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Broken Rhapsody
ALL ORDERS SHIP SAME DAY! -LARGE PRINT GREAT HARDCOVER - MINOR WEAR TO COVER CORNERS - PAGES SLIGHTLY TANNED CL
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1982
39 people want to read
About the author
Margaret Way
618 books165 followersMargaret Way was born and educated in the river city of Brisbane, Australia. Before her marriage she was a well-known pianist, teacher, vocal coach and accompanist, but her hectic musical career came to a halt when her son was born and the demands of motherhood dictated a change of pace.
On a fortuitous impulse she decided to try her hand at romance writing and was thrilled when Mills & Boon accepted her first effort, Time of the Jacaranda, which they published less than a year later in 1970; a feat that brought tears to her father's eyes. Some seventy odd books have followed resulting in a loyal readership whose letters provide a source of support and encouragement. A driving force in all her writing has been the promotion of her much loved country, Australia. She delights in bringing it alive for her readers; its people, way of life, environment, flora and fauna. Her efforts so far have not excited official recognition, but she expects one day she will be awarded the "Order of Australia."
Her interests remain with the arts. She still plays the piano seriously, but her "top Cs" have gone. She is still addicted to collecting antiques and paintings and browsing through galleries. She now lives within sight and sound of beautiful Moreton Bay and its islands, inspiration for some of her books. Her house is full of books, spectacular plants, Chinese screens and pots. She is devoted to her garden and spends much time "directing the design and digging and providing cold drinks and chocolates."
On a fortuitous impulse she decided to try her hand at romance writing and was thrilled when Mills & Boon accepted her first effort, Time of the Jacaranda, which they published less than a year later in 1970; a feat that brought tears to her father's eyes. Some seventy odd books have followed resulting in a loyal readership whose letters provide a source of support and encouragement. A driving force in all her writing has been the promotion of her much loved country, Australia. She delights in bringing it alive for her readers; its people, way of life, environment, flora and fauna. Her efforts so far have not excited official recognition, but she expects one day she will be awarded the "Order of Australia."
Her interests remain with the arts. She still plays the piano seriously, but her "top Cs" have gone. She is still addicted to collecting antiques and paintings and browsing through galleries. She now lives within sight and sound of beautiful Moreton Bay and its islands, inspiration for some of her books. Her house is full of books, spectacular plants, Chinese screens and pots. She is devoted to her garden and spends much time "directing the design and digging and providing cold drinks and chocolates."
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
March 1, 2024
I dislike giving negative reviews. But...
This was not good. I'm trying to be sensitive to the fact I'm relatively new to the genre and, published in 1982, HPs would have undoubtedly been a lot different in tone and content at a time when I was reading Eddings' Belgariad and watching Star Trek movies for the first time. But this unfortunately did not work for me on any level. It lacked the emotional depth I would have wanted. Most of the characters were snipping at each other and didn't REALLY love each other... or even like each other most of the time. The story had gaps and didn't have much development.
This was not good. I'm trying to be sensitive to the fact I'm relatively new to the genre and, published in 1982, HPs would have undoubtedly been a lot different in tone and content at a time when I was reading Eddings' Belgariad and watching Star Trek movies for the first time. But this unfortunately did not work for me on any level. It lacked the emotional depth I would have wanted. Most of the characters were snipping at each other and didn't REALLY love each other... or even like each other most of the time. The story had gaps and didn't have much development.
October 9, 2018
Not a lot of clarity about what happened at the end a bit too abrupt for an ending!
This would have been 5🌟 for me if there a less time focus on secondary character and more time either flash back or present time spent with the main couple it would have been better. I enjoyed reading this but it felt flat a bit for me because they didn't spend a lot of time together.
Song that came to mind with this story especially for the the way things wee with Elizabeth is cheryl cole's fight for this love!
This would have been 5🌟 for me if there a less time focus on secondary character and more time either flash back or present time spent with the main couple it would have been better. I enjoyed reading this but it felt flat a bit for me because they didn't spend a lot of time together.
Song that came to mind with this story especially for the the way things wee with Elizabeth is cheryl cole's fight for this love!
April 8, 2021
This book wasn't that great as I found that there was like zero development what so ever of the main characters. There's no conflict, no direction, no resolution. Just have to accept the fact that David gets his way and Elizabeth has no choice but to be with him.
There's no chemistry between them. Elizabeth is so damn passive and bland. David is so forceful and demanding. Quick read and nothing memorable or worthwhile.
There's no chemistry between them. Elizabeth is so damn passive and bland. David is so forceful and demanding. Quick read and nothing memorable or worthwhile.
April 29, 2021
This whole story seemed out of kilter. I couldn’t tell where the heroine was coming from or where she was going. The hero didn’t have much to recommend him. The other man is a 40+ year old baby. There were 0ther women scattered here and there, plus manipulative mothers, cruel fathers, despicable aunts and some voices crying in the wilderness. I couldn’t get to the end quickly enough.
March 17, 2026
TL:DR: A pair of star-crossed, drama-queen, histrionic lovers make each other and themselves as miserable as possible while vacillating between mind-blowing makeout sessions and despair during their engagement to be married to one another.
So, this was so dramatic. The heroine was dramatic. The hero was dramatic. The OM was dramatic, and silly. The kinda OW was dramatic and somehow more histrionic than everyone else (she was actually the OW of the h and the OM, who started out the book engaged to one another.). The villains were extra-villainous, the good guys were extra good, the H was extra.... well, he was almost an anti-hero, so he was extra anti, I guess?
Anyhow, this is the tale of all of the above. The H and h grew up in a smallish town where the H's family were the local wealthy gentility and the h's family (her uncle, aunt, and cousin, who reluctantly took her in after she was orphaned) were poor and crass. And hated her.
The H's mother had taken h under her wing because of her extraordinary piano talent and given her piano lessons, almost against the h's family's will; and until the H and the h began dating (ok, sexing) when the h turned 18, was fairly kind to her.
But she was not having her precious H son marrying some no-class brillian concert pianist prodigy, no way!
To try to make a long story short, H's mother finds out that h's uncle has committed a pretty serious crime, and uses that information to blackmail the h into leaving the country and the H's life forever. This takes place right after she has pledged her love to the H and they've consummated their relationship, expecting to marry at some point.
She is packed off to Germany to study piano, her uncle's crime and debts are paid off, with the understanding that she is never to contact the H again.
And she does this, brokenheartedly. FFWD 4ish years, and the h is a celebrated concert pianist and a piano instructor engaged to some overly attached old-maid-ish older man who is the protege of some Sir so-and-so who owns the company he works at. Sir So and so has taken a liking to the h, and he's hosted a party at which he's expected to reveal his new right-hand-man, which the OM believes to be himself. This is totally, exactly how businesses work in real life, right? There are absolutely "Right-hand-man" positions with actual pay and not just vice-presidents, and those things always happen at private personal parties to which random friends and acquaintances are invited. ANYHOW.... Also there's some strange guest no one seems to know about.
So strange guest ends up being the H who is actually Sir So-and-so's chosen Right-Hand-Man, and when he sees that the h is there, boy is he ever mad. Like, bitterly angry because she has ruined his life by forcing him to marry another woman by leaving (???), which directly made her die in a car wreck with his mother a few years previously.
The h is devastated, and entirely devoted to never, ever ever explaining why she left or that she was a victim, ever.
So the H is still completely attracted to her in the angriest way ever, so he announces that h is marrying him, to punish her for leaving him (I've pointed this out before, but this is showing way more lack of self-esteem on his part than anyone ever seems to realize but okay). And she just does? She breaks it off with Old Maid I mean Other Man, he dithers around being sad but not all that sad considering, and H and h proceed to make each other miserable; the h is near-s****dal; the H is bitter and self-hating, they have many scenes of violent sexual attraction combined with hatred, despair, depression, etc., until suddenly the h starts receiving threatening letters; she tells the H about them, and he hides near her mailbox to intercept the next one, which conveniently, apparently, has all the details of how the h was blackmailed by his mother, everything his mother did to separate them, and the exact details of how terribly the h has been wronged by everyone, in it even though it's actually a request for money so the now new blackmailer won't go to the press with all of this.
So the H turns to the h with tears in his eyes and weeps for how terribly he's misunderstood and mistreated him, she refuses to accept his apologies, and the next chapter they get married happily because now all those years and months of angst are insta-healed, the end. HEAs all around!
LOL
What's weird is I actually enjoyed this one. I guess it just hit me at the right moment, but it is sooooo OTT melodramatic, with literal flowery prose at times (at one point beautiful blossoms fall off a tree to adorn the h's beautiful, long hair, apparently in admiration at her wronged-innocence lol). So yeah, read at your own risk I think it's either a love-or-hate book depending on one's particular mood and mind set.
So, this was so dramatic. The heroine was dramatic. The hero was dramatic. The OM was dramatic, and silly. The kinda OW was dramatic and somehow more histrionic than everyone else (she was actually the OW of the h and the OM, who started out the book engaged to one another.). The villains were extra-villainous, the good guys were extra good, the H was extra.... well, he was almost an anti-hero, so he was extra anti, I guess?
Anyhow, this is the tale of all of the above. The H and h grew up in a smallish town where the H's family were the local wealthy gentility and the h's family (her uncle, aunt, and cousin, who reluctantly took her in after she was orphaned) were poor and crass. And hated her.
The H's mother had taken h under her wing because of her extraordinary piano talent and given her piano lessons, almost against the h's family's will; and until the H and the h began dating (ok, sexing) when the h turned 18, was fairly kind to her.
But she was not having her precious H son marrying some no-class brillian concert pianist prodigy, no way!
To try to make a long story short, H's mother finds out that h's uncle has committed a pretty serious crime, and uses that information to blackmail the h into leaving the country and the H's life forever. This takes place right after she has pledged her love to the H and they've consummated their relationship, expecting to marry at some point.
She is packed off to Germany to study piano, her uncle's crime and debts are paid off, with the understanding that she is never to contact the H again.
And she does this, brokenheartedly. FFWD 4ish years, and the h is a celebrated concert pianist and a piano instructor engaged to some overly attached old-maid-ish older man who is the protege of some Sir so-and-so who owns the company he works at. Sir So and so has taken a liking to the h, and he's hosted a party at which he's expected to reveal his new right-hand-man, which the OM believes to be himself. This is totally, exactly how businesses work in real life, right? There are absolutely "Right-hand-man" positions with actual pay and not just vice-presidents, and those things always happen at private personal parties to which random friends and acquaintances are invited. ANYHOW.... Also there's some strange guest no one seems to know about.
So strange guest ends up being the H who is actually Sir So-and-so's chosen Right-Hand-Man, and when he sees that the h is there, boy is he ever mad. Like, bitterly angry because she has ruined his life by forcing him to marry another woman by leaving (???), which directly made her die in a car wreck with his mother a few years previously.
The h is devastated, and entirely devoted to never, ever ever explaining why she left or that she was a victim, ever.
So the H is still completely attracted to her in the angriest way ever, so he announces that h is marrying him, to punish her for leaving him (I've pointed this out before, but this is showing way more lack of self-esteem on his part than anyone ever seems to realize but okay). And she just does? She breaks it off with Old Maid I mean Other Man, he dithers around being sad but not all that sad considering, and H and h proceed to make each other miserable; the h is near-s****dal; the H is bitter and self-hating, they have many scenes of violent sexual attraction combined with hatred, despair, depression, etc., until suddenly the h starts receiving threatening letters; she tells the H about them, and he hides near her mailbox to intercept the next one, which conveniently, apparently, has all the details of how the h was blackmailed by his mother, everything his mother did to separate them, and the exact details of how terribly the h has been wronged by everyone, in it even though it's actually a request for money so the now new blackmailer won't go to the press with all of this.
So the H turns to the h with tears in his eyes and weeps for how terribly he's misunderstood and mistreated him, she refuses to accept his apologies, and the next chapter they get married happily because now all those years and months of angst are insta-healed, the end. HEAs all around!
LOL
What's weird is I actually enjoyed this one. I guess it just hit me at the right moment, but it is sooooo OTT melodramatic, with literal flowery prose at times (at one point beautiful blossoms fall off a tree to adorn the h's beautiful, long hair, apparently in admiration at her wronged-innocence lol). So yeah, read at your own risk I think it's either a love-or-hate book depending on one's particular mood and mind set.
October 5, 2025
This is actually one of MW's better stories.
Heroine is a pianist, engaged to a dry stick, and trying not to think of her only love, the hero. Hero was the rich boy in the district. His evil mother ran the orphaned heroine off when she was 19 by threatning to ruin evil aunt and uncle finanacially. Heroine, who is as saintly as all MW heroines, gave up the hero for their sakes.
H/h meet again at a country house weekend. Heroine faints (she faints a lot) and hero growls and says cruel things. Heroine has to "play it again Sam" at the request of their host and she almost breaks down.
Good thing the heroine has a job to go to. She's a piano teacher at an exclusive Music Academy in Sydney. She has taken an interest in a neglected pupil who is up for a scholarship. This is the most interesting part of the story. The parents are evil as are all of MW's parents.
Meanwhile, hero tells heroine to ditch the fiance or he will make his life difficult in the business world. The fiance's OW is threatening her. Heroine has her pupil move in to her apartment before the exams as a buffer. And she takes a tycoon's middle aged daughter out for a makeover.
It's all a good diverstion from the flimsy romance plot. When H/h get engaged, heroine starts recieving hate mail. It's only then that hero realizes heroine was forced into breaking off their relationship five years before. He actually appologizes during the abrupt ending. (A rarity in MW's world)
An interesting story, but not really a romance.
Heroine is a pianist, engaged to a dry stick, and trying not to think of her only love, the hero. Hero was the rich boy in the district. His evil mother ran the orphaned heroine off when she was 19 by threatning to ruin evil aunt and uncle finanacially. Heroine, who is as saintly as all MW heroines, gave up the hero for their sakes.
H/h meet again at a country house weekend. Heroine faints (she faints a lot) and hero growls and says cruel things. Heroine has to "play it again Sam" at the request of their host and she almost breaks down.
Good thing the heroine has a job to go to. She's a piano teacher at an exclusive Music Academy in Sydney. She has taken an interest in a neglected pupil who is up for a scholarship. This is the most interesting part of the story. The parents are evil as are all of MW's parents.
Meanwhile, hero tells heroine to ditch the fiance or he will make his life difficult in the business world. The fiance's OW is threatening her. Heroine has her pupil move in to her apartment before the exams as a buffer. And she takes a tycoon's middle aged daughter out for a makeover.
It's all a good diverstion from the flimsy romance plot. When H/h get engaged, heroine starts recieving hate mail. It's only then that hero realizes heroine was forced into breaking off their relationship five years before. He actually appologizes during the abrupt ending. (A rarity in MW's world)
An interesting story, but not really a romance.
December 27, 2017
97-وأخيرا الجنة
روايات عبير الجديدة
لزابيث عازفة بيانو لامعة . تلقى حفلاتها الموسيقية نجاحا كبيرا في استراليا . لكن الاحتفاء بها والحماس لفنها لا يمكنه التخفيف من كآبتها .
هنا سر يرهقها اسمه دايفيد ، هذا الرجل الذي تعرفت عليه في الرابعة عشر من عمرها والذي احبته حبا جارفا لا يموت.
حاولت نسيانه وهي تستعد للزواج من كافن رجل الاعمال المشهور ، لكن ......ماذا سيحصل اذا دخل ديفيد فجأة حياتها من جديد ؟
روايات عبير الجديدة
لزابيث عازفة بيانو لامعة . تلقى حفلاتها الموسيقية نجاحا كبيرا في استراليا . لكن الاحتفاء بها والحماس لفنها لا يمكنه التخفيف من كآبتها .
هنا سر يرهقها اسمه دايفيد ، هذا الرجل الذي تعرفت عليه في الرابعة عشر من عمرها والذي احبته حبا جارفا لا يموت.
حاولت نسيانه وهي تستعد للزواج من كافن رجل الاعمال المشهور ، لكن ......ماذا سيحصل اذا دخل ديفيد فجأة حياتها من جديد ؟
pback-to-read
February 8, 2021You taught me never to trust a woman!"
David's condemnation was deserved, but seeing him again brought back a past Elizabeth had thought buried. He had been her first love, and she had betrayed him.
The decision had not been hers. His mother's plans for her only son did not include a young penniless orphan, no matter how talented.
Now after five years there was still no way to vindicate herself without hurting him again. She knew that their ecstasy had been too brief, and their agony too long and beyond forgiveness..
David's condemnation was deserved, but seeing him again brought back a past Elizabeth had thought buried. He had been her first love, and she had betrayed him.
The decision had not been hers. His mother's plans for her only son did not include a young penniless orphan, no matter how talented.
Now after five years there was still no way to vindicate herself without hurting him again. She knew that their ecstasy had been too brief, and their agony too long and beyond forgiveness..
May 14, 2013
Overall, it was pretty great. The whole light at the end of a tunnel feeling. I did enjoy the characters and the HEA.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews