And All Because

by Denise Robins

They are not at all alike. She is young very wealthy and accustomed to having everything her own way. He is serious determined - a man who works for every penny he made and who has no time for play. They are completely wrong for each other. And yet they love one another desperately. And something holds them together. Something that makes them want to lie and hide their love affair from friends and family for there seems no other way.

192 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1930

About the author

Denise Naomi Klein was born on 1 February 1897 in London, England, daughter of Herman Klein (1856-1934) and Kathleen Clarice Louise Cornwell (1872-1954). Her parents married on 19 February 1890 at the West London Synagogue, her father was a English music critic, author and teacher of singing and her mother was a Australian-born heiress, 16 years younger than him. Denise had a half-sister, Sibyl Klein, who became an actress. She also had two older brothers, Adrian Bernard L. Klein (1892-1969), who later changed his name to Adrian Cornwell-Clyne and wrote books on photography and cinematography, and Daryl Kleyn (b. 1894). During her parents marriage, her mother began an affair with a young Worcestershire Regiment officer, Herbert Arthur Berkeley Dealtry (b. 1878). When her father became aware of it, he filed a petition for divorce, which was granted in December 1901. After the divorce, her mother married Dealtry in 1902, but they were going through financial difficulties. They had to declare bankruptcy in 1905. The same year her father remarried with Helene Fox, a Christian Science practitioner of Boston, Massachusetts.

As Kit Dealtry, her mother began to publish her own writings, first short stories in magazines an later gothic novels. Years later, and single again her mother returned to London. In 1918, and remarried for a third time with Sydney H. Groom, and started to sign her novels as C. Groom, Mrs Sydney Groom, Kathleen Clarice Groom and Clarice Groom. After Naomi left school, she decided follow in her mother's footsteps, and to publish her writings. She went to work as a journalist for the D.C. Thomson Press, then became a freelance writer. Denise married Arthur Robins, a corn broker on the Baltic Exchange, but the marriage ended in divorce, after she met O'Neill Pearson in Egypt, who later became her second husband. She was the mother of three daughters, Patricia Robins (also know as Claire Lorrimer) who became another best-selling romance author, Anne, and Eve.

As a writer of fiction, Denise wrote short stories, plays and about 200 gothic romance novels under a variety of pseudonyms, including: Denise Chesterton, Hervey Hamilton, Francesca Wright, Ashley French, Harriet Gray, and Julia Kane, she also used to sign the books her first married name, Denise Robins, and some of her books were reedited under this pen-name. In 1927, over ten years after she began to publish, Denise meet Charles Boon, of Mills & Boon, and she signed her first contract with his firm the same year. In a short time, she became the best paid Mills & Boon's writer, and one of the most prolific, but in 1935 she changed to a new publisher, Nicholson & Watson, that made her a better offer, and later with Hodder & Stoughton.

In 1960, she founded with other romance writers the "Romantic Novelists' Association" (R.N.A.), and she was its first president until 1966. Denise passed away 1 May 1985 in her native England.

Reviews

[Tumelo Moleleki · Rating 4 out of 5]

My kind of romance, a love story without the raunchy stuff
Also, a story told without the proliferation of vulgarity, that teaches me new words... I did really like how she had me worried over these two foolish lovebirds

[Chrisangel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this, and almost every time I read a novel from the 1920's or 30's I find myself wishing I can reincarnate backwards. Something about those days!

This one was entertaining, the rich society girl who falls for a "commoner"; in this case, her father's handsome male secretary. (That's an interesting note: many men worked as secretaries in the early decades of the 20thc and it was considered a good job to have. I'm guessing as the corporate way of life became more prominent, more young men went to college and trained for management careers, and then women took over as secretaries.)

This story wasn't a case of the spoiled rich girl amusing herself, far from it. true, she gets him into a compromising situation but she did her best to get him out of it, taking all the blame herself. Later, she goes along with his wishes to keep their relationship a secret until he can prove to her parents that he can earn enough of a living to satisfy them their daughter's in good hands, and then makes a real sacrifice to help him get his dream of becoming a famous playwright.

I won't give anything else away, just read and enjoy the story!