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The Conway Touch
Georgina Shannon struggled to recover from a shattered love affair by burying the past and with it her life-long friendship with the Conways, who were responsible for her broken engagement. But Hugo Conway believed Gina's road of escape was the wrong one and he refused to be dismissed as an enemy. He tells her: "You won’t escape it, the Conway touch, Gina. It's part of your life that you can't cut out." But Hugo had a hard task before him, for Gina was a difficult person to handle.
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1958
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About the author
Iris Bromige
82 books15 followersPseudonym: Anne Tracey
Iris Bromige was born in 1912, and as adult lived in Surrey, England. Her hobbies were gardening, collecting gramaphone records of opera and the classics, colour photography and bird-watching. She also enjoyed country walking with her husband and their dog, listening to music, going to the opera and trying to play the piano.
She was popular for her many novels, particularly those about the Courtland and Rainwood families.
http://www.thirzajane.com/ib/welcome....
Iris Bromige was born in 1912, and as adult lived in Surrey, England. Her hobbies were gardening, collecting gramaphone records of opera and the classics, colour photography and bird-watching. She also enjoyed country walking with her husband and their dog, listening to music, going to the opera and trying to play the piano.
She was popular for her many novels, particularly those about the Courtland and Rainwood families.
http://www.thirzajane.com/ib/welcome....
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
March 29, 2020
I've been quite hard on titles by Iris Bromige recently, largely because of the realisation, after reading half a dozen of them, that they all by and large follow the same plot-line (see Rough Weather). However, in 'The Conway Touch' the heroine is perhaps more empathetic than the author's usual variety of female protagonist.
The story opens (in standard Bromige fashion) with everything bathed in genteel English sunlight, roses blooming, bees humming etc., before literally in one foul swoop the heroine, Gina, loses her fiancee (to her best friend) and her mother (to an un-diagnosed brain tumour). To make matters worse, as she's attempting to lick her wounds and adjust to life caring for her widowed father, the heroine finds herself bombarded with appeals from arrogant neighbour Hugo Conway. Hugo, the elder brother of her ex-BFF that ran off with her ex-fiancee, has decided it's an opportune time to badger Gina into reconciling with his sinning sister.
Fed up with Hugo's pestering, chiding and constant pronouncements that she cannot avoid 'the Conway touch', Gina (sensibly) imposes an embargo on all things Conway. Personally, I could totally sympathise with the heroine's resentment of Hugo's constant challenges (about her 'small mindedness') - it's understandable too that she'd transpose some of her anger with his sister onto him (especially given he persists in inserting himself into the 'firing line' and literally waving an out sized red-flag).
In fact, what I like about this book is that, for once, the typical Bromige older, urbane, wealthier male protagonist is firmly on the back foot - for literally months the heroine won't have a bar of him! Of course, given Hugo is cast as the hero, Gina eventually changes her mind about him, but not until after she's run around London-town with his playboy art dealer buddy and delivered a few dozen set downs. Not that I favour vintage romances where the protagonists constantly argue (a la Mary Wibberley titles), but in this case it was refreshing that for three-quarters of the novel, the know-it-all hero was given a less than smooth path in his 'courtship'.
In summary, 'The Conway Touch' is one of Bromige's more readable titles (along with Gay Intruder ) and I'm rating it a three-and-a-half star vintage romance read.
The story opens (in standard Bromige fashion) with everything bathed in genteel English sunlight, roses blooming, bees humming etc., before literally in one foul swoop the heroine, Gina, loses her fiancee (to her best friend) and her mother (to an un-diagnosed brain tumour). To make matters worse, as she's attempting to lick her wounds and adjust to life caring for her widowed father, the heroine finds herself bombarded with appeals from arrogant neighbour Hugo Conway. Hugo, the elder brother of her ex-BFF that ran off with her ex-fiancee, has decided it's an opportune time to badger Gina into reconciling with his sinning sister.
Fed up with Hugo's pestering, chiding and constant pronouncements that she cannot avoid 'the Conway touch', Gina (sensibly) imposes an embargo on all things Conway. Personally, I could totally sympathise with the heroine's resentment of Hugo's constant challenges (about her 'small mindedness') - it's understandable too that she'd transpose some of her anger with his sister onto him (especially given he persists in inserting himself into the 'firing line' and literally waving an out sized red-flag).
In fact, what I like about this book is that, for once, the typical Bromige older, urbane, wealthier male protagonist is firmly on the back foot - for literally months the heroine won't have a bar of him! Of course, given Hugo is cast as the hero, Gina eventually changes her mind about him, but not until after she's run around London-town with his playboy art dealer buddy and delivered a few dozen set downs. Not that I favour vintage romances where the protagonists constantly argue (a la Mary Wibberley titles), but in this case it was refreshing that for three-quarters of the novel, the know-it-all hero was given a less than smooth path in his 'courtship'.
In summary, 'The Conway Touch' is one of Bromige's more readable titles (along with Gay Intruder ) and I'm rating it a three-and-a-half star vintage romance read.
Displaying 1 of 1 review