Η μελωδία της αγάπης

by Flora Kidd

Η γλυκιά μελωδία που σκορπούσε το βιολί τού Γιάνος Βαζάρυ ξυπνούσε στη Σάρα χιλιάδες συναισθήματα. Χαρά και νοσταλγία για τις ευτυχισμένες μέρες που πέρασαν μαζί, πόνο κι απελπισία γιατί όλ' αυτά είχαν πια χαθεί. Είχαν νιώσει ένα συγκλονιστικό έρωτα, από την πρώτη στιγμή της γνωριμίας τους που τους οδήγησε σ' ένα γρήγορο γάμο. Όλα φαίνονταν υπέροχα ώσπου η Σάρα ανακάλυψε ότι ο Γιάνος την παντρεύτηκε μόνο και μόνο για ν' αποκτήσει άδεια διαμονής στην Αγγλία. Και τότε έφυγε μακρυά του. Αλλά τώρα, καθώς άκουγε μαγεμένη τους ήχους του βιολιού του, άρχισε να φοβάται ότι έκανε ένα τραγικό λάθος...

Genres: Romance, Harlequin Presents, Contemporary Romance, Category Romance

156 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published September 25, 1981

About the author

Flora Mildred Cartwright was born on 1926 in Liverpool, England, UK. The youngest of four children, Flora and her family lived in the same house until she was a teen. In 1949, she graduated from Liverpool University, where she met Robert Kidd, her husband. They moved to her beloved Scotland, where she began teaching, writing, and raised their four children: Richard, Patricia, Peter and David.

Flora Kidd published her first novel, Visit To Rowanbank, in 1966 at Mills & Boon. In 1977, the family moved to Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, where she continued her romance career with Mills & Boon until 1989, when she retired. In 1994, she published the first of the The Marco Polo Project novels, to support a project to build a replica of the 19th century ship Marco Polo.

Flora Kidd passed away on March 19, 2008 at Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada.

Reviews

[Iris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cover artist: Tom Bjarnason who did so many easily recognizable covers in the early 1980s, signing every one of them, however illegibly. This cover conforms to his usual soft focus style, though the architectural background representing Budapest and the mini orchestra in the foreground adds charm and is a more detail then he usually includes.

It may add to the romantic effect of Passionate Stranger if you begin reading while listening to Brahms Violin Concerto in D major; the circumstances of H and h meeting, marrying, and separating are revealed as reveries while the h is in a concert hall listening to her estranged husband perform the three movements of the concerto and it's one of the better devices for handling flashbacks that I've encountered in HPland.

Janos is an unusual hero, an impoverished Hungarian violinist, who upon knocking at h's door looking for her cousin, practically faints from hunger—physical weakness of the non-sexual variety is usually the province of the heroine so kudos to FK for the role reversal! He's cryptic, she's suspicious, but she feeds him and lets him stay the night by default when he falls asleep on her sofa and won't wake up. A call to her cousin confirms his identity: they met at Salzburg, the Mozart Festival last summer, "I was told that he was in trouble with the Hungarian authorities for trying to defect to the West and that he might be put in prison when he returned to Budapest"..."no, of course we aren't lovers"... but cousin Cecilia is cagey and getting married in two days so will Sara be a dear and keep Janos from locating her until after she's safely hitched?

A short road trip ensues. Sara does her mightiest to not get to where they're supposed to be going by driving the worst possible route and Janos, wise to her antics, doesn't really care because he wants more time with her. He's passionate, immensely charming and a virtuoso to rival Paganini except he seems to prefer playing without a shirt on. She can count his ribs but my what wide shoulders he has and what tawny eyes! He's reticent about his life in Hungary and his current status in England but otherwise he's warm and brimming with self-confidence—claiming to be the best violinist in the whole of Eastern Europe, perhaps the world—and forthright about his interest in her. The reserved h is quickly entranced and within a few days of their meeting she's agreed to marry him in spite of some lingering questions.

There are various potential OMs and OWs. Janos believes (rightly) that Sara's boss is in love with her and Sara suspects (rightly) there's a nubile teen putting the moves on Janos during her violin lessons. And eventually during their two year separation different wannabe OM and OW enter the scene, but sexual jealousy isn't the fundamental difficulty in their marriage, insecurity and frustration about their importance in each other's lives is.

They are both trying to establish themselves in demanding creative careers, Sara is a rising textile designer in Manchester and their work keeps them in different cities during the week. On the surface their commuter marriage is working, but after a year Janos in particular seems dissatisfied with the constant separation, and finally while Janos is on an 8 week tour in the US, Sara learns he arrived in England expecting to enter into a MOC with her cousin. The doubt that's been acting as a slow poison from the beginning is confirmed and it's even worse then suspected. She's not only a distant second to his music in his affections, she's a mere substitute; he cynically switched his interest to her to stay in England and further his career.

When he returns from his trip they have a blow up. He's angry too, at first thinking she's chosen her boss over him "the suspicious foreigner" and is surprised to learn she hadn't known about the MOC deal with her cousin. He tries to explain his relief upon learning Cecilia was married as he'd already fallen in love with Sara but she leaves anyway and her obduracy is the book's weakness. How can she have spent all night and then two years fuming and hurt about something without considering mitigating facts? They've been spending time as a loving couple socializing, making love, eating goulash for an entire year; it's not credible that this counts for nothing and it's the kind of author induced tunnel-vision that drives me nuts. Especially when the idea of an emotional bond is reinforced by Janos when they meet after the concert 'God, if you knew how much I have longed to see you, be with you, talk with you these past two years—".

Finally all is resolved though not without further pride and stubbornness and I think even the career complications were resolved in an acceptable manner for a vintage HP. But really I'm even more crazy for a man who enjoys talking than one with a violin—Janos is just a wonderful hero—the book is worth reading for him alone.

[Sarah Mac · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an HP for those who like oddball vintages. It’s probably not for readers who are new to the line, as FK is expecting her audience to pick up on the trope inversions without drawing attention to her tweaks; whether you’ll like those inversions depends on whether you like old skool HPs that toy with their readers’ expectations. Observe:

—Hero Janos is poorer & physically weaker than the heroine Sara when they first meet. She takes him in, feeds him, saves him from sleeping on the streets, drives him in her car. (He does achieve success & stability during the flashbacks, but his rise to fame is off-page.)
—Sara is the grounded one with extreme inhibition; Janos is temperamental, passionate, fiery, & unable to hide what he feels.
—Sara is an emotional Vulcan who has a difficult time expressing her purposely smothered affection; Janos is flamboyant & frequently waxes poetic on the depths of his love.
—Janos pursues her until she rejects him multiple times; Sara is the pursuer in the third-act reconciliation, & she is the one who must (rightly) admit she jumped to the worst conclusions re: his morality & motivations.
—Sara has the more practical employment; Janos is the artist who relies on sensitive creative expression.
—Janos is disgusted by potential OW who try to seduce him; Sara is tempted by the silver fox OM’s offer of convenient marriage & even kisses him.
—Janos becomes angry at himself for bothering to spend so much time thawing a frozen heart, while Sara is angry at herself for being so flighty as to feel lust.

That’s not to say I didn’t like Sara. I did. In fact, I would call her an Honorary Sarah—I’m a bit of an emotional Vulcan myself when it comes to my fellow humans, so I could sympathize with her quick-draw sense of betrayal when confronted with the Unguarded Emotion(tm) Janos embodies, whether his or her own. (Fiery feels can be scary, y’all. Don’t argue with me. 😶💀)

Anyhoo, I quite enjoyed this one despite the crappy GR rating. It’s an interesting vintage piece, the sort of HP that will never be written again—the story just doesn’t fit their rigid modern mold, & that’s a shame.

4 stars.

[Tia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I couldn't get too into this novel mostly because of the circumstances. The heroine should of trusted in her husband, and her husband should of explained accordingly.

[Jan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm a little vague on the details but I think I quite liked this. Both the hero and heroine are creative, the hero is a violinist, the heroine a fabric designer. I think it was love at first sight, followed by a quick marriage of convenience related to the hero's visum.

A misunderstanding happens and they grow apart. Years later the hero is a famous violinist and they bump into each other again...

I've always liked marriage in trouble stories, because it forces people to look beyond the instalust/falling in love and actually see if there is something there for the long term.

[ANGELIA · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn't finish this one, as I just could not stand the h!! She had to be the coldest, self-centered, self-righteous bitch ever written! She may have had reason for a bit to suspect the H's motives in marrying her, but did she give him a chance to explain without jumping to conclusions? Of course not! Does she listen to well-meaning friends and her own cousin when they try to make her see reason and believe in her husband's true character? Of course not! Does she think about the good times in their marriage, how much he cared and wanted to be with her? Of course not! Does she accept the H's devotion to his career, since she's so devoted to hers? Of course not!

But...does she listen to the (obviously jealous) OM when he bad-mouths the H? Of course! Does she listen to an oversexed teenager who's crushing on the H, when she claims he only married her with an ulterior motive? Of course! Does she get unreasonably jealous of the women in his past, and ones she assumes are in the present? Of course! Does she resent the (supposedly) new OW, while expecting the H to divorce her so she can marry the new OM? Of course! Does she think it's okay to use this OM for what she can get out of him, while condemning the H for having done (or so she believes) the same thing to her? Of course!

And - sour icing on an already bitter cake - when she finds out that the H was injured in a fire trying to save an elderly woman, and is now recuperating and depressed, the first person she thinks about is (you guessed it): HERSELF!!! How can she possibly go see him, it might stir up old feelings, it means having to put aside her work, it means actually having to be unselfish and put someone ahead of THE GREAT ME for a change! That would NEVER do!

Too bad she wasn't caught in that fire, with no one to rescue her!

NO WAY was I sticking around to see this heartless bitch have a HEA!

[Myrna · Rating 2 out of 5]

What a strange book!

On the eve of Cecilia's wedding a dishevelled grubby-looking stranger appears on her doorstep. Cecilia's cousin opens the door and a very strange story begins.

The hero is a defected Hungarian violinist desperately needing to see the now-absent Cecilia and refusing to answer any questions.

The cousin is super confused and distrusful. She agrees to drive the strange man into countryside. They get lost and spend the night at the inn, where the cousin is enthralled by the stranger's male magnetism.

Yesterday he was half-starved, exhausted, dirty and badly-dressed, today he's the sexiest best-smelling man on Earth?!

Don't get surprised when I tell you he proposes the next day and she accepts. Because they're in love!!!

They get married 3 weeks later and he starts climbing to stardom. That means that he's very busy and the girl starts suspecting he might have married her for a visa.

She insists on separation. The hero is angry but agrees.
2 years later they meet again.
Then separate.
Then meet again.
Then separate again.
At last she vows to become a submissive wife and to follow him whenever his musical career takes him and he agrees to the plan.

[RomLibrary]

His music awoke a flood of memories

"I never want to see you again. Never!" Sara remembered well her parting words to her Hungarian husband, Janos Vaszary, two years before.

And now she was at a concert in California watching him onstage. If she'd known he would be there, she never would have come!

His darkly romantic appearance and his violin solo, so full of passionate vitality, swept her b in time to their meeting. And again she relives their marriage--until the moment she had discovered how deeply he had deceived her

[Su · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nothing special.

[Lin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a story about two passionate professionals who put their careers ahead of their being together.