Magic in Vienna

by Betty Neels

Vienna was enchanting, like another world.

It was everything Cordelia hoped it would be. She couldn't say the same for her charge's uncle, Dr. Charles Trescombe!

He regarded Cordelia as plain and dull and sensible. She looked at Charles with pity—still young, handsome, but buried in books and medical studies. What a waste, she thought.

It was foolish to fall in love with him. Only when he smiled at her could she believe in the magical possibility that he might return her love…


Betty Neels is a sales opportunity that simply cannot be missed. She is a consistent #1 seller whose books are eagerly anticipated and sought after by her readers. A retired nurse herself, Betty is particularly well-known for her tender romances set in Holland, featuring Dutch doctors. Fans of Betty Neels will love these Reader's Choice books, all set amidst the lowlands of Holland and the English countryside—all four are Betty Neels at her best.

Genres: Romance, Fiction, Harlequin, Harlequin Romance, Slow Burn, Contemporary Romance, Clean Romance

217 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

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

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Plain Cordelia, unhappy with her life at home, accepts a job as governess to twelve-year-old Eileen. They travel to Vienna to stay with the child's uncle, handsome Dr. Charles Trescombe, for a few months while waiting for Eileen's parents to return from South America. While in Vienna romance blooms between Cordelia and Charles. This was a very sweet, slow moving, old-fashioned romance. The hero was a bit stuffy at the beginning but he grew on me as the book went on. I really liked the very detailed descriptions of the places they visited in Vienna. (Prater Park, Schonbrunn Palace, etc.)

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very obviously a Cinderella story, and I enjoyed that aspect of it. I loved the Vienna setting too. The middle got a bit repetitive and the ending was stressful before the happy ending. But I guess that’s true to Cinderella too! The prince had to hunt her down and find her.

[Grrrrace · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another cold, kinda jerkish hero named Charles from The Great Betty in this one (although not QUITE as irascible or unlikable as Charles Cresswell from Judith). Professor Charles Trescombe is a Rich British Doctor (RBD) who’s temporarily working at a hospital in Vienna (some kind of doctors exchange program) and agrees to house his niece Eileen for a few weeks to give his mother a break. (Eileen’s parents have been in South America doing, well, I forget what, for two years (!), dumping Eileen on Grandma, so it’s an especially pernicious case of typical BN careless parenting on display, without apology.) Our heroine, Cordelia, is hired as a temporary governess, despite only having cared for her unloving and ultimately unsalvageable younger step/half siblings before this and never having had an actual paying job.

This is one of Betty’s waif/Cinderella tales—my least favorite kind, because the power balance (in terms of wealth and autonomy) between the hero and heroine is just too uneven, and the heroes’ “love” in Betty’s use of this trope always seems a little too close to pity for my liking. But given how love-averse BN’s heroes often are and how hard they fight it, I guess we’ll give them the benefit of the doubt that they are as swept away as are the heroines. Betty was definitely going the Jane Eyre route in this one—the heroine even borrows a copy of JE to read at one point!

If we learn NOTHING else from Betty, we should learn that estate planning is important! Cordelia is yet-another BN heroine who finds herself destitute when her hapless father remarries, fails to make a will, and dies! So Cordelia, whose upbringing, Betty hints, was a comfortable one, with a posh girl’s boarding school and stays at luxe London hotels in her happy past, is completely screwed when her wicked stepmother gets everything following her father’s death. Cordelia really should have used that time to get some job training, but instead lets herself become unpaid childcare for her stepmom. Finally, (like six years later finally!) our heroine decides it’s time to make a break from her unhappy life, so she interviews for a post as a temporary governess needed to accompany a pre-teen to Vienna.

Our heroine is right to think to herself that she belongs in another century, so it’s a good thing that BN’s heroes’ families are usually ensconced in a wealthy Victorian-era lifestyle themselves. It’s like a temporal worm hole in which “governess” is still a viable career option and faithful family retainers (FFRs) are a given. So Cordelia is hired as temporary governess to the somewhat spoilt but mostly likable 12-year old Eileen. Eileen is precocious and mouthy and gives this angsty Cinderella tale some much-needed levity and spice. They travel to Vienna with Eileen’s grandmother, Lady Trescombe, on a cruise ship, so we get a nice little travelogue of ports of call along the way. The hero, however, doesn’t appear in the book until almost the 20 percent mark, so it’s a little slow going at first.

When he does finally appear, we find that he’s a big, handsome, bookish workaholic doctor who is not that thrilled at being saddled with a pre-teen and her young governess. (Hey Charles—you get them for a month or so; your mother has played surrogate mom for 2 years, so get over it.) Professor Charles Trescombe is utterly dismissive of Cordelia, who overhears him telling his mother that he hasn’t much interest in whether Cordy stays as governess or not: “a rather dull girl, I should have thought, with no looks to speak of.” Eileen, who is with her, whisks Cordy back up the stairs and tells her fiercely to take no notice of him—Cordelia is “not a bit dull and when you smile you’re beautiful,” she tells her. Cordelia defuses the situation by saying he’s quite right and Eileen’s not to hate him, and they go back downstairs and pretend they didn’t overhear the conversation.

Charles is busy anaesthesizing (anesthesiologists don't get enough credit, btw--they're the ones keeping you alive during surgery after all) and writing a book and makes it pretty clear he wants as little as possible to do with entertaining his niece or Cordelia—“you don’t want to be aware that we are here,” says Cordelia, and he affirms that but says sharply he’s not an ogre and she’s to come to him for help if she needs it, and he wants his niece to have a happy stay. When he’s not working, the “bookworm” doctor actually seems to have a fairly active social life, often heading out at night in his dinner jacket and seen on several occasions by Cordelia and Eileen escorting attractive women. When they meet at meals, he’s polite and remote and barely acknowledges Cordelia outside of the minimum required courtesy, although he’s warmer to his niece.

Cordelia spends most of her time with Eileen, visiting the sights of Vienna—we hit up Sacher’s coffeehouse quite a few times for tea and cream cakes; visit palaces and the famous Spanish Riding School and other highlights. The doctor does make some time to take his niece on outings and visits to friends, but he spends little time with Cordelia and Eileen overall, and when they do come together, he mostly treats Cordelia with a cool reserve. But over time, we see him becoming attracted to our quiet heroine—wondering how long her pale hair is and how it would look if she let it down; acts of secret kindness on occasion; a tender moment here and there. Eileen shows herself to be pretty insightful for a kid too, when she tells him, when they conspire to have a second unneeded tea when Cordelia comes back from a solo excursion hungry and tired: “I bet Cordelia has been roaming around feeling lonely, though she’d rather die than say so. She’s very proud. She’s got almost no clothes and she’s always doing little sums in a notebook but she’d be angry—no, not angry, just sort of disappear into herself, if I said anything.”

Betty starts to amp up the intimacy and growing connectedness between our MCs at about the 1/3 mark, with Cordelia rustling up tea and sympathy for the tired, hungry doctor when he returns home after his long and busy hospital stints. But as with most BN heroes, it’s one step forward, two back, as Charles so quickly reverts to being cool and remote after any brief moments of greater intimacy that poor Cordelia sometimes wonders if he even really sees her other than as a useful appendage to his household—and tells herself staunchly and untruly that it doesn’t matter since she’s not a bit interested anyway. Charles is secretly waging a campaign to win our heroine’s heart—but it’s so secret and subtle that even the reader (this one anyway) barely recognizes it!

It doesn’t take long before Cordelia has her Dawning Realization that she’s fallen in hopeless love with the RBD, whom she clearly sees as having zero interest in return and who is completely out of her league in terms of wealth and social position. He’s fallen for her as well, but other than a couple of outings, a few kisses, and some vague hints at a shared future, he mostly does the usual BN “cool and remote” act and our heroine assumes any kindnesses he shows her stem from pity (and BN heroines are utterly horrified at the idea that they might be pitied, having pride and resilience). Having read a bunch of Betty books, I have come to interpret the heroes’ hot and cold behavior in these circumstances as an honorable reluctance to make any serious moves while the heroines are in their employ and “under their protection” while living under their roofs. Also, BN’s heroes never like being swept away by their feelings and losing their workaholic autonomy—work is their raison d’etre and nothing, not even love, will be allowed to interfere with that (and even after the HEAs, as we see when BN MCs show up in post-HEA appearances in other books, it’s pretty clear that BN heroines are expected to live around their husbands’ busy schedules and responsibilities).

Our poor heroine does her best to hide her feelings, but they’re pretty clear anytime Charles comes home tired and hungry from long days at the hospital and she’s anxious to make sure he’s taken care of. She swings between being hurt at his shows of disinterest and brief, unsteady happiness when it seems that he might have feelings for her too and hints at a future for them. But there’s a Big Misunderstanding involving an OM (the slimy Doctor Julius Salfinger, whose interest in the heroine seems to exist only because she has no interest in him) that leaves Charles jealous and furious, so he lets Cordelia return to England without a goodbye when his sister and brother in law come to take their daughter home.

Cordelia has expected to continue working as Eileen’s governess for a while, but the hero’s sister is a lazy, selfish asshat who spontaneously decides they don’t need Cordy’s services as governess anymore, and she’ll surely appreciate a chance to return home to her family. To be fair, no one really knows how awful Cordelia’s home life was and that she has no intention of going “home” ever again, having been told by her stepmother that she would be unwelcome. To make matters worse, most of Cordy’s money gets stolen in London shortly after Eileen and her parents depart, so she ends up left with very little money and no job. The kindly porter at the Brown’s Hotel gives her directions to an employment agency, but there’s no immediate work. The agency owner is able to tell her where she can find a room to rent temporarily while she looks for work, but Cordelia is in dire straits, only able to pay for a room for a week and no job in sight.

Our hero, having been told by the OM that the heroine had actually snubbed his advances, decides to wrap things up early in Vienna and retrieve the heroine (who he thinks is still working for his sister). When he gets back to London with his FFRs in tow, he finds that Cordelia has been dismissed and sets off to her home to find her. Instead he confirms what he has long suspected—that Cordelia has no happy homelife and indeed no longer has a home there, and is missing. He retraces his steps to Brown’s Hotel, where the porter remembers giving her directions to the employment agency. Charles convinces the agency owner to give up Cordy’s address (everyone trusts a doctor I guess!), and tracks her down to her dreary, lonely room, where he more or less yells at her for staying in a hovel and then backs off and admits that he was a fool to let her go and has no intention of doing so ever again. Avowals of mutual love, and our heroine is rescued from penury and loneliness by our RBD, and Cinderella tales are seriously one of my least favorite tropes.

Not one of my favorites from Betty, since Charles was a bit too much of a cold and casually unkind fish a lot of the time and Cordelia was a little too waifish in prospects if not in personality. I did enjoy the travelogue aspects a lot, and Betty wrote a pretty good pre-teen in Eileen, who was just as obnoxious at times as a 12-year old should be without spilling into unlikeable territory. We get a visit from Eugenie and Gerard from Heidelberg Wedding (still on my TBR list) too, so always nice when Betty throws in an epilogue to another book. Overall, decent angst in this Cinderella tale if such are to your taste, and a pretty good one from Betty.

[Leona · Rating 3 out of 5]

Betty just loved those Cinderella themes.

Poor Cordelia (though it doesn't rhyme with Cinderella, it's pretty close) suffers from wicked step-siblings, dastardly step-mom, no money, tattered clothes, worked to the bones sweeping chimneys, scrubbing the floors, etc. etc. Only Cordelia (unlike Cinderella) decides to shuck it all and take matters into her own hands. She applies for a job and leaves all that nasty garbage behind in hopes for a better life.

She ends up as a governess to a young girl who will be staying with her uncle in Vienna. Expecting to find a frumpy old uncle, our heroine is surprised to find the uncle young, dashing, rich, though sadly not Dutch. It's a shame that Uncle has the personality of a corpse...but he does warm up as the story progresses and I actually started to like him a lot. We get glimpses into his feelings and he keeps poor Cordelia so confused, she just can't figure out which way is up.

The nasty OW turns out to be his own selfish sister who decides to let Cordelia go without severance pay leaving her destitute in London. Lucky for Cordelia the good Doctor is hot on her trail ready to ride in on his white charger for the rescue. I thought this one packed a powerful ending (sigh). My only disappointment was Betty went a little too heavy on the travelogue and it distracted from an otherwise good storyline. Thus only three stars.

[Pamela Shropshire · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 1/4 stars. Cinderella, I mean, Cordelia has been relegated to caring for her younger step- and half-siblings without pay, as well as acting as housemaid and lady’s maid. Her step-brother puts it succinctly: “You’ll be stuck here with the twins for years because you’ve nowhere to go.” Determined to prove him wrong and escape from Lady Tremaine, er, Mrs. Gibson, Cordelia searched The Times adverts for a suitable position. She finds an advert for a temporary position for a “patient, good tempered young woman, well-educated and with experience in the management of children” to accompany a lady and her granddaughter to Vienna to hand over said granddaughter to her uncle.

Cordelia manages to get to London for an interview (which takes some planning and scheming, in secret) and makes a good impression on Lady Trescombe (query: her son Charles is only referred to as “Doctor”; we don’t know the source of Lady Trescombe’s title, but in most instances, the eldest son of a Lady is a Lord. Just sayin’.) Lady Trescombe gets the full story of Cordelia’s background and is sympathetic; she hires her at once and even volunteers to write her step-mother.

Cordelia meets the granddaughter, 12-year-old Eileen. Spoiled, precocious and delightful all describe her. Cordelia quickly wins her over (at one point, Eileen tells Cordelia that her children will be Eileen’s bridal attendants someday and I TOTALLY see that happening!). Cordelia returns to her home, breaks the news to step-mother (who reacts predictably), packs up her few rags, bids farewell to the cook (whom she promises to hire someday in a happy-ever-after) and shakes the dust of her feet against her former home.

Lady Trescombe has given her an advance to buy some clothes and Eileen acts as fashion consultant. Then without further delay, on to Vienna. They fly to Munich then cruise on the Danube the rest of the way (I’ve seen adverts for this cruise and would LOVE to do this someday). Eileen is apprehensive about the uncle, whom she hasn’t seen since she was an infant, and shares her fears with Cordelia. They conjure up a short, balding, middle-aged man, so it’s quite a shock when they meet the real thing – “dark hair barely touched by gray, incredibly handsome in a craggy way, and very large.” Too bad his character doesn’t match up – at first glance he is self-absorbed and terse. Cordelia instantly gets her back up against him when she overhears him describe her as rather dull and with no looks to speak of. (Don’t worry – she throws it up to him several times.)

The first part of Vienna is occupied with various outings to improve Eileen’s mind with just enough fun to keep her from revolting. Uncle Charles and Cordelia are mostly coldly polite ships that pass with an occasional joint outing with Eileen. Until. . .

One evening, Eileen complains about not feeling well. Cordelia puts her to bed, but later finds her quite ill. She finds Uncle Charles, who rushes them off to hospital. Eileen is rushed to the OR and Cordelia is told by Uncle Charles to “wait here.” So she does. For hours. When he comes out of theatre and finds her still there (“What the devil are you doing here? Why haven’t you gone home?” “You told me to wait and I didn’t know how to get home, did I?”), he tells her about Eileen’s appendix, takes her home, gives her coffee, tells her she did everything correctly and sends her to bed.

Next day, he calls her sensible and tells her he is agreeably surprised. Um, wrong thing to say, doc! She unloads. “Should I be flattered? Well, I’m not. Dull young women, with no looks to speak of, don’t expect flattery, nor do they like it, let’s go.”

DR for the Dr.! “Well, well, not dull at all and quite an eyeful when she’s in a temper.”

“Let go of me, you – you bookworm. . .”

She’s rewarded with a gentle kiss. From this time on, Charles is in win-the-fair-damsel mode. Eileen throws up a roadblock when she sets Eileen up with one of the house doctors, Julius Salfinger (an Austrian Nick – Charles tells Cordelia she isn’t Julius’s cup of tea which doesn’t go over well. Charles is smitten with jealousy. Cordelia doesn’t like Julius at all and has had her own DR.)

Eileen returns home; Charles comforts both of them during a thunderstorm (TGB’s heroines are collectively astraphobics); Mum and Dad return from South America (where they have been for TWO years without their daughter – WHY? We never know. Seriously, who leaves their kid for two years?); Mum, Dad, Eileen and Cordelia return to London where Cordelia is unceremoniously dumped at Brown’s Hotel. Most of her hard-earned, scrupulously-saved money is stolen on a bus and she is in penury again. She finds a bedsit near an agency, is turned down for a dishwashing job at a greasy spoon because she is “too classy.” Her funds are quickly dwindling to her last pence, but going home is not an option.

Meanwhile, Charles has quickly wrapped up his business in Vienna and is ready to leave a week early because he must find Cordelia. He drives across Europe and ferries across the North Sea to find out his sister left Cordelia at Brown’s without a job or severance pay. He calls Lady Trescombe, gets the location of Cordelia’s home – “she’s going to be your daughter-in-law” - and finds out all about Cordelia’s backstory when he meets her step-mother. Back to London; a porter at Brown’s provides the final clue and Charles finds the agency and then Cordelia. ‘Who cares a damn how I found you or why you’re here – I’ve found you and I’m not letting you go again, my darling.” More of the same – who knew a bookworm could be so romantic. Sleepy Charles and Hungry Cordelia are off to his flat for the Thompsons to take care of them and then a special license and HEA.

There is some really great snappy dialogue between these two. The Vienna part of the book reads like a travelogue – not a bad thing, since I love reading travelogues. Vienna - particularly Sacher’s - is on my bucket list. We also get to visit with Gerard and Eugenia from Heidelberg Wedding – Eugenia and Cordelia are destined to be BFFs.

[Kitcatscratch · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a Neels so a bare minimum is a 3 but overall, I disliked this story somewhat. First, the H and h rarely interacted. Usually Neels gives us something. Whether they are actively cold or disliking of each other or immediately wooing, there's SOMETHING. Here, the H basically wants the h and his niece to not bother him. At all. As in "make yourself scarce so my life feels like you're not even here." And they do for a great part of the book. All we see is him reading his letters at breakfast and then...nothing. Maybe a dinner together. But at either one, talking is non-existent because he doesn't want to be disturbed. I also felt that the H and the niece were casually cruel in their comments. The only difference is the niece was 12 years old AND immediately would realize what she said or did was upsetting and apologize. Not the H. Oh, and his family. His mother, his sister, niece...all of them. They were so spoiled. Pleasant, polite, amusing but all really thinking only of themselves.

When the niece's parents come back from their trip, the plan is to take the h along to continue being their governess. They fly from Vienna back to London and along the way the mom (sister to the H) tells her "Oh by the way, we decided we don't need you. Now, my husband says it is only right to give you a month's notice but I said why? She's got plans and a family she can go to. You understand right? (insert pleasant voice and big smile)." So I paraphrased that but it's pretty darn close to what happened. In reality it was worse. So the h, with no family and very little money and no jobs lined up is basically left in London but only after she arranges for their luggage to be shipped from London to Edinburgh through god knows what complicated procedure. Honestly, I would have taken my last pay, my letter of reference (there's no mention of this even happening! Especially as the job agency basically said she had nothing for them to really place her), and left her luggage at the hotel. I would have walked away with a smirk on my face as I imagine them wondering what happened to all of their things when it never showed. But that's me...

So there's the usual HEA and the H and h get together but all I could think was why would she want part of that family? Of course there was the money and security by marrying him though I'm SURE the h didn't regard that (because it's a Neels). Plus there's the fact they may never see his family for another 12 years (because the niece was 12 years old and when she went to stay with her uncle she had never seen him before...12 years!).

[Caro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Es una novela con todos los condimentos Betty, la lectura fue amena pero sin sobresaltos hasta las últimas páginas que son una oda a la heroína canon de nuestra querida autora.
Le "punguean" el bolso con su sueldo en el ómnibus, come en el desayuno del hotel sabiendo que quizá no lo haría de nuevo en todo el día, toma té y un pan para sobrellevar el hambre y la falta de dinero... Hasta último momento, cuando el doctor enamorado va a declarar su amor, ella ruega que quien toca su puerta sea la vecina que le pidió té y todavía no lo devolvió (jaja). Esos párrafos hicieron que sonriera como compartiendo una complicidad muy íntima con la pobre heroína. Me encantó.

[Barb in Maryland · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, Our Betty proves to be a really good tour guide for the attractions of Vienna. Oh wait--this is supposed to be a Romance, not a guide book. But it really is 'two books in one'!!
Our heroine, Cordelia, is a true Cinderella--father dead (sniff), nasty step-mom, two nasty step-sibs, and (a bonus)nasty twin half-sibs. Our Cordelia is supposed to keep them in line, do the laundry, wash the dishes, etc, etc.
But she escapes (yay!!)thanks to fairy godmother Lady Trescombe, who hires her to escort her granddaughter Eileen to Vienna, where Eileen will stay with her Uncle Charles until her parents return from South America.

And once in Vienna, we are firmly ensconced in Neels-land. Cordelia the governess and Eileen the 12 year-old niece do their best to Not Disturb Uncle Charles (who is--wait for it--a doctor!!).
Typical Neels motifs abound--slimy toad other guy--check; perky child who tried to match-make---check; but it falls down totally on other woman. The selfish woman who throws a spanner in the works is none other than Eileen's mom! Oh, another interesting twist--our heroine is very short of funds because she is a victim of a street crime (Betty visits the real world).
I quite enjoyed this--enough to overlook the writing quirks. Not a bad way to spend an hour or so.

[Caro · Rating 5 out of 5]

La magia de Viena de Betty Neels es de ahora en más otro de mis favoritos! Ella, la heroína elige leer Jane Eyre... ella cena solo un huevo, un pan y café😭Lo supe desde las primeras líneas:la joven Cordelia Gibson cual Cenicienta moderna es huérfana de padres,vistiéndo un suéter grande y desteñido por los lavados y pasado de moda,cuidando de sus hermanastros, tratada como una sirviente y bajo la tiranía de su madrastra🤭😪🤧Hasta que logra un empleo como institutriz de una niña mimada de 12 años con la que debe viajar a Viena a la casa de su tío quien será él responsable de su sobrina por un par de semanas.Este viaje supondrá un cambio en la vida de la joven, modesta y sensata muchacha de 27 años porque conocerá al eminente doctor y anestesista Charles Trescombe quien no es otro que el tío de la niña. Un hombre de treinta tantos años, soltero y apuesto( con algunas canas,no sería Betty si el héroe y galán no tiene canas) pero muy apegado al trabajo y a la soltería. Hay momentos muy betty en este libro( el que ella apenas tenga ropa, que no tenga familia u hogar donde regresar fuera del trabajo, su necesidad de ahorrar en medio de la opulencia de la ciudad de Viena) pero todas es su dosis justa hacen de este relato uno perfecto 👌🏻

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Betty Neels, easy reading at it's best ,no erotica,no violence,no bad language .If you're looking for an easy old-fashioned Dr/Nurse type read then Betty Neels is the author for you.She excels at storytelling and the story flows with ease .A lovely ,nice,easy read .....

[Aarathi Burki · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such a nice little story . I fell in love with Cordelia and her simplicity. She was someone most of us can relate to she is so simple kind hearted and takes life as it comes with so much calmness and good nature that no wonder the hero Charles a rich and eminent doctor fell in love with her.

Cordelia has no looks to speak of, no money to buy good clothes no proper training yet she makes a life out of her limited virtue and this draws the hero Charles towards her.

The entire book was a pleasure to read and there was lots and lots of detailed descriptions of the city of Vienna which was a pleasure to read.
All in all one of the best moves by Betty Neels and my favourite too

[Laur Laur · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes you just need Betty. This heroine had reverse psychology down to a fine art as a governess.

[F · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall I thought the book had a very slow moving, mundane storyline. I did enjoy the various tourist attractions mentioned in Vienna, particularly the Schonbrunn Palace and its gardens, and the Gloriette. I also never heard the term "down-at-heel" until I read this book.

[Pat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the best of Betty Neels as promised on the cover. Maybe if the doctor isn't a surgeon, there's no excitement about writing about him.

[Allison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice to have a different location, Vienna is a good change from London and Amsterdam, but otherwise it's very much the regular Betty Neels read.

[Kobie · Rating 5 out of 5]

so fun to read about Vienna!

[Janice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this before reading book 67 so will read that one now

[Patricia schmit · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super Read

While the very beginning of this tale is awfully like Cinderella, it soon settles into a very lovely story - most enjoyable!!!!!!

[Bookworman · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my new favorite Betty Neels books! Thank you to my GR friend, Cindy, for her review. A very satisfying Cinderella story.

[Noemail]

might have 2 copies

[Mudpie · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 solid *!

Charles was a cute hero and Cordelia strong and resourceful! So many of his little expressions and actions betrayed his feelings.

So angsty especially after the RBD's useless sister let Cordelia go! Why do useless RDD/RBD/REW's sisters always have such indulgent husbands? Eileen had to be the most precocious 12 year old ever! And it's rather sexist, but did girls really only went to art and embroidery classes back in 1985?!

Anyway the setting of Vienna was so love! First the cruise down the Danube from Munich, then in Vienna itself. I think Betty must have done the grand tour herself! Eugenia and Gerard from Heidelberg Wedding paid them a visit in Vienna too!

Charles was not much to start off with; a veritable bookworm, scholar and eminent anaesthetist with his head in his books. He was wary Eileen his niece and her governess Cordelia would disrupt his bachelor workaholic existence but he was surprised how much he did NOT notice them there! Cordelia of course felt hurt to be so invisible and yet she's so desperately in love with him...It was so funny when she scolded him "bookworm " as if it's a bad word haha!

I love that he had his dawning realisation before she did; this is more credible than the love at first sight trope!

His jealousy was so unreasonable but it just proved how deeply he felt for Cordelia. He could not get her out of his mind right after she left, and it was before the playboy doctor told Charles Cordelia had snubbed him...I'd hate it if he only wanted to find Cordelia only because the cad explained things...

Cordelia was so pitiful after losing most of her money...I was counting her cash, she only had £40 in her overnight bag, so how could she afford £10 for the agency, £40 for her room, and still £25 left?

I was soooo glad Charles found her in time, poor dear. BEST reunion, love declaration and grovelling scene ever! His mad dash back from Vienna itself was awesome and the Thompsons were treasures! And it was so good he saw how nasty Cordelia's stepmother was! Hate clueless fathers who married terrible steps and did not make provisions for his own child/children...

Sal the sister had a lot to explain why she let Cordelia go so unceremoniously!

My library Overdrive version was terrible. The editor must have used some replace all function and did not do his or her job. All the modern terrible errors with it's and its, the Thompsons and Thompson's...this is the first time I've come across such errors in a Betty Neels.

[Barty · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars! absolutely wonderful. this is the one where fmc has a horrid stepfamily who treat her like a slave. it hurts because even her young step and half Siblings treat her nastily. she secretly gets a job as a governess to a 12 year old girl and goes to stay in Vienna with the girls uncle for a few weeks until the girls parents return from abroad. on her first day, she overhears the uncle say something unpleasant about how plain and dull she is. he is cold with her after that. he does not warm up quickly either, aha, prolonging that delicious phase of uncertainty and angst. SPOILERS AHEAD. he eventually sees her wonderful qualities and starts liking her but is taking his time about deciding, but then some OM drama happens (although our fmc is not into the OM who is a 'cad') and mmc takes it the wrong way. he is angry and upset and cold again to fmc. she ends up virtually penniless and in a hovel (not his purposeful doing) by the time he realises he loves her. at that point he can't find her. his angst is delicious, and this is one BN ending where a mmc feels tortured by what happened to her, expresses it, and actually APOLOGISES for what he did wrong. unbelievable for a betty book.. thus making the ending OH SO DELICIOUS. thank you Betty. thank you muchly. this is the betty neels ending we all needed. I pray I find another one in your haystack. amen.

side note: while the ending made this wonderful for me, it didn't quite make it to my top list of 'absolute must rereads' only because the hero and heroine, while wonderfully likeable, didn't quite have that edge of magical chemistry for me. I think it's because the hero never got enough chances to DO things to prove his obsession with the heroine throughout the book. she lived with him so he never had to constantly chase her down or find excuses to see her. Sir Thomas from Dearest Mary Jane was the GOAT for that.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

This deserves more of a 3.5 than a 3, but I'm not sure it quite merits a 4. I love the setting, as Vienna is one of my favorite international cities, but this didn't have quite the fizz and banter of my favorite Neels books.

Still, I did quite enjoy the scene when she called him a bookworm. It was also amusing to get more absent-minded and less-tidy leading man than usual.

Aside from the leads, this book was a bit thinner on characters than some, but lively 12-year-old Eileen nearly makes up for that. We also get a reprise of Eugenia and Gerald from Heidelberg Wedding. The last few pages of the final chapter were among some of Neels' better conclusions.

[Deane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dr. Charles Trescombe's opinion of Cordelia, who was the governess caring for his niece, Eileen was "a rather dull girl with no looks to speak of".

Cordelia and Eileen were sent to Charles' home ...they were to be quiet and not disrupt Charles in any way. Once Eileen had to go to the hospital to have her appendix removed and Cordelia was a perfect person to do so. She was such a wonderful help and also discipled the spoiled child who was spoiled because she was an only child. Her parents were away so they had to go to Charles' home and not disrupt him until the parents came back.

When the parents came back, they took Eileen with them to Scotland and Cordelia was left on her own....when Charles knew that, he started looking for her....after a long time he found her and the story ended happily.

[Gogol · Rating 2 out of 5]

The hero was on the verge of proposing to our Cinderella-governess heroine when on the eleventh hour he sees her with a younger doctor gets jealous, and lets her go back to England where his sister promptly releases the heroine from service and she almost gets lost in the fogs of romantic desperation. If an AI could be trained to write fiction I’d ask them to write a fanfiction alternate ending to the story where she lands on her feet and eventually finds her way and meets and marries someone who doesn’t misjudge her on every turn and only then allow the hero to find her. Except that he’d not be the hero any more he’d be the ex love interest. HEA.

[Hopefulpuffin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brief appearance of a Daimler and a Jaguar.

Get ready to board a tram or horse drawn carriage as Betty goes to Vienna! Sacher tortes, cream cakes and other treats abound. I can't figure out how the characters ate so much. These folks were always eating. And for a Neels, that's saying something!

Cinderella story. British doctor and plain British governess. I was afraid there was going to be a gas explosion at the end but whew! Just a normal HEA.

[More Books Than Time · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like most Betty Neels novels and this one is good. I'm not rating it more than 3 stars because there never seems to be a reason for him to fall for her. He's pretty overwhelming so it makes sense she thinks she loves him - and maybe she does - but they don't spend enough time together to have this hang together.

[Karen Szyszko · Rating 3 out of 5]

This isn't one of Betty Neels' best. I did like Cordelia; she handled all the adversity flung at her with dignity and courage. Surely there's more about wonderful Vienna besides Sacher Cafe and shopping.

[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

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

Loved it

Of course there was the nasty stepmother, but it was a great story! Loved the descriptions of Vienna and other parts.