Librarian's note: Alternate cover edition of ISBN 0373705352.
Although Karen Frazer had been divorced by her husband Paul two years before, and had heard that he had since become engaged to another woman, she still loved him. But she was not yet free of him -- for Paul's married brother was pursuing Karen's irresponsible young sister, and her mother had asked Karen to persuade Paul to do what he could to put a stop to the affair.
Karen dreaded the thought of meeting Paul again, but for the sake of her mother and sister, what else could she do? And there was Lewis to consider as well -- Lewis, who loved Karen and had the best of reasons for keeping her and Paul apart.
But when the fateful meeting took place, Paul himself felt some of the old attraction return. Had he been mistaken about Karen all this time?
Anne Mather is the pseudonym used by Mildred Grieveson, a popular British author of over 160 romance novels. She also signed novels as Caroline Fleming and Cardine Fleming. Mildred Grieveson began to write down stories in her childhood years. The first novel that she actually finished, Caroline (1965), was also her first book to be published. Her novel, Leopard in the Snow (1974), was developed into a 1978 film.
"Seen by Candlelight" is the story of Karen and Paul.
When Karen's 17 year old sister Sandra decides to get involved with a much older married man, her unsympathetic mother decides to include her in the matter. Reason: the man is non other than Simon, brother to Karen's ex husband Paul! Paul and Karen were married for five years until they started drifting apart. Things worsened, as passion receded, until two years ago, Paul had divorced Karen after after accusing her of adultery, citing her friendship with her current boss Lewis.
Blackmailed by her uncaring mother, Karen reluctantly calls Paul, who has been engaged to Ruth. Initially reticent, he then decides to meet her, and both come up with a plan to separate their immature siblings.
But as their new interactions remind them of a love that they thought was long forgotten, they also encounter crazy jealousies from their fiance and boss respectively. Was Paul wrong about Karen all along?
This was a really captivating read. The relationship between Paul and Karen is complicated, but in the present they were never deliberately hurtful to one another. Karen came off as rather naive, not seeing through Lewis and his diabolical obsession, but I did admire her devotion to her family, especially the insane and spoiled mother and sibling (both of whom I wanted to slap). I also like how cordial she was with Paul. Paul was caring, and a nice beta hero. Despite the divorce, he was not mean to Karen or her family, going as far as paying for their vacation and chastising them for being assholes to Karen. He did not cheat on Ruth, and broke off at the right moment IMO. The OW/OM served their purpose, and the book ended in a neat HEA.
Enjoyed it! Safe? 4/5 P.S. One star is deduced for the chain smoking, which I absolutely detest in my H and hs
Hero and heroine are divorced and he’s engaged to ow. Hero’s married brother has an affair with teenager sister in law, and hero and heroine try to stop them from making further mess. They divorced because he thought she was having an affair and she never denied it. He also didn’t want her to have a job. A bit of good old male chauvinism. Now they rekindle their love, and he dumps the poor idiot fiancee, because he loves the heroine and knows that she didn’t cheat. Her boss, who’s always been in love with her, was the one to lie and tell the hero that they were lovers. And he was the one to suggest the heroine not to make any opposition. These two people are really dumb, the heroine was quite selfish and the hero quite intolerant, but in the end they’re together again. Oh, the heroine’s sister who’s a teenager, is a slut and an idiot. She stalks the hero’s brother. She runs away. She hides in a hostel. She lies and tells she’s preggo with the man’s child. Which could have been true because even if she’s a minor she’s slutty and she gave it to him even if he is married and never going to leave his wife. I pitied the hero and the heroine for such awful siblings.
Still can’t figure out what the title has to do with the H/h reuniting after their divorce because the heroine’s 17 year-old sister is dating the hero’s married, 40-something brother.
H/h have been divorced for two years after a three-year marriage. Heroine, a textile designer and “too independent for her own good,” was 18 when they wed. They were blissfully happy until hero’s business took him away a lot and heroine decided to go work for a rival firm.
The boss of that firm (OM) told the hero all kinds of lies about his relationship with the heroine. When the hero sued the heroine for divorce on the basis of adultery, she didn’t contest it on the advice of the OM.
Since then, the H/h have been miserable. The heroine spends her time fending off the OM and painting. The hero spends his drinking and smoking himself to death until he decides to marry a sweet young thing, daughter of a business associate. He doesn’t love her but - *shrug*
Getting involved with the heroine’s wacky family is the catalyst for the hero to admit he still loves the heroine. (We have his point of view) And heroine is right behind him.
The hero dispatches the sweet young thing before he takes up with the heroine. He also helps the heroine rid herself of the OM with a well-timed punch to the face. The 17-year-old learns her “lesson” by the end of the story – she wins a free trip to Spain with her ridiculous mother courtesy of the millionaire hero. The brother is free to scout out the local boarding schools for an Anne Mather HEA.
There is no need for an epilogue since all of these characters are going to incapacitated in the next decade by the endless smoking and day drinking.
Karen and Paul really were in love and had a good marriage until a sick obessed man ruined it through lies but then her family really didn't help matters either. Now divorced Karen needs his help for her family. She doesn't feel right asking him so her bossy mom guilts her into it. He does decide to help which leads them into spending time together. Their passion and love is still strong but they are afraid to trust again....he is also engaged and that other man is still lurking. Plus her spoiled rotten baby sister and demanding bossy mom make life tough (they are both just nasty people, I can see why she spends little time with them).
With all this going on you wonder if they will get it right this time around? A well written read with a just ending.
The first thing I can tell you about this book was that it was written in the 1970’s, cause EVERYONE smoked. All. The. Time. I mean they lit up on almost every page. It was astonishing to read in our almost smoke free modern world.
The next thing is that AM wrote the hell out of this book. She wrote a story that pulls you in from the very beginning and takes you on an interesting ride. You get the perspective of the four main characters and it’s a bit off putting at first, but then it just seems to make sense.
Paul and Karen were married for three years before things started to go wrong. They loved each other, but Karen’s dissatisfaction at being a stay at home wife and Paul’s insistence that she not work caused a rift in their happiness. Before they realized it, their marriage was in a mess. The nail in the coffin came when Karen got a job with Paul’s rival, Lewis Martin.
After a huge fight, Karen walked out of her marriage and her new boss Lewis was there to help her. He bought an apartment that she rented. He gave her advice on how to deal with the separation from Paul. He was there orchestrating Karen’s life. And before you knew it, Paul was filing for divorce.
Two years after the divorce, Karen is forced to ask her now ex-husband for help with a family problem. Her seventeen year old sister is dating his thirty something, married brother. Newly engaged Paul steps in to help. He is angry and hostile with Karen because he realizes that he’s still hurt by her cheating on him, but he’s also still attracted to her.
Karen and Paul are forced to work together to solve the family issue which angers Lewis and Paul’s fiancée, Ruth. Ruth is a wealthy, American debutante who seems sweet at first but is selfish and controlling. She’s playing sweet until the wedding.
The story revolves mostly around these four and the deviousness that caused Paul and Karen’s marriage to fall apart, and that callous coldness that is trying to keep it that way.
Lewis was a twisted SOB! From the very first you got a sense of how controlling he was with Karen and how stalkerish he was. Ruth was trying to hold on to her fiancée. She’s tiny, cute and not too bright. She would have driven Paul insane within six months.
Paul was a really good guy. In spite of the hurt and belief that Karen cheated on him with Lewis, he was still there for her when she needed help.
Karen was just too damned naive. She allowed Lewis to “advise” her on her separation with her husband without once questioning if he had ulterior motives. She Lindt accepted everything he said. She annoyed the hell out of me.
Then there’s Paul’s whore of a brother and Karen’s idiot sister and her useless mother. This cast of characters made for one hell of a messy tale and it was goood!
I've decided I want to read as many of Anne Mather's novels as I can this year. I'm reading them in the order they were published, and I am looking forward to watching her writing skills grow as I get further into her bibliography.
Book number 2, and it's been quite the ride! It is dated, if course, with it being written in 1966, and it is rife with smoking and drinking and male entitlement, but it was fun nevertheless. Anne Mather never disappoints! ❤️
NB: when it was published in 1966 it had a different title that made more sense: Design for Loving.
Couldn’t place when it is set. Seventies obviously.
They smoked like chimneys and drank like fishes at all times of the day and night. Heroine popped sleeping pills every night.
Basic story. Heroine worked for hero’s textile business. She developed the design for a unique carpet.
Was taken to meet the CEO. There was instant attraction and they got married.
Heroine did not feel fulfilled. She wanted to go back to work. Hero wanted her to stay at home and wait for him and start having babies.
To coerce her he shifted to another bedroom.
Now here we come to heroine’s back story. She lost her father young and her mother focussed totally on the younger sister and forgot about her older child. She therefore learnt to fend for herself early.
She needed to know she was working.
They were both immature. Instead of sitting like adults they threw a tantrum. He moved out of the bedroom. She moved out of the house and found a job.
Unfortunately the new employer grew obsessed with heroine. He fanned the flames of separation.
He planted fake evidence. There was a divorce.
Five years later. The hero’s philandering brother started an affair with heroine’s seventeen year old sister.
The heroines mother forced her to go to the hero to intervene.
Hero was engaged to be married in two months.
The moment they met they realised they still had feelings.
Initially they were hard and brittle and surface level. But inside they were miserable.
All of it got sorted in a blundering manner somehow.
Probably this is how life is.
It was horrible to read how the other man got the heroine divorced by planting fake evidence of adultery.
The ugliness of it.
Unpleasant to read.
I realise that Anne Mather’s heroines are always confused and dithering between two men. One can never understand what she’s doing. She’s almost on the point of sleeping with the other man.
This one point irritates me against the heroines.
How can they be so stupid. Shallow. That’s what they are. And stupid.
So that’s my review.
Basically I liked none of the character’s in this book.
Only thing worthwhile was the descriptions of a time gone by. Those filled me with regret. Must have been beautiful. So much hope and confidence in the future.
No dread about pollution and disease.
So that’s my review
A reviewer called the hero beta.
The reason might be because he allows the heroine and her whole family to prey on him.
The heroine keeps wearing jewellery, clothes and furs bought by him during the marriage to go on a date with other man even.
What was odd that she had treated the hero so churlishly.
She and her mother pile on the hero with their troubles.
In the end she is relieved to be back in the hero’s fold so she can stop being a strong woman.
Although Karen Frazer had been divorced by her husband Paul two years before, and had heard that he had since become engaged to another woman, she still loved him. But she was not yet free of him -- for Paul's married brother was pursuing Karen's irresponsible young sister, and her mother had asked Karen to persuade Paul to do what he could to put a stop to the affair.
Karen dreaded the thought of meeting Paul again, but for the sake of her mother and sister, what else could she do? And there was Lewis to consider as well -- Lewis, who loved Karen and had the best of reasons for keeping her and Paul apart.
But when the fateful meeting took place, Paul himself felt some of the old attraction return. Had he been mistaken about Karen all this time? (
Wow, this book was all over the place but pretty good. I couldn't believe how Lewis manipulated the hero and heroine to split up because he had designs for the heroine. It was pretty slick but the ending was even better.
Anne Mather is one of my favorite author of this kind of novels, but this book was very difficult to read. Karen is totally annoying. She spent more time smoking than everything. She look like a chimney!
3 1/2 ⭐️⭐️⭐️✨I liked the multiple POVs which is the first of these first 100. I usually don’t due to killing the mystery but this was done well. There were 68 references to cigarettes! Every other sentence someone was lighting up! Times have changed! This was #35 of top 100.
First published 1966. This was a 1974 US book cover. I read the reissued Mills & Boon Classics Series book cover. It was one of the early Anne Mather books I read as a pre-teen. Synopsis: Although Karen Frazer had been divorced by her husband Paul two years before, and had heard that he had since become engaged to another woman, she still loved him. But she was not yet free of him -- for Paul's married brother was pursuing Karen's irresponsible young sister, and her mother had asked Karen to persuade Paul to do what he could to put a stop to the affair.
Karen dreaded the thought of meeting Paul again, but for the sake of her mother and sister, what else could she do? And there was Lewis to consider as well -- Lewis, who loved Karen and had the best of reasons for keeping her and Paul apart.
But when the fateful meeting took place, Paul himself felt some of the old attraction return. Had he been mistaken about Karen all this time?
What do you do when you realize after you are divorced that you still love your Ex?
This book is about finding forgiveness and understanding, of learning truth and lies.
This is a story of finding your way back to the one you love-it has drama, angst OW/OM high jinks. It also has secondary character drama that gives depth to the story and the main characters journey.
Bor-ing! Gosh, Karen doesn’t come off very attractive at all. Not very smart nor vulnerable. Don’t know what was so special about her and why was he so into her. He found her so damn desirable. Why? There was a lack of chemistry, very bland and superficial.
This was a Classics series republish of a 60's M&B and I really enjoyed it. Mather is one of my favourite writers from the publisher and this one hit all of my favourite points. It was a bit slow at times but she writes the mundane so vividly that I can't help but enjoy reading them.
Well, *that* was batshit crazy. I actually quite liked Karen and Paul, though. They just need to get far, far away from their toxic families. And maybe stop smoking like chimneys 😬 3.5 stars