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ペイリングスへの道
Sharon had had no ulterior motive when she took on the job of looking after Paul Sanderson's small daughter--but if he had any inkling who she was, he was certain to suspect her of one. For Sharon was a young, up-and-coming singer who was having to rest her voice for a few months, while Paul, as the founder-director of Pailings, the world-famous opera house, was the natural target for ambitious would-be opera stars who more than once had stopped at nothing to bring themselves to his notice. So she must be careful to keep her identity a secret. She must be even more careful not to fall in love with Paul--for how could she compete with his close friend, the glamorous Honor Macklin?
Paperback Shinsho
First published February 1, 1975
About the author
Rachel Lindsay
67 books64 followersRachel Lindsay is the pen name of an author who also published as Roberta Leigh, Janey Scott, and Rozella Lake. See the "Roberta Leigh" entry for full biographical information.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
November 25, 2013
4.5 stars!!! A very entertaining story about a young opera singer who needs to stop singing for 6 months due to a vocal infection. She ends up being a nanny for a famous opera supporter who has decided that he isn't going to employ anymore up and coming singers. (They seem to throw themselves at him versus taking care of his daughter.) Her deception ends up being the "big" misunderstanding and he throws her out telling her never to return.
I truly liked the hero and heroine. Except for his major temper tantrum at the very end, he was a well balanced individual and I understood why she fell in love with him.
My only regret (small one) is she should have made him eat crow for all the nasty things he did.
Though the author tried to pull this off, it didn't quite work. I needed a few more pages of him getting to taste his own bitter medicine before I was ready for a HEA. However In spite of this, I highly recommend this one.
I truly liked the hero and heroine. Except for his major temper tantrum at the very end, he was a well balanced individual and I understood why she fell in love with him.
My only regret (small one) is she should have made him eat crow for all the nasty things he did.
Though the author tried to pull this off, it didn't quite work. I needed a few more pages of him getting to taste his own bitter medicine before I was ready for a HEA. However In spite of this, I highly recommend this one.
January 16, 2016
Solid vintage romance about an opera singer who must rest her voice and ends up taking care of a prominent opera promoter's daughter. She keeps her singing ability a secret since the promoter has been chased by ambitious singers who neglect his daughter. A great deal of the story concerns the heroine's efforts taming the daughter, which are quite entertaining. There's an OW and a reckoning when the hero finds out the heroine has lied, but the angst is short-lived. An enjoyable story.
February 16, 2018
Another on the first 100 quest. This one is numbered 80 and was published in 1975. Pretty decent HP. There was pretty good attraction between the heroine and the hero. The best part of the story though was the relationship between the heroine and the hero’s daughter. The heroine comes under somewhat false pretenses to be her babysitter. The little girl is n undisciplined brat and it was super fun to watch the heroine trick her into good behavior. Both the hero and the heroine had well developed, well thought out characters and it was basically a pleasure to read, which is something I cannot say about all of these first 100.
November 20, 2014
I really liked this old school HP. It had all the necessary elements to be entertaining. But it was one of those situations where everything would've gone smoother had the heroine not kept her secret so long.
The best part of the story was the little girl. I usually don't like children in romance books, but this kid was a funny little brat.
The best part of the story was the little girl. I usually don't like children in romance books, but this kid was a funny little brat.
January 24, 2016
3.5 Loved my visit into the world of opera. This one put me in mind of Mary Burchell's musical books. Very abrupt ending.
November 24, 2013
It was delightful! If you are tired of reading about the usual HP heroes, I suggest you read this book. It was quite refreshing to see a man who did not always snarl at the heroine. The hero was a real gentleman. It was a sweet story.
July 13, 2015
Wow really was he full of himself but somehow it worked for me. He was an ass and she needed at break some break!
August 1, 2026
3.9 stars
I’m beginning to fear I may have already read Rachel Lindsay’s best books, which is disappointing because I’m not sure what that leaves me with. Innocent Deception had many tropes I enjoy and was still a good read, but it wasn’t up there with the excellent books of hers I’ve recently loved.
I’ll settle at 3.9 stars. It was enjoyable, well paced and fairly well executed, but it never delivered the emotional impact of Lindsay’s stronger romances.
Sharon is a young opera singer who has recently completed her training. She’s still unknown and has performed only in small productions, but her teacher and others believe she has the talent to become a major star.
Unfortunately, she develops a problem with her voice. At the start of the book, she’s told she must rest it completely for 6 months to recover. Unable to work as a singer, she needs another job because she lives with her brother, his wife and their twins and doesn’t want to become a financial burden.
She finds a position caring for 8-year-old Maggie at a stately home called Pailings. Maggie’s father, Paul, is famous in the opera world and runs a respected theatre there, known for its summer productions. Sharon is excited by the prospect of living among opera singers and learning more about her craft, even if she can’t sing herself.
However, Paul doesn’t interview her. That responsibility has been given to Honor, a beautiful American woman who has inserted herself into his life as a kind of unofficial wife. Sharon immediately senses that Honor wants Paul and considers herself entitled to manage his household.
Honor takes one look at young, attractive Sharon and decides she’s a threat.
Several previous companions have lost the job because they were singers who repeatedly burst into song around Paul, hoping he would advance their careers. He has therefore decided that no more singers or musicians should be hired to care for Maggie.
Knowing this, Sharon denies having a musical background. It’s a white lie, although technically true at that moment because she can’t sing for 6 months.
Honor still refuses to hire her because she’s too young and pretty. Sharon decides this is unfair and goes directly to Pailings to appeal to Paul.
I thought this was sheer cheek and expected her to receive a sharp dismissal. Instead, she finds Maggie up a tree. Various things happen, and the child takes to her. Paul comes across them together and decides to hire Sharon because Maggie, who has driven away numerous previous companions through her difficult behaviour, seems to like her.
Honor is furious that Sharon has gone behind her back, but Paul has decided, so she can’t stop it.
This was a promising setup. Paul is reserved, sceptical and disapproving, and I enjoy romances where the hero initially misunderstands the heroine. Sharon also seemed exactly my preferred type: humble, down-to-earth and quietly reserved rather than full of herself.
The book is well paced and never boring. Sharon slowly bonds with Maggie, although the child makes the job difficult at first. Sharon perseveres because she genuinely likes her, discovers her interests and begins improving her life.
Paul notices that Sharon is succeeding where everyone else failed and becomes grateful. Meanwhile, Sharon watches the opera singers rehearse and enjoys being immersed in the world she hopes to rejoin.
She also spends time with Paul, and her feelings slowly grow. She becomes mildly jealous of Honor, who appears whenever Paul is present, dresses beautifully, monopolises his attention and regularly dines with him.
SPOILERS AHEAD
Unfortunately, this didn’t create as much angst as I wanted. I would have preferred a stronger initial attraction between Sharon and Paul and more awareness of her own feelings, allowing Honor to become a genuine emotional threat.
Instead, Sharon merely notices that she’s too interested in Paul and his activities. She doesn’t recognise that she’s falling for him until they have another disagreement about Maggie.
Paul is strong-minded about his daughter and dislikes interference. He often rejects Sharon’s suggestions, although she usually proves right. One argument becomes heated, and he kisses her in anger.
The kiss reveals that he’s attracted to her, despite hiding it extremely well. It also heightens Sharon’s interest, and she soon realises she has fallen for him.
Even then, the emotion felt lukewarm.
That was my main problem with the book. The relationship lacked enough flirting, pining, attraction or emotional intensity. The romantic feelings were present, but they didn’t come across strongly enough on the page.
I remained interested because I liked the domestic setup. Sharon becomes important to Paul by helping Maggie in ways he has never managed himself. That trope worked well even though the passion did not.
Honor also remained underused. She constantly appears beside Paul and clearly wants him, but because the central romance hasn’t developed deeply enough, she feels like a mild background threat rather than a serious source of anguish.
More trouble arrives when Tony, a male singer who trained with Sharon, comes to Pailings for the summer season. He recognises her immediately.
Tony has always pursued Sharon despite her lack of interest. He’s so persistent that he becomes creepy, although women in books from this era were apparently expected to tolerate men like him.
He threatens to reveal that Sharon is a singer unless she plays along with him. She persuades him to keep her secret because she intends to tell Paul when the time is right, but that moment never seems to arrive.
Tony forces his company upon her and befriends Maggie as an excuse to remain nearby. This creates an undercurrent of jealousy from Paul.
Again, the idea was promising, but the execution felt lukewarm. Paul’s jealousy wasn’t strong enough on the page, nor was Maggie’s annoyance. The emotions were present in theory but never developed enough to give the romance real force.
Tony eventually tells Honor the truth about Sharon. He wants to cause trouble because he’s jealous and can see that something is developing between Sharon and Paul.
Paul then leaves for Europe on business. Sharon loses the opportunity to confess before he goes, although by this stage she and Paul have almost acknowledged their feelings. They haven’t said they love each other, but both know they want one another.
When Paul returns, eagwr to see her, they finally confess their love and feel excited about a possible future together. It was touching that Paul, who determinedly swithced off his heart for years, lets down his guard in order to confess his love. He is so excited to have a future with her.
But before Sharon can explain her deception, everyone else arrives, making a private conversation impossible.
Honor and Tony then play Paul a recording of a talented new singer. Paul is deeply impressed by the beautiful voice.
They reveal that the singer is Sharon.
Paul is shocked and feels completely betrayed. His reaction is intensified by the history of his late wife, Maggie’s mother.
She was also an opera singer, but her obsession with her career destroyed her judgement. She developed throat cancer and refused to accept the diagnosis. When Paul urged her to seek treatment, she accused him of lying, thinking he wanted her to abandon her career and become a full-time mother.
She left Paul and their baby for a richer man who would support her singing, then died a year later because the cancer was real.
Paul has therefore developed deep trauma and prejudice around career-orientated female singers. He vowed never to love one again. Now he has fallen in love with another singer, only to discover that she deceived him about the very thing he feared.
He calls Sharon a liar, refuses to hear her explanation, rejects her completely and orders her out of his life.
This should have been the emotional peak of the story. In terms of plot, it was an excellent source of anguish because Paul’s reaction came from a genuine wound rather than random cruelty.
Unfortunately, because the romance had never felt fully alive to me, the heartbreak didn’t have enough depth either. It didn’t feel as though Sharon had lost an extraordinary love because the connection between them had always seemed muted.
Perhaps I was distracted while reading, or other readers may feel more chemistry between them. For me, Sharon seemed slightly too young in her life experience, Paul too aloof, and neither character was developed deeply enough to make the separation truly painful.
Sharon initially returns to her brother’s home, then finds work at a hotel in Cornwall for the remainder of her vocal rest. Her brother and his family leave for America for his work and shut up their house.
As Sharon’s 6 months of silence end, her agent offers her a wonderful short-term role that could launch her career.
Unfortunately, the production is at Pailings.
Sharon refuses because she can’t face Paul. Her agent tells her Paul is in America for several weeks. She only needs to rehearse for a week, perform for another, and leave before he returns.
Her agent strong-arms her into accepting.
Sharon nervously returns to Pailings and reconnects with Maggie. Tony is still there and supposedly regrets what he did, which I found unconvincing. Someone who behaved like such a creep wouldn’t suddenly become sincerely remorseful so easily.
On the night of Sharon’s first performance, Paul unexpectedly appears in the audience.
She manages to perform, receives several standing ovations and is hailed as a future star. Afterwards, Paul invites everyone to dinner at his house, but Sharon claims a headache because she can’t face him.
She goes into the garden for some solitude and finds Paul there.
He finally confesses that he still loves her and wants her back. He searched for her but couldn’t find her because her brother’s London house had been shut up and her agency had closed for the summer.
Sharon initially resists. She worries that his prejudices against singers will always haunt their relationship. Paul insists that he loves her and will support her career and says she must not give it up, even after she offers to do so.
They agree to marry, giving the book a warm, cosy ending.
However, because the romance felt lukewarm throughout, the reconciliation did too. It was pleasant rather than emotionally cathartic.
Overall, Innocent Deception was a good book. The pacing was strong, plenty happened, Sharon’s bond with Maggie was convincing, and Paul’s history gave his reaction to her deception genuine logic.
However, it never quite hit the emotional notes I needed. The attraction between Sharon and Paul lacked force, Honor wasn’t used effectively enough, Paul’s jealousy remained too understated, and the separation didn’t hurt as much as the plot suggested it should.
However, it must be noted that i got a bad copy full of major errors, which damaged the reading experience. With a clean copy and a different frame of mind, I might connect with the story more strongly on another reading.
For now, I’m giving it 3.9 stars. It was enjoyable and competently executed, but lacked the emotional intensity, chemistry and payoff of Rachel Lindsay’s best romances.
I’m beginning to fear I may have already read Rachel Lindsay’s best books, which is disappointing because I’m not sure what that leaves me with. Innocent Deception had many tropes I enjoy and was still a good read, but it wasn’t up there with the excellent books of hers I’ve recently loved.
I’ll settle at 3.9 stars. It was enjoyable, well paced and fairly well executed, but it never delivered the emotional impact of Lindsay’s stronger romances.
Sharon is a young opera singer who has recently completed her training. She’s still unknown and has performed only in small productions, but her teacher and others believe she has the talent to become a major star.
Unfortunately, she develops a problem with her voice. At the start of the book, she’s told she must rest it completely for 6 months to recover. Unable to work as a singer, she needs another job because she lives with her brother, his wife and their twins and doesn’t want to become a financial burden.
She finds a position caring for 8-year-old Maggie at a stately home called Pailings. Maggie’s father, Paul, is famous in the opera world and runs a respected theatre there, known for its summer productions. Sharon is excited by the prospect of living among opera singers and learning more about her craft, even if she can’t sing herself.
However, Paul doesn’t interview her. That responsibility has been given to Honor, a beautiful American woman who has inserted herself into his life as a kind of unofficial wife. Sharon immediately senses that Honor wants Paul and considers herself entitled to manage his household.
Honor takes one look at young, attractive Sharon and decides she’s a threat.
Several previous companions have lost the job because they were singers who repeatedly burst into song around Paul, hoping he would advance their careers. He has therefore decided that no more singers or musicians should be hired to care for Maggie.
Knowing this, Sharon denies having a musical background. It’s a white lie, although technically true at that moment because she can’t sing for 6 months.
Honor still refuses to hire her because she’s too young and pretty. Sharon decides this is unfair and goes directly to Pailings to appeal to Paul.
I thought this was sheer cheek and expected her to receive a sharp dismissal. Instead, she finds Maggie up a tree. Various things happen, and the child takes to her. Paul comes across them together and decides to hire Sharon because Maggie, who has driven away numerous previous companions through her difficult behaviour, seems to like her.
Honor is furious that Sharon has gone behind her back, but Paul has decided, so she can’t stop it.
This was a promising setup. Paul is reserved, sceptical and disapproving, and I enjoy romances where the hero initially misunderstands the heroine. Sharon also seemed exactly my preferred type: humble, down-to-earth and quietly reserved rather than full of herself.
The book is well paced and never boring. Sharon slowly bonds with Maggie, although the child makes the job difficult at first. Sharon perseveres because she genuinely likes her, discovers her interests and begins improving her life.
Paul notices that Sharon is succeeding where everyone else failed and becomes grateful. Meanwhile, Sharon watches the opera singers rehearse and enjoys being immersed in the world she hopes to rejoin.
She also spends time with Paul, and her feelings slowly grow. She becomes mildly jealous of Honor, who appears whenever Paul is present, dresses beautifully, monopolises his attention and regularly dines with him.
SPOILERS AHEAD
Unfortunately, this didn’t create as much angst as I wanted. I would have preferred a stronger initial attraction between Sharon and Paul and more awareness of her own feelings, allowing Honor to become a genuine emotional threat.
Instead, Sharon merely notices that she’s too interested in Paul and his activities. She doesn’t recognise that she’s falling for him until they have another disagreement about Maggie.
Paul is strong-minded about his daughter and dislikes interference. He often rejects Sharon’s suggestions, although she usually proves right. One argument becomes heated, and he kisses her in anger.
The kiss reveals that he’s attracted to her, despite hiding it extremely well. It also heightens Sharon’s interest, and she soon realises she has fallen for him.
Even then, the emotion felt lukewarm.
That was my main problem with the book. The relationship lacked enough flirting, pining, attraction or emotional intensity. The romantic feelings were present, but they didn’t come across strongly enough on the page.
I remained interested because I liked the domestic setup. Sharon becomes important to Paul by helping Maggie in ways he has never managed himself. That trope worked well even though the passion did not.
Honor also remained underused. She constantly appears beside Paul and clearly wants him, but because the central romance hasn’t developed deeply enough, she feels like a mild background threat rather than a serious source of anguish.
More trouble arrives when Tony, a male singer who trained with Sharon, comes to Pailings for the summer season. He recognises her immediately.
Tony has always pursued Sharon despite her lack of interest. He’s so persistent that he becomes creepy, although women in books from this era were apparently expected to tolerate men like him.
He threatens to reveal that Sharon is a singer unless she plays along with him. She persuades him to keep her secret because she intends to tell Paul when the time is right, but that moment never seems to arrive.
Tony forces his company upon her and befriends Maggie as an excuse to remain nearby. This creates an undercurrent of jealousy from Paul.
Again, the idea was promising, but the execution felt lukewarm. Paul’s jealousy wasn’t strong enough on the page, nor was Maggie’s annoyance. The emotions were present in theory but never developed enough to give the romance real force.
Tony eventually tells Honor the truth about Sharon. He wants to cause trouble because he’s jealous and can see that something is developing between Sharon and Paul.
Paul then leaves for Europe on business. Sharon loses the opportunity to confess before he goes, although by this stage she and Paul have almost acknowledged their feelings. They haven’t said they love each other, but both know they want one another.
When Paul returns, eagwr to see her, they finally confess their love and feel excited about a possible future together. It was touching that Paul, who determinedly swithced off his heart for years, lets down his guard in order to confess his love. He is so excited to have a future with her.
But before Sharon can explain her deception, everyone else arrives, making a private conversation impossible.
Honor and Tony then play Paul a recording of a talented new singer. Paul is deeply impressed by the beautiful voice.
They reveal that the singer is Sharon.
Paul is shocked and feels completely betrayed. His reaction is intensified by the history of his late wife, Maggie’s mother.
She was also an opera singer, but her obsession with her career destroyed her judgement. She developed throat cancer and refused to accept the diagnosis. When Paul urged her to seek treatment, she accused him of lying, thinking he wanted her to abandon her career and become a full-time mother.
She left Paul and their baby for a richer man who would support her singing, then died a year later because the cancer was real.
Paul has therefore developed deep trauma and prejudice around career-orientated female singers. He vowed never to love one again. Now he has fallen in love with another singer, only to discover that she deceived him about the very thing he feared.
He calls Sharon a liar, refuses to hear her explanation, rejects her completely and orders her out of his life.
This should have been the emotional peak of the story. In terms of plot, it was an excellent source of anguish because Paul’s reaction came from a genuine wound rather than random cruelty.
Unfortunately, because the romance had never felt fully alive to me, the heartbreak didn’t have enough depth either. It didn’t feel as though Sharon had lost an extraordinary love because the connection between them had always seemed muted.
Perhaps I was distracted while reading, or other readers may feel more chemistry between them. For me, Sharon seemed slightly too young in her life experience, Paul too aloof, and neither character was developed deeply enough to make the separation truly painful.
Sharon initially returns to her brother’s home, then finds work at a hotel in Cornwall for the remainder of her vocal rest. Her brother and his family leave for America for his work and shut up their house.
As Sharon’s 6 months of silence end, her agent offers her a wonderful short-term role that could launch her career.
Unfortunately, the production is at Pailings.
Sharon refuses because she can’t face Paul. Her agent tells her Paul is in America for several weeks. She only needs to rehearse for a week, perform for another, and leave before he returns.
Her agent strong-arms her into accepting.
Sharon nervously returns to Pailings and reconnects with Maggie. Tony is still there and supposedly regrets what he did, which I found unconvincing. Someone who behaved like such a creep wouldn’t suddenly become sincerely remorseful so easily.
On the night of Sharon’s first performance, Paul unexpectedly appears in the audience.
She manages to perform, receives several standing ovations and is hailed as a future star. Afterwards, Paul invites everyone to dinner at his house, but Sharon claims a headache because she can’t face him.
She goes into the garden for some solitude and finds Paul there.
He finally confesses that he still loves her and wants her back. He searched for her but couldn’t find her because her brother’s London house had been shut up and her agency had closed for the summer.
Sharon initially resists. She worries that his prejudices against singers will always haunt their relationship. Paul insists that he loves her and will support her career and says she must not give it up, even after she offers to do so.
They agree to marry, giving the book a warm, cosy ending.
However, because the romance felt lukewarm throughout, the reconciliation did too. It was pleasant rather than emotionally cathartic.
Overall, Innocent Deception was a good book. The pacing was strong, plenty happened, Sharon’s bond with Maggie was convincing, and Paul’s history gave his reaction to her deception genuine logic.
However, it never quite hit the emotional notes I needed. The attraction between Sharon and Paul lacked force, Honor wasn’t used effectively enough, Paul’s jealousy remained too understated, and the separation didn’t hurt as much as the plot suggested it should.
However, it must be noted that i got a bad copy full of major errors, which damaged the reading experience. With a clean copy and a different frame of mind, I might connect with the story more strongly on another reading.
For now, I’m giving it 3.9 stars. It was enjoyable and competently executed, but lacked the emotional intensity, chemistry and payoff of Rachel Lindsay’s best romances.
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August 4, 2022This is one of the most outstanding Mills & Boon books I have ever read. I read this book in the '70's and it has always remained with me. Sharon was brave and took a job because she was desperate and needed to support herself, so she told a small lie in order to take care of herself. She was also very smart because to be able to get a rich spoil girl (Maggie) who is the apple of her father's eye, is a daunting task, and an older more rigid governess would not have been able to use reverse psychology and turn the child around. She not only did that, but also got Maggie to fall in love with her as well. Paul, the owner of "Pailings" thought he was tough and in control of everything but he himself was caught off guard when he ordered her to leave his property after found out about her deceit. He realized that after running her away, how much he had fallen in love with her. Then fate brought them back together after a while when she saw that his company "Pailings" needed a lead opera singer. She returned to his place hoping that time had soften his anger towards her, and of course he was so happy because he had tried all he could to find her, but could not. So it was divine intervention that brought her back. He married her and lived happily ever after.
July 5, 2024
It’s always a joy reading books from decades ago. Feels like I’m traveling in time through the writing.
But even as a young woman aware that this book is from the 70’s, I still found the shaking and slap uncomfortable to read. Overall, it was a good time.
But even as a young woman aware that this book is from the 70’s, I still found the shaking and slap uncomfortable to read. Overall, it was a good time.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 23, 2026
Za córkę 4 bo miłości tam nie było
November 1, 2010
Pretty good. I enjoyed the glimpse into the world of opera!
October 14, 2017
it was better than I expected but the whole story was a little naive for my taste but it is an old harlequin and naive is sometimes refreshing after reading a comlpicated book
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews