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Rain of Diamonds
A man doesn't want the love of a girl.
Although she was alone in the world and very young, Francesca's idolization of the man who became her protector was no puppy love.
With Caspar Barrington she had sailed the golden Caribbean. Life had been idyllic--until the news arrived.
Caspar was Lord Lanyon, now. They went to England, where Francesca couldn't help comparing herself to the eligible women anxious to be his wife. She must leave before heartbreak destroyed her completely.
Although she was alone in the world and very young, Francesca's idolization of the man who became her protector was no puppy love.
With Caspar Barrington she had sailed the golden Caribbean. Life had been idyllic--until the news arrived.
Caspar was Lord Lanyon, now. They went to England, where Francesca couldn't help comparing herself to the eligible women anxious to be his wife. She must leave before heartbreak destroyed her completely.
188 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1981
72 people want to read
About the author
Anne Weale
219 books49 followersJay Blakeney
aka Anne Weale, Andrea Blake
Jay Blakeney was born on Juny 20, 1929. Her great-grandfather was a well-known writer on moral theology, so perhaps she inherited her writing gene from him. She was "talking stories" to herself long before she could read. When she was still at school, she sold her first short stories to a woman's magazine and she feels she was destined to write. Decided to became a writer, she started writing for newspapers and magazines.
At 21, Jay was a newspaper reporter with a career plan, but the man she was wildly in love with announced that he was off to the other side of the world. He thought they should either marry or say goodbye. She always believed that true love could last a lifetime, and she felt that wonderful men were much harder to find than good jobs, so she put her career on hold. What a wise decision it was! She felt that new young women seem less inclined to risk everything for love than her generation.
Together they traveled the world. If she hadn't spent part of her bridal year living on the edge of a jungle in Malaysia, she might never have become a romance writer. That isolated house, and the perils of the state of emergency that existed in the country at that time, gave her a background and plot ideally suited to a genre she had never read until she came across some romances in the library of a country club they sometimes visited. She can write about love with the even stronger conviction that comes from experience.
When they returned to Europe, Jay resumed her career as a journalist, writing her first romance in her spare time. She sold her first novel as Anne Weale to Mills and Boon in 1955 at the age of 24. At 30, with seven books published, she "retired" to have a baby and become a full-time writer. She raised a delightful son, David, who is as adventurous as his father. Her husband and son have even climbed in the Andes and the Himalayas, giving her lots of ideas for stories. When she retired from reporting, her fiction income -- a combination of amounts earned as a Mills & Boon author and writing for magazines such as Woman's Illustrated, which serialized the work of authors -- exceed 1,000 pounds a year.
She was a founding member of the The Romantic Novelists' Association. In 2002 she published her last novel, in total, she wrote 88 novels. She also wrote under the pseudonym Andrea Blake. She loved setting her novels in exotic parts of the world, but specially in The Caribbean and in her beloved Spain. Since 1989, Jay spent most of the winter months in a very small "pueblo" in the backwoods of Spain. During years, she visited some villages, and from each she have borrowed some feature - a fountain, a street, a plaza, a picturesque old house - to create some places like Valdecarrasca, that is wholly imaginary and yet typical of the part of rural Spain she knew best. She loved walking, reading, sketching, sewing (curtains and slipcovers) and doing needlepoint, gardening, entertaining friends, visiting art galleries and museums, writing letters, surfing the Net, traveling in search of exciting locations for future books, eating delicious food and drinking good wine, cataloguing her books.
She wrote a regular website review column for The Bookseller from 1998 to 2004, before starting her own blog Bookworm on the Net. At the time of her death, on October 24, 2007, she was working on her autobiography "88 Heroes... 1 Mr. Right".
aka Anne Weale, Andrea Blake
Jay Blakeney was born on Juny 20, 1929. Her great-grandfather was a well-known writer on moral theology, so perhaps she inherited her writing gene from him. She was "talking stories" to herself long before she could read. When she was still at school, she sold her first short stories to a woman's magazine and she feels she was destined to write. Decided to became a writer, she started writing for newspapers and magazines.
At 21, Jay was a newspaper reporter with a career plan, but the man she was wildly in love with announced that he was off to the other side of the world. He thought they should either marry or say goodbye. She always believed that true love could last a lifetime, and she felt that wonderful men were much harder to find than good jobs, so she put her career on hold. What a wise decision it was! She felt that new young women seem less inclined to risk everything for love than her generation.
Together they traveled the world. If she hadn't spent part of her bridal year living on the edge of a jungle in Malaysia, she might never have become a romance writer. That isolated house, and the perils of the state of emergency that existed in the country at that time, gave her a background and plot ideally suited to a genre she had never read until she came across some romances in the library of a country club they sometimes visited. She can write about love with the even stronger conviction that comes from experience.
When they returned to Europe, Jay resumed her career as a journalist, writing her first romance in her spare time. She sold her first novel as Anne Weale to Mills and Boon in 1955 at the age of 24. At 30, with seven books published, she "retired" to have a baby and become a full-time writer. She raised a delightful son, David, who is as adventurous as his father. Her husband and son have even climbed in the Andes and the Himalayas, giving her lots of ideas for stories. When she retired from reporting, her fiction income -- a combination of amounts earned as a Mills & Boon author and writing for magazines such as Woman's Illustrated, which serialized the work of authors -- exceed 1,000 pounds a year.
She was a founding member of the The Romantic Novelists' Association. In 2002 she published her last novel, in total, she wrote 88 novels. She also wrote under the pseudonym Andrea Blake. She loved setting her novels in exotic parts of the world, but specially in The Caribbean and in her beloved Spain. Since 1989, Jay spent most of the winter months in a very small "pueblo" in the backwoods of Spain. During years, she visited some villages, and from each she have borrowed some feature - a fountain, a street, a plaza, a picturesque old house - to create some places like Valdecarrasca, that is wholly imaginary and yet typical of the part of rural Spain she knew best. She loved walking, reading, sketching, sewing (curtains and slipcovers) and doing needlepoint, gardening, entertaining friends, visiting art galleries and museums, writing letters, surfing the Net, traveling in search of exciting locations for future books, eating delicious food and drinking good wine, cataloguing her books.
She wrote a regular website review column for The Bookseller from 1998 to 2004, before starting her own blog Bookworm on the Net. At the time of her death, on October 24, 2007, she was working on her autobiography "88 Heroes... 1 Mr. Right".
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
May 21, 2024
Anne Weale's Rain of Diamonds is a charming vintage romance with the author's signature travelogue and fashion porn. The story is told in flashbacks, switching back and forth between the time that the heroine was a skinny, destitute street urchin rescued by the gruff, but not unkind, sailboat captain hero, and the present, with the heroine now grown up into a sophisticated, London dress designer and a hero who has left his sailboat adventures behind and is now an established English country gentleman.
The "rain of diamonds" of the title refers to the name of the sailboat that hero and heroine lived on when they initially met. Hero named the boat after the actual rain of diamonds (a Victorian-era diamond necklace) gifted to him by his grandmother, whose sale price enabled him to leave England and his estranged family behind, buy his boat and sail around the world footloose and carefree.
It was really sweet how the story concluded by the hero gifting heroine with an authentic, antique rain of diamonds necklace signifying she was his one true love, after all the misunderstandings that kept them apart for five years. He had kept the other "rain of diamonds," his sailboat, in the hopes that she would one day come back to him and they could sail again in the Carribean, this time as man and wife. I really loved the romanticism of the story, although their long separation, prompted by another tiresome Great, Big, Terrible Misunderstanding was annoying.
The "rain of diamonds" of the title refers to the name of the sailboat that hero and heroine lived on when they initially met. Hero named the boat after the actual rain of diamonds (a Victorian-era diamond necklace) gifted to him by his grandmother, whose sale price enabled him to leave England and his estranged family behind, buy his boat and sail around the world footloose and carefree.
It was really sweet how the story concluded by the hero gifting heroine with an authentic, antique rain of diamonds necklace signifying she was his one true love, after all the misunderstandings that kept them apart for five years. He had kept the other "rain of diamonds," his sailboat, in the hopes that she would one day come back to him and they could sail again in the Carribean, this time as man and wife. I really loved the romanticism of the story, although their long separation, prompted by another tiresome Great, Big, Terrible Misunderstanding was annoying.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 17, 2018
A coming of age saga compressed into a category romance. Who knew it could be done?
In the mid-1970's I would check out heavy doorstop books from the library looking for a satisfying romance. As a baby romance reader (say 8th -9th grade) I would hope that the hero introduced in the first part of the book would be the heroine's love of her life. There were always immediate complications: the heroine was too young, too tomboyish, too poor. Add in sophisticated OWs and an elderly relative or two to caution patience and I would be in despair for the heroine. The hero would add to the heartbreak by rejecting the heroine in some way.
The heroine would eventually move on to other interests and men - even to have a change of location that would take her out of the hero's orbit.
The angst! The drama! *flips to the back page and see the hero's name for reassurance*
It was only after that reassurance that this baby romance reader could settle in and enjoy the character growth of the heroine knowing she would get the big prize at the end.
But even at the end of these 500 pages stories with the hero showing up at the last minute with a romantic gesture, I always felt vaguely unsatisfied. The heroine has endured trials and tribulations while the hero had women on the side and is now ready to settle down with someone "worthy" of him.
I had the same feeling with this one. The heroine had a brilliant career in fashion, and yet she's giving it all up. Is the hero that big of a prize? When I was 14, I thought so. Now not so much. :)
It doesn't help that the ending was so abrupt and the the heroine met a lot of interesting kind people out of the hero's orbit. They never outshone the hero, but the hero never outshone them, either.
So all and all I enjoyed this because of the nostalgia factor (I can practically smell the "suntan" lotion on my shoulders as I read in our backyard).
For a real book review, check out Naksed's or Leona's or Jenny's reviews. I'm just having an indulgent trip down memory lane.
In the mid-1970's I would check out heavy doorstop books from the library looking for a satisfying romance. As a baby romance reader (say 8th -9th grade) I would hope that the hero introduced in the first part of the book would be the heroine's love of her life. There were always immediate complications: the heroine was too young, too tomboyish, too poor. Add in sophisticated OWs and an elderly relative or two to caution patience and I would be in despair for the heroine. The hero would add to the heartbreak by rejecting the heroine in some way.
The heroine would eventually move on to other interests and men - even to have a change of location that would take her out of the hero's orbit.
The angst! The drama! *flips to the back page and see the hero's name for reassurance*
It was only after that reassurance that this baby romance reader could settle in and enjoy the character growth of the heroine knowing she would get the big prize at the end.
But even at the end of these 500 pages stories with the hero showing up at the last minute with a romantic gesture, I always felt vaguely unsatisfied. The heroine has endured trials and tribulations while the hero had women on the side and is now ready to settle down with someone "worthy" of him.
I had the same feeling with this one. The heroine had a brilliant career in fashion, and yet she's giving it all up. Is the hero that big of a prize? When I was 14, I thought so. Now not so much. :)
It doesn't help that the ending was so abrupt and the the heroine met a lot of interesting kind people out of the hero's orbit. They never outshone the hero, but the hero never outshone them, either.
So all and all I enjoyed this because of the nostalgia factor (I can practically smell the "suntan" lotion on my shoulders as I read in our backyard).
For a real book review, check out Naksed's or Leona's or Jenny's reviews. I'm just having an indulgent trip down memory lane.
November 12, 2013
An okay story about a young girl who is rescued from a horrible life of poverty by a man who eventually inherits a title and becomes "out of reach" to her. The beginning was great, but I thought the story lost steam during the second half of the book.
Too much time was spent in flashback when she was only 17. I had a hard time reconciling the relationship given most of the story was told through her eyes. For most of the book, the relationship between H/h was one of brother and sister. (Thank heavens)
It didn't give me the creeps as other books have, but I just couldn't transition to their relationship as adults.
Less time on the past and more time in the current with a few obstacles thrown their way, would have made for a much better and compelling love story.
Too much time was spent in flashback when she was only 17. I had a hard time reconciling the relationship given most of the story was told through her eyes. For most of the book, the relationship between H/h was one of brother and sister. (Thank heavens)
It didn't give me the creeps as other books have, but I just couldn't transition to their relationship as adults.
Less time on the past and more time in the current with a few obstacles thrown their way, would have made for a much better and compelling love story.
June 10, 2025
“Rain of Diamonds” is the story of Francesca and Casper.
Our young, boyish looking heroine is rescued from a wastrel father by the sea captain hero. As circumstances leave her orphaned, the hero takes up the guardian’s role. They go on many adventures, and spend months together.
The heroine starts to develop feelings for the hero, while realizing many women favor his attention. At the same time, he moves back to England and she gets to experience his effluent lifestyle. Things are complicated when she realizes he considers her feelings as puppy love and might marry another woman.
She runs away, makes a successful career for herself and their reunion is where this book begins.
What I liked: apart from a chaste kiss- the hero didnt have any physical contact with the heroine despite her desperately wanting it
What I found weird: the very large age gap
What I disliked: her giving up her career at the end for the hero
Anyways had a very sweet ending with all ends tied together. A very whimsical but romantic book.
Unsafe
3.5/5
Our young, boyish looking heroine is rescued from a wastrel father by the sea captain hero. As circumstances leave her orphaned, the hero takes up the guardian’s role. They go on many adventures, and spend months together.
The heroine starts to develop feelings for the hero, while realizing many women favor his attention. At the same time, he moves back to England and she gets to experience his effluent lifestyle. Things are complicated when she realizes he considers her feelings as puppy love and might marry another woman.
She runs away, makes a successful career for herself and their reunion is where this book begins.
What I liked: apart from a chaste kiss- the hero didnt have any physical contact with the heroine despite her desperately wanting it
What I found weird: the very large age gap
What I disliked: her giving up her career at the end for the hero
Anyways had a very sweet ending with all ends tied together. A very whimsical but romantic book.
Unsafe
3.5/5
November 25, 2018
Got the paperback!
This was quite different. Almost the entire book is a flashback. Weird. I loved the details about their sailing adventure/travels.
It was almost like a YA book, with a big chunk of the book about a young girl and her crush.
It does not get resolved until the bitter end. The end is way too abrupt and unsatisfying.
I adored the beginning of the book. However, I could tell as the story started to drag on from mid-way to end that the HEA would be short-changed.
And it was.
Not sure how to rate this. 3-4? as an average?
This was quite different. Almost the entire book is a flashback. Weird. I loved the details about their sailing adventure/travels.
It was almost like a YA book, with a big chunk of the book about a young girl and her crush.
It does not get resolved until the bitter end. The end is way too abrupt and unsatisfying.
I adored the beginning of the book. However, I could tell as the story started to drag on from mid-way to end that the HEA would be short-changed.
And it was.
Not sure how to rate this. 3-4? as an average?
November 10, 2013
Francesca is a young orphan homeless girl. She meets a man 12 years older than her who becomes her friend protector and guardian. She falls for him but Caspar is an aristocrat and Francesca is scared he will never return her feelings especially since he draws the attention of rich heiresses.
When she overhears a conversation she realizes Caspar's wedding is only a matter of time. Hurt and betrayed she flees to Italy where she becomes a popular designer and moves on with her life. Four years later they bump into each other and old feelings resurface.
Loved the angst and heroine's unrequited love. Hero and heroine had chemistry even though being a Vintage romance there are no love scenes. Still I couldn't put it down!
When she overhears a conversation she realizes Caspar's wedding is only a matter of time. Hurt and betrayed she flees to Italy where she becomes a popular designer and moves on with her life. Four years later they bump into each other and old feelings resurface.
Loved the angst and heroine's unrequited love. Hero and heroine had chemistry even though being a Vintage romance there are no love scenes. Still I couldn't put it down!
May 29, 2025
I didn't like the story nor the characters.
June 4, 2023
This kept me hooked because I couldn’t predict how the HEA would come about. I usually don’t like guardian romances, but it was done well in this one! I loved the h and her loyalty to her awful dad and steadfast first love.
October 13, 2014
absolutely loved it! it sounded like a historical one! it was like a fairytale come true though the end was disappointing. too abrupt! nothing happened in the present, i.e when they met again after years apart. they just confessed their love and then the HEA.
October 1, 2018
A little boring but it's fine:/
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 24, 2023
Why did she have to give up her career??
I wanted the more romantic gestures from H, some of them seemed very confusing.
Liked the h.
I wanted the more romantic gestures from H, some of them seemed very confusing.
Liked the h.
June 8, 2020
A man doesn't want the love of a girl.
Although she was alone in the worldand very young, Francesca's idolization of the man who became her protectorwas no puppy love.
With Caspar Barrington she had sailed the goldenCaribbean. Life had been idyllic--until the news arrived.
Caspar was Lord Lanyon, now. They went to England, where Francesca couldn't help comparing herself to the eligible women anxious to be his wife. She must leave before heartbreak destroyed her completely
Although she was alone in the worldand very young, Francesca's idolization of the man who became her protectorwas no puppy love.
With Caspar Barrington she had sailed the goldenCaribbean. Life had been idyllic--until the news arrived.
Caspar was Lord Lanyon, now. They went to England, where Francesca couldn't help comparing herself to the eligible women anxious to be his wife. She must leave before heartbreak destroyed her completely
March 9, 2022
Beautiful story. I even teared up which I never do. It was a romance, part coming of age back.
All the characters were well developed and for once in a HQ romance there was no OW.
All the characters were well developed and for once in a HQ romance there was no OW.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews