"I'll be perfectly frank with you, Kim." Ursula said with calm deliberation. "Why don't you give up? Go back where you came from and leave Adam alone. Can't you see he desperately wants his freedom?"
Kim stared at Ursula in stunned silence, then felt anger rising. Ursula wanted her to go, for that would leave the field clear for her.
Well, Kim decided, if Adam wants his freedom, he can say so. She wasn't going to run off like a scared rabbit!
Yvonne Whittal was born and raised in South Africa, the setting of most of her romances. She started writing stories at a young age, but didn't really get serious about writing until after she married and had children. She got many rejection letters from publishers, until a friend who loved romances gave her to encouragement to continue.
Ppractical and nice h fights off witchy OW for her blinded H husband and does it with dignity, style and class.
The only thing missing from this book is a great cat like Marmalade with OW buttkicking skillz, tho the h doesn't really need them. Really like this one and a favorite reread.
This is a book I recommend. In the beginning it was very similar to another book of the same author, The House of Mirrors, but after it was different and better as regards the hero. We have a hero who is wounded after an accident in his lab (he's a scientist) and is blind, and he decides to leave Cape Town and to go to his cottage near the sea, where he meets the heroine, a young and feisty thing, who lives nearby. The heroine doesn't treat him as an invalid and after some time he asks her to marry him, only as a convenience, so she can take care of him until he or she decides otherwise. The heroine accepts, because she cares for him. She will be able to persuade him to go back to his job, and there he will work with his PA, a beautiful and clever woman he had somewhat of an affair before the accident. This woman is a real bitch and wants him back of course, and the heroine is very annoyed because they are always together. Meanwhile, their marriage has become real, but the hero doesn't want to talk about love, and freezes her out when she tells him she loves him. Then suddenly the hero becomes colder and closed, and the heroine is afraid that he might be in love with ow. But don't worry, he's not. The end was really emotional. This heroine deserved five stars. She is young and innocent, but she is strong and stands for herself. She doesn't listen to ow's lies and doesn't leaves even when ow tells her the hero wants to have a divorce. She is really a darling, and I loved that the hero fell in love with her and reassured her each time she had doubts. There were reasons for him being cold and worried, that were not related with ow. OW was obviously nasty, always telling the heroine that if the hero wasn't blind he would have never looked at her twice, because he loved beautiful women (that is to say she's no beauty), and when he had surgery to have his sight back she was afraid that he didn't like her when he firts saw her. But the hero was wonderful. The things he told her when he first saw her made me cry. Oh, a lil old style, where the heroine is the perfect housewife, always cooking and cleaning and this is a good thing for the hero. No working lady here. What an emotional sweet love story. Unexpected.
Such a nice story with a great heroine. It's sort of a dialed-down House of Mirrors in that the heroine comes to the disabled hero's aid (in this case hero has been blinded at work*) and they end up in a marriage of convenience that quickly turns into a real marriage.
In this story, the H/h are remarkably suitable and have a lovely time together at their beach side cottage. They're together for six months and then the hero is needed at work and his former flame (OW) is lined up to be his assistant. So they move to the city where the heroine decides to fight for her man by ordering the double bed, getting her hair done, buying new perfume, and speaking up about the OW. Hero tries to reassure the heroine, but he's not very good at it. Especially when he's caught up in work and other worries.
OW thinks she's winning the war, but hero's real motivation behind all of his surliness is to work up the courage for an invasive surgery that might cause brain-damage. He wants to see his wife, damnit!
It's all very sweet as our poor heroine tries not to wallow in the angst and the hero keeps showing how he feels even though the OW is always underfoot.
Heroine wins in the end and the hero's words to her ring true - as he has been clearly connected to her from the beginning.
*Hello, lawsuit! Why is this lab still open? And who would want to work there? Even the OW should have some sense of self-preservation.
Heartwarming marriage of convenience story. Blind hero marries plain innocent heroine and love blossoms unexpectedly. Loved the passionate, classy and fierce heroine. Loved the brooding harsh hero. They share lots of touching moments and a very emotional final scene! Great writing.
She's a romantic, he's a realist. But who will win in this battle between love and science? Love, of course!
I thought this romance could have used more tension and passion, but still enjoyed the portrayal of a marriage of convenience turning into a love match. Kim endeared herself to me early on with her tough-love attitude, not putting up with Adam's woe-is-me sulks. I liked that she wasn't too perfect: beneath the sweetness and spunkiness lay a very vulnerable and insecure woman where Adam was concerned. I had a harder time connecting with Adam. He was broody and cynical, but I felt as if I missed out on seeing him fall in love.
Most of the drama arose from Kim's unrequited love. She did have some basis for her fears and insecurities. But I felt the wannabe other woman, Ursula (what a perfect OW name), posed no real threat other than in Kim's imagination. She tried intimidating Kim with innuendos and lots of cold stares but was more bark than bite. To be fair, Adam really didn't do much to diminish Kim's fears either. And the big one: he hadn't claimed to love her yet.
But this is romance so all's not lost. Adam may have been physically blind and cynical regarding love, but proved that he wasn't blind to a woman's inner beauty, falling for Kim sight unseen. How sweet is that? Speaking of which, their HEA is made even sweeter by this miracle.
Yvonne Whittal is definitely in a class of her own. She can really notch up the intensity level to the point where you are absolutely absorbed. She sometimes tends to make her heroes a little more rough than I care for, but this time I think she struck the right balance. This is one of my all time favorites.
I liked that the factors threatening this young couple were real rather than stupid misunderstandings caused by their inability to talk to each other. I also liked that both approached their relationship with commitment and when faced with the machinations of evil OW, the heroine was balanced in her response.
If you are a fan of Whittal, I highly recommend. If you have never read her work before, I suggest starting with this one.
I love this book. I always have. I read this when I was younger and it is still in my paper library at home. It's been years since I last read it but seeing a review for it I read it again. And it was far better than a three star book. No idea why I said that. I think I was just trying to mark off what I read prior to Goodreads. There are so many I eventually gave up. Harlequins were my friends since I was 12 or 13. I read them non-stop with my Mother. She loved them too. This was just so amazing now by today's standards it would be considered rather dull and there are fade to black sex scenes but I don't know if it's just nostalgia but I still loved it.
Blind hero meets heroine and she saves him from going over a cliff. She gives him some tough love and he hires her to help him. Then he asks her to marry him for convenience but they call into sex. Lol. She falls in love but he just wants sex. He does care for her though and I loved their relationship until he goes back to work with an ex-lover, or should I say an ex-nearly lover! Whatever that means! She asks him if she was his mistress and had they been intimate and he said she was nearly my mistress and I nearly made love to her. I would have loved to hear the details about that! Lol that cracked me up. Eventually he has surgery that will either destroy his brain or give him his eyesight back. He tells her he loves her before he goes alone to Switzerland for the surgery and she is afraid that he won't find her attractive. Ursula, the evil ex was gorgeous of course but when he gets back he sees the wife and he says...... I guess you'll have to read it to find out! It's worth it for old skool Harley lovers!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
So, basically, YW's blind hero gets the red carpet treatment, with a devoted heroine who is besotted from Day One, while her blind heroine gets the shit-for-brains, donkey-face, asshat who gets to torture her to the point that she becomes suicidal (See The Light Within). Good grief.
It was nice, almost like a modern HP. Heroine was quite impressive, she had backbone and stand against OW’s false claims. Hero was quite nice except for cynical thoughts about love, being workaholic and OW. No shake, no abuse, no forced seduction. I was bored a little. (Sigh) That’s why I’ve given 3 stars. Lol
"Where Seagulls Cry" is the story of Kim and Adam.
What a fantastic heroine this book has!
The book begins when the heroine is contemplating leaving Heron's Bay after her aunt passes away, and comes across a hero who is about to walk off a cliff. She quickly rescues and verbally chastises him, soon realizing that the hero is blind. They forge an unlikely bond, where the heroine does not let the hero give up or wallow in self pity, and the hero starts craving a honest woman in his life. As her departure date nears, the hero proposes a marriage of convenience, which a shocked heroine accepts. Their attraction is mutual, and soon the paper wedding turns into so much more. The hero then gets an opportunity to return to his previous job, something that the heroine encourages for and succeeds. But as she is confronted by his right hand, the OW and his ex, who still lays claim on most of his time, will she concede or fight for her marriage?
The heroine was hella strong, independent and honest. She fought for the hero, their love and did not let the hero or OW dominate her once. She was such a fierce and loyal lioness, it was a delight to read her, especially in a book written in 1977. The hero was a brooding, occasionally self pitying beta who was prone to his mood swings, yet did not hesitate to apologize. Their love story was fierce.
This was sort of boring. Nothing really happened. Hee hee!
In typical vintage HP style, there was a Cinderella make-over, and TONS of cooking/cleaning. The Cinderella make-over was especially funny since the hero is BLIND, so his best buddy described her make-over so he could "see" it. Honest to God, what is that even about?
**SPOILER ALERT**
And of course the blind guy gets his sight back. But even on the last page, he gives the heroine an extremely back-handed compliment by saying how the evil other woman has a "beauty that dazzles the eyes and stirs the senses" but the heroine is "warm, soft, and cuddlesome" which makes her sound like either a stuffed animal or a puppy.
A harlequin novel with a likeable and sincere hero, and a candid heroine. What I really liked about this story is that there was honesty in their relationship from the very beginning. There was a good communication between the H/h, and I was so happy that the author did not try to create prolonged misunderstandings just for the sake of it. The problems depicted here were also quite realistic rather than self-inflicted. It was a 4 stars book for me, but I feel that the simplicity of the writing, the characters and the plot is worth an extra star.
I expected a lot from this book but was left a bit disappointed. Yes it was a sweet little story filled with a supportive and compassionate heroine with a brooding and tortured hero. It did have a bit of angst but nothing worth mentioning. We got our happy ending with very little conflict from the villain.
Nice reversal of another YW I recently read, The Light Within, in that this time it's the H, Adam (a scientist) who is blind rather than the h, Kim. Kim is a plucky orphan of plain speaking, honest virtue and good sense. Adam in terms of looks, status etc would ordinarily be out of her league but falls for her warmth, honesty and goodness. She is very much a domestic goddess, unlike the OW, the beautiful and highly intelligent career woman Ursula. Ofc that makes her a one-dimensional grade A bitch in HPlandia. Adam never says I love you so the h loves for two and fights for her man. It was sweet and nice to see the triumph of the good. Yet again I bemoan the miracle cure. I'd have preferred a hea that didn't need it, although his being able to see her and declare her more beautiful than he had ever imagined was probably helpful for the story arc.
القصة جميلة و ممكن تكون مكررة لكن شخصية البطلة كانت قوية و صريحة و عارفة اللي تبغاه و مستعدة تخاطر لأجله ، نقطة صعفهاعدم ثقتها بنفسها من ناحية الشكل ، المرأة مهما كانت شخصيتها لابد تتأثر بنظرة الناس لشكلها و تعيشها بقلق لا داعي له .
The heroine is a strong one. The hero is not no so cruel, actually they fit perfectly. The OW was never the problem, Adam hold everything to his heart and had seldom forgives his father.
I'll be perfectly frank with you, Kim." Ursula said with calm deliberation. "Why don't you give up? Go back where you came from and leave Adam alone. Can't you see he desperately wants his freedom?"
Kim stared at Ursula in stunned silence, then felt anger rising. Ursula wanted her to go, for that would leave the field clear for her.
Well, Kim decided, if Adam wants his freedom, he can say so. She wasn't going to run off like a scared rabbit
Just blahhhhh boring. Guy is blind girl saves guy. Guy marries girl to keep him alive and she loves guy so it goes on and on. They have a weird relationship with distant secondary people who almost exist in a bubble and they exist in a vacuum. Just not very believable or likable. I was completely floored that this what YV work?! What a horrible story.
What a sensible book! Nothing too zany, both hero and heroine talk to each other, have issues, work through life problems. It was an okay little read. Recommended.
Qualche giorno fa ho letto un libro della giovane e promettente Delgado, e contestavo fra le varie cose il fatto di aver gestito male la cecità di lui. Questo invece è il pratico esempio di come si riesca a gestire correttamente una caratteristica così importante per un personaggio. Questo è un Harmony. Ormai leggo Harmony raramente, in generale sono dei libri che raccontano storie a volte anche molto belle però offrendone uno scorcio limitato, come quando hai a disposizione una vista mare, per metà coperta dagli alberi. In generale le storie vecchie sono le più belle, quelle scritte oggi e non le considero neppure perché hanno una qualità davvero infima. Questa è una storia molto valida: lui Adam è uno scienziato Diventato cieco dopo un incidente in laboratorio, Kim una ragazza che lo salva da una folle camminata verso un dirupo … proprio lì alla baia dei gabbiani , un paesino di pescatori nel Sudafrica. Pensa di partire Kim, perché non ha motivi per rimanere lì dopo la morte della zia. Il motivo però,ben presto sarà Adam … Adam parte da una posizione di svantaggio con lei ,eppure lei non lo compatisce mai e lui piano piano ne diventa dipendente emotivamente.
Lui obbedì di malavoglia dicendo: «Kim, mi mancherai». Poi, con un debole sorriso, aggiunse: «Chi mi rimprovererà quando tu non ci sarai più?». «Proprio di questo volevo parlarle» disse lei decisa. Gli si sedette vicino sul divano e continuò: «Che cosa intende fare quando me ne sarò andata?». «Non lo so. Ci penso continuamente, ma non riesco a trovare una soluzione.»
Bella la caratterizzazione di lei: infondo è parecchio più giovane di lui e cede immediatamente ai sentimenti romantici, lui è un po’ più pragmatico, le sue motivazioni vengono spiegate alla fine, lo spingono a un certo cinismo di autodifesa ,rimane un po’ più distante, ma in realtà si capisce che è molto preso da lei. Bello il modo in cui viene gestito L’inevitabile ( per un romance)ritorno alla normalità finale… quello che è mancato nel libro della Delgado :l’esplosione dell’emozione. Stilisticamente Che abbia 44 anni suonati si vede. I dialoghi, Le sinergie più pacate,il modo di approcciare di altri tempi… Tipico dei tempi le scene d’amore totalmente inesistenti, anzi è addirittura difficile capire quando effettivamente ci sia stata una notte d’amore; resta molto all’intuizione del lettore capire quanto un bacio e un abbraccio siano stati più intimi. Ma considerando globalmente è comunque una bella storia, molto dolce e emozionante che vi consiglio se avete bisogno di rilassarvi. ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
3.5 rounded down because I'm not sure I would read it again The MCs meet cute when Kim stops newly blind Adam from accidentally walking off a cliff. Kim starts to housekeep and cook meals for Adam on a short-term basis because she is selling her cottage and moving to the city after taking care of her sick and recently deceased aunt. When the time comes for her to leave, Adam proposes a MOC. Kim agrees and they have a happy MOC that turns into a real marriage before Adam's old life as a scientist rears back into their lives. They move to Cape Town so Adam can resume his work; enter OW drama, his ex-gf and co-worker, Ursula becomes the eyes for his lab work and is heavily involved in the MC's lives. It doesn't sound like it but overall this book is angst-free and the MCs are very sweet and nice to each other. They communicate in a frank and honest way that you usually don't see in HPs. The heroine was my favorite character. Openhearted, practical, kind, and an all around good person.
Things that bothered me: -the H straight up mocked the h when she told him she loved him for the first time (unnecessarily cruel and unlike the H) -the H could have set Kim's mind at ease about Ursula (who wants their partner to be with their ex 24/7; anyone would get jealous) -the H became a workaholic for months to a year -the H didn't tell the h about his eye surgery -the focus on physical beauty (or lack of) --This list makes it seem like I didn't like the H and that's not true either. These were just some of the minor irks that made me not enjoy the book as much.
I liked this one. I had some issues though. I wish it would have more angst. The heroine was strong in the beginning but as the story progressed went in direction of blubbering mess. And what does it mean that the H nearly slept with the OW in the past? I guess I would prefer that he did without comment like this that made it that more unbelievable. I kind of felt sorry for the OW. He had some kind of relationship with her and dumped her after the accident. The writing was good as usual.
Moving story of a older blind man and a young, innocent woman who had experience working with her blind father and thus was able to help him cope with his condition. Of course she falls in love with him and he remains noncommittal in his heart after they marry. Enter the OW who wants to recapture what she thinks they lost. Nice build up, nice angst and a wonderful HEA.
At times Adam made me sooo mad! Kim was late getting home and he's like glad your okay now go make me something to eat. Kim was so strong to keep her feelings to herself and not just walk away like so many of us would have done. This book was a oldie but a goodie!
For an Yvonne Whittal book, this was on the sweet gentle side with a H who is not psychotic jerk. The h is also more intelligent than most Harley heroines.
Reread year later and liked better. H is a decent guy, not one of YW’s bossy mean Hs. Our h makes the story with steadfast love and loyalty and faith in her husband.
Somewhat similar to House of Mirrors except here H is not tormented by an earlier love but by the fact he must have an operation that could leave him brain dead Adam married Kim when he was blind and needed help, told her he didn’t believe in love. She loves him and shows us readers what love is. She takes care of him but puts up with none of his fussing or anger and is honest at all times. She is no doormat but a lady of sterling character.
The obligatory OW does the usual OW antics which disturb Kim but she refuses to panic or cling or cry. Adam is decent, cynical at first and says a few hurtful things, the worst when he said everything is temporary and their marriage most of all. He never uses the OW to score points.
Lovely ending when Adam comes home after surgery restores his sight and sees Kim for the first time.
This takes place in South Africa during apartheid but there is little of that. Adam has Solomon from his dads farm to help him before he meets Kim. Solomon rides in the back of Adams’s dad’s pickup. No one thinks anything of it.