Dangerous Stranger

by Lucy Gillen

Melodie Neil and Jed Martin were old friends; she knew that he loved her — in a calm, settled way rather than with any grand passion — and that he would make her a good, kind husband; in short, when she became engaged to him she knew exactly what she was doing. So she deeply resented it when that infuriating Keith Scott seemed to go out of his way to suggest that her heart wasn’t in the affair. Perhaps it wouldn’t do for Keith — he was, after all, half Argentinian and had the Spaniard’s haughty outlook on women — but in that case why didn’t he just leave Melodie alone and concentrate on his own fiancee, the temperamental Maria Santas?

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1973

Reviews

[Pooja Peravali · Rating 3 out of 5]

Melodie, home to her grandfather's farm to look after him, becomes engaged to Jed thinking that it will be a safe and certain thing. However, sparks keep flying whenever she meets Keith, her infuriating neighbor.

I bought a big lot of old Harlequin romances recently - after all, I do prefer my romance to have been published between the sixties and the nineties. This is my first foray into the box, and it wasn't a bad one at all. Despite the brevity of the book, the characters are all well-sketched out and the situations engaged my interest.

The hero was commanding without being arrogant. Sometimes the heroine irritated me with her willful blindness to her situation, but for the most part I liked her as well. There are some complications in the central relationship with the intrusions of Jed and Maria, but it all is sorted out well enough.

I'd read more by this author - which is a good thing considering I've one more of her books in the lot!

[Lynn Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book, the story and the main male and female characters. Loved the chemistry between the 2 main characters and found the male character very masculine and sexy for the time. The romance too is of its time and culture and would not be PC for today's readership as many books written in the 1960s-80s would reflect also.

Neither bookcover shown in here are my favourite. I prefer the UK book cover version for Mills and Boon to these shown here.

This book remains my favourite of this author and is a keeper in my collection to this day along with A Taste of Honey, Sweet Kate, The Silver Witch and A gentle Tyrant.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked Melodie and Keith and their story. The writing was nice and so was the setting of the Yorkshire countryside. A light and fun read.