Something Personal

Love at Hospital #2

by Hilda Nickson

Armed with the belief that an operating room should be a place of harmony and teamwork, Madeline Keys worked hard to this end. But with the inexplicable enmity of the surgery nurse and her own hopeless love for her fellow surgeon, Francis Meyland, this ideal state was not likely to be achieved.

Genres: Harlequin Romance

191 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1962

About the author

Hilda Pressley was born on 18 November 1912 in Maltby, England, UK. She married with the Western novelist Maltby, England Arthur Nickson (a.k.a. Arthur Hodson, Roy Peters, John Saunders, and Matt Winstan).

She used to sign her novels her married name, Hilda Nickson, her birth name, Hilda Pressley, and the pseudonym Hilary Preston. She published her first novels at Herbert Jenkins at 1950s, before start to work to Mills & Boon, most of her novels were reedited by Harlequin, in some cases by diferents titles. She focused her first novels on the popular Doctor-Nurse romances, and are frecuently found love triangles in her plots, and she also set her novels in exotic places like Italy or Spain.

Hilda Pressley Nickson served as Vice-President for the Romantic Novelists' Association. She passed away in 1977.

Reviews

[Bryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first Nickson (aka Hilda Pressley) and SO delightfully moreish! She seems to be another author like Anne Vinton where they are almost all lovely reads; I kept losing track of time while I read this one, it was so hard to put down.

Our heroine, Madeline, is an intelligent and capable woman surgeon who believes in the power of love without being naive or fluttery or twee about it -- she just really does think that kindness is the best course, even with people who are being nasty to you. She is going out with another doctor (Peter) in what is clearly a friends-with-benefits situation (in 1962!) -- they enjoy each other's company and she enjoys the 'kindness and affection' of kissing and cuddling with him, but they aren't in love with each other, although Madeline thinks that they could be if they weren't keeping a tight rein on their emotions. Meanwhile there's an older doctor (Martin) who was friends with her father, and sometimes they go on day trips together and she spends the night at his home because there's lots of luxury there and she works hard and it's great to have a comfortable bed and beautiful garden and lots of delicious food... and eventually he becomes a potential love interest and proposes and she considers whether or not to marry him even though she isn't in love with him because she’d have affection and kindness and pleasure in all kinds of ways which she thinks is enough to make a solid marriage — and why not? Amazingly, neither Martin nor Peter are really jealous of each other, although I think Martin does feel insecure sometimes due to the difference in age.

But of course meanwhile there is Francis, who doesn't particularly like Madeline, and she doesn't like him, either but then one night they're kissing and it is sparks and passion and fire, and I was absolutely convinced I knew what was going to happen at this point -- Madeline would realise that THIS was true love, and it would ruin her good times with both Peter and Martin and she would need to break it off with both of them and work out her differences with Francis and they could have their HEA. But -- NO! Madeline loved kissing Francis in the moment, but once her head clears she is embarassed -- he dislikes her, so he must have been kissing her on impulse due to stress, and by responding so passionately she was taking advantage of him in a moment of weakness, which she's ashamed of. But what if he doesn't dislike her and is secretly in love with her? If that's the case, why is he always so clearly disapproving? Meanwhile, there's a jealous nurse whom Madeline keeps trying to win over by kindness, because surely women don't have to treat each other awfully and compete for the attention of men -- or do they? Peter thinks they do, and Madeline is convinced he's wrong, but once the possibility of Francis & Madeline becoming a couple surfaces, Madeline starts to find it harder and harder to deal with the nurse. All of this leads to a very satisfying double arc in which Madeline needs to both figure out whether or not 'I dislike you but kissing you is sexy' is a good enough basis for lifetime partnership, and to live up to her ideals while doing so. She turns to Martin for advice and he (unlike the other men in the book) encourages her to hold to her ideals, be kind to the nurse, and take the time she needs to figure out what she really wants -- which she does, and ends up deciding to marry Martin, whom by this time she has fallen in love with due to his kindness and unwavering support & belief in her; passion will come in time, she believes, and what they already have is priceless.

I don't usually mark spoilers for Harlequins but then again, I can usually tell the HEA from the first chapter, and this one surprised me over and over! Not just the plot, but that there is absolutely none of the shame or guilt I would've expected from a 1962 book about a woman who kisses men without being in love with them -- in fact, the only shame Madeline feels is when she thinks she has accidentally taken advantage of someone being stressed out, or when she's unkind to someone she has power over. It's bizarre and wonderful to find such an old book that treats a woman's sexuality as a matter of course, and assumes that she is entirely competent to make her own decisions about her body and her life. I really love most vintage Harlequins for exactly what they are, but they are NOT usually feminist, and this one actually really is -- and best of all, I've read another Nickson since, and while it wasn't as surprising, it was also really, really good.

[Last Chance Saloon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one is ok. The heroine is very likeable - I always like it when the main female character is kind to other women. She's smart, capable, confident and kind. There's no real hero in this, just 3 men she sort of sees - two of them destined for nurses and one she ends up with. It's a nice ending, but she's such a nice person, I wish she'd found someone who was passionately in love with her, rather than a tepid second time love.

5 star heroine
1 star romance