An Apple From Eve

by Betty Neels

Considering that she didn't really like him very much, Doctor Tane ban Diederijk did seem to crop up in Euphemia's life rather a lot. Perhaps she was being a bit unfair to him - she hadn't wanted to let her family home to anyone, so she was bound to be prejudice about him living there instead of her. But then he asked her to go to Spain to act as companion to his fiancee Diana - and Euphemia's dislike grew. How could the doctor be so stupid as to see anything in such a spiteful girl as Diana, let alone want to marry her? If only she could see the back of both of them!

Genres: Romance, Harlequin, Contemporary Romance, Harlequin Romance, Ebooks, Fiction, Clean Romance

187 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

Evelyn Jessy "Betty" Neels was born on September 15, 1910 in Devon to a family with firm roots in the civil service. She said she had a blissfully happy childhood and teenage years.(This stood her in good stead later for the tribulations to come with the Second World War). She was sent away to boarding school, and then went on to train as a nurse, gaining her SRN and SCM, that is, State Registered Nurse and State Certificate of Midwifery.

In 1939 she was called up to the Territorial Army Nursing Service, which later became the Queen Alexandra Reserves, and was sent to France with the Casualty Clearing Station. This comprised eight nursing sisters, including Betty, to 100 men! In other circumstances, she thought that might have been quite thrilling! When France was invaded in 1940, all the nursing sisters managed to escape in the charge of an army major, undertaking a lengthy and terrifying journey to Boulogne in an ambulance. They were incredibly fortunate to be put on the last hospital ship to be leaving the port of Boulogne. But Betty's war didn't end there, for she was posted to Scotland, and then on to Northern Ireland, where she met her Dutch husband. He was a seaman aboard a minesweeper, which was bombed. He survived and was sent to the south of Holland to guard the sluices. However, when they had to abandon their post, they were told to escape if they could, and along with a small number of other men, he marched into Belgium. They stole a ship and managed to get it across the Channel to Dover before being transferred to the Atlantic run on the convoys. Sadly he became ill, and that was when he was transferred to hospital in Northern Ireland, where he met Betty. They eventually married, and were blessed with a daughter. They were posted to London, but were bombed out. As with most of the population, they made the best of things.

When the war finally ended, she and her husband were repatriated to Holland. As his family had believed he had died when his ship went down, this was a very emotional homecoming. The small family lived in Holland for 13 years, and Betty resumed her nursing career there. When they decided to return to England, Betty continued her nursing and when she eventually retired she had reached the position of night superintendent.

Betty Neels began writing almost by accident. She had retired from nursing, but her inquiring mind had no intention of vegetating, and her new career was born when she heard a lady in her local library bemoaning the lack of good romance novels. There was little in Betty's background to suggest that she might eventually become a much-loved novelist.

Her first book, Sister Peters in Amsterdam, was published in 1969, and by dint of often writing four books a year, she eventually completed 134 books. She was always quite firm upon the point that the Dutch doctors who frequently appeared in her stories were *not* based upon her husband, but rather upon an amalgam of several of the doctors she met while nursing in Holland.

To her millions of fans around the world, Betty Neels epitomized romance. She was always amazed and touched that her books were so widely appreciated. She never sought plaudits and remained a very private person, but it made her very happy to know that she brought such pleasure to so many readers, while herself gaining a quiet joy from spinning her stories. It is perhaps a reflection of her upbringing in an earlier time that the men and women who peopled her stories have a kindliness and good manners, coupled to honesty and integrity, that is not always present in our modern world. Her myriad of fans found a warmth and a reassurance of a better world in her stories, along with characters who touched the heart, which is all and more than one could ask of a romance writer. She received a great deal of fan mail, and there was always a comment upon the fascinating places she visited in her stories. Quite often those of her fans fortunate enough to visit Ho

Reviews

[Grrrrace · Rating 4 out of 5]

If the hero is engaged to someone else, does that make the heroine the OW? I guess it depends how you view an engagement—is it a commitment or a trial? Our RDDs seem to consider it the latter, given that they're prone to kissing the heroines before they've quite unencumbered themselves. (Not that it matters with BN heroines, whose code of honor includes do not poach, along with no tattling and no self pity.)

At any rate, An Apple from Eve is one of Betty’s “hero is engaged to someone else” stories with an RDD and a beautiful British nurse who is not wealthy but from more or less the same upper-class background as the hero and the OW. The Rich Dutch Doctor and Poor British Nurse in this one are really likable, the OW is wonderfully unlikable, and while it’s a familiar plot from Betty, there are some nice touches that make it a 4-star BN for me. There’s a warmth about this one that I truly liked.

The hero Tane meets the heroine Euphemia (Greek for “well spoken” and a burdensome name everyone remarks upon) when he is called in as medical consultant when her father is gravely ill. It’s too late for him to do anything, and her father dies. The 27 year-old heroine is the eldest of four, and upon discovering that there’s no money and the shabby-genteel family home is mortgaged, has the added worry about the dire family finances. A family friend advises her to rent the house out, and our RDD, who spends a lot of time in England consulting, becomes her tenant. Her younger sister goes to live with an aunt, her brothers are in boarding school, and our PBN lives at the Nursing Home at the hospital where she is Ward Sister.

Initially, as in many BN books, the hero and heroine dislike one another. He seems snooty and cold and so, most definitely, does his awful fiancé, the skinny, fashionable, snobbish Diana. (In an amusing meta moment, Neels has the heroine, upon meeting Diana, think “She was like the Other Woman in a bad novel”—haha!)

The hero and heroine meet and squabble frequently, but he is soon revealed to have a much nicer side (mostly to people other than the heroine). Our heroine soon feels sorry for the hero because it’s clear that there’s no feeling, not even affection, between him and his fiancée and that he’s likely marrying her because she is “suitable” for his posh lifestyle. Although Euphemia doesn’t much like Tane, she briefly thinks that perhaps she should rescue him from the awful Diana, but at that point, it’s just idle musing.

As with many BN heroes, the good doctor has a pretty keen intuition regarding the heroine’s feelings. So he picks up on the fact that she’s worried about what to do with her brothers over their school holidays and offers her a trade: if she will accompany his fiancée, Diana, to Spain, where she will recuperate from mumps, then he will vacate the heroine’s home temporarily and let the siblings stay there over their school holidays while he returns to Holland. She agrees, even though she very much dislikes Diana, who is a total bitch to her at every opportunity. So we’re off to Spain—but no travelogue, for all Diana and her equally Diana-ish aunt want to do is languish upon chaise lounges in billowy chiffon.

Diana doesn’t really need nursing, so Phemie spends most of her time fetching and carrying and acting as lady’s maid. One day, she starts to walk to the nearby town and comes across an injured boy lying in the road, victim of a hit-and-run. She checks him over and carries him to the house, but Diana and her aunt tell her that she can’t bring the “dirty peasant” boy in and refuse to even call for help. She is upset and angry and carries him back to the road, intending to flag down a ride to the hospital, and Tane pulls up in a cab. He takes over and they get the boy to the hospital. He asks what happened (“just the facts, not opinions”) and she says that Diana’s aunt wouldn’t let her bring him in (but she doesn’t tattle on his fiancée, because that goes against the BN heroine code).

Later, though, the aunt says that Diana agreed with her and the housekeeper, thanking Phemie for helping the boy (who is her nephew), wonders why neither Diana nor her aunt asked them to call an ambulance. Tane overhears this, so Diana’s true colors are revealed even more than usual.

Tane is there for a few days and will accompany them back to England, with a stopover at his house in Holland. Since Diana seldom leaves her room before midmorning and spends a couple of hours napping in the afternoon, he and Phemie spend some time together at the Spanish villa, and before long she has her Dawning Realization (and it’s pretty clear that our RDD has had one as well). He kisses her one night for the first time, and she is torn and confused—she loves him, but he’s engaged to Diana, and while it was fun to think about “saving” him beforehand, now that she has skin in the game, it wouldn’t be honorable. For Phemie, with an outsize sense of fairness and a strong aversion to hurting even people she doesn’t like, “all’s fair in love and war” is not an adage to which she subscribes.

They visit his lovely old family manse in Holland, and Phemie realizes just how wealthy and old-money the hero is. She sees even more that Diana, also from a moneyed background, would be suitable to run his large home and be his hostess, but it’s Euphemia who actually fits in beautifully, with an equally good upbringing and an appreciation for his beautiful treasures. (Diana says she’ll banish everything to the attics and install all modern furniture.) Phemie is completely at ease with Tane’s visiting parents, too, who genuinely take to our quiet, classy heroine and are politely taken aback at Diana’s Whore of Babylon orange jumpsuits and clangy bangles at a casual (for rich people) family dinner.

We know it’s true love when Tane takes Phemie on the deluxe tour of his home, exploring every room in detail and pointing out its many treasures to his delighted and appreciative audience. (In contrast, it was a clear sign that things were really really bad in Neels’ The Hasty Marriage when Reilof just unkindly dumped his new wife of convenience Laura at the house the day he first brings her home and leaves it to the FFRs to show her around.) Phemie’s nice to the faithful family retainers, too (unlike Diana who ignores them) -- and the dog likes her too.

Phemie loves his home, which only makes her more unhappy, because the man she loves so desperately and would be so right for is going to marry someone else. She puts on a brave face, and she can’t help but be happy in his company, but she resolves to see as little of him as possible when they return to England. Tane is biding his time and, like any good RDD with an awful fiancée standing between him and his own true love, sets plans in motion to disentangle himself honorably, in time-honored BN fashion (i.e., he finds a rich and equally horrible prospective partner for Diana, and sure enough, she is clearly interested in the pompous, wealthy Dutchman whom she’d met on a previous visit).

They return to England, and Tane drives Phemie home, where he’s welcomed by her siblings with pleasure. He takes his leave with just a casual farewell to Phemie, who knows she’ll see him occasionally at the hospital but is still determined to limit contact. She has a nice break with her siblings for a few days and then returns to work. She doesn’t see Tane for a while. She gets a letter from her solicitor telling her that Tane has bought the mortgage, and she’s furious. When she does see him, she blows up at him, accusing him of plotting to steal her house for himself and Diana (BN heroines ascribe the worst behavior to the RDDs sometimes) and just generally freaking out on him. He’s coldly angry in that intimidating RDD way but also tells her to remember this: he can be infinitely patient when he wants something.

She feels bad when she calms down. She goes to see her own solicitor, who tells her that what Tane did wasn’t nefarious and is likely to her benefit, but she still does her best to avoid him, because she can’t bear to see him knowing that he belongs to someone else. She’s successful too, until the Classic Betty Catastrophe occurs to bring them together in danger and valor: a gas main blows up the hospital, and, between them, they rescue the patients in her ward.

Since her ward is out of action, Phemie is temporarily without a job (except as “relief nurse” for the time being) and is bullied into going to her old home – Tane, at his most managing, has set it up while he will be away for a few days. She reluctantly agrees and goes home, to putter around despondently. He shows up one morning as she’s scrubbing the kitchen floor and crying, in a rare moment of weakness, about her lost love. But not for long.

He gives her a gift—an envelope with the deed to her home in it. “A wedding present,” he tells her. He and Diana broke their engagement a couple of days after they returned from Spain, he tells her, and the day Phemie blew up at him about the mortgage, he’d planned to ask her to marry him. He asks her then, and our happy heroine joyously agrees, and it’s HEA in the best Betty way.

Betty car porn (especially appropriate in this one, because the hero and heroine first encounter one another while stuck in traffic, and he makes her angry with his look of “glacial dislike” when he catches her staring at him and his overbearing advice to pull in her indicator):

The heroine has an elderly Morris 1000:

The hero has a Bentley (we’ll assume a 1981 Mulsanne):

[Poonam · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

This book is a soothing romance but not as plain and easygoing as Neels other books. The star in this story is the evil other woman- Diana. Our hero- Tane is engaged to her and to be honest totally into her for more than 50% of the book.

Finally Tane sees the good in Euphemia and shows Diana the door but I couldn't wait for the moment and would have been happier if it happened a little ahead in the story.

Still a good read with a strong willed and clear headed heroine and a delicious other woman.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were some fun elements to this one—plus an explosion and a truly awful OW. 😜 But there are lots of Bettys I much prefer to this one.

[Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 Stars ~ Euphemia is a ward nurse in a busy London hospital. She meets Tane (the Dutch Doctor) when she's called urgently to go home as her father has suffered a heart attack; he's called in by their family doctor to consult. Her father dies, leaving Euphemia (the eldest) her two brothers and her sister in debt, their home mortgaged. With her sister to live with their Aunt, and her two brothers away at boarding school, Euphemia decides to rent the house instead of selling. Her tenant turns out to be Tane, who also started to consult at her hospital. He only wishes the house for a year, until he marries. Tane asks Euphemia to be his fiancee's companion for two weeks in Spain as she recovers from an illness, and in exchange, he'll grant back the house for the month her brother's have their summer vacation, and she is to be paid as well. It's a generous offer she cannot refuse though meeting Diana she soon wishes to could have. Diana is a rich, spoilt, snobbish woman who though convalescing is not really all that ill. She has poor Euphemia waiting on her hand and foot, something that annoys Tane when he comes to visit. Euphemia can't imagine the two married and she wishes she could somehow break them up.

Though this story follows the usual Betty Neels plot of rich Dutch doctor helping the strong willed nurse, it has it's own charm. Euphemia takes an instant dislike for Tane, finding him arrogant and cold, something she realizes she's very wrong about later in the book. She has an impulsive tongue and often talks to herself, which sometimes gets her into trouble. She doesn't hold her punches when it comes to Tane, and he in turn declares, "What an abominable girl you are!" When Tane starts to call her Phemie, you know he's fallen for her. The HEA scene is rather rushed, but then most of Betty Neels endings are.

[Aayesha · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.75 stars

Euphemia is a 27 year old nurse, whose father dies leaving a large number of debts unpaid and a mortgaged house, with 3 younger siblings for Euphemia to take care of. Our heroine has to rent the house to make ends meet, and the renter is none other than our patient, clever RDD, Dr Tane ban Diederijk (I love his name, I find it the most attractive name of all of BN's RDD names). Dr Diederijk is engaged to be married to OW - one of the most whiny, selfish and 'boniest' OWs BN has ever written - so kudos for that. Although she wasn't jealous or evil, she was extremely annoying.

It was plain, for an avid BN reader, that the Dr was in love with Euphemia right from the beginning, and was carefully abiding his time.

Euphemia, on the other hand - (I intended not to use any gifs in this review, BUT HOW ELSE CAN I EXPRESS -







)

She was the most infuriating BN heroine I have ever come across (BN usually doesn't write such a bitchy heroine - maybe her readers were complaining about how her formulas are always the same and how her heroines are mostly doormats, so she decided to spice things up. WELL, GUESS WHAT, I LOVE BN BECAUSE HER FORMULAS ARE ALWAYS THE SAME. She is stable, she is comfort reading, she is reliable.)

The heroine was (pardon my language) bitchy, snappy and rude to the doctor, right from the beginning. First she goes around misjudging him and saying (and thinking) nasty things about him, then even when she gets to know him better, SHE JUMPS TO WRONG CONCLUSIONS AND STILL GOES ABOUT JUDGING HIM AND SNAPPING AT HIM AND TREATING HIM OH-SO-ABOMINABLY. Truly, I think Tane deserved someone so much better than her.

(For example

)

Okay, all jokes aside, this had the potential to be a much better story, HAD EUPHEMIA HAD NOT BEEN SUCH A (pardon my language again) BITCH. UGH, I HATE IT WHEN HEROINES RUIN THE STORY. (Which happens a great deal with me.)

[E_bookpushers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Standard Betty Neels comfort read that I needed. Didn't recall reading this one before so that was nice.

[Allison · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was fine, but the ending didn't nicely sum up everything like normal. The ending was actually quite abrupt.

[Pamela Shropshire · Rating 4 out of 5]

First of all, the original Harlequin cover is really great, IMO. It accurately portrays the H/h as described, plus it includes vignettes of places visited in the book.

Euphemia Blackstock is the eldest of four children of a retired Army colonel. Her mother has been dead for some time. When the story opens, Euphemia is on her way to her home in the fictional village if Hampton-cum-Spyway, near the real town of Chobham in Surrey. Her elderly car, a Morris 1000, is making disturbing noises when a silver Bentley pulls up alongside and its very handsome driver tells her she needs a new car. She is, naturally enough, put out.

When she arrives at her home, she finds her father gravely ill and the local doctor is accompanied by a consultant cardiologist - the man in the Bentley, Dr. Tane van Diederijk.

Her father dies in the night. Worse, he leaves a number of debts, including a mortgage on the family home. The consultant on her ward suggests that she rent it out to raise funds for the mortgage payments and says he "knows a guy" who might be interested. Turns our to be Dr. TvD.

Well, the dr moves in and soon invites Euphemia to a cocktail party, where she meets his fiancée. There is instant mutual dislike. Euphemia drinks too much and, not having eaten properly, gets tipsy and is sent to the kitchen to eat. She is sitting on the stairs eating an apple when Dr. TvD sees her and remarks, "Eve and the apple."

When Diana the fiancée contracts mumps, Dr. TvD asks Euphemia to go with her to Spain to rest and recover (she doesn't want any of her friends to see her). They stay with Diana's aunt, who is just like her - too thin, selfish, petulant and lazy.

Tane comes to visit and they go on some outings - some with just Tane and Euphemia and sometimes also with Diana. Euphemia has her DR. Tane kisses her.

When they leave Spain, they return home via a day-long stopover at Tane's home near Hilversum (strictly so that Euphemia can see his home, meet his parents, and reacquaint Diana with Cor de Vries, who Tane plans to have take Diana off his hands). More snogging between our RDD and PBN.

Back in England. Euphemia despairs and contemplates moving to Tristan da Cunha (I had to google it - it is the world's most remote island). There is a hospital explosion in which Tane and Phemie rescue patients, each other and he calls her darling. Phemie finds out Tane has bought the mortgage and is furious. Tane arranges for Phemie to have 2 days off at her home, where he surprises her, declares himself, presents the deed as a wedding present, and makes a very lovely proposal. "He said quite humbly for him: 'If you will marry me, my dearest Phemie? I love you so very much – I had no idea – life is so very empty when you're not there, I am at a loss how to go on.'"

There is quite a lot of good stuff in this book, including some very snappy dialogue rather reminiscent of Lizzy and Darcy; as always, TGB provides lovely descriptions of food, flora/fauna and fashion. Noteworthy is a description of an outfit worn by Diana to dinner at Tane's home: "an orange brocade jumpsuit with a great number of gold bangles." I wonder what shoes she wore?

Here are some examples of the descriptions and dialogue:

Miss Sibley was tall and slender to the point of boniness, with no bosom worth mentioning and the long face and the straight knows of a thin-lipped mouth cleverly concealed by the masterly application of lipstick. Her eyes were dark, and as she came near Euphemia, still disliking her, decided that her dark hair owed more to a good hairdresser than to nature. She was beautifully dressed and she was smiling. Euphemia thought she was cold, as cold as Dr. van Diederijk; if they had children, they would be a bunch of little icicles. She giggled into her sherry . . .

"Anyone over eight stone seems huge to me," Diana confided. Euphemia's tawny eyes travelled slowly down Diana's spare frame. "Not really," she said cheerfully, "just normal."

He transferred his gaze to her face and said distantly: "Diana is the ethereal type." "That's all very well, but see what happens when she gets a bit off-colour – she loses pounds and looks like a matchstick."

"I don't intend to have a child, but Tane's got so many brothers and sisters I can't see that it would matter. I mean, his name can be carried on by any of their children." Euphemia was glad that she was wearing her dark glasses. She said evenly: "I should think that being married without having children was like eating beef without mustard."

"-- you'll have to eat out, though I don't suppose it would hurt you to miss a meal." Euphemia's tawny eyes sparkled with rage. She said sweetly: "I expect it's the mumps which has left you so irritable. Perhaps we should get a doctor. . . "

" . . . She may have gained some weight, but she's so bony it's impossible to tell at present. . . "

The doctor looked at her. "My dear girl, I hope you thank God on your bended knees every day of your life for being a nice healthy girl, all the right shape and size and able to do things for yourself."

. . ."Diana said, 'Just wait till I get my hands on this place! I'm going to throw it all into the attics – we'll have some decent modern pieces.' 'Over my dead body,' said the doctor quietly, and Diana laughed. Euphemia, glancing into his face, saw that he meant it."

4 1/4 stars.

[Helen Manning · Rating 5 out of 5]

TGB is keeping me up nights. This is a great tale of a PBN who helps her elderly Father look after 2 younger brothers and one younger sister. Euphemia (thanks Mom and Dad for that name) gets called home unexpectedly by her gentle and useless sister with the news that her Father is failing. No long drawn out death scene here one chapter and Dad's gone and left them mortgaged up to the ceiling of their shabby and ramshackle beloved family home. The RDD of the piece is Tane van Diederijk (engaged to one of TGB's more hateful and repugnant Veronicas ) who after he meets her while consulting on her Dad's case decides to lease her home for a year. They hate each other on sight and we all know what that means don't we? She needles him at every turn and he freezes her out with arching eyebrows and cold tones. Of course her family and widowed aunt think he is the greatest thing since hot scones but Phemie is unimpressed until her Aha moment later in the book. Nice side jaunt nursing the mumps afflicted Veronica in Spain and near the finale a gas explosion outside of Euphemia's hospital. Solid and satisfying read.

[Rita]

1981. Amazing that Neels could get away with writing so many stories with almost exactly the same plot. The wise, understanding, all-seeing, and all-knowing father figure who the heroine ends up marrying... I suppose it does speak to a nearly universal longing for such a father figure [or male god:] who perceives what one truly needs and supplies it... Perhaps the slightly differing personalities and circumstances of the heroine interest me a bit, though the transformation from independent, intelligent, clear-thinking young woman to a person who can't function any more without the father figure always shocks me.
I got started reading these books after learning my Aunt Florence has read all of them [she subscribed to them:].

[Teri-K · Rating 3 out of 5]

Typical, pleasant story about Euphemia, a nurse who is forced to support her younger sister and brothers after both parents die. They inherit their family's old house but can't afford the mortgage, so Euphemia decides to rent it out while the boys are in school. Of course, a RDD she knows from work decides to rent it. He has a spoiled fiance, recovering from the mumps, and our heroine goes to Spain to care for her, on the way back visiting the RDD's home in Holland. There's also an exploding gas main that disrupts her unit at the hospital. There's nothing to make this book stand out from the author's many others, but it satisfies when you just want one of her usual.

NB - If you enjoy Neel's books join the conversation at the GR group Betty Neels Junkies. See you there!

[Hopefulpuffin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bentley, Morris and a Cadillac.

I enjoyed this one. There's a nasty fiancée (I'm a sucker for Neels' vicious OW) and an all round pleasant family a bit down at the heels due to the death of their father and an unknown mortgage/debt. Euphemia is an able nurse who is able to keep her family chugging along by renting the family home to Tane, the RDD.

Tane does go hot/cold but I liked him. Euphemia isn't afraid to speak her mind although she does put her foot in her mouth at times.

And this one features yet another hospital building disaster (to date I've read about 2 fires and this sudden incident, British hospitals seem to be risky places).

[Barb in Maryland · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can't believe it--a Betty Neels book that I had never read before. Well of course we have the typical Neels' plot--rich Dutch doctor and charming English nurse. He is engaged to the "wrong woman" (naturally). But by the end of the book, all is well and right in the world. Happy endings all around. What's not to like?

[Tonya Warner]

Euphemia can barely tolerate Tane, the doctor seemingly cold and distant. Despite their first meeting followed shortly by the death of her father, Euphemia still rents out her home to Tane and even undertakes the care of his fiancee when she falls ill. In the end, the antagonism gives way to love.



A very cute story.

[Noemail]

HAVE 2 copies

[Virginia Brien · Rating 4 out of 5]

Neels books are just so comforting...

[Mariski · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a personal thing... for some reason it's one of my all time fave

[Evelyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another fun book. Started reading this on the Greyhound bus and finished it last night.

[Mudpie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Euphemia and Tane!

It's starting to bug me that invariably the Other Woman in BN books are usually the girlfriend or even fiancée of the hero! I know this OW is usually a b!tch or is highly unsuitable for the hero, but facts are facts, our heroine is the "third party" in some ways, usually to contrast how badly behaved the OW was!

Those girlfriends or pseudo assumed girlfriends don't bother me as much, but the fiancées do. What on earth were the heroes thinking to even propose to those women?! Their acting was sooooo good eh!? Like this Diana. It was sooo hilarious to find her aunt was another carbon copy of Diana! So delicate *cough cough*

Anyway in this book as Euphemia struggled with her deepening feelings for Tane, the phrase "all's fair in love and war" was used a few times. It was fitting because her father was a military man haha! But I guess this settles the issue of our heroine being the other woman instead...

It was ingenious how Tane got rid of Diana though so that everyone was happy!

We got in some delightful sightseeing in Spain and Holland. Both Cadiz and the dictor's home were gorgeous. I love the subtext of Tane bringing both Diana and Euphemia to his home in Hilversum, Holland.

I find that my favourite stories from BN are still the doctor hero-nurse/hospital staff heroine combination!

Both Euphemia and Tane had lovely family and staff. Euphemia is by far the funniest/spirited heroine I have read so far. All her lines about Tane and Diana having icicles as offsprings, Diana's skinny figure, food/dieting, giving Tane her apple core at his party etc. I found myself chuckling even as I was reading. Oh I do love this " junoesque" type heroine too, curvy and pretty without being vainly obsessed with her appearance. This Diana was most cruel and nasty to those she deemed beneath her, look at how she always ignored the staff.

So many quote worthy lines in this book. Eight stones is about 50kg FYI...

SPOILERS

I was expecting Tane to declare his feelings or some such more dramatic behaviour right after the blast happened. Instead he was so cool and practical even the Senior Nursing Officer was confounded by him declaring Euphemia would be fine after a good sleep (which she was but still...) Man!

A great 1981 read. As usual I feel the need to reread right away!

[Tausha Duncan · Rating 5 out of 5]

It ended kind of suddenly.

This book was pretty great! It's the story of Euphemism and Tane. You dislike Diana pretty early in the story. I can't stand her! Neither could Euphemia. However, Euphemism is a wonderful girl and her handling of Diana shows it. Tane is pretty great, but it takes a minute to figure that out. He's very considerate, but like many of Betty Neels' other heroes, he's fairly arrogant. Doctors. Go figure. Anyway, there's some comedy, some hurt, some excitement, and some good story telling in this one. I enjoyed it a lot!

[Florence Primrose · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dr. Tane...., a visiting Dutch doctor, enters Euphemia’s life when he comes to see her dying father. Euphemia does not like his cold manner. Next she sees him when comes to consult on the hospital ward of which she is in charge.

He is engaged to Diana, but Euphemia does not see what he sees in Diana.

This story is a typical “fun” romance.

[Michelle David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely

If you enjoy your romances clean, light, fluffy and vintage then you will enjoy the wonderful work of Betty Neels

[aem · Rating 3 out of 5]

Typical Betty Neels HEA. 😊

[Monique E. Lacroix · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifulte

I can't say much about this book, except that it was very moving. I think I actually shred a year a few times

[Brandielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I quite like the Betty Neels books where they’re super ornery with each other.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is actually almost funny, not the usual shy sweetness you expect from Betty!

[Anne O'Nymus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Abigail is a wonderful character. Kind but confident. And the OW - so deliciously hateful! One of the best Bettys.

[Alla Sobirova · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love all books by Betty Neels!!! Such a cozy atmosphere!!!

[Barty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read: 3Nov25, 19Jan26,

4.5 stars. this one's ending left me feeling so cozy inside and blissful. the ending, arriving after a well told tale, was so sweet and delicious.

this is the one where our pretty nurse (27) crosses paths with RDD while driving and he is snarky to her and she dislikes him for it. sparks immediately, always promising! it turns out she is on the way to her fathers sickbed at the family home. she gets there to find RDD and doc with her father. rdd is heart specialist. turns out dad has been hiding how ill he is an it's too late for an operation to fix it. rdd takes that decision, so when dad dies that night, our h is furious with the rdd, but he is kind to her yet aloof.

he then turns up working at her hospital plus he ends up leasing the family home, which she otherwise can't afford to keep after her dad's death. plus she has 3 younger siblings relying on her. so she has to put up with H as their paths keep crossing. she certainly tells herself she does like him because he is arrogant and cold, and this is reinforced when she meets his skinny, rich, cold-hearted fiancee.

when the fiancee gets ill (mumps), H asks h to go to Spain with her for 2 weeks to help the woman recuperate. h is forced to accept because he wrangles it that way, much like Betty's managing males always do!

SPOILERS AHEAD

spain is dull because the selfish fiancee is being her sulky lazy selfish self. h tries her best to her her recover her energy and looks because she has promised the H she will do so. H visits after a week and his fiancee accidentally shows her mean nasty side. she still clings to him and stakes her claim, flaunting him to our nurse. H is obviously too much of a gentleman to ditch her because he's promised to marry her, but he does seem annoyed with her.

and he is also very good to our h during his visit after they rescue a child together. and she realises she has fallen in love with him.

MORE SPOILERS

anyway after that there is a brief trip to Amsterdam where h admires his lovely family home and H says he longs to raise his kids there and for them to be happy. h is upset because the ice queen fiancee has told her that she intends never to have kids with H and that he has enough nephews to be his heirs.

then they all return to London and h does her best to avoid H, but this proves difficult. They keep meeting and she keeps loving him and feeling angst and they even have to get through a tough explosion scenario at the hospital together in which he is v capable and heroic.

there wasn't quite the third act climactic breakup. it was more that he upset her with something she thought was unforgivable so she wanted nothing to do with him and retreats to her family home, but it turns out what he did was actually rather wonderful and he can't stay away from her so he comes after her. that final scene was lovely with how he told her he'd fallen in love and simply couldn't stay away from her any more. plus he'd conspired to get his fiancee to break off their engagement by dangling some other pompous rich guy in front of her... that's he'd known he needed her from the first time her saw he and fate had brought him to her family home...

the book was so lovely because both the h and H were so likeable and were real people with real problems. he never did explain why he'd gotten engaged to such an icicle but it hardly seemed to matter in the end. I assume the icicle pulled the wool over his eyes with her glam yet charming girl act and he'd been ready to settle down until he set eyes on the h and realised what he really wanted from life. twas just so lovely at the end.

the book didn't start out strongly for me and I think the fathers deathbed thing gave me some anxiety so I had put the book away for a few weeks but then cane back to it and found that the grief was handled v well and was not too upsetting and the book quickly picked up the pace with the action and romance soon afterwards. defs worth persevering.

this was a lovely heartwarming read with a lovely bit of angst, unacknowledged longing on both sides, a swoonworthy hero and a wonderfully developed romance.

[Anya · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you have not read Betty Neels before let me clue you in - the woman writes the equivalent of a warm hug. Love her. Her books definitely feel of the same quilt, but different enough that you can enjoy each, her heroines are always super like-able, heroes always deliciously cold, and every one that I have read has a btch-ass OW (the initial allure for me).
As for this book - I loved this heroine, she is who I want to be when I grow up (because I am not a middle-aged woman already). Plucky, resilient, self-sufficient, giving...book opens with her father passing and she is now in charge of her younger siblings, an old beautiful house, and a demanding career as a nurse. Hero is a doctor and her new tenant. They hate/love each other on sight. I could barely contain myself. Did I mention he was deliciously cold? Barely a morsel of how he feels until the delightful ending, of course as the reader you pick up every crumb he's dropping but heroine is totally unaware of her allure, especially as she juxtaposes herself to the cold-fish, sophisticated OW. Bonus that the h is curvy, love that especially for the time period Betty was writing in, I don't run into a lot of curvy hs from this pre-harly time. At one point h has to play nurse to the OW on a trip to Spain for her convalescence, with the H in tow! I was just in heaven. The writing flows beautifully, the shifting scenes of Europe were really well-done, it was an absolute pleasure of a read!