold-digging cousin does appear on the scene, and MJ doesn't so much fall for him as fall in love with the idea that someone might possibly want to marry her. I do always hate Betty heroines' desperation about that--as if staying unmarried would be worse than marrying an outright cad. Fabian scuttles that quickly and hauls MJ back to Holland with him to look after his cousin (she's already been there once to nurse his dying uncle, right after she's nursed her own dying grandfather, which struck me as rather cruel--she may be a nurse, but that's a lot to put on someone, Fabian!).
I honestly didn't see why or how Fabian would possibly fall in love with our not-quite-pretty, not-very-nice heroine. She was just too immature and too prickly, even for a BN heroine. It was a little angsty in that it's clear that MJ is falling for Fabian almost from the start and her behavior is mostly to try to protect herself from heartache because she sees him--rich, sophisticated, handsome, older--as completely out of her league. But outside of that, I didn't really find much to like about this one--it had all the usual elements except for any real chemistry between the two MCs.
Car porn:
Hero likes open cars:
A Rolls Royce Corniche convertible:
A Jaguar SS 100 (replica; originals were built 1936-1939, and several companies have reissued/replicated them over the years. This is from '73, same year as book):
Heroine drives the standard-issue Mini:
Nothing really super memorable about this one except that Fabian (not one of BN"s better hero names) is made MJ's guardian when her Colonel grandfather dies, mainly to oversee her finances and vet any potential husbands until she is 30. (Betty's books would work so much better if they were set at least a hundred years before they really are.) A gold-digging cousin does appear on the scene, and MJ doesn't so much fall for him as fall in love with the idea that someone might possibly want to marry her. I do always hate Betty heroines' desperation about that--as if staying unmarried would be worse than marrying an outright cad. Fabian scuttles that quickly and hauls MJ back to Holland with him to look after his cousin (she's already been there once to nurse his dying uncle, right after she's nursed her own dying grandfather, which struck me as rather cruel--she may be a nurse, but that's a lot to put on someone, Fabian!).
I honestly didn't see why or how Fabian would possibly fall in love with our not-quite-pretty, not-very-nice heroine. She was just too immature and too prickly, even for a BN heroine. It was a little angsty in that it's clear that MJ is falling for Fabian almost from the start and her behavior is mostly to try to protect herself from heartache because she sees him--rich, sophisticated, handsome, older--as completely out of her league. But outside of that, I didn't really find much to like about this one--it had all the usual elements except for any real chemistry between the two MCs.
Car porn:
Hero likes open cars:
A Rolls Royce Corniche convertible:
A Jaguar SS 100 (replica; originals were built 1936-1939, and several companies have reissued/replicated them over the years. This is from '73, same year as book):
Heroine drives the standard-issue Mini:
April 13, 2022
3 1/2 Stars ~ Recently registered as a Staff Nurse, Mary Jane finds her position at her London Hospital under a tyrant of a Ward Sister not to her liking. When she's called to the Chief Nurse's office, she thinks she's there to be sacked, but learns that her grandfather has suffered a heart attack and he's asking for her to come home. Orphaned as a child, her grandfather is her sole relative living several hours away in the country. When she arrives, she learns that he has only a very short time to live, and that he'd been ailing for some time but hadn't wanted her to know. Also arriving is the nephew of her grandfather's best friend, a respected Dutch surgeon. Fabian has been asked to take care of her grandfather's affairs, and to be Mary Jane's guardian until she turns 30. Having fended for herself for the past 3 years, Mary Jane, now 22, doesn't understand why she needs a guardian. Fabian tells her that though he dislikes the idea of being her guardian, he made a promise to a dying man and he'll keep it. Mary Jane has inherited the country home and a enough money to keep her living comfortably for the rest of her life. Fabian will ensure her funds are well invested and see her allowance is placed in her accounts each month, and any man who should want to marry her will have to seek his approval first. Over the next months, Fabian discovers just what a challenge he's taken on and Mary Jane comes to terms with the restlessness that comes over her everytime she thinks of Fabian. When he has to play the heavy over a gold digging suitor, Mary Jane doesn't hold back in telling him how much she hates him.
While the storyline of fabulous handsome Dutch Professor and the young rather plain English nurse is a common one for Ms. Neels, I find it's charm continues to appeal to me. Mary Jane surprises Fabian as she isn't afraid to stand up to him, grabbing his attention. Fabian is rather self-conscious of his 40 years to Mary Jane's 22, and he tries to keep his watchful eye very low key. She rejects every attempt he makes to get close to her, and yet when he stays away she feels hurt and abandoned. Luckily, Fabian doesn't stay away very long. Lovely, sweet and romantic.
While the storyline of fabulous handsome Dutch Professor and the young rather plain English nurse is a common one for Ms. Neels, I find it's charm continues to appeal to me. Mary Jane surprises Fabian as she isn't afraid to stand up to him, grabbing his attention. Fabian is rather self-conscious of his 40 years to Mary Jane's 22, and he tries to keep his watchful eye very low key. She rejects every attempt he makes to get close to her, and yet when he stays away she feels hurt and abandoned. Luckily, Fabian doesn't stay away very long. Lovely, sweet and romantic.
February 23, 2014
A guardian ward romance. Yummy. Mary Jane is twenty-two, a qualified nurse and quite capable of running her own life thank you very much. So when her grandfather dies and leaves her a lovely house and a nice little income, the news that she is to have a guardian comes as a nasty shock.
Especially as the guardian is forty year old Fabian van der Blocq, one of Neels oh so special Dutch doctors. Her resentment strikes sparks between them from the beginning but somehow she wishes it wasn't so even as she pushes him away once again.
In the meantime, he manages to bring her to Holland for a time to nurse his uncle and support his cousin who later has her own health problems. He also rescues her from the consequences of her immaturity and loneliness.
This is a lovely little story and while May-December romances are no longer fashionable, I do love them. There is something about a young woman bringing a mature man of experience to his knees that is very appealing.
Especially as the guardian is forty year old Fabian van der Blocq, one of Neels oh so special Dutch doctors. Her resentment strikes sparks between them from the beginning but somehow she wishes it wasn't so even as she pushes him away once again.
In the meantime, he manages to bring her to Holland for a time to nurse his uncle and support his cousin who later has her own health problems. He also rescues her from the consequences of her immaturity and loneliness.
This is a lovely little story and while May-December romances are no longer fashionable, I do love them. There is something about a young woman bringing a mature man of experience to his knees that is very appealing.
Did Not Finish
May 26, 2026Giving up after 2 chapters (out of 9). One of BN’s bickering couples that have no reason to be as antagonistic as they are. The RDD is especially condescending, and based on the reviews it doesn’t get much better as the story progresses.
October 27, 2021
Having read so many BN novels I found this to be a bit different which made me like it more.
Although the hero was a doctor and heroine a qualified nurse I was happy to see that there were not many hospital scenes or patients or operations.
The story revolves around Mary Jane and how when her grandfather dies she inherits a house and money but the catch here is she has a guardian the doctor Fabian who holds the strings.
Mary Jane is naturally upset about this arrangement and doesn’t see eye to eye with the doctor who appears to be harsh and rude to her.
What follows is a chain of events which makes Mary change her opinion on Fabian and fall in love with him.
I liked both the characters and found their feelings towards each other understandable .
Although the hero was a doctor and heroine a qualified nurse I was happy to see that there were not many hospital scenes or patients or operations.
The story revolves around Mary Jane and how when her grandfather dies she inherits a house and money but the catch here is she has a guardian the doctor Fabian who holds the strings.
Mary Jane is naturally upset about this arrangement and doesn’t see eye to eye with the doctor who appears to be harsh and rude to her.
What follows is a chain of events which makes Mary change her opinion on Fabian and fall in love with him.
I liked both the characters and found their feelings towards each other understandable .
October 25, 2018
This book came so close to being a wallbanger for me. Our heroine is supposedly 22, but around our hero she acts about 20 years younger. I got soooo fed up with her peevishness and rapid mood swings and general asinine behavior. I found it very hard to believe that our 40 year old emotionally cold as ice Rich Dutch Doctor had fallen in love with her. (Plus I was bothered by the age difference anyway.)
Though Betty did miss the mark with the heroine's oscillating emotions, she did manage to put in a few good scenes, so the book wasn't a total loss.
Definitely not a keeper, nor a candidate for a re-read.
Though Betty did miss the mark with the heroine's oscillating emotions, she did manage to put in a few good scenes, so the book wasn't a total loss.
Definitely not a keeper, nor a candidate for a re-read.
August 12, 2016
It was fine. I'm not a big fan of the guardian and ward storyline and this book really didn't change my opinion. Mary Jane is annoying.
Read
January 19, 2014Charming as always
Another sweet Betty Neels story. I own all her books and bring them out when I feel like a sweet predictable read.
Another sweet Betty Neels story. I own all her books and bring them out when I feel like a sweet predictable read.
February 8, 2022
The maturity difference was simply too great. The h came across as moody and dramatic; the H was withholding.
July 3, 2026
3.9 stars. A ward-and-guardian Betty Neels with a sensible beginning, a frustrating middle, and a romance that never quite convinced me.
I've been working my way through Betty Neels's backlist for quite some time, and Winter of Change was one of the last few I hadn't read. I had put it off because the ward-and-guardian trope isn't my favourite, and while many readers seem to enjoy that aspect of the story, I wasn't sure it would appeal to me. In the end, I found it readable enough, but not one of my favourites.
Mary-Jane is twenty-one, a nurse, and the beloved granddaughter of a dying elderly man. Fabian is a forty-year-old rich Dutch doctor. They meet because Mary-Jane's grandfather arranges for Fabian to become her guardian. For once in a Betty Neels book, the elderly relative actually leaves his property and fortune to the young woman who has cared for him for years. The grandfather wants Mary-Jane to inherit, but because she is plain, naïve and unworldly, he worries fortune hunters might ruin her life. Fabian is the nephew of his old friend, and since that old friend is also ill and dying, Fabian becomes the chosen protector.
Mary-Jane is shocked to discover that she is suddenly wealthy, with a substantial property and enough money to live comfortably for the rest of her life. She is even more shocked to learn that Fabian will have a say in any marriage she makes until she is thirty. She doesn't know him, he has already seemed high-handed, and she is understandably outraged by the idea that this man can approve or disapprove her future husband.
Their first meeting had a little tension, which I liked. Mary-Jane tries to keep Fabian away from her sick grandfather because she doesn't realise he is a guest and thinks he might disturb him. She isn't unpleasant, though. She is sensible and protective, and I liked her at the start. Even though she is young and supposedly naïve, she comes across as practical and likeable.
There is early friction between Mary-Jane and Fabian because he tells her she needs to accept that her grandfather is dying, while she is still refusing to face it. Then, before he dies, her grandfather makes her promise to go to Holland with Fabian and nurse Fabian's elderly uncle, who is also dying and is so temperamental that his nurses always leave.
So Fabian takes Mary-Jane to Holland.
SPOILERS AHEAD
This section is pleasant enough, though not especially angsty. Fabian doesn't seem particularly impressed with her and doesn't talk to her much during the journey or afterwards. Mary-Jane, meanwhile, does very well with his uncle. The old man is temperamental, but he likes her, and Fabian's forty-year-old female cousin is relieved because her father is difficult and she struggles with him.
Mary-Jane nurses him patiently and competently. Fabian does keep an eye on her from a distance, making sure she gets time off when she becomes exhausted, but he mostly stays out of her way because she has made it clear she doesn't like him. Other people mention that he dates beautiful women, but there is no strong other-woman presence and not much conflict in this part of the book.
It doesn't drag, but it also doesn't give me the Betty Neels angst I enjoy most. I like her books where the hero is constantly watching out for the heroine, doing small practical things for her and quietly becoming necessary. Here, Fabian is her guardian but remains rather removed.
After Fabian's uncle dies, Mary-Jane returns to England. She is a little melancholy about leaving because she thinks she will miss seeing Fabian, but even then her feelings aren't very strong. The most emotion she shows in Holland is irritation at the idea of him dating beautiful women, and she even dresses up to go out with a friendly young man to Fabian's favourite restaurant, partly to prove she can be attractive too, and is annoyed to see him there with a beauty. That could have created some angst if she had been more aware of loving him, but she isn't there yet.
Back in England, Mary-Jane quickly grows bored and lonely in her new house. Her friends are all working in London, she is in the countryside, and Christmas is approaching without her grandfather. She only has the housekeeper and another servant for company.
Then a Canadian distant cousin appears. He is the grandson of the relative Mary-Jane had originally assumed would inherit everything. At first she is wary because he looks around the house too closely, touches the silver candlesticks, checks the hallmarks and seems far too interested in the value of things. She notices that something is off. Then he turns on the charm, and she decides it must just be his Canadian manner.
This is where I began to lose patience with her.
Mary-Jane has never really had male attention, and because she is plain and lonely, she quickly falls for the idea that this man might actually want to marry her. She ignores every sensible instinct she originally had because she is so desperate to believe someone wants her.
The cousin is obviously a gold digger. He dislikes the idea of Fabian watching over her, pushes her to do things Fabian wouldn't approve of, and encourages her resentment of Fabian's guardianship. When Mary-Jane wanted a horse, Fabian had insisted he would choose one for her so she gets a safe animal at a fair price, but she was left annoyed at being managed. Now the cousin offers to buy one for her and gets her to write a blank cheque.
He comes back with a badly behaved horse that seems to have been overpaid for by a lot. When Mary-Jane questions the price, he gets angry and defensive, and she immediately backs down because she doesn't want to upset him.
That was frustrating.
There are even hints that the situation might be more sinister. The horse has a subtle injury and a bad temperament, and I genuinely wondered whether the cousin was hoping she might be thrown and killed so he could inherit. He also tries to get her to buy insurance, presumably with him as beneficiary, though she refuses because she would want Fabian to approve something like that.
Mary-Jane invites the cousin to stay for Christmas and begins hoping he will propose. Throughout this section, I found her increasingly irritating. Earlier, she had seemed quietly mature and sensible, if not worldly. Now she loses her head completely over an obvious con artist because she believes no one else will ever want to marry her.
When Fabian turns up, she is defensive and annoyed because she knows he will disapprove. He questions her about the horse, notices its injury, and later questions the cousin directly. The cousin is evasive, especially about where he bought the horse, and Fabian clearly realises something is wrong.
Fabian also tests him by talking about the value of the house and its contents. Mary-Jane doesn't understand why he is doing this, but the cousin's response tells Fabian exactly what he needs to know. Then, just as Fabian is about to leave, the cousin has the cheek to announce that he wants to marry Mary-Jane and may as well ask for Fabian's permission now.
Fabian refuses to rush into approving anything and says they would need to discuss his financial situation first.
Once Fabian leaves, the cousin is angry and tells Mary-Jane they can marry without Fabian's permission. He talks about getting a special licence and rushing the wedding. He doesn't even properly ask her to marry him. He just assumes she will agree, and she doesn't even call him out on that.
That really irritated me. She is so desperate to be wanted that she lets this piece of garbage walk all over her.
Christmas makes the contrast between the men even clearer. The housekeeper is annoyed that Mary-Jane didn't invite Fabian, because he won't be able to get back to Holland in time and will be alone. Mary-Jane refuses to feel guilty, though she does feel a little guilty. Fabian has left her a Christmas present: a diamond true-lover's-knot brooch. He also brought her a beautiful bouquet all the way from the Netherlands, arranged in a valuable antique vase, and left with the housekeeper for an Xmas day surprise.
Meanwhile, the cousin turns up without a present and is jealous of Fabian's gifts. He says they can go shopping later and choose something together, as though that explains away the fact that he bought her nothing.
And Mary-Jane still does not properly cotton on.
This is the section where I really lost patience with her. I can see why some readers find her frustrating. She won me over at the beginning by being competent and sensible, but then she becomes painfully stupid over this gold-digger, even though her grandfather specifically warned her about fortune hunters.
Fabian later returns and tells her the truth. He has investigated the cousin, even flying to Canada. He found the horse seller and discovered that the cousin paid only half the cheque amount for the horse and kept the rest. He left hotel bills unpaid and told the hotel Mary-Jane would pay them. He has been deeply in debt, sponging off family for years, and even managed to trick her lawyer into revealing how much she inherited.
Mary-Jane's reaction made me furious.
Instead of being grateful, she says she would have married him anyway because he wanted to marry her and perhaps it wouldn't have been that bad. She is angry at Fabian for investigating, tells him she hates him, and orders him out of her life.
That response was pathetic.
At that stage, I lost a lot of respect for her. If Fabian had already fallen in love with her—and he later reveals he had—I don't know why her lack of self-respect didn't disgust him. He had come at Christmas hoping to declare himself, bringing her thoughtful gifts, only to find her tangled up with this scumbag. Seeing her so willing to marry a con artist just because he appeared to want her made her seem foolish rather than endearing.
After that, Fabian disappears for a while, and Mary-Jane begins missing him and feeling annoyed that he doesn't contact her. She returns to hospital work temporarily during a flu epidemic. Eventually Fabian comes back, but only because his cousin is ill after surgery and wants Mary-Jane as her nurse. Fabian promises he won't bother her and will only visit as the doctor. So Mary Jane returns to Holland.
Gradually, Mary-Jane's feelings change, and she suddenly realises she is in love with Fabian. By that point, though, I was tired of her. I didn't dislike her hugely, but I no longer respected her enough to feel she was worthy of Fabian.
The romance itself also never fully convinced me. Because Mary-Jane spends so much time resenting or hating Fabian, he has to keep his distance, which means we don't get enough scenes of them filling the gaps in each other's lives. Betty Neels is often very good at showing the hero as lonely, emotionally wounded or quietly needing this specific heroine. This book doesn't really do that. Fabian remains more of a guardian figure than a man whose life is missing something only Mary-Jane can provide.
I could understand that he admired her tenderness and practicality when she nursed her grandfather and his uncle, and apparently that is when he fell in love with her. But I didn't feel it strongly enough. Betty Neels has written better heroines and shown her heroes' emotional needs more convincingly elsewhere.
Even the ending, which should have worked for me, didn't quite land. I usually love an ending where the hero comes after the heroine. Here, after Mary-Jane finishes nursing Fabian's cousin and must return to England, she finally realises she loves him and wishes she didn't have to say goodbye. Before she leaves Holland, she slips on ice, hits her head and wakes in hospital to find Fabian praying for her because he was terrified he had lost her.
That scene had huge potential, but the emotional poignancy didn't fully come across. It should have been much more powerful.
Later, when Mary-Jane is back in England and feeling low and lonely, Fabian finally comes for her and declares his love. Normally I would love that. But because I wasn't fully convinced Mary-Jane deserved him by then, the scene didn't deliver the emotional impact it should have.
Oddly, this is one of the few Betty Neels books where I think it might have worked better if the heroine had gone after the hero. Fabian hadn't wronged her. He had been watching out for her, protecting her and trying to save her from a fortune hunter. Mary-Jane was the one who treated him unfairly and pushed him away. If she had been the one to go to him, it might have felt warmer and more satisfying, as though she had finally grown enough to deserve him.
So overall, Winter of Change didn't fully work for me. It has a likeable start, a sensible initial heroine, a decent guardian setup, and some pleasant nursing scenes, but the middle section with the Canadian cousin badly damaged my respect for Mary-Jane. The romance lacked the emotional connection and quiet mutual need I look for in my favourite Betty Neels books. It even missed the usually obligatory BN disaster scene where the h and H work side by side through a tragedy.
It was readable, and the ending is objectively decent, but I didn't feel the deep satisfaction I wanted. Not one of my favourites.
I've been working my way through Betty Neels's backlist for quite some time, and Winter of Change was one of the last few I hadn't read. I had put it off because the ward-and-guardian trope isn't my favourite, and while many readers seem to enjoy that aspect of the story, I wasn't sure it would appeal to me. In the end, I found it readable enough, but not one of my favourites.
Mary-Jane is twenty-one, a nurse, and the beloved granddaughter of a dying elderly man. Fabian is a forty-year-old rich Dutch doctor. They meet because Mary-Jane's grandfather arranges for Fabian to become her guardian. For once in a Betty Neels book, the elderly relative actually leaves his property and fortune to the young woman who has cared for him for years. The grandfather wants Mary-Jane to inherit, but because she is plain, naïve and unworldly, he worries fortune hunters might ruin her life. Fabian is the nephew of his old friend, and since that old friend is also ill and dying, Fabian becomes the chosen protector.
Mary-Jane is shocked to discover that she is suddenly wealthy, with a substantial property and enough money to live comfortably for the rest of her life. She is even more shocked to learn that Fabian will have a say in any marriage she makes until she is thirty. She doesn't know him, he has already seemed high-handed, and she is understandably outraged by the idea that this man can approve or disapprove her future husband.
Their first meeting had a little tension, which I liked. Mary-Jane tries to keep Fabian away from her sick grandfather because she doesn't realise he is a guest and thinks he might disturb him. She isn't unpleasant, though. She is sensible and protective, and I liked her at the start. Even though she is young and supposedly naïve, she comes across as practical and likeable.
There is early friction between Mary-Jane and Fabian because he tells her she needs to accept that her grandfather is dying, while she is still refusing to face it. Then, before he dies, her grandfather makes her promise to go to Holland with Fabian and nurse Fabian's elderly uncle, who is also dying and is so temperamental that his nurses always leave.
So Fabian takes Mary-Jane to Holland.
SPOILERS AHEAD
This section is pleasant enough, though not especially angsty. Fabian doesn't seem particularly impressed with her and doesn't talk to her much during the journey or afterwards. Mary-Jane, meanwhile, does very well with his uncle. The old man is temperamental, but he likes her, and Fabian's forty-year-old female cousin is relieved because her father is difficult and she struggles with him.
Mary-Jane nurses him patiently and competently. Fabian does keep an eye on her from a distance, making sure she gets time off when she becomes exhausted, but he mostly stays out of her way because she has made it clear she doesn't like him. Other people mention that he dates beautiful women, but there is no strong other-woman presence and not much conflict in this part of the book.
It doesn't drag, but it also doesn't give me the Betty Neels angst I enjoy most. I like her books where the hero is constantly watching out for the heroine, doing small practical things for her and quietly becoming necessary. Here, Fabian is her guardian but remains rather removed.
After Fabian's uncle dies, Mary-Jane returns to England. She is a little melancholy about leaving because she thinks she will miss seeing Fabian, but even then her feelings aren't very strong. The most emotion she shows in Holland is irritation at the idea of him dating beautiful women, and she even dresses up to go out with a friendly young man to Fabian's favourite restaurant, partly to prove she can be attractive too, and is annoyed to see him there with a beauty. That could have created some angst if she had been more aware of loving him, but she isn't there yet.
Back in England, Mary-Jane quickly grows bored and lonely in her new house. Her friends are all working in London, she is in the countryside, and Christmas is approaching without her grandfather. She only has the housekeeper and another servant for company.
Then a Canadian distant cousin appears. He is the grandson of the relative Mary-Jane had originally assumed would inherit everything. At first she is wary because he looks around the house too closely, touches the silver candlesticks, checks the hallmarks and seems far too interested in the value of things. She notices that something is off. Then he turns on the charm, and she decides it must just be his Canadian manner.
This is where I began to lose patience with her.
Mary-Jane has never really had male attention, and because she is plain and lonely, she quickly falls for the idea that this man might actually want to marry her. She ignores every sensible instinct she originally had because she is so desperate to believe someone wants her.
The cousin is obviously a gold digger. He dislikes the idea of Fabian watching over her, pushes her to do things Fabian wouldn't approve of, and encourages her resentment of Fabian's guardianship. When Mary-Jane wanted a horse, Fabian had insisted he would choose one for her so she gets a safe animal at a fair price, but she was left annoyed at being managed. Now the cousin offers to buy one for her and gets her to write a blank cheque.
He comes back with a badly behaved horse that seems to have been overpaid for by a lot. When Mary-Jane questions the price, he gets angry and defensive, and she immediately backs down because she doesn't want to upset him.
That was frustrating.
There are even hints that the situation might be more sinister. The horse has a subtle injury and a bad temperament, and I genuinely wondered whether the cousin was hoping she might be thrown and killed so he could inherit. He also tries to get her to buy insurance, presumably with him as beneficiary, though she refuses because she would want Fabian to approve something like that.
Mary-Jane invites the cousin to stay for Christmas and begins hoping he will propose. Throughout this section, I found her increasingly irritating. Earlier, she had seemed quietly mature and sensible, if not worldly. Now she loses her head completely over an obvious con artist because she believes no one else will ever want to marry her.
When Fabian turns up, she is defensive and annoyed because she knows he will disapprove. He questions her about the horse, notices its injury, and later questions the cousin directly. The cousin is evasive, especially about where he bought the horse, and Fabian clearly realises something is wrong.
Fabian also tests him by talking about the value of the house and its contents. Mary-Jane doesn't understand why he is doing this, but the cousin's response tells Fabian exactly what he needs to know. Then, just as Fabian is about to leave, the cousin has the cheek to announce that he wants to marry Mary-Jane and may as well ask for Fabian's permission now.
Fabian refuses to rush into approving anything and says they would need to discuss his financial situation first.
Once Fabian leaves, the cousin is angry and tells Mary-Jane they can marry without Fabian's permission. He talks about getting a special licence and rushing the wedding. He doesn't even properly ask her to marry him. He just assumes she will agree, and she doesn't even call him out on that.
That really irritated me. She is so desperate to be wanted that she lets this piece of garbage walk all over her.
Christmas makes the contrast between the men even clearer. The housekeeper is annoyed that Mary-Jane didn't invite Fabian, because he won't be able to get back to Holland in time and will be alone. Mary-Jane refuses to feel guilty, though she does feel a little guilty. Fabian has left her a Christmas present: a diamond true-lover's-knot brooch. He also brought her a beautiful bouquet all the way from the Netherlands, arranged in a valuable antique vase, and left with the housekeeper for an Xmas day surprise.
Meanwhile, the cousin turns up without a present and is jealous of Fabian's gifts. He says they can go shopping later and choose something together, as though that explains away the fact that he bought her nothing.
And Mary-Jane still does not properly cotton on.
This is the section where I really lost patience with her. I can see why some readers find her frustrating. She won me over at the beginning by being competent and sensible, but then she becomes painfully stupid over this gold-digger, even though her grandfather specifically warned her about fortune hunters.
Fabian later returns and tells her the truth. He has investigated the cousin, even flying to Canada. He found the horse seller and discovered that the cousin paid only half the cheque amount for the horse and kept the rest. He left hotel bills unpaid and told the hotel Mary-Jane would pay them. He has been deeply in debt, sponging off family for years, and even managed to trick her lawyer into revealing how much she inherited.
Mary-Jane's reaction made me furious.
Instead of being grateful, she says she would have married him anyway because he wanted to marry her and perhaps it wouldn't have been that bad. She is angry at Fabian for investigating, tells him she hates him, and orders him out of her life.
That response was pathetic.
At that stage, I lost a lot of respect for her. If Fabian had already fallen in love with her—and he later reveals he had—I don't know why her lack of self-respect didn't disgust him. He had come at Christmas hoping to declare himself, bringing her thoughtful gifts, only to find her tangled up with this scumbag. Seeing her so willing to marry a con artist just because he appeared to want her made her seem foolish rather than endearing.
After that, Fabian disappears for a while, and Mary-Jane begins missing him and feeling annoyed that he doesn't contact her. She returns to hospital work temporarily during a flu epidemic. Eventually Fabian comes back, but only because his cousin is ill after surgery and wants Mary-Jane as her nurse. Fabian promises he won't bother her and will only visit as the doctor. So Mary Jane returns to Holland.
Gradually, Mary-Jane's feelings change, and she suddenly realises she is in love with Fabian. By that point, though, I was tired of her. I didn't dislike her hugely, but I no longer respected her enough to feel she was worthy of Fabian.
The romance itself also never fully convinced me. Because Mary-Jane spends so much time resenting or hating Fabian, he has to keep his distance, which means we don't get enough scenes of them filling the gaps in each other's lives. Betty Neels is often very good at showing the hero as lonely, emotionally wounded or quietly needing this specific heroine. This book doesn't really do that. Fabian remains more of a guardian figure than a man whose life is missing something only Mary-Jane can provide.
I could understand that he admired her tenderness and practicality when she nursed her grandfather and his uncle, and apparently that is when he fell in love with her. But I didn't feel it strongly enough. Betty Neels has written better heroines and shown her heroes' emotional needs more convincingly elsewhere.
Even the ending, which should have worked for me, didn't quite land. I usually love an ending where the hero comes after the heroine. Here, after Mary-Jane finishes nursing Fabian's cousin and must return to England, she finally realises she loves him and wishes she didn't have to say goodbye. Before she leaves Holland, she slips on ice, hits her head and wakes in hospital to find Fabian praying for her because he was terrified he had lost her.
That scene had huge potential, but the emotional poignancy didn't fully come across. It should have been much more powerful.
Later, when Mary-Jane is back in England and feeling low and lonely, Fabian finally comes for her and declares his love. Normally I would love that. But because I wasn't fully convinced Mary-Jane deserved him by then, the scene didn't deliver the emotional impact it should have.
Oddly, this is one of the few Betty Neels books where I think it might have worked better if the heroine had gone after the hero. Fabian hadn't wronged her. He had been watching out for her, protecting her and trying to save her from a fortune hunter. Mary-Jane was the one who treated him unfairly and pushed him away. If she had been the one to go to him, it might have felt warmer and more satisfying, as though she had finally grown enough to deserve him.
So overall, Winter of Change didn't fully work for me. It has a likeable start, a sensible initial heroine, a decent guardian setup, and some pleasant nursing scenes, but the middle section with the Canadian cousin badly damaged my respect for Mary-Jane. The romance lacked the emotional connection and quiet mutual need I look for in my favourite Betty Neels books. It even missed the usually obligatory BN disaster scene where the h and H work side by side through a tragedy.
It was readable, and the ending is objectively decent, but I didn't feel the deep satisfaction I wanted. Not one of my favourites.
December 10, 2017
Traducida como Apriétame en tus brazos: la heroina aquí es Mary Jane Pettigrew y el cirujano Fabián apellido dificilísimo. En esta novela no encontraremos el melodrama que caracteriza a Betty así que solo por eso es floja para mí.La heroina aquí es enfermera y debe partir a cuidar a su moribundo tío para luego sorpresa heredar su fortuna y el héroe o antihéroe masculino oficia de tutor de la muchacha,generalmente se muestra atento y sólo un poco frío con ella pero no hay dudas que la quiere solo que para él la diferencia de edad pesa (él tiene 40 años y ella 23)No es mala pero no tiene esa magia que Betty suele darme.
February 19, 2016
Betty Neels stories always read more old fashioned than the time period is. This story was set during the 1970s, but it might as well have been the 1870s for the characters actions.
Mary Jane Pettigrew is annoying the way she simpers and practically drools over our so called hero. I certainly did not buy the attraction between them.
Fabian van der Blocq is I am thinking supposed to be this dashing doctor, but he comes across as an arrogant pig. I disliked him in every way, but especially how he treated Mary Jane. He treated her like a child including referring to her as a 'girl' all the way through the book. He also talked down to her like she was a complete idiot. I didn't find one thing about him to like.
Normally I like Betty Neels novels. They're simply sweet romances with nice characters, but this novel wasn't that!
Mary Jane Pettigrew is annoying the way she simpers and practically drools over our so called hero. I certainly did not buy the attraction between them.
Fabian van der Blocq is I am thinking supposed to be this dashing doctor, but he comes across as an arrogant pig. I disliked him in every way, but especially how he treated Mary Jane. He treated her like a child including referring to her as a 'girl' all the way through the book. He also talked down to her like she was a complete idiot. I didn't find one thing about him to like.
Normally I like Betty Neels novels. They're simply sweet romances with nice characters, but this novel wasn't that!
March 29, 2017
I read this book two years ago and wrote this review. However, many times I change my mind during a second reading. Unfortunately, I haven't really changed my mind. I love Betty Neels' books, but I must admit that I was somewhat disappointed in this one. The lead character, Mary Jane, is such a twit. For an educated young lady working in a London hospital, she's remarkably naive, not to mention ungrateful and argumentative. Honestly, I can't see what Fabian sees in her. Along the same line, the character of Fabian is so two dimensional, he really isn't believable. I wish the author had taken a little time and had better developed these two main characters. I gave it three stars, which I think is being generous.
April 21, 2018
Me encanta la pluma simple de la querida Betty Neels dejo novelas tan sencillas pero que te sacan de esos problemas cotidianos que nos absorben. Lo cierto, es que cuando quiero leer algo que no me embote la cabeza más de lo normal con historias que te dejan y que sigue luego, que viene después acudo a cualquiera de sus libros, que me recuerdan que la vida puede ser simple o complicada si así tu lo decides. Le agradezco a Betty por esto, lo simple que puede ser la vida si lo necesitamos realmente.
January 9, 2011
An interesting take on a very old-fashioned idea. I realize these books were written around 30 years ago but still if the setting is contemporary the idea of having someone control you to the point of approving whom you marry is still odd. The thing I really liked in the story is the settings and their descriptions and some of the action is good also.
May 8, 2024
Maybe 3.5 stars? MMC aloof arrogant managing type very typical of BN heroes almost to the point of insufferable and I really want more of the tender scenes to understand why FMC falls for him. We get hints of his feelings throughout so there’s that and I’m a sucker for BN ending where he has to go after her a little.
May 12, 2016
Charming book, quite a delightful read to get my mind off my stresses. This is obviously not a book for literary merit, but I thought the writer was a good one. I look forward to reading her other works as well.
Read
July 27, 2011A very sewwt story. Mary Jane loses her grandfather and Fabian is there to be her guardian.
March 9, 2012
One of Betty's later books and not as strong as some of her others but still a soothing tale.
July 29, 2013
Cute book, pretty predictable but a cute story nonetheless
August 27, 2015
Great story age and love goes hand n hand
Betty, has a way of making you feel like you are there n the story. I want to read the m all.
Betty, has a way of making you feel like you are there n the story. I want to read the m all.
March 16, 2026
Fun quick read, pleasant and cozy. You knew from the start how it would end, but exactly how? So you read on. Good Escape reading.
June 20, 2021
Protagonists:
Heroine: Mary Jane Pettigrew, a plain looking 22 year-old nurse who inherits her grandfather's estate, which includes a house and a substantial amount of money. However, her grandfather has also arranged for her to have a guardian who would oversee her finances, along with vetting any prospective candidates who wish to marry Mary Jane.
Hero: Fabian van der Blocq, a handsome Dutch surgeon who gets the lucky task of being Mary Jane's guardian.
Plot:
Mary Jane doesn't want to have a guardian because she thinks that she is mature enough to take control of her inheritance. Negativity flies between Fabian and Mary Jane whenever they meet to discuss matters arising from their situation. Fabian tries to carry out his duty as Mary Jane's guardian, but meets with resistance from her every step of the way throughout their relationship. Our protagonists are supposed to fall in love, but will it happen?
Antagonist of note:
Mervyn Pettigrew: Mary Jane's gold-digging, scam-artist of a cousin who appears on her doorstep and sweet talks himself into her life. I am seriously chagrined to know that he is a Canadian, because I'm Canadian. I like to think of us as being Nice People, but Mervyn is a snake.
Stuff that this novel has:
Fabian speaks silkily three times: two times to Mary Jane while they are duking things out verbally, and once to Mervyn when he's calling Mervyn out on scam-like behaviour. I usually get annoyed when I see the hero say something silkily, but Fabian dressed Mervyn down very nicely and put him in his place.
So, did I like this novel?
Ummm...not really.
The chemistry between this couple is rather toxic. BN heroes tend to be overbearing, bossy, and non-communicative, but Mary Jane is so antagonistic towards Fabian, it's a wonder they get around to falling in love. As Mary Jane succinctly summarizes their relationship while talking to Fabian, "What a pity we don't get on."
The prickly behaviour and negativity drags on for most of the book, and in my opinion, most of this is Mary Jane's fault. I'm not going to bother including examples of her behaviour to back this up. I don't feel like hunting them down, but there is a lot to pick from. Fabian bitterly tells Mary Jane midway through the book, "You are not only a tiresome girl, you are also a very ungrateful one." When she says that she doesn't remember being tiresome, and asks what particular occasion that she behaved as such, Fabian tells her wearily, " You are tiresome all the time."
I agree with him. Being Mary Jane's guardian is a thankless task. I almost included Mary Jane, herself, under the, "Antagonist of Note," section.
The backstory of the heroine in A Winter Love Story (also written by Betty Neels), which I reviewed previously, is similar to that of the heroine in Winter of Change. Both heroines have elderly family members who die, and the heroes are brought into their lives because of their connection through these elderly relatives. However, I enjoyed reading A Winter Love Story more than Winter of Change. The heroine of A Winter Love Story had some snarky moments with the hero in the beginning of that book, but their relationship was more amicable, and they developed a genuine friendship. Winter of Change follows a trope of enemies to lovers, but the overall negativity was definitely "tiresome" for me.
If Fabian were my friend, I'd be tempted to tell him to consider another girl with less shrewish tendencies.
This review also appears on my blog at:
https://whatiscbreading.blogspot.ca
Heroine: Mary Jane Pettigrew, a plain looking 22 year-old nurse who inherits her grandfather's estate, which includes a house and a substantial amount of money. However, her grandfather has also arranged for her to have a guardian who would oversee her finances, along with vetting any prospective candidates who wish to marry Mary Jane.
Hero: Fabian van der Blocq, a handsome Dutch surgeon who gets the lucky task of being Mary Jane's guardian.
Plot:
Mary Jane doesn't want to have a guardian because she thinks that she is mature enough to take control of her inheritance. Negativity flies between Fabian and Mary Jane whenever they meet to discuss matters arising from their situation. Fabian tries to carry out his duty as Mary Jane's guardian, but meets with resistance from her every step of the way throughout their relationship. Our protagonists are supposed to fall in love, but will it happen?
Antagonist of note:
Mervyn Pettigrew: Mary Jane's gold-digging, scam-artist of a cousin who appears on her doorstep and sweet talks himself into her life. I am seriously chagrined to know that he is a Canadian, because I'm Canadian. I like to think of us as being Nice People, but Mervyn is a snake.
Stuff that this novel has:
Fabian speaks silkily three times: two times to Mary Jane while they are duking things out verbally, and once to Mervyn when he's calling Mervyn out on scam-like behaviour. I usually get annoyed when I see the hero say something silkily, but Fabian dressed Mervyn down very nicely and put him in his place.
So, did I like this novel?
Ummm...not really.
The chemistry between this couple is rather toxic. BN heroes tend to be overbearing, bossy, and non-communicative, but Mary Jane is so antagonistic towards Fabian, it's a wonder they get around to falling in love. As Mary Jane succinctly summarizes their relationship while talking to Fabian, "What a pity we don't get on."
The prickly behaviour and negativity drags on for most of the book, and in my opinion, most of this is Mary Jane's fault. I'm not going to bother including examples of her behaviour to back this up. I don't feel like hunting them down, but there is a lot to pick from. Fabian bitterly tells Mary Jane midway through the book, "You are not only a tiresome girl, you are also a very ungrateful one." When she says that she doesn't remember being tiresome, and asks what particular occasion that she behaved as such, Fabian tells her wearily, " You are tiresome all the time."
I agree with him. Being Mary Jane's guardian is a thankless task. I almost included Mary Jane, herself, under the, "Antagonist of Note," section.
The backstory of the heroine in A Winter Love Story (also written by Betty Neels), which I reviewed previously, is similar to that of the heroine in Winter of Change. Both heroines have elderly family members who die, and the heroes are brought into their lives because of their connection through these elderly relatives. However, I enjoyed reading A Winter Love Story more than Winter of Change. The heroine of A Winter Love Story had some snarky moments with the hero in the beginning of that book, but their relationship was more amicable, and they developed a genuine friendship. Winter of Change follows a trope of enemies to lovers, but the overall negativity was definitely "tiresome" for me.
If Fabian were my friend, I'd be tempted to tell him to consider another girl with less shrewish tendencies.
This review also appears on my blog at:
https://whatiscbreading.blogspot.ca
April 11, 2018
This is just so bland a story! Hero Fabian started out not very nice. He made it clear in his attitude that he was unwilling to be Mary Jane's guardian but will fulfill his obligations and duties. He came across as a condescending and controlling jerk!
Mary Jane started out likeable as a heroine, the practical and sensible nurse. But at 22 she was indeed young, and the fiasco with Mervyn the Canadian cousin showed clearly she NEEDED a guardian! She might show spirits but can be moody and immature. With the hero being almost 40 this has one of the biggest age gaps in Neelsland!
This was the turning point for me - Fabian was kind enough to come spend Christmas with Mary Jane, but her mind was full of Mervyn she looked happy to hear Fabian was just visiting! Poor guy had to spend Christmas alone in nearby Keswick...but he put the time to good use checking up on Mervyn! He even went to Canada to do more checking! This was Christmas, imagine the expenses and hassle involved! This showed Fabian felt more for MJ than mere guardianship!
I think deep down MJ knew Mervyn would not pass muster so she was anxious to keep him away from Fabian. Murderous Mervyn even plotted to kill MJ and gain the insurance payout, as implied by the crazy, limping horse MJ overpaid for. To pass him a blank cheque! She's lucky he only took the cost of the horse!
While I understood her desperation for love and male attention, and Fabian being the bearer of bad news, her turning him out of her house on new year's eve seemed mean. She knew she was and felt remorseful especially when she was presented with Fabian's Christmas gifts to her. By this point I was frustrated with how TSTL she was!
After that she was always guilty of being a trouble to Fabian; I too can understand because who liked to be called "tiresome "?
They hardly spend romantic time together, only the ice skating and tea which could have extended to a nice leisurely dinner but she decided not to impinge upon his hospitality more than necessary.
I did enjoy some parts, like how he guessed her vital stats so accurately! Naughty and cheeky! And how Fabian called MJ out for her terrible knitting skills; he knew all the proper terms like dropped stitches etc! LOL Some of their exchanges of barbs were funny!
A disappointment of a romance.
Mary Jane started out likeable as a heroine, the practical and sensible nurse. But at 22 she was indeed young, and the fiasco with Mervyn the Canadian cousin showed clearly she NEEDED a guardian! She might show spirits but can be moody and immature. With the hero being almost 40 this has one of the biggest age gaps in Neelsland!
This was the turning point for me - Fabian was kind enough to come spend Christmas with Mary Jane, but her mind was full of Mervyn she looked happy to hear Fabian was just visiting! Poor guy had to spend Christmas alone in nearby Keswick...but he put the time to good use checking up on Mervyn! He even went to Canada to do more checking! This was Christmas, imagine the expenses and hassle involved! This showed Fabian felt more for MJ than mere guardianship!
I think deep down MJ knew Mervyn would not pass muster so she was anxious to keep him away from Fabian. Murderous Mervyn even plotted to kill MJ and gain the insurance payout, as implied by the crazy, limping horse MJ overpaid for. To pass him a blank cheque! She's lucky he only took the cost of the horse!
While I understood her desperation for love and male attention, and Fabian being the bearer of bad news, her turning him out of her house on new year's eve seemed mean. She knew she was and felt remorseful especially when she was presented with Fabian's Christmas gifts to her. By this point I was frustrated with how TSTL she was!
After that she was always guilty of being a trouble to Fabian; I too can understand because who liked to be called "tiresome "?
They hardly spend romantic time together, only the ice skating and tea which could have extended to a nice leisurely dinner but she decided not to impinge upon his hospitality more than necessary.
I did enjoy some parts, like how he guessed her vital stats so accurately! Naughty and cheeky! And how Fabian called MJ out for her terrible knitting skills; he knew all the proper terms like dropped stitches etc! LOL Some of their exchanges of barbs were funny!
A disappointment of a romance.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 19, 2022
She loved him very much; she had no idea that loving someone could hurt so fiercely.
Okay, so here we have Mary Jane, 22, a nurse, but has rich grandpa who gave her a fortune of an inheritance making it possible for her to live in comfort for the rest of her life without working. I'll just be honest here, I've always loved every one of the heroine's that I've read from Betty, but this one, ohhhh, this one I want to strangle! Tiresome is not enough to describe her, she's stupid (she deliberately denies the reality of his grandpa's death even though she's a nurse herself), bad tempered (she easily gets angry towards Fabian the first time they met, she just plain disrespectful, and to think that Fabian is a lot older), foolish (I know it's just a synonym with stupid, but she wanted to marry a guy she had met for only a few weeks and didn't even question his intentions, stupid just plain STUPID garrrgh I want to wring her neck!) and last but not the least, a spoiled brat (she even got the nerve to be so angry at Fabian because he broke off her "marriage" as if it had done her more harm than good). To sum it all up, I hate her, she's stupid, ignorant, ungrateful and immature!
Fabian on the other hand is one of the best heroes from Betty, although he doesn't show his feelings. When he told Mary Jane that he went to Canada just to check on that Mervyn, it should have been more than enough for her to get a clue of his feelings for her. But of course, what can you expect when the heroine is dumb. *I think I may be too harsh in my description about the heroine, but I can't help it, she was such a pain in the ass all throughout the book*
Honestly, I don't understand how Fabian found himself falling for such a foolish woman, dude, you deserve better than someone who'd cut you off just because you stopped her from ruining her life. The book didn't contain a lot of their moments together, I think it hardly qualifies as romance because Fabian never showed any interest and nor did Mary Jane.. Anyway, it was an okay read.. I just hated the heroine.
Okay, so here we have Mary Jane, 22, a nurse, but has rich grandpa who gave her a fortune of an inheritance making it possible for her to live in comfort for the rest of her life without working. I'll just be honest here, I've always loved every one of the heroine's that I've read from Betty, but this one, ohhhh, this one I want to strangle! Tiresome is not enough to describe her, she's stupid (she deliberately denies the reality of his grandpa's death even though she's a nurse herself), bad tempered (she easily gets angry towards Fabian the first time they met, she just plain disrespectful, and to think that Fabian is a lot older), foolish (I know it's just a synonym with stupid, but she wanted to marry a guy she had met for only a few weeks and didn't even question his intentions, stupid just plain STUPID garrrgh I want to wring her neck!) and last but not the least, a spoiled brat (she even got the nerve to be so angry at Fabian because he broke off her "marriage" as if it had done her more harm than good). To sum it all up, I hate her, she's stupid, ignorant, ungrateful and immature!
Fabian on the other hand is one of the best heroes from Betty, although he doesn't show his feelings. When he told Mary Jane that he went to Canada just to check on that Mervyn, it should have been more than enough for her to get a clue of his feelings for her. But of course, what can you expect when the heroine is dumb. *I think I may be too harsh in my description about the heroine, but I can't help it, she was such a pain in the ass all throughout the book*
Honestly, I don't understand how Fabian found himself falling for such a foolish woman, dude, you deserve better than someone who'd cut you off just because you stopped her from ruining her life. The book didn't contain a lot of their moments together, I think it hardly qualifies as romance because Fabian never showed any interest and nor did Mary Jane.. Anyway, it was an okay read.. I just hated the heroine.
December 28, 2022
I'm going to bury my 2016 notes with my 2022 notes, and say it still hovers around a 2/3 for me. But not a hearty three.
More Betty rereads to enjoy and get them onto GR, going with winter-Christmas themes, now comfortably past 50-read for my goal.
It really says a lot--not great--that I found this while thrifting yesterday, thought perhaps it was one I'd never read before (huzzah! banner day!), read it all up that evening, and it was only familiar in the sense that it could have been a few other Bettys of similar ilk. Zero memory of this one in particular. Took checking into GR to see indeed, I'd read it before. lol/whoops. Usually I don't add a physical reread to GR, but given I'm trying to revisit the Bettys with notes for each to help me remember them--and I didn't remember this one hardly at all--it seemed good to add again.
Not the most memorable and I'll still say uneven, as well as characters who don't mesh. The heroine in the first half gets my cheers, the hero in the second half get them, they never manage them together other than the brief ice skating scene. Fabian is kind of a jerk and Mary Jane kind of a ninny, and they allow each other to think the worst of one another far too many times before there's dawning realizations and resolutions.
I do think this is an early Betty, and so I'll project my sense she's still feeling out these archetypes before she comes into the charming perfection of them, thus they are more exaggerated and also following more of what other authors had done. So, we'll allow that as a mitigating factor.
Quick notes:
-- Orphaned Mary Jane, raised by a crotchety grandfather-colonel, now a good nurse
-- Grandfather-colonel is dying and sends for her, she goes at once given unlimited time off (must be nice!), and drives to the forbidding north in her little mini; she's an excellent driver
-- A smooth RDD arrives and she takes him for a stranger but no, he's G-C's longtime friend's nephew, and now G-C's friend, and here to aid G-C's end of life wishes, to be MJ's guardian
-- Both loath the idea
-- MJ inherits because G-C searched far and wide for a male relative, couldn't find a one, and so a very far default jackpot for MJ
-- G-C dies, Fabian commences his duties immediately, isn't very tolerant of her reactions to this loss or even Betty-charming of a type
-- A "my dear good girl" over dinner wherein she's plain and annoyed and he's indifferent and annoyed
-- And now off to Holland to nurse Fabian's uncle, who is also dying and crotchety, as requested by G-C
-- When they arrive to Uncle's, MJ mentally rearranges furniture and makes rooms homier, which is a detail I love and something I do myself
-- They part coldly, MJ holds her own with peppery Uncle, gets the flaky cousin/daughter in line, and whips the household into shape
-- Fabian keeps giving her the opportunity to call him old (and by her age/standards, he rightly could be to her)
-- He doesn't see her much, doesn't make sure she's getting days off; she's doing fine work nursing and ordering the house; he takes her to a luncheon/shopping/business day, doesn't notice her new hat, and so she sweetly refuses tea to elongate their day and this greatly annoys him although he isn't sure why
-- Next day he notices the hat, and is apologetic
-- Young Willem, a bore it turns out, takes her to dinner, same place happenstance as Fabian and they eye one another's dates
-- Goaded, he shows up the next day to tell her news of her inheritance but really to say she looked lovely and to probe about the worthy Young Willem
-- Crotchety uncle dies, Fabian coming when called, and MJ agreeing to stay on a bit to be with flighty cousin -- a gentle kiss on the cheek following Fabian's very subtle dawning realization
-- Back home to England, Fabian drives her, refuses to let her get a horse or help her choose one immediately (this episode feels quite contrived, especially for a Betty)
-- A distant Canadian cousin, that would-be heir, shows up, notices she's lonely and plain and pining and gives her all the right attention, so she loses her head
-- Fabian arrives and quizzes cousin, is cold to MJ, and she's rude and childish and awful too and even more so when Fabian reveals cousin to be a gold-digging cad, Fabian went to a lot of effort to protect her but also to shoo cousin off, and she is the opposite of grateful but nor does he really explain
-- There's a run of flu and she agrees to temp nurse at the old hospital
-- And then she specials cousin Emma in Holland
-- Fabian quietly / remotely wants to know if she's recovered (from her infatuation), nastily mentions Young Willem, a kiss!
-- Ice skating outing
-- Emma gets married, MJ looks charming, it's finally for real goodbye and when she says it to Fabian, it's her dawning realization
-- Time for her to leave, she goes on a walk in the morning of her departure, slips and hits her head and wakes in hospital (saved by Jaap, not even Fabian!), where Fabian is doctoring her and then tells her she must stay in Holland to recover
-- She does recover and Fabian hustles her home to England, filled with thoughts of being too old for her and she in a muddle
-- He comes to her, revelations and admissions and they've both been silly about different things, satisfying kisses and the need for dinner which, with the house empty, she declares she must make, and HEA
///
An uneven Betty. One of the plot formulas I prefer (and dismay at opportunities lost she hashed her one guardian/ward book), but convoluted and a more foolish heroine than I like--her choices made me cringe at points, and Betty usually doesn't equate youth with cringey behavior--and here it happened in muddled spades. Too many round-and-rounds of petty squabbling.
And the hero here is somewhat out of type. He managed to be awful-then-less-awful by unpredictable turns, and just couldn't gain back ground from his sour start.
A few Betty-lovely moments, and her particular turns of phrase, but tepid feelings for a wintery book.
More than two stars, but not a hearty three.
More Betty rereads to enjoy and get them onto GR, going with winter-Christmas themes, now comfortably past 50-read for my goal.
It really says a lot--not great--that I found this while thrifting yesterday, thought perhaps it was one I'd never read before (huzzah! banner day!), read it all up that evening, and it was only familiar in the sense that it could have been a few other Bettys of similar ilk. Zero memory of this one in particular. Took checking into GR to see indeed, I'd read it before. lol/whoops. Usually I don't add a physical reread to GR, but given I'm trying to revisit the Bettys with notes for each to help me remember them--and I didn't remember this one hardly at all--it seemed good to add again.
Not the most memorable and I'll still say uneven, as well as characters who don't mesh. The heroine in the first half gets my cheers, the hero in the second half get them, they never manage them together other than the brief ice skating scene. Fabian is kind of a jerk and Mary Jane kind of a ninny, and they allow each other to think the worst of one another far too many times before there's dawning realizations and resolutions.
I do think this is an early Betty, and so I'll project my sense she's still feeling out these archetypes before she comes into the charming perfection of them, thus they are more exaggerated and also following more of what other authors had done. So, we'll allow that as a mitigating factor.
Quick notes:
-- Orphaned Mary Jane, raised by a crotchety grandfather-colonel, now a good nurse
-- Grandfather-colonel is dying and sends for her, she goes at once given unlimited time off (must be nice!), and drives to the forbidding north in her little mini; she's an excellent driver
-- A smooth RDD arrives and she takes him for a stranger but no, he's G-C's longtime friend's nephew, and now G-C's friend, and here to aid G-C's end of life wishes, to be MJ's guardian
-- Both loath the idea
-- MJ inherits because G-C searched far and wide for a male relative, couldn't find a one, and so a very far default jackpot for MJ
-- G-C dies, Fabian commences his duties immediately, isn't very tolerant of her reactions to this loss or even Betty-charming of a type
-- A "my dear good girl" over dinner wherein she's plain and annoyed and he's indifferent and annoyed
-- And now off to Holland to nurse Fabian's uncle, who is also dying and crotchety, as requested by G-C
-- When they arrive to Uncle's, MJ mentally rearranges furniture and makes rooms homier, which is a detail I love and something I do myself
-- They part coldly, MJ holds her own with peppery Uncle, gets the flaky cousin/daughter in line, and whips the household into shape
-- Fabian keeps giving her the opportunity to call him old (and by her age/standards, he rightly could be to her)
-- He doesn't see her much, doesn't make sure she's getting days off; she's doing fine work nursing and ordering the house; he takes her to a luncheon/shopping/business day, doesn't notice her new hat, and so she sweetly refuses tea to elongate their day and this greatly annoys him although he isn't sure why
-- Next day he notices the hat, and is apologetic
-- Young Willem, a bore it turns out, takes her to dinner, same place happenstance as Fabian and they eye one another's dates
-- Goaded, he shows up the next day to tell her news of her inheritance but really to say she looked lovely and to probe about the worthy Young Willem
-- Crotchety uncle dies, Fabian coming when called, and MJ agreeing to stay on a bit to be with flighty cousin -- a gentle kiss on the cheek following Fabian's very subtle dawning realization
-- Back home to England, Fabian drives her, refuses to let her get a horse or help her choose one immediately (this episode feels quite contrived, especially for a Betty)
-- A distant Canadian cousin, that would-be heir, shows up, notices she's lonely and plain and pining and gives her all the right attention, so she loses her head
-- Fabian arrives and quizzes cousin, is cold to MJ, and she's rude and childish and awful too and even more so when Fabian reveals cousin to be a gold-digging cad, Fabian went to a lot of effort to protect her but also to shoo cousin off, and she is the opposite of grateful but nor does he really explain
-- There's a run of flu and she agrees to temp nurse at the old hospital
-- And then she specials cousin Emma in Holland
-- Fabian quietly / remotely wants to know if she's recovered (from her infatuation), nastily mentions Young Willem, a kiss!
-- Ice skating outing
-- Emma gets married, MJ looks charming, it's finally for real goodbye and when she says it to Fabian, it's her dawning realization
-- Time for her to leave, she goes on a walk in the morning of her departure, slips and hits her head and wakes in hospital (saved by Jaap, not even Fabian!), where Fabian is doctoring her and then tells her she must stay in Holland to recover
-- She does recover and Fabian hustles her home to England, filled with thoughts of being too old for her and she in a muddle
-- He comes to her, revelations and admissions and they've both been silly about different things, satisfying kisses and the need for dinner which, with the house empty, she declares she must make, and HEA
///
An uneven Betty. One of the plot formulas I prefer (and dismay at opportunities lost she hashed her one guardian/ward book), but convoluted and a more foolish heroine than I like--her choices made me cringe at points, and Betty usually doesn't equate youth with cringey behavior--and here it happened in muddled spades. Too many round-and-rounds of petty squabbling.
And the hero here is somewhat out of type. He managed to be awful-then-less-awful by unpredictable turns, and just couldn't gain back ground from his sour start.
A few Betty-lovely moments, and her particular turns of phrase, but tepid feelings for a wintery book.
More than two stars, but not a hearty three.
September 27, 2017
This had a more unusual premise for Neels than some, and I found her characterization of the cousin of Cousin Emma particularly entertaining. However, I wanted better resolution of the middle-of-story plot twist (especially Mary Jane's treatment of Fabian). I also didn't get quite enough sense that Fabian and Mary Jane were mutually good for each other, or that he was otherwise taken with her. Middle-of-the-road Neels for me.
The one particularly memorable moment -- and the point at which the story most shows its time -- is when Mary Jane goes ice-skating with a young Dutchman named Willem and tells him a more domineering approach with his lady will turn her from ho-hum to smitten. "Show her who's master ... She'll be thrilled." In some ways so 70s ... in some ways a Neels equivalent of the dynamics driving the 50 Shades publishing juggernaut.
The one particularly memorable moment -- and the point at which the story most shows its time -- is when Mary Jane goes ice-skating with a young Dutchman named Willem and tells him a more domineering approach with his lady will turn her from ho-hum to smitten. "Show her who's master ... She'll be thrilled." In some ways so 70s ... in some ways a Neels equivalent of the dynamics driving the 50 Shades publishing juggernaut.
April 27, 2020
The thing I've been enjoying about Betty Neels' novels as I read through them as a grown-up is that the heroines, mousy, plain, and old-fashioned though they may be, are independent women with tempers, friends, careers, and lives. The medical details are great. When she leaves that formula, it can get... weird. As here, which is a guardian/ward romance (?) and involves the heroine having a romance with a fortune-hunter and being a complete ninny about it. Yes, the hero's a doctor and the heroine's a nurse, but there's a lot about horseback riding and... no. This is not why I've been re-reading Neels' novels. Like all of them, this one is short, but I was three-quarters through and realized I wasn't having fun.
September 10, 2024
I’d read this book decades ago, and I don’t know how the story had still stuck with me even because the main characters are very insipid and inhibited and repressed. This time around I read the French translation « c’est toi que j’attendais » and what jumped at me was how the hero holds the heroine in a distant contempt, which I suppose she deserves somewhat because she acts very stupidly in succumbing to the charms of the fortune hunting distant cousin, but still!
And I find the grandfather to have been a singularly unlikeable person to have brought the heroine up in such isolation and negligence albeit holding her in some sort of distant affection
And I find the grandfather to have been a singularly unlikeable person to have brought the heroine up in such isolation and negligence albeit holding her in some sort of distant affection
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