Never Say Goodbye

by Betty Neels

To keep her family together, Isobel Barrington made ends meet (barely!) by doing private nursing jobs. She shouldn't have had time to fall for Dr. Thomas Winters, but she did. She also knew she should try to forget him- but that was easier said than done.

Genres: Romance, Fiction, Harlequin, Slow Burn, Category Romance, Hqn

224 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published August 1, 1983

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]

I read Never Say Goodbye by mistake (although I'd have gotten to it eventually). I'd re-read one of my all-time favorite BNs, The Secret Pool, and the MCs from that book appear in a couple of others, and I thought that NSG was one of them. It's not--(No Need to Say Goodbye, published a few years later, has us visiting with Litrik and Francesca of TSP, as does The Girl with the Green Eyes (and we get a LOT of Fran and Litrik in the latter, yay!). But even without a visit to old friends, this one, NSG, ended up being a solid, surprisingly angsty book. I think BN's stories work so well because her heroines are so determinedly cheerful, so willingly dutiful, and so kind (and yet so surprised and grateful when people are kind to them), and it's easy to feel sorry for them because they try so hard not to feel sorry for themselves. Her heroes are kind in their actions but quite hard on the heroines in other ways--particularly in their refusal to acknowledge their own feelings for so long and then, when they do, to punish the heroines for not admitting their own feelings (and why would they?). NSG is outshined by many other BN books but it's really very good overall.

NSG features a standard "heroine making sacrifices for her family" job-hopping plot (the one where they go to eastern-bloc-era Poland!) Isobel Barrington, one of BN's plain-but-not-really heroines, works as a private nurse to help support her mother and younger brother. Hard-working Isobel has that admirable Neelsian sense of duty, so she toils at temp nursing gigs--the latest of which leads her to Dr. Thomas Winters, an RBD with a fabulous London home filled with portraits of his good-looking ancestors and their mousy wives "with scarcely a pretty face between them, although they were all sweet as to expression." No surprise that our heroine fits that description nicely--nothing much to look at in Betty parlance, although we later come to find that she has a bikini-worthy figure and cleans up nicely.

Our RBD isn't thrilled with the 25-year-old sweet-faced nurse the agency has sent him--he's cold and a little rude (she has to ask if she can sit! Gasp!) and quite put out over the matter. But she's all that's available, and he has to go collect his arthritic former nanny in Eastern-bloc era Poland within the next couple of days, so sensible, placid Isobel gets the gig by default.

They stay with Thomas's friends in Stockholm briefly, who immediately love our heroine. We get a bit of sightseeing (although the doctor quite harshly reminds the heroine that he only showed her around her because their hostess expected it), and the doctor is cool and not very friendly to Isobel. Finally, plans set, they depart for Poland, and Thomas warns her that there may be delays in getting his nanny out of the country and it's important that they be calm and serene--and when she expresses some interest in Poland, that they're not there for sightseeing and reiterates his opinion that she's not at all suitable for his purposes. Pffttt. Nanny is cantankerous and outspoken, but Isobel handles her nicely. After a few days of waiting to sort out red tape, during which we get a mini-travelogue of Gdansk, our RBD continues to treat Isobel coolly at best, but we see his nicer side with his old Nanny--and so does Isobel, and before long she's musing on what a good father he'll make someday and how nice he can be when he's not being "abominable."

Back in Stockholm, Isobel, Nanny, and Thomas stay at his friends' flat again, while they are away. Isobel gets to show off her great cooking skills and her endless patience both with Nanny and the infuriating doctor. She wonders why she minds so much when he mockingly tells her what a treasure she is--"nurse, companion to the elderly, excellent coffee maker, Girl Friday--oh, and a good, plain cook," but he's nicer later, smiling at her warmly and asking about her family. But Isobel isn't buying it--"She would have liked to have talked to him about her family but if she did she had no doubt that after a minute he would look faintly bored." Poor Isobel.

Our RBD continues to be cool and dismissive--but he does the shopping and washing up, so it's not just Isobel whose domestic attributes are on display during their stay. But every time he does something nice for her, he seems to feel the need to revert to his former, mocking and cold by turn, behavior, so it's no wonder Isobel feels that he doesn't really like her and does her best not to like him much either. At least he does finally admit that he was wrong originally--she was suitable. And he shows further signs of softening--he takes her sightseeing, her favorite pastime, and when she gets excited about a sculpture, thinks to himself "It was astonishing that such a very ordinary face could become almost beautiful..."

But we're a long way from an HEA. He reverts to his usual coolness, both in Stockholm and upon returning to England. Since she's still employed by him, anything else wouldn't be appropriate, but it's still a little angsty since she is clearly falling for him and he's at best a little pitying at times, as well as infuriatingly managing and uncommunicative. Isobel isn't sure what the plan is regarding her continued employment because, like many a Neels hero before him, our doctor is not very forthcoming with details and puts her off when she asks. He finally starts to tell her his plans for the next few days when they're interrupted by a tall, slim, dramatically dressed young woman who flings herself at the good doctor and kisses him--it's our OW, Miss Ella Stokes! Miss Ella Stokes is a party girl, and Thomas is mostly amused and indulgent, and meanwhile poor Isobel is not sure if she's expected to go or stay. So she finally asks "fiercely" and he's impatiently amused and asks if he's still employing her and did he say anything about her leaving? And when she points out that the assignment was supposed to end upon their return to England, he turns on the charm deliberately (and I hate when BN heroes do that--they are very manipulative as a rule) and convinces her to stay a while longer, before returning to Ella and leaving the heroine inexplicably feeling forlorn.

She works for him for a couple of weeks, and given his cool treatment, she thinks he doesn't like her much. Nanny is upset that the detestable Miss Ella Stokes seems to be in the running to be Mrs. Thomas Winters, and Ella seems to have the run of the place and is pretty rude to Isobel a few times. Typically, our RBD just kind of makes excuses for her, pfffttt. Since Nanny is settling in well, Thomas tells Isobel her services won't be needed much longer and that he'll be leaving himself for a few days the day before she leaves. That morning, conniving Nanny sends her down for early-tea and she runs into the doctor on the verge of leaving without a goodbye. When she rather forlornly points that out (only to backpedal and say she quite understands that he would have no reason to, really), he kisses her and leaves her even more forlornly thinking that he did it to amuse himself and won't give it a second thought, whereas she'll never forget it. Our heroine has had her Dawning Realization by then--that she is in love with him and probably will never stop loving him and it's pretty hopeless, so she'd better get on with the forgetting as soon as possible. Nobody pulls those unrequited love heartstrings quite like Betty--it's really quite angsty.

Isobel has a couple of short nursing gigs, then returns home for a day or so before calling the agency for a new job. A Baltic amber necklace that she'd admired in Poland arrives with a thank you note so terse and business-like that her mother comments on it. She wears the necklace hidden under her clothing--awwww. A day later, Thomas shows up and recalls her--Nanny has bronchitis and needs her. He doesn't let Isobel refuse, though she tries to--she's "a kind girl, and gentle" he tells her, and he didn't go to all that effort just to let Nanny slip away. Isobel is too softhearted to refuse and goes but wonders, when he reverts to cool and impersonal, why she did, given that it just reopened a wound that hadn't begun to heal. She's hurt anew when he says he'll be going to Miss Ella Stokes' home for the weekend.

Nanny is feeling better, so he asks Isobel if she'll accompany her to his cottage in Sussex. She agrees but wants time to see her brother, and he says he'll arrange it but seems to keep forgetting. She and Nanny go to the cottage, and Thomas shows up at the end of the week with her mother and brother in tow--he's arranged, as a surprise, to have them also come stay for a week's vacation. Our heroine is nicely tanned and in a bikini when they show up, and our RBD is most appreciative of our heroine's home cooking, hee. He doesn't stay long but returns at the end of the week to drive her mother and brother back home. Isobel has "time to dream a little--impossible dreams of course, but very comforting." Thomas shows up again a few days later to drive Nanny and Isobel back to London and asks her to stay a few days longer, and thanks her quite coolly for her help. He takes her by surprise when he asks her why she doesn't want him to see that she wears the necklace he sent her (hidden under her clothes). She says that it reminds her of Poland, and he quite angrily tells her that he needs nothing to remind him of Poland--or of her. And he kisses her again.

She returns home the next day to find her mother has had a mild stroke. The doctor who comes (house calls!) tells her that with careful nursing she'll recover. Isobel nurses her at home and is worried sick about finances and is pale and losing weight by the time Thomas finally shows up a week or so later, returning from a vacation of his own. He arranges for Isobel's mother to go into a small private hospital for aftercare. Isobel's pride won't allow her to accept charity, but he guilts her into it. The doctor insists on bringing Isobel to his home for a couple of days R&R before she takes on another job. She reluctantly agrees and politely hopes he's had a nice holiday and he tells her he just got back from the Caribbean, where he spent two weeks with Miss Ella Stokes.

Now why do BN's heroes do that? He noticed that Isobel lit up with delight when she saw him; her feelings can't be in that much question, so why say something so deliberately designed to hurt? Arrgh. She settles back into her room at his home and when he peeks in to see if she's sleeping, he thinks how pretty she looks. But not so much the next night, when he peeks in after an evening out with a date and she's asleep with a face shiny with night cream and tearstains and he thinks that "It was difficult to find a greater contrast between two girls--the lovely, spoilt expensive young woman he had spent the evening with and Isobel's unremarkable, shiny visage, and yet it was her face which was uppermost in his mind." He goes down to read medical journals, as "reading them might clear his head of the ridiculous ideas invading it." So our RBD isn't really quite clear in his own mind as to his feelings--or is resisting them for all he's worth. Funny how hard our RBDs/RDDs fight true love but are so easily lured into engagements or "being in love" with the most unworthy young ladies.

We proceed with the usual BN bag of tricks: the OW making it seem as if marriage between her and the RBD is imminent; the heroine working her poor fingers to the bone to care for her family, the doctor being inscrutable and deliberately letting the heroine think that he doesn't care anything for her and is just being kind on occasion and yet more or less punishing her for not admitting her own feelings. The heroine rescues an abandoned dog, and when the hero comes to see her, finding her pale and thin again as if her minibreak at his house had never happened, he takes the dog off her hands and goes on letting her think there's something between him and Miss Ella Stokes. When she says goodbye as he leaves, he says "Never say goodbye" (titular reference!) and kisses her hard.

She's hired for another job, a kid with measles whose mother is due to have a baby and can't care for him. Thomas has arranged the whole thing, of course--the boy is is godson, and Isobel isn't there a minute when Thomas shows up, to her surprise and helpless delight. She thinks that his showing up again is the type of thing that would happen in a romantic novel--but in her case, it's just fate playing dirty tricks.

The nursing duties are light, and after a week of rest and good food, she's pink cheeked and less thin and the doctor's R&R plan has worked again. The job is almost up, and Thomas asks if she'll be getting another job and she says she will--but one where she can work at home and take care of her brother, whose school holidays will be starting. She notes that they've said goodbye so many times and then they always meet again--it's strange, and he blandly concurs. "But of course, I don't say goodbye, Isobel." And nor does he when he leaves yet again.

The couple she's working for are in on Thomas's plans to some extent. When the wife hopes that Thomas knows what he's doing, her husband says: "Isobel is the kind of girl who'll think up all sorts of good reasons why she shouldn't marry a rich man...she has to be convinced that money is of no importance at all when you're in love. She also has to discover for herself that Thomas isn't and never has been in love with Ella..." Nonsense, I say! Mrs. Denning, the wife, thinks the same, and tells Isobel that Thomas has finished with Ella, who had invited herself along when he went to Italy (not the Caribbean--Betty forgot?) with friends, and lays to rest quite a few of Isobel's misconceptions. "He's been waiting for the right girl to come along," the woman tells her. "And has she?" asked Isobel in a very small voice? "Oh yes." Don't HELP, people!

Thomas comes to pick her up unexpectedly when the job ends. In typical managing BN hero fashion, he's blocked other jobs and tells her they'll talk about things later. "Now," she insists, and he turns all BN dommy and tells her "I said later, Isobel." (Why do I find that hot in books but would punch him in the throat IRL?) He brings her to her childhood home, the posh-sounding Priory House, where her mother and brother will live. He's bought it: "I have a fondness for my future mother-in-law," he tells Isobel. She's stunned, and he calls her "his darling girl." "Are you--are you asking me to marry you?" asked Isobel. He stops the car and tells her that it's not the best place to propose--when the children ask in years to come, he'll have to say "outside a grocer's shop," how unromantic. She says she'll say yes, and then he can stop and ask again in a more romantic spot. And so he does, with a kiss.

[Leona · Rating 3 out of 5]

This wasn't one of my favorite books by this author, even though it is very hard not to like a Betty Neels story. Of course the themes are always the same. We have a young hard working nurse, committed to taking care of her family, always working hard jobs to make ends meet. She is thrust into the household of an attractive doctor, where she rescues his nurse in Communist Poland. OW, is a bit over the top...and we get glimpses into the fact that hero might be getting a bit tired of the antics of OW.

I didn't care for the very dated and antiquated view towards women. Marriage was considered the ultimate prize for a woman. If they weren't married, they were dull and ugly.....Unattractive women can never compete for the attentions of good looking men. I also didn't care for the limited interaction between hero/heroine. I found it left me skeptical to the romance in the book. I also didn't care that the happy ending was just two pages of hero buying old homestead back for mother-in-law to live in and taking for granted that heroine would marry him. Where is the romance in that?

I recommend "Damsel in Green", "Sister Peter's in Amsterdam" and "Roses for Christmas" as much better stories to enjoy.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story was actually a bit stressful at the beginning! I wasn't expecting that. Dr. Thomas Winter hires nurse Isobel Barrington to go with him to Gdansk, Poland, to bring back his old nanny who has been living there for many years. Her husband has died and she has trouble moving due to rheumatism. At the time, of course, Poland was behind the Iron Curtain, so there are some tense moments as to whether the three of them will be able to take Mrs. Olbinski back across the Baltic Sea to Stockholm, Sweden, and thence by air to London. Of course, nothing really goes wrong, but it was quite exciting all the same. I suppose this accounts for Thomas being on edge all through the first part of the book, but I didn't realize that as I was reading. I'll have to pay attention to that on a re-read.

Isobel takes on private patients as a nurse so she works with an agency for short-term jobs. She earns better money this way because she is supporting her widowed mother (a lovely character!) and her school-age brother Bobby. It's clear the family has fallen on hard times, but they are cheerful and brave. Isobel returns again to Thomas's house to nurse Mrs. Olbinski through bronchitis and it's clear at this point that Thomas is looking for anyway to get her back into his world again. There are more twists and turns to the plot, including a lovely interlude at a summer seaside cottage. I found the ending a bit too rushed for my taste, but I enjoyed it all the same.

[Cecilia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I usually like the calmness of Betty Neels' books, and kind of like her formula usually, and this one was pretty much what you'd expect - overworked and uncomplaining heroine, uncommunicative and superior hero, model housewife skills, women working represented as an unfortunate alternative to marriage, horrible 'modern girls', stray animal adopted, long descriptions of fancy meals, etc. This one was a little overpoweringly archaic in its old-fashionedness, though - women aren't even women - they're repeatedly described as children (literally), when they're sleeping and looking sweet, or happy and looking sweet. It was a little hard to take, to be honest, and I was surprised to see it was published in the 80s - it had more of the sound of decades earlier.

[Karen Ireland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Isobel works as a private nurse to make extra money to help her family out, when she takes a job helping Dr. Thomas Winter sparks fly between the two.

This was a nice change for Betty Neels readers , we get to hear about Poland and also about the unrest that was gone in her time.

If you want to get lost in a good clean love story this maybe the one for you.

[Figlet · Rating 3 out of 5]

It feels like I should have read this Betty previously, but I really didn't remember it. I think I would have remembered the Poland stuff.

Anyway, it was a little long in the tooth even for a Betty, and I felt distinctly shortchanged by the abrupt end even for a Betty.

[Drebbles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Isobel Barrington comes from a small but loving family and works as a private nurse to supplement her mother's pension and help her younger brother through school. She is hired by Dr. Thomas Winters to help bring his old Nanny to England from Poland. Isobel is happy to take the job, the pay is good, Nanny is a delight, and she has a chance to do a little sightseeing. Isobel's content with her lot in life until she realizes that she's fallen in love with Thomas. She feels that she has no chance to win his heart, she's rather plain and he has rich beautiful girlfriend named Ella.

"Never Say Goodbye" is Betty Neel's at her best. She changes her usual plot a bit - Thomas is English, not Dutch - but otherwise she uses one of my favorite formulas in this book - poor, plain, but gentle girl from a nice family falls in love with a rich, handsome doctor. Neels throws in a beautiful but mean-hearted girlfriend for the doctor and a family crisis for Isobel as well. Nothing new here, but Betty Neels had a special gift of being able to turn a simple romance into a heartwarming love story. Although there is no doubt who will win Thomas's heart, readers will root for Isobel the whole way, hating Ella.

This is a good book to read when you wish to escape from the real world for a couple of hours.

[Carmen · Rating 2 out of 5]

The hero was a block of ice

[AG Reads · Rating 3 out of 5]

Typical Betty Neels. Plain, unassuming nurse and handsome rich doctor, neither of whom possess the skills to communicate their way of a paper bag. It's exactly what readers expect of a Neels book with no surprises.

[Barb in Maryland · Rating 3 out of 5]

This will be remembered as the "rescuing Nanny from Poland" book--and indeed that is just about the only exciting thing that happens.
The romance is so-so, the 'other woman' is a nasty piece, but doesn't do any real harm. For once, our heroine's mother is not a whiner, even though they have fall on hard financial times.
We even get a nice tour of Stockholm's historic district as a bonus.
Fair to middlin' Neels all around.

[R · Rating 1 out of 5]

This story seemed a bit far fetched, even for Ms. Neels. I do wonder if even sh thought so, as she kept mentioning the obvious simple romances her heroine was reading to the old Nanny in the piece. Don't get me wrong, still love a Betty Neels book and plan on keeping this book for a re-read someday...just was not a fave.

[Patricia schmit · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hated to Say Goodbye to This Story

Lovely, mostly light-hearted, story with, of course, a happy ending. Loved the small chuckle Ms. Neels provided at her own expense. She surely had a sense of humor!

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting that they go to Poland and Sweden in this one, not just the usual Holland.

[Tonya Warner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent.

[Aayesha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review to come.

[Allison · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really wish the male character's actions were explained at the end.

[Barty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reads: 1Oct25, 22Nov25,

22 Nov 25 - 4.5 stars on reread. I have read quite a lot more Betty books since this one and while it was wonderful I think others are my 5 star faves so I downgraded this one a little. it was still a fab read but again I got a little frustrated with the high handedness of the hero at the end of it. not a hint of a grovel to be sniffed at and, quite frankly, he should have gravelled for putting her through the wringer with his shenanigans with the other woman. grrrr.

this book features one of my fave Betty heroines ever.

so anyway, this is the one where the h Isobel is a 25 year old plain jane nurse who runs herself ragged doing endless private nursing jobs to pay private school fees for her little brother and they survive off her earnings and her mom's small pension. H is Dr Thomas Winters, a rich brit doctor. they meet when the doc needs a competent and hardy nurse to accompany him abroad to the Eastern block (poland) to bring back his arthritic ill and widowed old nanny home. sparks fly a bit at their first meeting, her interview for the job, where he is chilly, displeased and reserved with her and says she's too young and inexperienced and he needs a calm competent older nurse. she desperately needs the job so she quietly explains to him that she's had 8 years of nursing experience and is the exact calm type that he needs. he isn't convinced but he is forced to take her because there is no other nurse available and he must travel v soon.

during their trip isobel proves herself to be very calm, quiet, steady, reliable, hardworking, uncomplaining, peaceful, practical, kind, patient. every virtue and so humble too! and, on top of that, intrigued and aware of foreign places, an enthusiastic travelor, and excellently organised and an excellent cook, warming his heart a tiny bit through her yummy food. and nanny likes her too.

so did I. she was a lovely character. never excitable or over emotional, always remaining calm even in the face of his sullen moods and sometimes snappish temper. I loved to see her remain so unruffled despite his temper. she is one of my fave Betty heroines ever.

he is determined to dislike her but even so, shows her around the various cities they visit and finds himself becoming protective of her and extremely worried and angry whenever he thinks she is in danger. these two were so attuned to each other that their chemistry leapt off the page from the start. it was delightful. and I loved the taciturn but protective vibes from the H. and who isn't gonna love a guy who endangers himself and moves heaven and earth to bring his old nanny home despite the threat of a resistant and interfering polish regime?

SPOILERS AHEAD

so anyway, when they come home she is a bit sad thinking she will have to move on to the next job and not see him again. the very moment they arrive at his big London house a beautiful stylish young woman barges into his home, and flings herself at him and demands he take her on a date right now. Thomas also goes cool towards isobel, referring to her as nurse all of a sudden, where previously he had called her isobel.

seeing the OW upsets isobel a bit and shakes her up but she is determined to remain placid on the surface.

thomas decides at the last min that he simply must keep isobel on for another few weeks to help nanny settle into her new life in his London house. he stays mainly busy, sometimes sharing quite meals with isobel where they don't talk much but just as often going out with the OW. plus the other woman continues to flaunt herself, one time disturbing nanny's celebratory dinner at home by coming unannounced in a gorgeous dress and insisting the doc leave the other two and take her out to dinner instead. he politely says no, so the girl huffily joins them and proceeds to dominate the coversation and make him laugh, while mostly ignoring nanny and isobel.

as the days pass, there are subtle hints he is battling his inner growing feelings for isobel. perhaps. he blows hot and cold to its hard to tell. he snarkily asks her a couple of times leading questions like if she will miss him when she leaves but she plays it cool, which annoys him.

she realises at this point (around the 50% mark) that she's in love with him, by which point she thinks he has his heart set on the other woman, so she must desperately play it cooler than ever and never let him guess.

he tells her that he's going on a weekend away to the ow's parents house as if he is trying to provoke her, and then avoids her, and when he unexpectedly sees her he gives her a kiss. then he tells her that he is going abroad for a 2 week holiday with the OW. he seems to want to push isobel away and is unable to bear having her around him and so he decides to send her and nanny away for 2 weeks to the countryside/seaside. while they're there he arranges for isobel's mom and little brother to come and visit her so they can all enjoy a holiday together which they wouldn't otherwise be able to afford. he has arranged it as a surprise for isobel. she loves it. but he only stays briefly and she is disappointed and heartachy when he leaves.

after she and nanny return to London, her job with him ends and he sends her home and he himself goes away for a 2 week holiday with the OW. but when she gets home, she finds her mom has had a stroke and she has noone to turn too. she struggles on, running herself ragged nursing her mom, and is at point of exhaustion when suddenly he comes knocking on the very day he has teturned from his holiday. he has found out somehow what has happened to her mom. he insists mom is admitted to a private hospital he runs and that, since isobel has no-one she can go to, that she must come to his house for a few days of rest. she tried to argue with him and push him and his pity away but he is insistent.

I thought earlier on that he must know he likes isobel by now but it seems he is fighting his feelings even this late until around 80%. he leaves isobel to rest at his house and goes on another date with the OW, and when he returns at night he checks in on an exhausted isobel, and he sees her asleep and he tenderly reflects on how she is so different from the spoiled other woman.

***

SOME THINGS THAT REALLY BOTHERED ME AND YET THEY CREATED ALL THAT DELICIOUS ANGST:

1. what the eff was he doing taking the OW out on a date even AFTER he supposedly hated every moment of his holiday because the OW gatecrashed it?

2. why the eff was he buying isobel's old family home in the country for her mom when he was still taking the OW on dates? (it's not mentioned on page exactly when he buys the house but things he and the mom say in passing implies he bought the house when he sent isobel away on holiday with nanny to the countryside. one assumes buying the hosue resulted from him knowing he cares for isobel, esp since he tells isobels mom all about buying it, and yet even after that he continues to date the ow. hmm.)

3. at the end, why the eff is he so arrogant that he won't tell isobel he isn't in love with the OW and yet holds it against isobel that she thinks he is? and in the end it is his friends wife who has to tell isobel that he's been going off the OW for months and that he didn't actually go on holiday with the OW, he was going on holiday with his own friends and the OW invited herself along and Thomas supposedly hated every minute of it. how dare he be mad at isobel for thinking he loves the OW when he himself kept telling isobel he was dating the OW and going away to the ow's parents house for the weekend and that he had just returned from a 2 week holiday with the OW. wtf! asshole. don't get me wrong, I loved the resultant angst, but sometimes the things Betty's heroes do make no sense.

despite all this, he was running himself ragged doing things for isobel and her family and secretly and not so secretly taking care of her. and from pretty early on in the book it's obvious he is overprotective of her and thinking of her and testing the waters with her and getting nothing back, so there is a sense of his own quiet angst too. maybe it was like that other betty neels book where dating other women to try to distract himself from being in love with a h who didn't want him was likened putting clove oil on a toothache--that it helped for a while but never really got rid of the root cause.

***

ENDING SPOILERS

So anyway, after isobel spends a couple of days in his house recuperating, the OW comes in and is sneakily nasty to isobel and implies that she and Thomas are going to be married. devastated isobel flees. (the timing of the ow doing this makes me wonder if Thomas actually went on that final date with the OW to officially break things off with her and the ow made a last ditch effort to get rid of her competition?)

so anyway, isobel determinedly leaves his house and finds another job far from London. only it turns out that the little.boy she is nursing is Thomas's godson and Thomas turns up at the house to check up on him!

ao anyway, Thomas has secretly wrangled this job for her to give her an easy job with his friends who are nice to her. when isobel wishes Thomas happiness in his marriage he is furious that she believed the ows lies but he doesn't clarify any of it for her. he is just icy to her. it is the wife of the friend who, knowing proud Thomas won't tell isobel he doesn't love the ow, goes ahead and clears things up for isobel. and them Thomas comes to drive her home when that job ends and drives her to the house he brought for her mom as his grand gesture and confesses his love and proposes and she all too readily accepts.

this ending isn't effective and it's the reason I lowered my until 5 star rating down to 4.5. it would have been a far stringer ending if the conversation about him being engaged to the ow happened before she felt to a secret job in the countryside. that way they would have fallen out due to his arrogance and refusal to communicate and because he misled her unto thinking he lived the ow. and then she should have run off to a job where he had no idea where she was and had to worry about it. and then he could have turned up to see his godson without knowing she was there and had a huge shock and relief of finding her. and then he darn well should have gravelled and confessed his feelings and, at the end, he could have still shown he had made the grand gesture of buying back her old family home weeks ago to prove the depth and long standingness of his feelings. that would have been a far more effective sequence of events!

CONCLUSION

even so, I did love this book. i lived how icy and incommunicative he was. how he fought his feelings and was frustrated she didn't like him and how he blowed hot and cold even with his dating the OW. i loved all the angst. it was still a great read with a LOT of depth in temr sof emotion and story action and the wonderful cast of characters. this is definitely among Betty's top books for me.

----------------

1 oct 2025 - 5 stars. oh what a lovely read this was. another BN's hardworking plain Jane domestic goddess of a nurse falls for rich English doc this time and gelps him care for his arthritic old nanny. he is v incommunicative and determined to be cold to her and yet is always watching out for her. gaargh, his high handedness with how he wouldn't acknowledge his feelings and then he suddenly expected her to marry him at the end was a bit much with this one because of him holidaying with his ow so recently without explaining things to our girl who was feeling so miserable. I always want the heroes to grovel a bit more in th3 BN books and to feel a bit of angst themselves, but they never do alas. and yet I absolutely love these books and this one was a fab one.

[Mudpie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not sure to give this 2.5* or 3. The hero Thomas / Dr Winters was like his name. ..a bit cold towards Isobel at the beginning, then blowing hot and cold after they got back to England.

We got to see a bit of Stockholm and Poland as they went to retrieve his beloved Nanny. Typical of a BN hero, Thomas would do something kind, then look impatient so that Isobel felt a bit guilty for imposing on him and that kind of ruined the happy day.

Throughout the book Thomas would do kinds things for Isobel and her family unexpectedly, but at the same time he would annoy Isobel by acting autocratic and never informing her in advance of his plans so that she's left insecure or insure how to plan for her future.

Isobel was gently born and raised but after the death of her father they fell on hard times. She had to give up much to put her clever brother through school. Luckily her mother wasn't the spoilt and pampered widow. Instead she's lovely and supportive, appreciative of how hard Isobel worked for the family. It's was so sad to see Isobel worrying about finances after her mother fell sick and she could not work.

SPOILERS

I couldn't stand how Thomas was hanging out with that b!tchy Ella so much! And why Thomas chose not to disbuse Isobel of the notion that Ella was his girlfriend puzzled me.

Thanks to Mrs Denning, mother of Thomas' godson, we knew why Thomas went to the country with Ella, and his holiday abroad.

His grand gesture of buying the old house for his "future mother-in-law" was so unexpectedly sweet. But I really wish he had been nicer and sweeter to Isobel more often! I loved that everyone got along so well especially during the time in Thomas' country cottage in Orford.

Isobel and her mother deserved a break from financial hardship!

The book title is really apt though. The hero seemed very rude because he never seemed to say bye to Isobel, just disappeared or left on whatever journey. But it turned out that he never wanted to say "Goodbye" to Isobel! Sweet!

[Yandee · Rating 4 out of 5]

My 6th book from Betty, I read it in a single day! I'm afraid I've become quite obsessed with the Betty Neels universe - austere and dashing Dutch professors, short and plain English nurses, little villages in Holland, old brick manors, shopping and cooking, endless road trips on English vintage cars, cats, dogs, horses, and even donkeys! Every time I read a novel, I always watch out for the reason behind every book title. This one got me quite surprised indeed. As the whole plot was unfolding, with Isobel going from one nursing case to another, and somehow finding herself back within Dr. Winter's premises, she had always said her goodbyes to the doctor, with the thought of course that they will never have another reason to meet again. But as always, Betty has other plans, Dr. Winter, same with most of Betty's heroes, had cunningly plotted out ways, subtle and practical they may be, so that he could be reasonably stay close with Isobel, and Isobel, same with all Betty's heroines, because she's one sensible lass, never suspected a thing. *sigh*

"We've said goodbye so many times and then we meet again-it's strange."
"Very strange," he agreed blandly. He turned to look out of the window so that she didn't see the gleam in his eyes. "But of course, I don't say goodbye, Isobel."

I just love how Betty's heroes are always men who are true to their word, gentle and respectful as ever, patient and kind, not to mention quite intelligent and successful. Betty Neels is the only author that lived up to my wishful standard of how men should be. That's also why I couldn't understand all the hype of contemporary novels where the heroes are a bunch of trash who are playboys and so full of themselves.

Lastly, I love how Betty knows the true weight of beauty, and so I shall end with this excerpt from the book..

"Ella? No, she's not beautiful; stunning, pretty eye-catching if you like. Beauty is something quite different."

[More Books Than Time]

Never Say Goodbye is different from most Betty Neels romances. Yes our hero is a rich British doctor, Thomas, and the heroine is an English nurse, and yes there is Another Woman, the lovely but boring Ella. What makes Never Say Goodbye different is that the love interest develops slowly, the two protagonists meet on a trip to Communist Poland to rescue the doctor's now-widowed nanny, heroine Isabel doesn't do anything foolish or inane like running away, she remains level-headed and straightforward and completely unbowed by the bossy doctor.

There is tension and a tiny bit of suspense in the novel when Isabel and her doctor reach Poland and find his nanny needs one more piece of paper to leave. Finally everyone can leave on the boat back to Sweden then fly home to London.

As in all Neels' books the action and point of view center on Isabel. We see Thomas's love slowly bloom only as he interacts with Isabel and we see him as a kind, generous man who inspires great loyalty in his household and friends. We get hints that he is terribly lonely.

This is an enjoyable, easy, pleasant read. Betty Neels wrote well, with well-drawn characters; often the secondary people are interesting and as well-developed as are the main people. However the secondary characters in Never Say Goodbye are not up to her usual standards. The book has her signature warmth and descriptions of food, clothing and setting.

You can read a slightly longer review in my blog here: https://www.morebooksthantime.com/nev...

[Tausha Duncan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one keeps you in the dark!

Thomas is kind of rude when he first meets Isobel, but that changes quickly. You get a clue right at the beginning that Isobel is exactly the type of girl that men in his family tend to marry. Maybe that is why he was so rude at first. However, Isobel goes on to nurse Nanny, and the story blossoms from there. You'll love Nanny. You'll love Isobel's mom and her brother too! For once, the girl in the story doesn't have a family that tells her she's not pretty or takes if for granted that she'll never get married. The antics begin when Isobel realizes she's in love with, Thomas. She does everything she can to get away, but he just keeps popping up. Of course he's got a girlfriend, but you know from the very first time you meet her that she's pretty on the outside, but a very nasty piece of work. Isobel hates her, but she's a good nurse and doesn't let it show. This is one story that keeps you guessing until the very end though! It's a romance novel, so you know they're going to end up together. You get most of the details, the how, at the end. This book, for once, didn't leave me wondering what happened to other characters. It closed out everything and I'm so glad! This is a very good read!

[Dahlia Clarke · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Betty Neel's Delight!

Reading a Betty Neels book is like having a delicious box of chocolate. It is comfort food at its best! You know know you are getting a romance story with a HEA ending. But there are always variations in themes, places, circumstances, individual characters and their interactions that make the journey/read extremely worthwhile.

This story did not fail to deliver a very delightful read. It has a variety of settings from England and it's country side, to Poland and Stockholm which is a new BN inclusion for me, with the hint at the Cold War and espionage.

I really enjoyed the "getting to know you-courtship phase" throughout the story. You know the conclusion to the story is coming but never exactly how.
A beautiful attention grabbing way, to unwind and wrap up the end of a day or weekend.
Enjoy.

[Gaby Norris · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a real romantic story, a little slow paced for my liking, read it in heavy bursts of chapters and eventually got it going don't really expect to read it in one sitting cause you will not be able to keep your attention on it all at once as the moods change a lot, this is all if you don't read and love romance often. Close to the end I didn't know how they were going to wrap it up, but I was NOT disappointed!

[Anne O'Nymus · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one started off strong, but somewhere along the way, Betty forgot to let the relationship progress! Mysterious is one thing. Totally lacking in communication is another. There was no good reason for not telling Isobel about his relationship with Ella, none. I liked the setting. I liked Isobel and her family. I initially liked his grumpy defensiveness - until it became obvious there was no reason why he was so rude!

[Pamela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another Great Betty Neels!

What can I say? Typical Betty Neels book. Interesting look at Poland before the fall of the Berlin Wall and the opening to the West. A running humorous thread about romance novels. Upbeat, but with an understanding of the realities of real life. Recommend for anyone needing a few hours to escape.

[Annemarie · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was incredibly misogynistic, even for Betty Neels. Not a lot of traveling, which was a pity. Insta-love, no communication at all and an overly controling man. These books would be so much better without the romance.

[Gogol · Rating 2 out of 5]

What a singularly stupid one. I lay the blame at having no pov from the hero’s eyes. He was disparaging and dismissive of her, all the while taking his model ow out, and then bam! We’re hit with a surprise proposal and hea.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn’t connect with this couple except I loved how he would just devour her food. When she cooked, his mouth was full. It was adorable! There was a small adventure in Poland, and an aging nanny to attend to. But other than that, I found this a bit dull compared to others I’ve read.

[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

[Kristi Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this a few years ago, but it was just as good the second time around!