Re the Right Man - Sandra Field's contribution to HPlandia this go round is a love story interrupted. The h is 21 when the book opens and working two jobs in order to save up enough money to pay for med school. The story is set in Toronto, but the h is actually a farm girl. Her parents aren't rich, hence the two jobs, but they have been married for forty years and because of this and the family tradition of falling in love at first sight, the h believes whole-heartedly in the thunderbolt from the sky approach to finding a life partner.
The h hasn't found it yet, she is working in a bookstore during the day and singing in a pub in the evenings. She shares a flat with another girl who works in a different club, but they are good friends and there is small role in the book for the roommate's friendly cat Nasturtium. (I mention this because some HPer's like a little cat bonus - namely me.) Anyhow, the h is rushing to her pub job and is a bit late, her boss is a big stickler for punctuality, so lateness is something to avoid.
While rushing to the stage, she runs into a handsome man with big blue eyes. BOOM! The thunderbolt hits and the h knows she is in love. But the man doesn't seem to be to keen to make her acquaintance, in fact he seems to be carrying some heavy burden. The h starts her singing session and the H intervenes when a drunk guy tries to be too familiar. The H takes off and the h is despondent, she isn't allowed to fraternize with the customers and she only knows the H's first name, so she has no way to find him.
Fortunately he shows up at the pub again and again the h feels the thunderbolt of love, this time she manages to save him from being run over by a car. But he leaves her standing in the rain as he says he doesn't want to get involved.
The h is trying hard to forget this man, but she just can't - her family lore is that the ladies fall in love fast, hard and pretty much forever - even if it takes a while for the lady to convince the man involved that he is the one meant for her. The h also has a big decision about med school coming up fast, she has a choice to continue her studies and become a doctor or take a good job in a lab. The h can't decide because med school means a lot of loans and scrimping and the job means money and she could help support her family.
All that is put aside tho when the H returns to the pub as if drawn by a magnet. He still won't tell the h his last name and only knows the h by her stage name- she is so caught up she forgot to mention her real last name. He offers the h two days of his company and then they must part forever. The h verifies that he isn't married and then leaps at the chance to snag her man. They spend a very intense two days but never make it past the kissing stage. The h is absolutely positive that she is in love, but the H refuses to commit back and at the end of the two days he really does leave, and the h is terribly sad as she knows she has lost her true love forever.
Then she finds out from her roommate, who randomly met the H at her own club when he looked like he was having a very bad day, that the H was just diagnosed with terminal cancer and has less than a year to live. The h is horrified but determined to take whatever time she can get, cause that is what people who love each other do. They support their partners in good times and in bad. The h tries everywhere, even posts notices at the airport, but she doesn't know the H's last name and finally has to give up the search. She does decide to attend med school tho. Her parents are keen for it and she really wants to help people facing serious illness like the H. Her medical career will be the testament of her love for the H to the world.
The second part of the book opens with the h done with training and preparing to open a low income clinic with two other doctors in Toronto. She has never forgotten the H, but she thinks he must be dead, so she has gradually started rebuilding her life.
She is still a virgin, but now she is engaged to another doctor and man as unlike the H as she can find. She does care about the fiance, but everyone around her can see that his stick-in-the-mudness is not the right man for her - even tho he is perfectly nice- he is a passionless as a stuffed fish.
Still the h has made a commitment, they have nice conversations and the fiance's mum is great. The wedding date is two weeks away and the h's new clinic should be open in a month, tho the fiance isn't too keen for the h to be working there. The fiance wants the h to work in a posh, upscale pediatrics practice, but the h is determined to do her own thing.
The fiance decides to take the h to a local restaurant to celebrate the lease on the new clinic. It is the same restaurant that she shared a magic moment with the H six years earlier, tho the memories aren't as painful now. When they get there, another couple is behind them and to the h's shock it is the H with his own dinner partner.
There is an awkward moment when introductions are made and as each couple goes to their separate tables, the fiance realizes something is up. The h doesn't lie or obfuscate, she tells the fiance about her past relationship with the H and explains that she though he was dead. She later gives her phone number to the H and the fiance tells her to meet with him to get it out of her system so the wedding can go forward.
The h is torn and hurt, cause the H's abandonment just about destroyed her emotionally. She meets the H the next day and we find out the H had an experimental treatment that cured his cancer five years earlier and that he spent a year looking for the h, but he did not have her correct last name, so he bought a market garden close to Toronto in the hopes of running into her. The woman the h saw him with was just a one off date, since he met the h and survived cancer, all his dates are one offs.
The h tells him she is engaged and he tells her that if she will just wait three weeks until he gets the all clear on the cancer front, he will court her assiduously and they can pick up where the left off six years earlier.
The h isn't too pleased with this, for one she gave her word and now she is wondering which is worse-- to break a promise or to marry a man when she is really in love with someone else. Her family and friends and even the fiance's mum are convinced that the fiance is the wrong man for the h, but the h doesn't want a man who refuses to share the bad times as well as the good.
She has some thinking to do. Her fiance goes out of town for a week and the h has to locum at another practice. When she gets a day off, she wanders over to the H's market garden, (he used to be an executive and then got cancer and then decided to grow organic stuff for sale,) and meets the H and his old family handy man who moved to the H's farm when his father sold their big family home. The H wants the h to wait for him, the h wants to understand the H's issues and she knows that the H and his father are estranged.
She pumps the H's old family handyman for the father's address and the dapper old guy gives the h his handyman seal of approval, provided she dumps her current bloke and sticks with the H. After spending the day with the H and his garden and his handyman, the h knows that she and the H may not make it, but she can't marry her fiance.
She goes home and cancels the wedding after breaking the engagement. The fiance's mum is happy the h finally realized that her son was the wrong choice, it seems her son is a lot like his dad and the impression is conveyed that the fiance's mum's marriage wasn't the happiest - the mum tells the h that her former fiance is more in love with his job than anything else and will get over the h fairly quickly, but the h deserves better.
The h sends all the wedding presents back, cancels all the arrangements and takes herself off to Vancouver to talk to the H's father about the H's strange issues with illness. She does a charming bullying of the H's dad and we find out that while growing up the H's mum was dying of Alzheimer's and the H's dad tried to hide it, he did not want his son subjected to the horrors of illness that his and his wife's life had become.
The H knew something was very, very wrong, but his dad wouldn't talk and his mum was doing really strange and sometimes harmful things. This made the H believe that any illness should never be shared and that people shouldn't burden their loved ones with their care. The h is a bit more understanding of the H's issues, but she still has no idear on how to convince him that being together for the worst is just as important as being together for the better.
She goes back home to Toronto, only to find a big bouquet of dying flowers from the H in her flat with a note asking her to marry him. She rushes around trying to find the H to say yes and finds out the H is in Boston for his final medical clearance tests.
She goes to Boston and the H is overjoyed to see her and they happily reunite just before his final medical appointment. The h tells him she went to see his dad and the H explains that he was a fool and he knew that when he found the h had cancelled her wedding that they had to be together no matter what happens. The appointment time arrives and the H gets the all clear and healthy.
The h and H take the long way back to Canada with an overnight lurve stop on the way and the h decides she will eventually open a country practice in the H's market garden town and they are lurving it up before introducing the H to her family as the right man for the big HEA.
This one was sweet, tho it did seem to drag a bit at the beginning. The H was nice and very tormented, the h was determined and really sincere in her feelings. They both tried very hard to do the right things and I believed in the HEA. The emotional intensity was really well conveyed and so that makes this one a nice, sweet somewhat angsty read for a nice HPlandia outing.