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Neptune's Daughter
" ... you might see a stranger across a crowded room ... "
When Laurian saw the tall handsome man browsing in the bookshop, the lyrics of the romantic old song came instantly to mind. For this was what it was like: the sudden burst of attraction, the odd sense of recognition.
So when the man followed her out of the store and down the street, Laurian was certain he felt the same way. She wasn't in the habit of talking to strangers, but this was different. So she did.
And found out his name. Oliver Thornham. A name from her past, and one she had every reason to hate.
When Laurian saw the tall handsome man browsing in the bookshop, the lyrics of the romantic old song came instantly to mind. For this was what it was like: the sudden burst of attraction, the odd sense of recognition.
So when the man followed her out of the store and down the street, Laurian was certain he felt the same way. She wasn't in the habit of talking to strangers, but this was different. So she did.
And found out his name. Oliver Thornham. A name from her past, and one she had every reason to hate.
- GenresRomanceHarlequin Romance
187 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1987
2 people are currently reading
29 people want to read
About the author
Anne Weale
219 books49 followersJay Blakeney
aka Anne Weale, Andrea Blake
Jay Blakeney was born on Juny 20, 1929. Her great-grandfather was a well-known writer on moral theology, so perhaps she inherited her writing gene from him. She was "talking stories" to herself long before she could read. When she was still at school, she sold her first short stories to a woman's magazine and she feels she was destined to write. Decided to became a writer, she started writing for newspapers and magazines.
At 21, Jay was a newspaper reporter with a career plan, but the man she was wildly in love with announced that he was off to the other side of the world. He thought they should either marry or say goodbye. She always believed that true love could last a lifetime, and she felt that wonderful men were much harder to find than good jobs, so she put her career on hold. What a wise decision it was! She felt that new young women seem less inclined to risk everything for love than her generation.
Together they traveled the world. If she hadn't spent part of her bridal year living on the edge of a jungle in Malaysia, she might never have become a romance writer. That isolated house, and the perils of the state of emergency that existed in the country at that time, gave her a background and plot ideally suited to a genre she had never read until she came across some romances in the library of a country club they sometimes visited. She can write about love with the even stronger conviction that comes from experience.
When they returned to Europe, Jay resumed her career as a journalist, writing her first romance in her spare time. She sold her first novel as Anne Weale to Mills and Boon in 1955 at the age of 24. At 30, with seven books published, she "retired" to have a baby and become a full-time writer. She raised a delightful son, David, who is as adventurous as his father. Her husband and son have even climbed in the Andes and the Himalayas, giving her lots of ideas for stories. When she retired from reporting, her fiction income -- a combination of amounts earned as a Mills & Boon author and writing for magazines such as Woman's Illustrated, which serialized the work of authors -- exceed 1,000 pounds a year.
She was a founding member of the The Romantic Novelists' Association. In 2002 she published her last novel, in total, she wrote 88 novels. She also wrote under the pseudonym Andrea Blake. She loved setting her novels in exotic parts of the world, but specially in The Caribbean and in her beloved Spain. Since 1989, Jay spent most of the winter months in a very small "pueblo" in the backwoods of Spain. During years, she visited some villages, and from each she have borrowed some feature - a fountain, a street, a plaza, a picturesque old house - to create some places like Valdecarrasca, that is wholly imaginary and yet typical of the part of rural Spain she knew best. She loved walking, reading, sketching, sewing (curtains and slipcovers) and doing needlepoint, gardening, entertaining friends, visiting art galleries and museums, writing letters, surfing the Net, traveling in search of exciting locations for future books, eating delicious food and drinking good wine, cataloguing her books.
She wrote a regular website review column for The Bookseller from 1998 to 2004, before starting her own blog Bookworm on the Net. At the time of her death, on October 24, 2007, she was working on her autobiography "88 Heroes... 1 Mr. Right".
aka Anne Weale, Andrea Blake
Jay Blakeney was born on Juny 20, 1929. Her great-grandfather was a well-known writer on moral theology, so perhaps she inherited her writing gene from him. She was "talking stories" to herself long before she could read. When she was still at school, she sold her first short stories to a woman's magazine and she feels she was destined to write. Decided to became a writer, she started writing for newspapers and magazines.
At 21, Jay was a newspaper reporter with a career plan, but the man she was wildly in love with announced that he was off to the other side of the world. He thought they should either marry or say goodbye. She always believed that true love could last a lifetime, and she felt that wonderful men were much harder to find than good jobs, so she put her career on hold. What a wise decision it was! She felt that new young women seem less inclined to risk everything for love than her generation.
Together they traveled the world. If she hadn't spent part of her bridal year living on the edge of a jungle in Malaysia, she might never have become a romance writer. That isolated house, and the perils of the state of emergency that existed in the country at that time, gave her a background and plot ideally suited to a genre she had never read until she came across some romances in the library of a country club they sometimes visited. She can write about love with the even stronger conviction that comes from experience.
When they returned to Europe, Jay resumed her career as a journalist, writing her first romance in her spare time. She sold her first novel as Anne Weale to Mills and Boon in 1955 at the age of 24. At 30, with seven books published, she "retired" to have a baby and become a full-time writer. She raised a delightful son, David, who is as adventurous as his father. Her husband and son have even climbed in the Andes and the Himalayas, giving her lots of ideas for stories. When she retired from reporting, her fiction income -- a combination of amounts earned as a Mills & Boon author and writing for magazines such as Woman's Illustrated, which serialized the work of authors -- exceed 1,000 pounds a year.
She was a founding member of the The Romantic Novelists' Association. In 2002 she published her last novel, in total, she wrote 88 novels. She also wrote under the pseudonym Andrea Blake. She loved setting her novels in exotic parts of the world, but specially in The Caribbean and in her beloved Spain. Since 1989, Jay spent most of the winter months in a very small "pueblo" in the backwoods of Spain. During years, she visited some villages, and from each she have borrowed some feature - a fountain, a street, a plaza, a picturesque old house - to create some places like Valdecarrasca, that is wholly imaginary and yet typical of the part of rural Spain she knew best. She loved walking, reading, sketching, sewing (curtains and slipcovers) and doing needlepoint, gardening, entertaining friends, visiting art galleries and museums, writing letters, surfing the Net, traveling in search of exciting locations for future books, eating delicious food and drinking good wine, cataloguing her books.
She wrote a regular website review column for The Bookseller from 1998 to 2004, before starting her own blog Bookworm on the Net. At the time of her death, on October 24, 2007, she was working on her autobiography "88 Heroes... 1 Mr. Right".
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 4, 2018
It was SO SUPER romantic. For the first two thirds. Then the conclusion kind of deflated the bubble of the build-up. This happens quite often with Anne Weale, even though she is a superb storyteller for the most part.
Here, the ingredients were all there. The Carribean island setting, the convoluted shared past, the heartbreak, the chance meeting, the coup de foudre, the deception, the hint of violence, duplicity, seduction etc. And of course, the beautiful painting of the title, Neptune' s Daughter, a portrait of the heroine as a child whom the artist likens to a mermaid.
Hero was a DISH. Somehow, I think he deserved better than the wishy washy heroine with a chip on her shoulder who chooses to run away from her problems. Wish she had evolved more as the realizations that all was not as she had been told or perceived hit her one by one.
For those into 80s nostalgia, you might be tickled pink that the fashion designer heroine designs a dress worn by Lady Di at a gala where the Princess hands her the award for the year's best fashion designer :)))
Here, the ingredients were all there. The Carribean island setting, the convoluted shared past, the heartbreak, the chance meeting, the coup de foudre, the deception, the hint of violence, duplicity, seduction etc. And of course, the beautiful painting of the title, Neptune' s Daughter, a portrait of the heroine as a child whom the artist likens to a mermaid.
Hero was a DISH. Somehow, I think he deserved better than the wishy washy heroine with a chip on her shoulder who chooses to run away from her problems. Wish she had evolved more as the realizations that all was not as she had been told or perceived hit her one by one.
For those into 80s nostalgia, you might be tickled pink that the fashion designer heroine designs a dress worn by Lady Di at a gala where the Princess hands her the award for the year's best fashion designer :)))
June 26, 2020
you might see a stranger across a crowded room ... "
When Laurian saw the tall handsome man browsing in the bookshop, the lyrics of the romantic old song came instantly to mind. For this was what it was like: the sudden burst of attraction, the odd sense of recognition.
So when the man followed her out of the store and down the street, Laurian was certain he felt the same way. She wasn't in the habit of talking to strangers, but this was different. So she did.
And found out his name. Oliver Thornham. A name from her past, and one she had every reason to hate
When Laurian saw the tall handsome man browsing in the bookshop, the lyrics of the romantic old song came instantly to mind. For this was what it was like: the sudden burst of attraction, the odd sense of recognition.
So when the man followed her out of the store and down the street, Laurian was certain he felt the same way. She wasn't in the habit of talking to strangers, but this was different. So she did.
And found out his name. Oliver Thornham. A name from her past, and one she had every reason to hate
January 15, 2026
I'm giving 4 stars rounded up from 3.25, because I feel like this book is a little underrated in spite of its flaws
My main beef with this book is the h's choices, lies, deceptions, and dishonesty. Toward everyone, especially the OM. There was nothing wrong with the OM and he deserved so, so much better.
Actually at all points she made terrible choices and was not honest with anyone in her life at all, which yeah I didn't like.
Heroine is the grown daughter of an odd relationship between a former/renegade member of the British upper-crust who at 50+ years old had an affair with an island woman who ended up running away to become a model. This man owned an island in the Caribbean down the way from Antigua, where he raised his daughter alone, somewhat like in Tequila Sunrise.
At around idk 12-15ish, the 20 something H shows up in a boat and convinces h's father that she needs to be educated properly in England if she's going to be able to live in the modern world and not be a borderline feral human (would that the poor heroine in Tequila Sunrise had someone to advocate for her at a younger age tbh). Heroine is resentful of this, especially as her father then sells the island to the H for a song, then ends up dying before she is able to come back home and visit him. She blames the H for all of this, and to be honest she's not wrong.
FFWD to the present (of the book, not the actual present, because this book is in our past), and heroine is a famous English fashion designer about to attend an award ceremony presided by Princess Di (yes, that Princess Di, which is how you know the book is in the past), where she's expected to win a prestigious fashion award due to her fashion awesomeness.
She runs into the H at a bookstore, doesn't recognize him, he doesn't recognize her, but then after they meet up at a coffee shop she realizes it's HIM.
So she runs away. BUT, the man she lives with who is totally not her boyfriend, with whom she's going on a 2-week tropical mystery vacation (totally not her boyfriend), who has proposed marriage to her and seems to think they are involved seriously (no really he's totally NOT her boyfriend!!), has arranged for them to stay at an island just a hop jump and a skip away from the island heroine grew up on which the H now owns.
At the last moment, OM, who is so totally not her boyfriend that she planned a 2-week tropical romantic getaway, and whom she now knows is in love with her and expects to marry her, even though she has not definitively turned him down or clarified that she wants to be just friends, has a family emergency and is unable to attend the trip.
This is when h realizes that her childhood island is just down the reef, and is completely private and off-limits unless you are very wealthy and whatnot, makes plans to sneak on the island and just casually check it out despite all the no trespassing signs.
Naturally she is immediately caught out and brought to the attention of the H who still somehow does not seem to realize that she is in fact the daughter of the man he bought the island from. A fact that makes even less sense at the end of the story, but whatevs.
So instead of just fessing up, she LIES. She lies about her name, her reasons for being there, and just about everything she can lie about.
Anyway eventually she falls in love with the H despite everything, realizes that her father actually was the one who wanted to send her off to school, which is when OM, who she's been talking to every night and not saying ANYTHING about the island, the H, the fact that she's falling in love with him, etc., decides to resume their vacation and shows up.
Just... yeah at that point I was like, the h is a lying untrustworthy person. Now, it turns out that there are things the H is and has kept from her, such as her father's death, the provenance of the sale of the island, and that he tried to see her foster parents and visit her when she was younger, but all these are actually justifiable as either being not his secrets to tell or having been barred from doing so by her dad, or trying to protect younger her from knowing her dad self-ended his life.
The heroine's lies are all from being too cowardly and dishonest with herself to just be who she is, state her true feelings, and what must be a deep-seated, core lack of honesty with herself and with the world around her.
So yeah... I might actually take this rating down a bit.
Another good thing though was despite all the negative anti-feminist talk, at the end, the hero ends up moving to where the heroine is and giving up the island as a home base to move closer to her fashion career, and she doesn't give up her career and calling to be with him, and neither does he with her. So even though this author trash talks feminism and feminists in a lot of her books, her heroes are actually feminist without it being obvious.
My main beef with this book is the h's choices, lies, deceptions, and dishonesty. Toward everyone, especially the OM. There was nothing wrong with the OM and he deserved so, so much better.
Actually at all points she made terrible choices and was not honest with anyone in her life at all, which yeah I didn't like.
Heroine is the grown daughter of an odd relationship between a former/renegade member of the British upper-crust who at 50+ years old had an affair with an island woman who ended up running away to become a model. This man owned an island in the Caribbean down the way from Antigua, where he raised his daughter alone, somewhat like in Tequila Sunrise.
At around idk 12-15ish, the 20 something H shows up in a boat and convinces h's father that she needs to be educated properly in England if she's going to be able to live in the modern world and not be a borderline feral human (would that the poor heroine in Tequila Sunrise had someone to advocate for her at a younger age tbh). Heroine is resentful of this, especially as her father then sells the island to the H for a song, then ends up dying before she is able to come back home and visit him. She blames the H for all of this, and to be honest she's not wrong.
FFWD to the present (of the book, not the actual present, because this book is in our past), and heroine is a famous English fashion designer about to attend an award ceremony presided by Princess Di (yes, that Princess Di, which is how you know the book is in the past), where she's expected to win a prestigious fashion award due to her fashion awesomeness.
She runs into the H at a bookstore, doesn't recognize him, he doesn't recognize her, but then after they meet up at a coffee shop she realizes it's HIM.
So she runs away. BUT, the man she lives with who is totally not her boyfriend, with whom she's going on a 2-week tropical mystery vacation (totally not her boyfriend), who has proposed marriage to her and seems to think they are involved seriously (no really he's totally NOT her boyfriend!!), has arranged for them to stay at an island just a hop jump and a skip away from the island heroine grew up on which the H now owns.
At the last moment, OM, who is so totally not her boyfriend that she planned a 2-week tropical romantic getaway, and whom she now knows is in love with her and expects to marry her, even though she has not definitively turned him down or clarified that she wants to be just friends, has a family emergency and is unable to attend the trip.
This is when h realizes that her childhood island is just down the reef, and is completely private and off-limits unless you are very wealthy and whatnot, makes plans to sneak on the island and just casually check it out despite all the no trespassing signs.
Naturally she is immediately caught out and brought to the attention of the H who still somehow does not seem to realize that she is in fact the daughter of the man he bought the island from. A fact that makes even less sense at the end of the story, but whatevs.
So instead of just fessing up, she LIES. She lies about her name, her reasons for being there, and just about everything she can lie about.
Anyway eventually she falls in love with the H despite everything, realizes that her father actually was the one who wanted to send her off to school, which is when OM, who she's been talking to every night and not saying ANYTHING about the island, the H, the fact that she's falling in love with him, etc., decides to resume their vacation and shows up.
Just... yeah at that point I was like, the h is a lying untrustworthy person. Now, it turns out that there are things the H is and has kept from her, such as her father's death, the provenance of the sale of the island, and that he tried to see her foster parents and visit her when she was younger, but all these are actually justifiable as either being not his secrets to tell or having been barred from doing so by her dad, or trying to protect younger her from knowing her dad self-ended his life.
The heroine's lies are all from being too cowardly and dishonest with herself to just be who she is, state her true feelings, and what must be a deep-seated, core lack of honesty with herself and with the world around her.
So yeah... I might actually take this rating down a bit.
Another good thing though was despite all the negative anti-feminist talk, at the end, the hero ends up moving to where the heroine is and giving up the island as a home base to move closer to her fashion career, and she doesn't give up her career and calling to be with him, and neither does he with her. So even though this author trash talks feminism and feminists in a lot of her books, her heroes are actually feminist without it being obvious.
May 3, 2025
Definitely a dated book. It has no fade to black. Well actually the kissing scenes fade to black!
The premise of this book sounded so interesting but honestly the romance in it was very lacking. Maybe back in the day it was better.
The premise of this book sounded so interesting but honestly the romance in it was very lacking. Maybe back in the day it was better.
November 3, 2018
This one could have been great but unfortunately I felt that the author made too many wrong turns with this one. What a shame.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews