Four Heartfelt Winter Romance Stories from Betty Neels, all in one volume!
A Christmas Romance Although Theodosia Chapman has gone through trying times and hardships, the one thing she would never lose is her positive outlook and sunny disposition. But the prospect of spending Christmas alone is a hard test on Theodosia’s attitude and, on top of that, her difficult manager at the hospital doesn’t make her job as an office clerk any easier. It isn’t until she meets physician Hugo Bentinck on Christmas Eve that she realizes the prospect of love might save her Christmas… and might even last forever. Dearest Eulalia
Eulalia Langley is doing everything she can to keep her house, but with money running out, only something short of a Christmas miracle can save her home. Fortunately, handsome surgeon Aderik van der Leurs arrives with great timing and a very convenient marriage proposal. What Eulalia doesn’t know is that Aderik has been madly in love with her from the beginning. Would they have the courage to confess what they actually feel for each other, giving their marriage for convivence a chance to turn into a real one?
Winter of Change
When twenty-one-year-old Mary Jane Pettigrew inherits a large house and an income to go with it from her grandfather, she knows this is her chance to prove her independence. But when she learns the house comes with a guardian, Fabian van der Blocq, she is determined to show him she can look after herself and not let him get his way. Fabian is cold and uncommunicative; Mary Jane is rebellious and often difficult. Neither of them hides how much they hate each other and the situation they have been put in, but love can grow in the most challenging circumstances and surprise them both.
A Matter of Chance
When Cressida traded her nursing position for a job in Holland, she was looking for a new beginning, but the conflict she feels when dealing with Doctor Giles van der Tiele’s arrogant but charming personality, is exactly the type of feeling she was trying to avoid. But would either of them have the courage to let go of their judgments to make space for love?
Evelyn 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
Four well written love stories laced with that unique Betty Neels romantic afterglow leaving her readers with a sigh of satisfaction. A totally enjoyable read. CYA’58