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You Took My Heart
Doctor Garth by Elizabeth Hoy released on Nov 24, 1982 is available now for purchase.
- GenresHarlequin Romance
Mass Market Paperback
First published December 1, 1959
21 people want to read
About the author
Elizabeth Hoy
71 books3 followersAlice Nina Conarain was born in Dublin, Ireland. She married Mr. Hoysradt. She worked as a nurse, secretary-receptionist, and staff member of the Daily News in London, England, UK. She started publishing romance novels in 1930s at Mills & Boon under the pseudonym of Elizabeth Hoy, she also wrote as Nina Conarain at Arcadia House. She wrote over 70 romance novels from 1933 to 1980.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
May 10, 2024
Pair up a selfish, clueless oaf with a martyr heroine and you've got yourself Elizabeth Hoy's nurse-doctor soap opera, You took my heart.
The limp lettuce leaf Hero was the worst: a brilliant surgeon in his professional life and a hopeless nincompoop in his private life. When he was a fresh-off-the-turnip-truck, medical student let loose for the first time into The Bright Lights of the Big City, he fell into crazed lust with an emotionally disturbed Russian ballet dancer, resulting in a quickie marriage. Hero hoped that his magic peen would somehow tame this Russian wildflower into loving him back and becoming a conventional doctor's wife. Fat chance! The marriage disintegrated and our Russian dancer got herself out of dodge without leaving a forwarding address. Hero never told his family or any of his friends back home in the village about his disastrous, short-lived marriage. He supposedly had no way of obtaining a divorce since he didn’t know the whereabouts of his wife. But I have a feeling that he was pining for her and hoping against all hope that she would one day return to him.
Life went on. Hero eventually graduated and became a doctor. When he finally returned to visit his small village after years away, lo and behold, he realized that his childhood friend, the heroine of this piece, was all grown up and looking mightily ready to be plucked. However, there was the matter of his marriage. Bigamy just wouldn't look good on a famous surgeon's resume. So instead, he strung along the heroine, their respective parents, and the entire village, for eight long years, with a quasi-engagement to the heroine and vague promises that an official engagement would be forthcoming as soon as he was financially ready to enter matrimony. *smh*
After the heroine's father passed away, the hero arranged for her to train as a nurse at the hospital he was working in, still hiding the truth from her, and letting her build up her dreams and hopes. Then...
DUN...DUN...DUNNNNN!
Re-enters Russian wife with a sick 8 year old child who is the hero's Seekret Son.
It became the biggest Escandalo the hospital had sustained in decades, with newspaper headlines, frantic committee meetings, and talk ofburning the hero at the stake firing the hero in great dishonor. Hero showed where his TRUE affection lay when he begrudgingly told heroine he was willing to divorce the Russian wife and abandon his son if the heroine wanted to hold him to his promises. Interesting that he threw in the abandonment of his flesh and blood for maximum guilt effect. Like you can’t have a relationship with your child if you divorce? *eye roll* Nevertheless, Heroine received the hero’s message loud and clear and nobly stepped aside for the sake of his family and his career. The hero then had the nerve to get angry at her because she did not fight for them LOL. He proceeded to move his wife and kid in his home THE VERY NEXT DAY!
It gets worse. While the hero was blissfully happy playing family at home, he was still harassing the heroine at work. The epitome of a selfish bastard wanting to eat his cake and have it too. Not surprisingly, the hero’s marriage started to crumble. He blamed this wife, naturally, especially her supposed possessiveness over their son, which led to many quarrels between them. When hero threatened to send the boy away to school, she took the kid and ran. Hero moped and cried on heroine’s shoulder then abruptly ghosted her because he was STILL pining for the Russian wife to eventually come back to him and it wouldn't look good if they kept up their "friendship." I just can't with this guy :(
Heroine somehow tracked down the Russian wife at a seedy bar where she was doing a grotesque can-can show under a false name. Before she could find out her address, the wife crashed her car in a head on collision with a truck and instantly died. The plot moppet son was recovered and sent to the heroine's village to convalesce. The book concludes with the Hero’s return from an extensive medical tour in America. He walks in to a warm welcome at his village from the heroine, his son, and his parents.
If you like this and consider that a happy ending, great! I, on the other hand, wanted to take a couple of thousand skillets to the hero's head, as well as a few less, smaller kitchen accessories to the heroine's :(
The limp lettuce leaf Hero was the worst: a brilliant surgeon in his professional life and a hopeless nincompoop in his private life. When he was a fresh-off-the-turnip-truck, medical student let loose for the first time into The Bright Lights of the Big City, he fell into crazed lust with an emotionally disturbed Russian ballet dancer, resulting in a quickie marriage. Hero hoped that his magic peen would somehow tame this Russian wildflower into loving him back and becoming a conventional doctor's wife. Fat chance! The marriage disintegrated and our Russian dancer got herself out of dodge without leaving a forwarding address. Hero never told his family or any of his friends back home in the village about his disastrous, short-lived marriage. He supposedly had no way of obtaining a divorce since he didn’t know the whereabouts of his wife. But I have a feeling that he was pining for her and hoping against all hope that she would one day return to him.
Life went on. Hero eventually graduated and became a doctor. When he finally returned to visit his small village after years away, lo and behold, he realized that his childhood friend, the heroine of this piece, was all grown up and looking mightily ready to be plucked. However, there was the matter of his marriage. Bigamy just wouldn't look good on a famous surgeon's resume. So instead, he strung along the heroine, their respective parents, and the entire village, for eight long years, with a quasi-engagement to the heroine and vague promises that an official engagement would be forthcoming as soon as he was financially ready to enter matrimony. *smh*
After the heroine's father passed away, the hero arranged for her to train as a nurse at the hospital he was working in, still hiding the truth from her, and letting her build up her dreams and hopes. Then...
DUN...DUN...DUNNNNN!
Re-enters Russian wife with a sick 8 year old child who is the hero's Seekret Son.
It became the biggest Escandalo the hospital had sustained in decades, with newspaper headlines, frantic committee meetings, and talk of
It gets worse. While the hero was blissfully happy playing family at home, he was still harassing the heroine at work. The epitome of a selfish bastard wanting to eat his cake and have it too. Not surprisingly, the hero’s marriage started to crumble. He blamed this wife, naturally, especially her supposed possessiveness over their son, which led to many quarrels between them. When hero threatened to send the boy away to school, she took the kid and ran. Hero moped and cried on heroine’s shoulder then abruptly ghosted her because he was STILL pining for the Russian wife to eventually come back to him and it wouldn't look good if they kept up their "friendship." I just can't with this guy :(
Heroine somehow tracked down the Russian wife at a seedy bar where she was doing a grotesque can-can show under a false name. Before she could find out her address, the wife crashed her car in a head on collision with a truck and instantly died. The plot moppet son was recovered and sent to the heroine's village to convalesce. The book concludes with the Hero’s return from an extensive medical tour in America. He walks in to a warm welcome at his village from the heroine, his son, and his parents.
If you like this and consider that a happy ending, great! I, on the other hand, wanted to take a couple of thousand skillets to the hero's head, as well as a few less, smaller kitchen accessories to the heroine's :(
September 2, 2018
Wow. Just wow. So much messed-up drama! I don't even know what to say.
December 23, 2013
That story was whacked! I mean totally and seriously whacked. I can't quite get over what all happened in it. What a screwed up situation.
nope-not-today-satan
July 4, 2018note to myself: 8 year engagement = heroine is a huge doormat and "zero" is married
September 14, 2022
Did l read the same book as other people?
BECAUSE:
1 : The h was never engaged to the H in this book.
2 : The h was never engaged to the H and for 8 years as other reviewers stated.
3 : The book started in a September and it concluded in March the following year. When the book started the h was 21 years old and was still 21 when the book ended so if the h was engaged to the H for 8 years then she must have gotten engaged at the age of 13.
The h grew up in a village next door to the H. He was 8 years older.
In her teenage years she fell in love with him but she kept it to herself.
The H went to London to attend Medical school and in his freshman year he gets infatuated with a Russian ballet dancer. When she had visa problems he grabbed the opportunity to marry her.
She didn't love him only married him to be able to stay in the country. The H was hopeful that eventually she was going to learn to love him. It never happened.
A few months later she left him. By that time the H was out of love with her. They never got a divorce.
When the h was 17 the H fell in love with her though he never told her. At 21 the h was in London doing her nursing training after the urging of the H. The H was a doctor at the same hospital.
During that time they started dating.
The Russian wife came back into his life during that period of time with the H's 7 year old son, a son the H never knew about.
The h was devastated. The H confessed his love for the h, he was going to get a divorce and support his son even though he was going to rarely see the boy as his mother was moving around as a ballet dancer.
The h wanted to protect the H from a scandal ( it was 1959 ) and the loss of his son, which the H grew to love a great deal, and declined his proposal.
The H moved the wife and son into his house though from what l understand they weren't having marital relationships.
The wife been possessive of the son and not wanting to send him at a faraway school, as the H had suggested, run away again only to have an accident and die.
Happy ever after for the H, h, and son.
The author made it clear that the H and the Russian dancer had absolutely nothing in common. The H was very young when he met her and it was only a youthful short lived infatuation.
The H and h on the other hand were kindred spirits.
I don't like when author complicate the story so much so that at the end they throw an accident, a disaster, an illness or death to resolve the situation. They take the easy way out.
BECAUSE:
1 : The h was never engaged to the H in this book.
2 : The h was never engaged to the H and for 8 years as other reviewers stated.
3 : The book started in a September and it concluded in March the following year. When the book started the h was 21 years old and was still 21 when the book ended so if the h was engaged to the H for 8 years then she must have gotten engaged at the age of 13.
The h grew up in a village next door to the H. He was 8 years older.
In her teenage years she fell in love with him but she kept it to herself.
The H went to London to attend Medical school and in his freshman year he gets infatuated with a Russian ballet dancer. When she had visa problems he grabbed the opportunity to marry her.
She didn't love him only married him to be able to stay in the country. The H was hopeful that eventually she was going to learn to love him. It never happened.
A few months later she left him. By that time the H was out of love with her. They never got a divorce.
When the h was 17 the H fell in love with her though he never told her. At 21 the h was in London doing her nursing training after the urging of the H. The H was a doctor at the same hospital.
During that time they started dating.
The Russian wife came back into his life during that period of time with the H's 7 year old son, a son the H never knew about.
The h was devastated. The H confessed his love for the h, he was going to get a divorce and support his son even though he was going to rarely see the boy as his mother was moving around as a ballet dancer.
The h wanted to protect the H from a scandal ( it was 1959 ) and the loss of his son, which the H grew to love a great deal, and declined his proposal.
The H moved the wife and son into his house though from what l understand they weren't having marital relationships.
The wife been possessive of the son and not wanting to send him at a faraway school, as the H had suggested, run away again only to have an accident and die.
Happy ever after for the H, h, and son.
The author made it clear that the H and the Russian dancer had absolutely nothing in common. The H was very young when he met her and it was only a youthful short lived infatuation.
The H and h on the other hand were kindred spirits.
I don't like when author complicate the story so much so that at the end they throw an accident, a disaster, an illness or death to resolve the situation. They take the easy way out.
February 14, 2023
This book was good in parts and dragging in parts.Joanna, the heroine, takes up nursing in London after her father's death .Garth, the hero, is her childhood friend and doctor at the same hospital .They both are attracted to each other and Joan is sure Garth loves her.One day a small boy Ivan is admitted to the hospital and Garth comes to treat him and is shocked to see Ivan and his mom Vera for Vera is Garth's wife and Ivan is his unknown son.
Things gets complicated for Joan who is heartbroken to know Garth has been married from 8 years and has a 7 year old son.Garth explains Joan that he married Vera so that she could stay in London otherwise she was to be deported ro Russia.He had an infatuation and their marriage had not lasted long and were planning divorce.
Joan doesn't believe it, and she wants Garth to make a home for Ivan.Vera is in love with another man, and she and Garth have nothing in common. Garth wants to give a good education to Ivan, but Vera is too possessive of him and doesn't want to send him to school.
Finally, Vera decides to leave London but meets with an accident and dies.Meanwhile Joan realises that Garth and Vera are a mismatch and Joan and Garth reunite.
This story was good and the characters were likeable but it could have been better if it was a bit short and not dragging at many places.Nevertheless a good read.
Things gets complicated for Joan who is heartbroken to know Garth has been married from 8 years and has a 7 year old son.Garth explains Joan that he married Vera so that she could stay in London otherwise she was to be deported ro Russia.He had an infatuation and their marriage had not lasted long and were planning divorce.
Joan doesn't believe it, and she wants Garth to make a home for Ivan.Vera is in love with another man, and she and Garth have nothing in common. Garth wants to give a good education to Ivan, but Vera is too possessive of him and doesn't want to send him to school.
Finally, Vera decides to leave London but meets with an accident and dies.Meanwhile Joan realises that Garth and Vera are a mismatch and Joan and Garth reunite.
This story was good and the characters were likeable but it could have been better if it was a bit short and not dragging at many places.Nevertheless a good read.
April 3, 2023
I know that this was perhaps not meant by the writer, but the book gave me strong vibes/shades of adultery and extra marital relations. The ow was and continues to be the Hero's top priority apart from being his wife and first love, and the heroine is there in the shadows to comfort him and be a second. It seems like the H has an innate ability to be in love with two women at the same time...A very "chance" or 'by luck' ending..The H is a married man for 98 percent of the book. Not my taste.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews