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Winter is Past
"I expected you to be a child." It was a brutal shock to Alexandra when after waiting five years to return to Malaysia she arrived to find that her father had been killed. Her situation wasn't helped by the fact that he'd left her in the care of a guardian--the darkly attractive Jonathan Fraser, who persisted in treating her like a child. Alex couldn't tell him that where he was concerned, she was very much a woman!
189 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1955
18 people want to read
About the author
Anne Weale
227 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 - 6 of 6 reviews
December 23, 2012
Weird but good novel. I felt terribly sorry for the Blake character but I was glad the hero and heroine finally got it together. I love the whole guardian/ward concept and this one certainly had me enjoying it as well.
September 30, 2018
Crabby H, sheltered h. He pushes her away and then gets what he deserves when the local bachelor-womanizer dreamboat changes his ways and falls for the h. Misunderstanding, reuniting. Lots of stereotyping and exoticism. Also, malaria (or some serious illness).
September 13, 2021
More like 3.5, it was a cute sweet story.
This is one of Anne Weale’s early books, it was written in 1961 (OMG heroine is older than my mom! 😂) so it’s very dated, and I agree with the other reviewer, so much smoking! It’s unbelievable nowadays.
Anyway, it was quite sweet to get the point of view of the Hero. In later books, the style of the authors was to keep it within one POV, usually the heroine’s so as to up the angst. In this one, the reader can see that the Hero is falling for the heroine and trying to rein in his feelings since she is very young. The heroine’s youth also makes her inclined to listen to gossip about the Hero. She had also just recently returned to the area and didn’t know many people. That being said, many people listen to gossip no matter what their age.
I liked that she got a chance to date another man, this is where the book gets dated, since merely dating a “rake” can ruin even the character of the girl. She did try to forget the Hero since she did not believe he returned her affection.
The Hero proposes marriage because he simply cannot bear letting her go or seeing her married to someone else, but he doesn’t tell her of his feelings. The heroine is young so she is insecure about revealing her feelings as well. There is a misunderstanding on their wedding day, just as they are leaving for their honeymoon. The OM (rake) who had been pursuing the heroine shows up. He didn’t know she was just married. When he finds out he is distressed, he had wanted to marry her also, and he steals a kiss. The Hero catches this moment and immediately assumes that the heroine is still in love with the OM. Then it proceeds to next few weeks of non-communication and coldness between the couple.
It takes the friend of the heroine to make some hints to the Hero, before he realizes his misjudgment of the heroine and goes running back to her. Actually earlier, when he proposed to the heroine, it was also another friend of his (the supposed OW) who pointed it out to him that he should marry the heroine if he couldn’t bear to see her with anyone else. So in both cases, the Hero could not properly assess the situation on his own. Maybe it’s the depth of his feelings clouding his judgement, but he was the older one. He should have confronted the heroine and allowed her to explain. I don’t blame the heroine, since she was very young and didn’t quite know how to deal with the situation.
They get their HEA in the end. Hopefully they start communicating more, in their marriage, but they were both likable characters and I was happy for them.
This is one of Anne Weale’s early books, it was written in 1961 (OMG heroine is older than my mom! 😂) so it’s very dated, and I agree with the other reviewer, so much smoking! It’s unbelievable nowadays.
Anyway, it was quite sweet to get the point of view of the Hero. In later books, the style of the authors was to keep it within one POV, usually the heroine’s so as to up the angst. In this one, the reader can see that the Hero is falling for the heroine and trying to rein in his feelings since she is very young. The heroine’s youth also makes her inclined to listen to gossip about the Hero. She had also just recently returned to the area and didn’t know many people. That being said, many people listen to gossip no matter what their age.
I liked that she got a chance to date another man, this is where the book gets dated, since merely dating a “rake” can ruin even the character of the girl. She did try to forget the Hero since she did not believe he returned her affection.
The Hero proposes marriage because he simply cannot bear letting her go or seeing her married to someone else, but he doesn’t tell her of his feelings. The heroine is young so she is insecure about revealing her feelings as well. There is a misunderstanding on their wedding day, just as they are leaving for their honeymoon. The OM (rake) who had been pursuing the heroine shows up. He didn’t know she was just married. When he finds out he is distressed, he had wanted to marry her also, and he steals a kiss. The Hero catches this moment and immediately assumes that the heroine is still in love with the OM. Then it proceeds to next few weeks of non-communication and coldness between the couple.
It takes the friend of the heroine to make some hints to the Hero, before he realizes his misjudgment of the heroine and goes running back to her. Actually earlier, when he proposed to the heroine, it was also another friend of his (the supposed OW) who pointed it out to him that he should marry the heroine if he couldn’t bear to see her with anyone else. So in both cases, the Hero could not properly assess the situation on his own. Maybe it’s the depth of his feelings clouding his judgement, but he was the older one. He should have confronted the heroine and allowed her to explain. I don’t blame the heroine, since she was very young and didn’t quite know how to deal with the situation.
They get their HEA in the end. Hopefully they start communicating more, in their marriage, but they were both likable characters and I was happy for them.
July 21, 2024
This vintage romance is set in the early 60s in Malaya, before it became independent and renamed Malaysia. The heroine is an 18 year old English girl born and raised in Malaya but forced into exile at a British boarding school for the last 5 years before this story begins, when her father decided that terrorist violence in the country made the situation too dangerous. And he was right because he gets killed in a terrorist ambush the day before his daughter returns home from her 5 year exile!
The heroine is greeted at the airport by her father's neighboring friend and fellow plantation owner, a 30 year old, dark, handsome, but cold and aloof man, with cynicism carved into his face. So begins the type of age-gap, guardian-ward romance that was prevalent for the era. This one however lacks heart or passion or romanticism or even erotic tension, which made so many of those read-between-the-lines older books such a thrill to read sometimes. The author does not succeed in making her protagonists human so they end up sounding like mechanical robots.
There are also way too many loose ends with OWs and OMs galore: a gross, over-the-top Mae West type has a brief affair with the hero under his own roof, even though he is supposedly in love with the heroine by that time, and then he is shocked, SHOCKED, that his innocent, virginal ward is disgusted and wants to leave his house; the heroine meets the local rake and recklessly dates him on the rebound, ruining her reputation in the process; and there is a Chinese cabaret singer who is the long-time mistress of the hero, which they both deny so vehemently that instead of convincing me, it actually had the opposite effect, and I was pretty sure that not only did they have a longstanding relationship but they also had a son together. Actually, the hero and the mistress had the most intimate and tender dialogue in the book, so much so that they made a better match imho than the hero and the heroine of this story.
I, for one, cannot really stomach stories where the protagonists spend so much time apart and spend all their time with OWs and OMs, even having full-on emotional and physical affairs with them. I am more of the "one and only" romance type of readers. So that's definitely part of why I didn't like this book.
Anyways back to the story: The heroine gets sick with a fever and her boyfriend decamps, leaving her reputation so soiled that no one wants to hang with her anymore. The hero seizes the opportunity to offer her a marriage of convenience to "save" her reputation. The heroine agrees. On the wedding day, the boyfriend comes back and upon being told the crushing news that she is already married, he kisses her in desperation then leaps out of the window and runs across the field, which was supposed to be so dramatic and poignant but it reminded me of a Homer Simpson gag LOL. The hero catches them in flagrante and proceeds to punish the heroine by refusing to consummate their marriage lmao.
It takes an interfering friend of the heroine AND a terrorist attack to make these two nincompoops come to their senses. After the heroine nearly gets killed in an ambush, it makes the hero finally come to his senses and avow his love for her and she to him. Fin.
The heroine is greeted at the airport by her father's neighboring friend and fellow plantation owner, a 30 year old, dark, handsome, but cold and aloof man, with cynicism carved into his face. So begins the type of age-gap, guardian-ward romance that was prevalent for the era. This one however lacks heart or passion or romanticism or even erotic tension, which made so many of those read-between-the-lines older books such a thrill to read sometimes. The author does not succeed in making her protagonists human so they end up sounding like mechanical robots.
There are also way too many loose ends with OWs and OMs galore: a gross, over-the-top Mae West type has a brief affair with the hero under his own roof, even though he is supposedly in love with the heroine by that time, and then he is shocked, SHOCKED, that his innocent, virginal ward is disgusted and wants to leave his house; the heroine meets the local rake and recklessly dates him on the rebound, ruining her reputation in the process; and there is a Chinese cabaret singer who is the long-time mistress of the hero, which they both deny so vehemently that instead of convincing me, it actually had the opposite effect, and I was pretty sure that not only did they have a longstanding relationship but they also had a son together. Actually, the hero and the mistress had the most intimate and tender dialogue in the book, so much so that they made a better match imho than the hero and the heroine of this story.
I, for one, cannot really stomach stories where the protagonists spend so much time apart and spend all their time with OWs and OMs, even having full-on emotional and physical affairs with them. I am more of the "one and only" romance type of readers. So that's definitely part of why I didn't like this book.
Anyways back to the story: The heroine gets sick with a fever and her boyfriend decamps, leaving her reputation so soiled that no one wants to hang with her anymore. The hero seizes the opportunity to offer her a marriage of convenience to "save" her reputation. The heroine agrees. On the wedding day, the boyfriend comes back and upon being told the crushing news that she is already married, he kisses her in desperation then leaps out of the window and runs across the field, which was supposed to be so dramatic and poignant but it reminded me of a Homer Simpson gag LOL. The hero catches them in flagrante and proceeds to punish the heroine by refusing to consummate their marriage lmao.
It takes an interfering friend of the heroine AND a terrorist attack to make these two nincompoops come to their senses. After the heroine nearly gets killed in an ambush, it makes the hero finally come to his senses and avow his love for her and she to him. Fin.
January 24, 2025
The plot was in depth, but it lacked fluid dialogue and the hero came across as very stilted. But maybe he was supposed to as he’s rather stiff? The heroine (19) I rather liked - she is just a normal girl who has had a lot of loss and fell for the hero, probably as the first real man she’d encountered. I like the old school guardian/ward trope (much better than the tedious ONS virgin/billionaire + baby trope you cannot escape from now), so there were parts I enjoyed. The setting was very interesting and it’s obvious that Anne Weale was writing about familiar places during a fascinating era in Malaya (written in 1955). The hero (31) had been a prisoner of war and had stayed on after to become a rubber planter. Hence the restrained personality.
I really liked the OM and there was chemistry there as well, and he could have been the hero of this, but I think perhaps she did end up with the right man over all as he clearly was planning to adore her for the rest of their lives.
3.5 stars - a very solid first novel from Anne Weale.
I really liked the OM and there was chemistry there as well, and he could have been the hero of this, but I think perhaps she did end up with the right man over all as he clearly was planning to adore her for the rest of their lives.
3.5 stars - a very solid first novel from Anne Weale.
pback-to-read
August 23, 2022"I expected you to be a child." It was a brutal shock to Alexandra when after waiting five years to return to Malaysia she arrived to find that her father had been killed. Her situation wasn't helped by the fact that he'd left her in the care of a guardian--the darkly attractive Jonathan Fraser, who persisted in treating her like a child. Alex couldn't tell him that where he was concerned, she was very much a woman!
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews