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NOT LESS THAN ALL
PAPERBACK
- GenresHarlequin
207 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1972
10 people want to read
About the author
Margaret Malcolm
114 books7 followersMargaret Malcolm, née Margaret Lilian Graham was a British writer over 100 romance novels at Mills & Boon from 1940 to 1981.
Not to be confused with Margaret Malcolm (Edith Lyman Kuether), author only of Headless Beings.
Not to be confused with Margaret Malcolm (Edith Lyman Kuether), author only of Headless Beings.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 12, 2018
Available on Open library.
There was actually a lot of meat to this story. A young woman, Rosamund, is running away from her controlling guardian (an aunt) since she can’t stand working for her anymore. She stumbles into the houseboat where the Hero, John, a writer, has come for peace and quiet, to do his work. He not only disbelieves her explanation, he is unsympathetic of her plight and throws her out.
His kind neighbour, Miss Alice takes her in. Miss Alice notices something familiar about the heroine’s unusual looks, and she calls another friend, Dr. Rob to meet Rosamund. The heroine reminds both of them of Dr. Rob’s late wife. They had been separated, due to the manipulations of her sister (the aunt/guardian of Rosamund) and though he was informed of his wife's death, he was never told he had a child. They plan to investigate this further, but they do not tell Rosamund.
John apologises for misunderstanding Rosamund soon after, and they start spending a lot of time together. The heroine is soon infatuated with the Hero, and I can understand, since he is very charming and solicitous towards her and very attracted as well. All is going swimmingly when the evil controlling aunt shows up and threatens to drag the heroine back, she runs into the John’s protective arms and he declares to the aunt that they are engaged. Evil auntie is foiled but not discouraged. The happy couple arrange to be married secretly, within a few days. On the day before the wedding, Rosamund receives a nasty letter from Auntie, where she implies that she admires Rosamund's scheme for hooking the most eligible bachelor in London. Since Rosamund loves John and this was never her intention, she destroys the letter but keeps the newspaper clipping. The couple go off to have a lovely wedding in a little village church, but as they are leaving, Rosamund drops her bag and John sees the clipping. He now suspects her of being a gold digger, exactly as intended by evil aunt. He refuses to believe Rosamund's explanations especially since she cannot produce the letter. This sours their relationship from this point on.
Instead of heading to a honeymoon, John brings Rosamund to his estate and contemptuously refers to it as her new home. However as they arrive, they encounter a crisis. The local orphanage has burned down and the children and staff have taken refuge at the estate. John seems a bit overwhelmed so Rosamund takes over. Instead of admiring her ability to adapt and her organising skills, John seems to resent her more, so he leaves her and goes off to London. Rosamund gets more and more depressed when she receives another letter from her aunt asking for money and threatening to reveal things about Rosamund if she doesn't get it. Rosamund goes to London to confront her aunt, but instead runs into Dr. Rob. He sees that she is distressed and convinces her to unburden herself to him. So she does, then he reveals that he is her father and advises her to keep any letters from the auntie so they can catch her out. Rosamund returns to the estate and soon after another letter arrives. Auntie claims that since she married under a false name (she has been using her aunt's surname) then her marriage is invalid. Rosamund calls Dr. Rob who advises her to come to him and since she wants to leave her marriage to John, this seems the best option.
She leaves a goodbye letter to John and goes to stay with her father, so they can consult with solicitors. A few days later John show up at her father's house. He is apologetic and wants a second chance. It seems their marriage is valid anyway since she has been known by this name all her life. He explains that he had been betrayed in love before which is why he has been so wary of gold diggers all his life. Rosamund also explains her whole situation to him but refuses to go back to him since she was so hurt by his actions.
Since Rosamund kept the blackmail letters of her aunt, her father was able to use it as leverage to obtain her birth certificate. He can now claim her as his daughter.
The story lost momentum from this point, so I docked a star. There was a bit more rushed plot devices to get Dr. Rob and Miss Alice together so they have their happy ending. And there are a few more mentions of John hanging around and Rosamund trying to avoid him until the end where he finally loses heart and is willing to finally let her go. She realises she can't be happy without him so she gives in.
Except for the last bit, which sort of lost steam and there was too much time spent on the orphanage crisis, the story was well done. The mystery of her backstory was quite interesting and kept my attention.
This is my first book by this author and I liked it enough to look for more of her work.
There was actually a lot of meat to this story. A young woman, Rosamund, is running away from her controlling guardian (an aunt) since she can’t stand working for her anymore. She stumbles into the houseboat where the Hero, John, a writer, has come for peace and quiet, to do his work. He not only disbelieves her explanation, he is unsympathetic of her plight and throws her out.
His kind neighbour, Miss Alice takes her in. Miss Alice notices something familiar about the heroine’s unusual looks, and she calls another friend, Dr. Rob to meet Rosamund. The heroine reminds both of them of Dr. Rob’s late wife. They had been separated, due to the manipulations of her sister (the aunt/guardian of Rosamund) and though he was informed of his wife's death, he was never told he had a child. They plan to investigate this further, but they do not tell Rosamund.
John apologises for misunderstanding Rosamund soon after, and they start spending a lot of time together. The heroine is soon infatuated with the Hero, and I can understand, since he is very charming and solicitous towards her and very attracted as well. All is going swimmingly when the evil controlling aunt shows up and threatens to drag the heroine back, she runs into the John’s protective arms and he declares to the aunt that they are engaged. Evil auntie is foiled but not discouraged. The happy couple arrange to be married secretly, within a few days. On the day before the wedding, Rosamund receives a nasty letter from Auntie, where she implies that she admires Rosamund's scheme for hooking the most eligible bachelor in London. Since Rosamund loves John and this was never her intention, she destroys the letter but keeps the newspaper clipping. The couple go off to have a lovely wedding in a little village church, but as they are leaving, Rosamund drops her bag and John sees the clipping. He now suspects her of being a gold digger, exactly as intended by evil aunt. He refuses to believe Rosamund's explanations especially since she cannot produce the letter. This sours their relationship from this point on.
Instead of heading to a honeymoon, John brings Rosamund to his estate and contemptuously refers to it as her new home. However as they arrive, they encounter a crisis. The local orphanage has burned down and the children and staff have taken refuge at the estate. John seems a bit overwhelmed so Rosamund takes over. Instead of admiring her ability to adapt and her organising skills, John seems to resent her more, so he leaves her and goes off to London. Rosamund gets more and more depressed when she receives another letter from her aunt asking for money and threatening to reveal things about Rosamund if she doesn't get it. Rosamund goes to London to confront her aunt, but instead runs into Dr. Rob. He sees that she is distressed and convinces her to unburden herself to him. So she does, then he reveals that he is her father and advises her to keep any letters from the auntie so they can catch her out. Rosamund returns to the estate and soon after another letter arrives. Auntie claims that since she married under a false name (she has been using her aunt's surname) then her marriage is invalid. Rosamund calls Dr. Rob who advises her to come to him and since she wants to leave her marriage to John, this seems the best option.
She leaves a goodbye letter to John and goes to stay with her father, so they can consult with solicitors. A few days later John show up at her father's house. He is apologetic and wants a second chance. It seems their marriage is valid anyway since she has been known by this name all her life. He explains that he had been betrayed in love before which is why he has been so wary of gold diggers all his life. Rosamund also explains her whole situation to him but refuses to go back to him since she was so hurt by his actions.
Since Rosamund kept the blackmail letters of her aunt, her father was able to use it as leverage to obtain her birth certificate. He can now claim her as his daughter.
The story lost momentum from this point, so I docked a star. There was a bit more rushed plot devices to get Dr. Rob and Miss Alice together so they have their happy ending. And there are a few more mentions of John hanging around and Rosamund trying to avoid him until the end where he finally loses heart and is willing to finally let her go. She realises she can't be happy without him so she gives in.
Except for the last bit, which sort of lost steam and there was too much time spent on the orphanage crisis, the story was well done. The mystery of her backstory was quite interesting and kept my attention.
This is my first book by this author and I liked it enough to look for more of her work.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 7, 2021
I enjoyed this, but the last quarter of the book lost all the momentum and was very contrived.
December 16, 2022
Had all the ingredients to be an excellent romance but it didn’t work. It dragged, the conflict between h and H contrived, characters not built out, plot fragments that trailed off without resolution. What happened to Alice and Rob? Or the orphanage?
December 19, 2022
2.5 stars ⭐️⭐️This draaaaaaaaaaged! It has too many P.O.V.’s for my taste! I didn’t really feel like I got to know any of them. The h held a grudge too long. The plot would have been better if they had stayed at the house and run the orphanage together.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews