AKA Emilie Baker Loring Emilie Baker was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1864 to George M. Baker and Emily Frances (Boles) Baker. Her father was a playwright and publisher and her mother was a homemaker. Loring married Victor J. Loring, who was a lawyer. She began writing in 1914, published her first novel in 1922 at the age of 56, and continued writing until her death after a long illness in 1951. She was a prolific American romance novelist of the 20th century, known for her "wholesome love" romances and independent, spirited heroines. Beyond romance, her books also explore a selection of topics including, but not limited to marriage, love, American patriotism, freedom, and optimism. She died in Wellesley, Massachusetts on March 13, 1951. At the time of her death, she had sold more than a million copies of her first thirty books.
After her death, her estate was managed by her sons, Selden M. and Robert M. Loring, who, based on a wealth of unfinished material they discovered, published twenty more books under her name until 1972. These books were ghost-written by Elinore Denniston. taken largely from wiki, made some corrections (dates didn't add up) per her biographer
I would gladly recommend ALL of Emilie Loring's books to all readers. They are lovely romance novels set in the 1940s and include some post WWII intrigues. They are clean and the characters are admirable people who you can be content to let your children get to know. I read my first one when 12 years old and have read and reread many since.
Up until last month, I had every single one of Emilie Loring's paperback books out in our shed. I read several that a good friend in high school gave to me, then over the years, bought the rest to read, which I totally adored. If you haven't read Emilie's books, you're missing out. She writes murder mysteries from the 30's and 40's with FBI and CIA involved, even gangsters.
This book is so cute and cheesy at the same time. It was a lot of fun to read and reminded me of all the books I used to read in High School. :) It was like watching an old romance movie...where they "live happily everafter"!
I recently visited my husband's Aunt in her new home. She is in her 80's. I was looking at her bookshelf and noticed that the books looked just like the ones in my favorite library in the 60's and 70's. In my twenties I worked at that same library for about two years in the early 80's. I said, 'The books on your shelf look just like the books in my favorite library when I was a kid." She replied, "I found those at Savers (a used goods store), they came from Murray Library." Surprised I said, "That's my library!" She then told me that she had read every one of Emilie Loring's books while she was growing up and that she modeled her life after the heroines in the stories.
I borrowed two books from her that day, one I chose and one she picked out for me because it is her very favorite. BEHIND THE CLOUD was the one I chose and I read it first. I enjoyed an old fashioned romance/mystery novel complete with two rivals for the heroines love. The language in these books reflects the times they were written in so some of the words have different meanings today while others are no longer in use. But it is easy to tell from the context what most of these words mean.
Destiny Tremaine's delimnas and adventures were believable. She struck me as an intelligent, fun, and daring heroine. This was the perfect book of Emilie Loring's for me to start with. To date I have read four and plan to continue to borrow the rest from my Aunt. SWIFT WATER is her favorite and the one I read next.
I started reading Emile Loring books when I picked up a paperback from a rack in a hotel lobby (for 50 cents) while on my sister's & my yearly vacation to visit my father. Hooked! I went on to purchase and read every Emilie Loring romance written and available in paperback, not knowing that she had died before I was even born. I loved these books, but read them when I was between about 12 and 18 years old. I was a young reader - do keep that in mind! :-)
Ok, stupid review - this book doesn't deserve 5 stars, but that switcheroo at the end was just masterful! I loved it so much! And while the rest of the books was pretty good too, I think I'm rating this book by the ending.
Because it was a surprise, I'm not sure about the re-readability quotent, but it was still a good read!
Emilie Loring was the consummate story teller!! Always trying to find one more of her books I had missed reading. Remembered part of this one about half way through but had forgotten the wonderful conclusion!!!