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Castle Saga #1
Portrait of Bethany
Had she the courage to reclaim true love?
Love seemingly played no part in the engagement between Lord Robert Rathbone and Bethany Castle. Yet Robert's arguments had been so reasonable she couldn't refuse.
"Will you stay single forever because you can't have the man you really love? " he had asked. He and Bethany could have a good marriage, and there would be children....
Then just before their wedding, a twenty-year-old secret broke the barrier that had kept Bethany and David Castle from fulfilling their love! But what of her promise to Robert?
Love seemingly played no part in the engagement between Lord Robert Rathbone and Bethany Castle. Yet Robert's arguments had been so reasonable she couldn't refuse.
"Will you stay single forever because you can't have the man you really love? " he had asked. He and Bethany could have a good marriage, and there would be children....
Then just before their wedding, a twenty-year-old secret broke the barrier that had kept Bethany and David Castle from fulfilling their love! But what of her promise to Robert?
188 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1982
1 person is currently reading
63 people want to read
About the author
Anne Weale
218 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 - 16 of 16 reviews
March 6, 2020
This one confused me. We don't have a hero and an OM. We have two heroes, and really, I am not sure if the heroine ended up with the right man. I felt pretty bad for the man left standing. It also confirmed my opinion that the heroine of the sequel to this book, Girl in a Golden Bed, was and would continue to be a hopeless second best to the idealised heroine of this book.
Hero number one nobly steps aside not once but twice when given the opportunity to reciprocate heroine's love for him. The principal reason is that he believed their liaison would be incestuous. Both he and the heroine believed that they were uncle and niece. (Turns out later, in a true Harlequin twist, they're not.)
The heroine was so starved for love and affection, being motherless and subsequently neglected and downright mistreated by her father and stepmother that she latched on to her “uncle,” worshipping him and willing to break the taboo of their blood relationship.
“Uncle” is likewise besotted with her but he does the right thing. It would be unthinkable for him to take advantage of her vulnerability, not only because their relationship would be incestuous, as he believed at the beginning, but because he recognizes the fact that she is emotionally damaged and way too young for him. He sacrifices himself for her greater good and out of love for her. He wanted the best for her, so he let her go.
When that obstacle of incest magically gets removed in a Shocking Plot Twist (i.e. she is not the biological daughter of the man she always believed to be her father, therefore her “uncle” is truly unrelated to her by blood), he sadly still doesn't get the girl because she has by now moved on to the next hero of the piece. Once again,hero 1 selflessly lets her go, even telling her a gentle lie that he never loved her, that he was simply infatuated because she reminded him of her mother, all so that she can marry her fiance, hero 2, without feeling any residual guilt for hero 1.
I don't think heroine ever got the chance to mature and heal emotionally. She just kind of fell into the relationship with hero 2, a dashing man closer to her age, who pursued her flatteringly. Heroine accepted his proposal because of the "rightness" of their match, which came complete with the warm, welcoming, nurturing family of Hero 2. Really, given her parentless background, the heroine just wanted to have a family and she got one.
Hero 2 didn't seem to me to want the heroine for anything other than superficial reasons. He did not even say the words "I love you" at the end and kept up the pretense of an engagement of convenience to the bitter end. We, the readers, along with heroine, are supposed to gage his desperate love from his actions but I for one didn't feel the love, more like an obsession or challenge to get the one girl who said no to him, the Golden Boy that all girls panted after, plus the family approved of her as wife and mother to the future heir and the spare.
The author goes to great length to hammer the point that Hero 2 and heroine are like another Charles and Diana. AW is a huge fan of DianaMania that swept the eighties. In most of her books, she constantly compares her heroines favorably to a young Diana Spencer but unfortunately, we all know how that sad story turned out so I don't really have hopes for a long-lasting HE A for heroine and hero 2.
As for hero 1, we find out in the sequel to this book, Girl in a Golden Bed, that he never got over the heroine in this book and that he settled for a pale imitation of her :(
Hero number one nobly steps aside not once but twice when given the opportunity to reciprocate heroine's love for him. The principal reason is that he believed their liaison would be incestuous. Both he and the heroine believed that they were uncle and niece. (Turns out later, in a true Harlequin twist, they're not.)
The heroine was so starved for love and affection, being motherless and subsequently neglected and downright mistreated by her father and stepmother that she latched on to her “uncle,” worshipping him and willing to break the taboo of their blood relationship.
“Uncle” is likewise besotted with her but he does the right thing. It would be unthinkable for him to take advantage of her vulnerability, not only because their relationship would be incestuous, as he believed at the beginning, but because he recognizes the fact that she is emotionally damaged and way too young for him. He sacrifices himself for her greater good and out of love for her. He wanted the best for her, so he let her go.
When that obstacle of incest magically gets removed in a Shocking Plot Twist (i.e. she is not the biological daughter of the man she always believed to be her father, therefore her “uncle” is truly unrelated to her by blood), he sadly still doesn't get the girl because she has by now moved on to the next hero of the piece. Once again,hero 1 selflessly lets her go, even telling her a gentle lie that he never loved her, that he was simply infatuated because she reminded him of her mother, all so that she can marry her fiance, hero 2, without feeling any residual guilt for hero 1.
I don't think heroine ever got the chance to mature and heal emotionally. She just kind of fell into the relationship with hero 2, a dashing man closer to her age, who pursued her flatteringly. Heroine accepted his proposal because of the "rightness" of their match, which came complete with the warm, welcoming, nurturing family of Hero 2. Really, given her parentless background, the heroine just wanted to have a family and she got one.
Hero 2 didn't seem to me to want the heroine for anything other than superficial reasons. He did not even say the words "I love you" at the end and kept up the pretense of an engagement of convenience to the bitter end. We, the readers, along with heroine, are supposed to gage his desperate love from his actions but I for one didn't feel the love, more like an obsession or challenge to get the one girl who said no to him, the Golden Boy that all girls panted after, plus the family approved of her as wife and mother to the future heir and the spare.
The author goes to great length to hammer the point that Hero 2 and heroine are like another Charles and Diana. AW is a huge fan of DianaMania that swept the eighties. In most of her books, she constantly compares her heroines favorably to a young Diana Spencer but unfortunately, we all know how that sad story turned out so I don't really have hopes for a long-lasting HE A for heroine and hero 2.
As for hero 1, we find out in the sequel to this book, Girl in a Golden Bed, that he never got over the heroine in this book and that he settled for a pale imitation of her :(
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 23, 2021
Oh, Bethany – with your daddy issues. It was a near thing who you were going to pick in the end. Your artist uncle – 20 years your senior? (Not really – she finds out her father isn’t her bio dad on her 20th birthday)
Or Prince Charles the hero who is the second son of duke, plays polo, and is quite the catch at 29. (Only nine years older!)
I was not impressed with uncle dearest who had a string of lovers and lived the bohemian lifestyle (except when his food was not prepared properly). He was selfish to the bone – sorry – he was. He liked the heroine’s worship and having a sex kitten/housekeeper mistress in his bed. Not a hero in my mind.
The second son would have been acceptable but the author kept comparing him to Prince Charles and the heroine to Diana – and we know how that turned out.
It also didn’t help that heroine waxed lyrical about all kinds of things – even her uncle’s mistress got lots of glowing page time. - (heroine also has mommy issues) so it was hard to tell what she really thought and felt.
*sigh*
Girlfriend needed to work for year as a translator and have a few flings. She was not in the right mind to make a choice. See the third season of The Crown if you don’t believe me.
Or
I was not impressed with uncle dearest who had a string of lovers and lived the bohemian lifestyle (except when his food was not prepared properly). He was selfish to the bone – sorry – he was. He liked the heroine’s worship and having a sex kitten/housekeeper mistress in his bed. Not a hero in my mind.
The second son would have been acceptable but the author kept comparing him to Prince Charles and the heroine to Diana – and we know how that turned out.
It also didn’t help that heroine waxed lyrical about all kinds of things – even her uncle’s mistress got lots of glowing page time. - (heroine also has mommy issues) so it was hard to tell what she really thought and felt.
*sigh*
Girlfriend needed to work for year as a translator and have a few flings. She was not in the right mind to make a choice. See the third season of The Crown if you don’t believe me.
February 5, 2011
Had my doubts about how I would rate this one when half way through the book she had not even met Robert. Ended up really loving the story and am moving on to read David's story next.
April 13, 2012
The outcome of this book has scarred me for life. It is the reason I read the ending of every book before I start it.
June 20, 2012
Bethany, the h, was living the life of a modern day cinderella when one day her paternal uncle comes in, sees what she's been suffering thru and decides to take her to live with him. Well wouldn't you know it, Bethany falls for her uncle hard. Of course her uncle couldn't have that so he sent Bethany back to London with instructions to not call him often.
So while nursing heartbreak in London, the h meets the H while working in a flower shop. It was not love at first sight for the h, but the H was utterly smitten. The H is the most desired eligible bachelor in London but the h doesn't really care either way because her heart belongs to her uncle. Well the hero doesn't give up,he stays at it. Finally the heroine gives in and decides that the H would make a good husband as she can't be with the man she really loves. The H has a notice published in the local paper anouncing the H and h upcoming nuptials.
Well guess what, the h gets a letter from her deceased mom's attorney letting her now that her dad really wasn't her dad.
WHO DA DADDY Maury?????
So you know what that means, the h's uncle really isn't her uncle and she can now have him how she wants him.
The h makes a trip to see her uncle to discuss this new revelation. What do you know, the H and uncle come to see the h together. The h explains her mom's letter she and uncle talk and the h decides that she shall mary the H after all.
I don't want to give away the last two pages because this book has a different ending from any of HP book I've ever read. There was no clear cut hero. Either man could have made a happy ending with Bethany.
What you may or may not like about this book:
1. not enough development between hero and herione.
2. herione possed nude in front of man who she thought was her uncle.
3. A very very very different HP ending.
So while nursing heartbreak in London, the h meets the H while working in a flower shop. It was not love at first sight for the h, but the H was utterly smitten. The H is the most desired eligible bachelor in London but the h doesn't really care either way because her heart belongs to her uncle. Well the hero doesn't give up,he stays at it. Finally the heroine gives in and decides that the H would make a good husband as she can't be with the man she really loves. The H has a notice published in the local paper anouncing the H and h upcoming nuptials.
Well guess what, the h gets a letter from her deceased mom's attorney letting her now that her dad really wasn't her dad.
WHO DA DADDY Maury?????
So you know what that means, the h's uncle really isn't her uncle and she can now have him how she wants him.
The h makes a trip to see her uncle to discuss this new revelation. What do you know, the H and uncle come to see the h together. The h explains her mom's letter she and uncle talk and the h decides that she shall mary the H after all.
I don't want to give away the last two pages because this book has a different ending from any of HP book I've ever read. There was no clear cut hero. Either man could have made a happy ending with Bethany.
What you may or may not like about this book:
1. not enough development between hero and herione.
2. herione possed nude in front of man who she thought was her uncle.
3. A very very very different HP ending.
May 13, 2021
This book reminded so much of a Spanish Telenovela my Mom watched when I was young. It was called Gabriel y Gabriela. I wonder if that telenovela was based on this book by Anne Weale? I liked this book better because in the telenovela, it is not revealed who she marries. It ends with Gabriela walking down the aisle, but the groom is not revealed. I remember everyone being so mad at the ending. :).
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0224878/...
This alternate cover looks just like the promo for the telenovela:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
Had she the courage to reclaim true love?
Love seemingly played no part in the engagement between Lord Robert Rathbone and Bethany Castle. Yet Robert's arguments had been so reasonable she couldn't refuse.
"Will you stay single forever because you can't have the man you really love? " he had asked. He and Bethany could have a good marriage, and there would be children....
Then just before their wedding, a twenty-year-old secret broke the barrier that had kept Bethany and David Castle from fulfilling their love! But what of her promise to Robert? (less)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0224878/...
This alternate cover looks just like the promo for the telenovela:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
Had she the courage to reclaim true love?
Love seemingly played no part in the engagement between Lord Robert Rathbone and Bethany Castle. Yet Robert's arguments had been so reasonable she couldn't refuse.
"Will you stay single forever because you can't have the man you really love? " he had asked. He and Bethany could have a good marriage, and there would be children....
Then just before their wedding, a twenty-year-old secret broke the barrier that had kept Bethany and David Castle from fulfilling their love! But what of her promise to Robert? (less)
January 21, 2013
Wow, this was an intense read and in many respects tragic and bittersweet, If David hadn't of sent her away and told her the truth, he might of been the one who was with her at the end of the novel. Robert was a different kind of hero but similar to others with his dominance and arrogance, however there was something special about him and underneath it all, he loves the heroine to distraction.
August 4, 2021
This is a 4 star book but l give it 3 because the heroine ended up with the wrong hero.
April 27, 2022
Portrait of Bethany, Book 1 of The Castle Saga series, was about Bethany Castle, the oldest daughter of the late Sir John Castle, baronet, and Lord Robert Rathbone, younger son of the Duke and Duchess of Dorset.
Though love did not seem to be a part of the marriage plan between Robert and Bethany, they were at least friends who got along quite well and decided they would make a suitable married couple. However, Robert knew that Bethany had fallen in love with someone in Italy before they met and might never get over it if she didn't face the man to see whether or not she still loved him. But unknown to Robert was that the "love of her life" was not only unsuitable...but there was a particular reason for them to not be together. At least, that's what she believed until she received a letter from her deceased mother on her 20th birthday...a letter that removed the boundary that would have kept her and David Castle apart forever.
After her father died shortly after her 16th birthday Bethany, a girl much mistreated by her stepmother and stepsisters, met her father's younger brother, David Castle, for the first time. Having caused some scandalous issues in the family in his younger days, David had left England, never expecting to return. However, upon the death of his brother, he chose to visit the family in order to assure his sister-in-law that he had no plans to claim the title of his late brother but would, instead, save it for his future heir...should he ever have one...thus allowing his brother's widow to remain in her home until such an occurrence should happen. However, upon noticing that Bethany was not well received with her stepfamily, David offered to take her to Italy with him...and she accepted. During her sixteenth and eighteenth years, Bethany traveled to many wonderful places with David and his live-in girlfriend/mistress/housekeeper. She had even walked past their bedroom on one occasion and overheard their much amorous, late-night encounters that caused her to look at her uncle in a different light. Unfortunately, because of that particular incident, Bethany had started to develop an ill-fated tendre toward her much older uncle (he was 20 years her senior)...and due to something another woman had said regarding Bethany and David's unusual relationship, Bethany began to believe he returned her feelings. When he realized it, David sent her back to England because for anything to happen between them would have been considered incestuous...but would it have been? Two years later, still believing herself to be in love with her uncle, Bethany accepted Robert's proposal of marriage, all the while acknowledging that neither one of them was in love with the other.
However, the day after Robert proposed...which happened to be her birthday...Bethany was called to the office of her late mother's attorney. The man revealed to her that, when Bethany was just a small child and her mother lay dying, the woman wrote her daughter a letter that was to be given to Bethany on the day she would turn twenty years old...a letter that would leave her reeling in shock...and harboring a small dash of hope that at last, she and David could now be together. For the letter removed the only barrier that would have kept them apart...
Armed with the shocking news, Bethany felt she could no longer marry Robert, for the secrets that were suddenly revealed by her mother's letter would not only affect her future but his as well. Determined to do the honorable thing and release him from the promise he had made just the night before, Bethany went straight to his mother's home and informed her of the change in Bethany's circumstances. However, though surprised by the revelation, the duchess did not respond in as shocked a manner that Bethany had expected her to...nor did Robert when he learned of the contents of the letter.
Nonetheless, since Robert...who was quite in love with her, though she did not know it...was aware that she had fallen in love with someone while she was in Italy, insisted that she should visit her uncle in person, invite him to their wedding and, while there, set about resolving, one way or another, the issue of her past love...though at that time, Robert was not aware that her uncle and the man she loved were one and the same.
This was a bit of a strange and, to be honest, an uncomfortable storyline for a romance novel...that a niece and an uncle should fall in love with each other. While I was glad to see the uncle come somewhat to his senses, the way the story ended was a bit of a relief.
I can't say this was a good book. Instead of focusing on the relationship between Robert and Bethany, it did a flashback and focused almost entirely on the relationship between David and Bethany. It made me wonder why the author chose to end it the way she did. There really wasn't any chemistry or passion between any of the characters...except perhaps on Robert's part. The book made no sense when considering that the author actually had two Heroes for the Heroine to choose from. It was almost as if she could not decide what to do with this book...and perhaps made the wrong choice after all.
The main question here is...did Bethany end up with the right man? Who was the real Hero of the story? Seriously though, with 90% of the book being about Bethany and David...NOT Bethany and Robert, why did the author make the choices she did? Plus...the title was ALL wrong for the story. It would have been better titled "Portrait of David"...with David as the Hero of this story...and perhaps Rober the Hero of the sequel?
This book definitely did not earn a two-star rating, let alone a five-star rating. It was just that uncomfortable of a read. It made me wonder if the sequel, "Girl in a Golden Bed", would be any better...or even worth the time it would take to read it.
Though love did not seem to be a part of the marriage plan between Robert and Bethany, they were at least friends who got along quite well and decided they would make a suitable married couple. However, Robert knew that Bethany had fallen in love with someone in Italy before they met and might never get over it if she didn't face the man to see whether or not she still loved him. But unknown to Robert was that the "love of her life" was not only unsuitable...but there was a particular reason for them to not be together. At least, that's what she believed until she received a letter from her deceased mother on her 20th birthday...a letter that removed the boundary that would have kept her and David Castle apart forever.
After her father died shortly after her 16th birthday Bethany, a girl much mistreated by her stepmother and stepsisters, met her father's younger brother, David Castle, for the first time. Having caused some scandalous issues in the family in his younger days, David had left England, never expecting to return. However, upon the death of his brother, he chose to visit the family in order to assure his sister-in-law that he had no plans to claim the title of his late brother but would, instead, save it for his future heir...should he ever have one...thus allowing his brother's widow to remain in her home until such an occurrence should happen. However, upon noticing that Bethany was not well received with her stepfamily, David offered to take her to Italy with him...and she accepted. During her sixteenth and eighteenth years, Bethany traveled to many wonderful places with David and his live-in girlfriend/mistress/housekeeper. She had even walked past their bedroom on one occasion and overheard their much amorous, late-night encounters that caused her to look at her uncle in a different light. Unfortunately, because of that particular incident, Bethany had started to develop an ill-fated tendre toward her much older uncle (he was 20 years her senior)...and due to something another woman had said regarding Bethany and David's unusual relationship, Bethany began to believe he returned her feelings. When he realized it, David sent her back to England because for anything to happen between them would have been considered incestuous...but would it have been? Two years later, still believing herself to be in love with her uncle, Bethany accepted Robert's proposal of marriage, all the while acknowledging that neither one of them was in love with the other.
However, the day after Robert proposed...which happened to be her birthday...Bethany was called to the office of her late mother's attorney. The man revealed to her that, when Bethany was just a small child and her mother lay dying, the woman wrote her daughter a letter that was to be given to Bethany on the day she would turn twenty years old...a letter that would leave her reeling in shock...and harboring a small dash of hope that at last, she and David could now be together. For the letter removed the only barrier that would have kept them apart...
Armed with the shocking news, Bethany felt she could no longer marry Robert, for the secrets that were suddenly revealed by her mother's letter would not only affect her future but his as well. Determined to do the honorable thing and release him from the promise he had made just the night before, Bethany went straight to his mother's home and informed her of the change in Bethany's circumstances. However, though surprised by the revelation, the duchess did not respond in as shocked a manner that Bethany had expected her to...nor did Robert when he learned of the contents of the letter.
Nonetheless, since Robert...who was quite in love with her, though she did not know it...was aware that she had fallen in love with someone while she was in Italy, insisted that she should visit her uncle in person, invite him to their wedding and, while there, set about resolving, one way or another, the issue of her past love...though at that time, Robert was not aware that her uncle and the man she loved were one and the same.
This was a bit of a strange and, to be honest, an uncomfortable storyline for a romance novel...that a niece and an uncle should fall in love with each other. While I was glad to see the uncle come somewhat to his senses, the way the story ended was a bit of a relief.
I can't say this was a good book. Instead of focusing on the relationship between Robert and Bethany, it did a flashback and focused almost entirely on the relationship between David and Bethany. It made me wonder why the author chose to end it the way she did. There really wasn't any chemistry or passion between any of the characters...except perhaps on Robert's part. The book made no sense when considering that the author actually had two Heroes for the Heroine to choose from. It was almost as if she could not decide what to do with this book...and perhaps made the wrong choice after all.
The main question here is...did Bethany end up with the right man? Who was the real Hero of the story? Seriously though, with 90% of the book being about Bethany and David...NOT Bethany and Robert, why did the author make the choices she did? Plus...the title was ALL wrong for the story. It would have been better titled "Portrait of David"...with David as the Hero of this story...and perhaps Rober the Hero of the sequel?
This book definitely did not earn a two-star rating, let alone a five-star rating. It was just that uncomfortable of a read. It made me wonder if the sequel, "Girl in a Golden Bed", would be any better...or even worth the time it would take to read it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 8, 2023
I had too many issues with this one. First off, Ms. Weale was a bit fixated on Charles and Diana (maybe not surprising, considering when the book was written), making one of the h's (yes, there were two), Robert a member of the peerage, and having Bethany's background similar to Diana's. She even threw in a reference to Charles's famous "whatever 'in love' means" quote, that gave the public a jolt back then. There's also Bethany's remembering the first time Robert made a move on her, t echoed what Diana said about a similar moment with Charles. Enough is too much!
Second, while Bethany is telling herself her feelings for Robert don't go beyond friendship and physical attraction, at the same time she's struck by his similarity to Lorenzo de' Medici, a man from that famous Renaissance Italian family that she once crushed on after seeing his portrait and pondered a past life connection. When Robert quotes verbatim from a poem of his, we're supposed to get the impression that he just may be Lorenzo's reincarnation, and therefore he and Bethany are meant to be. This hint is never followed up on, so it seems silly to include it at all. Past life themes have a place in romance novels, but HP books are a bit too short for that.
Third, and most prominent, is the ICK factor of having an incest theme to this story, concerning the other h, David, who Bethany believes is her long-lost (and very attractive) uncle! He whisks her away from her "evil" stepmom and annoying stepsisters, to his artist hideaway in Portofino, where they live, along with his current mistress, Francine. How Bohemian! And how creepy! Bethany is barely 17 and the thirty-something couple are none too quiet about having sex, not to mention Francine discussing thins with Bethany that would have been okay if she were a few years older, but talking to a teenage girl about wearing sexy lingerie to get a man excited, nuns getting horny, and how it's okay to cheat on your husband if he doesn't give you orgasms is a bit much!
Also, it's one thing for a naive girl to have feelings for the older, handsome, sophisticated, free-spirited man whom she only recently met, despite his supposedly being her uncle, but for that same uncle to have those feelings for a girl still in her teens is just one big CREEP! He should have nipped things in the bud faster than he did, and certainly before he asked her to pose nude, which she gladly agreed to! (True, they were tastefully done outdoor sketches, but how many uncles would ask their nieces to disrobe and how many nieces would oblige? Both were a bit turned on, and Bethany at the time was wishing she were stripping as a prelude to making love! YUCK!!!!)
Finally, after a rather crude remark by another potential mistress, David comes to his senses and sends Bethany away, back to London, where Robert enters the picture. After a lot of indecision about the relationship, she agrees to marry him, and then a family secret comes to light!
I won't say anymore, but I'm sure you can guess what the secret is. I'll just add that, the ending that Ms. Weale threw on as a supposedly poignant, unexpected moment, was totally expected by me, and I didn't find it poignant at all, only dumb.
Second, while Bethany is telling herself her feelings for Robert don't go beyond friendship and physical attraction, at the same time she's struck by his similarity to Lorenzo de' Medici, a man from that famous Renaissance Italian family that she once crushed on after seeing his portrait and pondered a past life connection. When Robert quotes verbatim from a poem of his, we're supposed to get the impression that he just may be Lorenzo's reincarnation, and therefore he and Bethany are meant to be. This hint is never followed up on, so it seems silly to include it at all. Past life themes have a place in romance novels, but HP books are a bit too short for that.
Third, and most prominent, is the ICK factor of having an incest theme to this story, concerning the other h, David, who Bethany believes is her long-lost (and very attractive) uncle! He whisks her away from her "evil" stepmom and annoying stepsisters, to his artist hideaway in Portofino, where they live, along with his current mistress, Francine. How Bohemian! And how creepy! Bethany is barely 17 and the thirty-something couple are none too quiet about having sex, not to mention Francine discussing thins with Bethany that would have been okay if she were a few years older, but talking to a teenage girl about wearing sexy lingerie to get a man excited, nuns getting horny, and how it's okay to cheat on your husband if he doesn't give you orgasms is a bit much!
Also, it's one thing for a naive girl to have feelings for the older, handsome, sophisticated, free-spirited man whom she only recently met, despite his supposedly being her uncle, but for that same uncle to have those feelings for a girl still in her teens is just one big CREEP! He should have nipped things in the bud faster than he did, and certainly before he asked her to pose nude, which she gladly agreed to! (True, they were tastefully done outdoor sketches, but how many uncles would ask their nieces to disrobe and how many nieces would oblige? Both were a bit turned on, and Bethany at the time was wishing she were stripping as a prelude to making love! YUCK!!!!)
Finally, after a rather crude remark by another potential mistress, David comes to his senses and sends Bethany away, back to London, where Robert enters the picture. After a lot of indecision about the relationship, she agrees to marry him, and then a family secret comes to light!
I won't say anymore, but I'm sure you can guess what the secret is. I'll just add that, the ending that Ms. Weale threw on as a supposedly poignant, unexpected moment, was totally expected by me, and I didn't find it poignant at all, only dumb.
December 16, 2019
A naive little teenager falls in love with the first man that happens to come into her life. The problem is, that man happens to be her uncle !!!!! Her father's younger brother, no less...
Since Anne Weale is essentially a sweet romance writer and not the scandalous type, she keeps the girl away from the uncle throughout the book. No messing around or heavy petting. Just one solemn kiss.
Then of course in true M&B tradition, a swash buckling aristocrat enters her life. Sexy guy, royal blood, family approves of her too. What more can she want? She decides the uncle business is not feasible anyway and get engages to our royal hero.
No hideous twists to follow. Its Anne Weale, not Anne Mather !!!
Just one simple clarification. Uncle dear is not an uncle at all. That's because the girl's mummy had a little fling and so the heroine is illegitimate after all. So no uncle, no confusion.
That's not to say Uncle dear comes charging , reclaiming the girl. He makes a grand gesture, and lets her be. With the royal hero. Nice of him actually.
So the uncle is as much hero material as the royal fellow. What can I say, lucky girl !!
Since Anne Weale is essentially a sweet romance writer and not the scandalous type, she keeps the girl away from the uncle throughout the book. No messing around or heavy petting. Just one solemn kiss.
Then of course in true M&B tradition, a swash buckling aristocrat enters her life. Sexy guy, royal blood, family approves of her too. What more can she want? She decides the uncle business is not feasible anyway and get engages to our royal hero.
No hideous twists to follow. Its Anne Weale, not Anne Mather !!!
Just one simple clarification. Uncle dear is not an uncle at all. That's because the girl's mummy had a little fling and so the heroine is illegitimate after all. So no uncle, no confusion.
That's not to say Uncle dear comes charging , reclaiming the girl. He makes a grand gesture, and lets her be. With the royal hero. Nice of him actually.
So the uncle is as much hero material as the royal fellow. What can I say, lucky girl !!
January 1, 2018
This was part of a duet and reads better if you read both together. Something you could never get away with these days is the hero not appearing until halfway through the book. This is very much Bethany’s story as she grows from an early love of one man to finding a new love only to find out the barrier to her first love is gone.
July 9, 2024
"Portrait of Bethany" is the story of Bethany, Robert and David.
A VERY weird love triangle between the heroine, her not so uncle uncle, and her fiance. She is mooning after one and then the other in most of the book, keeps you at your toes until the very end where the ending is bittersweet.
EH
SWE
1.5/5
A VERY weird love triangle between the heroine, her not so uncle uncle, and her fiance. She is mooning after one and then the other in most of the book, keeps you at your toes until the very end where the ending is bittersweet.
EH
SWE
1.5/5
August 24, 2020
This one had me sobbing at the end... a harlequin which actually has a star crossed love element. My heart is hurting right now
October 11, 2021
Sad ending…loved reading it when I was young and still picks it up from time to time
July 18, 2022
This was the first Mills&Boons I read. Loved it to the end, felt sad and being a teenager at the time, learnt a thing or two and was a little confused as well. Lord Robert Rathborne was my first M&B hero character
crush. Though in the end, felt sorry for David. Loved the book and still have a copy of it.
crush. Though in the end, felt sorry for David. Loved the book and still have a copy of it.
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